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Post by Zeke on Apr 9, 2021 19:05:41 GMT
Thanks guys! Adam - the track plan was kind of dictated by the supports for the upper level. Someone who knew what they were doing probably would have come up with something better LOL! So, the next project was constructing a tunnel portal for the northeast corner. I had tried to do one before and it wound up being a total disaster. This one went much better. Did a cardboard mockup and tested clearance with my longest car, in this a case a Williams 72' streamliner. Then actual construction was done using pink foam and poster board. Clearance was tested again since I added wings. I know it looks close on the left side, but that's just the camera angle. There is plenty of room there. I had 3/16'' strip wood, so I cut some up and glued it to the front and sides just to add some dimension and character. I also had some stick-on numbers laying around and used those to add the year at the top. It was then painted with multitextured spray paint. I think the color is called Desert Bisque. I then went over it with a couple of thin washes of antique white, tan, and a color called Fawn. This broke up the monotony of having just one color. Then a few washes of black and then some black powder to weather it up a bit. Now comes the hard part - doing landscaping between the portal and the concrete wall. There's not much room to work with and I haven't yet decided how I'm going to tackle it.
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Post by ptc on Apr 9, 2021 20:07:11 GMT
Great work, Zeke. You can do my tunnel portals anytime.
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Post by Adam on Apr 9, 2021 22:39:37 GMT
Really well done Zeke!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2021 5:33:51 GMT
That is great seeing trains run on your layout! That is a very nice tunnel portal! Very nice job on the layout!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2021 14:28:26 GMT
That looks awesome. Thanks for the step by step pictures.
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Post by Traindiesel! on Apr 12, 2021 1:03:01 GMT
Sean, your Southeastern & Chesapeake is looking great! This is the first chance I had to look through your thread. Thank you for sharing your progress. Your layout is about the same size as the one I'm currently working on, so I may steal... umm, I mean, learn from your ideas.
It looks like your upper level supports are cut into the foam and seated on the plywood underneath. On my layout I'm just using 2" styrofoam as the base, since it's a temporary set up. My issue will be supports for my upper levels. Wooden supports will likely dent into the foam from the weight of the upper levels. I'll have to put my genius cap on!
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Post by Zeke on Apr 12, 2021 18:22:34 GMT
Thanks everyone!
Brian - feel free to borrow any idea you want, although I'm not sure how good some of them are. I'm not sure the of the best way to do supports for your situation. I'd have to think awhile on that, too.
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Post by Country Joe on Apr 16, 2021 19:08:50 GMT
Sean, you have made some great progress! The tunnel portal looks fabulous. If you plan to ever run auto carriers or double stacks make sure the portal opening is tall enough.
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Post by Country Joe on Apr 16, 2021 19:17:00 GMT
Sean, your Southeastern & Chesapeake is looking great! This is the first chance I had to look through your thread. Thank you for sharing your progress. Your layout is about the same size as the one I'm currently working on, so I may steal... umm, I mean, learn from your ideas.
It looks like your upper level supports are cut into the foam and seated on the plywood underneath. On my layout I'm just using 2" styrofoam as the base, since it's a temporary set up. My issue will be supports for my upper levels. Wooden supports will likely dent into the foam from the weight of the upper levels. I'll have to put my genius cap on! Brian, extruded styrofoam is amazingly strong. My layout has a 1x4 wood frame covered by 1" extruded styrofoam. The second level is constructed with only 1" styrofoam. No wood is used at all. My layout is sectional and has survived 2 moves and 3 reconstructions. Don't worry about denting the styrofoam. You will be pleasantly surprised at how dense and rugged it is, and it's very light and easy to work with. When you are ready to move the layout into the new train building you will be able to reuse all the materials from this temporary layout.
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Post by Traindiesel! on Apr 16, 2021 19:36:16 GMT
......On my layout I'm just using 2" styrofoam as the base, since it's a temporary set up. My issue will be supports for my upper levels. Wooden supports will likely dent into the foam from the weight of the upper levels. I'll have to put my genius cap on! Brian, extruded styrofoam is amazingly strong. My layout has a 1x4 wood frame covered by 1" extruded styrofoam. The second level is constructed with only 1" styrofoam. No wood is used at all. My layout is sectional and has survived 2 moves and 3 reconstructions. Don't worry about denting the styrofoam. You will be pleasantly surprised at how dense and rugged it is, and it's very light and easy to work with. When you are ready to move the layout into the new train building you will be able to reuse all the materials from this temporary layout. Thanks for the confirmation, Joe! I was thinking of trying that since I have a couple of sheets of styrofoam leftover to try it. On my last layout I had plywood under the foam with wood subroadbed and supports and the weight caused some dents in the foam. But it wasn’t uniform so I had some gentle wave effect in some areas.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2021 21:28:41 GMT
Brian why not put something thin under it that is larger/stronger and will distribute the weight.
Bookmarked this to save for later use. Nice job!
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Post by Traindiesel! on Apr 17, 2021 0:17:25 GMT
Brian why not put something thin under it that is larger/stronger and will distribute the weight. Bookmarked this to save for later use. Nice job! Bill, I was also thinking about putting some Masonite under each wooden support to distribute the weight of the upper level. Since I have a lot of styrofoam left I’ll try using that first. If I screw it up (a good possibility) I’ll try the Masonite base.
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Post by Zeke on Dec 2, 2021 4:20:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2021 15:51:02 GMT
Sean great job. All three areas look amazing.
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Post by Zeke on Dec 2, 2021 19:59:35 GMT
Thanks RJ! I appreciate that!
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