Weekend Photo Fun 8/15 to 8/17

[RRTrainman]

RRTrainman- Nice to see your yard finished! It looks really nice. Can't wait to see what your next project is going to be!

Well I have a 8 X 12 C shape in the planning stage that will connect my yard to my 4 X 8 layout.  Have alot of work ahead going to switch to DCC on this one.  This is the rough draft.

[da_kraut]

Hi,

great looking trees and scenery.  Love the scenery.

 

Frank 

[jacon12]

 Lee, I've always heard it called a butterfly bush also.  I tried growing one here in Georgia once but didn't have any luck with it.  After seeing your results I may try again next year.

Jarrell 

 

 

I discovered a new source for trees in the back yard... My wife was off for a couple of days, so she commenced to weeding the garden. August is always a difficult time out there in the flower beds, there's usually very little rain, it's hot and humid, and there just isn't much motivation to go out and do any weeding. So by mid August, the yard looks like the set for Platoon.

Well, anyway, she went out and started cutting and pulling, and in the process, she pruned back our Butterfly Bush. Now don't ask me what the "official name" of it is, because I don't know. But this bush puts out a very interesting cone-shaped flower, each with hundreds of little tendrils radiating from a stem.

As I was stuffing the trimmings into a lawn and leaf bag, my curiosity was piqued.

I clipped off one of the flowers, and disappeared into the garage for a moment. First, I trimmed it back to more of a tree shape, and pulled off all the extraneous leaves from the stem.

I really like these, because unlike the red sedum, they already have a nice full, multi level crown.

I sprayed it with some Acrylic Matte Finish, then rolled it around in some ground foam, and in a matter of moments, had a pretty good looking tree.

So this morning I went out with the nippers, and pulled enough flowers from the pile of clippings to make about 100 trees. This took about an hour and a half, including the sorting and clipping part. I was amazed at how quickly this process went.

Here's the results...

I finished this scene before lunch! I love it when a plan comes together!

Lee

[howmus]

Ray--

Beautiful photos of a beautiful layout.  Just curious--where did you get all of those neat early Santa Fe reefers?  They're really attractive. 

Oh, and PS--could I have my Rio Grande cattle car back, LOL?

Just kidding.  Beautiful work!

Tom

Thanks Tom!  The reefers are mostly old (23 years or so) Roundhouse kits.  I had bought a whole pile of them before I gave up the hobby when my wife died 21 years ago.  A few had been put together but most were assembled when I got back into the hobby about 5 years ago.  I still have 3 more to assemble.  I sure hope they shipped friut from the southwest up here to the Finger Lakes back in 1925.....?  Well that's my story anyway! 

The Rio Grande cattle car in either an old Mantua or Athearn car from a quarter of a century ago..... 

[Wikious]

RRTrainman- Nice to see your yard finished! It looks really nice. Can't wait to see what your next project is going to be!

[RRTrainman]

The first operation session of RR Yard.  Time for a new project!

Geeps on the fly Outbound

Shop is open for business

Mid yard is busy with fueling and sanding up

Intermodel open and taking containers

Work horses waiting for clearance.

[cheese3]

thanks driline! i really like the way the mine looks on the layout you should have seen that section before, it was flat and had a paint factory that scott (trainfreak409) gave to me now i can move that over to the city/industry side of the layout where it was originally going to go.

[myowngod]

Great work is popping up here this week.

Here's what I started Thursday night.  It's going to be the Greenlane Bridge project for my Dad's layout. 
The small arches are being made from some Atlas N scale viaduct.

Here's the pile of parts before I started anything.

This is what I got done the first night.

I'm going to keep a progress post going to go further into detail.  It will be in "Layout Construction" thread.

[twhite]

James--

Thank you for sharing a photo of what is truly a classic model railroad.  I remember being incredibly impressed with Appel's MR when I was much younger (and I still am impressed with it).  It brought back fond memories of what could really be DONE with a layout, both then and now. 

I'm really happy that you have the caboose.  He was really a FINE craftsman IMO.

Tom

[JamesPH1966]

Carl Appel's Norfolk & Ohio OO (yes American OO - 4mm/ft 18.5mm gauge) layout from the Nov 1958 Model Railroader:

and the "drover's" caboose from the above parked on my bookshelf almost 50 years later: 

It and some other American OO will eventually be on a layout with my British OO/HO...

[twhite]

Ray--

Beautiful photos of a beautiful layout.  Just curious--where did you get all of those neat early Santa Fe reefers?  They're really attractive. 

Oh, and PS--could I have my Rio Grande cattle car back, LOL?

Just kidding.  Beautiful work!

Tom

[howmus]

Once again I am in awe of the quality work that so many of you achieve.......

Here are the rest of the panoramic shots of the sceniced portion of the SLOW RR.

Starting the North side of Hopewell Junction and proceeding around to where Bare Hill begins:











Keep the work coming it is only Saturday!

[galaxy]

Last night, I finished the water tank and mill wheel assemblies on my Branchline Trains "Weimer's Mill" kit.  The kit is almost done now.  Next, I need to do the "site prep" work to fit it into the layout's topology, so that I can have the mill pond elevated above the wheel.  Then I can build the sluice assembly to fit the ground work.  The whole thing needs just a touch of weathering, too.

This is a close-up of the wheel assembly.  I used "Instant Rust" to get the rusty metal look on the axle and bearing, and also on the metal bands around the water tank.

Thanks again to Simon for his "You can build a laser-cut wood kit" thread a while back.  I've had this kit in the basement for 2 1/2 years, and he finally gave me the push I needed.

 

Remarkable piece of work, Mr. B.

Many of the wood kits are swell.

Simon taught us all well!

[Packers#1]

locomotive fueling and sanding (from all sides):

what I used to build it:

and GREAT WORK EVERYONE!

[wedudler]

Now I've finished my station for Diamond Valley:

More pictures from this poto session at my blog .

Wolfgang

[gkhazzard]

Well, it's about time for some updates on the RF&P Western.

I've managed to get half the shelf up for the Roanoke Yard (which Stein helped me refine in another thread on this forum) and I have been working on laying track and ballasting it.

I am still refining my ballasting technique - I'm currently experimenting with different brushes to spread the ballast trying to find one that will give me the best look.   It's a work in progress.

While I wait for the ballast glue to dry, I have been assembling buildings.

And experimenting with ivy on the walls.

 

And adding little scenes

[unca roggie]

Quite an interesting, and VARIED, bunch of photos, folks!

Here's a shot of the VARNEY tank car, which I alluded to, on another thread ("A Rare Find").  The one a teacher in the 7th grade gave me, challenging my inept little hands to assemble.

The fact that I still HAVE it, after a hundred or so MOVES, since I was 12, is the big miracle.

 

 

 

[wm3798]

I discovered a new source for trees in the back yard... My wife was off for a couple of days, so she commenced to weeding the garden. August is always a difficult time out there in the flower beds, there's usually very little rain, it's hot and humid, and there just isn't much motivation to go out and do any weeding. So by mid August, the yard looks like the set for Platoon.

Well, anyway, she went out and started cutting and pulling, and in the process, she pruned back our Butterfly Bush. Now don't ask me what the "official name" of it is, because I don't know. But this bush puts out a very interesting cone-shaped flower, each with hundreds of little tendrils radiating from a stem.

As I was stuffing the trimmings into a lawn and leaf bag, my curiosity was piqued.

I clipped off one of the flowers, and disappeared into the garage for a moment. First, I trimmed it back to more of a tree shape, and pulled off all the extraneous leaves from the stem.

I really like these, because unlike the red sedum, they already have a nice full, multi level crown.

I sprayed it with some Acrylic Matte Finish, then rolled it around in some ground foam, and in a matter of moments, had a pretty good looking tree.

So this morning I went out with the nippers, and pulled enough flowers from the pile of clippings to make about 100 trees. This took about an hour and a half, including the sorting and clipping part. I was amazed at how quickly this process went.

Here's the results...

I finished this scene before lunch! I love it when a plan comes together!

Lee

[twhite]

Wow, gang, what a SUPERB bunch of photos, this week.  Makes me wish our heat wave would cool off so that I can spend the whole day in the garage instead of morning and evening.  Grampys:  Just beautiful, as always.  That new passenger train of yours is such a Class Act!  

Amazing angle for that photo, CNJ, I can almost smell the steam--your photos are always an inspiration!

Jarrell: Absolutely BEAUTIFUL photo.  I'm knocked out!

Flash: And a big PHFFFT to you too, buddy--really like that shot of the train from the bridge. 

Crandell:  You've got me curious now, my friend--I'm going to have to try one of those FastTrack turnouts.  Terrific photos. 

Great pictures this week, everyone, just GREAT! 

WS came out with some canoes this week, so I got a couple for Bullard's Bar Lake. 

Here's a couple of high-school kids (me and my best buddy Bill) playing hookey looking for some Kokonie salmon on the lake.

Unfortunately, it's past fishing season and the Game Warden and his wife just happened to be on a canoeing trip at that time.  Oops!

Luckily, the Game Warden is a friend of my Dad's, so it turns out okay.  Thank God he wasn't the Truant Officer!

Tom

 

[SilverSpike]

Nice progress shots everyone! This is such an inspiring thread every week I look forward to it even more!

Here is the latest work on some of my machining tools, detail parts to be added to my roundhouse project:

Lathe - First coat of paint

Lathe - Updated coat

Machining Tool

PhotoShop Fun with Piedmont Division Logo

[MisterBeasley]

Last night, I finished the water tank and mill wheel assemblies on my Branchline Trains "Weimer's Mill" kit.  The kit is almost done now.  Next, I need to do the "site prep" work to fit it into the layout's topology, so that I can have the mill pond elevated above the wheel.  Then I can build the sluice assembly to fit the ground work.  The whole thing needs just a touch of weathering, too.

This is a close-up of the wheel assembly.  I used "Instant Rust" to get the rusty metal look on the axle and bearing, and also on the metal bands around the water tank.

Thanks again to Simon for his "You can build a laser-cut wood kit" thread a while back.  I've had this kit in the basement for 2 1/2 years, and he finally gave me the push I needed.

 

[NSlover92]

I went to a really cool antique tractor show today in case any body's into that sort of thing.
http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a277/loathar/Tractor%20Show/

Some real nice restorations there.

You wouldn't expect many teenagers to be into it but I love it, I love Olivers, AC's and Minne Mo (I collect Minne-Mo's), I have a 1949 UTU that my grandpa gave to me, I pulled it at the fair and put a couple 77's to shame :), hopefully I will have the restoration done soon. Mike 

[NSlover92]

Hi All: Nice start for the WE.  I dirtied up my yard and loco service areas last week.   Before:      After:    Before:     After:  

Awesome is all I can say, I can't wait to get that far on my PRR layout, I love it. Miike 

[mononguy63]

My dad died a couple of weeks ago, so I'm putting this up in his memory.

So sorry for your loss, Phil. I lost my dad last April and it still stings a bit, so I'm right there with you. Very nice tribute to him.

Jim

[Driline]

hi gang i have been working on the mining section of the layout here are some pictures of that and i bought a new locomotive its a bachmann spectrum 2-8-0...

I love that mine shot. It reminds me of my first N-scale layout. I bought that same mine and set it up similar to yours.

[CNJ831]

The past meets the future, on the Hudson Highlands Railroad:

CNJ831

[C&O Fan]

I love the images posted already.  Many of you are, to my eyes, maturing in the hobby, and your images and modelling show it.  This thread gets better each week.

Here is an image showing where I placed my camera for the image that follows.  It shows Fast Tracks #8 turnouts hidden behind a low bluff so that the manual throws I fashioned don't show.

Snip

This is the image I wanted.

 

The second photo is my favorite showing the branch decending off the main

I bet that was fun laying that track !

Kudos on a great job !

[C&O Fan]

Not much new on the MR this week.  Had to put my "Basket Case" Yellowstone 'in the shop' and fiddle with her Universals, the other day.  Got it cured, and here she is on a practice run through Wagon Wheel Gap.  She runs nice and smooth, now. 

Just one example of why I've gone with 34" MINIMUM radius, LOL!

Tom

Wow what a great shot of some awesome steam power !

[C&O Fan]

Uh oh! Looks like Jacon12 is giving Grampy's Trains a run for his money this weekend!
A huge to the both of you!
Geared Stream-Great shot! Needs some scratches on it though like old photos have.

 

Not only are they both good modelers they are both also good with a camera !

 

and I love Geared Steam's Photo

[jeffrey-wimberly]

A quiet day at the park.