Flocking the trees for the Ouachita area

Last post I started getting a batch of trees pulled out and started pruning them.  

The past few times I made a batch of trees, I used a Tea Pot to steam some of the more curved trees, which seemed to work very well.  I held the bent trunks in front of the steam for a few minutes then stretched them tight or held them flat on the counter top to let them cool.  This seemed to work to keep them straight.

The internet seems divided on what to use on Super Trees.

Some say to use Glycerin, some say to use Matte Medium, while others say they don't use anything but an adhesive to hold the leaves on, which should be enough.

I've used the Matte Medium before and it seems to work just fine, however, I did not use it to attach the foliage while it's still wet. I used cheap hair spray for the foliage, then for the additional layers/colors, I continued to use hair spray.

I'm curious to see how the Glycerin will work?

I know I saved the bath in a gallon milk jug when I got done with it.

The Matte Medium I also saved but between times of needing it, it had separated and it didn't want to re-mix very well, it was kind of a jelly mess. I even added more water, but it didn't seem to help.

I think the glycerin recipe can be rewarmed if needed and reused? We'll see how that goes.

Here's the recipe I used:

4 oz of glycerin
8 oz of 70% alcohol
1 qt of water.

Then bring the mix to boil for a few minutes to get it thoroughly mixed.  

I let it cool off and soaked a batch of trees for two minutes and laid them out to dry overnight.

The next evening the trees seemed to be very springy compared to what they were like right out of the box.  I should say that this box of trees are a little over 8 years old. 

Raw tree on the left, painted in the middle and flocked on the right.

 

Trees along the river

My next project will be tree building, I need to get the shoreline around the Ouachita river covered before the OS Weekend at the end of next month, I think I have enough time if things go right.

Last night I dug out a bunch of Super Trees from my stash and started picking them apart into usable trees.  

Along with the few I have left over from making them for Ruston a few months ago, I think this should be enough?

Let the fun begin...

Distant signals

After getting the Interlocking signals installed and working, I ordered a couple of new signals from Custom Signal Systems.com.  When they arrived I went to work on them.

I made a larger base for them, I added a "D" plaque and got them weathered up a bit.  Then got them installed and wired up.  These are powered from the same ISE IIAB board that controls the interlocking signals at Ruston.  They have a 5v output that can power these signals or any other signal you wish.

While in proto practice, I'm pretty sure that they would turn to red once a train passes them, but that would require more circuitry of which I don't want to mess with, so these will just show a constant YELLOW aspect.

I placed these about 3' from the interlocking signals.

 

They are not super bright but that's OK, at least anything rolling past them won't be glowing yellow.

Here's a shot from close to viewing distance.

In the last image I still have no scenery in place.  This is the south end of Dubach, I still have plans to rip up and redo the majority of the tracks in this town.  The loco is sitting on the southmost turnout, this needs to be removed and moved to the left at least a foot or more.  But I will not touch this until sometime after the OS Omaha weekend this October. 

 

New town schematics

Another thing I wanted to get done before the October OS Omaha was to redo the town schematics.  I had previously printed them out on plain white paper and taped them to the backdrop.  It worked.

But after repainting the fascia to solid black, I now had room to mount them to fascia.  Not that I didn't have room before, but with the striping, but it always looked too busy and confusing as it covered up some of the striping.

I had an idea to make them out of engraved PVC but then it hit me, if I changed the trackwork afterwards, I'd be in the same boat as I was with the striping on the fascia not matching the actual track plan.  So I decided to pick up a cheap laminator.  I also ordered some "Aged" looking paper.  Thought it might add some weathered character?

These are designed to be semi-permanent, or until I get the track work down where I want it and/or the buildings are in place.

I also found a picture of an aged and worn piece of painted wood.  Then I added some stencil fonts to it for the "Call Box" for the interlocking buttons.  It looks better in person...

Repainting the fascia

Years ago I visited an N scale layout and the one thing that I thought looked good and could be practical, his fascia was painted black and he applied them in yellow, a schematic of his layout.  When I asked him about it, he replied that it was intended for the ease of locating the track on the layout while operating.

So when I got around to applying my fascia I kept this in mind.  When I got it all done, it looked nice, that was until I had run several op sessions and needed to change the track arrangements.  It was at this point that I realized that the tracks now did not match what I had painted on the fascia and my efforts had all been done for not.

Realizing this was going to be a big issue with me, I just left it and proceeded to run ops and rework the track as needed.  Once I got things where I wanted them that I'd just repaint them (didn't realize that this would be years, not months).  

With the OS Omaha Ops weekend coming up soon, it was time to make things look more presentable and I took out my trusty orbital sanded and went to work.

I had painted the colored tracks with one color, then taped them off with 1/4" masking tape and rolled a coat of black over top then removed the tape.  It worked slick, but it also left a slight ridge where the tape had been.  To compound the issue, when I was done I had sprayed a coat of Krylon semi-gloss acrylic finish as a top coat.

Not to worry though, using an 80 grit pad and a little elbow grease, the ridges were reduced and it scuffed up the paint to give it some tooth.  

I had given some thought about using a muted green or earth tone to match the scenery as a lot of modelers have done over the past several years but decided to stick with black.   For me, it does a great job of diverting your eyes away from the fascia and skirting and makes the scenery pop.

For reference, here's a shot of the fascia with the stripes.

Interlocking signals at Ruston

I got the Iowa Scaled Engineering "Interlocking in a Box" system installed and working.  

There are several different ways of setting this system up in regards to different types of delay settings for the signals to change.  All of which can be seen in their manual that's on their website.

I opted to use two Momentary On push buttons to control the signals to hopefully give my crews a more immersive feeling when operating the layout.    While the ICG trackage that my trains cross is basically a dummy track with no trains crossing, the system is designed to make it feel and act like the crews have to stop and call the dispatcher for a green signal.

The way I chose to set up the delays is fairly simple.  You push either of the buttons and you will wait for a green signal anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds.  Once the signal turns to green, you can choose for a 15, 30, 45 or 60 second delay, I chose to have a 15 second delay to start moving before the signal drops back to red.  After that, the system is reset and is ready for the next train.

Here is a quick video showing it in operation.  I shortened the video so you wouldn't have to wait for the full length of the delay. 

 

Installing the Interlocking signals

I started installing the signals for the Iowa Scaled Engineering  IIAB (Interlocking in a Box) today.

The holes for the signal wires needed to be a bit bigger to allow for the plug on the Atlas Type G signals.  The bases of the signals are not very wide and did not quite cover up the holes, so a friend told me to add a piece of thin styrene under the bases to hold the signals and cover the holes.  

After sizing the styrene a bit bigger than needed,  I drilled a hole for the wires and cut a slit so I could slide it under the base.  I then glued it to the bottom of the signal base with MEK.  I also decided to drill four holes, one in each corner to allow for Atlas track nails, these will hold the base in place, but lose enough that if I bump them, there will be some give.

I think they are a little taller, but not by much. 

I placed them about 10" from the diamond, the one on the left kind of set the placement due to the house track siding, but I think this will still be ok.

Next I'll paint them a dark green and cover them with some ground foam to hide the styrene bases.   

Crossing the Ouachita River

 Rock Island GP7 1201 is in charge of the SB local, #775 as it crosses over the rain swollen and muddy Ouachita River.