Hermitage Road is slowly taking shape. In my last layout post I described painting and weathering rail and ties in preparation for laying down ballast. I use dirt dug up from a roundhouse site for ballast. In the late 2000s I lived in Indiana and drove through Richmond, Indiana frequently. On one trip past Richmond I stopped and found the site of the former Pennsylvania Railroad roundhouse. I dug up a couple of bucketfuls of dirt and cinders at the roundhouse site, brought it home, sifted it, and stored it away in a few one-gallon bins for later use. 13 … Continue reading No. 189: Ballasting Track on Hermitage Road

In the last post I described painting track and getting it ready for ballasting. Prior to ballasting, I felt it was important to install backdrops, fascia and lighting. In this boring post I’ll describe–briefly–how I installed backdrops, fascia and lighting. Below. In early July I rented a table saw from Home Depot, bought some 1 x 2s and 3/16-inch Masonite, and got to work. Here is the layout in the garage all set for backdrop installation. Looks like I’ve got a coffee ready too. I decided to hang the backdrop in three sections. One small section for each end, and … Continue reading No. 187: Hermitage Road 2: Fascia and Lighting

The blog has been “dark” since the end of April. It’s been a VERY busy summer for me and my family, and now it’s time to get back to it. I mentioned in my last post–way back in April–that I had a full left knee replacement on April 5th. Recovery was much more difficult than I expected. The first two weeks were tough and I was in a lot of pain. After three weeks I was able to start working from home, and about that time I got back to the YMCA and was lifting weight to supplement physical therapy. … Continue reading No. 185: Hermitage Road 2: Rebuilding the Alcatraz Paint & Varnish Co.

I have settled on a track plan for the new Hermitage Road layout. Here is a view, below, of the original Hermitage Road track plan under construction in March 2020. It was pretty simple. Here is the revision I have been planning up until a few weeks ago. It is similar to the first revision I posted last time: I was a little unhappy with this track plan. It maximized the same space, but I didn’t like how everything was square with perpendicular angles. There was no flow. The advantage of building the layout perfectly square with the front fascia … Continue reading No. 183: Rebuilding Hermitage Road, Pt. 3 – Laying Track

February and March have been good months of work on the new Hermitage Road layout. Here’s a mock up of one of two track plans I’ve developed. The layout is 7-1/2 feet long and 18-inches wide. I have another arrangement that I also like, but there’s no rush to make the decision and I’m letting the plans simmer for a while. I’ll share the other plan on the next post, but it looks much like this one with a twist. The reality is there’s not much room to do too much else other than something like this. Like the original … Continue reading No. 181: Rebuilding Hermitage Road, Pt. 2