Quick recap of last night's action. We were short staffed, but made progress on some work items. Doug continues his ballasting of the Renton Yard. Since our new supply from AZ Rick arrived its full speed ahead on the mainline and its spur tracks. Ed was able to successfully place the infra red sensors for the speed recorder. I spent more time in Black Diamond adding parking stripes: Filling gaps in the fountains to sidewalk transitions: And repairing a light pole for City Hall including its concrete base. That was pretty much it for this Tuesday, thanks for checking in.
Only three of us last night, so this is a short update. Doug continues mainline ballast with the last of the concrete tie work. This is along the backdrop on the center island and is heading to/from the helix. It is also the stretch of track where we will be using the photo backdrop we discussed several posts back. I love the contrast between the concrete tie light gray (BNSF mainline) and the brown tie dark gray (RGW mainline). Which will be far more obvious after the glue dries. I worked on the hanging plants for Black Diamond. I cut the WS poly fiber months ago and for a few weeks thereafter had small clips holding the fiber together at the ends to give it the proper shape. Then I set them aside while I waited to paint the roads. Since that's been done it's long past time to complete this project. The first step was to use locking forceps to hold the plant. Then hit it with cheap hair spray. Then dunk it in ground foam. This gives it depth before we add the flowers. It also necessitates using a small brush to wipe the excess away from the hanging chain. Here's how they look at the end. The next step is the tricky part, adding flowers. I will be using Mintaur blossoms, they are a German Mfr, purchased through Scenic Express. That will be next week after I give the plants one more shot of hair spray and trim away the fliers. I also bought the aluminum angle we will be using to mount our LED lights. That's probably one of our next projects. That's it for now, until next week, thanks for checking in. M
If you check back to Online Page 73, Post 1459, I go through the process on these. That said, I went with 14 inch diameter pots and made them out of styrene tube. M
I see this thread just passed the 90,000 views threshold. I want to thank all of you for following our layout. It is very rewarding to have so many who follow and actually contribute with their comments. You are all appreciated more than you know. Thanks again, Michael
Ok, stepping out of protocol here, but wanted to post this even though we're still in the train room working. Here are the first two flower baskets. More to follow. In short, thrilled.
Very well done. Our small town has planters like that all summer. You did a excellent job. First time I seen someone copy that.
Here's a recap from last night's work session. We had a full crew which has been rare over the last several weeks. Wain brought the Franklin Yard panel and detailed for us how the wiring was going and what was left to do. Basically he's out of gas on wiring and I can't blame him. We all agreed to pitch in and help going forward. So over the next few weeks, we'll actually be at Wain's place soldering in an assembly line. Should be interesting. Have soldering iron, will travel. Doug and Scott took the evening to clean off Renton Yard. It is about 90% done and looks fantastic. I wanted to show you the ballast contrast photo now that the concrete tie ballast has dried. Still some more ballast to fill in at some spots but it looks great. Ed completed his install of the speed recorder. I will do a dedicated post on that this weekend. It's awesome. As for me, you saw the first shot of the hanging flower pots in a prior post. I am using Mintaur blossoms I purchased at scenic express. The colors are really nice; fuscia, red, yellow, orange, purple and white. As I mentioned before I use locking forceps and grasp the chain of the pot. Then give it a heavy dose of hair spray. Then I rotate the forceps and simultaneously sprinkle the blossoms through my fingers onto the foliage. Once done, I hit it with more hairspray. This was my work area: The crew all liked the results, but a discussion ensued about the combination of the original two pots, fuscia/white and purple/white: After much banter we googled pictures of city owned hanging baskets and found virtually every picture had the same color combination for each lamp post. So we put two fuscia together: The general consensus was the fuscia muted out the purple in the first pairing, but similar pots made the colors pop. Any thoughts? That's it for now, thanks for checking in.
I agree that one muted the other. And having two the same is true for what I can recall seeing. But they look great to me either way.
Here's a pic I was sent by Reynold this morning. He was apparently standing behind me while I was sprinkling blossoms on the bush and snapped this shot.
Thanks for such a cool short tutorial on the hanging plants. Have to give it a try now. Oh and I think BN 2075 needs dynamics added.