Farm Pond IV -- "Water" in the Pond

So, summer got away from us without getting granddaughters (or grandsons) to stay long enough to work on the railroad.  Did have a visit from a younger set of grandchildren who showed interest in the layout.

Decided to go ahead with water in pond, but not before starting to work on cattails and lily pads.

Used Woodland Scenics field grass for cattail stalks and tried acrylic paint, brown, to add cattail seed pod.  That didn't thicken things up enough, so went to white glue.  That had a tendency to form spherical beads.  Finally, went to Scenic Cement which is a bit thicker.  That sort of worked.  Then painted with brown acrylic paint.

Seed pods are looking OK, but decided more reeds were needed.  Tried a combination of sisal fibers from a rope, more light green field grass, and some harvest gold field grass.  Tried white glue to stick all of this together with one stalk of seed pod per bunch.

Will probably need to drill holes in "water" to plant. . . .

Also tried for the lily pads by punching 1/4", 3/16", and 1/8" holes in three shades of green paper. For the two larger sizes, also cut "V's" along the edge in one spot.  Usable results, I suppose.

In between all of this, the murky water, two-part epoxy was mixed and poured.  Stirring for 5 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, and then stirring again for 5 minutes -- sort of a weary process.

Didn't take a lot of "water" to "fill" the pond.  A little disappointed that it's not more murky; also that it was hard to tell when painting the bottom what the depth was from one end to the other!  Recommended covering and curing for 24 hours.  Did not "wet" the shore too well, but a little grass and other foliage will probably help.

Lily pads, ducks/geese and fishermen placed, but not glued, yet.  Tried to add a yellow flower or two from other landscaping scenery, but didn't have a lot of luck at that.  Have also seen another approach to lily pads using white paper painted with a couple of shades of green and some yellow.  That gives some good variability as the colors are mixed on the paper.  Also, 1/4" is too big!!  These at the two smaller sizes.

Stay tuned for Farm Pond V when cattails are installed.

Current Keeper for Southern F3A

Seems the Southern F3A locomotive just cannot handle a dirty track while the little SW1 switcher does OK -- with its capacitor.  So, how to install a Soundtraxx Current Keeper?  Here's a shot at it [Note:  4/10/18 update, speaker works, Current Keeper not so much; E-mail into Soundtraxx support]:

First, the larger speaker in the F3 needs to be removed to make room for the rather bulky capacitors.

With another "Sugar Cube" speaker in my spare parts, that would seem to help the situation.  First must glue the speaker to the "sound box" with CA glue.  Supplier video recommended using double stick tape to hold the box in place as the speaker was attached.  No double stick tape, but some Scotch mounting tape was handy.  Seemed to work OK.  This speaker might be the 8X12 mm size; same as in SW1 switcher, so this could help to give comparable volume from both locos.

Had to check online for attaching the Current Keeper to a Soundtraxx Tsunami GN-1000 decoder.  The instructions that were included with the Current Keeper did not include this decoder.  Ain't the Internet wonderful?!

To keep doing this sort of work, a more "precision" soldering iron will be needed.  But, I gunked up the small speaker and the Current Keeper.

Plenty of room for Current Keeper and small speaker with larger speaker removed.  Used more Scotch mounting tape for the Current Keeper.

No way to test at this time as we're out of town visiting relatives, but fingers are crossed.

Next job to complete installation is to find the front coupler and box -- who knows where that might be?

Columbia Train Show

The New Brookland model train store in West Columbia/Cayce said they would have several tables at the Columbia, SC, train show last weekend.  So, I decided to make the trip and check it out.

Not too disappointed, except that the only Bay Line piece I could find was a badge, and the couple of guys I asked about DCC-- Keep Alive didn't have much to offer.  Still, along with the badge, I picked up a 1950 Rocket 88 Oldsmobile and a few trees.

The Oldsmobile may need to be "aged" a bit since it would be six years old.  Maybe we can claim that it belongs to the Shift Supervisor at the Cotton Mill:

Don't know exactly where to put the three trees, yet.  I was pleased with their realism, but not quite as much as the manufacturer!

Besides, I think WE have made trees a little better than this, but they are much easier to purchase than to make.

Maybe they need to go near the Mill Village; I'll have to check with the Grands.

Since I couldn't find a DCC expert, I decided to go back through  my store of loose parts.  I thought I had another sugar cube speaker which might give me room for a Keep Alive capacitor.  When I opened the "spare parts" box I found the small speaker AND a capacitor AND a Tsunami AT1000 decoder.  I couldn't tell what the sound chip was good for, so contacted Soundtraxx.  The model was coded on the sound chip!  Turns out to be an EMD 567 which works for both Southern locomotives that I have, but not for the SCL GP35 -- it has an EMD 567D turbo.  Not sure if anyone would realize it if I did use it in the GP35.  But first, I'll try to add the smaller speaker and capacitor to the F3 so it doesn't hesitate on the dirty track so much.

Farm Pond III -- Painting the Depths

Slowly working with the farm pond making sure lots is left to the granddaughters when they show up.

Used a Dremel tool to sand down some of the pond bottom:













Then tried to give the look of water to the bottom although the epoxy "water" we'll use is called Murky Water.  Started with Indigo Blue and then moved to Cerulean Blue for "shallower" water.  Gee, this looks REALLY blue:

To tone down the blues a bit, added some black with a little bit of grey to the deepest part of the pond.  After drying, the blues didn't look quite as eye-catching.  Besides, the Murky Water will probably hide everything, anyway:

Backdrop Phase 1.A

Now where to go with backdrop, as a non-artist!?!

Some thoughts being developed using a sheet of Kraft paper to sketch.  Maybe just use photos of buildings glued to backdrop with or without low-relief buildings (e. g., warehouse).

Maybe add a couple of cardstock buildings before completing "cityscape".

Or possibly, create a little 3D with partial buildings that then get painted into backdrop.

Will also start thinking about backdrop effects on left side -- maybe develop tobacco planting into larger field, run hedge and path up to farmhouse in meadow, have fenced in area include pasture and cattle, include distant but not mountainous treeline, . . . .  Really do need an artist!

Shift Change, Truck Driver, and Backdrop Phase I

During a trip to Raleigh, I looked up a local model train shop, Nick's Model Trains, and stopped by.  It's another one of those small shops with stuff EVERYwhere and "groupies" hanging around.  A groupie helped me find an ACL style caboose kit that is undecorated.  We were hoping it might work for The Bay Line caboose, but I'm afraid it's too recent.

Oh well, picked up a Woodland Scenics package of factory workers.  They are a little too construction looking to fit well with the layout, but with a few modifications, they will work out.  For example, remove the hardhat from one of the guy's hand and he would suffice for a textile worker; before and after:

This may require a little cleanup so his leg doesn't have a metallic spot.  Maybe what's left in his hand is his wallet. . . .

















So, this dude plus two others from the package and a "supervisor" from another collection and we have some guys waiting for second shift.  Mostly chewing the fat, but one is too hungry to wait until break for his sandwich.

Hardhats might be more likely at the pulpwood yard, so here's a guy who just came out of the pulpwood shack to check out what's happening, and a guy just getting ready to get back in his pulpwood truck and go for another load of pulpwood.

OK, never claimed to be very artsy, but here's a stab at clouds on a backdrop.  Started with medium light blue spray paint over a 2X6'4" piece of hardboard.  Cut out a notch about 3 1/4" deep to go over the DC control panel, just in case it's ever needed again.  This took a couple of coats to cover fairly well.  A few light sprays with a little darker blue kept it from being monochromatic.

Had seen a guy tear lightweight cardboard and then spray a little bit of an angle from above with the "template" held an inch or so off the backdrop.  That seemed to work pretty well with some satin white spray paint.  Templates can be seen on the picnic table.

Used the darker blue again before the last white was sprayed trying to get a bit of a threatening rain look.  Not bad.

Drilled a few holes in the hardboard for attachment and added to the layout with some panhead screws.  I'm pleased with the results.  The clouds seem to be a good suggestion of real clouds.  As cautioned by write-ups on backdrops, the backdrop does look a bit funky if you start getting shadows on it from trees, smokestacks, and buildings.
Before:

 After:

We have a friend who is a real artist.  I think I'll get her to help me add some scenery on the backdrop to extend the layout.

A Little of This. . . A Little of That

Stopped by New Brookland train store in Columbia while The Wife was visiting the craft show.  Picked up a couple of items to add to the layout.

I guess you can always use another car, but I think I'll have to stop with this second 1955 Ford.  How many new cars can you have on a small milltown layout?!

Also, got another load of pulpwood for the pulpwood racks, so I guess the crane has been hard at work and the next rack has been pulled up.

The farm pond needs a couple of boys fishing, but I couldn't get the iPhone to focus too well.  Not a permanent installation, yet; just testing it out.  Gotta get some water in the pond before any fish will bite.

And, while this is nothing newly purchased, a little work on the three-wire fence has just about finished it up.  This is practice for the farm pond fencing yet to come.  Used squared off tooth picks for poles and 6X fly fishing tippet for wire.  White glue "staples" still need to dry a bit, and the loose ends will need to be attached to the forthcoming (!!) backdrop.  From two angle: