Long Island Rail Road in Z Scale

John Bartolotto Sep 25, 2010

  1. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Nice! What I appreciate is the gradual process, its not a race to finish, just get it better and better. Your streets are second to none!
     
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  2. shamoo737

    shamoo737 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I love the details.
     
  3. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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  4. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    I thought I would expand on my road building technique and include some more information.

    Here is a photo of the FOS Scale Models “Volume 3 Roads & Highways For Your Model Railroad” DVD and the Ralph Lauren River Rock “Stone Chasm” RR65 that I used to paint the roads.

    David Smith used black styrene for his road base and after experimenting with making roads I decided to follow his lead. I found that using black styrene was key because if you cut a hole for a manhole cover or sewer grate or scratch in a road crack or create a pothole you don’t have to worry about a huge piece of white showing up because the black styrene hides those little areas well and makes touching up those areas with paint a lot easier to blend in with the rest of the road. I got my black styrene from MicroMark: 83478 Black Styrene .030” thick. After cutting the styrene the width I desired for the road I then followed the techniques in the FOS Scale Models “Volume 3 Roads & Highways For Your Model Railroad” DVD by spray painting the black styrene with a basic gray primer before painting it with Ralph Lauren River Rock “Stone Chasm” RR65. After the paint dried I lightly sanded it with a fine grit sandpaper. All the street lines were hand drawn with colored pencils and a straight edge, and all the asphalt repair squares, street cracks and such were done by hand with colored pencils. The streets were glued to the layout using LOCTITE Power Grab White Multi-Purpose Construction Adhesive.

    The curbs are all evergreen scale models #133 .030” x .060” white strip styrene spray painted with Testors 1233 flat light aircraft gray and then weathered with a medium black ink wash. After the curbs dried I glued them to the sides of the streets with super glue gel. To hide any super glue that came up on to the street I rubbed a small amount of real dirt where the street meets the curb. That hid any glue marks and mistakes and gave the gutters a realistic look.

    I hope this helps all of you more than my previous post about how I constructed my roads.

    Enjoy,

    John Street Paint 1.jpg Street Paint 2.jpg Street Video 1.jpg Street Video 2.jpg
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 17, 2018
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  5. poppy2201

    poppy2201 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks John. I'm just starting with Z and this is nice information.

    Regards,
    Charles
     
  6. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    The boys are back in town! After the flood in my basement a few years ago my three locos suffered moister damage so off they went the LIRR Shops in the LI town of Gerd Kurz. They are back and better than before! Thanks to the maintenance crews at Gerd Kurz!!

    Enjoy,

    John LIRR Locos 1 9-30-18 .jpg LIRR Locos 2 9-30-18 .jpg
     
  7. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    Glad you've recovered ok!!(y)(y)(y)

    Your layout and modeling have always been inspiration, and now overcoming a flood as well is even more good news!:D
     
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  8. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    João from JMC Scale Models produced five fantastic 1960s NYPD police cars for me last month. Today I put the NYPD police decals on the doors of each police car that Dan Pikulski did for me. Two great artists who really have helped me model the LIRR in the era that I wanted to.

    Thanks João and Dan!

    Enjoy, NYPD Police Car in Z 1.jpg NYPD Police Car in Z 2.jpg

    John
     
  9. JMC Scale Models

    JMC Scale Models TrainBoard Member

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    It turned really cool with the police decal!
    Thank you, John. It was a pleasure to do these for you.
    Cheers
     
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  10. mdvholland

    mdvholland TrainBoard Member

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    These cars greatly help setting the atmosphere. I just love this layout & your building posts! I sure hope you will continue working on it and keep us updated, John.
     
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  11. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    So one year later and the National Casket Company is complete. I just need to add the surrounding scenery details (fence, weeds, pallets, etc) to finish it off. This is the final building on this part of the layout which makes me feel pretty good. The next part of the layout will be even more of a challenge. Many thanks to Stony Smith's fantastic Shapeways abilities - he saved me when I needed one last large window to finish this building.

    Enjoy!

    John National Casket Company 2.jpg National Casket Company.jpg
     
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  12. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    Nice. Is the brick and concrete building scratch built? Artitec makes a stamped metal factory window insert for their Harbor Warehouse resin kit. It drops into the window opening. Not likely it is available as a scratch building part though. Suddenly, I have an urge for a piece of Doublemint gum. Jim
     
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  13. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    It can't be a NYC scene without a few DSNY garbage trucks. Thanks for Stony Smith for making these in Z scale and Dan's Decals for the "sanitation" decals.

    Enjoy,

    John
    DSNY 1969 Garbage Truck 1.jpg DSNY 1969 Garbage Truck 2.jpg
     
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  14. mdvholland

    mdvholland TrainBoard Member

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    Soo.... what's happening at the Long Island Railroad...? Longing for more pictures here :whistle:

    Meanwhile, over in Germany, Peter built a mini-layout based on the well-known Noch Blumenau briefcase layout - but this time not the archetypical bright green happy holiday fantasy, but a layout the reflects the atmosphere of the 1980's industrial Ruhr area in Western Germany. Coal and steel.. It reminded me a bit of LIRR...

    Peter Sturm s Ruhrpott Germany.jpg

    Check it out (account needed): https://f.z-freunde-international.de/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13995

    Matt
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2019
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  15. mdvholland

    mdvholland TrainBoard Member

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  16. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanks Matt! Coincidently I was planning on working on my layout this week so I may have some more photos to post. I’ll check out Peter’s layout. I recall he’s a first class artist!

    John
     
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  17. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Your layout is really looking good John, anything new this fall?
     
  18. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    Matt - I just saw Peter’s Ruhr layout! I love urban layouts, they are so under modeled in Z scale.

    Rob - Thanks! I have to finish up the area around the National Casket Company and then I’ll start working on the upper level of my layout where there will be a city scene.
     
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  19. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    I love the winter season because I get to spend more time working on my layout. Today I spent time using my new War World Scenics Pro Grass Precision Applicator https://www.wwscenics.com/product/war-world-scenics-pro-grass-precision-applicator/ on some small areas around where I'm going to place the Nation Casket Company building. I have never used a static grass applicator before so this was another first for me. The entire process was so easy I don't know why I never tried it before. The results were great. I still have some cleaning up of the grass that fell outside of the glue areas but that will be easy after the glue dries. I know that in the future I will always apply static grass to any of my layouts because it gives a whole better look to the layout.

    Enjoy,

    John

    Static Grass 1.jpg Static Grass 2.jpg Static Grass 3.jpg Static Grass 4.jpg
     
  20. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Looks good John, I like static grass too. I'm going to try using differrent lengths of it when I do scenery next, to simulate short grass and long grass areas.
     

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