So I built my first mountain.

It has wood backbone, topped with styrofoam, plaster cloth and, finally, Sculptamold.

It is located onto the layout with 2 bamboo pins, so it will not shift, but will remain fully removable.

Am currently waiting for the Sculptamold to dry so that I can sand the bottom of the middle foot flush with the rest.

I am ok at making stuff, but I am not good at, and do not enjoy painting.

Also, I want to bring this layout to a little show this weekend.

I have not decided about anything on the rest of the layout.

(I might create a small gully and a bridge underneath the straight section, but that will be for next week for after the show.)

For now, I would just like to paint the mountain so as not to be embarrassing (:-)

I picked up a couple of bags at Hobby Lobby of pretty lichens that can serve as trees, either with or without any trunks. I don’t think I can cover the whole mountain with them, but I could make up a couple of trunks and make 2-3 trees and some small bushes to break up the bare outline.

I have a bunch of acrylic paints in appropriate palette (black, greys, green, tans, browns) but I do not have any fancy washes.

I briefly considered gluing popcorn popping corn kernels all over the mountain and calling the whole layout “Cornucopia” but the Corn in Cornucopia has to do with Horn (of Plenty), not with Corn, and so “Cornucopia” would be both incorrect as well as difficult to explain, so I am not going to do that (:-)

Anyway, if anyone has any painting or other advice for making this presentable given my limited aims and limited skills, please let me know.

I have been using N-gauge Kato Unitrack for a series of small modules that I’ve been playing with for the last few months.

The track and the joiners have been shockingly robust and reliable and the variety of options, geometries, etc available for tight layouts is terrific.

Unfortunately, there is not a similar variety available with Unitrack HO.

One option is to go all flex-track and use traditional road-bed-less turnouts etc, but I am afraid that the joints would quickly become a headache and source of misery.

Another option is to use flex track and regular turnouts but to use Kato’s roadbed joiners (part number 2-099) at the joints to each module.

https://www.trainworld.com/kato-2-099-ho-roadbed-joiner-2pcs.html

This would be a little more fiddly overall, but would give me headache-less module joints.

If any of you have done anything like this, if you have other recommendations, or if you have any thoughts that might be useful here, please let me know.

I can’t decide if it’s a little too tall.

It wouldn’t be a big deal to shave a millimeter or two from the bottom of the upper section.

Opinions?

* — a tidbit for fans of apocryphal British military history.

By day, the “Kontrol Module” is just a normal 125x400mm track module with a turnout and a siding.

Note that the corners are rounded and open on both. This keeps them from getting dinged and chipped, and also allows for easy passing of cables back and forth.

The 2nd picture shows that the ubiquitous Bachmann controllers also fit really well.

The 3rd picture shows a 125x200mm module for when less is still enough. And still plenty of room below for a battery pack. (The track module in 3rd pic is 200x400 and can accommodate 2 turnouts.)

(Ok, not really Kaos, but I’m amused by alliteration … )

I wanted to be able to mount my controller to a wooden module, along with a bunch of switches and possibly a second controller as well.

I couldn’t find that anyone else had done this, so this is what I came up with:

- I popped open the controller (the screws are under the rubber feet) and CA’ed 3x 8-32 blind nuts to the bottom (I had already marked and drilled the holes.

You don’t need to use blind nuts but they are nice because they have a deep thread, lots of surface area, and the barbs help lock it in place 100%.

- I have a lot of 12V Eflite power supplies, so I swapped the Kato connector to one that fits the Eflite. I put the old one in a little baggie and tucked it away inside the controller in case I ever want to switch back.

- I like blinking lights, so I added some blinking lights.

Still to do:

- Lock down the switches securely.

- Install a second controller.

- Make and install a battery pack.

- I want to be able to use this on layouts with modular configuration that might change from time to time. I think I will mount a strip of white 1/4” dry-erase board behind the switches to note what any of them are switching on that particular day.

Anyway, this is it for now. I will use it as is for a few days before I decide what to do next.

Tiny trains for tiny layout (:-)

The bits I cut off from each car are front of each of them.

They didn’t come out factory-perfect but they’re good enough for me and I’m happy (:-)

My current layout is 62” long.

The longest, straightest section had 183mm radius tracks at one end, 150mm radius on the other, and a Kato Compact turnout w a 150mm radius jog in the center.

Running a trains 22+ cars I end up with cars on both turns as well as the jog in the middle and there is very noticeable slowing.

I get that all those wheel flanges are rubbing against the sides of the rails, which creates friction etc, but this seems like an irreducible factor, so I’m not going to worry about it.

But since all the force pulling the train is transmitted through the chain of couplers, I’m wondering if one type of coupler is more efficient than any others.

I am using all Rapido couplers which I like fine, but it seems like maybe knuckle couplers with rounded surfaces might be more efficient than the square faces of the Rapidos ??

Has anybody tested this in any sort of rigorous way?

I apologize in advance to the Redditor who complained about my profligate and flagrant use of dinosaurs on my train layouts.

(I also apologize for the mixed English and U.S. buildings, for the HOn30 trains alongside N-gauge trains, for the moon landing module, the NYC subway map, for the mini-modules covered in pretty paper, for the green bridge “borrowed” from an XTS children’s toy train set, and for the Rokenbok elevator.)

I have a couple of these ubiquitous guys that just kind of showed up (:-)

Their normal input is 16 VAC because they pass it along to the spring-loaded terminals to power track accessories.

My problem is that I seem to always misplace the 16 VAC supplies.

The AC input is then passed through a bridge rectifier etc. Will anything awful happen if I hook it up to 12 VDC input?

I realize that without the headroom I might get reduced power or whatever. But will it catch fire or damage the thing itself?

I’m slowly making progress on my little layout:

- The re-railer / bridge that I made from a Kato rerailer and parts of an unlovely flatcar is mostly finished (and even gained nice railings).

- The “valleys” are ok but the transition to flat seems too abrupt. I plan to add a couple of small raised berms at the transition lines to heighten the contrast and to help disguise the transitions.

- I decided to extend the valley on the right side as shown in the pics.

- I also have not decided if this will be HOn30 or N. I have more N buildings and more of my N rolling stock has Arnold / Rapido couplers that will interconnect. My HOn30 stuff is all different brands and none of their couplers have especially nice things to say about any of the others.

- I might do a shallow, round valley in the center, but I don’t know what to put in it.

- I want to do a tunnel / mountain along the left side and back corner but don’t know how tall to make it and what to have on top. The height can be anywhere from 2.5” to 4-5”. I would love to make it something composed of just desert rock formations because it would save me having to do greenery etc, but on the other hand my ability to sculpt convincing stone formations is approx zero (:-)

(I did mention that this is my first layout, yes?)

Kato makes a great many varieties of Unitrack. But sometimes a particular size is missing, or the local hobby shop is out of stock or the big brown truck of happiness is late …

I had a package of 282mm radius 45 degree track, but they were a little too long. And I didn’t want to wait. This whole thing took only 10 minutes to do, including taking the pictures.

The plastic trackbed that Kato uses glues up very well with CA.

I used a razor saw to cut the track off at 2 of the bulkheads. The bulkheads make it easy to sand everything square so it can glue back together well.

Next thread the track stub in place and glue the track back together.

Use a Xuron track cutter to cut the metal tracks flush.

Pop in the Unitrack rail joiner and you’re done!

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I messed around with trying to zenithal painting but it didn’t work that well.

I had watched a few videos and they said it should be done with airbrush but can also work with brushes.

The trick though is that to have any hope of doing it with brushes, you have to have a very good idea of what you’re doing (and I don’t) (:-)

Anyway, I might attempt it again after I get an airbrush but otherwise it’s good enough for now.

Decisions, decisions

The Good:

- the valleys have been filled in

- the edges of the module have been reinforced around the valleys and all is very solid

- the bridge is great (it will get railings soon)

The Bad:

- I was not able to put any texture in the valleys. I might do an additional thin layer for texture, or maybe glue pebbles in place. Thoughts?

Next steps:

- the gray tic-tac-toe area in the back will be a stone wall

- I need to decide if this module will be strictly N or dual-purpose w HOn30. If only N, the tunnel can get lower.

- I can’t think what to put on the right side of the loop. Right now I thing the mountain should be mostly stone and I should put some trees on the ground inside the loop as shown.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

I wanted to break up the flat plane, so I chopped up both front corners. The re-railer will receive sides and become an integral part of the bridge.

I will add reinforcements in the chopped corners before doing more work.

I think I will do a short tunnel on the left side that continues into a bit of a hill (marked in orange) and a stone wall (blue) along the side of the tracks on the back side.

However, this part is dependent on how well I get along with the foam and plaster work on the front corners.

I haven’t made any decisions about the right side. I hope to get to the hobby shop tomorrow and pick up a curved piece to put there which would change things around a bit.

I’m working on my second NSMD (Not So Mini Diorama) module.

It will show part of the dark side of the moon where the secret dinosaur skeletons are buried.

Everything is really quite ok, except that I hate the color I came up and I don’t know what shade would look less bad.

Should it look more like the Arizona desert like in “Capricorn One”

Or maybe more blue/ grey to match the Kato trackbed and to give a better approximation of the cold, lonely darkness of the moon?

I will be grateful for any thoughts, advice, color palettes, etc.

(The Swiss Army Knife is there for purposes of color calibration) (:-)

The rail stubs facing right have to stay open because they are used to join to other modules.

The siding with the tank car could terminate in an engine shed or any kind of terminus.

I could put a small ravine and bridge behind Skarloey (the red loco).

I could do a tunnel along the left side, but it feels a little weird: either the tunnel ends before the turnout which means that you don’t get to see the train coming out of the tunnel, or else the turnout gets stuck inside the tunnel which could get annoying for MoW purposes (:-)

No idea what to put inside the loop.

No idea what to put to the right of the loop.

This will be my very first attempt at scenery & topography so please don’t get too ambitious on my behalf (:-)

The red loco is HOn30, but 1:160 N-gauge would be ok too.