The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 2

[ACL1504]

I find work-in-progress photos that show benchwork, lighting, wiring, etc, VERY inspiring!  Please keep showing those, as well as the finished product.


dave

Dave,

Thank you for letting me and others know that the work-in-progress photos serve a purpose. I've had naysayers say the wiring, bench work, lighting and etc. isn't necessary.

I do show many extra pictures but I also like to show and area from the very beginning to the finished scene. I guess it all goes back to my crime scene processing days.

I appreciate you following along.

Tom

Tom


My 2 cents -the naysayers have never built a railroad. Keep doing what your doing - there are a lot of people watching and learning.  Thank you for taking the time for the "build thread" - details included.

John,

I appreciate your 2 cents worth. I know it's easy to criticize another persons work, as those that haven't built a layout. I'm just in the habit of almost literally showing everything I do on the build.

Again, thank you for the support.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Last month I had the pleasure of visiting Bill and Kris Cutler up North. Actually only about 28 miles north of Orlando.


They were showing me some of the Woodland Scenics Plug N' Play lights. To be honest, I've never considered using any of these lights but I liked the look of the wood poles with the metal light arm. The poles/arms are plastic and made to look like wood and metal.

I then came home and ordered three boxes of the lights.



The three light poles also come the a short extension pole if you need to make them higher. You can almost see them in the lower right of the package.

The LED wires are embedded in the metal arm and pole. The LED wires are 36" in length.




The LED wires are very thin and fragile and at Bill's suggestion, I put a little drop of glue on the bottom where the wire exits from the pole to secure the wires.

More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I decided to use these as parking lot light poles at Barlow's Smokehouse. The smokehouse is a FOS kit and build by Master Builder Reading Bob for the Atlantic and Southern RR.

The parking lot sits on top of 2" of blue foam and 3/8" of plywood. I used a trick I've shared on the thread in the past but I'll go over it again for any new followers.

I knew it would be difficult to feed the thin wires down the rabbit hole. I used a long 1/8" drill bit and drilled down through the foam and plywood. I then cut a piece of 1/8" OD (outside diameter) brass tube to a length of four inches.

In the photo below you can see the pole next to a longer piece of tubing. The second photo shows how the light pole fits snugly into the 1/8" brass tubing.





More in a few.

[ACL1504]

After the hole was drilled down through the foam and plywood, the brass tube was glued into the hole. I used a clothes pin to hold the brass tube in place until the glued dried. In this case over night.





Time for a Diet Pepsi, back in a few.

[Janbouli]

Tom I appreciate everything you post , most of all maybe the how you do it stuff, thanks for sharing.

[ACL1504]

Tom I appreciate everything you post , most of all maybe the how you do it stuff, thanks for sharing.

Jan,

Thank you as well for the support. I enjoy sharing all that I do on the build and it also keeps me focused on getting things done so I can share with others.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Here you can see my three clothes pin poles.





And, here you can see the three poles in place.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Let there be light my friends.





I'll be back in a few as I need to crop a few more pictures.

[ACL1504]

I then moved on to install LEDs in Baker's Country Store. This kit is one of Jimmy D's Railroadkits.



I started this build in October of 2010. You can see the build thread if interested here.

http://www.kitforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4605

I knew at one point I would be installing lights so I made the roof removable to make it easy to add the LEDs.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

As I mentioned the WS light poles are plug and play. Each pack of three light poles come with a small wiring harness.

WS refers to this harness as a Linker Plug.



I used the female end and plugged the LED into the receptacle. I then used the remainder of the red and black wires to add the other two LEDS.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Fast forward and here is Baker's with the lights installed.

Reading Bob built the FOS Three Finger Freddy's including the addition of the LEDs.






Next few/several posts will be the addition of other LEDs in the structures around the second level of the layout.

Tom

[PRR Modeler]

Really nice lighting effects Tom. The light poles really punched up the BBQ scene.

[S&S RR]

Tom


The LED lighting really gives the structures another dimension. Very nicely done. It looks like I need to help Slim pay off the wedding bills.

[sdrees]

Hi Tom,

The photo of the country store is really great Tom.  And the lights really add to the layout different scenes.  I guess I need to quit procrastinating and get some lights installed on my layout.

[Erieman]

SWEET LOOKING LIGHTS!!! .I guess I am going to have to get my backside into gear and put lights in my buildings. They look awesome My friend. Keep up the great work.


Frank / Erieman