Some Big Changes

Lately I've made a few changes in my train room. I actually don't have a dedicated train room, just an otherwise empty area that I use to work on my trains. I had a small 2 foot by 12 foot layout in that space, but the reason I've never really talked about it on here is because there has never been anything to talk about. Recently I decided it was a waste of space and I tore it down.

One of the biggest things preventing me from tearing it down for a while was that I had a bunch of modeling supplies underneath the layout and I had no other home for them. I wasn't sure I'd be able to find a home either. So before I tore down the layout, I cleaned and organized everything underneath. I put all the tools in a toolbox and found a home for that. I have two rolling cabinets with modeling supplies in them and cleaned them out. Supplies directly related to building a model railroad, such as track and foliage and wire, got put into plastic bins which are now in my closet. The rolling cabinets were then filled with other modeling supplies, such as paint, styrene, and decals. I had a big box full of code 100 track, but where I don't use code 100 and most of it wasn't any good, I threw it all out. Finally, I have two small bookshelves where most of my trains are stored, and I left those where they were. I then tore down the layout and got rid of the tables.

This leaves me with a big open space. I am not giving up on modeling, I am just changing my focus. Since I have no layout at home, I am going to focus on building my fleet of rolling stock and locomotives for when I do have a layout. This means I am going to use the space for a workbench. I already have one workbench where I assemble kits and do repair work on my models. I am going to keep that one and use it for kit assembly and such, and I am building a second bench that will have a built in test track, and will be used for decoder installation and other electrical work. The two workbenches, the two rolling cabinets, and the two bookshelves as well as a third that I need to get, will occupy the now empty space where my layout used to be. I still have a display case, and that will stay where it is.

The workbench I am building will be a pretty nice one, if I say so myself. I found a cheap desk for sale, and I am modifying it for my needs. It will certainly not be pretty, but it will be functional. The top surface will be where I do my work, and I will have a roll-out test track, similar to computer desks with roll-out keyboards, so that I can test the things I am working on without needing more space dedicated for a test track. The test track will be able to run both DC and DCC locomotives, and it will also be a fully functional programming track. When that workbench is finished, I'll write a blog post about it, focusing on the electrical work powering it.

Also, a little update on the Lakes Region Model Railroad. Chris and I have not had time to work on it lately, because of the cruise in February and because we both have been getting more hours at work recently. However, his grandparents come home from Florida in two weeks, and the layout has to be back in storage by then. They are planning on selling the house this summer, so we will not be able to use that space again, so the layout is once again being stored indefinitely.

Removing Paint from a Model

I have been wanting to make some custom painted, Alaska Railroad passenger cars.  They would go well with an Alaska Railroad locomotive that I have, and a few of the McKinley Explorer cars.  I decided to start with several of their dome cars.  I wanted to make a couple of their ACF domes and a couple of their Budd domes.  The AFC domes were not a problem, I bought a pair of undecorated ACF dome coaches from Walthers City trains line (932-9581).  This all came about because I managed to find the pair of them for a bargain basement price.  So then I began looking for similar dome cars from Budd.  I knew Walthers had made some, because I have a model of the Empire Builder, and they were used on that train.  I searched all the websites and distributors I know of, but I was unable to locate any undecorated Budd domes, so I began searching for the cheapest ones I could find instead.  What I came up with was a pair of Empire Builder domes.  They are the same type of car I needed, just in the wrong paint scheme.

Before stripping paint, after the Turpenoid bath.
All photos by James Ogden.

As I contemplated how to turn the Empire Builder domes into Alaska Railroad domes, I thought of a few ways to go about painting them.  My first thought was to simply paint over the existing paint scheme.  The Alaska Railroad has a scheme that uses yellow and a dark blue.  The dark blue would go over the green and orange of the Great Northern easily enough, but I was concerned with the  yellow.  Being a lighter color, I was worried that it might show the original paint scheme a little, or require a ridiculous number of applications to properly hide it.  Not wanting to wast paint hiding paint, I decided to look around the somewhat limited resources of my work bench.  I found a can of Turpenoid that Steven had suggested I buy for various weathering projects.  Turpenoid is a cleaner for oil paints.  It is primarily designed to remove dried, or partly dried paint from brushes and hands.  I got thinking, Turpenoid is a paint remover, in a sense.  If it could remove paint from brushes and hands, maybe it could be at least moderately effective on a model.  I looked over the can to see the warnings and to determine if it was safe on plastic.  I could find nothing about it being harmful on plastic, so I decided to give it a try.

Car ends, after having the paint was scrubbed off.

I first placed the ends of the car in a plastic bag, and then poured a little Turpenoid in on top of them.  I sealed the bag, placed it in another one, and then placed the whole thing in a small bowl.  I wanted to contain leaks, if there were any.  Then I let them sit in their Turpenoid bath overnight.  I worked on a few other things, hoping the Turpenoid would not make my car ends disappear, and then went to bed.


The next morning, I got up and went to go look at the ends of the car.  They were still there!  That was a good start.   A little later, I took them out of the Turpenoid bath, and placed them on a plastic plate which had some Turpenoid in it.  I found a clean toothbrush on the workbench and decided to try scrubbing the paint off.  At first, it seemed like nothing was happening.  I looked over the end I was working with, and noticed that on some of the higher surfaces, the paint looked worn off.  Clearly that was the result of the Turpenoid and scrubbing, so I kept scrubbing, rinsing the toothbrush in the Turpenoid often.  Then, it seemed the results happened all at once.  As I was scrubbing, a hole appeared in the paint, revealing clean, grey plastic underneath.  Once that hole was there, things progressed faster, and in no time, most of the paint had come off.  I found that it took a little more work to get the paint out of some of the tighter spots, but as long as there was a fairly constant supply of clean Turpenoid, it just took some scrubbing.

Car side after removing the paint.  It is not perfect,
but it is clean enough to repaint.

Once all the paint was off the end of the car, I rinsed it in warm water, to get the Turpenoid and any sticking paint chips off.  I set it to dry, and repeated the whole process with the other end of the car.  Both ends were green.  I did not think much of that until later.  That night, I placed the sides of the car in the Turpenoid to soak.  I removed one the next day and began working on it.  Just as with the end of the car, the paint came off easier once it had been broken.  I also noticed something I did not expect.  The silver, yellow, and green paint all came off relatively easily.  It requited a bit of scrubbing, but not an excessive amount.  Under everything was a coat of orange paint, and for some reason, that was significantly more difficult to get off.  I continued scrubbing, and it did come off, but I found that the other colors would come off in just a minute or two, while the orange would take several minutes.  I have not experimented with any other paint schemes or colors, because those were the only colors I had to remove, but it seems that different paints have different characteristics when removing them.  Either way, I was quite satisfied with the results.

After quite a bit of scrubbing, The models came out quite clean, actually much cleaner than I had anticipated.  The advantages to using Turpenoid is that is has a very mild odor, so it can be done indoors, on a cold day, with the windows closed.  Also, it is less powerful than paint thinner, making it safer to use, and safe on plastic.  The models did not seem effected at all by the Turpenoid, other than the fact that they lost their paint!  The plastic did not seem to weaken any or react at all to the Turpenoid.  While it may take a bit of work to scrub all the paint off and have a clean model, I think it was worth it for the results.  I still have one more car to remove the paint from, and I intend to do it the same way.  I just need to buy more Turpenoid!

Roadbed

When Chris and I built the Lakes Region Model Railroad, we had a few goals we wanted to accomplish with it.  First, the layout had to be portable.  This meant it had to be lightweight, durable, and easy to set up and take down.  Second, it had to be inexpensive.  That meant we had to design and build the layout keeping in mind what we have, and maybe sacrificing a few luxuries that were too expensive to justify.  Finally, the layout had to be able to withstand cold weather, because we were building it in an unheated garage.

One of the first things we had to figure out was roadbed.  Neither of us wanted to use plywood or homosote, so the debate was between cork and foam.  We ruled out cork because it was more expensive, Chris had a supply of foam roadbed already, foam is easier to work with, and it is lighter than cork, reducing the weight of the modules.  We glued the foam roadbed to the layout, and nailed and glued the track in place on top of the roadbed.  This worked very well while the layout was set up.

The end of the school year came around, and the layout had to come down.  We didn't have a place to set it up, so we drove it to Nashua and stored it in the shed in my backyard.  In doing this, we learned that the layout was much lighter than we thought it was.  All four modules stacked on top of each other only weigh about 30 pounds!  We put the layout away, hoping that one day we could set it up again.

The layout spent two hot summers and one cold winter in the shed before we set it up again.  The weather extremes had taken its toll on the track.  The foam didn't provide a sturdy enough base for the track, and the track was allowed to bend and twist as the temperature expanded and contracted the rails.  When we set the layout up again, we tore up all the track and roadbed, and we are now replacing the roadbed with cork.  Cork is heavier than foam, but we believe that the extra weight is worth it.  The cork is a sturdy base to attach the track to, it will hold the track in place much better than the foam did, making it withstand the elements better and making it more durable during transport.  The modules were much lighter than we anticipated anyway, so the extra weight is okay, because the modules are still extremely lightweight.  Also, cork isn't as expensive as we thought when we built the layout the first time.

I have never tried using plywood or homosote as roadbed materials, but I have heard of it being done.  I wouldn't want to work with plywood, especially on grades and curves, but it would be extremely durable for a modular layout.  I don't really know anything about homosote, so I can't say anything about it.  But through my experience, I have learned that nothing works as well as good old fashioned cork roadbed.

New Life to an Old Model Railroad

Okay, it's not that old of a model railroad.  It's the Lakes Region Model Railroad, which my friend Chris and I built 2 years ago when we were living in Laconia.  It is a modular 4x10 railroad that depicts downtown Laconia on one side and Weirs Beach on the other side.  There is also a 5 foot, 4 track staging yard that attaches to the Laconia side.  We built it in the garage of the house I was living in, which was not heated.  When I moved out, the railroad came to Nashua with me, and I didn't have a place to set it up so it stayed in my shed for almost 2 years.

Chris recently found a place to set up the railroad, and we moved it on Friday.  We had to make repairs to the legs, so we only set up half of it for now.  The backdrop also needs to be painted still, so once we do set up both halves, they will not be put together at first.

The railroad is getting a few big changes.  First, we are redoing the track work.  Originally, we had code 100 track on Woodland Scenics foam roadbed.  This worked great at first, but the cold weather had a bad impact on the track, which was not held in place securely due to the foam roadbed.  We have torn up the track and we are replacing the roadbed with cork to help hold the track in place better.  Even if it is never subject to cold weather again, it is a modular layout, and the track needs to be secure for shipping purposes as well.

The second big change is we are removing the grades.  The Weirs Beach section was one inch higher than the Laconia section because we needed two inches of foam on Weirs Beach so we could model the lake, but we didn't want to put that much foam down on the Laconia section.  This meant we had to put in a grade on the curve, and it has been nothing but a headache.  When we set up the Weirs Beach section, we will chop one inch off the legs so it is level with Laconia, and the grade has already been removed.

The third, and probably the biggest, change is the power.  The layout was originally powered with a MRC Prodigy Express DCC system that is now under my home layout.  Chris has a Digitrax Zephyr system on his layout, and neither of us can afford a new system for this layout.  Instead, we are going to go old-school and wire this layout to run on DC block control.  We still have to work out the details, but we are basically building a DC system with two walkaround throttles from scratch.  You can expect a blog post about that once it is all figured out.

It's nice to be able to work on this layout again.  We never finished it 2 years ago, and We have both been trying to find a place to set it up for 2 years.  The idea behind this layout was to build something that is portable, cheap, well detailed, and reliable.  So far, it has lived up to those expectations.