Fascia work continues

Oh the MDF dust!

Its lucky that I can cut this MDF in the workshop end of the shed and not in the RR room!
I have been busying completing the cutting out of the fascia for the layout.. All 24 sheets of it..!

The fascia is about 95% complete now. I still need to cut the holes for the panels in Plattsburgh and then paint and fit the turnout panels and make the shelves for each town. But as you can see from the pictures most of the work is now completed.

The sections between Whitehall and Willsboro and Willsboro and Plattsburgh are just roughly cut at present as I need to decide the water level for the Lake Champlain sections.. But they are easy enough to do. I also need to clean up some of the joins and the MDF has moved slightly so need to place some support behind the joins so they are flush.

All in all, Im happy with the progress..

See the pictures to get a feel for it now. Then a lick of paint and bring on the next session!..

Come back and visit in a week or so for the next update.

Fascia cut down and crafting

Let the Fascia fun begin.

Due to family holidays, I was not able to get much done over the Christmas break as we were away for most of it.

After returning on Saturday and completing the very long list of clean up chores, it was time to get back into the shed and make a start on the fascia.

Per my earlier post, the rough in work had been completed. It is now time to sculpt the top of the fascia down and form a few mountains as well as cut holes for control panels, port holes for hidden track and shelves at towns for car cards etc.

I managed to get about 5 sheets done yesterday with the 6th one on the bench ready to cut out.

As the control panels are already made and mounted, I should be able to just screw them into place once the painting is done. Per the large hole at North Creek, I need to make the shelf behind it for the car card boxes, as well as places to sort car cards etc.

Here are a few pictures of the work done so far. Five done, 16 to go!..

Till next time, and much more MDF dust later.!...

Fascia Rough in Complete

Another major milestone for the D&H

Well, today I finished the rough in of the fascia boards made from 3mm MDF board around the entire layout. There are 23 sheets that are 610mm x 2440mm x 3mm that cover the front of the layout. That's just over 56 meters of fascia board.

The fascia runs from Plattsburgh around the layout past Willsboro, to Whitehall, to Ft Edward to Saratoga Springs to Corinth and North Creek. So, if a train was to run just on the main deck around the layout from Plattsburgh to North Creek, then it would cover just under 56meters and if I convert that to scale kilometres that's just short of 8.9 scale kilometres. Wow that's a long run..

Here are a few pictures with all the fascia installed.

Now for the big job of cutting the holes for the panels and cutting in the hill / maintain / ravine  contours along the top section of the fascia. Some will be simple as they are along the front of towns and will be relatively level, although I may leave in high sections for road over passes and perhaps signal protectors. I intend to do 1 sheet at a time to enable me to get a uniform finish and that includes making blocks that mount behind each join so they sit flush and smooth.

Till next time.!

Fascia Time

Procrastination gone, fascia on the way.

After much procrastination, or I call it preparation, for fascia, I have now started the long task of installing roughly 52 meters 3mm x 2400 x 600 of fascia on the layout.

This will be a long task as not only do I need to install it, I need to shape it for hills and gully's, I need to cut holes for all the turnout panels (18 of them), the UP5 / UR92 (7), car card sorting shelves (6), portholes for the transition tracks from staging to the main desk (too many to count)..

Today, I finally got started on it and installed 10 lengths of the 2400mm x 3mm MDF. As you can see from the pictures, at present I have only roughed in the fascia on all but 2 of the sheets as I figured I would get it all installed, then one by one shape each sheet, then one by one, cut all the many holes in the fascia.. Then finally finish it with a lick of paint. Hopefully, now that Christmas holidays are here, I can make a decent dent in the work needed.. (that is if Michelle does not plan on family holidays away..!!!)...

As this is the rough in stage, the joins between sheets need to be blocked from behind to leave a nice join and also the screws need to be counter sunk.

Shish, any wonder I procrastinated for so long before I started this!...

Here are a few progress pictures..

 

Till next time....

Car cards and more car cards

Time to sort some car cards.

Now that the last test operations session is completed and the planning and preparation for installing fascia is well under way, I decided that I needed to sort our my car cards and place them with each of the cars and figure out what cars I have cards for and what I don't.

I am also in the throws of preparing to develop a schedule and that heavily relies on all cars and loco's having a card each.

Some time ago (about 5 years) I photographed all my cars and loco's and made car cards for them. Since then, there have been additions to the fleet and this issue needed to be resolved.

In order to find all the cars with no cards, I had to take all the trains out of staging and get them up onto the main level where I can see the numbers on the cars. I then sorted the cards into car type and this then enabled me to do many many laps of the room to find all the cars.

I placed each card next to the relevant cars. This then enabled me to locate the ones that don't have cards.

I then made up a stack of cards that belong to each train and moved the trains back into staging. The cars left over are the ones with out cards.

I then rounded up the cars and placed them into 1 location so I can photograph them and make cards for those cards.

Here are a few pictures to give you some perspective of the size of the task..

All in all, about 6 hours to sort, find, place cards, make train stacks and move the trains back.

There are around 80 loco's, 440 cars all in 13 different trains and cars at industries.

Now that I have taken a break from the fascia work, I will now get back to that.

Until next update.

Full layout tour - cab ride

Cabe ride the full layout.

Per my last post and the cab ride to North Creek.. Here is the cab ride from North staging up to Plattsburgh, around the full main deck and back down to South staging.

If the quality of the video does not appear to be good, then click watch in Youtube and then click on the cog in the bottom left and chose 480p or 720p. (If your internext connection is fast enough)

Hope you enjoy.

Cab ride up to North Creek

Time for a cab ride.

Now that the first ops session is completed, I figured I would take some video of the layout.
I loaned my fathers small video camera that fits nicely on a flat car.

I have taken 2 videos over the last week or so and here is the first one.

This is a cab ride or should I say flat car ride behind 2 Baldwin sharks from Whitehall up the North Creek branch line.

Once I have finished a quick edit on the complete layout tour video I will post that also.

In terms of progress on the build of the layout. I have now installed some extra guards or sides on the hidden track that were missing from before in preparation for the fascia to be installed.

Now for the challenging part.. The fascia..
I have 10 x 2440 x 1220 x 3mm MDF sheets ready to go. I will cut them in half and then install them on the layout and then cut holes for the various turnout panels, UP5's and shelf's that will be used in each town for car cars etc.

The MDF will be cut to 620mm tall. Most of the layout from the main support to the deck is under 470mm, however I need extra height to allow for hills etc in fornt of the main line.

Well, till the next update, have a look at the short video.