A Graphite "Solution" for Better Operations

Even though I clean regularly and treat all of the rail on Thunder Mesa with NO-OX (see last month's video log), I still find it useful to treat trouble spots here and there with graphite in order to improve electrical conductivity. In the past I've used graphite sticks for this but personally find them to be a bit messy and inexact. My goal is to get the proper amount of graphite right on the railhead where it's needed, and not in the rail web, ties or ballast. To that end, I've come up with an easy to make and use graphite solution that can be applied where needed with a paint brush. The solution is similar to the commercially available Neolube but is thinner, lasts a long time, and costs substantially less.

To make my graphite solution, I start with "Generals" compressed graphite sticks from my local art supplier. I like the soft 4B sticks since they contain more graphite and less clay than the harder sticks. The softer graphite is also easier to sand down into the fine powder required to make "paintable" graphite.

I start by sanding down almost an entire stick with some fine 220 grit sandpaper, catching all of the graphite dust in a wide, flat-bottomed plastic container.

The next step is to add two or three tablespoons of 70% isopropyl alcohol. The amount is not critical, you just want enough to make a nice brush-able liquid without clumps. You're after a paint, not a paste. 

Mix well with a soft brush, then test the solution on some scrap paper. It should go on a transparent medium gray - not black. If it's too thick, add more alcohol.

When the solution is ready, simply paint it on the rails in any trouble spots. It will go on very dark and then dry lighter. The alcohol will evaporate from the solution very quickly, leaving a thin layer of graphite on the railhead. Wait until it dries completely before running any trains over the area.

You only want a very light layer of graphite on the rails. If it builds up too heavily, simply wipe the excess away with a cotton cloth. Once it is completely dry, run your trains over it and the graphite will be evenly distributed on wheels and track.

Sealed in its plastic container, one batch of graphite solution can last many, many months. If it dries out, simply add more alcohol to reactivate.

Final Thoughts

I'm very pleased with my graphite solution and enjoy how well my short-wheelbase locomotives operate on the layout after applying it. I find it to be particularly useful on turnouts where just a dab between stock rails and points can greatly improve their electrical performance. However, when I first posted this idea on one of the model railroad forums I frequent, I was immediately taken to task for "over-applying" graphite. Dire consequences would ensue, I was warned, if I continued down this dangerous path. There would be short circuits, arcing, loss of traction, and power jumps across gaps with this blasphemous liquid. I was even told that only invisible, microscopic amounts of graphite should ever be placed on the rails, as if it had some magical homeopathic quality that would be destroyed if it was ever used in detectable amounts. I'd like to see the data on that. I have never experienced any of the dire consequences warned about and have only enjoyed happy railroading. It is true that less is indeed more when it comes to graphite, but you do actually need to get some on the rails for it to do any good. What you don't want is a pasty build-up and that is very easy to avoid.

Anyway, I hope that some others will give this solution a try. It works well for me. Thanks for checking in, amigos. Adios for now!

Expansion Update and Video Log: Track Complete Through Hanging Rock and Coyote Canyon

Hooray! The benchwork, wiring and track is now complete over the entire mainline from San Lorenzo to Thunder Mesa and trains are running! Here's an overhead view from the mocked-up engine service area to the Hanging Rock and Coyote Canyon sections.

Greetings from Thunder Mesa!

I'm back from my summer break and just spent the last week finishing up track laying and wiring on the new sections of the layout. About 30' of Peco On30 flextrack was installed across the Hanging Rock and Coyote Canyon sections, and over 40 soldered connections now bring DCC power to the rails. This is a major milestone toward completing the layout expansion and I'm very happy to have it done. Check out this month's video log for more details and a first-ever excursion over the entire mainline!

Shiny new rail above Coyote Canyon. The plywood bridges are temporary and can be easily removed. They'll be replaced with detailed models after I decide just what kind of bridges I want here. The 16" radius turn-back curve will be hidden in a tunnel below the portable On18 Calico layout. The breaker box will be hidden behind Calico Mountain itself. Installing an around-the-walls backdrop here is also high on the old to-do list.

Here's the Hanging Rock section. Devil's Garden balancing rocks will be at lower left and the whistle stop depot at Hanging Rock will be at right, just before the tunnel portal. In between will be three bridges deep and narrow Horse Thief Canyon. The stub-ended uppermost track is the start of the branchline up to Big Thunder Camp.

The new Coyote Canyon and Hanging Rock sections are at upper left on the above plan. Sharp eyed viewers might notice that I've already deviated from the plan by swapping the turnout and spur directions at Hanging Rock and San Lorenzo. Things always change during construction and this just made more sense for fluid operations.

One thing I'm most excited about is the new sight-lines and deep views that are being created with this expansion. When completed, the canyon scenery in this view will create an unbroken vista nearly 12' deep. Try that on a shelf layout.

With the mainline track laid and operating well, I'll probably turn my attention to the branchline up to Big Thunder Camp next. I'm also itching to build some scenery and structures and might just dive right in to the scene at Hanging Rock. Time will tell. Thanks for stopping in for a visit, amigos. There's much more to come. Adios for now!

Thunder Mesa Video Log: April 2015

I'm trying something new this month, a video log bringing everything up to date on Thunder Mesa's expansion progress. If people enjoy it, I'll try to do a new one each month as the layout progresses. Don't forget to subscribe to the Thunder Mesa Youtube Channel!

Expansion Update: San Lorenzo Arrives in Thunder Mesa!

Verne Niner's Gazette Award winning San Lorenzo diorama has arrived at its new home in Thunder Mesa Country! The 18"x30" scene fits snugly into a new corner of the layout and will represent one end of the line in operations.

Back in October of last year, my friend Verne Niner announced that he would be dismantling his legendary Estrella & Sonora Grande layout in order to move on to new projects. When he began to sell off the structures and equipment, I was lucky enough to call dibs on his wonderful San Lorenzo Village diorama. After months of planning, and a couple furious weeks of benchwork construction, I'm happy to report that the sleepy border town of San Lorenzo has been safely settled into its new home. The village now resides in a corner of the layout room on its own custom-built layout section. Physically, it's just down the aisle from Thunder Mesa town, but in operations, it will represent the far end of the railroad.

Here's an overhead view of the new 48"x66" San Lorenzo section. This piece of benchwork acts as a literal bridge between the central Thunder Mesa section and the Hanging Rock and Calico sections along the wall. Changes always happen during construction and I've altered the plan somewhat by changing the orientation of San Lorenzo. Now the track enters the village from the opposite direction via a wye, a much more logical arrangement if this is meant to represent the "far end of the line." This change also allows for the San Lorenzo track to connect to a narrow staging shelf that will be built along the wall. What I'll lose in aisle width should be more than made up for in enhanced operations.

This section of benchwork will also house a large chunk of Rainbow Caverns. The foreground track will curve through three cavern scenes before emerging at Hanging Rock.

Here the existing layout joins the new benchwork and the new route through Rainbow Caverns. Passing trains will be viewed through rugged cave openings and the largest scene will feature some dramatic subterranean waterfalls.

I use what I call the "box and stilts" method for building benchwork. Basically, that consists of a box-girder frame made from 1"x4" lumber and 1/2" plywood subroadbed atop 1"x3" risers or "stilts." Here, the subroadbed top has been cut out and positioned but risers have yet to be added. I find this to be a simple, flexible, and somewhat economical method that has served my needs well on a number of projects.  

I cut the 1/2" plywood to size and then layout the track centerlines with a straightedge, bar compass, and actual track components like turnouts. Then, allowing at least1.5 to 2 inches on either side of the track centerline, I cut everything out with a jigsaw.

Here's the San Lorenzo depot area before cork roadbed and track were laid. The airspace between the roadbed and the box-frame makes it easier to add scenery below track level. Everything is held together with drywall screws.

That should bring everything up to date for this week. Now I'm just waiting for some more Peco On30 track components to arrive so I can finish up this section and get everything wired. As always, questions or comments are welcome below. Thanks for checking in, amigos, Adios for now!

All those shots of bare plywood benchwork can get a little tedious so here's some eye-candy. In addition to San Lorenzo Village, the TMMC also acquired E&SG Porter #3, the Rattler, along with Lytum & Hyde Explosives Co. boxcar #66 (I designed the decals and Verne Niner painted and detailed the Bachmann car). With its handsome red livery, the TMMC shop crews may never get around to repainting the three spot.

Lone Rock: A Canyon Country Diorama

The Lone Rock diorama was built to demonstrate rock carving and coloring techniques, and also to serve as a model stand for outdoor photography.

The Lone Rock diorama began with an email from Joey Ricard over at Trackside Scenery. When Joey's not working on his fantastic On30 Spruce Coal & Timber Co. layout, he's producing an awesome series of how-to modeling videos that you can watch over on YouTube. So when Joey asked if I might be interested in contributing to an upcoming video about modeling rocks, I was more than happy to agree. Joey's videos are always fun and informative, focusing on both tried-and-true and new-and-innovative techniques. Just my kind of project.

The idea for a stand-alone diorama that could be taken outdoors for photographing models had been percolating in the back of my mind for some time. Joey's video suggestion was just the push I needed to dust off the idea and get to building. I could document the build with video and photos as I went along, and wind up at the end with the photo-diorama I'd been daydreaming about. I wanted something simple and scenic, with a short length of track and one distinctive rock formation as center of interest. Most of the build is covered in the resulting video (below), so today's post will focus mostly on additional details. Here's how it all went together.

The 12" x 24" diorama started with a simple frame of 1" x 2" MDF and three layers of 1.5" white polystyrene bead-board. Some 1" thick gold polyurethane foam (Balsa Foam) was roughly shaped to form a single, towering butte. 1/2" plywood was cut to shape for track sub-roadbed and glued in place atop the foam. The white foam was shaped with a hot-wire cutter, and a small stone culvert made from Balsa Foam was created to bridge the gully. I used Loctite Power Grab construction adhesive to glue everything together.

The butte was carved from hard density Balsa Foam. This is a commercial version of the same gold urethane carving foam used by Walt Disney Imagineering and Hollywood special effects model builders. It's available through better stocked art and craft dealers.

A short section of the 1/2" plywood sub-roadbed was cut away and a chunk of 1" thick Balsa Foam was used to form a small stone culvert. The arch was created with sandpaper wrapped around a small bottle, and the stones were carved with a hard 5H pencil.

Using photos of rocks from Monument Valley, Moab and Sedona, Lone Rock Butte was carved from Balsa Foam using mostly a #2 hobby knife. The butte was then glued to the base with Loctite Powergrab adhesive. Four bamboo skewers between the butte and the base add additional strength. See the video for more details on the carving process. My part starts at about the 8:40 mark.

Sculptamold was used to blend the butte into the base and to form an embankment along the sub-roadbed right of way. A soft, wet brush is handy for smoothing things out.

Since there would be scenery below it, the stone culvert was finished early and installed flush with the sub-roadbed. It was painted with acrylics and the mortar lines were filled with spackling paste.

Midwest HO scale cork roadbed was glued down with yellow carpenter's glue before just about everything on the diorama was given a base coat of golden-tan flat latex house paint. Then a length of Peco On30 flextrack was cemented in place with Powergrab adhesive.

A wash of diluted India ink was sprayed onto the butte to darken cracks and crevices before final painting was done. Inexpensive craft acrylics were used to complete the paint job. Colors like raw sienna, red oxide, burnt umber and unbleached titanium were applied wet into wet, working from darker to lighter tones. See the video for a more complete rundown on the painting process. Painting and finishing starts at about 12:45 on the video.

The track was painted and weathered using Joey Ricard's easy techniques featured in this video from TracksideScenery.com. First the track is painted flat black. I masked off the diorama for this and did the painting outside with some Krylon spray paint. Next the ties are painted with a light tan acrylic. I used Apple Barrel "Khaki." Then the rails are painted with rust colored chalks suspended in 70% isopropyl alcohol. The final step is to give everything a good dusting with black and dark brown chalks. There's no power going to this track so I didn't bother to clean the paint off of the railhead. On powered track I'd use a Bright Boy or paint thinner to clean the railhead after painting.

The basic ground cover is Polyblend Sanded Grout. I mixed it up with a little water to form a thick paste and then just stippled it on with a cheep paintbrush (don't use a good brush for this! You'll never use it again). The erosion lines were pressed in with a pencil. The grout does a good job of representing soil while also filling and smoothing any remaining gaps in the foam base. This color is called "Sandstone," appropriately enough, and it dries a couple of shades lighter than it goes on. The wet grout generally stays where you put it but I also wet it down with a misting of diluted matte medium to lock it in place.

Once the grout had set overnight, the final coloring was done with light washes of acrylics to blend and unify the grout layer with the rock carving.

Real dirt and rocks were sprinkled on and then glued in place with white glue and diluted matte medium.

The track was ballasted with local sandstone, held in place with diluted matte medium.

Woodland Scenics "Field Grass" was used to make clumps of desert grasses and weeds, held in place with dabs of Aleene's Tacky Glue. Any loose fibers were later cleaned up with a shop vac.

A few more bushes and desert plants finish the diorama. The juniper bushes are Super Trees from Scenic Express covered in Noch dark green foliage. Clumps of gray sage were made with Woodland Scenics medium green bushes, lightly sprayed with gray primer. The prickly-pear cacti are castings from Pegasus Models. Lastly, the 1" x 2" frame was painted flat black to match the fascia on the Thunder Mesa layout.

Building the Lone Rock diorama was a quick, fun and rewarding project. Even if you don't have room for a full layout, I encourage anyone to try their hand at a small diorama like this. It can be finished in a week or so, and it's a great way to learn new techniques or to experiment with scenery ideas. I'll close out today's post with the finished video that Joey and I put together, and with a few photos taken outdoors in beautiful Sedona, AZ.

Set-up for photos in Sedona, AZ.

A small diorama like this is great for photographing models outside in natural light.

That's it for this project. Questions and comments are welcome below. Adios for now, amigos!

Big Thunder Creek: Part IV ~ Trees, Details & Sound

Click here for part I
Click here for part II
Click here for part III

All of the final touches are in and the sound is turned on for Big Thunder Creek. Does that mean the scene is finished? Well, there's always more to add but we'll call it done for now!

Welcome to the fourth and final post chronicling the build of Big Thunder Creek. Its been a fun and rewarding project that has brought a lot of life to the layout. In this installment I'll add the finishing touches to the scene, including some animal life, an old cottonwood tree, and the sound effects of birds and rushing water.

The Cottonwood

Throughout the desert Southwest, the majestic cottonwood has always been a welcome site. Cottonwood trees only grow near reliable sources of water like springs, creeks and stock ponds where they provide shade for weary travelers and habitat for wildlife. The bright green of a cottonwood grove can be seen for miles across the desert and always means life-saving water. When planning Big Thunder Creek I knew that it simply would not be complete without at least a representative sample of the cottonwood.

A Fremont Cottonwood in fall color beside a desert wash. Even if there's no water visible on the surface, a healthy cottonwood means that water can be found just below ground.

Cottonwoods have gray bark and distinctive branching trunks. I created mine using yard clippings from our paradise trees and Super Sage tree material from Scenic Express. The paradise tree clippings do a good job of representing the twisted trunks and thick branches of a typical cottonwood, while the sage is perfect for representing the smaller leaf-bearing branches and twigs. Paradise branches were trimmed and cemented together and a pin was cemented into the base to make it easier to plant on the layout and to work on at the bench. The Super Sage was soaked in diluted matte medium to make it pliable (as per the instructions) and then individual sprigs were cemented to the trunk and branches with fast-setting ACC.

Much has been written about modeling trees so I'll just cut to the chase here. Once the trunk was complete, the crown was sprayed with 3M 45 General Purpose Adhesive and then sprinkled with Noch Spring Green Leaf Flake. The other creekside bushes were made in a similar fashion and all were planted on the layout using Aleene's Tacky Glue.

Ground cover beneath the tree was created with a layer of fine dirt from my Sedona collection and ground up dry leaves from the yard. Everything was held in place with a spray of "wet" water (water with 1-2 drops of dishwashing liquid) and then glued down with diluted matte medium. Various ground foams, sticks, plants and grasses from Woodland Scenics help round out the scene. Good scenery is variety and layers, just like nature.

The finished cottonwood and environs. The challenge here was to build a tree of realistic size that didn't completely overpower the rest of the scene.

Critters and Other Details

Water in the desert attracts animals like a magnet, and while much of that illusion will be conveyed through sound effects, I wanted a few representative critters that would be visible to viewers.

Some ducks and a turtle made from Sculpey II. These were baked for about 15 minutes at 275º and then painted with acrylics. For scale, the pin that makes up the head and tail of the turtle is about an inch long. It was trimmed much shorter before being added to the layout.

The ducks and  turtle in their natural habitat of Big Thunder Creek. For the record, the ducks are named Donald and Daisy. 

Why did the armadillo cross the train tracks? To get to the creek of course! This little guy is a white metal casting from Wiseman Model Services.

More greenery along the creek. This small hill between the bridges was created to help separate the creek from areas to the right.  The cacti are excellent plastic castings from Pegasus Hobbies.

An old Indian trail winds its way down to the creek from the mesa and a pair of Ute braves have stopped to pay their respects to Thunder Falls. The figures are from Woodland Scenics.

Finishing the creek scene meant finishing up the track too. Here, ballast is being spread along the mainline with a small, soft brush. This was then held in place with a spray of "wet" water  and then glued down with diluted matte medium. The mainline ballast is died chick grit and the sidings are red dirt from Sedona.

Adding Sound

As I have on previous projects, I turned to ITT Products when it came time to add sound to Big Thunder Creek. I wanted an ambient effect with the roar of the waterfalls coming from an upper speaker and babbling water and bird sounds coming from a speaker near the layout fascia. Their small sound modules are perfect for adding spot sounds like this to specific locales.

Sound modules and 2" speakers from ITT Products. The modules were wired in series to a panel switch but the speakers were placed farther apart. The speaker for the waterfall sound module was placed directly behind the big falls and the speaker for the brooks and birds was placed closer to the front of the layout.

The wiring for the sound modules is very straight forward and the instructions are quite clear and easy to follow - even for an electronics dummy like me. Here the two modules have been wired in parallel and leads have been added to connect to a 9v power source. Small jumper wires have also been connected on the center on/off terminal to allow for continuous looping sound. The orange disk at lower left on each module is the volume control.

Here the two sound modules have been mounted to benchwork below the layout in a relatively easy to reach location.

The best way to demonstrate the sound modules is with a video. To wrap up the project, here's a short movie on the sights and sounds of Big Thunder Creek. Enjoy!

Thanks for coming along for the Big Thunder Creek project. I hope everyone enjoyed the journey. Of course, there's still lots to do on this side of the layout with Thunder Mesa Mill and other structure projects waiting in the wings. We'll see what I'm in the mood to tackle in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, thanks for checking in, amigos. Adios for now!