This is looking really good. One thing that I'm confused about though - when operating, because your grain bins are at the end of the line, you can't move any hoppers beyond them. This means that you will have to take a cut of hoppers in there one hopper at a time. I realise the bins are abandonned, therefore you won't have to take a cut of hoppers in there, but is it prototypical in NEPA to have them at the end of a siding like that? As far as your scenicking is going, I'm loving watching it advance, keep up the good work!
Hmmm, not quite sure how you might do it, but vines running up and or sideways on the grain bins would definitely add a neglected look. Maybe some type of string (very small) died green and/or brown for dead patches? Just a thought... By the way, it is coming along very nicely I think!
There is a grain elevator outside of Danville, PA I have driven by several times that has a very short siding, although the siding does extend past the bins a bit. It is serviced by trucks from local farms. The proto also has a shed the hoppers pull through to be filled. I decided to selectively compress this scene. As I mentioned earlier, this siding is a programming track, so outside of the grain bin facility the track is not powered and is scenic-ed to appear abandoned. There is no way to switch a hopper in or out of there, so other than just for pictures, the siding will only have a loco on it for programming purposes. Admittedly, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what to do with that part of the layout, and I wanted some Grain Bins somewhere. I just try to imagine that this Grain Bin facility only used one hopper and had a switcher come in a pull it out when it was full and ready for the rails. Thanks for the comments!
Just another short update. I decided my last attempt at trees was not good enough for the foreground. So I refined my methods and gave it another shot. I used M.C. Fujiwara's tutorial on youtube and also tossing in a few changes to that process and came up with these: Pretty darned convincing, although the tree closest to the camera is definitely way out of scale. So I went back to my abandoned siding/programming track and planted her down. Notice the sapling sprouting up in the middle of the siding. I also started adding scenery to the next section of the siding, and built a timber retaining wall from BBQ skewers. Finally, the latest addition to my Loco fleet. Also, a bit of a closer look at the sapling. -Josh
Well, the day I have been waiting for arrived this month. I picked up my NS 8098 Conrail Heritage unit. Overall I love the thing. It runs pretty quiet out of the box, decoder installation is painless, and it comes with a little packet of pre-painted details just waiting to be installed. I couldn't wait to install the details. I only had a few problems. The grab irons were a bit short so installing them took a bit more finesse, and it was not possible to glue them from the inside, so one has to be careful putting glue on the irons so as not to overflow the glue onto the shell. Secondly, the cab shades were a bit flimsy, and I broke the set I got trying to get them into the shell. FVM quickly provided me with another set, which I then broke again. So, I just decided to omit them. Unfortunately, my cab now has a few holes drilled and a bit of glue slopped on it. I definately have not had this kind of trouble with BLMA shades, so if anything I will pick up a bit of CR blue and add BLMA shades down the road. I also added an Atlas MU cable to complete my detailing spree. The only other gripe I have is the paint is a bit soft, so one has to take care not to do too much rubbing with tweezers or other tools, as the paint will chip off. I'm still very pleased with this model, and will definately be running it often. Below is a picture of the CR Heritage with my favorite SD70M (you can see where I boogered up the cab shade area, and a bit of paint rubbed off one of the handrails). The track in between them has a kink in it which caused derailments. I think I caused this when I tried to put a section of rail ties back under the joiners. I'll have to work on it a bit to see if it will go back into gauge, otherwise the section will have to come up and be re-ballasted. Any tips?
Wow, I guess I haven't done a proper update lately. Most of my concentration has been on one particular scene. Despite being very busy with work, and other summertime stuff, I managed to devote some time to this scene. I built an old barn out of wood using a picture from a puzzle I found on Google. I then molded the barn into the hillside. I guess I didn't have much backstory with this scene. I suppose modest, old, farmer John bought this land to farm, then shortly after invite the railroad to build a siding on his property so he could transport his grain, and then the whole thing went bust. So now farmer John just sells his crops the old way, by truck. You can see when I was first teaching myself to built the trees, I was having trouble with the roots holding the plaster. So I had to go back and lay fresh plaster on the wire to build the roots back up. I also used plaster to build the barn's foundation. Tonight, I built myself a chicken coop out of styrene. I used a metallic ribbon to model wire fencing in the windows of the coop. And this is how the scene sits for now. I still need to "overgrow" The rail bed with vegetation. Down the road I plan on adding some white fencing around the property, and maybe have a little bit of farm equipment scattered around. And finally some N-scale chickens (which will probably look like little white spheres at this scale) On one more note, I had a bit a rough week. So before I shut it all down for the night, I cleaned up my track that I had never ran on after I laid ballast and let my favorite loco do some laps. Kind of soothing hearing the click-clack of the loco going around the loop, expecially knowing the thing isn't derailing and is running fault free!!! Gives ya a bit of a pat on the back knowing its running well because you built it to. -Josh
Very cool to see what you're getting up to. I like your farmer's building, and the chicken coop is fantastic-the thing must be the size a thumbnail! For your abandoned siding, when you go to overgrow it, have you considered rubbing some dirt/fine ground foam into the ballast to add to the scene?
Honestly, I am still unsure of how to go about it. I think thats kind of why I haven't jumped into it yet. I really don't want to "wreck" the scene. I know once I start it won't be so bad, but I think I am going to read up on it a bit more. The FedEX guy brought me a nice little gift today. Internettrains (approved vendor right?) had a 40% sale a little while ago, and I couldn't help myself. So I recieved my Amtrak Phase VI starter set and baggage car today. Runs smooth like a Kato. Here's a quick video I made of the thing ripping around the main. (Click the HD button for better quality) [video=youtube;dN64_tqq25M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN64_tqq25M&feature=youtu.be[/video] I don't think I've ever ran anything as long as these passenger cars. Boy do these things make my 13" curves look sharp!
Like the teaser! When do we get to see the rest of it? With regards to your not wanting to 'wreck the scene' have you considered making a small diorama to practice on? That's something I'm going to probably do down the line so as to not endanger 'the real thing'
So I recently "teased" another step of scenicking I added to my layout. Well, I went out and spent $30 on a static grass applicator, and boy what an excellent investment. I highly recommend anyone who is planning on doing a bunch of scenicking to skip that piece of rolling stock one month and buy this instead. I also got a bit closer to completing the scenes I am working on. I broke out the Rebel and took a few pics to share with you wonderful folks I "overgrew" my abandoned siding and added some vines and weeds to the area I took another member's advice and added some graffitti to the grain bins. Again, added static grass and weeds to the siding And a bit of an elevated view of the mainline and my brand new Amtrak P42 Phase VI and company (still have to add the details) I really have been working at a snails pace. I am discovering I am a bit of a perfectionist now that I have a grasp on adding scenery. My next step is to add some livestock and other details to the area so that I can move on. I'll keep you posted. -Josh
It looks like you have some rail torn out of the abandoned track, and some still in. I think that in real life either all the rail is torn up (except that embedded in floors and sometimes highway crossings) , or all of it retired in place. So if your railroad (or a salvage company) did remove the rail, fish plates, etc for scrap, the track embedded in the concrete floor would have been left there (not cost-effective to bust up the concrete to get it), so it still can be used for programming. If you do remove all the rail, take out a tie here and there too. Don't worry about leaving a hole in the finished ballast, that happened on the prototype. Toss a few loose and broken ties around the spur, too.
Thanks for the opinion. Well I guess in my head, I imagined the rails were removed so that lifestock could graze over the old railbed without having trouble walking through. When I add fence it will come together. Besides, If I remove the rail at this stage you would see all the stupid sprues that hold the ties together and it would be too damaging at this point to cut them all out. The areas without rail had these sprues removed before I added ballast. I will take your advice regarding scattering loose ties about.
So, I knew this day was coming. Earlier in this thread I mentioned I rent my house. Well, At the end of this month, I will be moving into a slightly more spacious cape cod. I am excited about the move as a whole, but moving the layout.... not so much. I guess all scenary work will cease until after it is moved since there is no point in running the risk of damaging anything more than possible. So for now I have to contemplate where to cut the layout in half to fit it up the stairs. The good news is I may be considering EXPANDING! Since I may have to pull up some track anyway, I may be in my best interests to make my L-shape into a U-shape. It would give me the ability to have a yard and a few other things I wish I had worked into it. So for now, I have to find a safe way to package some of the more fragile bits up, and try to solder and secure down most, if not all of the track.
Well, yesterday I began tossing all of my scenicking stuff into a 16 gallon bin. I also wrapped up all of the buildings that aren't glued down and placed then in storage as well. Hopefully they will survive the move. I think once everything in the house is packed up, I will make sure this stuff gets a special trip in my car rather than the U-haul. Today, I tackled a project I have been putting off for a very long time. Since my layout will (eventually) be situated around coal, my layout's main motive power will be SD70M's. The best running one I have (and my personal favorite) is #2608. Well, Its not exactly protypical for my era, and I'm not one to get bent out of shape about MINUTE details. 2608 came out of the box as a white-face as it was when the proto was built back in 2003. I'm not sure the history behind these "white-face" units, but NS seems to have pretty quickly put the ky-bosh on them, electing to go with the modern "uni-brow" paint scheme. 2608 has the uni-brow scheme now-a-days. Proto: My 70M fleet when I first scooped them up So naturally I sort of strived to repair this, but didn't want to mess up the model in the process. But since I have another 70M (2596) that has sort of become a parts rig since an ill-fated sound decoder install, I figured I had a spare cab I could exchange if I failed miserably. So, I dove in head first and tore the shell apart. I very carefully masked off the unibrow area and made sure to keep everything nice and tight so there was no overspray. Turned out pretty good for a first attempt. And I was relieved I didn't ruin the stock paint. I also changed the cab shades, as the "modern" shades I had originally installed are incorrect for the proto. I then gave the shell a quick coat of dull-coat since I had the window glass out. I also made sure to touch up the handrails and step sills. Once everything was dry, I installed the protoypical cabshades. Also, I had the idea of painting the "cab interior piece" (clips inside the cab and helps to hold the window glass and healight pieces into place) a dull brown color. I google'd what a SD70M's interior looked like and brown was the most common color I came up with. Now here is where I really grew some balls... Weathering! *Note the brown cab interior. Kind of gives it a 3-D look. It isn't reinventing the wheel or anything, but I'm sort of glad it popped into my head.
Looking great as always. Good luck with the move when it rolls around, and I hope cutting the layout in half isn't too distressing for ya :-(
Thanks. Shouldn't be too bad. I'm just happy I'm not further along with scenery since I have to cut it up
