A weeks worth of work (6)

Welcome to the last week of work on the layout.
Well, pretty much the last week. I have 5 days (nights) to work on the layout before the Granite City Train show on Saturday. So by the end of today the layout has to be very presentable so that I can spend the next week completing the wiring trouble shooting it, making sure everything works OK. So that I won't look stupid at the train show.
The plan I laid out at the end of last weeks post was to work on the train storage cassettes for operation. I made them from 5mm foamcore board. They were pretty easy to put together if a little laborious to construct.

Making the cassette1) Size up the stock for it. This short cassette is for the railcar ONLY

Step 2) Glue everything together. Even the track is glued in place.
Gorilla woodworking glue, being the adhesive of choice on all aspects of the layout. 

I made two cassettes for the freight train that will drop off the gondolas to be loaded. Even though these will be short trains. In On30 the cassettes are big.

It's longer than the layout!

A scenic detail that I found I could work on as the glue was setting was my pile of pit props. These were made from dried  Milkweed stalks. The are very straight and dry out a good weathered colour.

Milkweed stalk "pit props"

 The dried stalks that I cut to a scale 6' length yeilded 60 props. Which in my naivety thought was plenty. Until I stuck them together. An ordeal in itself. I glued the singles into pairs. The those pairs into fours so they were easier to glue together in a pile.

The mine boss is disappointed that he only got an order of 60 pit props.

It could still be a bigger pile.
I had agonised over the colour of my ballast for quite a while, before settling for a mid tone buff. Too darl a ballast would make the pale ties stand out too much. Too pale a ballast would make them difficult to see.

I think it's the right colour ballast

A ballasting technique video.

With that, I was pretty well there. This is mostly acceptable to me. I need to add a few woodland scenics trees to hide the exits offstage. If I had more time I'd find a more realistic tree but because if time constraints. I'll use what I have. Besides, using things that you buy off the shelf in your local hobby shop should show anyone can produce a nice presentable micro.

A pretty general overall view

So, five days left. I need to get everything wired up and working properly. Then tidy up the presentation. Hopefully everything goes according to plan and I'm not left pulling all nighters to be ready for the show. The Granite City Train Show. Rivers Edge Convention Centre. St Cloud, MN