Well, I finally have something to contribute here: After toiling along on and off for the last six months, I finally finished my latest locmotive for my layout, a D&H RS-3m #504, this is the "good enuff" version, (long hood was not raised):
The model started out as an original Atlas RS-3 with my own castings for the nose, headlight/number board housing, dynamic brake box, exhaust stack, , sinclair antenna, air tanks and battery boxes. I used SmokeyValley stancions except for the front and rear for which I repurposed the original Atlas handrails. The fuel tank and pilot faces were also rebuilt.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
I got a few things. First, I destroyed what I was working on for this:
Then i went through a layout planning process for the layout that lead me to destroy my current one. The new layoiut will be built when the attic (where my layout currently is) is converted to my bedroom.
(that bridge piece will be 6 inches, not a foot.)
and now, i've torn up that small layout to build this:
I can't wait till I can get cracking on my big layout, but until then, the 4x8 will have to entertain me.
Great work everyone. as usual, grampy's Trains has it nailed. Lee, I think your n scale populance has enough lumber to build their own layouts. ;]
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
myowngod-You really nailed that roadway!! Great job!
Lee-Great lumber yard! Looks real.
Well, my first contribution to WPF
I bought this one weathered and all. I like it, I just gotta get a pin to resecure the truck.
A blurry Pic of my favorite locomotive. There is a video on you tube of it. Check it out. Heres the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-DdIO-vXAI4
ThanksColin
Lee,
Thanks alot! I have a lumberyard planned for the layout My Dad and I are building. You've given me plenty of ideas.
I saved all your pix as references. Thanks again.
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
I use basswood strips cut to length and a ball point pen to simulate the steel bands and the lumberyard's stock markings. In N scale, you don't really need to go over the top with the minute details.
Different products have various identifiers such as the originating mill or dimension. The yellow stack represents subfloor OSB, the blue is 7/16 wall sheathing, etc.
For dimensional lumber, use your scale rule to cut hacks in 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16' lengths. 2x6's and up come in lengths of 20' and 22' also. Don't forget to paint some of it greenish brown to resemble treated decking.
and don't forget the sheetrock and pink insulation foam!
We used to keep 8' studs, 4x8 sheetrock and 7/16 OSB on the front dock, since it sold pretty quickly.
There would also be a lot of miscellaneous stuff like deck railing samples, rolls of rabbit wire, and special orders that were screwed up (usually by my manager) that we had to sell off at a loss before inventory.
Out front in the parking lot would be samples of the shed kits and play sets we sold. I'll have to make a picture of the models in front of my 84.
I worked for 84 for a couple of years back in the 90's, and took a lot of notes! I even got to unload of 50' boxcar full of pre-cut studs! Head down to your local lumber yard and take some pictures... as long as you're buying your benchwork from them, they won't mind!Most of the commercially available lumber loads are too big. I have some Chooch Industries loads, but they measure 14' or 15' long, and the hack is 8'wide and 6' tall. You have to think in terms of what a typical fork lift can handle. Most hacks of lumber are 3' to 4' tall, and no more than 4' wide. As the length of the lumber increases, the height of the hack may get smaller, keeping the number of "board feet" equivalent.
Larger dimensional lumber (2x8, 2x10, 2x12) in longer lengths (16' - 24') is usually wrapped, while 2x4's and 2x6's typically are not. Framing studs, as I noted, are shipped in boxcars, as is plywood generally, so your lumber yard siding will need a ramp for the forklift to get inside the car.
I got a few more detail images of the lumber yard for your reference:This is the dimensional lumber side of the shed.
Here's the plywood side, from a different angle
I took a cutting from a wood pile casting, turned it on it's side and painted it black to represent a pallet of roofing felt.
It's Saturday Morning, Harry Homeowner is loading up the station wagon for a project on the "Honey Do" list...
The co-manager checks the load list while the yard guy loads up the last hack for the delivery.
Out in the front yard, displays of the various sheds and playset kits are placed around the parking lot.
Great stuff again this week!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
George--
Scratch-built! As an old bridge-builder myself, I'm even MORE impressed. That's a mighty fine job. BTW, I recognize that rock on the lower right hand side, LOL--it's been doing yeoman service on my own Yuba River Sub at various locations and as you said, various positions.
Again, really NICE work!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
twhite wrote: George--NICE WORK! Are those ME steel viaduct kits? They're fun to build, but a little daunting until you get the first tower up, then they go kind of fast. The twin viaducts remind me a little of the bridges out of Colfax, CA. on the ex-Southern Pacific Donner Pass route, near Long Ravine. When the original line was double-tracked sometime in the early part of the 20th century, SP built another parallel trestle right next to the first one--so close that they had to stagger the towers. Nice work. I also like your rock-work a LOT!Tom
NICE WORK! Are those ME steel viaduct kits? They're fun to build, but a little daunting until you get the first tower up, then they go kind of fast. The twin viaducts remind me a little of the bridges out of Colfax, CA. on the ex-Southern Pacific Donner Pass route, near Long Ravine. When the original line was double-tracked sometime in the early part of the 20th century, SP built another parallel trestle right next to the first one--so close that they had to stagger the towers.
Nice work. I also like your rock-work a LOT!
Tom,
Thanks for the kind words! These are actually scratchbuilt from Evergreen stuff. The girders are cut from .020 sheet, with ribs, top and bottom plates from .010 strip. The towers are from various H and I beam shapes. The gussets are cut from .010 sheet with a rivet pattern poked in them using the point of a plumb bob - so don't look close. (Hey, ya go to modeling with the tools you have, not the tools you want.) The track is ME bridge track.
The rocks are casting from 3 Woodland Scenics commercial molds, just oriented differently (hmm.. I turn my head and that rock looks familiar!) . I set them dry into wet plaster on to the base (which is plaster soaked towels over screen). Between the castings is scultamold or plaster, sometimes smooth, sometimes stippled with a spatula. Coloring is done with washes of cheap acrylics from the craft store.
Again, thanks for the kind words. I am glad you like it.
George V.
My contribution - my most recent project is a two track steel trestle. (Actually, it's two trestles, close together)
I was surprised to find I took my first pictures of the scenery under contruction almost 16 months ago. Bridges do take a long time.
Mike: It's a time-space portal! New England to England! (talk about not "modeling the ordanary!") Great photos and work!
I put up more crossing lights....
Have been making a low cutting for my New England in winter HO layout.
added some snow...
here's where the two layouts [US and UK] meet
Mike
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0
WP 3020 wrote: I don't want to be the bad guy who rains on your fun, I just thought I'd give you (rs2mike), and others, some helpful ideas. Your boom tender or work caboose is a good start. If I were you I'd replace the spare wheel sets you have on the deck with some more prototypical ones. Real wheel set axle ends aren't pointed like most model axles are. I made some fairly prototypical looking spare wheel sets one time using some old Tyco or Mantua rib back plastic wheel sets mounted on metal axles. I twisted the wheels between some sandpaper to "turn" down the tall flanges, pulled the wheels off the axle, enlarged the hole with a 1/16" drill and used some 1/16" Plastruct or Evergreen styrene rod for a new axle (I did this quite some time ago, so I may be wrong on the diameter of the new axle). I approximated the new axle length by roughly measuring across a truck frame. I painted them with some rust color like Floquil rail brown and/or rust. They should be blocked in better than what you have them now. I would also add more "junk" to the deck (short lengths of ties (used for cribbing crane outriggers and coaxing a derailed wheel back on the rail), short lengths of code 70 & 85 rail, some chain and maybe some empty oil drums from Grandt Line (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/300-5041 They look better than the drawing). The park is looking good.
I don't want to be the bad guy who rains on your fun, I just thought I'd give you (rs2mike), and others, some helpful ideas. Your boom tender or work caboose is a good start. If I were you I'd replace the spare wheel sets you have on the deck with some more prototypical ones. Real wheel set axle ends aren't pointed like most model axles are. I made some fairly prototypical looking spare wheel sets one time using some old Tyco or Mantua rib back plastic wheel sets mounted on metal axles. I twisted the wheels between some sandpaper to "turn" down the tall flanges, pulled the wheels off the axle, enlarged the hole with a 1/16" drill and used some 1/16" Plastruct or Evergreen styrene rod for a new axle (I did this quite some time ago, so I may be wrong on the diameter of the new axle). I approximated the new axle length by roughly measuring across a truck frame. I painted them with some rust color like Floquil rail brown and/or rust. They should be blocked in better than what you have them now. I would also add more "junk" to the deck (short lengths of ties (used for cribbing crane outriggers and coaxing a derailed wheel back on the rail), short lengths of code 70 & 85 rail, some chain and maybe some empty oil drums from Grandt Line (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/300-5041 They look better than the drawing).
The park is looking good.
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
Did a little photoshopping on one I posted last week.
I am amazed at the quality of input, both visual and verbal in this thread.
Tom, go git 'em. I hope you have a whale of a time continuing to scenic your layout. It's a beaut.
Jeff, the park is coming along very nicely.
Grampy, what else is there to say except you have it cold. Congratulations.
Lastly, Mike, I like what you have done so far. It is turning out well.
I have been fooling around with the engine servicing area. I built a water standpipe from scratch using sprue and leftover kit pieces. I also had to file the conical business end of the standpipe nozzle, and then paint the whole thing after adding a wooden pull handle.
I also painted up the railings and concrete pit of the turntable today, and rusted up the spare wheelsets. The pointy ends will have to do for now.
Here's what I've been working on for the past couple weeks. It's for highway overpass crossing over some tracks. It's for the club I belong to, here in Bound Brook, NJ.
This is the humble beginnings of the project. It is completely scratch built from styrene and brass rods.
This is the area it's going to be installed at.
I just painted it in the past day or 2. Here's how it looks so far.
This is a VIDEO of the bridge progress.
I still have to paint the underside, which I'll probably do Friday.
Grampys Trains wrote:Hi Ron and NittanyLion: Thanks for the kind words. It's 22 inches from the train to the backdrop. The backdrop photos are from "Realistic Backrounds" by DQCI. My local HS in Manheim, Pa. carries them, but they are available from Scenic Express, as well. They measure 38"x13", but I cut the sky part off and mount them spaced out from the backdrop 1/4" with hot glue. BTW, these photos are of Pittsburgh, Pa. and the surrounding terrain.
No matter how much I try to force myself to only see 22" it still seems like a lot more. It gives me some hope for the 30" depth of my layout. Although it appears that the different levels of height on your layout helps fool the eye.
Thanks for the backdrop lead. I'm planning everything out in advance and was looking for good looking ones that had the right feel. Given that I'm planning on putting myself in the Mon Valley a few miles south of Pittsburgh...
twhite wrote: rs2mike wrote:Thanks for the kind comments guys. This is my first real project. I have a gp-40 in the works as well. It is getting metal grab irons, lift rings, metal horn, bell, gps antenna, radio antenna, sunshades and possible a beacon light. It will get a custom paint job once I figure out what the pine river falls railroad paint scheme is. Thinking Green and yellow like the chiago north western.Mike--Just a thought. What era and what connecting railroads does the Pine Falls connect with? A complimentary color scheme with its largest connector wouldn't be out of the way. Reason I say this is that the little narrow-gauge railroad that served my home town of Nevada City had its only connection with the Southern Pacific in Colfax, CA, and even though it was the steam era, the NCNGRR adopted SP paint and lettering schemes for the most part--silver boiler fronts, Roman lettering--they even sent their little locos down on flatcars to the SP Sacramento Shops for the occasional rebuild. If CNW is your biggest connection, green and yellow would sound like a natural color scheme. Good luck. Tom
rs2mike wrote:Thanks for the kind comments guys. This is my first real project. I have a gp-40 in the works as well. It is getting metal grab irons, lift rings, metal horn, bell, gps antenna, radio antenna, sunshades and possible a beacon light. It will get a custom paint job once I figure out what the pine river falls railroad paint scheme is. Thinking Green and yellow like the chiago north western.
Mike--
Just a thought. What era and what connecting railroads does the Pine Falls connect with? A complimentary color scheme with its largest connector wouldn't be out of the way. Reason I say this is that the little narrow-gauge railroad that served my home town of Nevada City had its only connection with the Southern Pacific in Colfax, CA, and even though it was the steam era, the NCNGRR adopted SP paint and lettering schemes for the most part--silver boiler fronts, Roman lettering--they even sent their little locos down on flatcars to the SP Sacramento Shops for the occasional rebuild. If CNW is your biggest connection, green and yellow would sound like a natural color scheme.
Good luck.
Great stuff everyone.
I bought a Union Pacific SD70M, which I then installed a DCC decoder (no sound), so know I can MU it to my AC4400CW (UP) with sound and run small manifests around the layout ( which I am just finishing the ballasting and mountain). Ill put a video on youtube of them when the SD70M has sound.
Colin
PS: Ill try to get some pics of it up this weekend. Its Athearn Genesis btw.
NittanyLion wrote: Grampys Trains wrote:Two questions:1) how deep is the layout at this point?
Grampys Trains wrote:
Two questions:
1) how deep is the layout at this point?
I was think the same thing when I saw your pix. It looks pretty shallow between the track and the backdrop. But you did a great job adding visual depth to the scene.
Okay, no layout photos right now, but something to let you all know that I am SERIOUS about re-doing the Sierra Buttes. It arrived a couple of days ago--across the street, accidentally--but it's here. The Topside Creeper, which is going to allow me to lean up and over and FINALLY get those darned rubber rocks on the Buttes.
Don Z, I hope you're watching, buddy! Now I don't have ANY excuses!
She's just MADE for the job, and half of the neighbors with big trucks are already drooling and wanting to know if they can 'rent' her. Pardon the mess under the front of the layout, but frankly, people, isn't that why we BUILD them so high, LOL?
Believe it or not, it folds up into a kind of teeny-tiny thing so that I can manipulate it pretty much where I want. Wow, I had no idea I made my mountains so HIGH!
and 2) where did you get them backdrops of the wooded hill and the houses?
Wow, guys--early or not, it's a GREAT start to the weekend.
Mike: I really like what you've done with the MOW equipment. Just reminded me that my own Yuba Pass is supposedly over 6000 feet above sea level. I guess I'd better get a rotary, LOL! That one of yours sure looks inviting!
Jeff: After you told me how you built the fence, I'm still kind of blinking in admiration. I really LIKE that park scene of yours. Great work!
Grampys: As always, your modeling is just superb! I love those fuel distributor scenes--obviously Muesser's has got the market cornered, LOL! Lovely work.
Great work, EVERYONE!