John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout

October 2, 2024

While perusing the HO scale Facebook group, John found John Deere tractors with lowboy trailer and Cat for sale at Tractor Supply. He and Terry stopped in the store and found they had two left. It was a steal at $12.99 each so they bought them both. Terry will put one back for Christmas.	John was impressed with the quality at such a low price. He placed the unit on the future road next to the barge.	John continued work on the covert. He added Styrofoam pieces to help support the future landforms. White glue will hold everything in place.

After the glue dried, John laid Woodland Scenics plaster cloth over the Styrofoam pieces. Once the plaster cloth dried, he added plaster to smooth out the entire area.	Once the plaster dried John painted the land area with burnt umber. He then added Seward glacial sand in the stream bed.	John bought fern filled flower pots from Temu. He pulled out the plants (shown at top) and then glued dirt material into them. Once dry, he will add flowers.

The barge area needed a guardrail so vehicles won't accidentally drive into the water. John took a styrene strip and drilled holes in it. Next, he glued the guardrail posts into the holes.	Finally, he added the guardrail to the top. This completed the first section of the guardrail. Once a second one is made, he will give them to Rick to airbrush with a silver paint.	After feasting on Jackie's World Famous Salad Bar, Terry kicked off a "make your own grilled cheese sandwich" buffet for train night. Each "chef " chose their type of cheese and meat and then cook them on the griddle. Crispy tater tots added to the fun. For some fun flair, Terry finagled a friend for these cute butterfly sugar cookies.

F7 number 1510 is our flagship locomotive. This heavily weighted, smooth running locomotive is typically used in test situations as well as pulling the track cleaner. Rick found the wheels to be dirty and lots of hair wrapped around the axles. He used the wheel cleaner (shown above) to clean the wheels and pulled out all the fuzz.	Video: Rick loves to make videos of the train running around the track. In recent weeks, he has worked diligently to make the tunnel appear dark. This included putting up cardboard "walls" as well as painting exposed Styrofoam black. This video showed the train running through the tunnel from the northern entrance.	Video: This video showed the train running through the tunnel from the southern entrance. Both John and Rick discussed ways to apply scenery to the northern wall of this entrance. The area is difficult to reach so a possible solution would be to cut a sheet of cribbing to fit the area.

John finished work on the Boy Scout camp foot bridge. The assembly was fairly simple and the final product looked fantastic. John removed a little bit of the existing scenery so the bridge would fit into place. Finally, he glued the Scout on the bridge.	Using the hot wire, Rick cut a piece of Styrofoam that will go deep into the culvert and bump up against the stream from the Boy Scout camp side. John will apply paint and sand to the riverbed. This will add the proper continuity and transition of the stream from the Boy Scout camp to the interior of the culvert.	Our new foreman keeps a sharp eye on all the workers. He is a tough and demanding taskmaster who sets high expectations and demands accountability to drive performance and excellence within his team.

October 9, 2024

Another photo of the new Woodland Scenics bridge at the Boy Scout camp.	Last week Rick cut a piece of Styrofoam that will go deep into the culvert and bump up against the stream from the Boy Scout camp side. As a first step, John painted it brown.	Next, John added stream bed stones. This stone gravel came from a river in Seward, Alaska. Once the glue dried, John added realistic water.

John purchased miniature flower pots and flowers from Temu. The flower pots came with Dracaena plants. John removed the plants and cleaned out the flower pots.	Next, John placed soil (crushed stalks) in the bottom of the pots and then added blue and gold flowers.	Terry was called in to place the four flower pots at the Whittier depot. One passenger was so overcome with the beauty of the flowers that she fainted.

A closer view of two of the new flower pots.	Now that the paint had dried in the culvert area, John added rip rap around the culvert and green bushes along the slopes.	Next, John added static grass to the entire culvert area. Tundra growth was blended from the upper level ground into the sloped area.

Draba is the first blooming of Alaska’s wildflowers in spring and loves growing around the moisture provide by the culvert.	John added realistic water through the back end of the culvert which flowed down over Rick's Styrofoam piece and then out of the culvert.	Rick changed from thick to thin wiring between the Maintenance of Way (MOW)/GoPro rail cars and found this fixed the derailment problem in the tunnel.

Several weeks ago, Rick replaced the curved track south of TwentyMile. However, ties were still missing. Tonight he added five missing ties and glued them into place.	Rick used a Kadee Speedi Loco Driver Cleaner to power locomotives while he used a rag and Mineral spirits to clean the wheels on 1510, 3001 and 2503.	Dirty track was very prevalent in the area of Rudd Spur so Rick used a rag and Mineral Spirits to make rails squeaky clean.

October 16, 2024

John continued working on the guardrail adjacent to the barge slip. This is the second of three sections. Some spots in the styrene strip base warped and will be straightened out with a heat gun.	By the end of the evening John had all three sections of the guardrail completed and glued together. Next, rough edges will now be sanded and then the entire guardrail painted silver.	While Rick ran the passenger train, he experienced a pull apart. This was due to one of the passenger cars couplers being lower than the other one. Rick took both home to fix the height issue.

Rick spent most of the evening installing the inside curve of the tunnel wall. This photo is a view of the inside curve wall from the opposite side and shows how it was mounted plus providing accessibility to the track.	Shown here a tunnel view of the new inside wall (at left). This new section covers approximately a third of the tunnel. Next week Rick will install more of the inside curve wall.	Video: The GoPro train enters the northern portal of the tunnel and gives a view of the new inside curve (at right) of the tunnel wall.

Video: The GoPro train enters the southern portal of the tunnel and gives a view of the new inside curve (at left) of the tunnel wall.

October 30, 2024

While Rick worked on coupler shims for the Royal Celebrity Ultradome, he noticed the car had a tendency to lean while taking a curve and then remain stuck in that position. He plans on working on this issue in the coming week.	Video: Even when the Royal Celebrity Ultradome was sandwiched between Ultradomes, the leaning problem persisted. Please forgive the blurry video.	Originally, John cut a notch out of the back of the small mountain due to Ultradome roofs striking the base. Over time, the problem went away so John placed a piece of cardboard over the opening. Eventually, it will receive scenery.

Rick also put up black cardboard to block the light which shone through from the back of the notched mountain. A small section of the tunnel's black cardboard lining was sticking out far enough to strike passing locomotives and rail cars. Rick removed this section and plans on painting the exposed wood bench work black. This will allow enough room for proper clearance.	While John was going through boxes he decided to bring out two more rail cars. They were weighed to determine how much weight to add according to NMRA standards. Some may wonder about John's standards for car manufacturer quality or era portrayed. However, he is a true bottom feeder and is more into collecting and having fun then paying attention to more serious aspects.

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 9/4/17 and last updated 11/6/24