I'm getting to my favorite part of the hobby... The SCENERY. :D
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... this is what the area looked like prior to me plastering it.
Now with just an afternoon of plaster dust flying around and paper towels slopping all over, this is the result.
There was some prep work involved before I could start the actual plastering.This is a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdxPL4shX90 of that process.
I used a bunch of paper towels. I like to use the 1/2 sheet size. I find them easier to handle while plastering. I recommend using Plaster Of Paris (POP) to do the hard shell on the layout, although on this particular time I tried plaster wall patch. I didn't get the desired results as in the past when using POP. The shell is harder using POP. And dries a lot faster. Oh-well lesson learned. I will follow up with some Structolite plaster, this is similar to Sculptamold. I will fill in all the divots and holes with this stuff. I also need 1-1/2" and 2" blue masking tape/painters tape to cover up all the tracks. Get yourself some lite plastic drop clothes to cover the floors and any structure you want to protect. After snagging some water and a couple plastic buckets... let's get to plastering scenery!
Here's a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yEUsTRp4Nw of the plastering process.
After a few hours of plastering here is the result.
I hope some of this info is helpful to you.
Thanks for checking it out.
Keep the axels greased and the tender full, we're rollin' now.
Ron
My layout progress posting Named "PRR Schuylkill Division"
Link to my Youtube videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/myowngod2
Let me take a step back. Before I get to deep into this trips projects, let me show you a video I made of the layout prior to starting anything. The last couple trips I was down there I forgot to bring my camera, so I didn't get a chance to take any videos of past projects. They include finishing the roundhouse, and building the High Line viaduct.
I also show the refinery structures I completed. They are a Walther's kit and a Vollmer kit. I still have a couple other kits to build for use in this scene. These are just pix of them, this is not where they belong on the layout.
Here is the pre/post progress VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWHkBRkPyA
It has been a LOONNNGGGG time since my last major update. I finally had a chance to get down the Pennsylvania Railroad-Schuylkill Division.
The major project that I wanted to work on this trip was beginning the plastering of the rural mountain side of the layout.This area will be the Manayunk region, just west of Philadelphia. It's along the Schuylkill river.
The first thing I had to do to prep for the mess task of plastering was to cover up the tracks with 1-1/2" or 2" blue masking tape, also know as painters tape. Plaster has a way of finding it's way into every area you don't want it. So COVER UP EVERYTHING!. :D Invest in a few plastic drop clothes. You can use them on the floor as well as cut small pieces out to cover any structures near the plaster blast zone.
I have a bunch of picture to follow as well as progress videos and a couple How-to videos on plastering mountain scenery.
I hope any of this will be useful to someone.
The next step was to finally bridge the 2 gaps in the branch line. This included the High Line viaduct and the Greenlane bridge.
The Greenlane bridge was almost complete scratch built. You can see a VIDEO of the build. There is only one track going across this span. Just after the bridge, the track splits into a passing siding where a small station will be located. This area is the highest point on the layout. The town is going to be called Manayunk. A town found just west of Philadelphia, up the Schuylkill river.
Once the track passes the station area it feeds a spur to a team track and a manufacturing plant. Just passed that point the branch line ducks behind the center peninsula backdrop and emerges on the other side of the layout. At this point it splits into a double track and crosses over the High Line viaduct. The prototype of this bridge is found just west of 30th St Station in Philly. The viaduct is made up of a variety of different style bridges. I used a double track Walthers Warren truss, a Micro Engineering 150ft. double city viaduct, a set of Walthers plate girders, and a set of 4 N-scale stone arch tunnel portals that were spliced together to form a long arched span. All of these styles can be found on the High Line.
This is the viaduct before I started working on it this trip. The city viaduct section to the left is not installed, just sitting there.
The pier to the left is a Chooch item and the double sided pier in the middle is a handmade one my Dad and I made from some scrap engineered lumber and a 1x1 board. Once it was painted up it looked fine.
This is me actually working on gluing sown the track to the warren truss bridge.
This is the Walthers plate girder kit.
An overall view of the High Line Viaduct.
And overhead shot. The 3 track mainline that you see in the top of the picture will be hidden behind a large city scape. This is the area that the Reading Terminal building will be located.
Once the track was secured to the viaduct stretch, all we had to do was fill in the gap from there to the left to meet up with the rest of the branch line that was making it's way up from the left area of the layout. Just to the left of the stone arched section of the viaduct is where the Golden Spike is located... Thank God!:D
ollevon what kind of turntable is that? it looks great
what kind of turntable is that? it looks great
It's the Walthers 90' built-up. A nice kit and easy to index and operate.
Hi from Belgium,
Thanks for your help to find the Nscale handrailing I just received them, they are great.
I just finish my own roundhouse in Nscale and lighted it whith white leds, but to avoid the white light I painted them whith a yellow translucid color used for painting glass. (found in craft stores) You can had more or less yellow to acheive some effects of old lamp.
Now you have the old warm yellow color of old lamp but whith leds;no heat, no big current and a long life time.
Good luck.
Marc
After Posting a few quick pix on WPF, I finally have time to sit down and do an update from my trip down Jan 29-30.
My Dad and I got a lot of projects done. Most important we drove "THE GOLDEN SPIKE!". But first I turned my efforts to the unfinished roundhouse. This is a picture of the first day we installed the table and roundhouse
After initially installing the roundhouse building back in July 2007, I really wanted to complete the structure. I only had the outside walls and center timbers in place. This is a Walthers Modern Roundhouse with an add-on kit, for a total of 6 stalls. I always had the back walls built, but never finished painting the clerestory windows, front stall doors, and roof panels. The first thing I did when I got to the layout was to airbrush the roof panels a Floquil Grimy Black. While that was drying, I pulled up the 2 halves of the roundhouse stalls and Roto-zipped out the cork and plywood to fit the inspection pit parts in each stall. Once I was happy with the position and depth of the dug out bench work, I glued the pits to the bottom of the floors. I started to glue the back wall sections to the main roundhouse structure. They went together rather nicely. I was worried how they would line up with all of the angles and radii joining up. But no problems. In the second shot below you can see one smoke chimney missing. I was looking all over my bags and toolbox to find it... to no avail. When I got home it was hiding under the instructions for the refinery towers I started building. Ugh!:eek: I install them next time.
Another quick shot of grimy black on the roof and onto the clerestory window sections. Now they were a little bit more tricky to align the curve too. This is the only shot of the roof I got. (forgot to shoot more of the roof progress:o)
The I popped in the 12 doors in the front of the stalls and glued the frames around them. This really started to finish off the whole structure.
After doing a little shaving off of some of the roof panels to make them align better the roundhouse was complete.
The only thing left to do is hook up the electrical for the lighting. I have a few outside fixtures, and also strung light down each side of the bays. I may eventually add in some more interior detail, but I'm very happy how this building turned out.:D I've said it before...They eat up a lot of real estate, but turntables and roundhouse are worth it!
What I have are detailed erection and parts component drawings of the catenary structure of a section of Sunnyside yard in Queens NY, if that will do you. The drawings show every clamp, bolt, wire, strap and crimp- exact scale drawing of pole clamp assemblies, insulators, steady strands, termination/feeder assemblies and erection diagram- everything- and I mean everything.
I posted this over on the prototype information thread but got no interest, surprizing really- for what I've seen there is very little in the modeling press on constructing correct protoype cat apart from some photos and estimated scale modeling attempts. This information would be a godsend to a catenary modeler, so I am puzzled as to the lack of interest in it.
Now that I know there is at least on modeler interested, I have to convert the information from paper so give me a bit of time to scan and digitize this information and I can email it to you in a PDF.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
accatenary myowngod Here's the video I made. It covers the bridge project from start to finish... except for the install. That will be in a later video. Greenlane Bridge Project Now onto the Highline steel girder bridge project. Followed by the Highline stone arched bridge section. I "Promised" my Dad I would have all the bridges for the branch line complete by the next time I come down. He's really itching to get the branch line up and running. Hey Nice to See things are Progressing Nicely That bridge came out very nice Looks Like the Real Thing. but you know what will top it off literally Some old Catenary poles. I was thinking about branching off the main on my layout and head toward Manayunk. Theres something about how that line enters the Manayunk section. I can just see a GG-1 on your Bridge. I have progressed on my Highline as well. catenary is complete with High Tension Towers. Theres Still work to be done in West Philly with the Greys ferry Section and ZOO Looking Forward to seeing your High Line Work. Heres a Peak
myowngod Here's the video I made. It covers the bridge project from start to finish... except for the install. That will be in a later video. Greenlane Bridge Project Now onto the Highline steel girder bridge project. Followed by the Highline stone arched bridge section. I "Promised" my Dad I would have all the bridges for the branch line complete by the next time I come down. He's really itching to get the branch line up and running.
Here's the video I made. It covers the bridge project from start to finish... except for the install. That will be in a later video.
Greenlane Bridge Project
Now onto the Highline steel girder bridge project. Followed by the Highline stone arched bridge section. I "Promised" my Dad I would have all the bridges for the branch line complete by the next time I come down. He's really itching to get the branch line up and running.
Hey Nice to See things are Progressing Nicely
That bridge came out very nice Looks Like the Real Thing. but you know what will top it off literally Some old Catenary poles. I was thinking about branching off the main on my layout and head toward Manayunk. Theres something about how that line enters the Manayunk section. I can just see a GG-1 on your Bridge. I have progressed on my Highline as well. catenary is complete with High Tension Towers. Theres Still work to be done in West Philly with the Greys ferry Section and ZOO
Looking Forward to seeing your High Line Work.
Heres a Peak
Oh my god, that pic is sweet! I go to school everyday right next to that exact scene, you sir are an amazing artist! I only wish I could ever be that good. I actually drive in my freetime right next to those areas and I follow the tracks all the way into North Philly, the Strawberry mansion area, and then eventually up past Roosevelt Blvd, I think it goes into Wayne Junction which used to be Reading right?
I simply love the the railroads that go through Philadelphia, thats where any person will find me on a Friday night, just cruising along looking at those tracks!
Still one of my favorite threads/layouts.
San Dimas Southern slideshow
tangerine-jack Anybody interested in detailed prototype drawings of full size catenary?
Anybody interested in detailed prototype drawings of full size catenary?
Thanks Jack,
If you have any prototype drawings of PRR style catenary, I'm interested. I was going to build K towers for the Greenlane Bridge and the High Line viaduct I'm building.
Excellent bridge, yours is in much better condition than the original, last time I crossed it there were large sections of the concrete railings missing and a lot of moss growing on it. Good job, you've captured the feel of the prototype very well.
myowngod Thanks for the compliments. I am pretty proud how the bridge turned out. ACcat, I was totally planning on putting catenary towers on the branch line,, going across this bridge and the Highline section. I was researching pix on the net and came across your site. It was a big inspiration for the design of the towers. I plan on the regular K towers with every other one having the tall power line tower on them. I'll keep everyone up to date on the Highline pix... soon.
Thanks for the compliments. I am pretty proud how the bridge turned out.
ACcat, I was totally planning on putting catenary towers on the branch line,, going across this bridge and the Highline section. I was researching pix on the net and came across your site. It was a big inspiration for the design of the towers. I plan on the regular K towers with every other one having the tall power line tower on them.
I'll keep everyone up to date on the Highline pix... soon.
Bill Kachel has a How To Build Catenary PDF which can be found online at Keystone Crossings http://kc.pennsyrr.com/ and other Catenary layouts can be found on my website Links section.
For Insulators most of us use glass beads that can be found at any crafts store. If your really picky you can use Tinchy insulators or buy Model memories Cat poles packages which can get expensive if you need alot of them. Home made Catenary poles can be created with Plastruct/Central Valley structural or Brass components.
looking foward to more updates on the greenlane bridge, highline and that Reading Terminal front
Steve Smith 1:1 Railroad Architect 1:87 Railroad Architect Certified PRR foamer
Visit www.prrnortheastcorridor.com
Movies http://www.youtube.com/user/ac0catenary
Live DCC catenary in Ho scale
Urban/City Modeler
A Real Juice Jack .. IF its not electric Its not running on my layout.
Nice work, Fella!! I, too, have just discovered this thread! I ate it up!
As a regular commuter for a number of years on the Paoli Local and a reluctant "participant" on the Schure Kill Distressway, I can appreciate what you are doing. Impressive! Keep going and keep us informed!
I look forward to it!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western, a study in Freelance Prototyping
BiL Marsland (P5se Camelback) Lehigh Susquehanna & Western Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Hauler All Camelback Steam Roster!! "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" -- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Chpt. 10
How am I just now finding this thread? This is AWESOME!!! Oh, man! I know a LOT of model railroaders from the Philly area that would LOVE to see this! That bridge is both ingenious and excellently executed!
More! More!
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
myowngodACcat, I was totally planning on putting catenary towers on the branch line,, going across this bridge and the Highline section. I was researching pix on the net
ACcat, I was totally planning on putting catenary towers on the branch line,, going across this bridge and the Highline section. I was researching pix on the net
...this The Electrification of the Paoli Local article might be helpful. Note the catanary composition diagram at the article's bottom -- probably inspired by a William Volkmer Pennsy-electric book.
...the PRR Wire Train photo is something you rarely see even at traction-dedicated websites. This would make a neat "girder-skyscraper on a flatcar" scratchbuilding project when the modeler has a little time on their hands.
One "modeler's trick" for hanging-overhead transistors are to use, cut to length, nylon-threaded screws with a small hole drilled through its length to then slip into and/or through the transmission wire.
I'm sure accatanary has more subtle construction techniques up his sleeves.
P.S.: Appreciation goes for your construction-pics insights.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
I'll have to agree with Jamie.. That is one sharp looking bridge!!
Wow...you may not have had any updates in a while, but when you come back, you come back with a bang! Jamie
CLICK HERE FOR THE CSX DIXIE LINE BLOG
After a long hiatus from the construction of this bridge, I have made some good progress over the last week.
I put on the last details and trim on the bridge. I mainly used Rix Products highway divider. You can see the trim under the mini arched section at the top of the towers. Also there is a small keystone like detail that is in between each of the smaller arches.
The next picture you can see the trim on the right tower, but not yet installed on the left tower.
Once I finished all the trim, I FINALLY PAINTED THE BASE COLOR!!!
The color I used is Polly Scale Concrete.
Once the paint had dried, I turned my attention to weathering the bridge. I used a few different techniques; India ink washes, dry-brushing, and chalks. The paint colors are Polly Scale Aged Concrete and Aged White. These colors are used to create the spalling of the concrete and leaching colors from the bridge. The chalks were mainly black, dark brown, dark brownish orange. I got most of my inspiration from photos of the bridge I found on the internet.
I'll get some quick videos of the progress up on Youtube over the next day.
myowngod 30th St has a neat bronze statue and ornate art-deco chandeliers in the main hall and I plan on trying to create that in HO scale... we'll see.:o
Of course, since there's 9 train lines under the station, the support structure is mostly open. The vertical beams are mostly in encased in concrete but I'm pretty sure it's typical I-beam steel framework. I'd offer to take pix but they tend to frown on that these days.
Very impressive - I use the 30th St station often; my office is at 20th St and another building blocks view of the station, but I can see most of the yard out my window. Beats working.
Next week I'm taking a real train trip, to Alabama and back for a family viist and looking forward to riding the Crescent. Those chandeliers and the statue are fantastic, Also a great bas relief mural in the side room of the station. The ornate design of the elevated platform roof will be another challenge, for sure. I love to see such devoted work to model the PRR, and the compression is a real challenge. Here's a guy who has a very interesting approach to the downtown Philly area: NECORRIDOR - complete with skyscrapers and working catenary!
You mean the Shore Kill Distress-way?
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
Margaritaman I really envy the family particiation part. And great work as well. I go to Reading every year because that's where our company's HQ is...do you know how many years it was before I pronounced Schuylkill correctly?
I really envy the family particiation part. And great work as well. I go to Reading every year because that's where our company's HQ is...do you know how many years it was before I pronounced Schuylkill correctly?
You mean "sure kill"? As anyone who drives there regularly would call it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
nbrodar Are you going to do both the upper and lower platforms at 30th Street? I agree the Victory Statue in the main concourse is very impressive. Nick
Are you going to do both the upper and lower platforms at 30th Street? I agree the Victory Statue in the main concourse is very impressive.
Sort of in a way, Yes. It won't be the full blown upper level trackage. Just a trolley line that will come across the bridge from the raised city area behind the yard. I'll use an auto-reverse unit to shuttle the trolley back and forth through the city.
myowngodAlso any ideas on what kind of girder system might be used under a structure like this station?
Poured concrete foundation walls would support the exterior walls and exterior wall columns; also, any interior walls that are load-bearing and/or masonry. The interior support structure would likely be fireproofed steel beams and columns or concrete beams and columns. Floors would be fireproofed formed sheet steel supporting concrete or hollow clay tile supporting concrete or all concrete. If the foundation walls are partially above grade, they would likely be the aforementioned concrete faced (veneered) with stone as is the rest of the building.
Dante
PS. A most impressive project (I, too, have driven the Schuylkill River route many, many times on trips).