John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout

July 6, 2022

John continues to work on ballast and grass. This week's efforts made it all the way to the switch into Whittier.	Grandsons Liam and Lincoln were here for the week. They love to play with people and buildings from the previous layout. On this visit Liam learns to use the handheld controller to open and close turnouts.	Rick took the N scale layout home and fixed all the track issues. He brought it back here for train night and ran a locomotive to demonstrate the smooth operations.

Some of the foam board on the layout was not stabilized during construction. Rick uses wood shims to provide leveling and stability.	Rick applies Liquid Nails to hold the foam board in place plus prevent future white glue (used to hold grass in place) from dripping to the carpet below.	John's daughter Anne looked over the barge during train night. She has an idea for mimicking water around the barge using rippled plastic water sheets over top printed vinyl water sheets.

Rick continued work on the Nenana depot. Here the ceiling and soffits pieces are glued and held in place with magnets. The metal piece underneath is flat steel which allows the glued pieces to dry flat while the magnets hold everything in place. Sheer genius!	The depot is now three dimensional as some of the interior walls are now in place.

July 13, 2022

Rick continues work on the Nenana Depot. This shows the waiting room and freight room placed on the main floor, roughly what it will look like when the walls and ceilings are glued to the main floor.	The main floor with the interior walls is in front. The two rear pieces are the waiting room walls with ceiling and the freight room walls with ceiling. Neither ceiling is glued. They are there to hold the three walls beneath them as the glue dries. Each ceiling will be removed and the walls glued to the main floor. The main floor will be painted and windows installed before the ceilings can be installed.	The Waiting room and freight room walls have been glued to the mail level. The screws are holding things in alignment.

John continued plaster cloth work on the layout. Some plaster damage occurred over the years as the layout was moved. This was repaired as well.	Before train night ended John finished all the plaster cloth work. Next will be adding a smooth coat of plaster to all areas except the center section.	John continues scenery work between Whittier and Eppley's Curve. Once glue sets grass scenery will be sprinkled in place.

Rick ran various trains including a consist of just five cabooses.	Rick also installs supports for the foam board at Usibelli Coal Mine. He then uses Liquid nails to hold everything in place.

July 20, 2022

John continues grass work into Eppley's Curve, past the future cemetery site and to Usibelli Coal Mine. Painter's tape protects the rails and turnouts from the glue spray.	On the N scale coffee table layout John covers the plaster cloth with a smooth layer of plaster. Bare plaster cloth is on the left and the smooth plaster cover at right.	John covers the rails and turnout with painters tape and then completes the smooth plaster coating around the entire layout.

Rick continues the construction of the Nenana Depot LaserKit including windows (not shown). Additionally, he painted the exterior of the building in the post WWII color.	The partially completed Nenana Depot makes an appearance at Clayton's Alaska Railroad. Rick spends time explaining the complexities of construction including some of the kit's deficiencies.	One of the cabooses had a non-standard coupler height. Rick took it home and did the necessary work to bring it up to proper specs. The above video shows a run of all five cabooses.

At the Usibelli Coal Mine foam board section Rick uses Liquid Nails with a foam core fashioned paint brush to fill in gaps which in turn provides stability and height adjustment.	Rick works on foam board at the front of the future Anchorage Depot site. Support structures are placed under the foam board to provide stability and height adjustment.	BNSF and UP are saying a few minutes of shut-eye at work can improve alertness and reduce fatigue. Clayton's Alaska Railroad's construction supervisor Max is testing out this theory. A report on this study will be made when said supervisor is awake long enough to deliver it.

July 27, 2022

Rick continues work on the Nenana. The roof sections are laid on top of the depot walls. The dormers have not been glued to the first floor roof. On the far left a piece of the first floor roof has not been added yet. Rick's waiting for the glue to set up. The dormers will be added after the first floor roof has been glued to the depot. All roof sections will have shingles applied.	This higher view shows tape holding the three sections together while the glue sets up.	John continues work on the N scale coffee table layout. The wood and plaster surfaces were painted while ballast was put down on all the tracks. The whole process took approximately 12 hours of work.

During train night Rick runs a passenger train and finds Ultradome passenger cars strike the left side of the north portal. This photo shows that only about an eighth of an inch exists between the car and the portal.	This photo shows the clearance on the right side can be super close as well. We cut into the north mountain wall so the portal could be repositioned allowing the same clearance on both sides of the portal.	Rick uses Liquid Nails on the foam board entering the Mountain subdivision.
	$Anchorage Depot\$
At the Anchorage Depot Rick builds a "below the board" support system for the foam board pieces. Now the whole area is evened up and brought to "plywood road bed" level.	Rick then applies Liquid Nails to join the pieces together and hold them in place.

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 9/4/17 and last updated 7/30/22