Begun in 2008, the current N Scale Altamont and Blue Ridge Railway occupies one bay of a remodeled two car garage. The train room is 21' x 12', with custom electrical, lighting, and HVAC systems. The DDC layout is controlled by Freiwald "TrainController" Software with train-tracking 4D Surround Sound. Current programed sequences operate ten trains at once in a complex 15 minute demonstration "train show". Do I dare tear this whole thing up and start over?

There are a number of areas of focus in the "do-over" list:

1. Room Lighting. Currently I have dimable daylight fluorescent fixtures with UV bulb filters, all hidden from view in a sofit above the bench-work.I am delighted with this set up. The lighting is warm and bright, and it looks great, but there are a few flaws. 

On the current A&BR I have track lights outside the sofit angled toward the layout. If I had it to do over I would raise these and mount them directly on the ceiling inside the sofit. Or perhaps omit them all together. The warm fluorescents look great and give plenty of light.

Another problem is that the fluorescent dimmers I use are not computer controllable. So I computer automate room lighting mechanically, moving the dimmer sliders up and down using servo motors controlled by a program I wrote for an Arduino microprocessor which executes dimming sequences triggered by inputs from stationary decoders. It's a little bit of a Rube Goldburg, but it works fine. Still, in an ideal world computer addressable fluorescent dimmers would be very cool. 

Receiving input from stationary decoders, Arduino controlled servos mechanically move room light dimmer sliders on the current A&BR. A bit of a  Rube Goldburg ... but it works fine.

2. AC. I am pretty happy with my current AC wiring setup in general, but if had it to do over, I would add  more outlets and a master outlet on/off switch.

3.Control Desk. When I built the current A&BR I did not design in a control desk. This was a mistake. In any future setup, I would design a dedicated control area, with built-in desk for the computer key board, built-in computer monitors, loconet access, etc.; and I would also move all short circuit indicator lights from the PM42s to a built-in panel in the control area. 

4. HVAC. I would have a special particle-removing dust filter system like the ones used in hospitals etc. built into the HVAC air handler.

Wiring underneath the current A&BR works great, and I have experienced very few problems, but it is pretty chaotic looking,  poorly labeled, and difficult to service.

To address neater more accessible wiring, I envision a system of recessed cable troughs running just below the fascia board of the bench-work to carry all bus wiring including 12 agw track-power buses, 12 volt layout lighting buses, as well as stationary decoder feeds and signal feeds. On the front of this trough, mounted horizontally for easy access, I propose a long narrow mounting board for stationary decoders, signal cards, other control cards, and the loconet cable. All 16 agw track feeders and 18 agw light feeders would connect to the power buses in the troughs and go out in parallel runs, front to back, through the back wall of the trough, underneath the bench-top to the appropriate track or light droppers. Decoder and signal outputs would likewise run in the trough and feed out to turnouts front to back parallel to secondary feeders. Loconet cable would run along the bottom of the mounting panel below the power cable trough to minimize crosstalk. (Note: I have ditched the idea of the troughs in lieu of different approach - see the post dated 11/30/2015)

Access Isle

New cable trough design. Trough will attach to bench legs and run below and slightly behind the fascia board of  the bench. It will be hidden by a black table skirt that attaches to the lower edge of the fascia board and goes all the way to the floor.

7. Structure Lighting. On the current A&BR, I used Christmas tree lights to light structures (gangs of 6 in series with the gangs wired in parallel all running off 15 volt, 5 amp buses). On the new layout, I would change to 5mm LEDs run from a single 5 volt bus. They are smaller and much easier to correctly position inside a structure, and they lend themselves to a much cleaner and more precise installation all around. 

8. Tortoise Interface. On the new layout, I also envision a new design for a tortoise switch machine interface that is clean and easy to install - just an eight position terminal block and a pigtail with a female edge connector leading to the tortoise. This is similar to what I now have, but I soldered directly to the tortoise and did not use the female edge connector which would have made things much neater. Also, the way I handled droppers everywhere on the current layout (and especially on the turnouts) is inherently messy. There is a better way, and I will not make this mistakes again. (Note: see post of 12/3/2015)

9. Individual On/Off Block Power Switches. Sometimes a short can be hard to find. On the A&BR2 I will install single pole sing throw on/off switches on the output of each block sensor. In the case of a hard-to-find short, I can then turn off the blocks one at a time until the short clears, thus quickly locating the shorted block. (Note: I later decided this is more trouble than it is worth,.)

More on these designs later, should I proceed with the project. But for now, I am dreaming of  troughs full of neat bus wires with feeders running out under the layout in perfect parallel lines to neat droppers for track, signals, and lights, and to compact tortoise input blocks - everything clean, tidy, well labeled, well lit - an installation so solid that I will never have have to crawl up under the bench again. Amen.  

HO vs N Scale
7/17/2015
The current N scale A&BR is my third model railroad. The first two were HO. So I have experience in both scales. As I contemplate the possibility of an all new A&BR2, the question of scale seems to be paramount. Which scale should I choose? 

There has been a great deal written on this subject, and generally both camps remain entrenched. Both scales have advantages and disadvantages, and there are a number of areas to compare. 

HO just feels good, and operationally it seems to me a bit more robust and stable in almost all regards. Trackwork, loco mechanics, wheels, trucks, and couplers are all less delicate, easier to work on, more sturdy, and a bit more forgiving. Still, under ideal circumstances, today's N scale models can be set up to run quite reliably. However, as we all know, circumstances are not always ideal, and it takes perfect trackwork and constant, jeweler-like precision to keep a large N Scale operation perfectly tweaked and operating without incident. For me, its more stable mechanical performance is the largest asset in HO's time-honored bank.

All of the above-discussed visual issues pretty much disappear in N scale. In fact for me, modeling in N has a completely different focus than modeling in HO. In HO, one tends to focus on individual scenes, whereas in N, one's principle focus tends to be the panoramic sweep of the landscape as a whole. None of this should be construed to imply that one can't create detailed scenes in N. As this web site I hope proves, one certainly can do detailed work in N, while at the same time, the diminutive size of N scale structures, trees, vehicles, figures etc. tends to discourage the kind of "rivet-counting" analism one sometimes encounters in larger scale modeling. In my mind, the ability to create convincing natural, sweeping, panoramic landscapes containing entire towns, large yards, and sprawling industrial developments, coupled with the ability to create the illusion of receding  distances near the backdrop make up by far the largest deposit in the N scale account. In fact, for me this is the game-breaker in N's favor. 

A 34 inch deep section of the current A&RB modeling a mountain river crossing. Notice in N Scale there is ample room for a roadway, a double track  crossing, a single track crossing behind, and a distant double trick "high line." Notice the forced perspective achieved by using progressively smaller trees beyond the high line track to the left and the z scale house on the hilltop to the right. Achieving this kind of panoramic result in a front-to-back space of only 34 inches would be difficult if not impossible in HO.

N Scale Preliminary Design: Double track mainline all around with one reversing loop, large yard, passenger terminal, 3 depots - very similar to my current track plan, but the large train room allows for behind-the-backdrop access isles for access to tunnels on 3 sides, much longer side-wall runs, larger radii, and, of course, the addition of the massive 5.5 foot wide 25 foot long center section.

The additon of a center soffit wall will effectivly hide the  opposing flourescent light fixture.

Reworking the design to accommodate the center entrance and the outside stairway.

Tweaking the track plan to set the ladders of Altamont Terminal and Altamont Yard and the highroad track at East River at angles to the bench edge, and roughing in mountain locations to hide un-prototypically tight curves in tunnels. Roads, indicated in gray with bridges in orange, are roughed in without elevation notations just to get a general feel for how things might look as we progress. Crossing signals are indicated by two red dots.

4 Power Districts (Purple, Green, Blue, Brown)each with 16 detection blocks, 1 District (Yellow) with 8 detection blocks and 2 single line Districts with auto-reversing for the reversing loops (Red).

This is the kind of tweaking that comes from thinking about the plan and tracing imaginary train routes. The added crossovers allow access to sidings located on the opposite side of the other parallel mainline track.

A&BR2 Turnout list (68)

Trunouts at Fitzhugh (7)

Turnouts at Westridge (6)

Turnouts at East River (8)

Turnouts at Little River(7)

Turnouts at Altamont Yard (19)

Turnouts at Altamont Terminal (21)

 Again this list will aid in keeping things in order when wiring begins and when the numbers are filled it will also be helpful in layout servicing and troubleshooting. 

before

after

before

after

	Dwarf Signal prototype on the test bread board. The target board on this prototype  is a cut away section of a Shapeways 3 aspect N scale target. I plan to use the round single aspect Shapeways target for the rest of these.

A new section of Atlas Code 55 track above and a weathered section below. You can see how the flat dark brown flattens out the look of the ties and gives a realistic look to the side of the rails, and how the gray misting dulls the color a bit ( I did not use any light brown on this section of track. Finally notice that when I sprayed the final dusting of white, that the spray can did not put out a fine mist. Rrather, it  produced a very fine spatter. I kind of like this effect, and I wish I could get it to do that every time.

	.040 styrene plastic tempalte with the scanner copy image of the botom of a #7 RH turnout glued to it.
	#7 RH turnout above and below, the top of the #7 RH tempalte labeld and with center guides drilled.

Top row: 12x12 NDL168 Mounitng Bords Bottom row: 2 overlapping 12x24 PM42/BDL168 combo Mountng Boards

DS64 Mounting Board with 16AGW transitioning to 20 AGW.

Notice the color-coded label (Green for Power District 90-1 BDL168 #95, with the device board number to the left and the list of the 4 outputs including the associated addresses and descriptive turnout names to the right.

24 position Wire  Mountting board labels will be 12 inches long with 24 1/2 inch divisions. They will attach to the board every six feet or so.

Servo with lever,  rod, and clevis attached to dimmer slider & the SSC32 Servo Control Board

DPM Structures on the A&BR1

The kits

The containers

Painting the inside of the wall sections black.

I keep a variety of canned  flat spray paints, primers, and camouflage colors on the shelf  in my shop. On hand I generally have: black, white, dark green, olive green, light yellowish green, yellow, dark gray, medium gray, light gray, light tan, cream, medium tan, dark brown, 2 shades of brick, light blue, light pinkish purple, as well as metallic aluminum, several gloss coats, a matte finish, and Testors Dull Coat.

My Paint Box with the new Vallajo WWII Armor Assortment in the lid.

Again working in groups of four, I first spray paint the brick side of all the wall sections using  the window trim color. Here the window trim will be a nice dark-chocolate brown. I do not spray straight down, but rather from angles to insure that inside of the window frames are covered. Four quick light passes, spraying at angles first from 12 o'clock, next from 3, 6, and finally from 9 o'clock ought to do it. I then let them dry completely.

Cutting the mask for the individual windows is a bit tedious to be sure, but it goes surprisingly  fast once you get the hang of it. The secret here is and very sharp hobby knife and the very thin, not too sticky, Scotch Brand tape used for the masking. It is easy to cut, it  stays in place, is easy to remove almost immediately after painting, and it does not bring any of the window trim color away with it. In cases where the window trim is to be the same color as the other trim, you can mask off the store front and the top cornice as well before painting the brick.

Over-paint the brick wall color. Here I've used a mustardy ocre color from my new Vellajo paints, which are great - good coverage, good consistency, good container. - very nice. Again, if you use spray, just enough to cover. Don't soak it. When the paint is starting to dry but not fully dry, remove the window masks with tweezers. Then after the overcoat is completely dry, touch up with a brush dipped in a tiny bit of the trim color spray paint sprayed into a small cup. Generally, not much touch up is needed, and generally the line along the window trim is much cleaner than anything you could paint by hand.

Next paint the other trim, including the storefront, and the stone window headers,  capstones, and sills. This is generally easy, owing to the fact that most of this is painting raised surfaces, so nice, clean edges are easy to get. If the store front is to be the same color as the window trim, you can simply mask it off before you paint the brick. If it is a different color, you can spray paint it by masking off the brick, or you can hand do it. No big deal.

I generally use a thin white acrylic paint wash to articulate the masonry of unpainted brick. A few drops of acrylic white mixed with maybe 1/2 tsp water and rubbing alcohol to break the surface tension  - about a 50/50 mixture.  The idea is to get the wash to remain in the recesses of the masonry joints. It is best to use a very light color for window trim if you are going to use the masonry wash.

If you are going to have any stacks or pipes coming up through the roof, drill holes, paint the pipes and glue them in place now. Also glue down any large roof-top structures. After everything is dry, paint the flat black roof top with a rather thick coat of  white glue, and sprinkle on some ballast. I like to use regular gray or multicolored  HO ballast. I like the look of it better than N scale ballast which is just too fine for my tastes. I will also often sprinkle on a spot or two of black or dark gray ballast or brown or tan to keep things from looking too pristine and perfect. I also sometimes leave the black roof top showing through or partly showing through in a few spots, and I sometimes add dabs of black acrylic paint to simulate tar spots or patches etc. Unless you plan some really large roof top structure, you can glue smaller details like pipes and vents, and tanks over the ballast.

Here is a large milling factory on the A&BR1. This complex, designed to fit terracing in a steep hillside, was kitbashed from several DPM kits and a handful of extra wall sections.

A "Background" Building. Each  DPM kit will, of course, yield two of these: a front section and a rear section.

Completed DPM kitbash. I have only to add the shop signs on the four latteral sign hanging shafts above the doors and place a small water tank to the roof, and I'll be done.

Here is the prototype with its label and with + and - 30 agw wires and resistors attached to a 24 pin strip, enoungh  for 12 LEDS. Note: Since I later decided to not to use the 30 agw wraping wire, and switch to a  20 agw daisy chian method, I will not use the distribution blocks detailed here (See post of 6-24-2016.)

Track Layoing Work Bench

Ready to lay track, wire, install tortoises on perfab section

Here is a weathered turnout in the foreground beside an unwaethered turnout.

Below is a turnout with the two small sections of plastic sleeper material cut away beneath the stock rails adjacent to the frog. (you can do this anywhere you like on underside of the stock rails. Above is the completed wired turnout. The idea here is to use the small 22 agw solid copper bus wire for a neat connection to the underside of the rail and then hide (insulate) the solder connection between that dropper and the larger insulated 10 agw dropper wire extensions inside the pass-through hole in the bench top. Some might argue that hiding this connection could create a maintenance problem in the future. However, should the connection to the rail or the joint between the wires fail, I am careful to put a short servie loop below each pass-through to facilitate repairs. Alternatively it is a simple matter to drill a new hole beside the rail, install a new, slightly longer  22 agw bypassing-dropper to the side of the rail and then attach that to the dropper extension underneath the bench without having to take up the turnout. Side-of-the-rail connections are the norm on many layouts, and hiding such connections in the ballast is very easy to do.

Cork glued in place, center lines and cross memeber lines drawn, holes marked and drilled, and turnouts installed and tacked down. The turnout in the right foregroud is not yet lined up with the center mark, but when it is alligned, the throw bar will be positioned directly above the large 1/2 inch hole in the bench most of which which you can see in the shadow just to the right of the cork pad in th elower left of the photo.

Completed track work. Note the 2x4 guards tacked in place to protect the track work. The entire section will rest on these guards when I turn this over to work on the back.

Seven Tortoise Machines with labels and track wired up via Tortoise interface barrier blocks..If you look very closely at the thrid and forth barrier block in this picture, you can see some of the 30 agw wiriung for the layout lights, which I later ditched in favor or more robust 20 agw wiring.

Here is the nearly finished section with the dwarf signals illuminated. I have yet to install sleepers to replace those removed for rail joiners. Also, notice that I have added a line of cork roadbed with narrow cutouts under the turnout throw bars and dwarf signals along the sides of the intalllation. In additon I have drilled 1/2  inch holes to accomodate future signal masts. (See the my entries regarding signal placement 2-24-16 and 7-4-16.)

Testing prefab section track work and wiring on the the prefab bench using my spare  DCS 100, 2 DS64s and my Digitrax throttle.

First photo of the new train room. 7-5-2016

Prefab Module on the work bench with Tortoise Machines and Tortoise interface and  track (red, black), frog (yellow) and LED dwarf signal light (blue+, green-) droppers attached. Note the small service loops.

Here is an Xtrack CAD printout of a 48x 8 inch prefab section with my notes for locating track, turnouts, and cross members of the bench. This gives me accuarcy down to about 1/8 of an inch, and sould any finer adjust be needed, I can take care of it  when I position the prefab section on the bench work.

Concrete finishers at work in the new train room. We should begin rough carpentry soon.

Here are some Model Power figures being painted. I hold them by hand and use a piece of  duct tape, sticky side out aroud a small piece of .040 styrene to hold them upright while drying. Not pictured is my large fluorescent magnifying lamp. Since Testors discontinued the manufacture of their Railroad Colors line. I have been in the process of changing out all my paints to the Vallejo brand of water soluble flat acrylics. I particularly like the plastic squeeze bottles, which make it easy. Simply shake it up, and dispense just a tiny drop of well-mixed paint, without having the clean the lid and worry too much about the proper resealing of the bottle. I think that these paints are going to last much longer than those that come in little glass bottles, like Model Master. In these plastic bottles, they seal more fully and easily and appear to be much less likely to dry up.

A night view of the platform at Westridge on the A&BR1. Notice how the directionality of the warm white 3mm LEDs I have selected, creates distinct shadows and realistic, soft pools of light on the platform.

Here is the completed underside  light assembly. Not pretty, but it doesn't need to be, becaue except for the two vertical "conduits." the wirung and the top part of the bulbs are hidden from view.

Testing four 3mm LEDs on a breadboard using a 10K resistor hooked to 12 volt supply.

A finished 4 bulb platform section. The concrete floor and the black metal roof both need a little weatherng ( a light black wash for the floor will bring out the pattern on the slab sections, and just a littel RustAll on the roof will give some highights and articulate the crimping joints. I think the LEDs are still too bright here. A larger resistor will dim them a bit and give me softer, more diffuse pools of light. I am using a 1K ohm resistor here,. After some experimenting, I settled on a 8.6k resistor. You have alot of latitude here.

New train room for the A&BR2 - 38' (widest) x 22' with a 9' ceiling. For N Scale, this is enormous. I calculate that, if a train were to run a complete loop starting by the entrance and continuing all the way around the room, back to its point of beginning, including a loop along the long center section of bench work, it would travel almost 9 scale miles.

Roofers and Plumbers next week. Finish date Jan 1 ?????

Backdrop Wall and Lighting Fir-Down  Wall Sections

XCAD rendering with new dimensions and details of wall section placement.

A portion of the framing of the initial stage of the backdrop wall showing a 4 foot radius corner, the basic 32"-on-center framing.Notice the access aisle behind the backdrop wall. The drop-down-from-the-ceiling lighting soffit walls are not yet constructed.

Final Lighting and Electrical. The long blue rectangles are the 4 foot long single bulb fluorescent fixtures and the light blue circles are conventional screw-in sockets for HUE lights.The squares are double duplex outlets. Switches are marked with an "S". Each square in the grid = 1 foot.

	Standing in a viewing aisle and looking toward a corner of the train room. The drop-down framing attached to the ceiling forms deep soffits to hide the lighting fixtures and duct work. The bottom of the radial corner is about 14 inches above the future bench top to allow a generous reach-through portal behind the curved wall to access the tunnel that will go in this corner. I plan to sheet rock all the way down to the bench top, and then cut away the reach-through to match the contour of the mountain.
	More detail of the drop-down soffit walls.
	A view down the bench, which will go just below the lowest cross member. Again we are looking toward a corner radius, and in this photo we can see the access aisle behind the backdrop walls.

Using dark brown and a light tan "camouflage color" and a medium gray primer, all in spray cans, I put on a heavy coat of the dark brown making sure to coat the side of the rails, followed by a misting of gray and then of tan., wiping the rails clean immdeiately after each coat. Check out the 6-8-2016 entry in this blog for details regarding my technique. I then paint the spike-heads rust color and use a slightly dried out felt-tipped marker and a straight edge to dark the oil stain line in the center of the sleepers.

Straight pins painted white with signs made in MicroSoft WORD using the table function printed on light card stock. Turnout signs are two sided, "S" and "W:" sign are one-sided.

Here is a photo of one corner of the train room. The backdrop walls and the lighting soffit above the bench are painted sky blue and inside of the soffits are painted black above the viewing aisles. The bench will be 44.5 inches above the floor. That is even with the top of the open stud wall on the left. It separates the behind-the-backdrop service aisle from the train room and allows for under-bench access from both sides of the bench.

Keeping the backdrop simple. In this scene on the Altamont and Blue Ridge 1, there is a tree line at the top of the rise of the 3 dimensional hill in the distance, then a cut-out mountain made by gluing foliage 1/2"  homasote, and finally two layers of hazy, distant mountains painted over the clouds on the back drop. This gives the illusion that the clouds are rising from behind the mountains.

The very first project on the A&BR2: painting clouds. John Constable, move over!

I am no great mural painter, but I was able to get pretty good results after a bit of practice. I got a panel of sheet rock, cut it into 24 x 36 sections, and painted them the sky color. Then on the Internet I read  articles and watched videos regarding cloud painting techniques. Most of these tutorials deal with painting with oils or acrylics, so I had to alter  the technique slightly to work with plain old flat latex wall paint and larger brushes This is not rocket science, and after a few trys, I got the hang of it, and developed some techniques that work pretty well. Notice here my utility work cart (a restaurant busing cart) with two lighting posts clamped to the side. This supplies plenty of space to keep brushes, paint, water-wash, rags, sponges etc. close at hand. Normally I use this cart for tools and stuff I use regularly in the train room. Without the lighting posts, it rolls right up under the bench and is very handy especially when working in places where the layout is nearly finished and there is no place to stage your tools, paints, glues, landscaping  materials  etc. Highly recommended.

Clouds in a row.  This just isn't quite right.

Here's the revised effort. This should work much better. I know this looks like a lot of coulds, but over half of the bottoms of these will be hidden behind the mountans when the scenery is competed. This work is very forgiving. If you want to change something, just lightly sand the surface of the old pianted cloud, paint over it with the sky color, let it dry, and start over.

This section will hinge from the stationary riser supported by the 2 x 4 braces to the right. The hinged section will allow the City of Altamont to be laid out on a terraced parallel grid, three stepped terraces, each 1.5 inches above the next. The lower, stationary terrace will accommodate the mainline and the siding, a row of warehouses and stores, and finally a street next to the bench edge. The middle level will accommodate two rows of buildings facing the main street (a divided two lane affair with a streetcar track in the center). This layer will have to be notched  at the cross-street intersections to allow for rather steep streets going down to the level below. The upper level will accommodate two rows of buildings facing a 1.5 inch, two-way street (the back row of buildings will be narrow "background" buildings), and there will be homasote cut-outs to form two tree lines set out from the backdrop wall. Note that the first four tracks next to the wall are part of a grade not shown in this drawings. This will require me to notch the 1x4 above the highest terrace level.

The hinged bench top to access the rest of the track below the city of Altamont will hinge from a 2x4 runner nailed to the backdrop wall. This will allow access to the hidden yard from the viewing aisle side of the bench. Note that there is no upper level here, only open bench frame for low hills The city will narrow here for a residential district on the north side and a warehouse district above Altamont Yard on the south side. I plan to fashion this so that I can stand in the opening between the track next to the wall and the  lower terrace level when the cover is open.

This this a very crude  rough-in, but my new cloulds seem to work pretty well against the mountains, especially since this is a a mock-up at bench top height. Many of the strucutures on the layout will be at higher elevations than this, up to 8 inches above bench top level, and some of the the 3 dimensional mountains will rise above that. So in spots, only the top of the cloud bank will be visible.

Layer 6 was a low tree line made with homasote painted dark green and covered with clump foliage. Where I could, I placed this cutout tree line about 1/2 inch in front of layer 5 which is screwed to the backdrop. Layer 5 was a 1/2 inch homasote cutout painted dark green with clump foliage glued on. I sprayed this with a duller, less vibrant green and little gray for distancing. Layer 4  was a .040 styrene cutout painted dark green with ground foam glued on, and then spayed painted to look kind of misty. Layers 2 and 3 were misty painted .040 styrene cutouts. Layer 1 consisted of one or two ranges of very distant mountain silhouettes painted right on the back drop.

	I have not drawn all the lateral supports, which will be initially tacked in using sleet rock screws. These will be 2 feet on center and will later be adjusted where needed to accommodate switch machines etc.
	Bench work cross section detail
	Bench work corners

Preliminary sketches. I think a horizin 12" above bench top will work, but I will know better when I get this mock-up built. Notice that in this section the roadbed grade rises from 3 to 4 inchs above the bench, so with a 2 or 3 inch tree line, this leaves only from 5 to 7 inches or so for the layered mountains.

The view from my front porch. A soft panorama. A summer version of this view is the terrain I want to recreate. It is interesting to note the light source is from the right here. This is a detail I will observe in order to achieve depth and and interenst and to  make images on all four walls appear to have a single light source. I have done this already with my clouds. On the west wall, the clouds are front-lit; on the east wall they are back-lit; on the south wall the light comes from the left , and one the  north wall it come from the right. This is all consistent with a summer afternoon, with the sun in the Western sky. I can do the same thing with the mountains. It is a subtle point, but every little detail adds a little something to the overall effect.

Here is the painted, roughed-out, 4 foot-long, mountain-layer mock-up positioned next to the future 1.9% grade at Fitzhugh, which at this point is between 3 and 4 inches above the bench top. At its highest points the silhouettes are about 8 to 9 inchs high forming a horizon that is about 12 inches above the bench top. This horizon line and the scale look good to me. I tried this with slightly higher mountains (15 inches above the bench) and that did not work as well.  There is a 2.5 to 3 inch 1/2 inch ply wood tree line layer in front, with a plywood layer for clump foliage behind that; next a .040 styrene layer that will be covered with fine foliage; and finally the .020 distant blue mountain layer, upon which several nearer ranges may be painted. At this point all the silhouettes are painted black except for the distant light blue mountain silhouette in the back. The application of various shades of foliage, misting with spray paint, creating shadows on the side away from the sun (in this case the left side) and painting highlights will follow.

Here the tree line, which is tight-up against the first layer of mountains with no space in between, is covered with medium green clump foliage with a good bit of light green foliage mixed in, especially along the top. The light green top helps to highlight the silhouette and to articulate it from the darker, more uniformly colored layer of mountains behind, which are covered with a combination of medium green and dark green clump foliage. I think when I mask and apply a little spray paint I can make the tree line stand out a bit more by highlighting the top of the tree line with a little very light green or yellow and by spraying a subtle mist of gray on the first layer of mountains behind. The second range of mountains behind that, which will be covered with finer foliage and will be sprayed with even more gray and some light blue, and the next range, which will either be painted a misty blue-green-gray color (or perhaps just a flat color or perhaps with more painted detail) in front of the light blue horizon ridg . Since this mountan layer "sandwich" is not attached to the wall at this point and since all of these layers easily come apart, all of this spary painting can be done on my paint-bench and the masking or shielding from layer to layer will be easy. Once I establish the spraying shades for the different layers, future layers can be sprayed before assembly and there wil be not need for tedious shielding or masking.

	Here is the "before" - a straight uninterrupted tree line right down to the  future roadbed.
	Here is the cut out to be pasted in  -  a photo I found on the Internet and sized, cropped, and retouched in photshop to make it the right scale and soft, dark, and misty. This is printed on 110 point card stock.
	Here is the "after" photo with the photo cutout  in place. I  glued on a few 3 dimensional tree trunks made from painted wire, toothpicks, and kitchen skewers to establish a foreground and to push the misty photo to the back. Finally, a few clump foliage bushes at ground level break up the straight line on the bottom of the form.

After a bit of experimentation, I found that the mountain module looked best without the extra layer of far mountains that I had planned. The light blue cutout  looks great against the clouds. Adding another  layer in front of it, no matter how well painted, proved distracting, So I'll keep it clean and simple. I have not added the shadows to any of these mountains to establish the light source as planned. I may experiment with that later, but something tells me this will work better without that complication.

The completed clouds may look a bit over-the-top, but remember only the top half or so will show once the mountains and the foreground scenery is complete. Also I will re-touch each section of  clouds to fit the scenery in front just as I did with the 4-foot section above. (The cutout section of wall on the far side is for behind-the-backdrop hidden yard access under the City of Altamont. This may be higher than needed, and so I may sheet rock over some or all of this depending on the clearances afforded by the hinged top that will go in front of it.)

Bench height seems good. The 36 inch front-to-back dimension is a reach but I think workable. Access to the wire mounting board is pretty good if you are seated on a low bench or stool, but the top two or three inches are perhaps a bit hard to get to. I don't want to lower it, because the duck under is already pretty low, so I plan to reviese the wiring layout for the board so that wires in the top few positions are wires with very few intermendiate connections like loconet, signal cables and system grounds, etc. The only other change involves the height of the fascia. I have raised it up 1 1/4 inches so that it will cover the edges of the plywood/homasote layers of decking or roadbed. This will necessitate making it 9 1/4 inches wide instead of the 8 inch width pictured here.

	Looking east down the aisle between the center and  the north sections. The center setion is huge - 5 feet wide and 22 feet long. I'll not lay track on this section until I have pretty well finished the rest so I can use it as a work bench and staging area for materials. Here we see some plywood ready for future use.
	Looking east down the aisle between the center and the north sections. In the left foreground we can see one of the two 5-foot-wide turn-around sections by the door. Track access in tunnels on these large sections is going to be tricky. Also construction of the mountain in the difficult-to-reach center of the turn around section will be a challenge,

The 30" radius 180 degree +  loop begins the 1.7% grade from elevation +0" in the cut in the background of this photo up to the depot and main town area at Elevation +2.25". The diverging single track line along the  backdrop wall continues up to Altamont City at elevation +5". In the foreground we see the flat area for the industrial park and siding at elevation 1.25" on the right and the open bench work that will be covered by Fitzhugh Mountain, which will rise to elevation +14". The back drop wall will be cut away below the line where the mountain abuts the sheetrock to allow good access to track  in the tunnel. In the distance we can see the two long flats for the town of Fitzhugh on either side of the lower +0 elevation mainline cut.

The mainline will run in a cut 2.25 " below the town to allow for an auto road bridge connecting the two sides of the town of Fitzhugh. Near the center of this photo we see the roadbed and grade for the diverging siding up to Fitzhugh Industrial Park. Above and further back is the mainline crossover and the entrance to the Fitzhugh depot siding.

Here we see the bench fascia above, the wire mounting board below that, and the DCS100 Booster on its pedistal. Mounted on spacers 3/4" above the mounting board, a PM42 unit is wired to the booster flanked by an empty BDL168 interface. Notice the 10AGW track power output  connection from the PM42 up and over the mounting board and then down into the conduit in the floor leadng to the BDL168 at Fitzhugh, Also notice the blue/green - brown/white 12/5 volt bus bundle running along the bottom inch of the wire mounting board connected to the 12/5 volt power supply (both swithched and unswitched).

Here we see a few DS64 units  mounted above the wire mounting board and the Aux Power Supply - 12 volt (brown/white) unswithed DC power to DS64s, 5 volt (blue/green) unswithced DC to Dwarf Signals, 12 volt swithed DC to LED lighting chains, and switched 5 volt DC to individual LED layout lights. Relay switching is accomplished using a DS64 output and zenor diode to make the polarity reversing output into an ON/OFF output. The aux power distribution lines running along the bottom 1" of the wire mounting board can be clearly seen below the DS64 units.

Underside of the undetected routes of the Fitzhugh Crossovers Prefabricated Turnout Module with the back of the wire mounting board below. Connecting a prefabricated turnout module requires lines to power each Tortoise Switch Machine, the connection of + and - 5 volt DC power for dwarf signals (blue/green), and the A and B Rail track power cables (red/black), which feed all of the module's track sections.

Cork raodbed on the 180 degree 1.7% grade at Fitzhugh. Ready to lay track. Note the shadow caused by the work lights blocked by in the sofifit overhang. This will disappear when the flourescent fixtures are installed as they will be placed much farther back on the sofit.

Here is the track laid on the three parallel lines rising out of the cut at Fitzhugh, bending first to the right and then back to to left into the long 180 degree curve. Notice the short straight section in between the left and the right hand curves. Most of this long curve will be in a tunnel so this is the stretch of track a viewer will see east bound out of Fitzhugh. Despite the fact that on the prototype these curves 2would be more gradual, this looks very prototypical to me.

	Wire mounting board master label. These labels are printed on plain white paper and then laminated with clear packing tape. They are then stapled to the wire mounting board. Notice the individual pass-through hole wire labels for 95 Common Rail-B and for the Fitzhugh Crossover undetected routes A-Rail (lower right).
	The back of the wire mounting board with individual wire labels. Plain paper labels affixed with white glue.
	Dropper labels. Plain paper labels affixed with white glue.
	A track power distribution block on the back of the wire mounting board with droppers above. The 10AGW twisted pair  is the track output of PM90 district 1 (90-1) on it way up from the under-the-floor conduit to connect with BDL168 #95 (the Fitzhugh district -green ).

	Hatch cover and hatch cover supports.
	Hatch cover in place.

Sketching the mountain foot print.

Construct tunnel entrances first. I make a homasote mounting plate with openings slightly large than the tunnel portal and screw the plate to a small wooden block that is screwed down to the bench top. Before running my clearance test train, I tack-glue my molded plaster portals to the homasote. (For all tunnel portals, retaining walls, etc.I buy a single plastic prototype, and from it I make a latex mold so I can cast clones in plaster of paris) The double portal here is not wide enough for my mainline-curve 1 1/2 inch track spacing, so I'll have to cut it, separate the two halves on the mounting board by about half and inch and fill the gap with Sculptamold carved to match the stone pattern. When it is painted and weathered, the patch is not perceptible.

	Mountain wall plate.
	Mountain wall plate with sheet rock cut away.

Fitzhugh Mountain basic framework complete. This is a really good technique for building large topographical features. It is rigid, strong, very light weight, and it affords quite a bit of flexibility creatively. Notice "bumps" in the contour about half way up the slope. These are for the rock outcroppings and low stepped rock cliffs that will be installed at the time of the screen and Sculptamold application. Also I may go back and cut in some flat spots somewhere on the upper slope to accommodate a few Z scale buildings. I'll tend to this later when I work on the forced perspective. This is just the basic framework and there will be a lot more to do on this and other on mountains later on. I include the basic mountain frames on my the preliminary work list in order to be sure that the access to all track underneath the mountain is adiquate. The cut away sheetrock under the mountain allows me to easily view and to reach all the track in the tunnel, and the hatch allows for easy service access to the three hard-to-reach turnouts next to the back drop wall.

	My first rough three dimensional sketch of White Side Mountain.
	A more detailed  topo in progress.

Some low sheared rock face cliffs on my A&BR1 constructed using Sculptamold and pieces cut from a foam cast Isle Labs  multi-scale embankment. This is how I'll gradually step up to the summit on longer the Altamont City side of the mountain.

Quite often, before I build a bit of scenery, I go on line and use my search engine to find photos to guide and inspire me. These photos are useful in the planning stage for ideas and in the building stage to supply guides for shaping and painting etc. Here are some high smooth rock cliffs on the real White Side Mountain near Highlands, NC. This is the way I'll bring the mountain abruptly down to the lake on the short side near Fitzhugh using smooth Sculptamold cut here and there to create the diagonal and vertical fissures seen in this photo. When painted to look like this and adorned with a little clump foliage, this should look great on the A&BR2.

Here is the completed track work for the Fitzhugh curve and the against-the-backdrop homasote silhouette and sheet rock cutaway. On the right side of the mountain will be steep, smooth rock cliffs and the lake below, and on the left, the mountain's gradual  slope will terminate into the wooden form that defines the three tiered terracing at Altamont City.The overpass and raised roadbed is for the Altamont High Line. Track will not be laid here until the bridge is complete.

Here is the basic mountain frame for White Side Mountain. Notice that the ample sheet rock cutaway gives excellent access to all track in the tunnels. Also notice the white .040 sheet styrene strip that will serve as a template for the curved bridge across the lake. Although it is not clear in this photo, the styrene strip is a perfect 31 inch radius (outside dimension) and exactly the length of the Micro Engineering Tall Steel Viaduct bridge kit span (24 inches). This track-tie-width strip will aid in the placement of the abutments, and in the construction of the bridge it self.

View of White Side Mountain showing the entrances to the sidings in the hidden yard and the crossover and entrance to the Fitzhugh depot siding.

The finished bridge ready for track laying with supports on temporary footings, abutments installed, the roughed-in lake, and the backdrop panel for far shoreline and mountain silhouette.

Hidden yard track laying completed.Since all of this trackage is hidden from view, I have used un-weathered track right out of the the box, and I have not patched any of the spaces where ties have been removed in order to make joints or dropper connections. Also since I raised the elevation of the the depot and surrounding buildings at Fitzhugh, I have had to create a grade up to this level at 2.25 inches above 0 bench level. On the Fitzhugh Mountain side, this was accomplished by simply having the two main line tracks ascend the grade along side of the Altamont High Line and then split off to level at elevation 2.25.  On the Fitzhugh Curve side, the long grade is part of the first four tracks on the curve and  in the hidden yard. This means I had to split the two prefab modules lengthwise so one could be flat and one on a grade.

Fitzhugh Power District #95: a section of the wire mounting board completed below the approach to Fitzhugh Mountain. I am very happy with the mounting board scheme. Not only does it keep all of my wiring accessible, visible, and neat, it minimizes the chances of cross-talk and impedance problems by keeping all 12AGW post-occupancy sensor buses parallel and at least 1/2 inch apart. Power feeds to the occupancy sensors from the power managers and from the booster to the power managers are 10AGW twisted pair. The "XX" mark on the bench leg is to indicate the location of an AC outlet. there will be 12 of these around the layout attached to bench legs and all switched on/off on the master control panel, which will be located by the computer console, so a single switch will power up/down the entire layout. This master panel will also have the HVAC thermostat control and the servo controlled dimmers for the room lights.

	Hidden Yard Hinged Cover#1 -Closed   This cover is the framework for the terracing in the City of Altamont - 3 levels, each 1 1/2 inches above the next. The main streets will run latterly and parallel. I'll notch the cross members to accomodate perpendicular graded cross streets connecting the main streets on all levels.
	Hidden Yard Hinged Cove#1 - Open      Access to the hidden yards is excellent from behind the backdrop wall - so much so that I will be able to add about 6 inches of sheet rock to the lower edge of the backdrop behind this section. This will make the horizon behind this section line up better with the horizon behind the Fitzhugh and the Altamont Yard sections. I'll delay adding the tree line and mountain silhouettes until I lower the sheet rock opening. The transition here from 3 dimensional foreground to flat backdrop will be involved with lots of paste on photos, so it is best to delay the addition of the silhouetts unitl I add streets and buildings on the back terrace.
	Hidden Yard Hinged Cover#2 - Closed   This cover opens the other way, that is to say, it hinges on the backdrop wall and allows access to the track and turnouts in the North end of the hidden yard from the bench aisle. There is no terracing here, and I will just rough in the flat areas and a suggstion of the mountain shapes for now. My plan includes a small area of high ground in the center of the City of Altamont. with a Cathedral atop. North of that,  I'll  build rolling hills for a high-end residential area. At the north end of this cover, I'll transition into the mountain at the Altamont Curve and two  large cuts where the mainlines will run. See the following sketch.
	With this cover fully open and the hatch removed, I can stand in between the bench cross members with excellent access to the track and turnouts at this end of the hidden  yard.

The general topography here calls for two mountains, one peaking in front of  the mountain  silhouette, which is set a few inches out from the backdrop wall so the hinged cover will have room to open and one peaking against the curved backdrop wall. There are ridge-like fingers extending down into the terminal area on the center section of the layout, and down and around the Altamont curve to form the cuts. There is a High Line viaduct and a bridge and two roadway bridges and two sets of tunnel portals. The stand-in access opening will be covered by a one foot by four foot removable hatch.

Here I have roughed in the high ground for the cathedral (back far right), the summit line of the ridge   (back right center) and rolling hills with falt spaces where the Z scale painted ladies (Victorian mansions will be (back left). That is all I will do for now. I plan to line the tracks and the roadway that will run along the 8 inch-wide lateral plywood board in the foreground with old houses facing the railroad. This was the popular style around turn of the twentieth century in so many Southern towns.  I'll build these features later and create the illusion of depth working in small sections front to back. Also I want to wait to install the flat mountain sihouettes on the bck drop wall unit I install the silhouettes on the Altamont Curve so I can make a good transition  between this section and the next.

	Here are the prefabricated turnout modules installed and wired to buses on the mounting board and the plywood/homasote roadbed on the curve completed. Since all the track is accessed from above, and since the mountain here consists of only the narrow high ground and small cut away sections of the ridge, and since there are many flat yard ladder spurs on this section, I decided not to use any open bench work here. Rather than build runners, I covered the entire section with plywood and homasote the same way I will do on the adjoining yard section.
	Here is the rack laid and wired on the Altamont Curve. For whatever reason, in my planning I neglected to assign blocks to all four mainline tracks on the Altamont Curve. These are far too long to function well as routes, so I had to steal occupancy sensor resources from the yard ladder and change the TrainController switchboard accordingly. I am now left with four more undetected ladder spurs in Altamont Yard. I may add an additional BDL168, or I may try some other brand of detection circuit. I have been interested in the RR Cirkits line of products for some time.
	Mountain background silhouettes and mountain forms roughed in to form the cuts. The central ridge between the two cuts will be a rough, forested, rocky slope with steep rock walls dropping straight down to track-side in the cut itself. Notice the narrow curved roadbed supported by two plywood plates for the bridge abutments. This narrow curved strip will  will support the track on the rocky crag between the two bridges.
	Here are the completed backdrop silhouettes, and the roughed in bridges, bridge abutments, and temporary bridge support footings for the Altamont High Line as it crosses the yard ladder spurs and the two mainline track pairs of the Altamont Curve and the South entrance to Altamont Terminal. Here two long curved Micro Engineering Tall Steel Viaducts are used. Instead of making one long viaduct, I opted to have a rock formation cut from the spine of the descending mountain ridge separate the two viaducts. This way the High Line curve begins and ends with a viaduct at either end with a short section of  rocky mountain in the middle. I had to kitbash both of the 24 inch-long viaducts to make an exact fit. I've shortened the north span on the north bridge and lengthened the center span on the south bridge.