Progress Shots

[jwb]

I installed fascia on this part of my layout over the past several days:    
I pulled back the camera to show the whole scene, warts and all. The layout skirts the furnace/ac unit here, with lots of ductwork and stuff showing. I'm going to try to add some hardboard for a backdrop of some kind behind the drawbridge, although due to the way the ducts and so forth are, it can't be continuous.

[e-paw]

That looks like it will be a tough job to hide,, good luck.

[Tyson Rayles]

Yeah, you have your work cut out for you trying to hide that.

[jwb]

Here's a closer-in shot of the station parking lot and associated structures in that area. I suddenly realized what I can do with the parking lot -- Walthers had some Busch beat-up asphalt sheets on sale, which I'd meant to use on another part of the layout, but I think they'll do well here, too. This solves one problem that had been in the back of my mind.
   
The scenery here has been pretty basic for several years. I was waiting on adding banks and water to the river under the drawbridge until I got the fascia installed, but now I no longer have any excuses in that quarter. Over Thanksgiving weekend I'll have access to a table saw that I can use to cut the hardboard for the backdrop, so I'll be moving forward on that, too. I'm also realizing I need a lot more earth form and greenery in this area.

[jwb]

Here's a better view of the lumberyard in the background of the photo above:
   
I did this from a 1980s MR article where the late Art Curren kitbashed it from two Atlas lumberyards and an AHM Delta House. By the time I got to the project, the AHM Delta House was long out of production (and not really up to current standards), but I found a Walthers hardware store was maybe a better candidate anyhow. As you can see, I need to level up the spur and finish scenery and ballast -- and maybe stabilize the lumberyard a little better on its base.

Here's a shot of the drawbridge, deliberately underexposed to show the navigation lights I added to it with LEDs:
   

I'm not sure if I posted this before or not, the scene that's just getting started at the other end of the drawbridge:
   
This is a FOS Scale big-box Department of Docks kit from maybe half a dozen years ago. As you can see, I'm working toward a waterfront type scene here, but more of a mid-Atlantic sort of thing -- I grew up in New Jersey and Maryland and worked summers in coastal North Carolina, and I'm aiming for something more like those areas than New England/Maine/lobster pots and so forth.

Hmm -- if I'm posting all these photos, I guess like Ralph, I'm trying to motivate myself to make some progress here.

[faraway]

That "department of docks" is a very interesting building

[jwb]

Yeah, it sort of screamed "New Jersey" to me when I first saw the ad, and I had to have one! Still a lot of work to do on it, and the kit has other detail parts for navigation bouys and so forth that will all find good use when the time comes. I have to look at some of the smaller boat models to see what I might be able to fit in the river, too.

[Ralph]

Hmm -- if I'm posting all these photos, I guess like Ralph, I'm trying to motivate myself to make some progress here.

Works for me! I really like the drawbridge and admire the Dept. of Docks. Great to see your Penn Central diesels working the layout. I can't quite tell..is that an RS unit on the drawbridge in the last pic?

Ralph

[jwb]

Yes it is, Atlas RS-1. Odd how the PC has turned into such a cult. I remember in 1976 when Conrail was formed, I kept thinking how people were going to think of the PC as something from the good old days!

[jwb]

Here are some more shots from this part of my layout. I've been adding fascia, which has been encouraging me to get these scenes farther along. This particular area is maybe 12 feet to the right of the shots above, the absolute far end of the layout, which butts up against a wall. The focal point will be a 5-track stub passenger terminal. Here is the express portion:    
I just ballasted that track last night, later today the spur will be done. The platform you see is a bunch of Fos Scale platform kits end to end. The bumpers are Frenchman River, which are the closest I can find to real passenger terminal style bumpers. You can see that I stop the background painting before it reaches baseboard level, but I'm not exactly sure how I'll handle that area yet.

[jwb]

Here is the building that goes in the empty area in the last post:
   
It's a DPM Cutting's Scissor factory with some tweaks. Pulling a little farther out, you can see a Blair Line Fred and Red's across the street from it. I moved this from elsewhere and just hooked up the lights last night.    
The spur turns up a city street that uses Walthers brick street material and street trackage inserts and ends in front of a Fos Forley Lithography:    
The shelf here is less than six inches wide.

[Tyson Rayles]

Looking good, the Forley company looks like a serious customer!

[jwb]

Today I did a task that I'd been procrastinating for a long, long time. I put holes in the baseboard for the platform subway stairs on the Walthers passenger platforms:
   
You need the holes because the stairs actually go below level:
   
Here's the final arrangement. Now I have to add the roofs and finish some more of the platform modules.    

[Tyson Rayles]

[jwb]

Back at the other end of this set of progress shots, I added the Busch worn asphalt around the West Egg station:
   
I was able to cut some hardboard and brace it to form a partial backdrop behind the swing bridge. At some point I'll go to Michaels and get some paint for it.
   
I also got one of the new Bar Mills two-story billboards, and I've been trying out various locations to see if it will help direct the eye away from the heating ducts and so forth. Not sure exactly where to put it yet, and if it works well, I may get the other one they make and add it, too.