finally starting my MILW Freighthouse. hopefully it ends up looking like this, well.. before it became a bar. I tell ya.. cutting the steps in the bricks ain't my idea of fun!
One thing I like about your scenes is that you seem to keep them somewhat simple yet your eye for the seamingly mundane detail actually brings it to life. Good job.
Progress report is a little off since I was out of state most of last week. I got the layout module I have been working on cleaned off, flipped it over, attached folding legs that quite ably fold up under the module for moving and I have drilled several holes and inserted most of the drops, ready for soldering.
I've finished my Fiddletown project with a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQWkogJUi8E It's an instruction video. :angel: Now I'm again busy with Silver Creek. Wolfgang
Diezmon, is that freight house in Stillwater? I saw Lamont Cranston there years ago. Grew up in So. St. Paul. Terry
Good News - Bad News - Great News! While testing the track: Good News: 4 Axle diesels and reliable cars ran very very well including backing a 12 car train into the yard through an "S" Curve and across 4 turnouts Bad New: 6 Axel locos derailed every time backing over one spot of the yard lead. Required a full realignment of the layout Great News! In the process of fixing the issue I redid the yard lead and yard geometry which increased the storage area from a satisfactory 375"s to a very useful 450"s which included lengthening 3 tracks enough to handle the full length of my 3 favorite trains. Life is good.
finally, some progress! I've been working on finishing the 'other' end of the layout.. adding an old foundation and growth and adding more weeds here and there.
More fun working on the container ship the last few days. Here's an update: After adding the aft side rails I got the decks, aft bulkhead, and superstructure painted. I then set out to complete the foremast. The hailers were fun to make. I started with some hollow styrene pipes. I used a heated up nail to splay out the front end. Just as the styrene tube was cooling to a point of unworkability I carefully stretched the bell forward creating a taper to the aft end. Here she is after a bit more assembly and a good number of coats of hull paint. Kudos go to my wife for donating an old necklace for the anchor chains. I guess it's about time to come up with a name for the christining. Brian
Good work all around so far ! Looking forward to getting back to the shelf layout as I start 9 days off tomorrow ! I have the right side completed and now to work to the left. I do have a quick question to improve the lighting ( for photos ). Diezmon - your lighting is perfect for your progress shots - what's your secret ?
Wife is watching Everybody Loves Raymond in the next room, and I just heard the perfect expression to describe my reaction to these pictures - HOLY CRAP!!! If I hadn't seen the progress pics, I would never believe that this thing started out as a hunk of scrap wood. Utterly amazing...
Thanks for the compliments Tracy. Other than the stories I tell my wife about where all the money I spent on trains went, this is the most creative I've been in years. :mbiggrin: Hey, I looked at your layout site and see that we have a lot of construction techniques in common. Pretty cool layout you have there. Brian
I've made a bit of progress... this is the book shelf area between the two sides: Yard (far left): And now for the design parts i'd like help with.... This is the corner section... You can see the yard lead and main going past -- and the track in the top left is the track that leads around the back of the book shelf. I'm not sure what type of industry i could put here. I'm also curious regarding the same for the right side area -- I'm open to suggestions as far as what to put over there. My goal for this weekend is get the rest of my plaster-cloth down and as much painted as I can.
Very Nice Ship Great ship model. It certainly fits in our "train oriented" layouts. I once saw some pretty believeable tankers made out of two-by-fours, but not nearly as good as this. A lot of deck and superstructure details make it good, too.
Trees make me relax Finally got a batch of trees finished and installed this morning. I have a Rix Products warehouse kit and a DPM Gripp Luggage kit underway for placement along the near siding.
Titan Shipping is proud to announce the newest addition to their fleet, the "Lady Sea". Here she is just after docking in Eastport. The Facility administrator is somewhat perplexed as to how to unload her since the cranes havent been invented yet. She may be in port for a wihile. I've still got a few details left to do but that'll have to wait for a bit. All in all I think it adds a nice focal point to this corner of the layout. Brian
Nice Job Brian. I'm sure with your scratchbuilding skills - you'll be able to fashion some sort of unloading device.
