Mommy's present....9 Days left to finish it!

looking good very simple.

Nice job you got going there :!: Good deal with the crossing :l Certainly adds interest without problems associated with grades. --Ed

I can attest to what Bryan is saying (and I believe he may even be referring to my locos!). I have banned the cats from my office, where my layout lives, but even so they sneak in an like to sit on it. My layout is similar to yours in a glass topped table that serves as my desk. The cat hair causes more trouble than anything else. If I could hold the things still long enough, i would shave them and have hairless cats. The layout is looking great! Make sure that ballast is glued down really well. Any piece that isn't will eventually end up in a loco from the knocking around the table will take in the normal course of events.

I have 3 cats and when I first started runing trains under the Christmas tree they thought they were fun to chase and swat but after the initial coriousosty ran out and they got tired of being scruffed they just watch them go around and around. Mostly now I have a cat accidently knocking over a piece of rolling stock as they are trying to move threw the area under the Christmas tree.

A long day....yet doesn't seem like much progress! Anyway, the first thing I did was take some wooden skewers, and cut them up and assemble them into trestle bents. I Glued 'em together, spray painted them black and affixed them to the track. After that, I carved the banks of the river and pond, painted them flat tan and threw on some ground cover. Next I poured a batch of soupy plaster into the basin. I didn't let the paint dry enough, so there's a little tinting, but after painting and Envirotexing the plaster it won't be a problem. I think that's enough today, tomorrow I'll start working on trying to cover up that power supply...

Fairly productive evening....laid down the base groundcover, and I began to create what will be a removable hill to cover the power pack. I just used paper towels soaked in plaster to make a nice sturdy shell. It still needs refinement, but it's almost there. The plaster I poured for the river/pond bottom is a little uneven, so I'll pour another thin layer to make it flatter, then I'll paint and gloss it. Speaking of gloss, I picked up a product called "Nu-Lustre-55", which does the exact same thing as Envirotex, but is about half the price. Has anyone used or even heard of this stuff? Glenn, I'd love to pick up an MTL FT, but it just isn't in the budget! I wanted a loco that sat comfortably between cost and quality factors, so I settled on ordering the Model Power FP7, Canadian Pacific scheme...should be here in a couple of days. I hear it's a smooth running good puller, so it should do nice lugging around all those cheap Bachmann cars that I didn't have a use for (Mom won't know the difference!). I just might pull this off by Sunday.....

We're in the home stretch. If that freakin' plaster would dry sometime soon I could paint and gloss it. Hopefully by Thursday night I should be able to get that done. I planted a bunch of cheap evergreens that I had lying around, all they needed was a little hairspray and ground foam. And in my mind, nothing ties together a railroad scene quite like telephone poles, perhaps my favorite scenic detail. Mom is quite fond of cows, having quite an extensive collection built up, so how could I not include a herd of holstein grazers going about their business? I have to fence them in and add some farm-type details, but it shouldn't be too hard. The log cabin is one that I scratchbuilt out of toothpicks a few years ago when I was still an arm-chair N-scaler. I thought it was appropriate to grace what will be my first completed layout with my first scratchbuilt structure. I also received the FP7 today....it has some pretty slick packaging! It is a remarkably smooth runner, and looks pretty decent. My only criticism would be the paint detail, but since this layout will most certainly be the subject of the 3-foot rule, it ain't a problem. I was tempted to just add it to my own fleet..... mutt77, thanks for your kind words! As much effort, money and free time as I'm cramming into this, it's still better than having to deal with crowded malls trying to find a gift. This way, I'm avoiding that headache (at least for her present!), and I get to practice techniques for my layout. Win/win really. What do I do next year???? Onward.....

Very Nice! Your mom will be pleased. Craig

And then there was water... It's about 2am, I just poured the "Nu-Lustre"and now I'm going to bed. It should set in about 24 hours. The good thing about a coffee table layout is that it's covered and thus, it minimizes the dust as the resin dries...the bad thing is that the shiny glass cover really competes with and subdues the glossiness of the water..... In other news, I've made 3 attempts to build some sort of removable hill to cover the power supply, and I'm not happy with any of them. They just don't look right, especially when the rest of the layout is so flat...it just looks like I'm trying to hide something! So now, I'm just going to build a neat little box out of styrene or something to cover it up. After I do that and finish off the turf in that corner, it's onto 2 days of detailing, detailing, DETAILING...... Sleepy time...

Absolutly gorgeous! Bob

Brother, that is one fine effort!

Well, it's as done as it's gonna be! Time to pack this sucker up for the journey. A few notes on what I've added: Like I said, I wasn't happy with the hills I was creating to cover the power supply, so I built this box out of .080" styrene, spraypainted it black and there we go. I came up with an idea to make that ominous black box seem have more of a purpose though....I went out and got a little metal plate engraved and stuck it on...seems to tie it together. (Just in case the pic is unreadable, it says "Love Jeremy, Xmas 2006"). Other than that, I put in a dock in front of the cabin, fenced in the cows and quickly painted up another scratchbuilt house I had made a few years ago. It doesn't look great, but It'll pass as an old run-down country home. There are 1001 more other details I would like to have added, but time and budget have prevented this! So Here we are, less than two weeks from start to finish, and I think my maternal parental unit will be most pleased. Thanks to everyone for their kind words, and Merry Christmas to all! Jeremy

i like it :) ... I LIKE IT :D good job man

I'm sure you're mom will like it! Until then, Happy Holidays.

Al, you do know that switch orientation is country dependant, don't you? :wink: And today's question ought be, "How did Mommy like it?"...

In Oz, NZ, & UK, Down is "on", and Up is "off"... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_switch With a circuit-breaker, I could understand it...

Well better call in the union rep we have an OSHA violation. :lol: By the way, that is a cool gift

Cornreaper, Thanks for sharing this with us. I've really enjoyed this thread and it has been inspiring for me as well. I'm sure others will agree. And thanks for sharing what you've learned from it. Just hope after that work it doesn't blow up because the switch is in backwards. :rolf In Tennessee, we would say something like "Hey y'all, watch this! Let's see what happens if I put this here switch in upside down!" :rolf Then we would be very disappointed when nothing happens. Maybe in 3 weeks you can give her a McDonalds gift card. I've always wanted one of those. :lol: One more thing: tell the dog I said Hi. Mutt

That's some amazing work! I've been scoping all the usual resale suspects for the fixins to make a coffee table or similarly glass-topped table layout. If you come up with a solution to the heat/ventilation issue, don't keep it to yourself!

you didn't set the bar too high..... now all ya gotta give her is some nice rolling stock everytime a holiday/birthday rolls around. not too many mom's would get a kick out of having her own little layout. you're a lucky guy. my mom collects really expensive santas.....like $90 a pop! i wish she'd get into model trains. lol. i've graduated into sending her harry and david fruit instead..... you did a fabulous job on that little layout. it looks great!

I fully concur with all of the positive comments thus far. I have held off on my comments as long as I could, but here goes any way. Mom will have a really hard time milking those Holsteins without a milking shed. I would have gone with Whiteface Herfords or Black Angus. :lol:

cornreaper answered the question on 12-27 at 10:31 PM

Hey Bryan I meant no offense, I know you read every word here. Just thought I'd help point out what Cornreaper said in regards to what you and others asked.

Wow, lots of posts! I'm humbled by all of my followers! I've decided to do a couple of modifications to it next time I'm over. First, I've got a couple of small computer fans I had lying around, so i'm going to go ahead and drill some holes and get some air flow around the power pack. Secondly, that glass is just sitting there freely, I think it would be a good idea to silicone around the edges in case there's a coffee spill, which could seep into the layout. This is functional furniture after all!

BRAVO Cornreaper :!: :l :toast2 :selfhifive Best wishes for a Happy New Year! --Ed

Hi Glenn, I don't want to hijack Jeremy's thread but just so you know, this table in its original form has a drawer that easily slides all the way out. Fixing derailments and performing layout maintenance should be a snap for Jeremy and/or his Mom. :D Jeremy, I don't know if I would use sealant since if the glass ever did have to be replaced or removed, you would probably ruin the (particle board/veneer) table trying to get all that silicone off. :( Maybe some sort of super thin high density weatherstripping? The groove is pretty small I know. But it might also be tough to make silicone look nice and tidy through the glass. It would be hard to undo it if it didn't come out right. Just a thought (since I've had the same thought with my table :wink:). Glenn, I constructed a substantially deeper drawer for my version of this table and it will ultimately sit on a hardwood floor in my TV room, a floor which needs CONSTANT cleaning. So I am going to try to avoid putting anything under the table that further reduces clearance. Fortunately I have a nice media storage cabinet a couple feet away (for DVDs, CDs, etc) and I hardly use any of that space. So that will probably end up being my storage space for layout goodies, including the removable power supply/throttle. I'll start a thread on my progress as soon as I have something worthwhile to show everyone. I'm still working on the final touches on the new drawer and the sub-base for the layout. Cheers! Mike

My own layout is a glass topped desk (30' X 60", two pieces of glass), that my laptop, land phone, outboard fire-wire drive, cell phone cradle and 3 foot piece of G gauge track with an RS-3 sit on. Most of the day trains go round and round while I work. I have two access holes cut into the side where drawers would normally be. But a couple of times a week I find myself taking the glass off to either straighten something out, make a wholesale change to the rolling stock and motive power, pick out pieces of errant office ware that have fallen through the cracks (pencils, paper clips) or just vacuum and dust. When I try to use the access slots, I invariably knock something over or unintentionally prune a tree or a church steeple. I think the weatherstripping might be a better idea than a permanent sealant. Another way to look at it is if most beverages are in the brown color family (coffee, cola, bourbon, whisky, etc) a spill is akin to a weather wash.

Jeremy, I bought this table from Ikea kind of on impulse and I didn't really think the whole "layout" thing though until after the fact. Coming from 1:48 scale, I couldn't really visualize the scale of all the N size elements of the layout in my mind as I stood there in the Ikea showroom and looked over the table. But I figured I could make it work and the table was pretty inexpensive, so I bought it. It wasn't until well over a year later that I actually put it together and started thinking about the layout. It was then that I realized that the drawer simply wasn't deep enough for some of the fundamental layout elements I wanted to incorporate. So I had two choices, scrap the table and find something else or figure out how to make a deeper drawer that could give me the depth I needed for the elements I had in mind. If I was smart, and nobody has ever accused me of such, I would have chosen option A. But I decided that it was just too wasteful to toss the table out so I went in search of a way to make a deeper drawer. Besides, the "beech" finish on the table matches most of the other furniture in my TV room. As you probably know, there is nothing under the original drawer except for the two cross braces that go between the legs on each end of the table. These are about 8.5" below the bottom of the table top as shown in the image below (this is the table with the original drawer). The original drawer is only about 3.5" deep so in my mind that represented 5" of wasted depth. But with the table construction of pressboard, particle board and "beech" veneer, I was unsure about finding matching material and making a new drawer, let alone working with it without ruining the finish of either the table, drawer or both. But I found a computer desk with the same "beech finish" tabletop at Ikea that I figured could be cut into pieces to make the sides for a new drawer. So that is what I am doing right now. I bought fine tooth blades for both my circular saw and my table saw and I cut the tabletop into pieces to make the new drawer. The new drawer will be about 8 3/8" deep with no bottom. It will just have 90 degree aluminum angle around the inside edges to support a 1.5" pinkboard (extruded foam) layout base. The foam will gave me the depth for certain scenery contours (like a highway underpass) but be rigid enough to not need any other support. The deeper drawer will also give me room for the highway overpass and the feed mill which will have 40' tall corrugated grain bins. I still have a lot of little details to work out but the drawer is almost done. Once I get it assembled and installed in the table I'll take some shots and post them here. Fortunately, I don't have a deadline on this project so I have the luxury of pondering all the ins and outs and taking whatever route suits me. But if I was in a hurry like you were there's no way I'd even attempt this. Actually, after getting this far I probably wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now. It's kind of a pain in the rear. Hopefully I'll get the table part behind me soon so I can start working on the actual layout. Cheers! Mike

I finally got the drawer project mentioned previously in this thread pretty much finished this evening. :D As you can see in the attached images, the new drawer takes up all the available depth (down to the original cross braces across each end) unlike the original one that was only about 3.5" deep. Even with 1.5" of pinkboard in the bottom, the new drawer has 5.75" of interior depth (height). Here's a shot with the drawer slid open. It can be slid completely out if necessary. I put a 50' N scale box car in the drawer to provide some perspective on the new depth. This is the bottom of the new drawer. The only thing supporting the foam are the aluminum angles around the perimeter of the inside of the drawer. I used 1.5" thick foam so it is very rigid and sturdy. Here is a down-on view of the drawer removed from the table. I wanted to be able to easily remove the "layout" from the drawer to work on it or to take photos of it so I used cams and cam bolts to assemble the drawer (just like the original drawer except 3 per corner instead of 2). There is no glue or any other adhesives, I can disassemble the entire drawer in a few minutes if I need to. The original table sides and legs conceal the top two cams so I made them accessible from the outside so I can eventually insert a backdrop around the inside of the drawer without compromising their functionality. The bottom cam on each corner wouldn't be hidden from the outside since the drawer extends below the original sides and they are below the bottom of the backdrop that will be on the inside of the drawer. So those cams are accessed from the underside of the drawer in blind holes as shown in the image below. I had to eliminate the original drawer slides since the sides of the new drawer extend below the table sides. So to keep the drawer stable during installation and removal, I made these guides from aluminum angle. They just allow the drawer to be slid in and out without it dropping out the bottom of the table. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it and I'm looking forward to finally starting on the actual layout. If I had to do it all over again though, I'd probably start with a nice selection of clear douglas fir and build the entire table from scratch. It would probably be the same amount of work but then I could at least make it a more functional size. Cheers! Mike