October 11th, 2018: All good things...

After six years of creating, we have flagged in our efforts over the last year.  We have lost enthusiasm for the hobby.  We were never especially excited about running the trains, it was the process of creating that kept us going.  Once there was nothing new to create we found that more weeks transpired between sessions. Cobwebs accumulated and the layout became an obligation more than something we looked forward to doing.  So, about three weeks ago, we arrived at the decision to dismantle the layout.

The process began by making an inventory of all the pieces we had, which was modified as we went along with the unbuild.  Then we plucked the buildings from the town and the trees.  We organized and packed everything up as we pulled them from the layout.  Then we saved a couple of vignettes complete...the graveyard and the stockyard.  Then came the removal of the foam and scraping the homasote clean of texturing and roadways.  Soon we will dismantle the table and supporting structure and this highly worthwhile 6-year project will come to an end. 

It has been a privilege to share our efforts with you through the years and, though it might be over, this site will remain as a reminder of what was ultimately time well spent with father and son.

October, 2017: Long Time, No Work

We decided to take the summer off and came back to it in early September.  We had started working on the three center panels that would complete our layout in the spring but they had been sitting all summer.  We are now a month into our new phase of the build.

The first panel is mostly just scenery, with a dirt road and a couple of small buildings and a little rugged terrain.  This panel is now nearing completion, with additional trees in the process of being put together.

The center panel has just started construction.  We decided to put a craggy hill in this one and it is in the middle of being carved with the hot wire knife.  The jigsaw puzzle it required to fit what were essentially scraps together was quite interesting but it seems to have worked.

The final panel has a lake in it, connecting the stream coming down the mountain with the stream passing the farm and under the trestle.  Putting the lacquer on this layer by layer has been a very long process that might take as much as another couple of months to complete.  We had discussed this lake early in the build and it's great to be able to make it happen.

So we are back to our Saturday morning routine.  We have also been running and testing the trains but, honestly, we are far less interested in that aspect of the layout than we are in the creative process.

Mina County 2017: A New Build

We've more or less finished the layout, troubleshot the tracks with all of our trains and completely rewired and organized our power and switches.  What else is there to do?  Well, there is that 2'X6' hole in the middle we use to work from.  We put in supporting rails and got three 2'X2' squares of plywood on which we will glue 1" foam and make modular, removable scenery panels!!!!

Here is the first panel, test-fit.















We also toyed with ideas for a painted backdrop and have engineered a removable panel system to rim the outside of the layout.  The substrate is luan plywood and I've already primed the first two sheets and will start painting this coming weekend.

 The first one will go here.

Stay tuned for the evolution of these two projects!

February 25th, 2017: POV video from the layout!!!!

OK, so I bought one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HEG3VG2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And set it up on one of our flat cars.  I put it in front of a Kato EMD SD40 loco and let it run.  I started it on track 2 and let it run half its course to the switch that connects it with track 5.  There it did the inbound and outbound loop around track 5.  The loco was set for 30% speed but we lowered it to 25%.  Next time I will run the whole layout at a speed of 10.  This was a good first run!

Testing Our Locomotives: February 11th, 2017

So, the build is complete and we have rewired the entire layout, soldering all connections and optimizing our switch control panel.  We found some track problems with two SD70 locos we purchased...the front end of these locos rides so close to the track that any defect was immediately detectable.  We also had to carve some tunnels wider to account for the longer trains and we had to pull one section of track entirely and straighten out a kink in the railwork.  It worked like a charm.  Now we are testing each of our six locomotives, with and without rolling stock, to make sure they run smoothly on all five tracks and transfer smoothly at each switching point.  Yesterday we tested our very first engine, a Kato AT-SF EMD-F7A diesel engine designated 304.  We also purchased an identical engine designated 315 but it always had an annoying wobble to it.  Taking it to the Kato people at the Springfield Train show two weeks ago revealed the cause, misaligned wheels on the front truck.  So we have it on an abandoned track with some cheap partially damaged rolling stock we picked up on the cheap at the show.

The upshot of the test is that engine 304 performed spectacularly on all tracks and switches and handled the cars behind it at a speed of 30% like a champ.  Less than 30% and the ride gets a bit jerky but 30% is a good speed for this engine on this layout.  Next up is an EMD-F3A, an SD40, an SD-45 and two SD70a's.  All in good time.

The Build IS FINISHED.

After 3 1/2 years, Mina County is now complete.  There are some finishing touches that we will add over the next few years but the build itself is complete.  The last piece of foam has ben cut, laid, glued and painted and covered with texturing, the last car glued to the last parking lot of the last building.  What awaits us now is rewiring the underside of the layout.

The gate has served to keep the cats of the layout but it took a lot of trial and error to get it like that.  Pixie found ways into and onto the layout, where she played out her dreams of being Catzilla.  The sections are easily removable for access to the layout when needed.

We saved the peninsula for last and it was astonishing how quickly we finished off this area.

A little cleanup will still be required and some minor tweaking but the hedgerows are up and the cars are in.

This area posed a challenge to make it look realistic.  I was concerned about how we were going to make this happen since we originally laid out the foam nearly three years ago.  Turns out that our sample of Chooch adhesive brickface was all that was needed to do the trick.

The other area of concern was the removable hilltop on the peninsula.  It had to be designed to blend in and I was only partially successful at making that happen.  We will have to work on making that blend better going forward but it is functional and the gap not that noticeable.

This is not how we envisioned the peninsula when we first conceived of it.  But that's how the whole layout has turned out...a loosely conceived, organic piece of spontaneous decisions.  The tiny details will have to be more carefully considered.

Viewed from above, the removable piece looks pretty convincing.  Only up close does the illusion break down.

So what does one do when one's layout is complete?  Well, start playing with the trains, of course.  We found that one whole section of tracks is lacking power and we found dangling wires underneath.  We have to reattach them and redo the wiring underneath, labeling each wire and junction box to make repairs easier down the road.  This will be a tedious task but necessary.

So there you have it.  The build of a large N-scale train layout.  Thank you for taking the journey with us, and I hope we inspired you in your own build and that some of the hints shared here were of use to you!  May your tracks remain clear and your trains never derail.  :)

April 30th, 2016: Nearly Done!!!

Well, the last few months have been a little slow as we approach the end of the build.  We've spent our time in the peninsula, putting in the road and the buildings.  The last tunnel had to be built as well, a removable cover made necessary by the tunnel length.  It's by far the longest covered tunnel outside of the mountain.

 

The tunnel is on the left of the two tracks on the right side of the photo.  It needs a lot of work to make it blend in properly with the surrounding hillside.

Here the stockyard sits, the last area that needs to be finished in the main part of the layout.  The stockyard was destroyed by a cat but repairs were possible.  It may not be pretty but it works.

A giant rubber ducky oversees the covered bridge while enjoying a bath in the waterfall's pool.

Our next phase is to redo the wiring.  There are some wires that are not connected to anything and a few dead areas of the layout.  Are these problems related?  That will be revealed in a future edition of Mina County Railroad!