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Coal Cars - 11
The Mt. Coffin & Columbia River
Continued ...
I throw the basswood strips in there to stain them when I build
bridges or am making us some replacement ties. I dip a brush in
there and paint the sides of cars and styrene buildings to weather
them (with various levels of success). I dip a paper towel in there and
blot the cedar shingles to color them before applying to the roof.
I've had the same jar for at least two years. When it starts to get low,
or weak, I throw in more alcohol and whatever else I think it needs.
Usually more India ink and some kind of brown color. It's a little like
Pappy's moonshine: not exactly sure what the recipe is, but when
you start to go blind it's done!
On a whim I realized I could rest the camera on the water to get the
shot in figure 16.
I haven't been able to find any NBW details in N-scale, so I use Grandt
Line HO-scale 1-1/2" NBW for the small ones and Grandt Line O-scale
1" square NBW for the larger square ones. It pays to poke around in
other scales' bins! I used the combination to detail the bridge, the
coal unloading dock and the 20-ton coal cars from RLW.
In all cases I paint the heads first (usually grimy black), use a knife
to cut off the heads and then apply to the structure with the same
wood glue I use to build the building.
The HO bolt heads are so small and round that I lose 10%-25% just by
having them fly out of the tweezers as I go to apply them.
I just wish there were realistic N-scale rivets out there! (Archer now
makes N scale rivets, just Google "Archer N scale rivets". - MRH)
This layout has been definitely worth it in terms of skill-building. I've
learned:
Handlaying your own turnouts is both extremely satisfying
as well as layout-design liberating: no longer are you at the
mercy of manufacturers’ frog sizes or turnout lengths!
Do your trackwork right the first time and make it perfect so
everything and their mothers can run on it.
Power your frogs!
Don't spend all that time scratchbuilding structures and
creating nice scenery and then use catapult-sized ground
throws.
Did I mention have great trackwork and powered frogs?
Maybe all this layout needed to really finish it off was some seagulls
and salmon? That, and I would have had to go back and redo all the
trackwork to get it perfect (ah, the price of learning). In January I was
having lunch with layout design guru Byron Henderson at the Bay
Area LD/OPS SIG Weekend event, and, while we were discussing the
importance of “letting go,” he put it pretty succinctly: “Keep the les-
sons, lose the layout.”
Which is a pretty good lesson in itself to keep, along with all the
scratch-built structures, trees and many, many photos and videos of
the layout before it goes to its own trash can Mt. Coffin.
There’s always another layout!
For more …
For more on the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River, including lots of
construction details, see M.C. Fujiwara’s blog entries on the MRH
website:
Part 1:
Part 2:
MRH-Mar 2013
