NTS&B All roads lead to Jo Ann's

Finally got the road crossing laid in, the lines added, and Jo Ann's lighting installed.  Could not believe how long it took to finish the roads.  Here are a couple pictures of the progress.

NTS&B Tunnel liners complete

Have been working on tunnel liners (dividers) under the Winter, Mainline, and Spring layers so that you couldn't see all the way through the layout and so trains would actually disappear when they went into a tunnel. I used a variety of material which included: 1) the hardboard back off an old book shelf, 2) a corrugated plastic sign, 3) blue Styrofoam sheeting,  and 4) stacked blue Styrofoam shaped like  rock layers.  The problem with all of these attempts is that they must be painted, and the backing is rigid which is hard to bend and install and makes it impossible to get to a derailed train if both sides of the tracks have the lining.   I have also seen molded Styrofoam and painted paper used as liners, which share the same access problem as the liners I used.

I recently stumbled on a good alternative (for me) at Hobby Lobby that is flexible, cheap, and fast and easy to install.  The product is 60 inch wide blotchy gray felt, about $6 per yard.   The label on the felt said that the material was flammable,  but when tested with a cigarette lighter it melted like nylon rope.   Felt is slightly sticky when held against plywood, so holds itself in place for stapling (which came in handy when working with only 1 good arm).  It is also fairly heavy, so it blocks out most light under the layout, and stays in place pretty well.  I stapled the material only at the top so the bottom could be easily move in case a derailment occur.  Here are some pictures of the finished product.

          Felt between top and lower left layers, stacked Styrofoam on right between the bottom 2 layers

 Felt is easily curved to follow track contour by stapling on top

Felt between top 2 layers, stacked Styrofoam between the bottom 2

NTS&B 2nd attempt at scenery

Since I cant do much else right now, I decided to take the last month and 1/2 and make another attempt at scenery.   This time, I tried using styrofoam to build the basic shape, covered that with plaster cloth, then covered that with Hydrocal to make it stronger.  I primed them all with gray primer, then added paint of various colors to try to make them go from snow (Winter level), to spring (bottom level).   They were made to be easily removable, to allow access to the tracks at the back of the layout.  I also made up the tunnel portals.   Wiring for the tunnel signals and Jo-Ann's still has to be accomplished, but cant be done until I'm able to crawl under the layout again.   Here's a few pictures of the 3 modules at various stages.

 Module behind Jo-Ann's.  Structure and stone work is all made out of blue foam board

 Second module covered in Plaster Cloth and primed

Third module with final coat of  Hydrocal and painted

Third module completed with trees, ground foam, and animals

Second module completed

Jo-Ann's module completed

NTS&B Bigville Passenger Access

This is the first progress on the layout this year.  Had my main shoulder operated on about a month ago and have been working with only 1 hand, so this took about a month instead of a couple days.  Had to adjust some of the track for clearances, which was really fun with 1 good arm.

The overhead lights under Bigville are made from an LED Christmas light string.  When I get use of my other arm, I may drop them down an inch or so, so that the electrical stuff behind them is not so visible. The stairs were from an overhead pedestrian bridge that was in pieces that I purchased a few years ago.

 View of Bigville City hall and passenger access

 Close up of stairs and lights.

 Night Scene with Williams Southern Crescent Limited at the station.

NTS&B Catastrophy narrowly averted

The local news helicopter was busily taking pictures of the work being done on the City Hall air conditioning unit, when it drifted too close to the work zone and got tangled up in the crane cables.  The weight of the helicopter almost caused the crane to topple over.  Fortunately the boom on the crane ended up resting on City hall and even though it was precariously balanced on only 2 wheels, the crane manged to hold the helicopter while rescue workers struggled under the highly dangerous  conditions.   Miraculously, no injuries were reported.

NTS&B New Helicopter Car

My trusty PicooZ Helicopter that my son got me years ago gave up the ghost, so I decided to create a new one this year.  This time, I started out with a $15 Propel Chrome Flyer from JC Penny's.  The helicopter runs way too fast, so I added some wait on the tail end.  Even with that, when I put in the front wheel stop like the previous flat car version, the helicopter wanted to stand on its nose during taking off instead of leaving the car.  I ended up putting stops in from of the wheels in the center section, which solved the problem.  I used carpenter glue on all of the stacked up 'ties', then hot glued them to the car. Here are some pictures of the old and new versions in case you want to build your own:

 Original version. Stops in front of helicopter.

New version. Stops in back of helicopter. Rest of design about the same as the original. The rubber band on tail is to keep the nose up a little to slow it down.  Still seems trickier to fly than original.

Front view

The 2 Helicopter cars together.

NTS&B Merry Christmas 2013

Another year has passed, and the layout has not progressed much since October. I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and Happy and safe New Years.  This year we went to Tenn to see the kids.  Instead of seeing Christmas lights we went ice skating and I messed up my shoulder, so the layout will not progress for a while.

Every year I send out a bunch of Christmas cards to let old friends know we still think of them.  As such, we get a bunch of cards back.   I hate to just put the cards in a box, so a couple years ago I came up with an idea to make a 'tree' to display them and enjoy them longer.  The tree is made up of 2 1x2's painted green, with string ran between the sides to hang the cards on.  There is a bolt at the top, so the tree can be folded up for storage.  Also, had to complete it by adding an angel.

NTS&B Roaming Trains

As part of assisting on the North Atlanta O Gauge RR Club Piedmont Pilgrimage at Hobby Town, we were requested to bring some trains to run.  Below are a couple pictures on the trains I brought:

MTH RK 8715 CSX SD60M  Loco pulling my Ace HW Tank and HT Box Cars

 Williams Amtrak EMD FO45s Pulling Superliner Passenger Cars

2026 Set Circa 1951-1953 (Actually being pulled by 2037 to preserve 2026).

NTS&B Forth Piedmont Pilgrimage Open House And Bigville Shaping Up

My forth Piedmont Pilgrimage turned out to be just as enjoyable as my other ones.  I had 4 full time helpers (Roger & Sherry, Bob P, and Les) , and a couple club members came over.  All told, I had 50 people including ourselves, which is smaller than last year, but still a good steady crowd.  We had a couple repeats from last year.  The interesting thing this year was that there were 2 new O Gauge layouts on the tour and both owners said that they were inspired by my layout go build ones of their own.

Of course the week before, I worked my tail off trying to get last minute finishing touches in, mainly on Bigville City Hall and lighting.   Completed adding traffic lights, street lights, ground lights, and building lights, as well as running main control and local control buttons.  Here are a couple pictures of Bigville and City Hall.  City hall has had an air conditioning unit fail, so Traffic is backed up while they use a crane to install a new unit.  The flag lighted on the front of City Hall is courtesy of Jenn.

NTS&B City Hall Complete

When planning Bigville, I wanted a fairly large City Hall building.  I decided to use the Kenner's Morotized Girder & Panel and Bridge & Turnpike set form the mid 1960's, that I had recieved as a boy. The panels are quite brittle, so it would not withstand grandchildren playing with the set,  so putting it on the layout was the perfect solution to display it.  I was short a few parts to make the building I wanted, but a friend in the train club had a few extra pieces from a set he had recently disposed of.    The building is lit internally using 2 individual circuits of LEDS, on always on, the other switched on.  The grounds lights are old computer bulbs, that were scrapped in the 1980's.  The flag at the top front of the building was a $ Tree gift from my daughter, that is wired in and alternates colors.

Original Box

Back View

Side View

Front View