W.P.F. 4/23-25

[pike-62]

A few coil cars

 

 

 

[Motley]

cudaken

 

Motley

I can't believe Ken thought my modeling skills were THAT good. LOL

  I didn't, that why I was Impressed!  With the picture I like being real one, I now think it looks fake. 

  When I saw The Real One, I was thinking it was the real one you where using on the layout, not a mock up that a lot of molders will uses as stand in. Anyway, still a good looking kit and you are on your way to a pretty sweet layout Micheal.

            Ken

 

That was funny!!! Thanks for the encouragement, I must be taking all the help and advise into action!

Michael

[Dave Vollmer]

Pike-62, VERY nice!!!

[stebbycentral]

I have been playing with "pot toppers", as introduced in a previous version of WPF.  I decided to see if I could use them on my newest module.

I like the fact that you can use both the top and the bottom.  

[Hamltnblue]

 Couple more:

[cudaken]

Hamltnblue, I see you got your background worked out, looks great!

               Ken

[Hamltnblue]

 Thanks Ken, I hated to have to chop it. If it was just a wall picture it would have been fine, but when an SD70Ace looks like a Submarine I had to follow the suggestions here.

[quietstorm454]

Dave, awesome aerial of the layout, it keeps getting better and better. Thanks for being my inspiration to start small, grow big!

Pike-62, wow, incredible coil cars.

Hamltnblue, that photo backdrop looks great since you cut it down, you still get the feel that youre across the water way from the downtown, but you dont have that tsunami feeling!

Everyone, great job this week! One of the best weeks so far for viewing layouts!  

 

[wm3798]

A couple of goodies from my trip west to Portland, Oregon this week...

First, I visited to Vic's Hobby Supply on Broadway... Vic himself invited me down to see the O scale empire down in the basement.  He's been scratch building UP Passenger cars, among other things, with incredible detail.









Next, I hiked around Portland to take in some of the sights.  Since it was April, I didn't have to worry about ... er... sun angle....



The MAX light rail.  You can ride it for free to get around much of the downtown.  I also rode it back and forth to the Airport for $2.30.  Quite a bargain.  Unlike here in the east, in Portland when the roads get clogged up, they don't build more lanes, they build more rails... there's a lesson in that somewhere.



Here's one of the many commuter trains that run between the cities of the northwest.  This one is actually going west across the river (that's the pusher going backward).  This bridge is neat because the lower deck can lift independently of the upper deck, so barge traffic can pass with minimal disruption to road and light rail traffic above.



and of course, Portland's Union Station is magnificent temple of the railroader's art!



That evening, I caught up with Doug O'Grady from here on the forums, and he graciously drove me up Vancouver Avenue to the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club.  Everyone I met there was friendly and welcoming, and the layout is a magnificent rendering of the local geography.



The visitor aisle represents the Columbia River, with the layout representing the railroading that takes place on the north and south banks.  This is the view from the operator's pit.



The layout is extremely well detailed, and well worth a trip across the continent to see!  Here's the rest of the photos I took during my visit.



Special thanks to Doug and the rest of the crew at the CG club.



Wednesday was a night of merriment with my new colleagues.  We stumbled in to the Green Dragon, which deserves to be modeled.



This part of the bar is open seasonally, and main part is in a big old garage building across a courtyard.  There were many noms and suds enjoyed by all.

Thursday, Rick Ernst met me at Hobbysmith's, and we checked out the Ntrak club's rig in the basement.


Rick scratched out many of the structures on the club's modules.







We left there and headed to the home of Rob Carey, who has an amazing N scale layout depicting Tennessee Pass in Colorado.  Rob's been published several times, most recently in N Scale Railroading.



That's Rob on the left, me in the middle and Rick.  These are some top notch model railroaders, and really nice guys as well.  But enough of that... here's the layout:










Royal Gorge









Absolutely amazing!  But wait!  There's more.  We left Rob's, then went to Rick's house...  He's not quite as far along as Rob, but this layout is going to be blow mind when it's done.

As you enter the room, you find yourself in the Columbia River Gorge, looking at the main line of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle ...



The town of Camas will host a giant paper mill, one of the major industries on the SP&S.





As you can see, Rick is a real hatchet man when it comes to scenery.



He also likes to tinker with structures.




The whole presentation is outstanding, and sets some pretty high standards for both operation and a appearance.  I couldn't have been more impressed with the work of both Rob and Rick.  And again, the best part is they're both as welcoming and friendly as you can be.  My thanks to Doug, Rob and Rick for helping me have such an enjoyable time during my stay in Portland.  I can't wait to go back!

Lee

[zgardner18]

Not much for me and my modeling but here are some train moments for me and my boys.

Here we are at Travel Town in Griffith Park sitting on an engine that clearly states not to (I remember when I was young we could climb all over these puppies. I'm pretty sure I was on the roof of a caboose once)

Here is Jak and Jared having the time of their lives playing trains:

 

[RailfanS]

In loving memory of my Grandfather, Leonard.

July 25, 1944- April 21, 2010

"Grampy's trains"

Thanks for all the fun. You'll be missed. 

[wm3798]

 Sorry to hear about your loss, Jamie.

Lee

[mononguy63]

My condolences, Jamie. Nice tribute.

Rest in Hs Peace, Leonard.

[GRAMRR]

Jamie,

My kids and I played with those same Plasticville buildings with my 0-27 trains many years ago.  Thank you for bringing back some wonderfull memories.

[selector]

It's too bad abour your grandpa, Jamie.   I hope it will be a comfort in the weeks ahead when you play with trains that he was a model train nut like you.

-Crandell

[Capt. Grimek]

Jamie, sorry to hear of your grandpa's passing. It's a magical thing to remember him by running his trains and experiencing some of the same enjoyment he derived from them. I get soothing pleasure from playing around with my own childhood trains (Marx Brand) even though I identify them with my father who got me into this hobby by buying them for me and taking me to club open houses even though he didn't model himself. Michael, Do you have any pics of your doubled up Union Station kits in bright lighting? Curious to see what the finished model looks like. Wonderful and inspiring work from everyone! Someday I too will take up Doug's invitation to visit the Columbia Club's awesome layout.

[Hamltnblue]

 Is the post accurate? Grampys Trains posted in this thread on 4/23, and a look at his profile shows his last visit to the site today at 5:00pm.

Or is it possible that you just happened to use the name of a frequent poster here?

If that's the case I'm sorry for your loss. 

[cudaken]

  I don't think it was are Gampy Trains. Well lets hope not!

[RailfanS]

Thank you everyone for the kind words.

Hamltnblue

 Is the post accurate? Grampys Trains posted in this thread on 4/23, and a look at his profile shows his last visit to the site today at 5:00pm.

I'm sorry. I forgot we have a forum member that goes by the name "Grampys trains". That was simply the title for my tribute. The forum member that has that name is NOT my grandfather. Once again sorry if I created any confusion and thank you all.

Jamie

[Hamltnblue]

 I edited my post in case that's the case.  Weird coincidence if it is.

[Hamltnblue]

 Thanks for the update Jamie.

Prayers to You and your family. 

[Oakhurst Railroad Engineer]

The Shays were busy this weekend.  Two log trains and a passenger train pass by Deadwood siding.

 

[shayfan84325]

Oakhurst Railroad Engineer

The Shays were busy this weekend.  Two log trains and a passenger train pass by Deadwood siding.

 

 

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who pulls passenger trains with Shays.  Here's mine:

 

[jwhitten]

Dave Vollmer

So here's what the layout looks like from above, showing the relation between the old and the new:

 

 

That's awesome Dave! Looks like a google map with the satellite view.

John

[jwhitten]

Geared Steam

TrainManTy

 

George Foreman!!

 

 

I've heard of a "Dog's Breakfast", but I never thought I'd see anybody model one...

 

John

[jwhitten]

cwclark

Hi Guys, Yet another week of great pics. Here's my entry. Been wanting to do this for years but was aprehensive about doing a hand layed turnout. I found that the secret is getting the frog point exactly 4' 81/2" on both sides of the stock rails and that's were the end of the frog point goes  Everything else fell into place with a track gauge and an NMRA gauge. I used a copper clad pc board from radio shack and cut out the throw bar. The ties are 3/32" basswood sanded to 9" x 7" HO scale, micro engineering 1/4" spikes, and the track is Atlas code 100 rail.This was so fun i'm gonna start another one tomorrow.....chuck

 

 

That's really nice Chuck!

Would it be possible for you to post another shot that's a close-up of just the switch? I'm really interested to see what you did.

 John

[jwhitten]

mountaingoatgreg

Here is a model that is out of this world....

 

 

Oy Vey! 

As if we didn't have enough stuff to worry about already,

now we have to add 'Intergalactic Graffiti'...   

 

John