Completing The Yard Module #3 Track Work, Ballasting, Scenery, & Detailing!

Well this one took on a heck of a lot but through the course of this late summer and early winter, I was able to wrap up the scene and prepare for the next module!

[@williambryant5946]

The layout is looking awesome! Here's some ideas of some things you can include in a MOW area I was thinking about while watching this. 20 or 30 gallon, whatever size they are; metal spike cans strewn around in the MOW area would be a good detail. You could make them out of some styrene pipe. Try to find thin wall pipe or sand it thin somehow so you can bang up, dent, bulge the bottoms out, and damage. Have the lids separate laying close by, halfway flatten one end of some of the cans and rust them up good. The older ones took a lot of abuse and even the newer ones get pretty dented up, scratched up, and damaged with rusty patches on them too. Have some newer unopened cans setting around in a group of 4 or 5 beside the damaged, open, fallen over with spikes scattered out, half flattened, very damaged cans. Other metal pieces like those { looking things that clip under the rail on either side of a tie to help keep it in place also come in metal cans around that size. Trash. That area would have trash like cardboard, those green nylon and/or black metal straps that held stuff on pallets, paper labels, styrofoam cups from workers littering and whatever else trash you'd think would be there. Also there'd might be random sizes of metal for whatever building or repair work that may need done to infrastructure on the railroad. Things like angle iron, channel, I beams, different size metal pipe, and flat metal possibly. Also there might be old signals that have been replaced, new or used electrical cabinets/crossing control boxes, crossing signals and crossing arm assemblies, new crossing arms by themselves for replacing damaged ones, and old R×R cross bucks signs that have been replaced. Whatever the MOW needs for their work will be strewn around in an area like that. 👍

[@keithwilkins518]

Love the work you do & your dog😂

[@steveross5071]

I like your rock star hair ...... Very Cool 🎸

[@jimaiken1167]

You can get tie plates from mini prints. They come in pack of 100 pcs. He does incredible work.

[@ironstef7071]

Hey Dan, you did an awesome job on the scenery (well just as you typically do on your cars anyways). I like it the way you do as most layouts tend to be over clogged with too many buildings and overly tight without wide areas such as roads, parkings, fields and such. Your junk section with bush looks real. Now, I have only one concern about your layout structure. I have reviewed other videos where I saw you used MDF as a base surface for your layout. I have no doubts you are being able to regulate temperature and moisture contend of the room (garage) area, but as a former wood science engineer I have to say that the problem with MDF is that it is very sensitive to moisture variation in the way it can warp, expand or shrink depending how it picks up or loses moisture as it equilibrates with the ambiance air. For instance, as the top surface of the layout table is "sealed" with ballast, glue, paint and other materials, the bottom side of the table remains exposed to the ambiant air. The dryer the air, the more the MDF (or wood as well) retracts. In opposition, it will expand with higher moisture in the air. As the top of your table won't move much, if the bottom surface picks up more moisture, your table will cup towards the roof, and the opposite if it gets dryer air. Then an equivalent phenomenon happens linearly as the wood (or MDF) will expand or shrink lengthwise or across (unlike your track material as metal only expands with temperature, not moisture). Each wood species has their own swell factor based on their density. MDF is usually made of softwood and is just as prone to these variations than pine, spruce or fir, from which it is usually made of. Typically, plywood is the material of choice for building a layout due to its stability. It sure is much more expensive, but way more stable. That said, I hope the A/C unit suffice to regulate the climate variations in your area. Such a beautiful piece of artwork deserves great operation too! Anyways, feel free to let me know your thoughts or questions. I actually take much inspiration and tips from your weathering videos too. You are my favorite modeler in regards to weathering.

[@reggiea.stroud8707]

Looks awesome, Dan!

[@Vman7757]

Nice work. Thank you for sharing. Can you show us making those details, I would love to see you build the switch stands and the switch machine details you made.

[@centralfloridarailroadmodelers]

looking awesome !!!

[@ScottTaipaleRail]

The C&O cantilever would be appropriate for all the rent a wreck power you've got to run. CSX stopped leasing them before the C&O fell to vaders.

[@RFMCabooseNP1713]

Nice progress.

[@NicholassTrainChannel]

Nice work Dan. The combination of the tall grass and trees really works well together. Love the lineside details you added too. - Nicholas.

[@jamesnicholas7180]

Great update , thanks for sharing! I like that old C&O signal and your attention to trackside details is awesome.

[@jcs_trains]

Dan, you should model what you want to model! It's your layout and with your attention to detail it will look good regardless of what you pick.

[@jeffgriggs9233]

Hey Dan,great video and great work..question..are you gonna install backdrops on your layout..keep up the good work..

[@Plymouth-Interlocking]

I hope you decide to model the C&O cantilever. I think that will look really good.

[@cp368productions2]

I just redid my feeders last night, I was having issues with low voltage, my sound units would make sound but not move, my non-sound unit was moving slow. It was crawling at speed step 25. Resoldered everything and it's now working perfectly.

[@andrewpalm2103]

Hi Dan. Could you tell me what materials you used for the ground and road in the maintenance alley area? It looks great, and I hope to build a small diorama that includes a grungy yard track with a gravel and dirt road next to it. Cheers from Wisconsin!

[@jeremyaustin4117]

Where'd u get Those SwitchStand Levers? Where & For how much?

[@heiderichvladimir7341]

Actually legit question: How do you deal with the dust? You model all these super super detailed things but dust can be a real bitch so how do you mitigate that?

[@markstrahlendorf6325]

Are the switch stands still available?

[@DansRailroad2011]

Scratchbuilt.

[@markstrahlendorf6325]

@@DansRailroad2011 I was aware of that but I thought you might have made a few extras. Any how to drawings of your work. My GTW branch uses the same stands.

[@ronaldrondeau7870]

Wy dont you nails down you track instead of glue

[@DansRailroad2011]

I do! I use track spikes.

[@Matt_Forcum]

First!

[@Matt_Forcum]

lol, seriously though, I love your work and I’m a big fan of your layout updates! I also have a crossover to replace, but I wasn’t smart and I had already glued my turnouts down.

[@robertschmidt6383]

What is that background noise?

[@DansRailroad2011]

AC/Heater, plus a dehumidifier.