Second Annual International Winter Layout Party

[faraway]

My little project Fiddletown, a H0n3 staging yard, is finished.

Wolfgang, outstanding beautiful!

[Arctic Train]

Hello my fellow train nuts. While I am officially joining the 09/10 winter layout thread rather late in the process, I have been unofficially working my fanny off in the old train room for the last month and a half. Allow me to catch everyone up as to where I am in all my doings.

Eastport Terminal has been a much neglected corner of my layout for the last year.
Well not anymore thanks to this years layout party.

To start with, in September I poured a bunch of tinted and thinned down drywall mud all over the area including the tracks.



It looked like heck and pretty much turned me off of train stuff for a while. So now being reenergized, I jumped in and sanded and scrapped like crazy. I am happy to say the effort seems to be worth it.



I then constructed an arrival/ check in gate. This was made out of some extra parts from some old Pikestuff buildings.



Next I poured the water. Not any problems there. After coloring the water area base I used Envirotex (instead of realistic water this time). Happy to say if I need water anywhere else I will be using this stuff again.



That’s all well and fine, but what good is a container facility if you don’t have a ship to deliver the goods. Here’s where it gets rather interesting…



More to come……….

Brian

[Arctic Train]

Ever wonder what one can do with an extra 2x6 that happens to be laying around?



Heres what it looks like after a bit of cutting and sanding.



This might add up to something after all....

Brian

[CSXDixieLine]

Wow...container terminal is looking good. Can't wait to see the fleet come in! Jamie

[Tracy McKibben]

This might add up to something after all....

Brian

I'd say it already is! That all looks great!

[ppuinn]

This is one of the pictures and some of the text from my post at the start of last weekend...which was a 3-day weekend for me.

The road was too narrow by the auto dealer and the auto dealer lot was too low compared to the height of the road, so last weekend I used spackling to build it up. The sidewalk on the left of the road marks how far from the backdrop the road has to be to fit in the hubcap house, white apartment, and Narramore Garage.
For this section of Adams Street, this weekend I hope to:
a. smooth out and paint a base coat on the road and the auto dealer lot
b. put in some grass and trees around the mock-up buildings on the left and the auto dealer on the right
c. add groundfoam and lichen to the foamboard background tree flats against the backdrop.

But a bunch of non-modeling activities came up last weekend and all I got done was a partial smoothing out of the auto dealer lot.

It looks like this 2-day weekend will be as busy with non-modeling activities as last week's 3-day weekend turned out to be, so the order of my plans remains the same, but I don't expect to get as many steps done.

[pastoolio]

Although I've been checking in on all your progress (and you guys are doing a super job!), I haven't been making any on my layout. Personal problems the last few weeks have made me not want to do anything. Today, I finally got up some interest to work on the layout. I installed the tunnel portal and ballasted around it, got one of the tunnel liners put in, put up a retaining wall, and added more cardboard strips and tape.



So yeah, the retaining wall is weird, cause usually people put them on the back side of the tracks to get the full benefit of seeing the portal and the wall. The way my track curves and how I did the facia pretty much forced me to put the retaining wall on the front side of the tracks, which to me, still looks cool, and is a bit out of the ordinary. I didn't like it a first, but it's growing on me.
Here is how it looks when standing in front of it.



I still added ballast to inside the tunnel just in case I want to take pictures of it, even though you can't see in unless you are on a step stool or standing further down the layout and looking back at it.




I still have a bunch to do to the other end of the tunnel before I can finish the cardboard strips and get to the plaster. Hope to get some of that knocked out today.

Mike

[Mark Watson]

Man, I keep forgetting about updating here (probably because I haven't had much time for progress lately). Nonetheless, I got some work done on the 4-4-0 and figured out a quick and simple procedure for lowering the ride height on the "Old Timers" passenger cars.

I stripped much of the old paint in areas where multiple layers from the factory had gooped over some details. I built a new bell housing and mounted the old bell inside and finally for this update, I built a new smoke stack from brass. The new stack is not perfect, but I can live with it until it bothers me enough to improve it.








Next I plan to add a few more details and I'm going to get a real headlight put in. Then it will be off to the paint shop.

In this picture it's hard to tell, but you can kind of see the difference lowering the ride height makes. The rear truck on the first car is lowered and compared to the second car, its maybe a scale foot down. Pretty subtle, but definitely an improvement. I'll get a better picture of that difference up later.

[train1]

I haven't been making any on my layout. Personal problems the last few weeks have made me not want to do anything. Today, I finally got up some interest to work on the layout.

The great thing about this hobby is that it's always there when you're ready. Much like an old friend.

.....put the retaining wall on the front side of the tracks, which to me, still looks cool, and is a bit out of the ordinary. I didn't like it a first, but it's growing on me.

The retaining wall looks great - it's just what the civil engineers would have done to solve the hill issue in real life.
Great Work Mike

Mike

[Arctic Train]

Stayed up till 1AM working on my container ship. I was able to get the decking down as well as start the construction of the superstructure.






All them portholes are a bugger!! As you can see I'm using styrene "for sale" signs for all the plastic. For 8 bucks you can't find a better bargain. I'm having a blast looking around the house for other materials to use as well. This project really got my creative juices flowing. Hope to get the helm started later this evening.

Brian