The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 4

[Bernd]

Tom,

Inspirational as always. Even on the second trip around. Never catch all the little details the first time.

Bernd

[S&S RR]

Tom

I stopped by to see what you were up to. It has been awhile, great to see you are still at it. I will keep stopping by to get caught up. I have been following your threads since I think 2004. We are definitely older than we once were. Your layout is looking great. 

[Jerry]

The second time around is even better than the first so much to take in.  Wonderful workmanship Tom.

Jerry

[ACL1504]

That roundhouse yard area looking amazingly familiar.....

Greg,

As well it should. Or, maybe you have been busy moving vehicles around. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

Tom, although I've already seen this on the RR-L, it's well worth seeing again.
You did a fantastic job building this yard.

Rick,

Thank you and I appreciate you following along for a second time. This version will have more photos than I posted on RR Lines.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

Tom,

Inspirational as always. Even on the second trip around. Never catch all the little details the first time.

Bernd

Bernd,

Thank you, much appreciated. There should be more to see this time around.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom

I stopped by to see what you were up to. It has been awhile, great to see you are still at it. I will keep stopping by to get caught up. I have been following your threads since I think 2004. We are definitely older than we once were. Your layout is looking great.

John,

Hey, always great to see you my friend. I've been following your progress in the Gazette and your layout is fantastic.

Yes, much older and I think you are correct. I started the this thread in December of 2013 but had the older layout on Modeler's Forum prior to this. 

Tom 

[ACL1504]

The second time around is even better than the first so much to take in.  Wonderful workmanship Tom.

Jerry

Jerry,

I thank you very much for following along. As I mentioned, this thread will have more photos and more of a detailed narrative.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

This oil tank is an old Campbell's kit. The Judge built, painted and weathered it some 45+ years ago. It was on Jim Miller's layout for 40+ years. When Jim passed several years ago, we salvaged it and added it to the coaling tower approach on the Atlantic & Southern RR.

Prior to adding it, it needed a few repairs and I brought the weathering up to date.




We use this tank to fill our oil fires locos.

[ACL1504]

The coaling tower has a ramp for hoppers to dump coal in the coal shed.

I made the ramp out of two layers of MidWest Cork Roadbed. When the glue dried (overnight) I sanded the cork on one end to make the ramp. I stained and glued HO scale 12X12s to the side of the cork and used HO scale 8X8s for the vertical supports.

[ACL1504]

I ballasted the ramp track and then wet the ballast with Matte Medium from Scenic Express.



I placed weights on the sides of the ramp supports. This was to hold the side of the ramp in place as the matte medium dried.

I used Elmer's Wood Glue to glue the horizontal and vertical supports. When the matte medium was added, the liquid will soften the glue and it will all fall apart. The weights kept is all in place until the glue dried. I waited three days to make sure it was all dry prior to removing the weights.

[ACL1504]

While the ramp was drying, I added a dirt road to the small office.

I used Scenics Express dirt to form the road. I used wet water (warm water with dish soap) and lightly sprayed the wet water on the dirt road. The wet water breaks down the surface tension, resulting in capillary action so the wet glue filters all through the dirt.

[ACL1504]

That same day I ballasted the track from the turntable to the roundhouse.



I also ballasted the area for the outside roundhouse tracks at the same time.

Turntable weathering will be done later.

[ACL1504]

I had a vision of how I wanted the outside roundhouse tracks to look. As a young boy, I was awe struck by John Allen's outside tracks.

With this in mind, I began my own version.



For my concrete slabs, I used double ply cardboard I got from Sam Flax Art Supply.

I measured and cut the first section to fit tightly between the side of the roundhouse and the outside rail.

[ACL1504]

I forgot to mention that I used strip wood the same height of the rail ties to keep the concrete slabs level. I glued the strips in placed and then added the already measured and cut slabs on top of the strip wood.

Weights were added and left over night to allow the glue to dry.



Once all the slabs were in place and the glue dried, I measured and cut the center slabs and glued them directly to the ties.

I then drew in concrete expansion joints.