I was in San Francisco this weekend and I was absolutely thrilled to see all the street cars along the Embarcadero. They were painted in many different but bright colors. One has to wonder why as a country we fell so in love with our cars that we were blind to the benefits of public transportation, particularly rail based. It is nice to see it making a comeback with modern light rail equipment in cities like Sacramento and Denver as well as putting these old street cars to use in San Francisco.

When thinking about the size and quantity of buildings I wanted to construct on my layout from strip wood, I realized that it would not be cost effective to buy it all. Kappler makes a great product but the cost materials can add up quickly. I decided to try cutting it myself using the Microlux Tablesaw from Micro-Mark. It was a significant investment for a tool whose only purpose is for modeling.

It has taken several hours of experimentation to be able to produce usable strip wood. One of the first things I bought was the 24 tooth carbide blade and the feather board/high fence attachment. The big drawback of the carbide blade is that the kerf is wide compared to the size of the strips I am cutting and much of the material ends up as sawdust on the floor. The high fence very nicely allows a feather board to be clamped on in order to keep the strips flat on the table saw bed.

Another accessory that I bought was the zero clearance blade plate. I managed to break both of them trying to bring the blade through. Once with the 24 tooth carbide and once with the stock 80 tooth blade. I now have another set on order with a 168 tooth blade that I think will work well for cutting scale 1 - 2″ stock.

Originally, I was cutting the stock down using my 10″ table saw. Making the 1/4″ cuts on a full-size table saw is certainly doable but I feel much safer on the Micro-Lux. For material I am using 5″ cedar fence pickets from Home Depot. It is not the best material in the world but by carefully selecting the most knot-free pickets possible, it is usable. I also put it through my surface planer first to get nice smooth and square sides. I am using cedar because I like the color. I have experimented with Norway Spruce and it is much easier to work with compared to the cedar. Boone Morrison uses Redwood and I think it looks great. The only Redwood I have been able to find here is 2 X 6″ stock but I plan on picking some up shortly to experiment with.

This weekend I cut about 2 dozen each scale 10″ X 10″ beams and 4″ X 10″ pieces that I plan on using for my Engine House. I also cut some scale 1 X 12″ material to use as siding on my Machine Shop. I spent a couple of hours trying it out on the foam core mock up I built previously.

I am not sure I like the color that resulted from an India Ink wash. It does photographs darker and better than it looks in person though.

Saturday morning I applied plaster cloth until I ran out. I was able to complete the area in the vicinity of Camp One. I have more in the mail from Micro-Mark. By the time I return from a business trip to California next weekend, I should have plenty of supplies on hand.

If you use your imagination one could imagine snow covered hills and track covered by blue tarps.

I have been on a bit of a binge gluing and stapling strips together into a web defining my vision of the Sierra Lumber Company terrain. I had some false starts and some do-overs in the course of the last week but I feel pretty good about the new terrain forms in the vicinity of Camp One.

Designing a realistic trestle to fit around the corner is going to be a challenge.

Above is a shot from the Camp One side of the peninsula. I have started using a tripod and aperture priority shutter setting combined with a 2 second delay to try and take better pictures with my digital camera. Unfortunately the lighting in this area of the layout does not help out much.

I am awaiting a recent order from Micro-Mark as I ordered two of their rubber plaster mixing bowls that I plan on using to mix plaster for the rock work. Also in the mail is some Sculptamold that I ordered from Amazon. The Sculptamold will be used as a finish coat over the plaster cloth to smooth the terrain. Now if this snow would just melt I could get up to the mountains and find some perfect decomposed granite.

I have already received some new latex rock molds from Bragdon Enterprises and they are standing by awaiting their opportunity to mold. I have had good luck with his products in the past and order an entire new set for this layout. I now have 7 of his molds and they are all amazing. They are in a completely different league than the typical hobby store brand.

This post is a follow up to an earlier post about construction of my cardboard strip and plaster cloth scenery.   Make sure to read the earlier post called Cardboard Strip and Plaster Cloth Scenery.

Basic Scenery landforms can be built very fast using cardboard strips and plaster impregnated cloth. The mountain below was formed in just over an hour and is approximately 2 x 4 feet.

For my last layout I used styrofoam for scenery. I found that approach to be expensive, time-consuming, and messy. The cost of cardboard strips is essentially nothing. Additional money can be saved by using plaster and paper towels instead of plaster cloth. A 25 pound of plaster from a DIY store like Home Depot is very inexpensive comparatively. Many modelers use Hydrocal or dental plaster but in my experience, regular of Plaster of Paris is inexpensive, readily available, and works just great.

List of tools and supplies:

• Hot Glue Gun
• Cardboard Strips 1″ Thick. I buy mine from Micro-Mark to save time and aggravation.
• Clasp Stapler. A good 25 sheet capacity stapler from an office supply store will work just fine.
• Plaster Cloth. I used Micro-Mark again for this also.
• Large bowl or small bucket of water for wetting plaster cloth
• Scissors to cut cardboard strips to length and to cut the plaster cloth

I start with the vertical strips and attach them every 4 - 6 inches along the backdrop using hot glue to begin defining the landform. Pull the strip over a piece of benchwork to make it more flexible.

The horizontal strips are then woven in to provide strength and further define the shape. The joints are stapled using a clasp stapler. This will go much faster than using hot glue.

Using the plaster cloth is very easy. The roll is about 8″ wide and I cut it into pieces between 4 to 8 inches long to allow me to pick the right piece for the given space. Dip the piece into water just long enough to soften the piece but not so long as to allow the plaster to wash off. It takes about 1 to 2 seconds. Drape the pieces on the cardboard strip form and try to overlap in order to provide double thickness as much as possible.

After experimenting with the plaster cloth for a bit, I went crazy with the cardboard strips for a couple of hours.

Tips:

• Make sure the track looks like it was cut through the terrain. It is easy to base the scenery on the roadbed but the result will be unrealistic.
• Test clearances on corners using a standards gauge or your biggest expected railcar. Be sure to consider the thickness of any castings.
• Build the basic form with just a few horizontal and vertical strips then go back and fill in.
• Don’t be afraid to make changes. It is very easy to make changes at the cardboard strip web phase. Just make some cuts and lengthen or shorten the strips to suit.
• Tape the track work and protect the floor with plastic to avoid an industrial size mess.

The next step is to add rock castings and start bringing things to life.

After watching some TV, I went back downstairs for a final run before bed. In a short period of time I was greeted with a very hostile squeal. Think nails on the chalkboard times 1000. I applied lubrication to all the externally accessible gears and bearings to no avail. As much as I didn’t want to, I knew I needed to perform surgery.

It seems that after three years in the box that some of the lubrication was missing from where it was needed. In this case it seemed to be the bottom of the motor shaft. Fortunately I was able to get everything back together again with no extra screws or pieces. The one casualty was a broken bell but I was able to glue it back on with CA glue.

I put the little engine back to work quickly and again enjoyed the sound of the steam chuffing, whistle blowing, and bell clanging.

Now that I have so much new track, I have been having much joy running one little train around headed up by my little 10 ton Bachmann Shay. If one is fun then certainly two would be funner. I have had a Bachmann Climax, another small logging engine, on the shelf for about three years and a matching Soundtraxx decoder. I never took the time to install the sound decoder and run the engine. Tonight I decided I had waited long enough.

Most people don’t install their own sound decoders any more since so many engines come with them pre-installed as an option. Installing sound decoders is not the easiest task in the world as it requires stuffing the proverbial 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. The Soundtraxx instructions are great and simple to follow. I will not repeat them here.

Here is the list of tools I used:

• Pencil type Soldering Iron and Rosin Core Solder
• Flush Cutting Rail Nippers
• Long Tweezers for holding screws, wires during soldering, plastic washers, etc
• Wire Strippers/Cutters
• Small Phillips Head Screw Driver

It took about 30 minutes and I was off and running, literally. Here is a picture of the installed decoder before I put the tender shell back on.

The new Climax next to the Shay, ready to make another loop. Looks like the Shay needs to hit the wash rack to clear off the accumulated dust.

It was a fairly simple project that I was easily able to complete this evening. This was followed by an hour of running two trains around the layout. I could feel the stress of work escaping with each chuff of the cylinder.

While waiting for the paint to dry I was able to fit and attach profile boards around the layout. This essentially completes the benchwork.

I used 1 x 2’s to build support for the profile boards. I again used my brad nailer with 1 1/4″ nails and glue to attach.

The hardest part was to fit around the peninsula end where I plan on building a curved trestle.

I used 1/8″ hardboard. The curved pieces were made from the Home Depot brand that is only tempered on one side and the rest was made from the dual tempered pieces I picked up from Lowes. I cut each section to length, used a marker to mark where I wanted to cut, and cut as appropriate. Once cut I glued everything I could, clamped, and nailed using the brad nailer.

I will finish the seams with drywall compound and paint a nice greenish brown in the coming weeks.