I have been working on more LEDs for a project for a friend. Here is my desk how I have it set up.

A list of the tools I use that you can see in this picture are. I use a helping hand stand to hold a pair of spring tweesers that hold the LED. I have a magnifine light that I hold over this to solder the 38 guage magnet wire to the LED. I set my soldering iron to 450 with my fan running to suck up the smoke from soldering. (black thing the loco shell is leaning on). I have started using no clean tack flux from chipquik (smd291). All of these have bee purchased off of Amazon. The LEDs came in a package of 100 that I purchased awhile ago from ebay and came from China.

In this photo I have glued the LED to the back of the lens from the loco. I watched many videos on youtube on soldering SMD LEDs. 

 Over the summer I started to try my luck at making some LED lights for some of my locomotives. I used 0402 SMD led and magnet wire. These are in a Athearn RTR SD40. I also installed a ESU V5 decoder withh a Iphone 5 speaker. It took a bit of trial and earer to fit the speaker in the rear part of the shell. It sounds ok but next install I wont to try a speaker from Scale sounds.This is the LED after soldering the leads to it.

Here is the LED installed in the loco. I used Micro scale Krystal clear to seal the led in the shell. I have not touch any settings in the decoder and the leds are wired directly to the decoder.

I had a chance to work in the layout room the past couple of days so I got busy laying down some cork and some ties for the switches.

Here is an updated track plan of the Main level. I have added more industries along the back wall. This industries are along the main line from Neenah Wis. to Menasha Wis. My earlier plan only had a few of these industries on the layout. After looking at the plan a litter closer I decided to add more sidings.

Alright. It has been far to long since my last post here. Since then I have torn down the layout and spent some time working on a new plan in a new location. In addition to planning my layout I have been helping a good friend with his layout of the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo. His layout can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/user/Thbfan401/videos We have been working on installing detection and signalling on his layout as well as using JMRI for freight car movements. We have been able to operate his layout a few times up to the quarantine. So in the mean time I have started building my layout, starting with the helix and return loop. The layout will be a 2 level layout this time with a small staging yard under the main yard. I have decided to model some of the CNW Valley Sub in Appleton Wisconsin. I will post my new plan and some photos when I can get them on my new computer. Until then Happy Modeling.

Swing Gate Construction

We have been plugging away at building my swing gate for entrance to the train room. A couple of good friends have come over to lend a hand a building this challenging thing. The challenge is it's curved with three tracks running over it. Well so far the three tracks have added way to much bench work for the gate and when it was swung open it didn't leave to much room for you to walk in. So what we have decided was to remove one track, my switch lead and shorten it to out the switch on the gate. It gives me a shorter yard lead but I was able to gain a few more inch's from off the gate which gave me more room to walk in. The one option that we talked about was removing part of the wall and swinging the tracks a few inches inward to give us a better curve to come at the gate but found it wasn't feasible for all the work involved for a few inch's. So we went with plan B and this is what's shown in the pictures below. We still have a lot of work to do as there is a track below on the gate that comes from the helix into the staging yard below Mitchell yard.

Laying Ties

In this Blog I will show you my method of laying the wood ties that I had cut up. I laid out the ties in a jig that I had made for the mainline and a jig that I purchased from fast tracks for the sidings.

This is the jig for mainline 

This is the fast tracks jig for sidings

This jig is one I made from printing out the switch templates from fast tracks and gluing them to a piece of wood.

Once I have placed the ties in the jig I place a piece of masking tape over them and they are ready to lay on the cork. In the photo below you can see the tie strips with the tape in place but not glued yet

Here is a video from my YouTube channel showing me laying down the ties. I use whit glue and as you see in the video I use a very simple tool to spread out the glue.

Cutting Wood Ties

Cutting ties

In this Blog I talk about cutting my own ties and I glue them down to the cork. First I decided to cut my own ties for hand laying the rail because I had done it in the past with another layout and thought it would be fun to try again. I find this part of the hobby very relaxing and time sure flies by. So I set out to set up the table saw and start cutting. Well it was so long ago when I did it last I completely forgot how to go about it. Finally I came up with what I thought was an easy way to do them. I set up the table saw with a scrap piece of plywood over the table and slowly raised the blade to cut through the plywood. This way there was no way that the strips of wood could fall between the blade. I set a 1x3 on the plywood and screwed it down the width that I wanted away from the blade. I posted a video on you tube showing the set up of the saw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfgCv4TpsTk  I used 1x2 select pine cut into 2' lengths so they were easy to handle by one person. IN the photo below you see that after all the strips were cut I bundled them and taped them together to make it easy to handle when cutting them into 8'6 length's. To do this I used a small band saw. I cut the ties into 8'6 and then various sizes for the switch's.

Now all this was done last year. This year I have had absolutely no time to go outside and cut any ties. My 8 year old is very busy with sports and helping coach keeps me very busy. So this year I decided to try out ties from two different sources. Since I'm using Fast tracks switch jigs and their sweep sticks I thought about using ties from Mt Albert http://www.mtalbert.com/ This ties were purchased from fast tracks along with some of their twist ties. http://www.handlaidtrack.com/TwistTies-Wood-Ties-for-HO-Scale-Flexible-Crosstie-Strips-s/1989.htm The nice thing with these two products is the ties are the same thickness as micro engineering flex track which worked out great because there is no sanding the ties. My method of cutting required sanding once they were glued down.

Laying The Cork Roadbed

Once I had some bench work done it was time to draw some track centers and lay some cork.

I purchased the cork from two places. The first was Staples and then I found the same size roll cheaper at Lowes. The one from Lowes has a finer mix of crock pieces in the roll than the one from Staples. I have installed both types on the layout but have yet to put done ties and rail. I measured 3/4 " all along the length of the cork, then cut them into strips 3/4' wide by 2' long. The roll comes in 2'W x 4'L. Once I had all the strips cut it was time to glue them down. In the past I used a solvent based contact cement. This time around I used a water base cement. Lepage's contact cement was the one I went with. I applied cement to both the cork and the bench work. Following the instructions I allowed both pieces to dry, then applied cork to one side of the center line then on the other. I used a roller that's used for wallpaper. This works great for making sure the cork is pushed down on the glue for a perfect bond. This picture of Mitchell yard shows the cork that has already been laid and you can see the roller in the upper left.

Here is a video on my YouTube channel were I show you how I cut the roll of cork into 3/4" strips.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9lqOIZcFwE 
Hope you enjoy it and find some helpful tips.

Well it has been way to long since my last post here but I hope to change that. A lot has happened in the train room since I was last on here so I will have a lot of post coming until I can catch up with where I am on the layout. So let’s get started were I left off with the last post. We will start with some bench work.

In this photo I have started building the bench work for Mitchell yard. The brackets are made from 1x3 pine and ¼ inch plywood. I wanted to try something different than metal shelf brackets and I was also trying to get away from legs. In the photo below you can see a close up of those brackets that we made. They are attached to the wall with 2 ½” screws every 16” to be able to screw into the stud wall.

In this photo we have the island that runs down the middle of the room. The center wall is 1x3 studs screwed to the ceiling and the floor, so it’s solid. The far left of this photo is where my helix will be. The track that you see is for a return loop that will bring trains back into the staging yard below Mitchell yard.

The Track Plan

From my previous post you can see that I had finished the layout room. While I was finishing the room I was busy working on a track plan. I didn't do anything with the ceiling except hang some work light's. My plan for the room is to build most of or try and build all the bench work for the two levels and then start track. Well so far that has be going just great. I have a few places were I have to lay the track as I go, other wise I cant put in the track. The ceiling will be installed once I have the upper levels bench work done and I know were every thing will be. The ceiling will be ceiling tiles and it will follow the valance around the layout.

 Main Level

 Second Level

 

 

The entrance to the room will be a swing gate which I have yet to figure out how I'm going to build it. There will be no duck under's. Over the year that I have made these plans, thing's have changed and will probably change while I'm building. Nothing is 100%. As you can see I have a lot to build. Thankfully I have some great help. The two main people that help are Paul B. He had a great layout the Green Bay & Western that can been seen here https://www.youtube.com/user/rockton160807/videos. Just recently he bought a basement with a house on it and will be starting all over again soon. My other helper is Alex. He models the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Ry that can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/user/Thbfan401/videos So with there help and the help of a few other people, my six year old son and a resent addition to our group of friend's a gentleman by the name of Jordan who has joined us,we have started to build the C&NW in HO scale in my basement. So follow along as we progress.

The Begining

Welcome to my blog.

Here I will be displaying photo's and some how-to's of what I'm up to. Well I'm building a layout based on the C&NW in and around Milwaukee Wisconsin.

• My layout room is 15' W x 26'1/2" L
• Era is 1989
• Scale HO
• Main line Switch's are all #8
• Yard's and siding switch's #6
• Mainline Code 83
• Siding's Code 70
• Industries Code 70 and some 55

Here are a few picture's of the room while I was finishing it. I started the room in 2012.
The room is insulated with Roxul and safe in sound in the ceiling and inside walls to help with the noise of the saw.

Below is what the room liked like in October 2013.
As you can see all the walls are finished and I have installed a sub floor in the room.