Weekend Photo Fun 2/29 - 3/2

[Bapou]

Very nice Art! Your general layout feel reminds me of John Allen's work! Great job!

I have plenty of new stuff I haven't shared, 2 scratchbuilt industries, and a new section of street running, (after the article on street running in TRAINS and the embedded rails in MR this issue, I couldn't resist.)

Unfortunetly, I can't find the camera card reader! They're on the camera now.

I must be lucky, my card reader is built in to the PC!

 Here is a pic from a freinds layout

 

[ARTHILL]

Concerning "ENCOUNTERS", you people have the correct geology, but the wrong upthrust. Encounters happen at "Devil's Tower". My mountain is inspired by The Superstition Mountains as seen from Usery Park and on the trail to the Massacre Site. That mystery, of course, has to do with the Lost Dutchman Mine, and my fantasy is that the mine was found and that two competeing claims are now working the vein. That accounts for the railroad and the bridges, yet to be designed. For those familiar with the Massacre site, you will notice that I have compacted the valley by several miles to give more of a canyon that is apparent when hiking there.

I do thank yoiu all for the responses, in that this part of the layout is the culmination of 60 years of dreaming and 10 years of reserch on the site. It may take that long to build it. Here are pics of what it looked like last year at this time and two years ago.

[Anonymous]

Found the card reader!

The cats were playing with it....that and my diarama!

 

Anyway, here's my new structures: West Concord Paper and New Poland Cement.

 

I also added a bit of street running.

Lotsa photos! Sorry about all of them, they're built up over about a week. \

EDIT: Forgot to crop some of those....

[rolleiman]

Jarrel, that guy sitting on the lumber pile must have splinters by now... Hope he isn't being paid a lot to work there.

[wm3798]

The engine house with the doors glued shut is an oft-told tale.  Here's how I solved it with my scratchbuilt shed...

Both doors are functional.  I built the hinge using a length of Plastruct rod, which is a steel wire in a plastic sleeve.

 

I stripped the plastic from about 1/8" at each end, then glued the plastic part to the hinge side of the door.  The bare wire extends above and below the door edge.

 

I built up a foundation, and included pockets at the base of the door openings.  The hinge rods nests in the pockets.  I then provided similar pockets at the top of the doorway on the inside of the front wall.

I left the roof to be removable to make it easier to assemble.  The foundation is permanently attached to the scenery, but the building can be lifted off for track maintenance, or to clear that errant locomotive that falls off the track inside... not likely, but Mr. Murphy spends a lot of time in my layout room!

You can see the hinge operating in this view...  and here it is with paint...

I added a door stop at the top of the frame to keep the doors from pushing inward, and a clip that allows both doors to open when a locomotive pushes on one of them.  This was a pretty fun, and relatively easy project once I worked out the door hinges.

Lee 

[Bill54]

I went to the Prince William County Model Raolroaders Club Open House this morning. 

The club rents the old Quantico Station and has renovated it to accomodate their layout.

Here are a few pictures I took.

As I was leaving the parking lot A CSX train came by and I got a picture of the lead engine.

Bill

[BRVRR]

Some wonderful modeling here as usual. Makes me feel inadequate.

Art, an incredible mountain. Jaycon12 that is a nice little lumber yard. I'm going to look for space on the BRVRR for one.

My latest project for the BRVRR is this NYC GP-40 #3075. I built it from an Athearn BB kit I had in CSX livery. The idea was to give my new Atlas GP-40 a running mate. After painting and decaling the shell, I added LEDs for lights using Atlas diffusers. The handrails are from Atlas as are the air-line hoses. The MU hoses are from Kato and the grabs from Detail Associates. Not as 'finished' as its Atlas brother, but adequate for my needs.

This is an updated photo of the West end of the BRVRR layout. One of many new photos on my updated website.

Keep up the good work guys. You are always inspiring.

Edit: I changed the photo of the GP-40. First one was the wrong loco.

 

[outdoorsfellar]

Helpers are a mainstay on the Allegheny & Cumberland. Here at Coal Fork Jct, two helpers are leaving the helper pocket & will tie on to the end of the awaiting coal train for a shove up to Sand Patch Yard ....

[jon grant]

Thanks for the kind comments, chaps.

Here are a couple more with last night's project - a delivery wagon - and one from a different angle.(apologies for handheld wobble)

 Jon

[GMTRacing]

That's some outstanding work gents. The eroded plateau is awesome, and Jon I really admire what you're doing. Almost like being there would be. No shots from me this week - I'm stuck at work inventorying parts we picked up Thursday (5 pages worth single spaced). Sneaking on line between stints of sorting is keeping me sane today. Thanks,    J.R.  

[fiatfan]

The daily run to Adobe Flat leaves town as the local crew finishes some switching.

Tom 

[Geared Steam]

 

 

 

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That's a good looking Shay.

[OzarkBelt]

[selector]

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaaaahhh!

[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

[New Haven I-5]

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

[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

[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!

[fifedog]

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

[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

 

[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. 

 

[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!

[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.

[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! 

[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.

[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.

 

 

[Train Master]

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

[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

[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.