Monk Subdivision - First Scenery Work

While I have figured out a few issues with my tracks, rectified some pesky vertical track alignment at some turnout and found out a way to reducing noise over the spline built over plywood, I have decided to start working on scenery where wiring and track are alright, namely around the bridge and Langlois Station. I see it as a practice run, but also as a way make things more tangible and motivating. Looking at a wood frame benchwork is dreadful and makes you feel like it was all a mistake. Only when landforms start to appear does that uneasy feeling subdue.

Abenaki River with its cardboard profiles

For scenery, I wanted to try something else, having explored enough with foam and got fed up by the sheer amount of electrically charged static dust it creates. My first idea was to use a cardboard lattice covered with some kind of papier-mâché made from kraft paper recycled from mail parcels. However, when recently visiting BV Hobby, I discovered a large roll of plaster clothe sold at discount from some estate. The guy collected everything he needed for the dream layout, including basic materials, never dared to do it, then passed away. A nice reminder to take chances and not procrastinate.

A brand new MDF fascia board ready to be permanently fixed

I have never used that material on the past, but figured out if it was a mess, I would just remove the unwanted scenery and start again.

My first attempt at cardboard lattice was messy at best!

Second try was marginally more rational

All started by preparing some contoured MDF fascia board to get the land profile right. Then, I cut 1 inch wide cardboard strips from salvaged boxes. Using a few cardboard profiles glued in place, I started to build my lattice until I got the shape right. In some cases, I had to apply more lattice to correct landforms that didn't look right at all.

Once the plaster cloth is laid down, it all blends together

About three layers of plaster clothes were applied everywhere, making sure they overlapped for more strength. I was both surprised by the ease of working with this material, but also how it wasn't messy at all. The shell starts to harden a few minutes after application, which gives you a good idea if more cloth is needed here and there.

The third try at Langlois was much more controlled

The next morning, I found out the plaster cloth didn't bond well with the fascia or the roadbed, so I fastened it with with white glue. Later, when I continued scenery at Langlois, I made sure to apply glue to every edges and the lattice prior to applying the plaster cloth to create a true bond between the structure and hard shell.

The lattice was generously covered in white glue

I'm quite pleased with this methode. The landforms look very natural to me and any little glitches can easily be fixed with Sculptamold. It gives some freedom, it's fast, the results can be assessed very quick and you can work without fearing to turn the layout room into a dust nightmare. I really appreciate how all these discarded cardboard boxes laying around have also found a new life.

The plaster cloth bond strongly with the lattice

Third section done

For roads, I still have decided to use 1 inch insulation foam for their foundation since I need a nice regular slab to build upon them. But I am no longer required to shape them extensively. For the feed mill dirt road, I think I could have shaped the road a little bit to create the camber. This will need to be done with material such as Sculptamold later on which isn't that much of an ordeal. I'm also planning to use similar slabs under structures.

The road form inser in place

I'm really excited by that quick progress that I had planned. Scenery is truly one of the wonderful albeit stressful, part of this hobby. I already have started to work on the big concrete culvert, which is going to be quite the challenge if you ask me! Can't wait to build the fill over the river valley since it's probably the most iconic scene of the entire layout.

Open for business... almost!

Monk Subdivision - Lessons Learned in 3 Months

In January 2024, I wrote in a post that Mike Confalone was right about his “Act first, think later” approach (https://hedley-junction.blogspot.com/2024/01/monk-subdivision-mike-confalone-was.html). Sure, Mike isn’t a reckless modeler as he puts a lot of thoughts into his work, but the ideas are always tested in the physical world and if they fail or lose their purpose, they get adjusted, fixed or replaced by newer ones are better.

I’m have been following that mantra for more than three months now. Going down to the basement, leaving the computer behind and working my little share each single day since then. What I have in front of my eyes now is a functional layout, sufficiently wired to be operated and with basic controls, both DC and DCC. I also have a large bridge already in place.

In my previous “life”, I would have worked by basically doing nothing for months, working like a madman a few entire days, then hit a roadblock, go back to that forsaken computer and find a new funny train related distraction until I would change my mind a go back working on the layout after forgetting the reason I was working on it.

Relying only on will power alone is a sure plan for failure. Only discipline can help to achieve results. As I will state in a future post, I still have a lot of things to do before starting scenery, but at the same time, I wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t put a few minutes each day on the layout.

And don’t believe it was a walk in the park over the last few months. I made a lot of mistakes, had to demolish and rebuild from scratch. Wiring had to be modified more than once to get it as clean as possible when it will be time to expand it. On my bucket list, there is a lot of rebuilding in my future. But when done piece by piece, step by step, everyday, it’s no longer a dreadful chore but simply leisure.

Part of me want it perfect, particularly the running qualities and the scenery, but I need to take my time and work on it a little bit everyday. I had planned for the layout to be fully operational by mid-September and I reached that point by early October due to some technical issues with the lift bridge. It may not yet be steam power friendly, but it is for diesel power and I will take that win any day!

Monk Subdivision - Adjusting the Staging Yard Lift Bridge

Adjusting the staging yard lift bridge wasn’t an easy task, but when decomposed into discrete steps, it was much palatable. The first steps was to remove the end tracks on the bridge itself to resurface the warped plywood surface. They were all soldered and wired with feeders. Thus I took my time, over two evening to prepare everything.

Resurfacing the plywood was much easier than thought

Then the surface was sanded down with a rotative sander and final level adjustment done with wood putty to ensure a perfect surface. It took three adjustments, but I got it right and sealed everything with a good coat of paint.

 

Perfect vertical alignment for improved performance

Then tracks were relaid, resoldered and rewired in place, assuring a good alignment to prevent derailment.

 

When done, I took care to finalize the bus wiring and gather all the wired together in a bundle. This was to ensure no wire would get entangled by repeated action of the bridge lifting motion.

 

A simple surface bolt took care of lateral position

I also added a small bolt to secure the bridge lateral position. This was required because I observed some lateral play that could be about 1.5mm. That is a huge misalignment! I found out by accident when a steamer hit the rails full speed and got its rods firmly stuck. This is some really nasty mechanical stuff. I went to the hardware store and tested several surface bolts until I found one that had minimal slack in it to ensure perfect alignment.

 

Adding a MDF guardrail for peace of mind against accidents

Finally, I added a piece of MDF to act as a guardrail to prevent trains to plunge on the concrete floor of doom. That takes away some stress to run expensive rolling stock!

Now, I have reached a point were most tracks have been laid and are functional. I only need to address the faulty trackwork by the curved turnout located on the superelevated spot. Once this is done, it will be a matter of adding the team track and coal track in Armagh, followed by installing a few tortoises and additional wiring. I must admit I'm a little bit afraid of running trains when there is not terrain to catch a falling piece of rolling stock. It doesn't take a lot to have such an unfortunate accident and I'm not willing to take that risk.

I must admit I'm not writing that much because I feel these nuts and bolts articles are far less interesting than scenery, planning or simply modelling. I have been working on a few rolling stock projects in "secret" too, but I'm waiting a bit before sharing them since I want to focus my efforts on what matters right now.

Monk Subdivision - Fine Tuning the Tracks

The loop of track is in place; it is wired and functional. The first train even made the inaugural run. What’s next?

The first train to ever complete the loop

That’s a good question. Part of me is wanting to dive direct into scenery but it cannot be done yet until running has been assessed. Until I can prove a large 2-10-2 or 4-8-4 steamer, a 16-car long passenger train or a 35-car freight train can navigate safely and reliably over the layout, it would be foolish to ballast the track.

Inaugurating the staging with a proper mixed train

Several key issues have been identified, including the following:

1) Superelevation is neat but it doesn’t like to start after a turnout. I haven’t experimented that much with it, but I reckon that you need at least 12 inch of flat track on both sides of a turnout. This is the only way to make sure locomotives with long rigid wheelbase can navigate them without derailing. In this case, my BLI ATSF 4-8-4 with its huge drivers is a perfect candidate for testing.

Vertical transition and patchwork of track near a turnout isn't a good idea

2) Superelevation on very broad curves add very little. In this specific case, I’m talking about the broad curve at Langlois station, in front of the feed mill. I made the superelevation half what it is elsewhere, but it still look silly. The reason is simple; this is a switching spot and having your freight train partially tilted doesn’t look good. It just looks like poorly laid track which induced unwarranted tilt. Also, that curve is so broad I gain virtually nothing from that superelevation. It's not high on the priority list, but it may be "improved" in the near future.

3) Superelevation on very sharp curves looks silly. This is the case of the 28” radius curve leading to the staging right of Armagh. For some reason, the trains look far too much tilted on this curve, as if they were going to fall. Visually, it’s not pleasing at all and mechanically, it induces the aforementioned issue with transitioning with the turnout. While superelevation is desirable, I think it should be half what it is there.

This superelevation may be reduces... maybe not

4) At the culvert, between Langlois and Armagh, there is a slight grade. Nothing major, but it’s there. Visually, it had a little bit of interest because in real life, there was a grade there. The issue is the grade isn’t constant vertically, which induce some optical effects that don’t look good. I will need to rework my risers there.

The plywood creates a sounding board and must go

5) The next issue is linked to the previous one. I used plywood to create a flat surface at the river level for the culvert, then screwed the risers on it. This created a dreaded soundboard. When trains run over that section, a very loud noise is unheard, which is really bursting the suspension of disbelief. I will need to remove that plywood as much as possible and rethink the way risers are fixed. Not at easy task, but a necessary one.

6) Elsewhere, the tape I used for superelevation isn’t always perfectly located under the ties. This variation causes trains to wobble a little, which is unsightly. The same also happens here and there because nailed track is not always perfectly laying flat on the cork. When ballasting, there is a risk of gravel going under the lifted ties and making these deformations permanent. Tracks will need to be secured with latex caulk before adding scenery.

7) The staging yard lift bridge is sitting a little bit higher than the yard, which created a substantial height difference at rail head. This is a likely source of future derailments. My idea is to either rise the yard tracks or find a way to lower the bridge. It is my suspicion that the later is probably easier and won’t add further vertical deformation along the route.

This is almost 1mm vertical difference between the layout and bridge!

8) Team tracks and sidings in real life often sit lower than the mainline and I wonder if I should implement that everywhere on the layout. It is visually interesting, but that vertical transition could create issues at the double ended team track in Armagh. I can already imagine a lot of running issues raising from such an aesthetic choice. It can work at Langlois station, but I am more doubtful at Armagh. Had the track been 10 feet long, it wouldn’t be an issue, but when shorter, it becomes a roller coaster of poor decisions.

9) Finally, I need to test if all the staging tracks have a good geometry that works well with long trains. Lots of curves there which will inevitably reduce the pulling power of locomotives. Also, I need to identify which ones are best for passenger trains or large steam locomotives.

Nothing beats the feeling of a train running freely around the room

As you can see, there is a lot of things to figure out but I feel like brushing them away would be the perfect recipe to be disenchanted with the layout. Poor track always leads to frustration and untimely death of a beloved project.

So I guess I have still a lot of work cut for me!

Monk Subdivision - Sherlock Holmes and The Short

Yesterday, Jérôme paid a visit to the layout to run some trains… if we could troubleshoot the short circuit plaguing it. The first hour was spent trying to find out if there was something wrong with the wiring. Could some of the feeders or bus wires be inverted somewhere? Well, we did find two problematic feeders that needed to be moved around, but the problem persisted.

Next, we moved our attention to the staging yard control panel since we got short indication. However, when disconnected from the layout, it was perfectly fine. Using a multimeter, we investigated two Peco curved turnouts. They were electrofrog and could have been insulated incorrectly. Alas, they were fine… I even went so far as removing one, just in case. 

Then Jérôme started to probe the screw connectors. Most of them were shorted, which meant something wrong was going on with the tracks. Pushing forward the investigation, our attention turned to the staging yard lift bridge. Even when disconnected, we got shorts on a few tracks. This would became the focus of our attention.

The problematic situation as discovered

After a while, an idea crossed my mind. Could the soldered PC board ties used at the ends of the bridge be the issue? Well, it was. At first, we suspected solder bridging the gap in the copper foil, but it wasn’t the case. Then, the real problem reared its ugly head. The PC board ties are secured in place with two nails at each end. While the copper foil is notched on top to prevent shorts, the plating under it is continuous. When you drive a metal nail through the tie, it bridges both copper layers, creating short. 

Our solution was to add an insulating notch on top

The solution was easy and I simply removed some copper at one end so the nail could no longer be electrified. In hindsight, I should have notched the copper plating underneat each tie. Once you know the issue, it is extremely easy to remedy, but tracking it took several evenings, and finally two brains. Since I’m not that proficient with electricity, I was suspecting my wiring was wrong, but couldn’t figure out the mistakes. It would have been hard to think the PC board ties were the main issue… or should I say, my way to secure them.

A notch should be made in the bottom copper plating first

With this problem figured out and troubleshooted, I can now complete the basic wiring and start to improve track geometry. I can still see a few things that bother me, including superelevation at turnouts, running noise over plywood and some vertical alignment issues here and there. If I was running only diesel locomotives, I wouldn’t care that much about it. However, large wheelbase steamers don’t like it.