| Have
you ZZeen it?
Expandig my Z-scale model
railroad with new sections
Up to end 2002
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to 2003 page or go to 2004
page
Last update:
17.04.2006 21:31
(3 entries from april 2002, in the bottom on this page, are
added today.)
Status from the
layout on 29.11.02:
Not
so much have been done on the layout last days, but last
night I created a testtrack so I could bring it to the
local H0-club,(Drammen
MR-Club) on the "train-run"- night. When
the rest of the drivers were running their train on the
mainlayout in H0-scale, I was sitting with my small
trains and had a good time.
The testtrack is a double track oval, with connecting
turnouts and a few yardtracks. No landscape and no
fancy, only the necesarry thing to build it and use it.
Actually, the inspiration to this trackplan, come from
the discussion on the Z-scale
group on Yahoo, regarding "Track for Work".
A lot of people reported how they had taken small
layouts to work and invited people on work to watch the
trains during lunchtime. |
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| The
left picture shows the testlayout, running the AZL E8
A+B on one track with some MicroTrains box cars behind,
and the Märklin 88604, Atlantic Coast Line F7 A+B and
the 6 passengercars, Märklin 87846, on the other track.
On the right picture, the driver and the owner of all
this "nice little things". Look at the small
part of giant-track to the left in the picture. It is
big, it is H0! |
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Status from the
layout on 19.11.02:
| More
work has been done on the mine. It is near finished, and
a lot of trees and bushes have been installed. It is not
so easy to see, because it has been dark. Tonight also
the lights inside the mine, and a few lamppoles outside,
have been installed. Near all rails have also been
painted tonight. |
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| The
lights inside and outside of the mine helps create this
night scene. Two F7 can be seen, one arriving soon on
the station and the Santa Fe is moving a car from the
mine. In the background on the right picture, you can
see the factory above the station. |
|
Status from the
layout on 11.11.02:
| The
mine has been build near complete. The first layer with
paint is dry, and the work to install the mine on the
layout is also near completed. As you can see from
the status on 08.10.02, the
area has changed very much since the mine has been
installed. A little kitbashing on
this nice brassmodel from Micro Structures need to be
done. Because of the lack of space, the mainbuilding
need to be rotated 90 degrees. The transportbridge
between the buildings need to be rebuild, to fit the new
version of the mine. Lighting and glass in the windows
shall also be installed. After some more work and
weathering, I hope this model will be a "top
spot" on the layout. |
 |
 |
 |
| Here
you can see the different levels of the buildings. In
the original, the mainbulding is rotated 90 degres, and
both buildings are on the same level. |
Same
view as previous, but from a birds level |
|
Status from the
layout on 06.11.02:
Finally it
is possible to let a train run completely through the
whole layout and the final Golden Spike has been
installed.
The helix in the closet and the connections between the
different sections are now in place, so it is possible
to run a train completely through the layout.
The painting has also started on the mill and its near
finished. It would be a great model. On the right you
can see a picture of the harbour area, where the sea is
painted flat black. Some other colors, a little lighter
near the edge, coated with a layer of clear glossy paint,
will finally create the water. May be some waves also? |
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   |
Status from the
layout on 28.10.02:
| The work
has started to connect the helix in the closet with the
rest of the layout. Its not much space, so it takes some
time to finish. But tonight all the wood are in place,
waiting to dry. After that the track can be installed.
The left picture shows the entrance to the helix. The
right picture shows the helix in the closet. |
  |
The last
weeks I have been busy with planning a new section on
the layout. It will be inserted between the old section
and the new in work. One major scene on the section will
be the crossings on the lower level, that should be very
bussy and hopefully a typical spot on a american
railroad.
After I got the AZL Diesel, I found out that my grades
was to hign, so I decided to create a hidden helix
between the levels, that could be used as the track up
to level 2. The grade should be as low as possible, so
the AZL E8 diesel could come up the 150 mm between the
levels. The trackplan also give flexibility to the plan,
so the helix will work for all directions. |
 |
Status from the
layout on 13.10.02:
Finally my
new AZL E8 A+B arrived in the mail from Ztrack.
What a beuty! In Santa Fe war bonnet design. The best
design in the world i thought when I was a child. And I
still love the design. This is a very nice model, that
runs very smooth and have a lot of details. Here you can
see them in front of a passenger train on the new
layout.
It runs very good, but it has not very good adhesion, so
it very easy start to spin on the track. I may need
another powered A-unit to fix this problem. (That is not
cheap) It will run very good, if the track has a low
grade or 0 grade slope. The same problem is often on
other 6-axle engines, compared to 4-axel engines. |
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| More
detailing has been done on the layout. Trees, gras and
bushes. More track ballast and other details have also
been added. |
Status from the
layout on 08.10.02:
| The
last weeks not so much have been done, but the last
couple of days, some more landscaping and coloring has
been done. Ballasting of some tracks has started and the
painting is close to finished. |
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| 2
trees and some bushes has been planted |
More
bushes and grass |
Same
view as previous, but from a birds level |
|
Status from the
layout on 11.09.02:
The
last days a major step have been reached: All tracks are
in place, expect for 2 short tracks on the siding on
level 2. The tracks have also been tested with diesels
and cars. It runs very smooth and are a good base for
the ballasting.
The basic landscaping are very close to finish, so very
soon can the ground foam and coloring be completed(+ all
the dirt, trees, etc). The layout has a new nice
frontboard, and the harbour are near finish. |
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 |
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| Here
you can see near all the tracks. |
The
layout is filled up with trains |
The
station area, where the station building should be. |
|
Status from the
layout on 07.09.02:
| Some major
changes has been done the last days. To create some more
vertical action, one of the factorybuildings are moved
between the two mainlevels, in the rockside. Then a hill
on the flat frontarea is created, and a bridge is set up
from the hill and into the factory. I guess this gives a
much better model. And the scene will also be more
interesting, as you can see in the right picture. The
harbour is also set up(back right, lower level), with
the harbourfront, It is soon time to paint the water. |
  |
Status from the
layout on 28.08.02:
The first
tracks are installed and the first train run tonight.
All cork beds are now in place, and 2 lengths of Peco
flextrack have been installed in 2 different curves.
On the picture you can see some yellow under the track.
It is a wire put under one of the rails, so the curve is
superelevated. Superelevation has been set up on the
curves, the view looks much better
Watch also the video, it should start to stream;
if not, the file is 1.6Mb, so it will take some time to
load. You need to have windows media player installes. |
Run
Video:
FirstTrack
(1.6Mb)
|
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Status from the
layout on 27.08.02:
Some days
without much activity again, but today the work to lay
the trackbed cork on the layout have started. I use 3mm
cork, and cut it into shape. Near all tracksbeds are now
finished, so soon I can start laying the actual track.
Some trackpieces and turnouts are placed in their final
position as a test.
You can also see the layout, with the station and the
helix. |
|
 |
Status from the
layout on 21.08.02:
Tonight I
have started the building of one of the major buildings
on the layout, the Milestone
Gravel Co. mining building by Micro
Structures. It is an excellent model and will be a
very nice spot on the layout. All major parts have been
finished, and next step is to paint them. Each major
part will have only one color, so it will be an easy job.
Then all windows and the other parts shall be painted
and glued in place. This is my first brass kit using
glue and not soldering it. It works great. I think the
final result will be good.
|
Milestone Gravel Co |
 |
Status from the
layout on 20.08.02:
Tonight
some parts of the layout have been painted and some
areas are even covered with green groundfoam. There are
still areas that are not covered with plaster and rock
molds. Some areas also need plaster between the
rockmolds, so they blend together nicely. Some more
groundcolors will be added later.
This way to make my layout; painting and finishing parts
of the terrain before one inch of track is laid, is not
normal. I need to see if it works ok. Soon I need to
start tracklaying, I guess. I must mold some more rocks
also, it will take some time to finish all molds I need. |
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Status from the
layout on 18.08.02:
   |
| The
foam begins to be covered with a thin layer of plaster
and rockcastings, to create the landscape. Between the
rockcastings and on areas that should not be open rock,
there are a thin layer of plaster. In the second picture,
over the brown brickwall in the middle of the picture,
the foampart can be removed, so it is possible later to
lay the track inside the tunnel. The foam shall be
covered with rockcastings. In the right picture, you can
see the foam tunnel portal, carved out with a ballpen. |
Status from the
layout on 16.08.02:
| The
helix in the closet are now near redy to lay track. Only
some work with the connection between the two parts need
to be figured out. On the left picture you can see the
different parts, and in the left picture, the helix is
ready to be installed in the closet. |
  |
Status from the
layout on 11.08.02:
Some
more work has been done on the industrial area. The
whole area was a little low, so the elevation has been
increased with 10-30 mm, using 10 mm sheets of
foam covered paper. Different levels for some areas. The
grade of the maintrack was also a little high, so when
increasing the height on the track by 10 mm, it will
probably give a better track. There will be 2 tracks
coming into the area from the maintrack, one will enter
the Märklin enginehouse to the left. There will also be
some roads on the area.
The industrial area now start to find the final form,
and I guess that all buldings will be placed where you
can see them on the picture. The main track will run
between the long and the short factory buildings and to
the left of the green boxcar. This boxcar and the orange
boxcar, is placed on the two turnouts in the industrial
area.
The work to create the tunnelportals and to cover the
track below the industryarea, has also started. When
this is finished, the layout will look much better. |
 |
Status from the
layout on 03.08.02:
| The
left part with the two tunnels going to the helix in the
closet. All the trackbeds are in place, and the
connections to the old layout are aligned. Soon I can
start to lay track. In the meantime the mountains have
been started to be build, using styrofoam. Some plaster
rock castings are also glued in place. To give the
possibility to connect the rails to the rails from the
helix, the two tunnelopenings are carved out together in
a "plug" that can be removed in one big piece,
so the rails can be uncovered. The tunnelportalstones are
carved out in the styrofoam with a pencil. |
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| |
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 |
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| The
tunnelportals carved in styrofoam |
The
tunnelportals "plug" removed |
The
tunnelportals "plug" made in styrofoam. You
can see the carving in the portals, made by a ballpen. |
| |
The
industrial area start to line up. Testing of the positions for
the big area with all factorybuildings. In an earlier
design a turntable with an enginehouse was planned for
this area, but I have decided to build a factory with
some tracks here instead. The factory is based on 2
Kibri factory kits. One of the mainbuildings are double
the normal lenght, because the long sides are glued
together. The back of the building is out of the
visitors view and is constructed using a sheet of
styren, painted with brickcolor. The maintrack will
divide the area in two and hopefully create an
interesting spot on the layout. A road will cross the
track. The Märklin enginehouse will be shortened and 2
tracks will enter the area.
The area below, will be the port, with a track and a
boat. The maintrack will be partly in a tunnel under the
factoryarea. |
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Status from the
layout on 11.07.02:
The old section on the right. The new
section on the left. The "bed" for the tracks are in
position. On the very left part of the new section, the tracks continue into a helix hidden in the
closet.
The trackplan for stage 1
Status from the
layout on 16.04.02:
| Some
testing on the layoutplans on an actual plot in full
scale of the new layout. Shown is the helix that should
be in the closet, and the new small section with the
station and harbour area. On the second picture, you can
see the Kibri factory building, expanded to the double
length, using the backside on the front. |
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Status from the
layout on 09.04.02:
| Some more
work have been done on the framework. The horizon has
been cut and the old section is aligned to the new one. |
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Status from the
layout on 01.04.02:
Before this first
statusreport and pictures, a lot of work has been done in
planning the new layout. Some cutting and gluing have been
done also, but I have only photos back from this date, so it
is not documented from prior to this date.
| The work
with the new part has just startet. The framework is
glued and screwed together, and reinforced with the
solid styrofoam in the bottom of the section. In the
back, you can see the old section with the bridge, the
only part that is saved from the old layout. |
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