Benchwork!!

Well, progress was made this weekend. I installed the benchwork for the Puerto Cortes and part of Santa Barbara!!

Here's a shot in the "paint it before installing it" mode... It's made of 3/4" plywood, ripped down on my table saw.

Here it is installed...

Your looking into the room with the port on the right. I need to assemble the other two sections and then I can start installing sub roadbed and maybe we'll get some track done!!!

I will admit, a moment came over me to just build an N scale layout instead. I do have alot of that, but I'm going to continue with the HOn30..

Also, got the rivet decals in the mail last week and installed them on the tank car. Now I just need to paint the tank and we should be good...

I'm not committed to anything the next 2 weeks, so I plan to get more done on the layout..

Tank car update...

Here's a tank car with a brass tank.

The tank is 1/2" K&S tube, cut to a 25' length. .040 stryene caps were applied. The dome in Evergreen 3/8 tube with a 040 cap and 020 lid with Grandt NBW details added. The timbers on the flat car deck are HOn3 ties with NBW castings added. The rod is the drain for the tank itself.

I'm now waiting for some of the Micro-Marl rivet decals to show to apply to the tank itself, then I'll get it painted.

Tank car progress..

Something I'm playing with. I need a few tank cars for petro service and for molasses service from the sugar refinery to the rum plant. So, I started with a basic frame and added a strip wood deck. Also shown here is a tank made of 1/2" stryene and a dome of 3/8" stryene. I think I'm going to go with 1/2" brass instead for added weight with the petro cars. It'll also make them a little larger.

In the background is a flat car that has since had a diamond plated deck added to it. I'll have a photo of it a little later. 

More testing..

Okay, first up is the test section with some scenery and ballast in place. Sitting on the track is my stock car..

Looks good to me. Now to get my rear in gear and finish cleaning! 

Also, I needed a way to test my scratchbuilt #6 turnouts. Here's the test stand...

Since I'll need to power the frogs, I'm stealing an idea from the guys on The Railwire N scale forum and using slide switches. Digi-key sells them cheap enough to make it worth while. With this jig I can test turnouts both ways and make sure they'll work like they are supposed to! 

Testing, testing 123...

Okay, so I picked up all my stuff from the local pusher and got around to making a test section to try some of the hand lay techniques from the web.

Everything works! I attached the N scale cork roadbed down onto the plywood with wood glue, then after drying, attached the ties to the cork with Mod Podge. This is pretty much the same thing as acrylic matte medium, without the price tag. 

I stained the ties with washes made from PollyScale Railroad Tie Brown, Grimy Black and SP Light Grey. Then I attached the rail using contact cement and ran a soldering iron along the rails to heat the cement and get it to set. The small metal pieces on the wood are the N scale track guages for gauging the rail. 

The white plastic jig you see in front is for making tie strips. It's two sheets of .040" stryene with a .080 x.125 strip on the back and .040 x .100 spacers between the ties. As you can see, I have another strip of ties already in the jig, ready for tape. 

The next project is to make a test jig for my turnouts to make sure they work.

Here we go...  This is the track plan I've put together for my Ferrocarril de Tropico. First is the lower level, which will have a port and the main city, Santa Barbara.

In the upper left corner is the helix up to the upper level. In the bottom left is my computer desk and workbench.

The plan shows the yard, sugar mill, and the port of Puerto Cortes. One operator will handle switching at the port itself. The branch to the port will work under the city to reach the yard at Santa Barbara.

Here is the upper level..

When the trains come out of the helix, they reach Santa Lucia, when the the Alcoa plant will be. There's also a sugar cane loading area, livestock and banana dock here. Into mountain, the train pops out at La Parada de Bandera, This is a tourist stop and also has a banana loading dock here also. Continuing on, we reach San Marcos, which has a sugar cane loading, fuel oil dist and banana loading dock. Also found here is the Tropico Rum distillery. once we leave here, the last town on the modeled railroad is Rabinal. This is the terminus for the sugar cane train and also has a fuel oil dealer, cigar factory, plywood mill and packing plant. Trains continuing from here go to the upper staging at El Chol.

Track materials arrive on Weds, so I plan to start construction this week. Pictures will be on-line once I start.

Well, I've got my track plan pretty much figured out. I hope to start laying track in the next couple of weeks. But I need to get off my duff and clean out more room in my train room.

One thing I can happily say is I have figured out what rolling stock I need and how many. So I've decided to start working on masters for casting most of them. About the only cars I don't need a fleet of are the stock cars. But I need alot of the others. So I'll get to work on that the weekend. And if anyone is reading this and really cares, I'll have extras more than likely that I'll be selling via e-bay. I'll post up here when I'm ready..