In the South

[cnw1961]

btw. Do you know where to find the PHL engine yard? It is on several photos but I can not find it with Google and Bing.

Reinhard, search Google Maps or Bing for "Pier A Street, Wilmington, CA". At the north end of the Pier A yard is the engine house.

[faraway]

btw. Do you know where to find the PHL engine yard? It is on several photos but I can not find it with Google and Bing.

Reinhard, search Google Maps or Bing for "Pier A Street, Wilmington, CA". At the north end of the Pier A yard is the engine house.

Thanks, got it
Bing's bird view shows a lot of old stuff. Someone is collecting 1:1 scale engines. Those stuff is rusty and for sure not the roster we see on the photo working in the harbor. They must have cleaned up as all the photos show new shiny zebras only.

What did you do with the PHL to know the location of that yard....?

[cnw1961]

What did you do with the PHL to know the location of that yard....?

I was looking at those beautiful zebra striped engines (they look very much like my beloved two zebra striped ATSF Baldwins, the most beautiful of all ) on Railpictures.net and saw that the pics were taken at Pier A yard. I was just curious where that might be, so I did a Google search for Pier A Wilmimgton and on Metrolink (the second link that showed up) I saw that there is a Pier A Street in Wilmington … you can guess the rest

[Russ Bellinis]

Kurt beat me to it. The reason you might find a bunch of pictures of older locomotives and the new Gensets andlow emission diesels for PHL is because the entire fleet was replaced starting in 2007. Prior to 2007, like most short lines they ran second hand equipment that they bought from the either class ones or used locomotive dealers. Most was painted and looked nice though. The old Sw units were faded blue, but most of the rest of the fleet was pretty good.

[faraway]

The background arrived today. Two pieces each 1' by 6 1/2'. Two methods of installation are proposed
a. like a wallpaper with wallpaper glue
b. like a poster with adhesive pads
In the same instructions a warning is given because the background is printed with a process similar to inkjet and any moisture will ruin it.

With that warning in mind I decided to get some poster pads. That worked fines except the pads need to be rubbed for about 5 - 10 seconds for full adhesive strength. You can easy spot where I did rub a pad under the background...

It is not perfect but the overall impression is much better than before. Given the easy installation (I did not ruin the wall) it is a success. We will see if it still sticks to the wall morrow morning.







btw. It is a good feeling to look at the harbor of Hamburg where my origins are while I live in the deep south now. They choose a part of the harbor that is very similar to Willmington with the typical container terminal cranes.

[faraway]

The warehouse got extended by another 70cm (2 1/2') and has reached it's final length.
The challenge is to hide and cover the entrances of the staging track on both sides into he warehouse. A stack of chemical containers might be a nice scenery that matches the background with an intermodal facility on the other side of the basin and hides the west entrance. Both tracks will be at least very much covered in the ground or street running.

I do not intent to do any specific intermodal railroad scenery. My beautiful wellcars from a former layout are stored at a save place. They are far to long to be used on this layout.

[Gary S]

The containers do a good job of blocking the track. I'm always impressed by your "go get'em" attitude and by your accomplishments. You obviously put a lot of thought into your layout. Good stuff!

[faraway]

Thank you all for the kind words.
One of the next bigger jobs is the pavement with all street running tracks in front of the long building. I have to get some material (thin sheets of styrene for the top and some filler to get the styrene just below track level) from a hobby shop downtown Stuttgart. May be I find a time slot next Saturday for that trip.

I have got an idea and a question about that.
Most of the track that has to fit into the pavement is parallel straight running. The tracks are currently only draft mounted on the cork. I may fiddle with the styrene to get is fit between the (some how) straight tracks. May be it is more intelligent and easier to cut perfect straight styrene and adjust the tracks? I am talking about 1/20 of an inch but street running track needs to fit really well to look good. I think it is easier to push a track against straight styrene than to cut a very soft curve precise out of styrene. What do you think and did you do it before one or the other way?

[bdw9535]

Reinhard,
When I did my pier areas also tried to cut stryene to fit along the tracks, there wasn't any problem where the tracks were straight but just couldn't get the curved section cut correctly and was never happy with the way it looked. I ended up using drywall compound in thin layers to build up to the height of the track. The drywall compound also has its problems as my layout is in an unfinished basement without any climate control. I'm now experiencing cracks in the pavement from the layout moving with the changes of the seasons.
Like the look of your backdrop, gives your structures the look of the waterfront.

Bruce

[faraway]

A nice somewhat older lady has arrived in the north yard.
The PHL SD18m is based on Atlas ATSF SD24. Turbo stack (GP/SD stack is on order) and dynamic breakes have been removed (plated over). Front and backend extended and snow plow added (snow in LA???). ATSF lettering removed and new numbers applied. No PHL is lettering available... sides will stay flat black.

I need PHL decals. Is any source known?

The engine will get a complete finish when the stack has been installed.



Bruce, thank you for the hint. I tried that some years ago with a German layout. It ended up with a real mess. I am afraid I have to fiddle with styrene...

[Ralph]

Excellent backdrops! Very effective!

[OBJack]

Very Impressive Reinhard. The transformation achieved with those new backdrops to complement the layout change is amazing.

[faraway]

It is remarkable how important a backdrop is. It was my first intention not save the wallpaper at the north wall and go without backdrop. That would have been a mistake.

[mountaingoatgreg]

Reinhard,

That is on heck of a nice little scene you have going there!!

I really like the building and that backdrop is a great choice. The backdrop really makes the scene expand and make the shelf look 100 times bigger then it is. Keep up the great work!

[Russ Bellinis]

A nice somewhat older lady has arrived in the north yard.
The PHL SD18m is based on Atlas ATSF SD24. Turbo stack (GP/SD stack is on order) and dynamic breakes have been removed (plated over). Front and backend extended and snow plow added (snow in LA???). ATSF lettering removed and new numbers applied. No PHL is lettering available... sides will stay flat black.

I need PHL decals. Is any source known?

The engine will get a complete finish when the stack has been installed.



Bruce, thank you for the hint. I tried that some years ago with a German layout. It ended up with a real mess. I am afraid I have to fiddle with styrene...

I think Microscale #90032 Alphabet & Numbers-Railroad Roman-Condensed-Black are what you are looking for to letter your locomotive. On the Microscale site, I think they have the wrong picture when you enlarge the #90032 sheet the lettering looks gold, but it is listed as black. When I looked at the sheet a couple of listing down that is labeled as gold, it looks like they show the same sheet, so I think they listed black and showed gold in the illustration. I don't think anyone makes the little logo shown on the short hood just in front of the cab. In any event the lettering used by the PHL is the same script as Santa Fe used on their Zebra Striped locomotives as well as the numbers for their freight cars. I think BNSF switched from the Railroad Roman to a block font like BN used when they merged.