The Grimstad Line 2.0

Yesterday me and a friend started construction of the Grimstad Line 2.0. I have kept the three main modules for the Grimstad station, but the rest of the layout will be totally rebuilt. I hope to be able to post a schematic track plan soon.

L-girder benchwork under construction.

Grimstad will be in the center of the room now, where the old peninsula used to be.

A small area complete

For the first time in a while, I've actually more or less completed a scene. A magazine article featuring my layout was all the inspriation I needed to get going :)

Some other pictures from this area are shown in earlier posts under here.

Short attention span

I have a seriously short attention span when it comes to modeling. I love to start new projects, but have a hard time finishing any of them. So now even though I perhaps should try to complete my harbour project, I've now moved my attention to the left side of the peninsula - the upper part of it. I have yet to name this area, but It will only contain a small house and lots and lots of trees. And I love modeling wooded areas - hence the move of attention.

Here's a picture of the area taken about a year ago :

And here it is now. I'm now working on a small house for the area in the centre of the picture :

Harbour part II

The first track is laid out on the new harbour section. The rails are soldered to screws to prevent them from being ripped up during transport and handling.

One large radius curved Peco turnout takes care of the two different tracks on the harbour.

Lots of mess during construction :)

 And here are a couple of pictures of Torskeholmen in Zuidbroek Netherland during last weekends Fremo-meet there. The new section added a lot of operating interest to Grimstad, and everything worked flawlessly.

 Basic construction is now complete. Now for some scenery! :)

Grimstad Harbour

The three sections that make up my Grimstad Fremo-module have just become five! I've thought long and hard about making the harbour area called Torskeholmen, and now this project is well on it's way. My good friend Halvor Sannæs has done all the carpentry to make the two new sections, so now the rest is up to me. The goal is to have this area ready functionally for a FREMO-meet in the Netherlands in 4 weeks time. Better get cracking then...

Here is a map of Grimstad from 1920. Inside the red square you'll se the harbour area called Torskeholmen.  (translated from norwegian this means cod island). There were two tracks here, and a couple of buildings. The model will have to be somewhat compressed, but I hope it will be a good representation of the area.

 

I have moved section three of Grimstad to my shed, and here I am test fitting the two new sections to that for the first time.The picture quality is bad because my mobile phone is 200 years old.

The train room

An overall view of my train room as of now.

In the "crew lounge" I've displayed some old models and railroadiana. The big cars in the display case are early 1930's Lionel cars I've inherited from my grandmother.

At the end of the peninsula I've just started putting in some scenery.

Operation ahead!

My main goal with building the Grimstad Line layout is to be able to invite some of my good model railroading friends and host nice and challenging operation sessions. I guess this is a result of reading too much Model Railroader from an early age, or maybe the influence from attending several Fremo-meets where prototypical operation is the most important aspect. I feel that prototypical operation really makes a layout come alive. A recent "Trains of tought" article of Tony Koester in MR spurred me on to make my layout operational as soon as possible. His idea is that the layout itself doesn't have to be ready or anything near perfect before the first operation session. As a matter of fact, it's better to just lay down the track you need, wire it all up, and then as soon as possible host the first op session. In that way I'll probably receive a lot of comments from my fellow operators, and I'll be able to more easily change stuff that doesn't work as intended before I spend too much time ballasting the track for instance. As a result of this idea, I now lay down track rather hastily witouht worrying about the tortoise switch machines at this stage, and without worrying too much about the track plan at Rykene (which has been a headache for me).


Tonight I finished the temporary trackwork at Rykene. I'm not sure if this'll be the final version, but maybe the first session will shed some light on this. I hope that Rykene will be a challenging place to operate. I'm thinking of it almost as a small time-saver of sorts where an operator will have plenty of switching tasks to perform. There are severeal spurs in opposite facing direction, and that will lead to some switch around moves which has to happen on the main line. Should be interesting...


The trackwork at Rykene will be of a lesser quality than the mainline, so on one of the spurs I've experimented with spacing the ties further apart, and with a double tie for every 14 cms (12 meters in real life) where the rails are joined. I think this looks good so I will eventually do this on all the industrial spurs at Rykene before I glue them down. I will also lay the main line some millimeters above the rest of the tracks here.

More trackwork at Rise

The track on the north side of Rise is now in place and all wired up. The freight car to the left is a christmas gift from my girlfriend. It sure beats ties and socks! :)

The first train to Rise has arrived!

It was a big moment when the first train arrived at Rise. This isn't actually the first train, but it gives a good impression about how things are going to look like eventually. I'm not sure about the track plan, so all the tracks and turnouts will not be fastened until the first operating session has been held. Then it'll be easier to make changes if that's needed. The turnouts will be operated manually until this.

In this area the turntable and engine shed will be. The track to Grimstad is to the right in this picture, and the track for Arendal (hidden staging) is directly above it.

Trackwork

The track has now reached the left side of the peninsula and is nearing Rise fast. The switch in the middle of the picture will be for a small spur for loading timber.

Fascia at Rise

I completed the fascia at Rise today. Everything looks much more finished with this in place. I've also test-fitted some curtains underneith. This will hide shelves with tools and materials.

Rise station

The base for Rise station is now complete. It's only 32 cm. wide, but that'll be enough for 3 tracks and a relief of the station building. That leaves a comfortable 62 cms of isle space. Some of my operators might need that ;)

The track around the peninsula has been connected to Rise, so now I need to head down to my shop to pick up some track!

More benchwork

Today me and Halvor started on the last remaining benchwork for my layout. The station, Rise, will be the link with the Grimstad Line to the line that goes south to Arendal, and north to Nelaug and the rest of the norwegian rail network. Nelaug will be a unscenicked staging yard used only for operating sessions and will be mounted to the left in this picture. The line to Arendal will be represented by a stub track to the right that'll be hidden behind a background or scenic divider.

Concentration

I've managed to stay focused since my last post, and have worked at the same section of Grimstad. I'm currently scratchbuilding a small and very typical southern-Norway wooden house. Some grass and flowers have also started to appear.

Making scenery is pretty messy...

This house still exists in Grimstad today, so I've started building this with the help from a few pictures I took the other day.

Grimstad station area

I'm jumping from project to project, and I now have a ridicolus amount of half-finished stuff. But I guess that's the way most of us modelers work. At least that's the way I've come to accept things are. So onto the next project then. The main focal point on my Grimstad Line layout/modules will be the area around the station building, and the station building itself. I've contacted the norwegian railway museum, and I'm hoping they can provide me with pictures of this lovely building.

Overview shot of the area. The track has been spraypainted with Tamiya TS1 Red Brown.

The track in front of the station building ends in a stone wall. There will be a old wooden tie on here to protect the wall from the buffers. The wall has been painted with LifeColor paints.

A T3 wagon visiting :) Next task is is ballasting and painting of the areas around here.

Time for scenery again

There's nothing like a little pressure to get things going. With a Fremo-meet coming up in Kristiansand I thought I'd at least try to make my Grimstad modules look like something more than plywood painted green.

Here the basic landscape contours are in place, and the platforms are beginning to take shape.

Crew Lounge - part 2

And here my lounge area is finshed. Not the biggest or fanciest I guess, but it should make a nice area to retreat to for the crew after a strenous work-day at the Grimstad Line :)

Crew lounge - part one

My main goal with my layout is to be able to invite good friends around for realistic operating sessions. As the Grimstad line is a small and quiet short line not all of the crew members will be active all the time. Therefore I've thought about a way to create a nice place for crew members and visitors to sit down, and a place to put magazines and coffee cups. We've all seen pictures in Model Railroader of large "crew lounges" with comfortable couches and a large table with magazines and such. I have no room for this in my room, but I intend to use the space I have. Here are some pictures from the construction of a small fold-down table I've constructed.

We've had 25-26 degrees the last few days, so it's a good idea to take the messy work outside. An old table top I had lying around is cut apart.

And here the table is in place. Because of the door behind me I had to make it foldable...

... so it can hang down out of the way when it is not in use. Next project is to paint this table, the doors and hang up some nice pictures and railroad related signs :)

Freight depot

I've decided to start working at the area around the station in Grimstad. After all this will be the area of most importance, and a signature scene on my layout, so I'd better get it going now :) A couple of days ago I received a freight depot from the dutch company Artitec (the yellowish building in the center of the picture). This is one of two buildings for the Grimstad Line I don't have to scratchbuild, the other being Rise station. It all looks a bit "toy-like" in this state, but it helps to visualize the whole scene before anything is glued down. Even the track is still not glued down so if I need to make any changes - this is the time.

More scenery III

Whoops! How did this happen? Wasn't the hill only brown two days ago? Well... I got a little inspired. And this is just a very small area that's complete. Let's recap tonights events.

I started out coloring all the rock castings using Woodland Scenics pigment colors. They are great for making good looking rock faces, and it's very easy to get a good result.

I then added som basic greenery by using Woodland Fine Turf in two different shades; blended green and burnt grass.

Then I added some low bushes, tufts and static grass. Starting to look ok now...

And this picture, and the one on the top shows how it looked in the end. Still I haven't added the trees and all the twigs and branches on the ground that comes with the trees.