Espee, I did some mental switching. At first I thought you might want a cross over in your long siding, but as I kept working the layout, I discovered you don't need one. Looks good to me. Too bad you can't run your bigger engines (I'm presuming radius is to small). You will have lots of fun with this layout.
Hi Rick, Thanks for the vote of confidence! It's nice to get the "nod" from a veteran modeler! The Dash 9's can negotiate the curves, they just don't fit the era. I still run them from time to time with some 23,500 gal. tanks, well cars, big bulkheads, etc. cause I really do like 'em. The Super Liner has to struggle pulling the 85' passenger cars through all the curves so I don't run them to often. I was originally going to set the period as late as 1966 to cover the SD-45's but they hang over the curves too much so I think I'll go back to '62 (my birth year). This will allow both Bloody Nose and Black Widow paint schemes. I'm looking forward to IM's release of their F3's in 2003. The old Kato's are still getting over $200 on the secondary market.
Hi all. It's not the start of a new week yet, but I thought I'd share some new pictures of the layout in progress that I uploaded last night. They're in the folder labeled "New Photos." They document my progress from 09/02/02 to the present. Sugar Creek is finally starting to "Shape Up," and hopefully I'll have it finished and "water" poured in a few more weeks. Also added pictures to 2 new Demo folders: Stone Bridge and Cement Bridge. http://community.webshots.com/user/elpasomark Alas, some of the time the lighting appears blue (due to the reflection from the blue foam and gray primer), and sometimes yellowish. The pictures work and tell the story, but I'm no pro photographer. I bought a 60 watt goose neck lamp to help with lighting, so I have the digital camera in one hand and the lamp in the other when taking pictures. What a sight! Take care, Mark
Nice work Mark! Looking great! All the rocks look really good, I don't know what you were complaining about! If you want to experiment more, for gray rocks (granite, slate) I always just use a black wash (india ink and alcohol). For brown rock (sandstone) I like to use the Woodland Scenics Earth Undercoat as a wash. Then like you did, dry brush the highlights with white.
Mark, If you buy one of the halogen work lights, around 500 watts, they are recommended for budget quality photos. You are better off to get two, one for direct light, the other for fill light. The big negative with them is they will heat up a room quickly, so set them up, turn them on quickly to see if the effect is what you want, set camera on tripod, experiment with it and light, then shoot. Then turn lights off and start over again - if you don't turn them off you will roast to death. I like your 1904 bridge or viaduct.
Hi guys. Soon it´s only two weeks left. So far my plans are in line with the time I have concentrated on Cold Spring and I add two pics to show the progress. Close-up of the station house Freight depot, and an old freight car as office See you next week BTW, regarding photographing lights (Mark and Rick) - I have three 200 W ordinary lamps of which one direct and two indirect (reflected in the white ceiling). I use a Fuji Finepix 2400 Zoom. Those two pictures are taken with the Macro function at a distance of about 1 1/2´. [ 12. October 2002, 23:00: Message edited by: HelgeK ]
Great to see the results of you recent modelling Helge. Looks like you are progressing well. As far as my MAT goes, I didn't get involved here as I was away on extended vacation and since getting back, haven't done much but dwell on what to do next. I will get back to the layout soon I promise.
I am so, so, SO close to finishing this scratchbuilt cran, but I have entered into the hard part of the projet. Now, I have to figure out how and where all the little things go. I do have pictures of progress...Crane Car Basically everything unpaintered is fresh. I also suddenly learned that all these plastic detail parts I have been stockpiling CAN be used for something and I don't need to worry about saving them!
Nice piece of work Benny You are right about saving stuff. I always say "Don´t throw away anything that possible can be used for modeling purposes"
Looking good Benny, I'm not sure what you mean by where you would put it. Woudn't it be in a yard, or a siding somewhere so that the RR could use it quickly, if need? [ 13. October 2002, 17:04: Message edited by: rsn48 ]
No problem at all in wher i put the car, more where do I put the little parts onto the car. To me forever to figure out the reels nd such rigging...and it is only half done now. And then, I am sure I will have to look into things like tool boxes, barrels, and all what not that goes onto a car that services light derailments as well as lifting all along the line. When I build my railroad, I might build the landscape firt without anything, and then slolw populate it, make cuts, lay tracks, create towns, etc. Probably is the hard way of doing it, but I thin kis would be a pretty nice photo essay. ten agin, I might just build it when I gets the space...thing always change rapidly when you get space.
The last couple of days I spent crawling underneath my layout to do some wiring. I had some wiring done but rather 'quick-and-dirty'. Now I've done it right. Used 6 color ribbon style wire. Track wiring is almost finished now expect for the area I plan to rebuild. Was a really hard job since almost every track joint has its own feeders. Even with flextrack this means a connections every couple of feet. I usually checked for any shorts every now and then. Suddenly, after working for another four hours, I experienced a short circuit. Well, no big deal, I thought. So I unconnected what I've done last. Nothing. Still a short. I ended up un-wiring almost all I've done so far just to find a small needle shorting out the rails. Didn't notice it as it was sticking on the bottom of a paper box. Damned. Re-wired everything again. No more shorts. After cleaning the track in some places the trains run very smooth. My layout features a two track mainline, a branchline and a logging railroad. All these four loops are wired independend of the others. The mainlines share a 8 Amps digitrax booster while the branchline and logging railroad are connected to a 5 amp booster. Now I just need to wire all the turnouts....
Well, I was in the wiring mode too this weekend. I completed the track wiring for the yard, with a connection to each track every 3 ft. After that I "tuned" all the #5 atlas turnouts so the train runs smoothly through them (all the guard rail and frog guard rail clearances were to tight). I did all this on friday night and sunday, saturday was spend in the Cajon pass watching trains every 10 minutes . Next is to install the switch machines. I didn't have too much success last time i tried to install some, but this time I think I will try the hot glue method mentioned in another thread somewhere. Lets see. Jesper
This week I worked with the Cold Spring part of the latest extension. Thanks to the High balling topic I got fire in my back Well, I´m retired so I can work almost 24 hours a day The Cold Spring part is the right half in this pic: It has been a lot of wall paper glue, colored sawdust, plaster, electrics, lamps etc. I have documented the progress with about 30 pics that you can find with THIS LINK
It's the end of week four for me and I'm happy to say that I have completed my stated project and then some. The new basement steps are done as are the stairwell walls, They have been spackled and painted. Lighting and switches have been added. These walls will now form the backdrops for two of the industrial spurs on my layout. The benchwork that I had to take down during the construction is now back in place. It took over eight hours of clean-up to get the room back in order. What was once a wide open basement now appears smaller with the walls in place. Being as how I had a three day weekend, today, I was able to wire all the outlets for the layout (8) as well as wire my workshop. Prior to this, I had extension cords running all over. I can now get back to laying the track on my layout. No time constraints on this project but I hope to have all the track down by the end of the year. Good luck to the rest of you with your projects.
Helge An interesting use of cigarrette boxes... to make mountains. Zuckie, I was worried I wouldn't have my project done by the end of the 6 weeks, but it now looks like it is going to happen. I glad you were able to finish your project off. I wish I could say the same. The next one of these project commitments will be in about 6 months. I decided two a year would work out just fine. Hope to have you back.
Thanks for your comments Rick, here and in my guestbook I´m working on some layout pics but they will float up under "Layout Pictures" later on. Sandro: I smoke less than before nowadays but I have still a sack full of empties - there might be more mountains
I finally got a few photos developed. Here thy are. [ 15. October 2002, 19:42: Message edited by: Paul Davis ]
Really looking good there Paul! Nice easy curves and grades. When do we run a train? Huh? Can I huh, huh?
