Roadworks

Among Father Christmas and swedish meetballs there been some small works on the modules. The road that cross the module was this evenings project.


A sheet of 0,75mm styrene was cut in a 4cm slice and scored with a knife in "concrete slabs"

A quick trip to the paintbox and primer and tomorrow it will be glued in place (hopefully)

Landscaping

This evening there was a half hour of landscaping. At first the "raw" creek.


Then the garage of Jensen Motor


And at last the place where farmers coop will place there storage shed.

Test and trials

Puh!

After some work without pictures are Crawford Junction ready for tests and trials in the garage. The first trial was a short work for the switcher to change the loaded hoppers by the elevator to empty ones.

The NW-2 at the junction with the empty hoppers.

Ready, testing the brakes.

Out again. Here in the almost ready landscape on the south section.

Back in the Valley, pushing the cars.

And coupled to the loaded ones.

*¤#*, sorry end of battery in the camera.

Hopefully it will be more pictures from further testruns in the future.

Down under

A wiew from the hidden side with the track feeder and connectors below North End. Here´s also the holes for attaching the legs visible.

Tracklaying finished

I made a fast decision and used a Peco c55 flextrack instead of the missing Atlas to the elevator track.

I also tested the location and height of the depot but nothing is decided yet.

With addition

A small building for the passengers added

Depot building

The Depot at Crawford Valley will be a kitbashed Walther SF Freight shed. I´m going to add some space for the waiting passengers.

Track laid and almost finished

The trackwork is ready except the elevatortrack. A wiew towards north.


And the opposite direction.

Painting and trackwork

First step today was to glue the base of the elevator to the module and paint where the track will be placed straight on to the plywood

Next thing to do was to shorten the turnouts to allow a narrower trackspace (cc 28mm)

After that feeders where soldered to the turnouts. I have made the habit to feed every single bit of track.

The turnoutpair glued in place.

Not to bad

Todays there was just some time to test the ideas and place the structures as planned.
One special is the track on the "outside" of the buildings, please notice the safety arrangement that will keep the trains on the right place despite the short distance to the edge.

Here´s also the hardboard that outlines some of the roads visible.

"Terraforming"

Next step was to begin the terraforming and make the landscape with connecting road more smooth. The "Goo" used is a mixture of plaster, glue, sawdust and paint.

Tracks on the North End

Today the work progressed in two steps. The first was laying tracks on the roadbed that was finished earlier this week. The right side will hold "Farmers Coop" with a small storage shed and the left some small cottages and a car workshop

Roof, doors and windows

Some small progress yesterday evening.

The elevator with some paint

The kit a number of steps further. The corrugated metal sheets got a rusty look with dry brushed silver paint and then a rust wash. The windows and doors got som Burlington Green to make the building a bit more colorful. Tomorrow the elevator will hopefully got the roofs on and a number of more details attached.

Time for buildings

One of the buildings will be Walthers "Valley Growers Ass." which will add some traffic in boxcars (with grain doors) or covered hoppers depending to which era the traffic session will be in.

One, two and three

Here´s some pictures showing the principle of modularity. How it´s possible for Crawford to grow and fit several spaces

One - The small one, with a short track to a freight shed. South and North End(ca 109 cm)


Two - medium size, with a short run around and an additional track to a grain elevator on the Valley(ca 218 cm)


Three - Next step, with the Junction in place but the not yet grown sideways. (ca 330 cm)


Four, five, six... are still in the imagination of the builder.

Some painting!

Today in the evening the inside of both the "Valley" and "North End" modules where ready to get som paint.

Crawford Valley

Connecting to the junction on the northern side is the small fictious village "Crawford Valley"

The module is already waiting for some paint in my garage. Compared with the trackplan has the elevator and its track changed places.

More testing

This sunday there was a big test driving session. Most things worked out fine except the left switch on the interchange tracks. This is the only Atlas No 5 on the module, all other switches are No 7. I´ve to take a closer look to see whats wrong.

Testing

Today it was time for some test driving. Two DC-Locos drove back and forward and tested all tracks on the module set. The picture is false because it was one loco at the time (someone, guess who, had made a bad connection). It was meant to have the possibility to disconnect the crossing line with a switch if there is a need for several DCC-boosters on a bigger module layout but that didn´t work out today.

Sandwichmodule

I regulary build my modules as a "sandwich" with thin (4mm) plywoodsheets and pine strips around a core of styrofoam.

First step is to cut sheet at the right measures (fitting inside the end and sides) I use to cut the sheets in long strips in the hardware store where i buy it.


Then i glue and nail a frame of pinestrips on the top sheet. Also a supporting strip directly beyond the roadbed.


Then i take a brake when the glue hardens. (It´s below somewhere)


Then i fill up the hollow space with styrofoam and glue and nail the bottom sheet.

(To be continued)

In the modulebuilders toolbox

Ok, there´s one part missing and i thought that i will take the opportunity to show a little bit closer the way i build a "sandwich module"

Some of the tools

The straight angle is necesary in a lot of places

Here also

Not here, but that wasn´t meant.

A saw to make straight angles

North End

Next section to build is that which will connect to the right. Instead of the trackconnection in the previous plan there are just a simple loading track with a storage shed used by the Countys Farmers

Soon in the right colours

Two shots with the result from yesterdays small paint session (with a real helpful four year old daughter) Some parts will get another layer with paint before it´s ready for grass and turf.

The Countys Farmer got a possibility to send and recieve goods on an of the interchangetracks