:up:

Plodding along with a bit more progress. All the lighting prior to the add-on was disconnected and I had wires all over the place under the layout. I spent a lot of time re-wiring, cleaning up and adding the lighting on the causeway bridge. Now I'm pretty pleased with the neatness under the table. It looks nice but more importantly, it's easy to track all the wiring in case of a problem and also set up for adding on to the electrical grid. Pictures of the lights on the causeway are below.

Bill, regarding trees; I went over my trials and tribulations on my last thread: "Easternn Shore Railroad in N Gauge; Take 2" and the tree part begins on page 14.

The quick version is:

1. Take wood cooking skewers

2. Wrap wire to form branches

3. Cover with mix of sawdust and glue

4. Spray with brown and grey

5. Add foliage

The slow part was wrapping the wire around the skewers

Since then, most of the foliage fell off during construction of the new layout which gave me a chance to use the wire frames but use Silfor grass tufts and small pieces of Silfor Moorland Late fall mat as the foliage. I only used them on the tips of the branches (not at the base or the middle) which gives more of a lattice appearance. Just stuck on the tufts and pieces of the

As always, thanks to everyone who stops by.

Very nice night scene.


I've gone back and added some lighting to my buildings and installing street lights. Didn't want lights at first but after the layout got moved to a different location I decided to add them. Also hung some blue lights to give the layout a "once in a blue moon" feeling.

Excellent!

The concrete look of the causeway is there. Lighting and pictures are great!

Scott

Dave it looks great. The night scene is a perfect.

A quick update. I'm working on lighted channel markers and lights for the swing bridge. I purchased a Dwarvin fiber optic kit for the lighting.

I'd hoped to find small tubing to run the fiber up inside the channel markers supports and pop out at the top for the lighting. Couldn't find any commercial tuning small enough so I spend a bit of time using a small hand drill and hollowing out solid 2mm rods (the fiber is .75 mm.) It took a lot of time and was very frustrating (just being off a bit and the drill bit came through the side of the rod) but finally was able to hollow out the 7 channel marker posts.

Next I cut out the appropriate squares and triangles followed by mounting brass numbers on the markers. Finally, used some N scale fencing to create solar panels. Two of the markers are below.

I haven't mounted them or installed the fiber but I'm happy to have gotten this far.

You must have a lot of patience? Great job Dave!

Jerry

Dave,

Wow, that does take patience! What size tube were you looking for? Channel markers look great!

Scott

They look good, congratulations on the drilling. But was there a reason the tubes had to be styrene? K&S sells 1mm OD brass tube, also 1.5mm and 1/16".

I can't believe you drilled out that rod. Your channel markers look great!

George

The Dwarvin Lighting system arrived and I was able to finish the channel markers to include installing the fiber optic lighting. I added clear tubing at the top of the markers to simulate the lens. These were made by cutting of the tips of a plastic pipette, sliding them over the top of marker then painting them with a wash of acrylic to give either the red or green color. After sliding the fiber through the marker tube I fixed it with museum wax to keep it at the right length.

James, I didn't use brass for two reasons. First, I'm not brass savvy and find it easier to work with styrene. Second, as I'm trying to simulate wood, I would have had to scratch the brass to get the wood grain. So more of a comfort of working with styrene. I found that the 2mm styrene rod gave the appearance I wanted.

The Dwarvin hook-up was easy and the lights are programmable. My markers are solid, and I will use a blinking light at the base of the bridge which I've not yet installed.

One think that the .75mm fiber allowed was the warning markers at the ends of the bridge that are visible when the bridge is closed. My birdge is a replica of a swing bridge at Pocomoke VA and it's close to accurate as far as detail and length. I had red painted plastic markers at the bridge ends up until installation of the fiber which can be seen in one of the pics below and are now lighted.

It's very enjoyable to turn the lights out and see the red and green channel makers illuminated. Amazing how the technology of our hobby has progressed.

I have one or two more water markers to make (No Wake and Danger.)

I'm adding a switch at the other end of the layout that will lead to a 2 track removable staging yard.








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That's great nice job on those lights!!

I like your channel lights, Dave.

George

I like how you combine the human engineering of the bridge and lights with the wildness of the scenery. Everything is very realistic.

Mike