Well seeing as I'm back on the road and I'll be taking my small partially built N scale switching Layout with me, thought now would be a good to start a thread on it.
First a little history. When on my out of town work assignments I would bring Kits with me to build while I was away. This was fine at first, but then the interest in doing that waned as I was missing something. I realized that since covid I haven't operated on any layouts and that was one part of the hobby I really missed. I've been home for a year now so I have started doing operations again. So on my last work assignment in Henderson Kentucky, I decided to build a small N scale switching layout called "Henderson" as that was where I was working at the time.
I originally was going to build it to the T-trak standards but found the Kato unitrack too restrictive for what I wanted. By this time the module frames were built so I used Atlas code 55 track and turnouts. The modules consist of 2 - 14" x 12" modules and 2 - 14" x 24" modules which are easy to box together and transport.
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The track plan...
To date all the track is laid and the wiring done, the building for the town proper itself are built and painted and half of them have been detailed.
Let the adventure continue.
Looking forward to you working on this again Ron.
Jerry
I'll be watching. Nice switching layout.
Bernd
Thanks for looking in and following along Jerry and Bernd.
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The module stand complete and assembled. Everything is bolted together for easy assembly and knockdown.
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The modules set on top of the frame.
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The module stand knock downed and ready to go.
Thanks for looking in.
Very nice job building the stands.
Howdy Ron,
The excellent stand design and construction promise to be a lot of fun. The switching layout module should keep you out of the bars—nice work as usual.
Have fun,
mike
I'll be following this too.
I'll be looking in too Ron..... 8)
8) Travelin man! That will keep you occupied!
Howdy Ron. Nice carpentry work on the layout & stand. Looks very neat.
Good switching plan too.
When you say you are back on the road. Is that holidays or still for work ?
Very nice. It's going to be fun following along with this one.
Ron,
I'm happy you are bringing this one over. I enjoy the first version and will be following along.
Tom
Thanks for the comments Rick, Mike, James, Greg, Philip, Rob, Bob and Tom.
Rob, "back on the road again" = work :o I started this switching layout when I was working in Kentucky in 2023.
Tom, I think we can call this version 1.1
....And he's back!! Looking forward to the "1.1" version so I'll be peeking in. Nice to see this sub forum coming to life. Have safe travels to Florida.
I'm looking forward to future developments here.
Mike
Time for a quick update.
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The modules are now all set up and ready to be worked on.
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A view of the town scene. I had to look up old pictures to see where the buildings go. :o The goal is to have lighting in all the buildings. So far there is lighting in 3 of them. One of the buildings is complete and the two other just require signs. At this point in time nothing is glued down. The asphalt road was glued down but has lifted up since then. Note to self, don't use white glue to glue plastic to wood.
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Another view of the town scenes.
Thanks for looking in.
Ron, pretty much how I remember it from the RR-Line.
Will be nice seeing you work on this again.
Quote from: Rick on March 10, 2025, 09:59:53 PMRon, pretty much how I remember it from the RR-Line.
Will be nice seeing you work on this again.
Rick,
That is how far I got with this project on the RR-Line.
It's update time ;D Not a huge update, but an update nevertheless.
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First thing up is re-gluing down the town streets. I originally glued the streets down with carpenter's glue but that proved to be a bad choice. The modules sat in my garage for a year and when I set them up at home they were already very loose. :( . Removing the street panels turned to be very easy, one sneeze and I had to pick them up off the floor. Before re-gluing the streets I sanded and scraped the old glue off. This time around I used contact cement to glue down the streets. I glued one panel and let it cure for 24 hrs to make sure that the cement didn't effect the plastic. After waiting 24 hours everything is good and the second panel can now be glued down with confidence.
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I decided to finish the town building first, one is completed, one only needs a sign attached, And the third one just needs exterior details. This building is the F.W. Woolworth's five & dime which were found all over the place in it's heyday.
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Looking at my old N scale stash I found these fire escapes made by Gold Metal Models. I don't think these have been made for many years now. I only need two of them but after I assembled the first one I realized that the other package I had were different so I assembled two of them. I have another building that I can add the first fire escape on.
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Signs to be added.... The F.W. Woolworth and the hotel sign are for the Woolworth building and the liquor/beer sign is for the bar.
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The bar building where the liquor/beer sign is for.
Thanks for looking in.
Hey Ron good to see this come back to life.
I really like the fire escapes & sign details.
Jerry
Ron nice update. Looking forward to your continued progress.
8) Nice work so far!
Just found your build thread on the Henderson modules. Beautiful job your doing on it Sir. I will be following . Keep posting please. Bob.
Ron, nice to see you getting time to work on the modules.
Thanks for the update.
Finally an update ;D
I finished the F.W. Woolworth's and have started the next building.
First up finished pictures of the F.W. Woolworth building
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Fire escape and signs added.
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A view of the building with the lights on.
Next up is Rexall Drugs. . . . . .
Seeing as this building is also front and center, this build will also have lights and a full interior. The interior will include a soda/milkshake counter that drugstores use to have many many years ago.
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Here is the shell of the building.
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After determining there the lighted building will go, I painted the interior of the building where the light boxes go black. The reason for this is to block any light leaking through the walls.
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The front walls where the light boxes will go.
In between working on the building I also started to correct the sidewalk colour.
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I originally painted what I thought was a food sidewalk colour but as you can see it's to "yellow"
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I repainted the sidewalk Vallejo "cement Gray" (model air 71.046). It's still a little dark, but I should be able to lighten it up with chalks and pan pastels.
This is the last update for tonight.
Thanks for looking in.
Cool update Ron!
Great update Ron. Really like Woolworth's.
Jerry
Howdy Ron,
Henderson is looking good. The Woolworth building with lights is a nice touch. I'm looking forward to the Rexall build.
Have fun,
mike
Ron, that fire escape looks great.
Sidewalk color is much better now.
Ron,
Henderson is looking great. Every city/town should have a Woolworth store. Looks great.
Tom
Quote from: Rick on March 31, 2025, 07:39:41 AMRon, that fire escape looks great.
Sidewalk color is much better now.
Glad you like the fire escape Rick, I think It gives the building a lot of character.
The sidewalk is still a little to dark for me but it's something I can fix easily.
Quote from: Jerry on March 30, 2025, 11:59:31 PMGreat update Ron. Really like Woolworth's.
Jerry
Thanks Jerry, glad you really like the Woolworth store.
Quote from: friscomike on March 31, 2025, 06:37:21 AMHowdy Ron,
Henderson is looking good. The Woolworth building with lights is a nice touch. I'm looking forward to the Rexall build.
Have fun,
mike
Thanks Mike,
So far all the buildings I have completed have lights.
Quote from: ACL1504 on March 31, 2025, 07:44:39 AMRon,
Henderson is looking great. Every city/town should have a Woolworth store. Looks great.
Tom
Thanks Tom,
When I was growing up the was a Woolworth in every town/city (I think I'm getting old).
Ron, Your Henderson module is off to a great start. Had to look at it twice, looked like HO scale but was not expecting N scale. Saw the Reid Brothers Cumberland Valley layout twice when we lived in Illinois and the scenery on it was fantastic. Will follow along with the project here....Tommy
Quote from: tom.boyd.125 on April 02, 2025, 07:40:13 PMRon, Your Henderson module is off to a great start. Had to look at it twice, looked like HO scale but was not expecting N scale. Saw the Reid Brothers Cumberland Valley layout twice when we lived in Illinois and the scenery on it was fantastic. Will follow along with the project here....Tommy
Tommy,
Thanks for following along. The Reed's Cumberland Valley has been one of my favourite model railways.
Another Sunday, another update ;D
Did some work on Rexall Drugs today.
First up was glazing the windows on the second floor.
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First thing I needed to do was to cut a piece of acetate for the turret windows. Seeing as this is in N scale the turret diameter is small so I cut a piece of acetate to size to fit the curvature as best as possible and insert it through the bottom of the turret. It took me 2 tries to get the acetate cut to the right size.
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The acetate inserted in the turret, while not perfect it's close enough.
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Next up is adding blinds to the windows. Needing to keep the surface as tight as possible to eliminate any light leakage from the light boxes I decided to paint the shades on the acetate.
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The window blinds installed on the windows.
Now that the windows on the upper floor are done it was time to turn my attention to the second floor light boxes.
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The light boxes were constructed from .020 black styrene cut to size to the window openings where they are to be installed and are 3/16" deep.
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Itsy-bitty teeny weeny LED's were then attached to the light box and glued in place using ACC glue. The hardest part was threading the leads through the #75 holes in the light box.
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Once the glue had dried I tested the LED's with a 3v coin battery to make sure that the LED worked.
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The light boxes glued in place.
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Let there be light.....
In hindsight I should have taken the time to add a second coat of paint to the window shades to make the opacity consistent through out the window. I'm not sure if I will go through the effort to remove the light boxes to add another coat of paint to the window shades as I really don't think anyone will notice when the whole town is lit up.
That's it for tonight, thanks for looking in.
Ron, nice job on the glazing, shades and lights.
I agree, probably no one will notice the shades after the whole town is in place.
Looks good. I'm going to look around my layout for places that will benefit from them.
Great job all the around Ron.
I'd never be able to work in that scale hands to big eye sight to poor!!! 8)
Jerry
Ron great job on the buildings. I couldn't imagine going from On30
to N scale and detailing to boot.
That kit was fiddly in HO, I can't imagine doing it in N scale... The results look great!
dave
Quote from: elwoodblues on March 31, 2025, 12:29:26 PMQuote from: ACL1504 on March 31, 2025, 07:44:39 AMRon,
Henderson is looking great. Every city/town should have a Woolworth store. Looks great.
Tom
Thanks Tom,
When I was growing up the was a Woolworth in every town/city (I think I'm getting old).
Woolworth and McCrorys!
8) Totally cool!~
Howdy Ron,
Henderson is progressing well. The window light boxes are a clever addition. It's easy to forget this is tiny N scale.
Have fun,
mike
Quote from: Rick on April 06, 2025, 10:03:32 PMRon, nice job on the glazing, shades and lights.
I agree, probably no one will notice the shades after the whole town is in place.
Thanks Rick,
The problem with the shades is that I know that a second coat of paint should have been added to the window shades.
Quote from: jbvb on April 06, 2025, 10:28:59 PMLooks good. I'm going to look around my layout for places that will benefit from them.
Thanks James, there is a surprising amount of work involved for a kit that only has 4 walls and a roof.
Quote from: Jerry on April 06, 2025, 11:52:50 PMGreat job all the around Ron.
I'd never be able to work in that scale hands to big eye sight to poor!!! 8)
Jerry
Jerry,
I'll agree with you there, working in O scale is a lot easier on the eyes. I use 3X magnifiers when working in N scale.
Quote from: Larry C on April 07, 2025, 07:09:11 AMRon great job on the buildings. I couldn't imagine going from On30
to N scale and detailing to boot.
Larry, before I changed to On30 I was modeling in N scale building craftsmen style kits and doing a lot of detailing. you could say this is a blast from the past. ;D
Quote from: deemery on April 07, 2025, 08:06:24 AMThat kit was fiddly in HO, I can't imagine doing it in N scale... The results look great!
dave
Thanks Dave, the hardest part is getting the walls square. I used a sheet of sandpaper taped to my workbench and a chunk of 2 x 4 angle to keep everything at 90 degrees to each other.
Quote from: ACL1504 on April 07, 2025, 08:12:48 AMQuote from: elwoodblues on March 31, 2025, 12:29:26 PMQuote from: ACL1504 on March 31, 2025, 07:44:39 AMRon,
Henderson is looking great. Every city/town should have a Woolworth store. Looks great.
Tom
Thanks Tom,
When I was growing up the was a Woolworth in every town/city (I think I'm getting old).
Woolworth and McCrorys!
Never heard of McCrorys in Canada.
Quote from: friscomike on April 07, 2025, 01:47:10 PMHowdy Ron,
Henderson is progressing well. The window light boxes are a clever addition. It's easy to forget this is tiny N scale.
Have fun,
mike
Thanks Mike, It's just like modeling in O scale except everything is 4x smaller. ;)
Can't believe that it's been over a month from my last update. :o I guess I better start posting. 8)
The lighting and interior for three more buildings are complete. So without further ado let's get started.
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The light added to the light box which was made from .020 black styrene. I use pre-wired nano SMD LED's (0402) for the lights. I used to do the wiring myself but now I buy them that way as the cost isn't worth the work involved.
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Light box assemble ready to be installed. Even though these building are not front and center I did add a rudimentary interior backdrop on the back of the store front light box. In this case it's a restaurant.
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The light box installed in the building.
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The interior of the grocery store.
So, do the lights work? Inquiring minds like to know. ;D
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The Grocery Store
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The Pawn Shop (Every town needs/has a pawn shop)
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The restaurant/diner
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The buildings all in a row.
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And a shot at midnight.
Next up for these buildings will be adding signs which will complete the construction of the buildings. Once that is done there will be only one building left which will have a full interior as it will be front and center.
Thanks for looking in.
Howdy Ron,
Wow, the light boxes look great. They make me smile with the detail in those windows of such small buildings.
Have fun and persist,
mike
Great work Ron. Just love love those buildings and the detail with lighting.
Jerry
Ron, those lighted storefronts look amazing!
Ron great job on the buildings and the lighting; you don't often see N scale detailed
this much so good on you. I noticed all three buildings have the old fashioned "iron storefronts"
SWEET!!
Thanks for the comments Mike, Jerry, Rick, Larry, they are very much appreciated.
Well the sign maker has been busy the last couple of days so it's time for another update. . . .
First up is how I make the signs that stick out from the building.
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First thing is to cut the sighs from the carrier sheet. This sign is produced by Blair Line. They come on thin styrene (.010). In order to have some thickness the two sides are sandwiched with a piece of .020 styrene.
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The three pieces glued together, I let this dry over night before I trimmed it to size.
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I drilled 2 x .015 holes in the end that is attached to the building. I then glued .015 brass wire into the holes and then drilled twi matching holes in the building where the sign is to be mounted. I do this to add more support and strength to the sign as the modules do travel and I don't want to spend 1/2 a day looking for signs that have falling off in transit. 8)
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The sign mounted onto the building.
Now on to the buildings. . . . .
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The restaurant.
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The Grocery Store.
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The pawn shop.
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And the three buildings all in their glory.
Thanks for looking in.
:o
NIce business district! Great lighting.
Ron great job on the signs!! I remember the IGA grocery stores; a bygone era for sure.
The diner sign name reminded me that Acme Food Markets used that name as their private label
brand; my Dad worked for them for years before they closed. I guess I'm showing my age.Lol.
Ron, fantastic job on those signs.
Larry, Acme's are still in business in NJ and PA and probably elsewhere too.
Ron that is some beautiful work.
Jerry
Nice Work Ron!
Howdy Ron,
Excellent work on the shops of Hendersonville. The signs add a lot of character to the buildings, nice job!
Have fun,
mike
Great build Ron, well done..... 8)
Ron,
Love the work on the buildings and signage. The signs bring the building to life and making money.
Tom
Thanks for the comments, Karl, Larry, Rick, Jerry, Philip, Mike, Greg and Tom.
This has been a fun project and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Work has started on Rexall Drugs.
First item on the list is finishing the lighting for the building.
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This is where I left off, with the light boxes installed on the second floor.
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First up was making the grand floor ceiling. Seeing as the floor would be the same side I cut out the floor at the same time. The grid on the left is the light locations.
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The lights installed and working.
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The ceiling installed.
Next up Signage. . . . . . .
Making the signage for the upper windows.
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The preprinted Rexall Drugs that I had were way to big to fir the upper windows so I made my own. ;D
I did this in Excel, the hardest part was sizing the cells to match the window size. Once that was accomplished, it was easy to import the images into the cells and then select the proper background colour.
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The paper signs were then cut out and blued to a styrene backing. One the glue dried they were cut to size and glued to the inside of the upper windows.
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The side of the building with the upper window signs installed. I forgot to mention that before I installed the sign I installed the window glazing.
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The front of the building with the upper signs installed.
Now I just to figure out the floor plan so I can start building the interior.
Thanks for looking in.
Ron, you're doing an amazing job detailing the buildings with lights and signs.
Ron that's great work!! Still can't believe that it's N-scale.
Jerry
Ron great job!!! My hat's off to anyone that can detail and make N scale look that good.
thanks for the kind comments Rick, Jerry and Larry.
A bit more progress was made today.
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The floor and back wall glued together.
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The pharmacy counted (in brown) and the soda counter (green) fabricated and in there general position
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Another view of the counters.
Thanks for looking in.
Your amazing Ron. Wonderful work.
Jerry
Outstanding!
Ron,
Great job. I was going to do the same to my #II Row with the Rexall in the turret corner. Great minds I guess.
Tom
Howdy Tom,
The signs and lighting are fantastic. I like the use of photos combined with 3D furniture for interior detailing, and you've mastered the technique. Excellent work.
Have fun,
mike
Thanks for the comments Jerry, Rick, Tom and Mike.
Quote from: ACL1504 on May 27, 2025, 09:52:59 AMRon,
Great job. I was going to do the same to my #II Row with the Rexall in the turret corner. Great minds I guess.
Tom
Tom, I hope you do, It would be interesting to see how you approach it.