Joe Szajko’s Midwest layout is featured in the latest issue of Ztrack. Joe is one of the early Z Scalers posting here on Trainboard, and we have had the opportunity to see the progress of his layout here on the Z forum over the past few years, so it's nice to see his layout features in Ztrack. The low angles Joe used in his photos gives a feeling of the vast openness of the midwest. And his scenes of the simple life along the rail line bring back visions of past railroading. Joe has 2 layouts, an N Scale layout below, and a Z Scale layout above, all taking up little space, but allowing him to enjoy both scales. The theme is rual farming and grain elevators, and Joe has 2 elevators on the layout. The large one is from a defunct Canadian firm, Microfigs? I think? The other is an abandon old wood elevator that Joe scratchbuilt.
For a small layout, there is lots of interesting detail and activity on the layout: Joe has weathered his locos and rolling stock to look nice and used, and it looks like he has converted this tender to an oil burner from coal: I really like all the different photo opportunities he has built into the layout, where every angle tells a little more of the story: And it has been a pleasure to see Joe's work progress on the pages of Trainboard:
This old wooden grain elevator was Joe's first scratchbuilding project, as first seen here on the Trainboard Z forum, and I think it turned out excellent. Detail down to the ripped up abandon track complete the scene: As with time, the old is replaced with the new, so this elevator is left to disrepair with the passage of time: Here are some of the undersized N Scale trucks Joe kitbashed into Z Scale for use on the layout: And great weathering projects like this Mikado done with just the right amount of Grimey Black in all the right places: Congratulations JoeS! PS: These pictures are from Joe's old Railimages account, and that site is due to be taken down in 2 weeks, so enjoy them while you can.
Thanks Robert, that was very nice to post all those pictures. I appreciate the support from the poeple in this group. I keep trying to refine my skills and like anything they get better with more practice. With so many deserving people here I can't wait to see other peoples work get in. As I may have mentioned before, my computor at home is not working and I've been doing all my computor play at work when I get a break, that being the case I haven't been able to download any new pictures or transfer any old images to my new account because of the computor work at use policy. So if any of you want to download those old pictures feel free to. Thanks again everybody, because in one way or another I get influenced by everybodys work and comments.
