Weekend Photo Fun 2/29 - 3/2

[3155944]

I love your thinking you have give a great idea on how to fill in a small width between track and back drop. also I like the price

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I can't believe it either.

[New Haven I-5]

Geez! Last week's Photo still unlocked?

[Kenfolk]

Thanks to all for sharing these inspiring photos! 

I have been working on a structure  for my n-scale layout but was out of town over the weekend and didn't have photos to post. Maybe next weekend...

[OzarkBelt]

Here's a few more:

[tomkat-13]

This is a low relief building of the back of a storage shed-pole barn.... I made it with a block of wood with the bottom painted gray for concrete, then glued on green corrugated paper, cardboard painted green for the roof. I weathered it with chalk. The ladder from the parts box. This was an easy one afternoon build.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

This is a platform I set up a while back. I wanted it to look as if it's been around a while so I'm letting the vegetation take over.

 

[CPrail]

My Newly Arrived BC Rail C420, at my recently finished yard area,this is one smooth engine, (Atlas Classic).

 

 

Nice pictures everyone  love them.... Great work.

Mike.

[SpaceMouse]

Art, Jon, Wow!

There's a lot of great stuff here. Dragonrider, I'm still woking on scratchbuiding structures with square edges--nice work on the Geep.

[Geared Steam]

My weekend has been spent on finishing my only scratch built engine. 

This engine is the first custom paint job in the Cedar Branch & Western's yellow and black paint scheme.  It is a Spectrum shell.  The motor gave out and went in the trash several years back.  Over the last several weeks I've cobbled together parts and pieces to return it to service.  The chassis is from an Athearn GP 30 with a can motor and Ernst slow speed gearing.  The decoder is a LokSound.  It has a couple of minor cosmetic points to mend, but it's in service!

This engine has a very low starting speed as can be seen in the two following videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ra5zdVkMlg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfk_VVAvw4

One of these days I'll get back to doing scenery.  In the mean time, I have two more engines about to be converted to DCC. 

 

Great rockwork dragenrider.

Great stuff everybody

[twhite]

Don--

Thank you, sir.  Actually, my Photoshop seems to have frozen my photos at a certain size and I don't seem to be able to enlarge them.

Just some thoughts:

As far as scenery--actually if you GET analytical about it, it works just as well.  I don't know which area of the country you're modeling (Texas?) but doing a little study on the geology of the area you're modeling really can pay off in the long run.  I did some study about the particular area of the Sierra's I'm modeling--fault-block granite mountains rising from west to east--and followed it as closely as I could within the area I'm modeling.  Assuming you're modeling the Southwest, the sedimentary rocks there would be cut down pretty sheer and rapid by seasonal water runs--which makes your ravine work and will probably fit in perfectly.  I don't know how far Austin is from Palo Duro Canyon up in the northern Panhandle, but if you're thinking of that type of scenery, a trip up there with a camera would probably work really well for you--it's really dramatic.  And actually studying exactly WHY certain scenic elements work like they do is frankly, really interesting and can be a real boon when it comes to sceinicking the layout.   A fellow model railroading friend of mine once said that among one of the many little points we pick up from pursuing the hobby is that of Amateur Geologist. 

This is my third layout and by golly, he's right!

Tom   

[Don Z]

More great stuff, guys.

Don Z--

Sudden, deep ravines out here in the West make for really GREAT dramatic contrasts in the scenery, and you're well on your way.   Can't wait to see the finished result.  Keep us posted, okay?  

Tom

Tom,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. This is my first layout and there are so many aspects that are new to me...the scenery has been a huge challenge because my mind is analytical, not creative by any means. This was the first time I just started wadding papers and stacked them, not sure of what I was creating but I'm very happy with the end results. Worst case, I rip it out and all I wasted was some time, newspaper and a few bucks worth of plaster cloth.

The Yuba Sub looks great! You should upload larger photos....

Don Z.

[twhite]

More great stuff, guys.

Don Z--

Sudden, deep ravines out here in the West make for really GREAT dramatic contrasts in the scenery, and you're well on your way.   Can't wait to see the finished result.  Keep us posted, okay?  

A shot of Plum Creek Canyon--still in progress--on my Yuba River Sub.  One thing about water, it cuts down through everything from sandstone to high Sierra granite.  It's the great leveler. 

Tom

[Train Master]

Good work, everyone. A lot of very nice pics this weekend.

[shayfan84325]

Great work guys!!

Over the past week the Spock's Wingnut plant got a loading dock and a foundation.  The dock nees a little stain and I'll lightly weather the building.  After I do the scenery I'll fasten it down to the foundation.  The Blackwater terminal is getting a turntable.  I made the pit this week out of MDF using a circle cutting setup with a router.  The pit wall is retained by a railroad tie wall (prototype is in Ashland, Oregon).  The ring rail is code 55 spiked to wood ties.  I made a jig to keep the rail circular and on center while I spiked it.

Felling pretty good about this week's work.

 

 

[Don Z]

I made some progress on my layout this weekend. I've been staring at this empty space in my benchwork for just over a year trying to decide what it should look like. It is in my mind, supposed to be a ravine created over many years by flowing water. Here's the before:

I started wadding up paper and stacking it, then started dipping plaster cloth to cover the paper. Here's the after shot:

Now it's time for some wet plaster rock casting to finalize the creation.

Don Z.

[dragenrider]

Thanks, Jeffrey.  It's indeed parts and pieces.  For instance, the drive shaft on one side is a horned ball and the other side is a notched sliding shaft.  One flywheel is shiny brass, the other is old and tarnished.  Neither are the same size.

And I agree with comment that weathering would help on that shiny yellow! 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My weekend has been spent on finishing my only scratch built engine. 

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/865/Freshly_completed_101_poses_at_Gaskins_Switch.jpg

This engine is the first custom paint job in the Cedar Branch & Western's yellow and black paint scheme.  It is a Spectrum shell.  The motor gave out and went in the trash several years back.  Over the last several weeks I've cobbled together parts and pieces to return it to service.  The chassis is from an Athearn GP 30 with a can motor and Ernst slow speed gearing.  The decoder is a LokSound.  It has a couple of minor cosmetic points to mend, but it's in service!

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/865/101_crossing_Gaskins_Creek.jpg

Good job on the engine rebuild Randy. That sounds about the same as my old Bachmann GP40. A 30+ year-old BAchmann chassis, Athearn type trucks from the early 80's, truck sideframes from I don't remember where, a cobbled together shaft drive, a 2 year old Bachmann body and a PPW can motor. Point is, it works.

[New Haven I-5]

 Jon- Great work! I have always been fasinated by your layout!

 twhite-. Post more pics on weekend photo fun! We all enjoy seeing them!

 dragenrider- Nice loco! It just needs a little weathering to get rid of the bright yellow!

[dragenrider]

My weekend has been spent on finishing my only scratch built engine. 

This engine is the first custom paint job in the Cedar Branch & Western's yellow and black paint scheme.  It is a Spectrum shell.  The motor gave out and went in the trash several years back.  Over the last several weeks I've cobbled together parts and pieces to return it to service.  The chassis is from an Athearn GP 30 with a can motor and Ernst slow speed gearing.  The decoder is a LokSound.  It has a couple of minor cosmetic points to mend, but it's in service!

This engine has a very low starting speed as can be seen in the two following videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ra5zdVkMlg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfk_VVAvw4

One of these days I'll get back to doing scenery.  In the mean time, I have two more engines about to be converted to DCC. 

 

[twhite]

Wow!  Some great stuff this weekend. 

Art--If I'm ever in the area, can I bring one of my Yellowstones over and run it around your mountain?  PLEEEEEZ?   That's just spectacular!

Jon--what GREAT urban shots--makes me wish I could somehow fit a city on my MR.  Love those old vehicles--so glad manufacturers are beginning to realize that not everyone needs contemporary vehicles.  Beautiful work. 

Just getting back into it again, so here's a file shot of a future project--going to improve the rockwork on Yuba Pass--those cliffs look WAY too smooth for the elvation (6800') that I'm modeling. 

Tom

 

[fifedog]

jongrant - Love your scenes; lots of flavor.  Great job, English.

[howmus]

Great work everyone!  This is one of the best weekends in quite a while.

I had a small operating session today.  A friend that is both a fellow music teacher (a few years back) and a model railroader brought over a family that is into both model railroads and RC Planes.  His boys have built almost 50 planes themselves.  Turns out I remember the Father and his oldest son from a Boy Scout Camporee that was on aviation a few years back.. He is in a local RC Plane club.  I recalled speaking with him at that time.  Anyway he is into O Scale and his sons are building an HO layout so they wanted to see my setup.  After a short tour, I got the throttles out and what I thought would be a few minutes ended up being a 2 hour session with two trains going.  It gave me a chance to see where the bottlenecks will be when I really start operations on the layout.  His youngest (10 or 11 years old?) got the coal drag pulled by the USRA Mallet 2-6-6-2 and the UT4 throttle. He had never used DCC before.  I showed him how it worked, let him pull up the loco and he was off like a pro.  All 3 of them seemed to like the DCC.  Here is the youngest at the throttle of the Mallet:



My buddy Andy was the switchman for the train (I set them up as a two man crew):



Enough of the plywood central, here is Andy following the train on the sceniced section (actually he is completly ignoring his train and watching the other guys train....... Hey is the turnout thrown?  Hey!  Hey Andy?):



Father and other son as the crew of the Reefer Train pulled by a little Russian Decapod:



And one more of the youngest taking the Mallet and cars up the grade (20 cars I think up a 2+% grade.  No problem.):



Hope you had a fun weekend!

[MRH044]

 Nice! I like your 2 Super Cheif sets the most! Are they Athearn, PCM, or Broadway Limited?

Thank you. The train on the right is the Super Chief - Athearn Genesis ABBBA and prototypical 12 car train. I should post pics of the cars later, all have painted/detailed interiors with Rapido light kits. The train on the right is a mail train. Glad you liked it,   Michael

[New Haven I-5]

 Nice! I like your 2 Super Cheif sets the most! Are they Athearn, PCM, or Broadway Limited?

[MRH044]

  There is a lot of passenger train action on the layout today. Hope you enjoy the pictures,   Michael

Union Pacific City of Los Angeles

Santa Fe Super Chief

[selector]

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaaaahhh!

[OzarkBelt]

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That's a good looking Shay.