Weekend Photo Fun 11-04-05

[IronBeltKen]

(Maybe a tad early, but somebody had to start it...)

Here are some progress pics of my under-construction Iron Belt layout. I applied the first coat of latex over the bare areas last weekend, then decided to add a few extra industrial sidings before going any farther. Please excuse the clutter but, after all - this IS a construction zone!

Here is a view of the Northeast corner with its initial coat of latex. That rectangular depression will eventually be a slag pit, that's why I have a loader parked in there.

Steel mill 'throat' tracks with new roadbed underneath (finally):

A view of new industrial sidings, looking south along main line on east side:

Same area as above, looking northward:

Newly-latexed southeast corner, showing new siding toward right:

A view of the rotary dumper lead tracks, after installing roadbed underneath:

An arial view of East Minister, the only scenicked part of the layout as of today:

...and that's it from me, for now...

 

[Lady_Railfan]

WOWEEEE! That's one fabulous layout. How many miles of track does that represent? I think you should start a new thread to show us your progress, all in one place.

 

[IronBeltKen]

WOWEEEE! That's one fabulous layout. How many miles of track does that represent? I think you should start a new thread to show us your progress, all in one place.

Thank you Claudia, actually I did earlier - I think it's under the 'Benchwork' sub-forum. As for how many miles of track, I never really bothered to do the math (one of my worst subjects in H.S. BTW! ) - I just knew the kind of scenes that I wanted to include and found ways of squeezing them in.

 

[RexHea]

Ken, I am sure glad you made the post. I really enjoy looking at people's layout progress. You know, non-modelers never see just how much work goes into the "non-pretties" of a layout. We even forget how much work and skill was required to get to a finishing point.

It looks like you are at the stage that your excitement is ready to boil over. With most of the "grunt work done", what will be your next step? I like the idea of the recessed slag pit. My blast furnace crew just dumps it over the edge of the layout. I have to clean that mess up every morning. Well, I guess that I had better take a few shots today and get them posted later.

 

[JeffShultz]

Well, since I took a bunch of photos yesterday evening...

My wife Laura basking in the light of the six extra fixtures I put up last night. 75w eq. CFL's in each of them - it's actually even brighter than it looks:

Nice thing about using the shelving brackets is the tremendous amount of storage space you end up with:

Triple-header consist:

Backing down into the siding:

Pushing it down into the hole:

 

[Steve B]

Looking great everyone, still digging out holes for the house extension, found some nice clay (several tons to be precise) some of it has now migrated to the MR layout, pics to follow of my latest project

 

[Lady_Railfan]

Thank you Claudia, actually I did earlier - I think [the thread showing earlier progress] is under the 'Benchwork' sub-forum.

Indeed it is! No wonder it seemed a bit familiar to me. Here's the link for others who might want to see the "before" version.

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2427

 

[RexHea]

I have made some progress the last few weeks on my Gorge. This is one of those areas you think about long after your designing and workbench construction days are over. Yup, this was an after-thought and boy was it ever a tight place to work in.
Hope you enjoy!

This is a photo showing the footing for the large trestle. The trestle bents are cut to go up hill on stepped 1x4"s. I needed something for the groundcover that would follow the slope, but not set fast like plaster would. I used ground colored Sculptamold and it worked perfect. I still have a lot of scenery to do around this area, but you get the idea.

A view into the Gorge showing the lower trestle built and in place. The upper level of the falls is ready for the water (EnviroTex)

Georgia Pacific, eat your heart out. This is my tree farm where I grow all my layout trees. I use Oakleaf Hydrangea for my trees and I can make one in about three minutes, including the trimming.

 

[GatorDave]

Excellent work Rex,
I really like the bridges and the creek bed... let me know how the Envirotex
works out. I (I know I've told you before) use Klockote. It works really well, but
I would like to use some Envirotex and compare the two. I have plans for at least
one more pond and another creek. If you have ever been to western North Carolina,
which is the area I'm modeling, you know that there is water everywhere you look.

Keep up the good work, Dave

 

[NZRMac]

Looks great guys, man I'm envious!! I wanna move and get things built!!

Ken.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Thanks, Claudia, for finding and posting the original link! Done any more lately on that hotel, or have the grandkids been keeping you busy?

Rex, that's an awesome trestle - is it scratchbuilt or from a kit? Can't wait to see the 'water' rushing under it! Rocky scenery is my Achilles' Heel, I never could get it looking quite 'right.' Love that tree farm too! Where exactly do you get that 'Hydrangia' stuff from? I'll probably be needing tons of it [or something similar] to get my rural area looking half-decent.

Jeff, I hope you'll keep posting progress pictures of your layout as it grows. That shelving is a great idea, however, since I have an 'island' layout I had to support mine the old-fashioned way. [But it is 48" off the floor so I also have a fair amount of storage space underneath.] I plan to hang some light-blue drapes to hide the ugly 'packrat' shelves in my garage.

 

[RexHea]

Thanks all for the flowers!

Dave: I will be pouring the upper part in the morning. Right now, there is a lot of finger crossing since I've never done this. I believe that I am ready, but still not sure about the amount to pour to get the 1/8" thickness per layer.

Ken: The Oakleaf Hydrangea is a wild flowing bush that grows in the Southeast, maybe even in Maryland. Here is a site that will tell you more about it. http://www.hydrageashydrangeas.com/oakleaf.html

Both trestles are scratch built from Bass wood. The large one is 42" long, 6" high in the Gorge, and has over 800 scale Nut/Bolt/Washers attached. Actually, it was easy and fun to build using a homemade jig for making the bents. The hardest thing was adjusting the height to fit the layout.

The rocks inside of the Gorge are from WS rock molds with a twist. I used, with the advice of Joe Fugate, patching plaster as a mortar. I would gob it on the plastered surface and stick my rocks to it. Then, instead of cleaning the excess off, I molded it to match adjoining rocks. After all the walls were completed, I took dental picks and carved and scraped new formations to get a good variance.

The rocks along the creek below the falls are made following what Joe Fugate does by gobbing a patching plaster/vermiculite mixture on to the surface of the form. I then roughly shaped them with my fingers and later with dental picks. There still needs to be added coloring and scenicing done to this lower part before its water pour. Next week...I hope!

 

[Russian]

CSX_road_slug, that's some good stuff!

I don't know what I'll be doing this weekend, most lickely a bit of running and scenery. I've already put some roadwork up last week but haven't taken pictures yet.

Funny thing is all of this came today from various sources, a new powerpack , paper containers and a new issue of Branchline.

 

[grande man]

Great work everyone!!!

Rex, the "gorge" is coming along very nicely. I love that trestle!

Ken, can't wait to see more. You're making some great progress on what's gonna be a great layout!

Our south and west yard stationary decoder is now installed. We finally gave it up and called it a night when we couldn't get the routes programmed into the DCS100. Maybe it'll make more since in the morning. Rex, I did get the first LS150 programmed. The addresses had to be changed so that the route numbers will correspond to the track numbers on the staging indication panel. First time out, I mistakenly boosted the power duration on several of the addresses WAY up. Fortunately, when I heard the switch machine cooking on the trial run, I hit the E stop on the DT400. Once that was reprogrammed things are working fine. Thanks again for all those switch machines! they came in very handy.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Russian - thanx for the kind words. I look forward to seeing your scenery pix!

Thanx Rex for the Hydrangea link, looks like that stuff grows all along the East coast. BTW have you looked into Rotor's Southern E6 combo? Those would look right at home on your pike!

Eric, thanx for the encouraging words. It looks like you're pretty far along on you detection wiring project. I have to admit I haven't been following that thread because I haven't 'graduated' to that skill level yet, I can only manage one overwhelming project at a time!

 

[Cjcrescent]

Thanx Rex for the Hydrangea link, looks like that stuff grows all along the East coast. BTW have you looked into Rotor's Southern E6 combo? Those would look right at home on your pike!

Ken, I think Rex has ya covered. Rex took this one on his layout a while ago and I ran it through Picture it!. We call this one the "Old Queen and the Princess"

 

[RexHea]

Grande man, glad you could use the switch machines and that the LS150's worked out for you. I was looking in the Walthers sale catalog and Atlas has a stationary decoder that looks and sounds exactly like the Lenz LS150. ??????

Ken: Try hard to find the Oakleaf Hydrangea. When you clip the bloom off the bush, you cut the little flowers off and leave the tiny seed pods on to hold your fine ground foam. I dip mine down in a bucket of glue/water and then sprinkle the foam on, hang to dry...and it's ready. I made 50 the other night in about two hours.
Also note Carey's post. Yes indeed! I have the BLI E6 Southern and she is a beauty, but take a close look at Carey's Pacific. The old girl is a star and CJ has detailed and weathered her perfectly. Her motor is the smoothest I have ever seen and would probably creep at a .5 click setting if there was such. Amazing locomotive!

 

[IronBeltKen]

Ken, I think Rex has ya covered. Rex took this one on his layout a while ago and I ran it through Picture it!. We call this one the "Old Queen and the Princess"

Ah, silly me! I shoulda known... (Great shot BTW!)

. . .
I found the missing AbraCAData CD-ROM, now I can update my track plan to match what I actually wound up doing! Will post when ready...

Rex - do you grow your own [Hydrangea], or pick them in the wild?

C-ya!

 

[RexHea]

Ken: I pick'um in the wild. They grow everywhere around here so I just ride the country roads and spot the bushes. I filled two large leaf bags in an hour on my last outing. This time of the year doesn't hurt the bushes and actually helps them by the pruning.

 

[Russian]

Russian - thanx for the kind words. I look forward to seeing your scenery pix!

Don't have much done... As I was running trains!
Here's a little video I made. Can you tell that's a dummy leading?
CP mixed at 45mph on the Brownstone subdivision (round mainline).
http://media.putfile.com/CP-FP9-leading

1. Things as they're now. I'll be adding HWY's and a metro for the second deck, containers and cars everywhere, not to mention little details. The empty space on the right is the site of a future Lego industrial park with 4 slidings.
2. Yard power resting. CN SW900 & CP GP9u.