Layout Expansion

montanan Mar 18, 2013

  1. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    I'm working up the courage to plow the driveway. Up to 15 above.
     
  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Up to plus four here now. I just aired out the house, before all the idiots who don't know how to build a proper fire light off their stoves.
     
  3. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Over the holidays I managed to get a bit more work done on the layout. It just seems that I never have enough time to work on it. I have never tried this before, but for the city streets I picked up a bunch of styrene "for sale" signs at the hardware store. They were spray painted a concrete like color and then the fun began, try to get scale measurements to get the centerline of the street straight and the city blocks set into position. The city blocks were also made from signs, but were a slightly thicker styrene. These were where the measurements were taken from to determine the street center.

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    Once the sheets of styrene were cut to size using a scale rule, they were glued to the plywood surface.

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    Once the road surface was put down, the seams in the concrete raod surface were put in and I added a bit of oil residue in the driving lanes.

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    After the streets were done, work on cutting and locating the sidewalks are next. I managed to get some cut and put down by the freight station. This building will also be the offices of the Logan Valley besides an REA location. It was nice to see some ground cover go down by the freight station. Tired of looking at plywood. A few sage brush trees were added where the backdrop meets the yard area. When the sidewalks are cut and fitted in the park area in front of the passenger station and ground cover put in, a few trees will be put in the park area and a couple will go in in front of the freight station.

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    Progress has been slow, but this was probably the most time consuming part of the project. More to come.
     
  4. logandsawman

    logandsawman TrainBoard Member

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    Lookin great, Chet. I like your era and that last photo is my favorite!!

    lasm
     
  5. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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  6. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    Looks great


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
     
  7. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    More Progress

    Some more work has been done. More ground cover is going down finally hiding the plywood.

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    The work has begun.

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    Here the bilding have been just set down in what will be their final location. A fence will be put up between the residences and the tracks as soon as I find something suitable. Garages will also be scratchbuilt to go at the end of the driveways. It was a major pain measuring, cutting and fitting the sidewalks in.

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    The glue for the ground cover is still drying and as soon as it sets, any extra ground cover will become the victim of the shop vac. Some sagebrush trees will be going in in front of the passenger station and in the lots of the residences on the edge of town. Time to take the rest of the day off.
     
  8. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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  9. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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  10. UP_Challenger3985

    UP_Challenger3985 TrainBoard Member

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    Your town looks great! Keep up the good work!
     
  11. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    It looks really good.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
     
  12. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Finally some trees are going in along Main Street. I made two different kinds of sagebrush trees. The first are made using polyfiber with coarse ground foam using the cheapest hair spray available to hold the ground foam. These are in the first two pictures by the freight house.

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    The other kind I make takes a bit longer. Pieces of clump foliage is glued to the tree armature. The tree isn't as full as the polyfibre trees, but more of the branches can be seen. I guess a little more foliage could be added.

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    A little work was also done around the potato warehouse. Pavement was added between the warehouse and the gas station and a small parking lot was added for workers at the warehouse. A concrete pad was also added behind the gas station for the fuel loading docks.

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    I was hoping to add more trees around the homes at the edge of town but ran out of both polyfiber and clump foliage. I thought I had more stashed away, but if I did, I sure can't find it.
     
  13. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    What a difference trees make! Nice big ones look very impressive.
     
  14. StickyMonk

    StickyMonk TrainBoard Member

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    This has spurred me to get on with my town area, you have so many vehicles how many do you have?
     
  15. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks Alan. Many of he tree "kits" end up being for smaller trees. Having driven through so many small towns in Montana, I find that many of the trees are tall, mature trees anywhere from 50 to 80 feet tall or more.

    StickyMonk, I have hundreds of them all about the layout. I started collecting accurate vehicles in HO scale when I got out of N scale about 25 years or more ago. I thought I actually had too many, but after getting this final town built, I could probably use a few more. When I started collecting them about the only really accurate ones were Alloy Forms kits, but in more recent years more have become available from different manufacturers and Classic Metal Works has really done a good job with trucks and cars from the transition era. Get on with your town area. The space where this town is was nothing but a sheet of plywood for over a dozen years. It was great for storing projects but now that the town is moving ahead, it give a bit of inspiration to move ahead.

    I still have more trees to add in this area at the homes on on the hill behind the roundhouse as well as bushes and shrubs in the green areas in town. Store signs still have to go on the businesses and I also have street lights for the town to put in. A lot of work is still ahead. I have lots of figures for te town, but they are in future projects. I would really enjoy trying to model a larger city area similar to George Sellios Franklin & South Manchester. I got to see his layout years back when he only had the first part of his layout done and have followed it through the years and I am really amazed at his work. Unfortunately, the area I am modeling is a rural setting.
     
  16. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    I have been out of town for the Daytona 500 and finally got home. While in Florida, I managed to find a few hobby shops and stocked up on scenery supplies, detail parts and scratch building material. I sure was nice to be able to visit a model railroad shop and see in person some of the new items available in the hobby, but I didn't go crazy and buy things that I really didn't need.

    I am going to first post a 2 year old photo when the town of Logan was in the planning stages. Where the white package of latex gloves with the number 8 on them was the reference point for the start of the project, where the passenger station was.

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    Next is the latest photo. A couple more sage brush trees have been added along with a fence put in behind the homes to separated them from the passenger station and the yard. One Garage was also built and put in the yard of the home closest to the station. Another is being put together for the last home, but not yet finished.

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    The rest of the photos are of the area at the end of the layout. Clippings from the sage brush make a nice firewood load for a pickup.

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    I see old Barney Fife is at the cafe getting some doughnuts.

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    Progress has been moving forward, but unfortunately, slower than I would like. More details have to be added such as street lamps, figures and more.
     
  17. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Slower? Jeez, wish we could all make such progress over 2 years. Great work.
     
  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looking at those trees yet again. I really like the size. Most folks trees are too small. These look great.
     
  19. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Totally agree with Ken. Yours are great. Most folks do not realise just how big trees are.

    I can just make out the difference between first and later pictures ;)
     
  20. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    I do agree that a lot of the trees are too small that are on the market. It's not uncommon for a mature tree to be from 60 to 70 or more feet tall. I have some aspen trees that a planted years back that are now easily over 60 feet tall. At first I was wondering myself about the height of the trees on other parts of the layout and did like to have taller trees.
     

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