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.