Weyerhaeuser Paper Products

 Industry number 2 for my Freeport Industrial Center layout is Weyerhaeuser Paper Products.  This represents an industry that was actually located a couple of miles farther west on the line but it is one I have always been interested in.  Weyerhaeuser receives a lot of traffic, several carloads of paper, each week.  This is enough to justify switching this industry on almost every operating session.

Boxcars are spotted at the loading dock and the car order is not important.  This makes for a fairly easy job.  The types of cars are mostly 40ft to 60ft hi-cube boxcars.  Standard height 50ft cars can also be used.  The most challenging part of the job is that it is a leading point switch so a runaround is always required.

The loading dock is a neat feature of this industry and will accommodate 3 cars typically, though you can fit in 4 cars if they are all 40ft.  On the prototype, there is a roof over the dock and the car spots.  I really wanted to model this feature but there is just not enough room between the industry spur and the mainline to make it look right.  I might do the cover only over the dock.  Below you can see what the building looks like today.

The building is comprised of two Walthers Modern Concrete Warehouse Background Building kits.  This allowed me to build a building that is 33.5" long and about 2" deep.  The footprint of the industry will end up being about 42" wide when it's all done.  The dock is made from one set of Pikestuff Modular Loading Dock kit.  The dock is not yet attached to the building but will be once the site has been properly leveled.  I added a few roof details from the Walthers Roof Details kit.  This is a must as the background building kits have no roof details at all.  There are other similar industries in the Phoenix area and it seems to be common practice to store extra paper rolls outside.  These rolls are huge and I will add a few next to the building once I decide on a modeling method.

Southwest Grocery Distribution

 Just a quick update on the first industry for my layout - Southwest Grocery Distribution.  This is a large concrete warehouse with three car spots.  The entire model is about 42" long and is along the backdrop off the mainline (the mainline on my layout is actually visible staging).  The basic assembly is about 90% complete with the final details to be added after painting.

The first door (the largest) is for refers only.  The middle door can be either refers or general boxcar.  The last door is for boxcars only.  This door arrangement should make for some interesting switching and may require off-spotting cars from time to time.

The industry comfortably holds 3 50' - 60' cars with space between them.  

This started as the Modern Cold Storage Warehouse from Walthers and I unrolled it into a background building.  I had build up a floor and a roof from scraps and Evergreen styrene.  I am really happy with how this is going and will be moving on to the painting stage soon.

Bachmann EZ Track Upgrade How-To - Powered Re-railer

 My Bachmann EZ Track upgrade project is progressing and this time we have a very challenging section to work on - the powered re-railer.  This is probably the worst piece in the EZ track collection. It is a horrible design and it doesn't work very well as a re-railer and it is needlessly complicated as a power track.  Having said that it is the piece we have to work with so here we go.

The basic track piece is from a design I used as a kid in the late 70s except mine didn't have the roadbed and the connectors were round rather than the spade style.  They really should have done a proper redesign of this a LONG time ago.

This seems to be the newer style of this section as it has the index pins to hold the track in place.  If these were the only areas where it was glued it would be very easy to get apart but it's not going to be that easy.

Where the re-railer meets the roadbed there is glue almost all the way around.  You will need to take your time getting this apart.

I used a sharp hobby knife and a small flat screwdriver to gently separate the track from the roadbed.  Start in the middle just like the other sections.  You will get a pop when the center index pen comes loose but you will still have to carefully work all the glue spots apart.

You can see how many location they used to glue the track to the base.  Clean off an excess glue and smooth an nicks from the knife.

You can see how the terminals are connected to the rails.  This is a good time to mark the terminals in some way so you know which is which.  A notch on the plastic or something like that will be very handy in the future.  I, of course, didn't think of that until I had reassembled it.  It does seem like the near side rail is always the right terminal.

Taping is the same as the other sections.  I wanted the 'ballast' to flow farther up to the wood sections so I did a little more taping.  If you do it this way the track section will be taped and painted twice but I like how it turned out.

Base painting is done.  I used brush on paint to fill in a little on base around the re-railer.  If you don't do this you will have a nice black line all the way around the re-railer.  I used the same paint to paint the sides of the rails and to dry-bruch over the wood.

Reassembled and weathering washes ha been applied.  I think this looks pretty good.  I think I will try and build some sort of track-side shack or something to hide the plugs.  These do not look right to me as grade crossings as a lot of people do.

I think in the future I will design my own power section from standard track sections.  An idea for a future project but for now this will do nicely.

Bachmann EZ Track Upgrade How-To - Turnouts

The next step in the track upgrade project are the turnouts.  These are a bit more complicated than the straight and curve pieces and deserve careful consideration.  I am working with the standard trainset turnout.  These don't have a number like other turnouts as they are designed to replace either a 9" straight or an 18 degree curve.

This is the turnout I am upgrading.  It is a left-hand remote turnout with steel track and black roadbed. 
 

There is lots of stuff on the bottom.  The wire connected to the switch actuator and next to that is a cover held on by some screws.

 Before we can get to painting we have got to figure out how to get the track off the roadbed.  This is different from the straight pieces in several ways.  The obvious difference is the motor and the linkage that operates the turnout.  Another difference is the turnouts are not glued down but have screws to hold them in place.  We will start by removing the linkage.

Remove the six screws that cover the linkage.  Take moment to study this before removing any parts.  It is a good idea to take a picture at this point to make reassembly easier.

The parts are easy to remove.  Remove the connecting rod first. It just lifts off the gear and slide out of the tab from the track.  Remove the gear next.  Keep all these parts in a safe place. You could remove the actuator is you want to.  I left mine on but it does complicate things a little.   

 

Once you have removed all the gizmos its time to flip it over and remove the track.

See that tiny little screw?  It is very small.  It is a Phillip's head but I used a very small flat head to get it out. The hardest part is finding the right size screwdriver.

Two more towards the center.  See them?  There is a fourth screw at the other end.  No picture but you get the idea.

We are now ready to prep these parts for paint!

Once you have disassembled the track you can prep the parts for painting pretty much the same way as for the straight pieces. You can review the previous post for materials and such.

Here are the painted parts with the painters tape still in place.  The track is a little fiddly to get the tape on all the rails but it is worth the time to get a good coverage.

I taped off the area on the roadbed where the trunout slider rests.  I wanted to make sure this had good movement once reassembled.

I taped off this area above the actuator.  Seems to be some sort of ground or contact that seemed like it shouldn't get painted.

I spent a lot of time taping off this notch but in retrospect I should have just painted it.  It stands out a too much now.

Make sure that when you hand paint the rail sides you leave the contact pints unpainted.  If you don't you will have to go back and clean things off to get a good electrical connection.

Paint the rail sides just like you did for the straight pieces.  Don't get paint on the ends of the rails where the joiners connect.

Turnout is reassembled and needs just a little bit more detail work to be ready.  The next one I do I will tape off the bottom of the roadbed around the switch mechanism and the wires.  I got a surprising amount of over-spray.  It didn't hurt anything but I could have caused some issues.

I was really intimidated thinking about how to do the turnout but they are actually no big deal.  Keep track of the parts and document how it all went together and you should have no issues.  Not sure what I will try next. The power re-railer is probably the most interesting thing left to try.

Bachmann EZ Track Upgrade How-to

 In my previous post I promised to show you how I did the upgrades to my EZ track.  For this project I am working with the steel track in black plastic.  This will work exactly the same with the nickel-silver track in grey.

To start with you need some EZ track.  You could also apply this technique with some of the other track and roadbed products out there but I've not tried any of those.

You will need to remove the track from the plastic roadbed.  I have mostly the older style of EX track which is just glued to the roadbed.  For this you gently pry the track off the roadbed.  I found this to be easier when you start in the middle of the track rather than then ends as there seems to be less glue in the middle.  The newer EZ track has some tabs on the bottom of the track to help hold it in place.  These should come apart in the same way.

For this project you will need some sort of dark brown spray-paint.  I like the Krylon camo dark brown.  This is nice and flat.  Next you need some type of stone effects paint.  For this I used Rustoleum American Accents.  This is a grey speckle paint. You need some painter's tape and maybe some mineral spirits for cleaning rails (I actually did not need this as I taped the rails).  Not pictured is some acrylic burnt umber paint and super glue.

Once you have separated the track and the roadbed you need to tape off the ends of the roadbed.  You want to make sure that the tabs and flat surfaces don't get any of the texture paint on them or the track sections will not go back together.

When you spray the stone effects paint it will go on blotchy and that is OK.  Do light coats and focus mostly on the sides of the roadbed.  I found it took 2 coats with a couple hours drying time between coats to get the best results.  I let the section dry over night before removing the tape.  Once fully dry the paint feels a little flakey so I gave it a coat of dull coat to help seal it.  

While waiting on the roadbe d to dry you can prep the track sections.  You could just paint these sections as is and is a rag and some mineral spirits to clean the tops of the rails before the paint dries.  Where I live paint dries FAST so I opted for taping the rails. Cut your painter's tape in thin strips and apply to the top of the rails. Fold the edges of the tape down and press tightly to the sides of the rails.  This is not too important as you will paint the side by hand later on. Make sure to wrap the tape around the ends of the rails as this is where the electrical contacts are.  

The painted track with the tape removed will look something like this.  I did not apply any dull coat to the track sections but you could before you remove the tape.  If you are using another brand of track you might skip this step if the plastic is already brown.

After everything has dried glue the track section back to the roadbed.  I used regular super glue and just put a drop on the ends of the ties and one in the middle of the ties.  You don't need to glue at each tie but I did most of them (maybe 3/4).  At this point you could call this done and it would look so much better but I did a little bit more.

This was the first project I used my Lance Mindheim India ink washes.  I used the #2 as it is the darkest.  TO be honest, it did not work too well so I used a combination of watered down acrylic black paint and the wash.  I did the acrylic first and then once it was mostly dry I dropped on the wash.  That worked pretty well.

Just do the wash on the top of the roadbed and mostly between the rails.  This just adds a realistic grime to the track.  If you wanted to do a wash on the sides use the color that is closest to your ground color to tie things in.  Don't for get to paint the sides of your rails with the Burnt Umber paint.

This is all there is to it.  I used some sandpaper to clean the tops of the rails and then rolled them by rubbing a metal washer over the rail tops to polish them.  This technique works for straight sections and curved sections in any size.  For the grey roadbed I would black prime the roadbed first and then do the texture paint.  This will keep the look consistent. The nice thing about this technique is that it improves the look of the track without the more permanent ballasting options.  You can still take this apart easily and reconfigure as needed while preserving the look.

Upgrading the Appearance of Bachmann E-Z Track

 When I made the decision to jump back into the model railroad hobby I was very interested in the various track and plastic roadbed products. The most common, and probably the most accessible, is the Bachmann EZ track system.  All of these types of track are pretty cool and seem to be a great place to start for new hobbyists.  As neat as they are they do have some drawbacks.

I have, over the last couple of months, purchased a pretty large collection of EZ track.  Most of it is the steel track with the black plastic roadbed.  Visually this stuff is pretty boring stuff. 

Plain black plastic track and roadbed is pretty boring and lacks much detail.

The roadbed does have a little texture but not much.

Looks a whole lot like a toy train which is really how it is marketed.

Sad

I spend many hours digging through YouTube videos looking for cool ideas on how to upgrade the appearance of the track. To be honest there is not really much useful information and much of what is there is how-to's on ballasting the track. Most of the ballasted EZ track I've seen is not really much of a visual upgrade.  But then I found John's Trains on YouTube.  He has a really nice HO layout but he was gifted a Bachmann starter set that includes EZ track.  We wanted to use the entire set but, like me, did not like to the look of the track.  He documented how he upgraded the track and the results are really great! I adapted his approach and here is the results I got.

This looks a lot better!  It actually looks like ballast.

Painted track and ties look very authentic.  I did some washes down the center of the track but you can't really see this in these pictures.

This looks more like a model and less like a toy but it still has its flexibility and portability.  It is still EZ track.

In my next post I will show you how I did this and the materials required.  I am also working on a post for EZ track turnouts, which are little more challenging to do.  Finally I will do a little diorama showing the final results and how this might look on a layout.  I hope this technique will make EZ track more of a viable basis for a 'serious' model railroad.

Weathering Technique Reference #1

 Soon I will be able to start some modeling projects for the MRR and I have been watching some tutorials on YouTube.  As I find interesting videos I will most them here for future reference and for anyone else who has interest.

This video showcases some products and techniques i have never used but look good.