Farmington - Dirt Road and Gas Station Placement

Once I had the overall track plan for the Farmington section planned out, I then decided on where the dirt road and gas station were going to be located.  I cut a cork pad and laid out the general path for the dirt road and used more of the cork pad for the footprint of the gas station.  The gas station is a white metal kit from Woodland Scenics.  My father actually put the kit together several years ago when he had an HO scale layout based on the Sierra Railroad and the Pickering Lumber Company.

Cork Pads for Dirt Road and Gas Station

Test Fitting Gas Station Scene

My father's layout was a shelf style layout that took up an entire wall of the two car garage.  I remember running this layout when I was in high school.  The layout ran on a stationary DC power pack with several blocks for multiple train operation (DCC was just beginning to grow back then).  The layout was set back in the 20's and 30's and ran from the town of Standard up a switchback through the mountains to the logging camps.

My favorite trains to run were his Shays and Heislers.  My father had a roundhouse 2-truck Shay, a Bachmann Spectrum 3-truck Shay, a Rivarossi 2-Truck Heisler and a Rivarossi 3-truck Heisler.  These four geared steam locomotives were lettered for the Pickering Lumber Company.

That layout is long gone now and my father has converted over to Lionel.  Fortunately for me, he gave these locomotives to me along with a lot of his other HO scale items from that layout.  Of course, I am not going to be running those Shays and Heislers on my layout.  The two Shays at least have plugs for a DCC decoder, but I do not know how to convert those older style Heislers he got back in the 70's/80's.

I'll have to get theses locomotives out of the storage box I have them in and take pictures for a future post on this blog.

"Bridge" Main Layout to Stockton Staging

I needed a short, sturdy and removable access bridge to go from the SP side of Oakdale Junction to the Farmington section so that the SP trains could get to the Stockton Yard (Staging).  I used 1x3 boards and a plywood top to make a three foot long "bridge."  To prevent trains from crashing about five feet to the concrete slab of the garage floor, I attached 1/8 inch Medium Density Fiber (MDF) board to each side.  The "back side" is about six inches in height and will be painted in a "sky blue" color.  The "front side" is about three and a half inches in height and is painted in the light tan color used on the layout fascia.

Access Bridge without MDF Board

Access Bridge Attached to SP Side of Oakdale Junction



To assist family members and train operators from possible injury while walking in the immediate area when the "bridge" is in place, I painted the outside of the larger MDF board and the supporting wooden ends a bright yellow color.  I then attached "CAUTION" using black stick on letters I purchased at a craft store (Michael's).

Bright Yellow Paint Applied to Danger Areas

"CAUTION" Applied to Access Bridge





The access bridge is held in place and keeps the tracks aligned with carriage bolts and washers (a total of four - two on each side).

Framing for Farmington Section of Layout

The framing for the extension to Farmington was made using open grid bench work with 1X3 boards I bought at Lowes.  I used 1/2 inch plywood as the base and will use cork roadbed strips on top of the plywood for the area where the track will go.  Since this section is really just a means to get to the SP Stockton Yard (Staging), I did not build it with an overhead lighting valance like the other parts of my layout.

Wood Framing for Farmington Section and Metal Shelving for Stereo System





I had a medium sized stereo system that I wanted to place in my garage.  The area above the Farmington section had plenty of wall space, so I wanted to utilize it.  I used a metal rail shelving system for this and the shelf I used to hold the stereo covered most of the Farmington section.  I therefore used two small fluorescent under cabinet lights (purchased at Walmart) to light the Farmington section.  However, this section will not have a "night lighting" option as with the other portions of the layout.

Stereo System on Shelf Above Farmington

View of White Metal Shelving System I Used

Fluorescent Light

New Addition to Layout - Farmington

I recently expanded my layout to include the extension to the location of where Southern Pacific's Stockton Yard (Stockton Staging) is going to be.  This segment is comprised of a small removable access bridge between the SP side of Oakdale Junction and the area of Farmington.  This bridge is approximately three feet in length and is removable so that easy access can be made into the walking areas of the garage.

Farmington Section

The next portion is of the small rural community of Farmington.  The Farmington section is built on a wood frame that is about two feet wide and four feet long.  There is a switch that leads to a relatively short siding.  As of this post, I have not decided on which industry should be located at this siding.  I am leaning toward a small stock yard that has spots for two stock cars.  There is going to be a dirt road going across the main line.  There will be a small gas station, a church and a general store.  In the background there will be a farm house and windmill.

After Farmington, the track curves toward the right and SP trains will enter the staging yard representing Stockton.  This yard will have five staging tracks to hold the various SP trains I plan to run over the layout during operating sessions.

I used two photo backdrops of a tree covered hill depicting a fall scene for the Farmington section.

Diesel #42 and Caboose #8 (1978 Paint Scheme)

I know that my Oakdale Junction Layout is supposed to depict railroad operations in and around Oakdale, California in the 1950's, but I wanted to show you a side project that I was recently working on.  The back story to this project is that my brother used to belong to a model railroad club located in Fremont, California back when he was in high school.  During this time, he purchased four undecorated Athearn Blue Box Baldwin S-12 diesel locomotives with the intention of painting them to match the Sierra Railroad's units.

My brother did paint three of the shells and did nothing with the fourth one.  He painted two of the units in the green with white lettering scheme and a third unit in the all yellow paint scheme which was applied back in 1978 and only to unit #42.  He also had an undecorated 4-window caboose made by Roundhouse that he turned into Caboose #8.

Roundhouse Undecorated Caboose Kit

Fortunately for me, he quit that club a long time ago and ended up giving me all of his HO scale rolling stock which included these items and additional freight cars.  At the time, I did not think much about the Sierra items as I was not modeling anything to do with the Sierra Railroad.  Obviously, my modeling interests changed and I am now modeling the Sierra Railroad (well, at least a small portion of it).

Anyway, this post is to show some pictures of these two items and how I had to fix them to be presentable once again.

Profile of Unit #42 (Note the Rotary Beacon and Engineer)

Left Side View with Conductor in the Cab

Another View of the Right Side

This shell was not in that bad of shape when I got it from my brother.  I did have to repaint a portion of the cab roof and glue the rotary beacon back on top.  One of the applied cab sunshades had broken off, so I had to reattach it and paint the area to cover up the glue.  The one thing that was added to this model that is not on the prototype is the placement of the bell.   It can be seen located between the cab and the exhaust stack.  This is a part that Athearn included when they created the model and had two holes pre-drilled so that it could be mounted in this location.  Athearn also had two holes drilled near-by for a horn, but my brother did not install it on this model.  I have never asked him why he put the bell on and not the horn.

I have a running chassis for this model that does operate on normal DC.  I will most likely put a basic decoder in it with at least three lighting functions so that I could have a forward and reverse headlight and of course I want the rotary beacon to light up as well.  I will have to order the correct air horn to be placed on the roof cab and possibly shave off the bell.  But other than that, this model is a pretty good representative of unit #42.

Caboose #8 was in pretty good shape as well.  The only thing I had to do was to rewire the lighted red marker light my brother installed at the end of the caboose and reattach the conductor he had previously glued to the end platform of the caboose.

Right Side of Caboose

Left Side of Caboose

View with Conductor Checking His Watch

The next few photographs show the working red marker light installed at the end of the caboose.  DCC was fairly new back when my brother put this caboose together so he did not put in a function only decoder inside the caboose to get the light to illuminate.  Instead, he attached a mini slide switch and a single AA battery pack to get the light to turn on when the caboose is at the end of a train.

Lighted Red Marker Light

Illuminated Marker Light and Slide Switch on the Underframe

Close-up of the Mini Slide Switch (Green Paint Dot for "ON")

I had to replace some of the wires my brother had used so many years ago.  Also, one of the light bulb leads had become detached from the battery holder.  I used my basic Radio Shack 20/40 watt soldering iron to attach everything and the lighting circuit was working properly once again.  I even used heat-shrink tubing over the electrical connections as well.  Because the electronic parts take up so much room on the inside of the model, I do not think that I will be installing any type of interior lighting unit.

Internal Electrical Components and Connections

I am fine not having the light activate with the use of a decoder.  I am not going to be running this caboose on the layout very often anyway as it is not appropriate for the time frame I am modeling.  I will probably run it on occasion with the yellow version of #42 for some layout photos.  I'll just have to remember to turn the switch off after use and not store it inside the box with the AA battery clipped into the battery holder.

On a side note, my brother still has the model railroading bug.  He has just moved onto Lionel and shares the hobbies with his three boys.  He is in the process of building a layout in his garage based upon the Pickering Lumber Corporation.  Those O Scale Shays and Heislers he has are bad ass!

Catastophic Failure with the Mini Rail Decals

Last week, I attempted to put the decals on the two yellow and red Baldwin S-12 diesels, but a major disaster took place.  The decals disintegrated right after I took them out of the water!  My heart sunk and I was in shock.  I did not know what I was going to do once I saw the Sierra Railroad herald break up before my eyes.  I had purchased the only two sets of Sierra Railroad decals from Mini Rail that were on eBay.  (I have not found anyone selling them since.)

Mini Rail Decal Set (Two Missing Heralds Were Destroyed)

I know Mini Rail is not in business and there are no other companies making Sierra Railroad decals for the steam locomotives or the original paint scheme of the diesels when they were delivered in 1955.  I figured the decal sets were so old that the protective coating for the decals had worn away.

I turned to the internet and found a few different "do it yourself" decal kits out there on the market.  Each one allows the user to print decals from an inkjet or laser printer.  When I came across the kit from Testors I knew I could purchase one at at my local hobby store. Off to the store I went and purchased the kit.  This particular kit is for inkjet printers as I do not have a laser printer at home.

I was going to have to make decals to letter the steam locomotives that I intend to use on the layout, so I knew that I could use this kit to make those decals as well.  I went back to the internet and looked up links for "free railroad roman font" and came across a website that provided a suitable Railroad Roman font.  I downloaded it and it showed up in my list of fonts for Microsoft Word.

Decal Creation Using Word and "Railroad Roman" Font

Decals for #40 and #42 on Word

I proceeded to type out different font sizes, printed out test sheets and placed them on the tenders and locomotive cab to see which font size fit best.  The other thing I discovered about the Railroad Roman font is that capital letters print out no matter if caps lock is on or off.  The difference is that with caps lock on, the letters are a little bigger and more stretched out then with caps lock off.

Testing Font Size and Letter Spacing on the Tenders

In order for the letters to  come out white on an inkjet printer, you have to use the Testors "white" decal paper.  If you use the "clear" paper, the white letters will just be clear because an inkjet printer can not print white ink.  I also had to use the highlight tool in Word.  I typed out "SIERRA RAILROAD" and then highlighted it in black.  I did this for the locomotive cab and tender numbers too.

When it came to printing out the decals on the decal paper, I made sure that I used up as much of the decal paper as possible, because I did not want to waste any of it.  The paper is pretty expensive, so get as many decals on one sheet as you can.

Use as Much of the Decal Paper Space as Possible

After printing the decals, be careful removing the sheet from the printer.  The ink is still wet and the oils on your fingers can ruin some of the decals you just printed.  After the sheet is dry you have to spray light coats of the Testors protective spray.  This will seal the printer ink prior to dipping the decals into the water prior to applying them on the model.

I am pleased with my efforts to make my own decals using my home computer and the Testors decal making kit.  Now I just have to apply the decals to the models and hope that everything works out as I hope.

Sierra Diesels #40 and #42

I am in the process of detailing the Athearn Blue Box Baldwin S-12 shells for #40 and #42.  I painted the shells using Testors spray paint.  I painted the hood body yellow and I painted the cab, side frames and walkways red.  I used blue painters tape to mask the different areas between painting the two colors.

 

 Once the masking tape was applied, I painted the shells.

After the yellow paint dried, I masked the shell off hiding the yellow portion of the body and sprayed the shell red.

Here are the two shells after they were done being painted.

The next step will be to apply the Mini Rail Sierra Railroad decal sets that I recently purchased on eBay.