Very familiar with that condition Pete!
Me three … you would thing I got hit alot … 
Well it has been a few days and between rain storms I have gotten a little more done on the outside part of the Fields Landing area. More is being done restoring and rebuilding old buildings and working on new ones, more on that later.
Here is the latest on the site work. Just getting the ladder roadbed in place as well as the facia board on the outside edge. Like I have said before I find that placing the top of the facia board at the same height as the top of the ties seems to help keep the ballast in place better.
It may not be real obvious in the pictures but the main line, on the open road bed is on a 2% grade and the town area is level with the low end, where the switch cuts in as seen in the last photo of the previous post. In the first photo of this post you can see the gain in elevation at the other end.
Not sure what to do to help separate the main line from the town area, thinking about an extruded foam “block wall” to help the visual separation.
Has been and is going to continue to be cold and rainy over the next couple weeks so may not get much done outside. may catch you up on the buildings and such for this new town.
Thanks for taking a look.
I used High Density Urethane Foam to build this vertical buttressed block wall. The foam was scored with a dull awl and distressed by beating it with the business end of a wire brush before staining…
Notice that the top of the wall is a significant grade.
Thanks for the input Jon, that looks good. What was the thickness, 1/2 inch?
I think it’s 3/4". I’ll confirm in a minute and correct this post if different.
BTW - Details of how it was done is in this thread: Beating the Boredom - Brunt Coal on the C.V.S.Ry. - #37 by JRad
1 Like
Had some Sunshine today so I got the track work pretty much done.
Supposed to be pretty much rain for the next week so won’t be getting much done outside.
A small update.
The weather here has been lousy the last couple of weeks, 20-25 degrees overnight and freezing fog in the mornings not burning off till 11 or 12 and only reaching about 45 for the high so not much has been done on the railroad addition. The few hours of sunlight each afternoon have been spent doing yardwork. Leaves, leaves and more leaves, sometimes I hate trees 
This afternoon I was able to get a short train in action to test out the new trackage in the Fields Landing addition, but most of the train time has been spent in the shop ( on those ice/foggy mornings) working on new buildings and stuff for this area.
Number 22 brings the first short train into the new town area of Fields Landing to check the track work for level and curvature. Everything checked out pretty good, had some issues at the switch leaving the main and at the turn table alignment but no big deal.
#22 stopped in front of the depot foundation, the transfer shed foundation is to the left front and the Meat Market (MIK 23) foundation is to the left rear with the church foundation just beyond. I have 6 structures completed or soon to be completed for this town, off to a good start.
More on the structures later.
Thanks for taking a look.
2 Likes
Got the yard lights for the Fields Landing Depot finished and ready to install, when/if it quits raining.
I finally found a new supplier of 14 volt bulbs, they are getting scarce since the proliferation of the LED.
Most of the LED’s I have found to be to large a diameter for my use.
Speaking of LED’s I learned something today ( I’m sure everyone else already knows this) but LED’s are not polarity sensitive when using AC power, I guess it makes sense if you think about it.
The 2 standards ready to install between the tracks at the depot
Showing the light produced and how I made them removable for Winter storage.
3 Likes
Very nice. Do you leave buildings lit every night? I’ve not had any luck with long term service on 12V grain of rice bulbs. I am running them at the full 12V and my outdoor lighting stays on all night, all year, which is a long time during the winter! The buildings that I have lit with LEDs have served for many years with only one failure from moisture.
I use sign service LED modules which are a cold, ghastly white. I temper that by reflecting them off orange and yellow vinyl under the roofs, or by covering the LED lenses with translucent orange vinyl. Gives a nice warm look. Of course that is tough to do where the “bulb” is exposed.
Maybe my mistake is running the bulbs at full voltage. I suppose I should try 16 or 18V bulbs.
Jon I use 14 volt bulbs and run them at12 volts, often depending on the effect I want daisy chain them in, is series the right word, where each bulbs in the string gets less than the total supplied volts?
Have you tried High Light ink pens directly on the bulb/diode? to get the warmer color?
Edit for;
No, I do not run them all night long, usually just 2-4 hours at a time. For those kind of hours I suggest sticking with the LED’s
No, but I’ve heard of that technique. I have a few buildings and a sign that had bulbs that have long since died. I’ll give that a try if I ever get to fixing them!
And yes, bulbs is series will be dimmer and last longer.
These are pricey but nice. I used them on my railtruck, where I only needed three: 2 headlights and a taillight. They work extremely well, come in multiple voltage versions, and you can get a “warm white” if you prefer. And they come in extremely tiny versions.
The headlights here are a “warm white”:
I second Jim’s suggestion. I have used Evan Designs lights for a couple of years, $2.25 each for cool or warm white. They take calls and will point you to the proper voltage for what you are using for power. And if you get the nano small square lights, the warning about powering them with a 9v battery is very important, ask how I know… poof,smoke released!
Jim, I agree about Evans Design. I have used them several times in the past with very good results. Last time was like you I did a bash of a couple of Bachmann Rail Trucks and used them for the headlights.
You can buy prewired SMD LED ( that’s the same ones sold above) off eBay/Amazon etc for a lot cheaper and solder on your own resister or a transistor (C something rather I can’t remember at the moment) that allows for any voltage.
0603 SMD and is small (.06 x .03) enough to use for detail lights but not so small that you can’t see it.
I have used orange and yellow sharpies with a little brown rubbed in and it works well on the clear bulbs. I scuffed up the bulb with like 220 sandpaper first before coloring. If you don’t like the color just have some alcohol and a towel ready and wipe it off.
Also if using the 3mm or 5mm rounded top bulbs you can also grind down the top flat and it changes the light projection a bit.
We’ve been discussing LED’s verses bulbs recently, on this current project I used both, the LED’s for interior lighting and the bulbs in the exterior fixtures.
I was recently gifted this beautiful depot building along with a lot of other stuff, as it was 1:20 scale I immediately started turning it into the Fields Landing depot.
The building is 1/4 inch Acrylic with siding laminated on and there are a lot of windows. The interior was an empty shell and with all those windows it just begged for interior lighting so I cobbled up basic interior stage.
For the interior lighting I used LED’s in home made fixtures and attached mounting bars to the existing bracing. I used plugs so the roof can still be easily removed from the structure.
The basic materials for the exterior light fixtures; 1/8th copper tubing, pop rivets, Styrene tube, finish washers and upholstery buttons, although I ended up not using the washers.
The finished job in the next installment.
The depot is all finished and went out to it’s future location for a photo op.
I ran the roof assembly through the table saw and removed 2 and 3/4 inches of overhang from both sides because the original overhang was only 5 scale feet above the freight dock floor and also now the windows show up much better.
Oh, and while I was waiting for paint and glue to dry I built this little maintenance shed from an old Aristo car I had picked up for the trucks.
4 Likes
When you mount your buildings to 2x4 or 2x2 strips do you then screw down the wood to the rest of the bench? Or just let it sit on top?
Trying to figure out a way to mount my feed mill and make it strong as part of the bench work but also flexible enough that if one day if I have to remove it I could ( trying to make snap together subsections)