Yeah, once you filth it up a bit more, that'll be excellent (not that it doesn't rock already). I'm really liking this layout, John. Great job!
For the Dutch Kills and Newtown Creek curious - more real life imitated on my layout: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchwaxman/6268590018/in/photostream Notice the scoop loader carrying the auto in its bucket http://www.flickr.com/photos/jag9889/2617561623/in/photostream/ Scrap autos loaded in a barge John
PW&NJ, No, don't have enough room on the layout to model it. The Hershey's kiss factory in the background of the photo is the Newtown Creek water treament plant which was upgraded in 2009. It is the largest of New York City’s 14 wastewater treatment plants. Processing as much as 1.5 million gallons of sludge every day, the "eggs" are visible from vantage points in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan and serve as a landmark for travelers on several of the City’s highways and bridges. Happy Thanksgiving! John
Oh wait, you can see that from the BQE. Aha, thought it looked somewhat familiar. Groovy. Now back to cooking and waiting for the New Yorkers to get here...
That is an interesting term....'filth it up'. That is exactly what it takes to make modeling scenes come alive. Look in real life and you don't see all the fields, streets, back alleys, country roads, structures, etc looking pristine. Instead there are cans, boxes, paper trash, run down structures, junk of all kinds littering the landscape. To model these details makes the model look so much more like real life. I feel the same way about graffiti and dirt on rolling stock. "Filth is beautiful"
So it’s been two and a half months without posting anything about my layout, there was layout action going on just not large and quantifiable enough to post. My lull from posting was mostly due to the traveling, Holidays and waiting for detail parts to arrive in the mail. David Smith summed it up better than I could when he stated a few posts back “It's a small layout made large by its rich and accurate detailing.” That was a great complement from David who has built several Z scale layouts that are small but extremely rich and very accurate in details – David is one of the detail masters. But details take time, so I’ve been toiling away at purchasing details, then detailing the details and figuring out where to place them for the overall look I was trying to achieve with the West Chemical company. First in the chute was the fence around the West Chemical company area. That was achieved using Micron Art’s MA-91405 6' x 190' Security Fence with Double Gate, spray painting it with a sliver Krylon spray paint and then giving it an India ink wash followed by a rust wash. Then using a yellow Krylon spray paint I painted then weathered a Rokuhan ROK-R013 Track Bumper - L42mm and installed it with “plants” at the end of the siding. I followed that by creating the puddle of red chemical spill on the siding which in real life this siding was infamously known as “The Stink Track” getting its name from the disinfectants manufactured here, which supposedly was Pine Sol http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/licity/LICitystinktrackWestChemical13a-b_1-08-74richmakse.jpg After that was complete then I moved onto the most demanding part of the detailing that needed to be accomplish for this scene – the three-dome West Chemical tank car http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirr sidings/WestChemicalGATX70487LICity_01-72Frank Szcahacz.jpg After being in Z for a while I have come to live by Robert Ray’s saying “If you see it, get it, for tomorrow it will be gone!“ and living by that saying I purchased a three-dome tank car from Ztrack a while back. Sadly I read somewhere that these fantastic three-dome cars (the only ones in Z scale) may not be available any longer, so I was very lucky to get one when I did. These tank cars are definitely rich in details. To achieve the look I wanted and place the decals on the car I had to carefully remove the side railing and ladders, paint the car and its railing, apply the West Chemical company decals that Dan Pikulski owner Dan’s Resin Casting http://www.dansresincasting.com/index.html made for me (Dan also did the decals for the West Chemical company sign), reassemble the railing and ladders onto the body of the car, then weathered the entire car, trucks, wheels and couplers. The entire weathering process on a railroad freight car was a first for me in Z scale. I was quite pleased with the end results of this unique three-dome tank car. The entire process took a very slow month, with most of that month walking away from it to take breaks when I hit frustration level verbiage that exceeded the ratings of this web site. Next I needed a fork lift, boxes, pallets and 55-gallon drums to fill the factory yard. For the 55-gallon drums I used NZT’s NZT-104 Three Groups of 55-Gallon Drums and NZT-105 One Group of 55-Gallon Drums, painting them a light blue Krylon spray paint to match the colored used by West Chemical for their 55-gallon drums, weathered them with chalks and placed them on NSM’s NSM-037 2-Layer Pallets which I had assembled and painted Polly-S Earth F414311 with a wash of India ink. Then I took several NZT-106 Small Crates, NZT-107 Medium Crates and MTL’s 799 43 936 Freight Load and painted them Polly-S Earth F414311 with a wash of India ink. I placed the 55-gallon drums, the crates and pallets around the factory yard and by the siding. I then added Randy Brown’s RB-5022 Large Fork Lift after painting it with a yellow Krylon spray paint and India ink wash. Finally I added some cars by made2scalemodels <http://myworld.ebay.com/made2scalemodels/&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2754> (on eBay) and oldturtle1947 <http://myworld.ebay.com/oldturtle1947/&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2754> (on eBay) and a tractor-trailer by JMC Scale Models http://www.jmc-scalemodels.blogspot.com/ to complete the scene. I am sure that I will add some other detail items to this area as the layout matures but for now I am happy with the way it turned out. Next is to create the scene around the abandoned factory across the siding from the West Chemical factory. Until then enjoy the photos. Yours, John
John what a great way to wake up this morning!! The scene is incredible. So rich in detail. I love the abandoned factory by the siding. I will circle back to the manufacturer to see if he willing to do more of the three domes. We have had a lot of requests for these. Let me see what I can do. Rob
Rob, The three-dome tank car is a fantastic product and has been produced by major manufacturers in every scale save for Z. I am surprised that after all these years MTL and/or Marklin never produced one. But, I am really glad that whoever produced it for you did so and put such great features on it. John
Joe, Ya got me. It's some sort of chemical spill that I was attempting to simulate from a photo of the original building: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/licity/LICitystinktrackWestChemical13a-b_1-08-74richmakse.jpg Nowhere on the LIRR history sites could I find what type of chemical was spilled there. I thought it was a cool touch to model next to a chemical factory by adding some drama. John
I saw that too in the pics as well, and wondered if weren't some type of oil. Either way it makes for a very interesting detail to discuss.
