Thank you all! It never fails to amaze me how much one can accomplish in just a small amount of time....
I agree with everyone else that the new crossing looks great. What amazes me is how you can spend a short amount of time to make a little addition and it changes the whole scene. Just fantastic work Jim.
We were at this same spot last week - different direction - and I mentioned "onward and upward"... Well, note where the "road" is going: Here's an "aircraft" view: And an even closer shot: Interesting doing scenery at that height and distance from the edge...
Very nice Jim. I'm sure the local youth will be glad to have cell service. How did you construct the access road? Did you plough away the existing static grass or overlay it with more joint compound? These dirt access and fire-break roads are such a ubiquitous feature of Tehachapi. Are you planning any more along the tracks? Cheers, Gary
Yeah, Gary, I do plan more - I just don't know where yet! I use coarse sandpaper to get most of the grass off in the wear area and down to the paint, then give it several washes of darker paint (artist's acrylics or WS colors) until I'm happy with the appearance. Those washes give the grass along the edges a nice darker look. I'm frankly feeling my way along here...I MAY have overdone the dark a bit but I wanted the contrast...
Nice cell tower, Jim. I like the fence and the little shed. Is the tower supposed to be blue? Is that a common tower paint color out west? Or is this a test-fit and there's further painting/weathering to come? Looks like that blue matches (?) the water tower blue... Over here, I'm used to the water towers being blue (and all sorts of other colors), but the cell towers are usually either steel grey or black or painted that high visibility red/white alternating pattern if they're tall enough. Just wondering. Looks nice either way!
Cell towers in the area are now starting to look like pine trees... I'll have to get a picture of one before too long. The idea being they will "blend in".. Nothing like a 60' pine tree that looks like it came from a tinplate layout...
I love these pine / cedar "tree" cell towers, plopped in the middle of the central valley and along US-101. They don't look real, and they don't look like any tree nearby. There's one spot on 101 just north of Prunedale, where there are 3 different varieties of cell "trees" on a single hill.
How about a pic or two ? I honestly haven't seen one of those yet, and we're WAY overdue for a trip west...Aw, geez! Good thing the towers are a press fit! Thanks for the comments, guys!
Here's one from Hesperia: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=304874&nseq=17 The "tree" just to the right of the tanks is a cell tower. Looks a bit like a giant Joshua tree. Easy to replicate (if desired) because it looks like a model tree. You should keep the nice tower you made and make the second one a tree. Cheers, Gary
gary that cell tree looks better then the one by me.. mine looks like a half dead pine tree in a sea of tall oaks:tb-shocked:
We got the giant cell tower "trees" here in Vegas too...in fact I got one within a 1/4 mile of my house...which would explain my great signal...and the dropped calls...
Thanks, Gary! I'm definitely keeping mine - and I have two others as well yet to be installed. I won't rule out the tree towers for the future but I'm not gonna set any speed records getting them made...
