Tuesday, 4 April 2023- Accomplished quite a bit over this last weekend, finishing some old projects and completed a few new ones. Below are three Deluxe Innovations woodchip hoppers, patched for Midwest Railcar and ready for C&D service-they’ll join four others I completed a while back. At some point after my move I’ll make loads for them. Next are three Athearn Railgon gondolas-weathered with oils and powder. Interiors are in. The next post and I used the same technique I described in the posts above for them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tues, 4APR23, continued- GONX interiors from previous post: I lightly weathered an Athearn Greenbrier tank car-the prototype seemed almost brand new according to the photo on rrpicturearchives from 2019. This Athearn UTLX tank got a heavier treatment and numerous tags. Below is a side by side between a MTL factory weathered ex-MKT hopper, patched for Helm Leasing on the left, and one that I weathered myself on the right this weekend. The one on the right isn’t a perfect match to the prototype photo of one side of HLMX 4138 but I feel like I’m in the ballpark. Final picture-I had a bunch of GHQ and 3D printed vehicles that needed paint and so I gave all of these some base coats of their main body color to use up paint I have on hand before the move because I can’t take the paint with me. These are small enough I can take some of them and some fine tip markers with me in my luggage in a few months and do a little bit of modeling even while the rest of my stuff is boxed up in transit. The buses will get packed up now though-I’m planning on making custom decals for them for the schools I attended as a kid. Except for the white one-that’s going to be lettered for the Illinois Department of Corrections. If I can find some fine mesh some day, I’ll try and cut that to size and put it over the bus windows too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I bet the look, meaning weathering and graffiti of the prototype, has already changed from the pic you used so if anyone spergs out on you about it not being correct just tell them "not according to my data"
Absolutely! But make it "John Deere Green" (song by Joe Diffie) "And the whole town said That he should've used red But it looked good to Charlene In John Deere green" Songwriter: Dennis Linde © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Friday, 26 May 2026- I can’t believe almost two months have passed since I last posted anything here. Since the layout came down I’ve done some weathering and a little bit of sketching for the next track plan. It’s still roughed out on paper, which I’ll refine a couple more times and then build digitally and finally get around to posting here. It’s going to take up about 75% of our downstairs rec room. It will go around most of the walls and cut back in for a pretty large center peninsula. It will be operated as a point to point, but I’m looking at building in either a lift gate so I can do a continuous run or (maybe and?) give it a couple of turns so…so I guess it would be come a dog bone. Hard to explain just in words. I’m going to try and ask a lot of this layout (at least in the design phase)I want continuous running of long trains but I want the ability to conduct operations. While a lot of design work remains to be done (the actual track itself), I think I’ve got made some decisions on a good mix of operating scenes (industries, yards, stations) to model and scenery-only zones between them. The theme will remain the same: a Metra’s commuter service along the NCS line and a protofreelanced WC in the modern era. At one end there will be a ~14-15’ staging yard, representing WC’s yard at Fond du Lac. After a few feet of scenery it will pass a freelanced ethanol plant and more scenery until the southbound freight enters Illinois at Antioch. It will pass Metra’s Antioch Coach Yard, and the Antioch and Lake Villa Stations. An aggregate dealer is between those towns, but only the spur to it will be modeled, which is about all you can see from the main anyway. The prototype also has a propane dealer across from Lake Villa’s station but will now be rail served (like it used to be). And I may freelance an industry in or close to Antioch just to give a local more to do. Southbound commuter trains will depart Antioch Yard and stop in both towns as well. I’ll have some larger scenery areas (~11’) between the towns. Continuing south we pass Round Lake Beach and it’s Metra Station. There are no rail served industries there. Once I get a little further in layout design I may cut out this town entire info and expand the scenery-only zones between everything. South of RLB will be more scenery, and and a transition to “jump” the layout to a freelanced Schiller Park yard-a small intermodal terminal/southern end of main layout staging yard/place to start operations for the industrial park from. South of Schiller Park I’d like to freelance an industrial park so I can have some solo operations sessions. Schiller Park will serve these industries.Fond du Lac will service the ethanol plant. Not sure about the industries in Antioch or Lake Villa yet. Only remaining thing is to figure out if I have space to do another jump and have Metra’s Western Ave. coach yard of just do hidden staging that represents Union Station. The alternate idea floating in my head to add Western Ave is to nix Fond du Lac, put in the lift gate, and have the Schiller Park yard pull double duty. It would represent Schiller as the origin for NBs and Fond Du Lac as the origin for southbounds. It might even give me some room to model the Mars Chocolate Factory. While I’m primarily going to have WC and METX on the rails because that’s what I saw growing up, the scenery only zones should be “generic midwest” enough that I can run some CP (CPKC) intermodal (just liked the way the CP GEVOs looked and I painted a CP8781-Hapag Lloyd unit) and some NS (grandfather started with NKP and retired from NS) and be content. I’ll just have to ignore the names on the Metra stations, haha. Again, it’s a lot to ask for a single layout, but I’m in n scale and will get most of a 20’x25’ space-I’m looking at a ~3-4’ wide, 17’ long peninsula . I’m sure once I get this started on a computer I’ll have to make some sacrifices in design as things get measured a little better and as I build it phases (so I can play with some part while the rest is under construction) I may discover more issues. Like that this is going to be a lot to build, haha! Anyway-next rough track plan will hopefully be digitized and posted in a few weeks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tuesday, 20 June 2023- We’re slowly getting established in the house, all things model railroading have taken a back seat as I clean, unpack, do yard work, and make minor repairs and upgrades around the house. The basement/rec room space is great-I’m actually a bit intimidated by how much space I have to work with-I think that’s a great problem to have right now-so I’m slowly staring at the walls and revising by givens and druthers for the time being. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thursday, 17 August 2023- I’ve put a couple of shelves up, unpacked the trains, and am getting a little closer to have a track plan finished. Hopefully have a chance to post some photos this weekend. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sunday, 20 August 2023- So I finally got the foamboard on the first part of the layout. I am still refining the track plan. I may do benchwork in phases-at least try and finish some scenery on most of the first part here before adding more benchwork. 2x HCD on brackets with an 1.5” foam base. The track will only end up being 47” from the floor. A little lower than most people recommend, but I’ve got windows and prefer to have natural light available most of the time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The height of a layout is a personal choice. Like you i don't like blocking windows. Add to that the fact that I prefer to look 'down' at my layout as opposed to 'across' it. For some odd reason 54" has become the 'norm'. Being 6'5" tall even 54" seems too high. Looking down into scenery and watching trains seems more logical then looking through scenery and trying to see them. Again..a personal preference. BTW I like the 'L' shaped dbl HCD's.... .
Well said. I'm 6' and most of my N Scale layout is 42-1/2", upper track 44-1/2". This works well for me, allowing easy reach towards the rear of the layout and it clears shelving below. My previous layout that lasted 30 years had these same heights and were perfect for me, so I sought to match them on the new layout.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to layout height. It’s a matter of personal preference. For my upcoming layout the lower level will be 42-45” above the floor and the upper tracks 2-3” above that. I like to see the layout from a scale person’s perspective while sitting on my office/layout chair. If I want a bird’s eye view I’ll stand up. In my opinion a layout looks much more realistic when seen from a scale person’s perspective. The Folding Table Central is only 30” above the floor, way too low for my taste, but since it’s temporary I can live with it.
Monday, 06 November 2023- I intended to paint the backdrop this weekend but wasn’t feeling well. I was also stymied by the fact that some of the walls in my basement are paneling with 1/4 seams/troughs between each “board” (see below) and I think I’d like to use Masonite as a backdrop. But what to people use to hide seams between Masonite panels for their backdrop? Joint compound and then just sand it smooth? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For my endeavors, mesh joint tape, joint compound and sand smooth as possible. I will be curious as to other input. I'm sure there are other techniques.
If using Masonite, go with @BoxcabE50's recommendation. I have also seen seamless backdrops done with wide vinyl and wide aluminum flashing . . . .
