Layout Update February 2024 - Building Bonanza, Train Transformations, and N-Scale Adventures

so welcome back to the February 2024 layout update this is video number two in a series of 12 that I've committed to make this year in this video I'm going to talk about a pair of structures that I'm building large apartment complexes I Am custom painting some castoff equipment to create a unique GO train that I am playfully referring to as go Train's worst train I made a few small purchases this past month that I'd like to review with you and finally an end scale layout tour let's get [Music] [Music] started early in the month I released a video about building N scale chain link fences this was a pretty straightforward project but it was something I'd wanted to work on for a while and I wanted to come up with a reasonable technique for building fences in the video I had mentioned that I had purchased some woodlet scenix fences they're great but for the amount of fence you get and the price point on a layout like this which is going to be covered with all sorts of barriers they're just too cost prohibitive and in the entire project really the biggest hassle is trying to attach the lattice the mesh to the different support frames so the video was mostly about how I came up with a technique that works well for me that is going to let me build fences fairly quickly um and consistant and also really cheaply and being able to make fences quickly means that I'm going to be able to start playing with different vignettes and knowing that every section of fence costs less than 5 cents I can just continue to print them put them together and put them up it's a lot like ballasting wherever I see a place that needs to be ballasted I'll balast it in any place place that I want to put a fence I'll put a fence another project that I started this month that I'm very hopeful will be wrapped up in the next few weeks is a pair of apartment towers that I'm assembling these towers are kit bashed from a pair of Outland models apartment kits this represents two kits that have been reconfigured to make these much broader wider buildings the cost of the kits were about $9 a piece or $10 a piece so I have a pair of 12 or 13 story buildings for $20 um that look like ready old apartment buildings one of them is done as a three-dimensional model that I'll be able to move around the layout as a standalone building and the other has been done as a background flat and I've not yet decided where either of these buildings go but they definitely will find a home on the layout so this project is inspired in part by the work of my friend Wayman at proscale models and my friend Tim at they make it like that both of them have been working on a pair of graffiti Towers based on uh real life events W has made a fairly faithful reproduction of an apartment building that's been blasted by graffiti artist as part of I believe a Miami art BN Alle and Tim is building a replica of the Ocean View Apartments which have been in the news lately in the case of proscale models the building is apparently scheduled for demolition the ocean view apartment is a billion dooll development that was allegedly abandoned by the developer a few years ago and has been left to rot so I would like to reproduce some of those effects with a pair of apartment buildings of my own I'm going to attempt to add graffiti to every single one of the balconies much like the two other art projects and I'm going to try to do the graffiti using laser cut stencils I'm not confident in my ability to create original tags for every single floor so I am duplicating the tags that you can find on any of these buildings and laser cutting stencils so that I can in theory airbrush the stencil of the graffiti on it uh airbrush the color and then go back with some marker pens and clean them up if that's the case it's going to be a really successful project for me because I want to be able to add graffiti around the layout more quickly than I'm able to doing it freehand I just pick out some stencils spray on the graffiti touch it up with a pen and that sort of process is what suits me another project that I'm working on is a project that I'm going to call go transit's worst train and this is a project that has several points of inspiration so for anyone who models N scale and models Go Transit you will know that there is very little equipment out there that is at least new for Go Transit um by L Passenger cars haven't been released for a number of years and it doesn't look like there's a plan in the near future to release them and there's limited engine options as well so this project is multifactored the first one is is that I wanted more Go Transit engines so that's what I'm working on and you can see right here here the second part of this project is that I had old equipment equipment that you would consider to be near junk that I wanted to see if I could revive and turn into at least usable if not visually appealing equipment um for the railroad and the last source of inspiration is a little more complicated and maybe a bit convoluted so this year there has been a number of releases particularly from Bachman the new Seaman charger The Venture VIA Rail passenger train um this is a beautiful train I would love to have this train the problem is it is prohibitively expensive and that got me a little bit disillusioned with the Hobby in so far as the things that I would like are incredibly expensive so I took it as a challenge to say well I'm going to flip this and say well I'd like a new passenger train and I'm going to try to assemble a unique passenger unit using old equipment that I redo and make it somewhat prototypical but obscure I also want to practice the idea of custom painting engines deing them and getting into things like weathering I have not weathered any Rolling Stock as quite frankly I'm nervous about it so this is an opportunity for me to see if I can bring some old stock back to life make it run well enough learn how to apply custom paint jobs decal them and ultimately learn how to weather some of this stuff I have enjoyed this project to date but there has been some significant hiccups along the way and what you see here the paint jobs as they stand as of today are complete redus I have painted these once stripped them and repainted them again I'm happy with this paint job but the previous paint job did not turn out so this has been a very very valuable learning experience in keeping with the theme of go transit's worst possible train I made a few small purchases this past month and I decided that there was two things that I wanted first of all I've had a real tough time finding used smooth side passenger cars I'm just looking for concore or KO cars and they don't seem to exist on any of the auction sites because typically the passenger cars the smooth side passenger cars come in sets with diners and observation cars and that's not what I want I just want smooth Passenger cars so one of the Proto inspired purchases I made was a set of Chicago and Northwestern by Lev Passenger cars these actually made appearances in Toronto for Go Transit as they were evaluating this style of passenger car my understanding is that they ran for about 9 months before Go Transit decided that these were going to be insufficient for what they needed and commissioned the construction of what we now know as the standard by level Passenger cars so the cars were very affordable um it's older stock it's got redo couplers but for what they cost and with the shipping it was a purchase I'm very happy with and now I have um a small Fleet of prototype inspired Passenger cars so the bi L Passenger cars and the Smooths side passenger cars that I ordered came from model trained market and really I'd like to share that the experience in dealing with these people was fantastic as said I was having a lot of trouble finding stock that I wanted to be able to pick up at local train shows and online I don't remember why I got onto their website but they have a lot of what I'm interested in again it's a little bit older stock um a lot of redo couplers but in terms of the price and the shipping um very very reasonable from my perspective additionally one of the shipments ran into some problems with the Courier and the people at model train Market were incredibly responsive and Incredibly kind as we got it all sort of out and the fact that they were so responsive and outgoing in their communication really set them apart up to this point from other people that I've dealt with it was a pleasure to work with them I'm looking forward to buying some more things great people so this is one of two go transit MP40 ph3c locomotives one of the very first locomotives I was able to come across and I got this one this past summer um again a gentleman was selling it for a very fair price and I picked it up I put it on the track I ran it it went around and I just set it aside in my staging yard so as I've been trying to run trains more often I decided to pull it out and start using it and I discovered that it's not working as it ought to trouble I have is that when I run the train forward it has no apparent problems or didn't when I first started it up but as soon as I tried to run it in reverse I discovered that the wheels are slipping so here it is stuck on the grade and I just assumed it was the way of the Train the wheels were slipping the wheels aren't moving it's actually the gears that are slipping and so I have opened it up and I have taken a look inside and I have run my finger across the gears and such and they are slipping and you can see it here that when I just give it a gentle push and a pull you can hear the gears are slipping shopping for KO replacement parts is very convenient vent their website is fantastic you simply work your way down from the engine all the way to the part and you can ordered online that said um there is no purchase confirmation email there is no shipping confirmation email and there is no tracking number so you go on the website you make your purchase you hit purchase now and you just wait until it shows up on your doorstep without any information not my favorite way of doing business one of the highlights of the month was that I got to escape the dungeon and pay a visit to my friend Darren and his Ontario Northland themed layout Darren was good enough to host myself and our local Model Railroad Club for a tour of his 9x9 NS scale Empire I met Darren during the pandemic and I rediscovered him online as he also has a Tik Tok account to Daran is an actual real life Railroader who creates these dramatic narratives between the fictional characters on his end scale layout and he has their trials and tribulations play out via dramatic videos Darren's layout is set in the mid to late 90s and it Faithfully reflects the Ontario Northland Railway in Northern Ontario Canada um modern buildings have replaced the roundhouse and turntable while locomotive power mirrors the Contemporary operations of the Railway the layout showcases three prominent features uh mile 49 a signaled sighting the North Bay yard and a four panel Dispatch Center that allows operators to manage train movements similar to rail traffic controllers rtc's at Mile 49 double large capacity sightings enable safe passage and meeting of modern trains trains disappear clock clockwise into a staging yard with two sidings for large passenger trains linked by the mainline while the Cobalt station the passenger station overlooks the yard the North Bay Yard houses a nine trck storage area it includes three classification tracks and facilitates the flow and marshalling of the large trains along with essential switching operations and distributed power placements the four panel Dispatch Center a custombuilt LED panel allows operators to oversee train movements and functions much like an RTC currently Darren's layout operates on DC power and he's got plans for future DCC compatibility so that is my February wrap-up pair of new structures custom painted GO train a series of purchases and a layout Tour all in all it was a great month and I'm looking forward to March as I will be finishing up some some structures I've got a new project I want to start and I'm most likely going to go to the Kitchener model railroad show I also want to do a quick shout out to my friends Tim wean and Darren Tim of they make it like that and wean of pro Scale Models have YouTube accounts and I'm sure they would appreciate if you gave them some love the links to their channels will be in the description of this video and finally Darren who is a Tik tocker I've also included a link to his Tik Tok channel in the description thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time [Music] [Music] n