 Hi, I'm Laurie Adams and the April What's Neat starts right now The What's Neat show is sponsored by caboose sharing our passion for trains since 1938 This is what's neat for April 2018 I'm your host Ken Patterson and this month We've got a really full show first of all our friend Jason Quinn comes by and this month He shows us how to remove lettering off of factory painted locomotives so that we can easily change the locomotive Numbers on our models. Now we visit John Parker's BNSF Fall River Division layout. This is a prototype based layout It's an absolute masterpiece to see this month on What's Neat. Also, Kevin Rubel shows us a little bit about Cadrail a layout design program and he shows us how to get the free download so we can experiment with it ourselves Now we discuss the right types of glues to use on the sides of your grills on locomotives in the event They pop off we talk about the right and the wrong kind of glues to use for this Steven M. Conroy shares with us some gorgeous drone footage this month more Southern California eye candy in Modeling ideas from above and lastly we cover the BTS sawmill project that I've been working on We've got an update on this this month that goes into the construction of wrapping the wood around the scene and Carving out the log mill pond now I want to thank caboose that wonderful train store in Lakewood, Colorado That's the exclusive sponsor for the What's Neat show and they've got a gorgeous new website That's got over a hundred and forty two thousand model railroad items that you can purchase and have shipped directly to your home So check it out It's at my caboose calm and they've given us an Spot on the website where they talk about the What's Neat show and they've given us a really good location Where you can click on it and see all of the What's Neat shows So with that that's the lineup for this April 2018 What's Neat? For layout construction this month we continue on with the BTS sawmill project last month We laid the track around the BTS sawmill area and successfully ran the first train around the reverse loop This month I pick it up with the planning of the access roads and the six points Where the roads will cross the track into the scene after plotting out the railroad crossings I filled the track area where the crossings will go with wood glue and Proceeded to line up a cho scale wood railroad ties Three rows between the rails and two rows outside the rails forming the road deck I sanded the railroad crossing would flush with the tops of the rail using an oscillating sander I then cleaned out the flangeways with a standard hex saw blade that it's been cut down to about six inches in length This provides the perfect width for flangeway clearance for our models Using a fine-toothed miter saw I cut the ends of the ties Forming the outside of the road which will be a 22 foot wide crossing deck This will be stained with wood stain and gray weathering chalks with the road Slash dirt brushed up to the sides of the ties flush forming a smooth crossing for our vehicles and horse-drawn wagons Turning my attention to the outside edges of the diorama I wanted to form a perfect curve around the peninsula with about two inches of space around the outside edge of the track Just in case of a rollover accident I needed to add foam to the outside edges of the layout So I started this process by cutting and squaring the sides of the peninsula making a flat surface Which would eventually accept two inch sections of foam cut to match the six inch thick edges of the scene I used polyurethane Gorilla glue wet with water to glue the foam to the sides of the layout and I held this into place with six inch long large pan-head screws While the glue cured over a period of 30 minutes these screws held things into place I continued this process till I had an even distance between the track and the edge of the layout of about two inches All the way around the entire scene I then drew a line atop the foam in the curved arc of the shape of the layout And I followed this line up With a pruning saw cutting up and down squaring the sides I then further Smoothed the sides of the layout using a hand-held planer a Stanley shore form planer and a metal square Checking my work very carefully all the way around as the squareness and the roundness will be very important When it's time to wrap wood sides around this diorama So I've got the entire BTS sawmill complex laid out here on the table it comes in a rather large box But there's something extremely important that I need to do because this structure is built so that it actually steps off Into the water now What do I mean by that? Part of the structure sits on very short piers and then the part of the structure that extends over the water Sits on larger piers and the way I'm going to design this and model this I'm going to have to build it so that I have the depth of the water already preconceived in my mind as I'm putting this together So that the building will simply fit into position and then set right on top of the water now in order to do this First I've got the diorama all laid out here and you can see clearly where I'm going to put the water I've got a router set up here and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this router and I'm going to router out the absolute depth of Where the surface of the water is going to meet the building and able to arrive At that dimension by studying these smaller parts right here that in fact are the piers for the building These are the longer parts. It'll step off into the water These are the shorter parts where the structure is actually going to sit on the land now You can see I've got the building sort of laid in its position here where I think it's going to go But I've got movement of about a half an inch either which way at this point to like it final positioning Figured out now what I'm going to do is take the router and set it for the depth of the absolute difference Between the shorter piers and the longer piers which comes out to be just under three quarters of an inch or about 11 16ths of an inch if I did my math correctly on this So what I'm going to do now is set the router for 11 sixteenths of an inch and simply route out the log pond So that I can then finish the top of the water when I get to that point But that'll ensure as I build the structure. It'll set right down into position into the scene So that's the next step at this point Using a three-quarter inch wide straight router bit along with a vacuum cleaner I slowly cut the log mill sorting pond out of the foam to the depth which will represent the water's surface I made a crisscross pattern in the foam with the router until the uncut foam pieces were small enough to break off and Vacuum up to clean the area flat I followed this up with a flat Chinese pole saw cleaning the remaining uncut rough chunks of foam out of the pond. I Further finished the ponds banks and topography with my Stanley shore form planer Just rubbing and smoothing the topography along the side of the bank. I Carved the tracks profile and the ballast lines with a bent horse rasp working my way around the track sides. I Sanded the flat water surface with 50 grit sandpaper Smooth and level then I hand sanded the area with 150 grit sandpaper paying close attention to the areas where the water will meet the bank. I Carefully assembled the saw mills foundation together with wood glue and a lot of square blocks Ensuring a perfectly square foundation. I also assembled the structure's main walls using the same process Using a soldering iron. I drilled or melted holes where the building's piers will set into the foam Now if all of my math was correct The building will fit square to the tracks fitting perfect into the ponds bank and the layout piers sitting atop the water's surface I love it when a plan goes together. I Assembled the walls of the powerhouse the planing shed the drying racks and all of the other buildings that will fit into this complex Simply to understand their size and relation to placement in the diorama. I Routered out a three-quarter inch groove along the outsides of the foam and filled this groove with blocks of wood Secured in place with polyurethane adhesive. I then followed this up with wet one-quarter inch oak plywood Stapled into the blocks in the foam and then glued to the foam surface Following the round flow pattern of the diorama it made for a very beautiful presentation I contoured the tops and sanded everything smooth with fine sandpaper I then stained the sides with red oak stain to match the rest of the woodwork in my studio and after applying three coats of Polyurethane wet sanded in between coats the sides of this section of the layout appeared to be complete Now in a future update, we will add blocks to the sidings Finish the scenery and finish the rest of the buildings and structures and that ends this layout construction segment on what's neat For this segment of what's neat I've got something that's really neat and that's the whole name of the show, right? I'm here with John Parker in his BNSF Empire and believe you me that's just what it is. This is a double mushroom layout With double layers carpeting lighting digit tracks. It's got everything that we've ever wanted all in one spot I'm so excited. I can't even hold this microphone steady, but let's let let's let you tell us about your wonderful Environment that I'm standing in here. Please tell the what's neat folks. I Don't even know what inspired you to build this. Thanks. Good. Well, it's a layouts a modern prototype freelance BNSF Arrows 2016 and this is my second large layout and So it's a multi-level layout It's a mushroom. So you only see one level at a time. Yes, and that's the whole concept in the idea It really maximizes the mainline run. Yes, shout out shout out to Joe Fugate He loves those mushroom designed layouts and now I've seen one Joe and they make sense They save a lot of space don't they and Joe was a fantastic inspiration even I've got some of his original videotapes And I've talked to Joe a few times and I just love the concept And so that's what I've decided to implement here on the fall River Division I've seen it in drawings, but to actually walk into one you can fit into it I wasn't really sure about the head height, but you must have very high ceilings on this basement Yeah, I built the house with nine and a half ten foot ceilings Okay, so their ductwork and everything else is above the ceiling and that's a requirement for a mushroom to be comfortable And they have enough headspace have now you use a digitrack system, and I imagine you probably operate this layout Yes, how many folks is it to take that work it generally between 18 and 22 operators? Is there a special night during the week? Saturday we usually operate this second Saturday of it each month. So we're all crashing his house on some Saturday But I mean I see I see the digitrack system I also see a closed-camera circuit system where you can keep track of the trains Including the loading system that I filmed with the coal so that you can see because you said you wanted to make sure there Was no vagrants in those coal cars Yeah, I mean who thinks of that and then the lighting we walk through the layout room you turn off the first Oil you've got great lighting and balances. That's number one everything's well seen But when you turn off the lighting you've got hundreds you've got thousands of little lights the grain elevator all of these Beautiful scenes that we're walking up. It's like far out. Yeah, all the finish scenery has LEDs We do operate at night. So we've got night lighting for the blue LEDs for the effect and everything is lit up We've got street lights the buildings are lit up Everything's got light on it. How old is this layout? You say you're modeling 2016 So did you start building this in 2014 thinking I'm gonna do 16 the layout is about 10 years old now Okay, so my original era was 2005 and just within the last few months. We updated the air up One of the sliding scales that will continue to slide. Yes. Well, that's cool So the modern equipment is just so fantastic now. It's available now So we had to move up to 20 I want to start with how many feet of track but how many feet of aisle space did I just walk I got lost remember you had to go find me. I've never gotten lost. Can you get lost in a train layout? I just got lost and he found me and how many feet of aisle space is there? I have no idea. That's a great question. It's got to be a more than a hundred maybe 200 Well, there's more than a thousand linear feet of mainline track. Okay, so That gives you an idea of how much aisle space there is one thousand feet of track And how long does it take you to clean the track before the operating session? Well, I've got a lot of great help Okay, so my friends love to come over and clean track for a session So it's not too bad now you've got passenger train operation and freight train operation You've got coaling name us some of the industries that I just saw some of the types of industries, right? We do have a coal mine. I think you saw a coal mine up on the second level and we actually have a power plant So we have a job that goes between the power plant and coal mine. We've got large grain facilities from Brant's land on a layout that has OSB plant or roofing materials plant a lot of different large industries So that's the focus is large industries with a lot of spots and a lot of work rather than smaller Small it's this awesome. It's carpeted. It's comfortable. It's well laid out. It's a very good height It appears you're just about 48 inches high here between 48 and 50 and then your second level as we walked around That was a different level wasn't it? That's a few that's about 12 inches higher. So it's It's pretty close to your neck level that provides just a great perspective Another thing I've seen is you you've painted your walls But you also use a lot of photographic backdrops and it seems like you've put them in such a perspective view that no matter Where you view the layout the background seems to blend in just right was that an accident or do you plan it? No, that was the plan. I started with the backdrop painting backdrops and then transition to the photo backdrops but my my approach was to be able to photograph and get that perspective when you're standing trackside and And that's it seems to work out very nice. You've got some of your cohorts back here behind us Can we go talk to them and let's find out let's find out what you guys think about this you guys come and play here often Is that right? Yeah, we do tell me your name with Carmen with Carmen And my car guys tell me about your experiences on this layout come a little closer here and tell the guys Because you guys are actually the ones that get to play with it. He built it He eats and sleeps it all night long when you guys leave you get to go home You know, it's not with you. We don't want to but What's it like to operate on something like this? It's so complete and well thought out. It's great Yes, there's never a boring job. Everything is fun Okay. Yeah, it's a real dream to operate this it He's got something of everything. You like switching jobs. We get switching jobs You're like mainline runs you like cold trains you like yards Mainline whatever John's got just about everything here that I think of you guys What's your favorite part of the layout? So much of it. There's too many things that I have a favorite part No, not really far as operating. I like to run the yard. The yard is fun I'll keep you busy. Won't it? Now? I've noticed that all of your main lines as you look at the main lines every all Everything's right. The topography seems right. You've really thought about that now. You've also got signaling on this layout Is that right? That's correct. Yeah. Tell me about the signaling system that you use Well, we use the Digitrax components the BLMA signals and a friend of mine actually wrote the CTC program to represent a modern-day CTC CRT based CTC system. That's awesome. Yeah This is fantastic. Now. Let me ask you this if any of the viewers out there want to contact you Have you got a website or Facebook page that you like to use if I have a web page? It's www.bnsfrr.net and I'm also on Facebook under BNSF Fall River Division This is a treat. I just want to go run some trains. So thank you for sharing this with the viewers and guys This is a treat. I just don't want to leave. We're staying And that's this segment of What's Neat Jason Quinn and on this segment of What's Neat We're gonna tackle one of the very common problems for people that have fleets of locomotives The manufacturer only makes so many numbers and as you can tell I got a real problem for Chessy system SD 40-2s And I had to renumber several these and that's what we're going to show you right now Okay These are the items that you're going to need this can either be done with solvus set, which is what I use This is more aggressive or Microscales Microsoft a lot of people use this too What basically what we're going to do is we're going to remove this number 86 or 8267 is going to become 8272 So this is actually a very easy process. We're going to start off You're going to need to get a piece of paper towel cut to the exact size of the number that you're removing If you do not do this You will remove anything that your paper towel touches which would be very bad So what we're going to do is we're going to lay this on here. I've already got this one cut to size So you would want to do whatever you're doing and cut it to size I'm going to use the solvus set because this is what I like Liberally soak your brush and solve a set You might have to take a second and eventually It'll grab a hold and you're going to soak this Being sure once again, it only touches The Number or data you're wanting to remove and you'll know it's saturated Because you'll see the number come through the paper towel So this one's saturated here And we're going to let this sit. I let him sit about 15 minutes But that time is subject to change depending on what you're doing And this technique doesn't work on all Numbers But it's easy enough to try that if it doesn't work, you're not going to hurt anything But most everything I've done it on does work, but I've had a few instances where it doesn't so I just want everybody to be aware of that So basically what we're doing now is we're just going to let this sit for about 15 minutes And uh, we'll come back and show you the magic Here we are 15 minutes later and we're going to remove this and you're going to see the magic One thing I would like to note Is that during this process This needs to stay wet it will dry out. So you need to kind of babysit it and keep it wet But um, this has already worked excellent on this one. Just pulling it up the four Is is our the six I guess it was it's totally gone So we're going to take scotch tape I personally use the stuff that's in the green packaging And we're going to put this right over top of this like this Pat it down Peel it up just like that And since this is a g e we're going to have to hit this area again right here because uh Um, there's a little bit left on about it. It'll come off real easy So what I'm going to do there So I'm going to take my uh paper towel that's still soaking wet and kind of just Rub it a little bit on the area And that little remaining area will come off I'm going to dry it off Let's get a new piece of tape get in there for fear now That's pretty much it There's a little bit remaining but when you go to renumber it like I did on this side here Um, you'll never notice it was over there So that's uh how to remove numbers off of uh Manufacturer pre-painted cars. I hope this is helpful to you guys. Thanks Uh, I'm michael richards and you're watching with sneak with ken patterson Hi, I'm eddressel and I'm gonna be dead nuts level with you. This is what's neat for this layout construction segment of what's neat I want to discuss planning your layout now. I've been doing this for years using a paper and pencil I've had three years of architectural training in school Whereas I feel very comfortable with a t-square and a triangle on a nice piece of paper Whereas I can plan out the outside dimensions of my room and then take a compass and figure out drawing my radius Is where my peninsulas go and where I can fit the layout in the room I feel very comfortable with a piece of paper and a pencil. It just works But the other day I was hanging out with kevin rubel You'll know him as a proprietor of that wonderful trains door in lakewood, colorado known as kaboose And he was showing me something that I was unfamiliar with at the time now since talking to him I got the free download version of cad rail which is a layout planning software program for designing your layout But kevin's got years of experience in using it and that night I was hanging out with him He showed me sort of a little bit about it and how to get the free download for it So I turned on the video camera and with that let's let kevin rubel take it up from here and explain to us about drawing your layout on a computer What are you doing besides eating dinner here? What are you doing here? I see you got the laptop out. You got all these micro engineering number five turnouts laid out here on the table um So you're designing something here if I told you I have to kill you So whoops I'm zooming in Yes, I'm designing something. This is a track plan doesn't look like it right now These are the this Is my bench work as it exists As you know, I'm redesigning my layout for the second time. I just made a crazy line um for the second time And so we're fitting a piece of the monon railroad southern division North of Louisville to know all of any important indiana Into this same bench work that I have designed Just seeing if it fits And what what program are you using there? This yes, I'm glad you asked This is cad rail cad rail. I've not used any other cad programs, but I can tell you this I've used cad rail for probably about 15 years and at least 15 years and When I was CEO at Marquette rail I used this to do preliminary drawings for sites For new customers for industrial development We'd sketch out their spurs with this with this program and then their engineers would take it and make final engineering That's how good this program is. You should try it. That's amazing Now, how do we get a program called cad rail to this to design our layouts? How do we how do we go about doing it? We go to sandiassoftware.com Okay, and we check it out. I think you know what do they offer a free version or something? Let's try that okay Because I am so used to using pencil and paper and you say that this is better than pencil and paper I think this is a website. Let's make sure it is Oops. No, Kevin has to spell it correctly Sandiassoftware.com Okay, so this is cad rail 10.2. Yep And uh, actually this does 3d stuff too. I've never done that um, but They have um here free demo like there free demo right here There you go. That's my answer You can only save up to 60 objects when you're drawing so you can't make a huge basement building layout With your free demo, but that's a pretty good deal free demo and then I'll tell you what let's see Trying to see here What kind of price point this software has I don't remember right off the top of my head Because I bought it again 15 years ago But it's um, it has a great library It has like a lot of the different walters buildings a lot of the different atlas buildings a micro-engineering track walters track atlas track pico track It has a lot of the different Things you can buy in different scales by the way In the library it's already in here. So you don't have to Do what I'm doing right now, which is to put these micro-engineering number five ladders in I'm actually Constructing figures For these for the switches for this ladder anyway Pretty pretty cool program check it out for this segment of what's neat I'm sitting here replacing some of the Metal screens that have actually popped off of my u-50s here because one day I was running my u-50s and I I left my lift out section out and dropped them on the floor and quickly they became kits So after I found out mechanically they worked perfect And I got them to run again I'm finally getting to the point where I'm actually putting in the screens And I want to talk about this for a minute because as I was doing this I realize that I've got a technique that may may be a little bit unorthodox, but it works very well because It's inevitable at some point You'll have an f-unit or you'll have some sort of a model where the screens are going to pop off of it And you want to reattach them back on so what do a lot of people do? I've seen this over and over again For example, here's an engine that came from a swap meet Where somebody tried to repair the locomotive by using wafer's goo and reapplying the screens to the locomotive And as you can see it kind of doesn't really work out so well I also see they tried super glue here on this end using one of these uh Super glues and as you can see on this end here It's inevitable. It smokes up the glass Kind of messes up the model and you see the shiny super glue through So what's the solution? Well, what I've realized is contact cement the same material that's used to apply The finish on top of tables to put laminate on top of the table is a relatively permanent cement And at the same time it always remains just a little flexible just a little not rubbery But always flexible which is perfect for the screens because as you know these metal screens They change temperature and they tend to pop off of a locomotive Especially if they're attached with super glue which tends to be a little brittle Here's an f unit that I just finished replacing the screen on this and I use contact cement to do it And I'm going to explain to you how to do this because a little bit goes a very long way When I glue down the rail to the layout here the third rail for my narrow gauge A lot of areas I kind of got lazy and didn't spike it but after two years it's still in place So the glue is very permanent. It works beautifully. Well, and especially on the rail again changing of temperature It's never popped off and that's why it's good for these screens So let me explain to you the process First of all, I take the glue and I put it out on this anvil that I've got here I use that as my surface my work surface for the glue and I use dental picks to apply the glue to the screen work And I spin the pick around and this glue is kind of stringy sometimes you can use that stringiness to your benefit It's almost like snapping a line on the computer whereas you can apply the string Right where you want the edge of the screen to have the glue attached to it But anyway, you work the glue onto the screen and then you put the screen into place And it just fits perfectly if you get a little bit on the edge. It's no big deal This glue rubs right off while it's still wet And if long as you don't get it inside any of the screen work, it works perfect It remains flexible and allows your screens on your locomotives to remain attached No matter what the temperature change that the model experiences So it's just a suggestion Something to think about if you're reattaching the screens to an old locomotive something you get from a swamp meet or something You dropped on the floor if you've got to do it Context and that appears to be the best type of glue to use just for this and that's this Building tip for models on what's neat All of the model railroad products seen in this episode of what's neat are available through caboose in lakewood, colorado Or order online at microose.com