Happy New Year from N•RAIL!

Happy New Year from N•RAIL!

Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year!

December Revamp Project - Fixer Upper

Funny - I was going to dive in on the layout, but I've been rolling all day on Family and dog items and now I'm just too tired. heheheh  So...those who can't do....blog.

SPACE...the final frustration.

I was starting to get really concerned about space recently. My office/layout space is a mess and I wasn't sure where I was going to store items and display items. It was a nightmare. Then it hit me. "Oh wait....I have all the stuff that came off my layout in boxes and once I get the track done - IT WILL HAPPEN THIS HOLIDAY BREAK! - I'll be able to pull things from boxes and get my under-layout storage back." A wave of calm drifted over me. :)


My own little home improvement style show!

I have a good friend who owns a toy shop. We've known each other for about five years now and we have a great friendship on both customer and friend levels.

He got a bunch of train items in house and was inspired to get a layout going in his front window. He saw what I had done and thought that he'd love having something like it himself. He had a guy work on it and the basic layout got in place, but after looking at it, he could tell it was not hitting the marks that mine was hitting. Quote, "I want it to look...more real. You know?"  And, I did know. When he asked me to help out, I jumped at the chance. I had seen the layout in the state it was in and longed to help out, but I didn't want to overstep my boundaries. But, once he asked, I jumped on the chance to dive in.

My layout is still...being rebuilt. And, the thing I really love is the details. So, it was really a win win. We struck up a great payment plan and I dove in.

Here are the "BEFORE" shots:

So, there are three types of track being used, toys on the layout, and buildings tossed in for good measure. This was a cool process for me to get down because he wanted it looking better before Christmas, wanted it to look more realistic, and I needed to maintain all the usual stuff I do for my Family and work. I love a challenge.

He got me a key which was a big help. I was able to give him a heads up to when I was going to be there, then just go. The place is only something like 15 minutes away, so it's a quick ride.

I got all the toys off, but left MAZINGER (the black, silver and blue guy with the red on his chest)  on the layout. Why? It's a toy shop, for one. For two, I wanted to build a base for him to stand on like he was coming out of the water. SEE: A Sense Of Play! :)

I took all the buildings off, then placed them according to industry.

I painted in some roads. This helped A LOT!

I rebuilt the raised rail section in the front - making it a hill instead of a suspended area. (Pink foam area on the right) I then went over it with plaster gauze and added scenery.

I also got a little yard going so he could display all the cars he had.

I repainted the water and built the MAZINGER base.

I want to keep working on this base adding lights and people and the like. 

I brought in two pink foam sections from my old layout that were not going to work with my new design and popped them into place on George's layout. They provided and amusements area and housing area.

So...not bad for about....eight hours of work or so.

I have more scenic work I want to do and I want to find someone to repair George's engines so he has more to run. They had some accidents while building the layout and a lot of dropped locos. ::::cry::::: So there are many repairs that need to be done that are not in my wheelhouse.

NEXT:
• MAZINGER base work
• more scenics
• building repainting
• MALCO SPECIAL building interiors work
• track paining, weathering, etc
• more cars / trucks
• people added!


I hit my deadline for PHASE ONE and was super happy that I could help George out. Especially around this time of year. He seems really happy with the update!

Happy Holidays, All! I hope 2018 is kind to you all and brings in many Hobby-opportunities for you all! 

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In other news... Quick Update

Quicky update....that I started WEEKS ago! hehehehe

Tom's gift done and delivered!

More base work done.

Access hole - a must! 

Trip to Dollhouses, Trains, and More

Fantastic suggestion from Down Under

I had a great conversation with someone on MODEL RAIL RADIO this weekend. He's a guy from Australia who has many skills and many wise ideas and he's great at working out possible fixes and additions on people's layouts.  He had a fantastic suggestion for my Harbor Elevator I had planned.

His suggestion was to go with something like the Vivian Incline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naGrum5Qsnc

So, instead of an elevator that would just take trucks up to a loading area, I could send whole cars down to be loaded at the harbor level! I loved the idea and started in on it the other night.

It even looks like I can make the platform large enough so that I can get trucks on it as well. It's going to be a fun little nugget to build. Later. After I get the tracks sorted. :)

The layout - March 2014

Another old post from 2014 that I never finished. Interesting to see the layout when I first started it.


I've made some progress on my layout. Small steps, but steps all the same. I've......

Working out my layout extention

An old post that I found that I never actually posted - Shows my process for track. (AKA - a mess.) :)

November Update: Crawling forward through the Fall

Still have a ton of stuff going on this week, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet!

Firstly, a video of the latest iteration:

I realized that I've been taking things really...REALLY slow (GOOD! Last time I rushed things and made some mistakes)   but now I'm going so slow that I'm actually stopped for the most part. I plan on fixing this in the coming weeks once things chill out a bit. I need to get things back to a point where I can start adding my buildings back into the mix. I miss them a lot! That's the part I really enjoyed - moving the buildings around and city planning. I want to get there before 2018 hits....which is like...what? Two days away now? hehehehe   The "HOLLOWDAZE". Always so crazy. Why do we do it? Anyway.....



I have a weathering plan for this guy....

90 to 95% done with my friend Tom Barbalet's gift. :::grin::: Hope to get it to him in December for the holidays. He does so much for the model rail community with MODEL RAIL RADIO that I just wanted to give a little back.

I moved the shipping area over to where I had a train house previously. The train house will go away to make room for some more interesting, double rail switching in the shipping arena. I'm not a big operations guy, so this will be just fine for me and my small aspirations towards switching. :)

Not sure WHAT the old shipping area will be at the moment. Another station? Another industry? The latter sounds more interesting.

I'm still sorting out where I'm going to put a tunnel in. I know I want one, but it's just a matter of where. I was thinking that it might run by Soyokaze Temple, but I'm exploring options.










Lastly, I've added another tram to the mix. A TOMYTEC offering I dug. I popped their engine system in and the whole procedure took less than eight minutes!

The Railway Collection Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau Type 5000 (Final Painting) A (#5015) (Model Train)

TM-TR03 N-Gauge Power Unit For Railway Collection, for Road Surface 2 Articulated Car (Model Train)

Thanks for reading!
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