NW 58th St., Miami

[railroader9731]

Very nice work you got there. Keep up the good work

[cnw1961]

Thank you guys for your very kind comments. Glad you like the weathered cars. Do not think that I know exactly what I will get when I start to weather a car . It is all trial and error and "do it again" until it looks right.

Lynn, I promise to do a how-to on weathering soon, but I can’t promise that I can do it in just 5 steps, you may have to endure a bit more .

[Jesso]

Love the buildings, the hydrocal makes the buildings look exactly like concrete tip-ups, great job. The weathering jobs that you have done on the engines and the cars is incredible. You layouts are wonderful to watch so I'll just sit back and enjoy your great work!

[Mileswestern]

Exceptional modeling as always, kurt!

So what happened to the original layout? Have you sold that ATSF 2-8-2 that you once had? Have you saved your buildings for the future? (They were all exceptional)

Your new buildings really capture the flavor of the 1940's warehouses that are found all over miami, how cool.

[Steamtrains]

I second Miles' comments....Looking forward to seeing how the layout evolves....

[cnw1961]

Scott, thank you for your kind comments. I concur with you, the hydrocal really adds to the look of the buildings, but nonetheless, the next structures will be made from styrene. I am working on this layout for about half a year now and I have the feeling, that I did not make much progress. So I want to get something done now. To make those structures from hydrocal took MUCH longer than building them from styrene. I am planning to do all the structures I still need from styrene, so that it won’t take too long until I can lay ground cover and start working on the scenery. I will replace the styrene structures with hydrocal structures one by one later. The styrene buildings are quick and easy to do and they are cheap, so it will no big loss to remove them from the layout.

Miles, nice to see you! To answer your question: I still have the SoCal layout and all the rolling stock. I did not have the heart to dismantle the layout. It resides on top of the wardrobe in our bedroom. I took it down to take some pics a few days ago. My pictures on this and last week’s Photo Fun Threads are two of them.

[cnw1961]

I second Miles' comments....Looking forward to seeing how the layout evolves....

Gus, knowing that you don’t like these "modern" type buildings, this compliment means a lot ot me.

[Mileswestern]

Miles, nice to see you! To answer your question: I still have the SoCal layout and all the rolling stock. I did not have the heart to dismantle the layout. It resides on top of the wardrobe in our bedroom. I took it down to take some pics a few days ago. My pictures on this and last week’s Photo Fun Threads are two of them.

Thank goodness! You made one of the more exceptional Southern California layouts, with top-notch scenery and buildings, I would have been heart broken to see it dismantled, thanks for keeping it alive!

[Brakie]

Nicely done and well executed.

I also like Lance Mindheim’s Miami East Rail layout articles in MR but,I believe you have done a better overall layout.

[cnw1961]

Larry, thank you for that very kind compliment. Nice to see that you think that my layout does not fall too short compared to Lance’s fantastic layout.

I think I strayed long enough from building the layout. After having weathered all those cars (Lynn, I did not forget the 5 step how-to ), I am back on track now. As a start I finished painting and weathering all the streets. They may need a little more weathering, but that depends on how they turn out in pictures. And I "planted" the first utility pole. Well, I know that’s not a real big step forward in scenicing the layout, but you got to start somewhere .



Sentry Industries (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.sentryindustries.net">http://www.sentryindustries.net</a><!-- m -->) is one of the real industries I model that is still served by rail. They get a lot of chlorine in tank cars and that really suits me, as I love tank cars. I already have two and I am waiting for 4 more to be delivered . Sentry is the building at the front of the short leg of the L of my layout. Two days ago I started building the facade of that structure and as you can see, I made good progress.



The wall is made from .080" sheet styrene. To cut the wall and the openings for windows and doors precisely, I did this drawing in CorelDraw, printed it out and using adhesive spray, glued it to the styrene sheet.



The windows are from Tichy Train Group, the rolling doors are corrugated styrene (the backside facing to the front). All the other details I made from sheet styrene (.080", .040", .020" and .013"). I don’t care about using styrene strips or rods, because you can never have all you need at hand and besides that, using sheet styrene is much cheaper.







Now I only have to figure out how to build the rest of the structure with its curved rear wall. Well, I guess I have to sleep on it for one or two nights.

[Jesso]

I love the work you have done. Your attention to detail is great. I love your utility pole. The color of the wood is perfect and I love the grass and weeds around the pole. Your building front is really nice, I love how you can make all of that with just good cutting of styrene. Ok, you said you use corel draw to cut your windows, but how do you keep your cuts so straight? Do you use metal rulers, straight edges? Whenever I cut stuff, I tend to not get straight cuts out of it.

[cnw1961]

Scott, thank you. I weathered the utility pole with india ink, a method I learned from Lynn (wgrider). I use a metal ruler for cutting big parts, but most of the time I use this triangle.



All those parallel and rectangular lines help to place it precisely and very often you even don’t have to draw lines before cutting. You only have to take care not to cut into the triangle and damage it. But even though cutting with a stright edge comes natural to me as I am used to cutting paper and cardboard from my job for more than 20 years now, I have to replace the triangle from time to time.

[cnw1961]

Seeing the picture of the utility pole, I thought the pole needed some improvement. I posted a little step-by-step on how I did it on the scratch building forum (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=391">viewtopic.php?f=22&t=391</a><!-- l -->).

[steinjr]

Kurt --

I enjoy watching the work you post. As always, it looks great!

Now, I think I wil head over to the scratchbuilding forum to look at some poles

Smile,
Stein

[Ralph]

Kurt you do such clean and beautiful work even on a plain looking structure! I'm inspired! Nice tip regarding weathering the pole too. What a difference!

Ralph