The Kansas City Central is a 4 by 8 HO gauge model railroad layout to be given away at the National Train Show in July, 1998. The builders of the layout are the Kansas City Society of Model Engineers. These photos show the progress of the layout, built at Destination Train Store, in Lenexa, Kansas. The layout is sponsored by Bachmann and Destination Train Center, and featured in the July 1998 issue of Model Railroader.


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Links to more pictures. Those on this page are through May 9, 1998. Go to page 5 for the final pictures, from the National Train Show.

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The Layout was built at Destination Train Center in old Town Lenexa, Kansas.

DTC Storefront


Laying Templats On Saturday April 25, we started mapping out exactly where the buildings, roads and hills would go. We used paper templates for marking the locations so we could remove them for off site work. The building templates were made from the kits as they were opened. Each club member has a building to put together, but we made sure we had the building templates before they took the buildings home to work on them. Some buildings will be put together before the National Train Show.

Layout Photo

We used insulation foam as the base for the hills. There are lots of ways to support hills, but we like this one. Cutting the foam was made easier by combining a vacuum with a forming rasp tool. As you cut and shape, the vacuum picks up the foam shreds. Neat and quick.


Layout Photo
With forms for the hills made, we glued them in place. Nails were used to keep layers aligned. You can pull the nails out after the glue sets. Remember to remove the thin layer of plastic from the foam before gluing. Insulation board often has an almost invisible layer of plastic as a vapor barrier. If you leave it on, the glue won't stick to the foam and it will all come apart.



Layout Photo On Saturday, May 9, we added the plaster over the foam hill forms. This is before the work started. The pink foam is one thick piece, and the blue foam is in multiple layers. We used what was available; it doesn't usually matter what kind of foam you use. The blue foam is easier to cut. It's actually called Dow Styrofoam.
Layout Photo
This is the pink hill, covered with plaster. We covered it because the surface of the foam was too rough, and to smooth the transition between the table top and the sides of the hill. The covering was paper towels coated with plaster.
Layout Photo
This deep cut runs behind the pink hill (now covered with plaster) and the hill in the corner. Due to the steep sides, this needs to be a rock cut. Later, we will add rock castings here and use plaster to fit them to the underlying terrain.
Layout Photo
At the other corner, two club members apply plaster coated paper towel to a hill. This hill has an overhang, about 1 inch high. We will fit pieces of  broken ceiling tile in here to simulate limestone.
Layout Photo
Here are the two layers of ceiling tile. The edge was broken by hand to be as rough as possible. After painting white, these will be painted to look like limestone and fitted into place under the overhang.
Layout Photo
We had some assistance from visitors. Here is John H., who was at the store and gave us a hand.


Layout Photo
After the plaster covering was set, we put on the rock castings. This was done on Saturday May 16. Plaster was used to "glue" the rock castings in place, and to fill in the gaps behind the castings. We cut the castings with various tools to make them fit the area, then mixed up a small batch of plaster to put them on the hills. Only the steepest hills need rocks. More gradual slopes will be covered with grass and dirt.
Layout Photo
This shows a plaster retaining wall we purchased and cut to fit. There wasn't enough room to put a rock casting in here. The wall will be covered with aluminum foil during the remaining plaster and paint process, to protect it. It gets painted by itself, then fixed in place.
Streets
This is the paved street. The roofing felt was cut to the paper template. The final cutting will take place after the nearby plaster and paint on the layout is done.

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