old place
Well, I've started a new layout. no trackplan, as it's a loop of Unitrak with 11" radius curves. I've been plugging away at building the base for the river; I've already applied three or four layers of Joint Compound; I'm hoping it won't take much more. Anyways, here's some old pics (should have more soon):
The town is taking shape:
And the joint compound on the river is shaping up nicely
Here's a nice swimming area:
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Thanks for the bump Sawyer. Either we are all working madly away at our railroads and dont have time to post, or there was a sudden mass explosion of layouts all across america, and all the members arent alive any more.
Well, I have done a little work, but because I started college a semester late, I have to take summer courses so that I can have an AS degree by seven weeks ago next year, so nothing huge has happened.
But I also have been busy. I know you saw, Sawyer (I know of only one teen packers fan and modeler), but for those who dont know, I have been working away madly at a project for Ryan Anderson. Interested? Allow me to take 1:40 of your time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO9Kuszg_FU
Yessir, Ladies and Gentlemen, currently the internet's only video podcast on the subject. Questions, Comments, Concerns? You know how to contact me.
G4 Out.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
Well, Vincent's technically a young adult, so true.
I managed to get the joint compound sanded last night, as well as getting the town planned out. Today I'll be hanging out with friends, but tomorrow I hope to make more progress on the joint compound layer. I'm trying to get it perfectly level since I'll be using Mod Podge for the water surface
I have been pretty busy too. After school got out I started mowing like crazy and now I have a beautiful MTH SD70ACe on the way! Also took a road trip thru the Midwest to see lots of train museums and model RR museums. (Also got a tour of Lambeau field...) other than that the rest of my summer, well, all I can see is lots of grass.
Started working on some legs for my layout, trying to get it off the sawhorses, and am planning my 4x4 foot extension. Unfortunatly I have to miss a train show today, was planing to look for some cheap atlas switches. There's always next time.
Acela
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
Ya jsut HAD to mention the tour of Lambeau Field eh? I've been DIEING to go on one.
Well, I'll have more progress pics of my layout this weekend; it's starting to look more like nature and less like a drop.
Whoopee! Just recieved my new MTH SD70ACe! Boy does she look and sound good! Can't wait to try her out on DCC...
SWEET MAN! Looking forward to some pics.
I took advantage of the shadows this morning to snap some pics of my layout. I had to because otherwise, you couldn't see the different landscape variations etc.
Overview 7/1/11
Town
And here's where the highway bridge will go on the other side (still need to do foam work etc)
Well, I did some more joint compound work. the pictures are dark on purpose so the relief in the terrain is more visible
First, a new overview
Next, the blank space. I now have the roads sorta figured out
Finally, here's the other bridge foot
Hola senors. It's been a while.
Well, I'm down the shore for the summer, so modeling has more or less stopped. However, I got my Walthers order, and installed the decoder in my Genset. I have yet to see if it works because the layout is up North. I'll test it out next time I'm up that way.I also have almost my entire locomotive roster down here for various reasons. Most of them will be getting decal frame striping, since that's all I can do down here, and all of my locomotives will need it. If I ever get to ordering custom decals, then I'll do those as well. However, I way overspent on trains over the last year, so I really shouldn't buy anything at all for quite a while.
Since I've done basically nothing, and there's nothing exciting about a decoder, a bag of trees, and a pair of lumber stacks, I don't have any photos to share.
Sawyer, nice work on the new layout. I'll be honest and admit that I've forgotten what you're modeling now, so would you be kind enough to give me the gist of it?
John, Youtube isn't loading the video right now, so I'll have to try again later.
Acela, you know the rules. No discussing any significant modeling developments without sharing pictures. You might want to fix that so that you're not in violation...
Since I don't have any modeling photos to share, how about some prototype shots, just so that I feel like my post has some substance. I'll post the best photo from each group, and a link to the albums with the rest of the shots.
Two weeks ago, while out visiting Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, I made a stop at NS's Allentown Yard, where they were working the hump track.More Photos
On Saturday, I went on a railfanning trip in South Jersey with a group of seven other members of another forum. Our first two stops were along the Southern Railroad of New Jersey.More Photos
The second pair of stops was along the Cape May Seashore Lines. At Tuckahoe, we met Tony Macrie, the owner of the railroad, who talked with us and took us up into the Tuckahoe tower.More Photos
Enjoy!
My Model Railroad: Tri State RailMy Photos on Flickr: FlickrMy Videos on Youtube: YoutubeMy Photos on RRPA: RR Picture Archives
Joe, pretty much the layout is an oval of kato unitrak with a pair of truss bridges and 11" radius curves. I'm still modeling the Carolina & Southern Railway. I'm also debating whether or not to build a small modular layout for some oeprations (i'd go with point-to-point for a change of pace)
ns3010 Acela, you know the rules. No discussing any significant modeling developments without sharing pictures. You might want to fix that so that you're not in violation...
Whoops! Good thing no moderators caught that...
Here is a photo just in case
This weekend I also built 2 kits:
Also going down for a "shopping spree" at the "local" hobby shop. Well, more like purchasing a few sections of flextrack and some weathering materials. Also need to pick up some paints for the UP Big Boy kit... so much to do and so little Summer left in which to do it.
nice work man!
I myself am gettin sick of messin around with joint compound and sculptamold lol. just whiteness on the firggin layout! oh well, when the river looks great it'll all be worth it
Oooooohhhh, purdy...
In the past two weeks or so, I've done a little modeling here and there. Nothing major, just the frame striping that I mentioned above. At least it's something...
Today, I stopped at the LHS on the way home (we were up visiting Rutgers- New Brunswick) and I picked up a jar of red paint. Now I can finally finish up the paint on my rebuilt Metro-North F40PH-2CAT. I was going to make it 4908, but I may decide to change my mind. It will be something between 4908 and 4914, but not 4909 or 4910 (those do not and may never exist...). Maybe 4911, since it was NJT 4115, which, in reality, is to become 4911. Anyways, all I have to do now is do the red stripe, touch it up, and paint will be done. Decals won't be for a while because I need to draw them up and get them custom printed, since no MTA decals are available in white...
Photos to come.
Hey guys. Looks like this place has really died down this summer. Well for the layout i upgraded to knuckle couplers on most of my rolling stock and engines, i built a coaling tower kit, and i FINALLY made a track plan. It is 4*4 feet. a divider down the middle, and tracks to expand it later on. Well i forget if i told you guys this or not but my dad and i had a 1 day amtrak trip down to altoona.Well with the 10 hr wait we decided to go to the observation bridge and on one of the NS trains there was a Penn Central covered hopper. Which i thought was awesome! But i will put some pictures of my trackplan and my new cars that i promissed on here soon. (hopefully within the week i will get to a wifi area to do it) Christopher
Chris
Hey, Christopher, it's been a while. Good to hear from you again.
While I was visiting Lehigh University in Allentown, PA, a few weeks ago, I saw some unpatched SOU and N&W cars being humped in the yard:
Also, in my last post, I forgot to mention something. I placed a big Walthers order Sunday night, and I'm hoping to have it by the end of the week. It includes some styrene, another lumber load for my centerbeams, and a decoder for my either my PL42AC or F40PH-2CAT (haven't decided yet). Oh yeah, and a new DCC system...
I finally decided that, while I finally had the money, I should just go ahead and get a Digitrax Zephyr. I have E-Z Command, which will allow me to run multiple locomotives just like any other DCC system (once I decoderize my fleet). However, the Zephyr will allow me to program my locomotives so that I can set lighting functions and optimize their performance. It won't do me any good until I get back north and hook it up to the layout (not sure when that will be, but I would like to at least once in the near future so that I don't have to wait until September...), but at least I will have it and it will be ready to go.
Joe, sounds like some progress at least!
Chris, glad to hear from you, and yeah, the summer kills this place, cause we're all busy. yet I bet this is when most of our layout work gets done as well.
CSRY power is FINALLY in blue and white! The blue is polly scale B&M blue; the white is Reefer white. The blue was sprayed with an airbrush; the white is a ratle can. Why a ratle can you may ask? The hobby shop I stopped at (Blue Ridge Hobbies) was out of the bottled reefer white in both polly scale and floquil, but they had reefer white rattle cans. Soooooo anyways, after spraying the white, I did touch-up with a brush, and then remembered my microbrushes. I sprayed some of the reefer white into a hairspray top and jsut dipped the microbrush in there.Don't mock. The pics were snapped quickly, and I didn't overspray B&M blue since it was enamel versus acrylic, but overall, I'm pleased. Three foot rule in effect The B23-7 pic is blurrryyyyyyyyyy, so here's the C420. There will be a Carolina & Southern logo on the long hood in black and the number in white under the windows.
Nice job Sawyer, I like it!
Here's my paint job on 4911. I still need to do some touchup, but this side is more or less done:
Joe, one word: microbrushes. I know Hobby Lobby has them; LHS should too. makes life 20 times easier. I started out touching up with a regular paintbrush; went to the microbrushes and it went so much easier. Your paint job looks a heck of a lot better than mine; that's how it looks NOT touched up?!
Touching up with regular brushes is working fine for me, because I'm using decent brushes (and they were even cheap, 25 for five bucks at Michaels!). The fact that they're new also helps.
The side shown is mostly touched up, but I need to do some work on the red stripe in the ladder area. I also need to repaint the frame under the nose silver, but that's it. The other side has yet to be touched up, and didn't look as good in the first place.
I was using a testors brush; the main problem is my hands aren't steady worth crap when I'm painting
Wow! The summer has just flown by! I was thinking it has been a long time since this thread surfaced for air. Maybe it has been so hot that our tracks warped and we all have been busy replacing them...
Anyway, I finally got the legs on my layout! No more sawhorses! Now I need to get the extension started before school (such an ugly word) starts next week.
Enjoy the last bits of summer!
I've been busy, but not with my layout. I've been working. A lot. But that's not a bad thing, because I'm making MRR money.
Still haven't seen my layout, so I'm hoping it's fine, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. I'll be up north next week, so I'll be able to play with it then.
For those wondering, I got my Zephyr a few weeks ago, and although I haven't really been able to play with it, it seems very easy to use. I'm looking forward to hooking it up next week.
This is my newest acquisition, which I just got yesterday...
After nearly two years, I have finally gotten NS 3010. I couldn't find anything at the LHS yesterday that would be useful to me, so temptation won out. She looks great. Only a few minor details missing, but they are either easily fixable or easily ignorable. The 3010 has a few oddities (such as plow striping) that the other NS GP40-2's don't have, and I didn't expect Atlas to get everything right.
For appearance, I give it an A. Next week, I'll find out how she runs, but I have high expectations, because I've always heard that Atlases are good runners, but this is the first one that I own. Ok, it's the second (the Genset is the first), but that has only run for five minutes before it caught on fire... But now that it also has a decoder, I'll find out how it runs as well. Methinks I should install my second decoder in the 3010 and MU it with my genset...
ns3010 For appearance, I give it an A. Next week, I'll find out how she runs, but I have high expectations, because I've always heard that Atlases are good runners, but this is the first one that I own.
For appearance, I give it an A. Next week, I'll find out how she runs, but I have high expectations, because I've always heard that Atlases are good runners, but this is the first one that I own.
The Atlas Master GP40s are very nice runners. Very smooth and quite. I have two, WC 3005 and WC 3007 and they both run very well.
ns3010 Methinks I should install my second decoder in the 3010 and MU it with my genset...
Methinks I should install my second decoder in the 3010 and MU it with my genset...
That unit should already have a decoder in it (If I remember I think all Atlas Master GP40s had one). My GP40 had a DC/DCC decoder in it right out of the box. To switch from DC to DCC you need to shift a small part that is on the circuit board. I'd have to look at mine to see what it was.
My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/
WCfan ns3010: Methinks I should install my second decoder in the 3010 and MU it with my genset... That unit should already have a decoder in it (If I remember I think all Atlas Master GP40s had one). My GP40 had a DC/DCC decoder in it right out of the box. To switch from DC to DCC you need to shift a small part that is on the circuit board. I'd have to look at mine to see what it was.
ns3010: Methinks I should install my second decoder in the 3010 and MU it with my genset...
There's a jumper on the circuit board-style decoder that you shift over one pin. (well, pair of pins) That's what it was ten years ago, anyway.
Oh, and yes, I'm still here. Sort of... I'm still working on my layout from time to time (I've been painting and weathering track and preparing for scenery) but I'm too busy to work on the layout AND tell anyone about it! Yay having a job, worrying about college, starting a career, running a photography and web design business, blogging about commuting, and attempting (and for the most part failing) to find time to have a social life in between. Once some scenery is built I'll try to get some photos for you guys...
Jordan, the Atlas Gold units have the DCC and QSI Sound, but the Silver units are straight up DC. I'm fine with that, because the cost of the 3010 plus a decoder is less than a decoder, plus I don't care about sound at this point in time. There's always the possiblity that I will decide to add sound at some point down the road, in which case I would just buy a new decoder.
TrainManTyOh, and yes, I'm still here. Sort of... I'm still working on my layout from time to time (I've been painting and weathering track and preparing for scenery) but I'm too busy to work on the layout AND tell anyone about it! Yay having a job, worrying about college, starting a career, running a photography and web design business, blogging about commuting, and attempting (and for the most part failing) to find time to have a social life in between. Once some scenery is built I'll try to get some photos for you guys...
Sounds a lot like my life, but the layout, photography, and blogging are replaced by more work. The layout is up north, but even if I had one down here, I wouldn't even have time for it. Work is six days a week, and any time I'm not working is spent doing summer homework. And, come to think of it, I should be getting back into the college thing soon, since I still need to do a few more visits, fill out apps, and write my essay... My social life takes place at work. I see the same people so much, that we've all become really good friends. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... And my friends that I don't work with I see when they come to eat. As for my friends up at home, well, that's another story. Having not been home since June, I haven't seen anyone from up north since the end of school.
Anyways... Back to the trains...
I've also been working my tail off, but since I blew my hobby budgets for june, july, and august in july, I'll be buying at least some fo the track for my new plan in October. Spekaing of which, here's the latest plan. Still a lot of ideas to be tried before it's finalized though.
Joe, you'll love that Atlas if it's anything like my N scale loco!
I've been busy in my basement the past few weeks. On another note I get to ride the lakeshore tomorrow from Boston-Rochester.
Looking down the mountain at Harrisville
Harrisville freight house (scratchbuilt)
Bridge abutments carved from blue foam.
North Halifax station (scratchbuilt)
watch?v=j2S6QXrItCQ
Alex
Like I said before Alex, it looks pretty sweet.
Got the board and trim painted for my extension. After an overnight drying I should be ready to attach it to the rest of the layout. Too bad school starts Wednesday, otherwise I would have the track done by the weekend.
Its nice to see most of the gang back. I have pretty much given up on those pictures. (DIAL UP STINKS!) Well not much progress on the layout, actuallyi am still deciding which track plan i want to go with. one is basically an island like layout with room for future exxpansion and it is 2 4x4 moduals. And the other one is several moduals (for more expansion) Each would be 2x8. But its all a matter of space and how much $ i have. Oh well.