Well it's been a month or so and I've done a bit of work . I was not satisfied with some of the trees , The Grand Central Gems that I got weren't really what I saw when I looked at the pictures in the order form . Maybe I bought ones that were too tall and were made differently . But they came in three different types . The darker ones are fine , but I had to make a few of them shorter . The ones that were a light green just had to go , way too garish . And then there were ones without flocking just the died rope base . They kinda blend in , but I'll have to see how I like them after a time . Anyway I bought a bunch more of the Moose Creek pines I really like the way they look . I also bought some foreground pines from them , think I'll get a few more eventually . I also added some pull apart static grass for low bushes , I'm starting to like the way my meadows are turning out . Still need Aspens , but am leaning more to spring aspens due to the way the first round of grass turned out , Does NOT look like late summer grass ........ And I'm not quite satisfied with the dirt areas in front of the station I need some more low ground cover , it's just a bit too "dirty" .
Slowly working on the layout the past couple months . I've been using Bachmann 6mm static pull-apart grass mats to make weeds in my meadows . Also I've replanted some trees to give me more open spaces and to pack the trees closer together . I bought a Walthers cattle pen kit and rearranged it to make a different look . Now I need to find some good looking cattle ...... The next project I am working on is converting to Sergent Sharon couplers . The are surprisingly easy to assemble , now I just need to do some trial installs . I'll be working on that in the next week or so . Also added some Aspens Their OK , but not completely satisfied .
I saw an N scale tutorial for doing Aspens in N Scale Railroading mag several years ago. If I could find it, would you be interested in what it said? I think it had the trunks packed more densely together and the foliage draped over the top somehow. It looked great.
Yea , that's part of my problem , Supertrees are just too, wide? , They just don't pack like I want them to . And I think that I was a bit heavy on the foliage . Someone , WS I think , used to make some nice ones . If you find the article I'd like to take a look ! I think I'll try again at some point .....Mike
The layout looks really nice! I think trees are the age old MRR problem unless you are modeling the desert.
I've been thinking for awhile about replacing the 714 couplers on my Blackstone cars and Locos . So a couple weeks ago I ordered a 6 piece set of their Blackstone compatible Sharon couplers . They arrived last week and I got bust putting them together . Assembly was really quite easy with their assembly fixture . Then came the fitting . Took only a bit of tuning ( I used a pair of needle nose piers to stretch the mounting hole a bit ) and they fit right on the cars . I noticed right away that the coupling distance was much more prototypically close , and no more slinky ! The Sergent couplers will also couple to the stock 714's And now for the "extra" coupler that came with the 6 pack . For some reason I couldn't get the ball to drop now matter how many times I reassembled it . So I just glued it together and used it on the front of one of my K27's . Wont be a problem as only 1 knuckle needs to be open to make a joint . The shank is just a bit too long , but looks much better than the 714 it replaced . Mike
Haven't done too much in the past few months , but I did add some more tall grass around the station .
About 6 weeks ago I bought a Westside C-25 2-8-0 Good runner but it had an issue . The boiler / cab sat way too far above the frame . So last weekend I got the courage to take a dremel to it and chopped dowm the cylinder saddle , a support under the center of the boiler and the rear frame . Lots of work but it's running again . I also added a Tsunami 2 decoder ( the newest versions have a much better cylinder cock sound and rod clank is much better ) and their 13 x 18 cube speaker . First photo shows how much closer the frame is to the running boards compaired to ...https://brasstrains.sirv.com/produc...scale.option=fill&scale.width=1200&quality=60 The cab is still too tall , but I'm not quite ready to go that far yet ......Mike
Winter is coming ! K 27 456 get her snowplow mounted . Unidentified engineer smashed the frame but it makes a nice storage shed . Those two better be on lunch ! This an old Tomalco kit I built about 40 years ago , weathered with a black wash . The weeds keep growing ! Section foreman needs to get someone out there with the DDT .
DDT did a job on me Now I am a real sickie Guess I'll have to break the news That I got no mind to lose That is some great modeling