Holiday Train Shows and Other Fairy Tales
After a 3 year absence, Dayton N-Trak is once again doing our show at the Piqua Mall, so much of my layout time and energy has been directed towards getting my Bend Track modules ready for the display there. Last Tuesday several of us drove up to the mall and set up my modules in the main window of the storefront where we will have our N-Trak modules on display on weekends starting December 8.
It's an excellent showcase for the layout - the front bay window has several spotlights which hit the modules beautifully, key lighting several details. If I had designed the lighting to show off the modules, I couldn't have done better.
I have two more Bend-Track modules under construction, as well. One takes leads off the inside (blue) line of both sides and swings them into the middle, using one of Atlas' new number 2.5 wye turnouts to join them into a single line in the middle. This line will eventually become the yard lead. The other module continues this fifth line down the middle. Though it will function as a yard lead in most cases, it will also have a tank farm on it so it can be used without the yard as an industrial siding.
The tanks themselves are to be made from three and four inch PVC pipe couplings, and 4 inch PVC caps. These are significantly larger than most tanks available as kits, but I think they will give a much more realistic sense of scale to the site.
Berms around the tanks are being cut out of foam, and will be mitered, hot glued in place, then blended in with lightweight spackling before scenicking
Since I have the track in place on these two new modules, I'm considering taking them up to the mall and working on them there, in front of the public, as a kind of "This is one way you can do it" tutorial. It will make a good complement to the rest of the displays we have. We'll be working on the layout that will be a raffle prize in this way, but it's close to being finished, so having more modules to work on should make it a continuing theme of the display.
I've also just received in the mail two of Atlas' Code 55 #10 turnouts. Oh, boy... they are sweet! Unfortunately, I had ordered four of them, so I'm still two short. They're going in as crossovers on Yet Another Bend Track Module that, in conjunction with the above mentioned yard lead, will let trains get to the yard from the outside tracks too. The sketch below shows how the three can fit together.
