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Steve, those are starting to look like weird Pennsy E-units now with the stripes and decals done. They'll certainly be head turners when they're done. I can hear it now..."what the heck was that pair of engines that just went by".
I'de rather hear that then what I heard at a rpm show a month ago. But anyway, hopefully i'll have the side frames painted, front and rear pilots and the MU hoses.
Jeffrey, I'd like to do a substation if I had any room left for another structure but I'm out of space. My only option is to rearrange a few buildings and come up with a few extra inches for the Pikestuff station. I just went through that with the new city hall and moving the church out into the country. No sweat, I thought. Yeah, right. It only took me about a week to rescenic everything and get that danged church road right.
Chris, my town is run by fiscal conservatives so we don't have to lay off any firefighters.
Steve, did you get some grief about those engines? Well, screw 'em. They just have no imagination.
Jim, You could try the pragmatic approach. Put the extra unit on the road as a different town passing through. I live in a section of the city that was cut out of the middle of a township. The township's firehouse is on side of me and it seems all there fires are on the other. I've always got these out of town trucks passing by.
I did but not directly said to me, my wife had overheard a few people. And when she told me what was said, i said to myself the samething you just said "have some imagination!" Its only a hobby.
people who know me, know I have a very wild and crazy imagination. I like to do things that most people wouldn't dare or think of. Such as this.
Gary B - nice thing about those City Classic gas stations is you can cover a wide span of decades just by how you detail it out and the price cards sort of set the era. I'll be adding the bell hose and an air station like you did when it goes into its final location. I did scratch build a lift in one of the bays and plan on adding more inside as I go along. Yours looks fantastic.
Jim - as long as you have some kind of a story re: the full sized cars we'll give you a pass. I actually wanted an NE5 class buggy for my road but settled for the readily available Atlas NKP NE6 even though the window spacing is too wide. I removed all the rivet detail as the NE5 was a welded car and removed the ribs on the cupola roof. Going to a flat main roof was more than I felt like doing so I left it as is. Ended up with part NE5 and part NE6 so I call it an NE5A. Road number follows New Haven NE5 numbering except only 2 digits. Also have another to do which will be C-57. Since they are something we rebuilt in our own shops for our own road that's how they end up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Ok, I've been showing parts of the layout (Fox River Valley Railroad) that are not up to my current goals of 'complete' so I guess I should show-off what actually is my latest and for what it's worth best work. These are of the residential area of Fox Valley. Just missing some street signs and a final house where I want a landmark type structure on the site. It is dead center, where your eye tends to focus on this side of the layout. It may end up being a church. Right now it's a paper farm house. Yes, the swimming pool is a bottle cap!
Gary, I like the way you've stuffed all of those buildings in together. Makes for a real busy looking housing development. I put a giant church in my city scene & that's the 1st thing visitors see when they look at my city. Then the second thing they look at is 18 skyscrapers.
Hot damn, Gary, a bottle cap! I never thought of that but it makes a perfect Doughboy pool. Nice residential section, something that gets left out of a lot of layouts. I've got the new fire truck parked in the alley behind the station now getting a wash job, but I'd still like a proper fire station. In addition to being too small, mine faces the wall and no one can see all my cute fire trucks.
Mike, it's really true about big cars and prisoners. We had Chevy Impalas the year I retired and you coudn't stuff a small dog in the back of that thing. OTOH, we did have one deputy who spent way too much time at donuts shops and any other place that served food. He literally had his own private patrol car because he was not only fat but tall. He crushed the driver's bucket seat down to the point that none of the rest of us could see over the dash to drive it. The Atlas model is pretty accurate for an NKP/W&LE steel cupola caboose and the only accurate RTR NKP caboose out there. I've been slowly trying to finish an American Model Builders wood NKP caboose. At the rate I'm going, I should be done by about 2013.
Steve, you just keep on building away. Ain't none of us going to run you off for having an imagination.
Jim, You could try the pragmatic approach. Put the extra unit on the road as a different town passing through. I live in a section of the city that was cut out of the middle of a township. The township's firehouse is on side of me and it seems all there fires are on the other. I've always got these out of town trucks passing by.
Larry, I've seen your church, it's way to big for my lot. Would liked to have fitted one like it in my city skyline.
Here in Chicago we way the tallest church steeple in the world. It's a gothic spire sitting on top of a 1930's office tower. I keep toying with mounting the Bachmann Plasticville Cathedral on top of a tower to make something similar.
Steve, my first diesel locomotive when I was a kid was a Tyco Pennsy F9AB. Good to see their colors again. That's awesome looking. Other's lack of imagination is not your problem.
Mike I thought about doing a lift in the bay too, but the site where my station will sit, no one would ever see it.
Some the aircraft site do a 'Build the same kit' contest, I think the City Classics gas station would be perfect for such a thing. Everyone builds one but their own way. Might be interesting.
Thanks everyone for the kind words on my pictures. The water in the pool is the seal that was in the cap! I had been playing around with different caps when I found this one with the blue insert, well that settled which cap to use.
Anyone figure out how I make my streetlights?
And to give credit were due, several of these photos my son took. (The good ones.) Also both my son's have been part of this project all along. Most of the locomotives and rolling stock are actually theirs.
Have I posted a photo with a train in it yet?
Gary, when you think about it, trains are a relatively small part of the real landscape. I like my layout to look like the real world. I was looking at your street lights and thinking they look like the ones I was going to make. Two different size brass tubes with the globe being a crystal bead from a craft store. Did I get it right?
Been working on a coaling tower and decided to take a few pic's at this stage...There is a considerable amount of work yet to be done, before incorporating it into my layout!
Gary, I seem to have seen that tower somewhere before....... Hmmmmm. Oh here it is:
Nice job on yours, BTW!
I didn't post anything in here earlier last weekend as I was getting the layout ready to be judged for a Merit Award for the NMRA Master Builder Scenery AP Certificate. Layout was judged yesterday afternoon and passed with flying colors. The photo above is one that will be used for the paperwork for the Certificate. All I have left to do is to file all the paperwork with the region and wait..... This is my second Certifcate but my first Merit Award. Can you see the smile from where you are?
Gary, I seem to have seen that tower somewhere before....... Hmmmmm. Oh here it is:
Nice job on yours, BTW!
I didn't post anything in here earlier last weekend as I was getting the layout ready to be judged for a Merit Award for the NMRA Master Builder Scenery AP Certificate. Layout was judged yesterday afternoon and passed with flying colors. The photo above is one that will be used for the paperwork for the Certificate. All I have left to do is to file all the paperwork with the region and wait..... This is my second Certifcate but my first Merit Award. Can you see the smile from where you are?
Jim, You're close! They are finishing nails (no heads) Aluminum tubing (brass would work)
and then your craft bead and a small black bead on top (Those tend to fall off and get lost.) Neat part is you can drill a hole and tap then in to wood bases, or make them longer and push them into foam. My one street was a window at one end and the beads catch the light and actually look like they're on. Have also done taller posts a staple and two beads side by side. Small beads on a braid and you've got a landscape light.Use a small braid and you can glue on street signs printed on your printer. Cheap easy and I think they look pretty good.
Jeffrey, doesn't look like the iron bar hotel residents have made much progress on that road. Then again I suppose when you'll be working on it for the rest of your life there isn't much incentive to rush.
Gary B, clever way to build street lights. I'm putting that idea into my file for when the time comes I can actually use some.
The same kit contest sounds like fun. Gave me an idea maybe a spin off for this forum could be a Monthly Topic such as a GP40 one month, a coaling tower another month and so on. That way a subject would come up sooner or later that anyone could submit a photo for without having to go and buy a particular kit. Not so much an actual contest with prizes or whatever but more a way to see a bunch of variations on a particular subject. Anyone interested? Bob Mr Moderator, what do you think?
They'll certainly be head turners when they're done. I can hear it now..."what the heck was that pair of engines that just went by".
I actually wanted an NE5 class buggy for my road but settled for the readily available Atlas NKP NE6 even though the window spacing is too wide. I removed all the rivet detail as the NE5 was a welded car and removed the ribs on the cupola roof. Going to a flat main roof was more than I felt like doing so I left it as is. Ended up with part NE5 and part NE6 so I call it an NE5A. Road number follows New Haven NE5 numbering except only 2 digits. Also have another to do which will be C-57. Since they are something we rebuilt in our own shops for our own road that's how they end up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 
The Atlas model is pretty accurate for an NKP/W&LE steel cupola caboose and the only accurate RTR NKP caboose out there. I've been slowly trying to finish an American Model Builders wood NKP caboose. At the rate I'm going, I should be done by about 2013. 
