The dispatcher really messed up this afternoon, sending 1445 to the freight station and 1011 to D’Amato Lumber to pick up cars as 1124 was running through town….
Since I am not doing much modeling right now I took a picture of my new Athearn FP7's that I got on sale serving as emergency power for the Broadway Limited. Taken at the Strongsville Model Railroad Club layout. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
Wow -- ya just can't beat authentic natural light with a great scene to match! Beautiful. Thanks for posting!
A pick up waits at Whitehouse Crossing in Marquette Hgts, just a half mile south of the PPU East Peoria Yard. PPU 607 is headed south to switch industries in Pekin; and the pick up driver will park straight ahead in the Peoria Lock and Dam parking lot and will walk south to fish below the dam. Photo Aug 10, 5 25 23 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 10, 2018 at 5:47 PM Whitehouse Crossing on the prototype is 1/2 mile south of the East Peoria Yard, and my layout Whitehouse Crossing is 1/2 scale mile from my modeled PPU East Peoria Yard. I used the Google Maps 3D view and Street View linked below, as well as on-sight visits, to direct my modeling of this scene. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.632...4!1slXOIni8x6AMaMWN--kJ3ZQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6318386,-89.6178391,179a,35y,288.74h,57.2t/data=!3m1!1e3 Because of space limitations, I chose to not model the ranch house between the crossing and the Lock and Dam parking lot, and I put the boxes on the north (right) side of the crossing on the east side of the tracks instead of on the west side. Images for the 3D view were taken during a flood, when the parking lot was underwater.
SP-Wolf, If you haven't seen them before, search in RailImages for Third Street Industrial District pics by the late German modeler and TrainBoard staffmember, Wolgang Dudler. Your pic suggests you have more in common with him than just a first name. Paul Liddiard, Not sure where TBX 82015 is now, but Opty Collusion caught her in the East Peoria Yard (Illinois, USA) of the 1970s era Peoria and Pekin Union Rwy in N-scale: TBX 82015 2015-12-29 09.41.58 by ppuinn posted Dec 29, 2015 at 4:55 PM TBX 82015 2015-12-29 09.43.52 by ppuinn posted Dec 29, 2015 at 4:55 PM Check out the TB cars in the East Peoria Yard!! TBX 82015 2015-12-29 09.49.57 by ppuinn posted Dec 29, 2015 at 4:55 PM TBX 82015 2015-12-29 09.22.45 by ppuinn posted Dec 29, 2015 at 4:55 PM And I caught her in the M&StL Bartlett Yard in Peoria Illinois (1960s era, HO): TBX 82015 2015-12-29 11.55.49 by ppuinn posted Dec 29, 2015 at 4:55 PM
Russell, Very nice scratch-build! Impressive, if you did it with (selectively compressed??) original blueprints; and VERY impressive, if you made your own plans, based solely on pics.
Thanks, yes I had to compress some. I used photos and Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. I always wanted to go back and add the Western Union sign, the mail box hanging on the wall and a few other details. There is always something.
A decade or so ago, I printed out about 30 pages of black and white digital Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of the Peoria & Pekin Union Rwy at Reference and Special Collections library in Bradley University’s library in Peoria. They also had the monster folio books in color from 3 or 4 different decades, complete with the pasted in updates. The b/w digital images were harder to read (cheap printers and no way to enlarge the printout), but I was able to go back a few times to write down notes from the colored folios. If I were to go there today, I’d just take pics of the colored maps with my iPhone. I’ve also relied heavily on Google Maps’ 3D View and Street View features to design skylines or street scenes, determine the shape of dozens of the structure mock-ups on my layout, and to guide track planning, as well as, using Street View printouts on my backdrop. How did you determine specific dimensions on your building? I’ve set dimensions based on assumed standard sized doors, windows, etc, but unless I made an on-sight visit, the operative word was GUESS-timates. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
On the first buildings I scratch built, I started out making my own drawings to go by. Once you have one dimension, say from the Sanborn map or from a known object like an automobile, I could scale the rest to that. After a while I got to where I skipped the drawing and went right to the styrene sheet or other material that I was building with. I was able to "guess-timate" things close enough for my liking. If I was kit-bashing, I did a lot of trimming and grafting to get the proportions that looked right to me.
Yep, a LOT of trimming and grafting!! I filled two trash bags with trimmings and over-trimmed pieces of cardboard and card stock, when I added 8 cardstock mock-ups of houses in Pekin, 30 cardboard and card stock buildings in downtown Pekin, and two 3D building flats in front of the backdrop made from multiple Google Maps pictures of the Pekin Court House and the Pekin Senior Highrise that dominate the Pekin skyline behind the rail yards. Pics shortly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The Pekin Downtown area: There are 2 hidden tracks between (and inside) the buildings and the background building flats. The mockups of the plastic storefronts were made 6 to 8 years ago, when only one track was hidden. Now that there are two tracks hidden, I had to make new (deeper) buildings to hide them. A lot of my trimming (and overtrimming) came from trying to set building heights to hide the tracks as they passed through the doorway from the main basement into the under-porch area (former fruit cellar), yet still follow the skyline in Google Maps, and, in the porch area, also trying to hide where the 5 yard tracks combine into one track and go into the helix. The west end of the Pekin Yards: the original hidden track is under the original plastic storefronts, and the track in front of the storefronts (which used to connect with the first track), now passes behind and between buildings onto a track that (in the 1970s) actually ran in the street. As the tracks curve through the doorway, the cardstock buildings are positioned so operators are not able to see where the the street running track goes inside the new cardstock buildings. The 2 hidden tracks continue inside/between the new cardstock and cardboard buildings and then behind and around the outside of the helix to reappear on the upper level to the left of the cardstock houses. Photo Aug 15, 1 32 56 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Photo Aug 15, 1 33 12 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Photo Aug 15, 1 33 32 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Photo Aug 15, 1 33 44 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Caroline Street Houses...parallel to the Yard tracks: The 64 inch height of the upper deck and the slight curve in Caroline Street (along with the careful placement of houses and trees) prevent operators from seeing where Caroline Street abruptly ends at the tree flat in front of the helix. The tree flats and downtown buildings completely hide where trains enter the helix. The second and third pics show some place holders where more cardstock houses will go. Photo Aug 15, 1 35 15 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Photo Aug 15, 1 35 41 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Photo Aug 15, 1 36 20 PM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 1:59 PM Photo Aug 13, 11 13 34 AM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 3:17 PM Photo Aug 13, 11 13 57 AM by ppuinn posted Aug 15, 2018 at 3:17 PM
Here are a couple shots showing my cardstock and other temporary buildings mixed in with a few finished ones. Some were just cardboard boxes and others blocks of wood. It helped to get a perspective and determine where to compress things.
