Another photo update on work around my mine area, or the "Hitop" area. Numerous details have been added as you'll see in the photos, mainly from WS and JL Innovative, as I like their detail(s). You'll also see here in one photo some of their details on the Blair Line "Greene's Feed and Seed", or my Kanawha County Feed and Seed, which is placed where MR had the "moonshine bar". Individual trees are WS premium trees, as I like their detail as well, and an open "airy" feel about them. One photo also will show my Cullen station kit aka DB Tower now in place on the right front corner of the layout with added details. Finally, my mainline has now been ballasted around the entire front of the layout. Hope you enjoy until next update.....:)
Sunlight filters into the valley and onto the Hitop Mine of Union Carbide, as two miners discuss the latest contract offer, in Hitop, WVa...
It's a hazy summer day in Hitop, WVa, as a local discusses the farm produce with the owner of the Hitop general store
A hot summer day in Hitop, WVa....
Finally, lots of detail added to Blair Line's Greene's Feed and Seed
The very first photo of this update shows the two company houses placed with details added, including if you look closely, a dog laying on one porch. In between the two houses will sit another WS premium tree, with the Preiser set "Women Hanging Laundry" in front of the tree...
Airborne, You have made tremendous progress in a short amount of time. And it looks great. Could I impose and ask you for a few aerial shots of the layout to get the big picture. I must confess, between working 45-50 hours a week and 2 teenage daughters I figure I am still 6 months from full completion.
Cheers,
Steve
Thanks Steve, much appreciated!
Sure can, it will be a few days before I can get aerial shots however, as we're forecasted to get 5-8" of snow the next day and a half. I may be able to take some shots before the snow starts flying though
Well, when you're retired and no kids at home, you have a bit more time......
The way our weather is going (March is actually Colorado's snowiest month), it probably will be several months before I'm done as well, probably 2 I'd say...
Keep up the good work Airborne. Wish I was retired. I still need to work because I spend way too much on trains.
I'm retired, but I'm not working nearly as fast or as hard as Airborne and Steve. Airborne claims he maybe will finish the layout in 2 more months. What's up with that? I thought these things never got finished. What fun is it after you're finished.
My Layout Pics
Looking really good. Keep up the good work and the progress photos.
Thanks for the compliments everyone!
@Roger......true there, I guess I misspoke about being finished....lol
@Steve, aerial photos as requested:
Thanks for the overhead shots Airborne. I've looked at Greenes seed and feed as it looks like a nice structure but haven't figured out where to fit it. I like the roofs Blairline provides. Also in hindsight I should have run 3 tracks like you to the mine as it was a real pain to cut down the kit. In fact I messed up a cut by about 1/4 inch and have had it sitting there for 3 months wondering if I can salvage it or not. I did finish up a Walthers Redlon Welding kit over the weekend which goes where the King Mill Nella country store does in the original. I now have enough strctures done to finish the landscaping on the mine side. When I get it all finished I will post a photo of my first attempt at a country house for laughs sake. It was the first kit I built and it came out looking like a 5 year old built it. I have since learned the value of patience, inside bracing and how to paint a tar paper roof so I doesn't lift up and bubble on you. Maybe I could post it in a thread entitled "how not to "
cheers
Hi Airborne 101
I can assure you it will never be finished.
Even when a Non Model Railroader thinks its finished it will only be completed.
You will find that detail you wanted and could not find at the time or something new that would look great just there will come along.
Or more room will materialise somewhere and it will be Oh! that would fit there what a great idea for an extension
This is one of the things that makes this a great hobby the simple fact there is always something that can be done on the layout even when it looks finished.
regards John
@Steve;
Why I decided first thing to place the entire mine kit as is on the layout, as I for one have not tried scratchbuilding or much kitbashing, and really didn't want to fool with all those cuts MR did. Plus I decided a coal mining branch should have all three tracks, be a larger structure, and be more of a focal point, plus, I simply wanted more room for more hoppers.....:) I of course left off that huge waste bin that Walther's included with the kit, and had planned to build Walther's "Surge Bin" kit for use with the mine, as again MR did. However, I after looking at their picture of the mine probably a hundred times, never noticed that scratchbuilt structure on top of the bin, which again I didn't want to add. That and the fact my Walther's kit bought locally when opened had the main braces broken, so I've decided not to use the kit at all. My photo I have of the real Hitop mine in WVa shows a waste bin that looks similar to the surge bin kit, however, it would also take up a bit more room, and squeeze the space where the store is located....
I love Blair Line's kits, and knew I was going to use their Sam's Roadhouse over in the front left corner of the layout as a bar and grill for the rr workers and workers from the chemical plant and furniture company, and wanted another industry to switch. Right after this decision Blair Line announced their Greene's Feed and Seed kit, which had the proper dimensions that would fit in, and was perfect timing, so the siding went in for it.
Again, as with the Cullen station kit, as I'm modeling NYC/PC on a particular branchline, they wouldn't have had any stations still open in my 68-75 time frame. This plus the more I looked at the station kit, the more it resembled the actual DB Tower, a block station 15 miles south of Dickinson yard where the westernmost end of the old Virginian connected with the NYC before the Virginian crossed the Kanawha River. Then of course after the merger it became N&W. So, I eliminated the tunnel MR had, and decided to make this corner the interchange with the N&W (or Virginian), so I can eventually run my NYC and any Virginian stock I might pick up, or run my PC/ N&W stock. The only thing missing from the staion location on the layout is a TO signal, which I'll add later. The "interchange track" of course will lead to the staging yard eventually....
I'll post a photo with credit of the actual DB Tower soon. Just waiting for a bit better photo of the structure.
One other point in my decision making concerned the background building on the left front edge. I decided even though there wouldn't be a lot of room inside the branchline curve by the yard, I wanted a kit more detailed than a background building, was tall enough, and small enough to fit next to my AMB Freight Station, and WS Sicken Tire kit was perfect. It was the right dimensions, was tall enough to look like a factory, and I loved all the detail parts that come with the kit. The only thing I didn't like was that God-awful dark maroon color it comes molded in, so I remedied this by painting it all a roof brown, then weathered with gray Bragdon powders for the mortar lines, and other weathering. Then again, I wanted one extra spot to switch, plus I have quite a few tank cars, and finally, chemicals are a huge part of the Kanawha valley, and the West Virginia Secondary, so this lead to my decision to use Walther's oil loading platform, two of Plastruct's vertical tanks, plus a chain link fence kit to border it to simulate a chemical plant, in this case FMC organic chemicals. I may at some point add a small pump house by the tanks. I only had an inch-and-a-half wide space to work with, and both kits fit within that space.....
The Sicken Tire kit again for reference:
Photo of the actual DB Tower for similarity to the Cullen Station. Photo courtesy of F.Douglas Bess, Jr.:
I did the exact same thing! had to go back and study every picture then, fix it
What's this in reference to Bob N? Thanks....:)
Sorry not use to posting. This goes WAY back to building the table incorrectly due to a misleading photo in MMR
Bobn, Welcome to the Virginian Build thread. Can we assume your building this layout? If so, please post any pictures you have of your progress.
@ Bob N,
I second that sentiment from Roger!
Understand what you were referring to. I'm sure several built the frame that way from the ambiguous photo
I am building it. Have the table built, all the track laid and just starting to think about scenery. Just found this forum yesterday and it's been a great help already! I'll see what I have for pictures!
Looking forward to seeing some photos, and glad to hear those of us building the layout and posting have been a help so far.....:)
Steve & the other Steve,
Trying to get an idea of how much ground foam to buy. I know WS sells the fine turf in both 25 oz. bags and 64 oz. shakers. How much did you use? I'm guessing that the medium green fine turf will be used the most for both the trees and the grassy areas. So maybe the large container of it with the smaller bag of the lighter green and another of the burnt grass green. Add to that a couple shades of clump foliage in small bags. Do I also need the coarse turf?
Trying to get an idea of how much ground foam to buy.
I'm going to split it into scenery and puffball trees. I am using 64oz canisters
Puff ball trees: So far 2 Canisters of WS Green Blend, 1 canister of WS Burnt grass and one canister of Scenic Express 801B fine green flock. i am about 2/3 finished with trees. The trees take way more than the ground scenery...
Scenery: 1 packet of Arizona Rock and Mineral Sedona red and 1 canister of WS Earth Blend make up the primary base scenery. On top of that I am using 2 packs of Nock 7072 static grass and smaller quantities of WS Fine turf soil and the WS green blend used for the trees. I bought a 64 OZ canister of the fine turf soil, but you really don't use too much.
I did buy a mixed batch of Scenic express coarse turf (6, 64z containers for about $9 on special), but didn't use them. They looked too coarse.I didn't use any clump foliage
So to spec it out if you are doing the puff ball trees (and using same mix as David Popp did) it will take.
3 Canisters Green Blend
2 Canisters of Burn Grass
2 Canisters of Scenic express 801B green flock
1 small bag of Sedona Red
1 Canister of Earth Blend
A smaller bag of earth soil
A couple of small bags of Static grass.
If you are using other colors the ratio is going to be about the same. Lots of the primary and secondary colors for the trees and a full 64oz canister of the primary ground cover color followed by smaller amounts of any secondary colors if using static grass. If not using static grass I think you will need 2 64oz canisters for the primary ground cover color.
Roger,
I used what MR had listed in the article on scenery for the puffball trees, and used them in the order they "rolled" them in. I only used Scenic Express materials and Arizona Rock & Mineral throughout, as I like them better than WS. The only WS product I used was their fine gray ballast for the gravel areas.
I used a mixture of Scenic Express natural dirt and soil, as I like the lighter color and texture (it has small clumps throughout), and Arizona Rock & Mineral "earth", and mixed them together in most spots to contrast the appearance a bit (the Arizona product is a fine dirt texture). I used these, as I thought the red Sedona product was a bit too red. Unfortunately, the Arizona products only come in about 10 or 11 oz bags, so I've already used almost two, and have one spare bag on hand.
I did use the Scenic Express coarse turf, as you can see in my photos, as I wanted more of that unkept or weed look. I left some bare spots where I used the coarse turf however to go back and either blend in some Busch or Noch peel and glue grass tufts, or use static grass. I don't currently have an applicator budgeted though, so I may go with either "dried" or "burnt" grass tufts, or summer color.
I also started out with my main grass mixed blend turf being a 64 oz size, and am almost out, so I had to pick up a 32 oz bottle of the same. The other Scenic Express turf I purchased 32 oz bottles, one of each. In hindsight however, I am almost out of both the coarse turf and light green blend, so I should have just purchased all three in the 64 oz sizes. You'll probably use more of the fine mixed green blend for your grass and base on your trees than the other turf..
Hope this helps.....:)
Steve & Steve, Thank you both for the supplies. Sounds like it takes a lot more than I thought. I hope to place my order in the next few days. How many packages of MicroMark polyester did you use?
I don't currently have an applicator budgeted though,
Airborne,
There are quite a few articles for building your own for around $20 using a fly swatter. . I purchased Grasstech II which is like the Nock and could probably duplicate the whole thing for $20 including the negative ion generator. I am guessing that Grasstech's raw material costs are actually in the $10 range. The key is getting a negative ion generator which has been quite hard to come by in the U.S. If you are interested here is a link to a source in the U.S from a discussion in the Model railroad hobbyist forum.
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1783
How many packages of MicroMark polyester did you use?
I have currently used about 1 1/4 of the 12oz packages so 2 should be sufficient. However when I look at Micromarks website I no longer see the black Poly Fiber. The part number is 84907. Since this is supposed to be a lot better than the green you may have to call them and see if they still stock it.