Progress Shots

[jwb]

Thanks. It's a urethane kit for a D&RGW/RGS outfit car grounded. I'm going to add a little more to this area while I'm on this.

[jwb]

Here are two more pictures of the area. You can see the grain elevator which is the end of the dual gauge on the branch, as well as the "end of third rail" on the main line:

   

Here's a somewhat closer view of the grain elevator area. I'm recognizing that as I pay attention to the areas I'm photographing, I'm seeing things to do. Ground cover in this area and ballast on the branch line track will be next.

   

For those who might be tempted to complain that I have 1940s dual gauge along with 2010s Darth Vader signals, my reply is that's the way I want it, build your own layout to suit yourself.

[jwb]

I temporarily removed the grain elevator to ballast the siding. When I ballast track, I'm careful to paint short yellow stripes on the rail above any Kadee 308 magnets:

   

The prototype paints stripes like these on rail for various reasons. I use them to mark where the uncoupling magnet is.

The D&RGW had basically two shades of ballast on its narrow gauge lines. Arizona Rock and Mineral makes both. One is a volcanic red, which I'm using here:

   

I wet the ballast with water from a spray bottle (a few drops of detergent added as a wetting agent), spray thoroughly, and then drizzle white glue over the ballast. Then, as applicable, I add Woodland Scenics turf. When it's dry, I go over the railheads with a bright boy.

[jwb]

Preliminary ground cover on the second culvert:

   

[faraway]

That irregular size and color of the ground cover looks very realistic. That little culvert becomes an eye catcher.

[jwb]

I just scanned some photos I took in 1994-95, when I was working on my current layout after moving it from another house. Here's a pair of before and after shots:

c 1994:

   

Recent:

   

[jonte]

Nice blending of rock structure, desert earth and scree on valley floor, jwb.

I'd dread having to model such an eclectic mix of 'panoramic' scenery; merely having to ballast has me on edge !

And I seriously doubt I'd have the tenacity for a project on this scale.

Thanks for sharing,

jonte

[jwb]

I took a break for a while on the car ferry-Pier 27 area, but resumed several months ago. I built up the mole on which the Pier 27 building sits and surrounded it with Model Railstuff piling castings. I also sprayed the plywood base Krylon black as a halfway measure toward doing something about water:
   

The Fos Scale Pier 27 is getting closer to completion, although this is a big kit:

   

   

The Walthers car ferry, like many other large Walthers kits (like the various grain elevator-cement plants) doesn't fit together very well. I spent a lot of time filling the gaps, but the results are just sorta-kinda:

   

And finally painted it, a big, awkward job:

   

[jwb]

Moving to another area where I want to make progress, I have a corner of my layout that's more or less Appalachian in theme. I wanted to do more with this when I was really inspired by a father-son 4 x 6 layout (the McCoy Fork) published in the Feb 2014 RMC. One photo of the layout on the web is at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/models/csx-models/csxmillergp/">http://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/ ... xmillergp/</a><!-- m --> There is also a Youtube video of the layout at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMcYcMPJZJ0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMcYcMPJZJ0</a><!-- m --> It was taken by a young boy (the son part of the team), but with that understanding, there are some OK shots starting at 2:45. But the best shots, taken by Dad Eric, an accomplished rail photographer, are in the RMC article if you can dig it up.

Here is the area I want to improve/bring closer to completion on my layout:

   

Right now I want to focus on this particular part of it:

   

The particular issue is a Bar Mills shack from their three-pack of shacks, that I recently discovered in my stock of projects:

   

[Steamtrains]

I just scanned some photos I took in 1994-95, when I was working on my current layout after moving it from another house. Here's a pair of before and after shots:

Great scenery...!!! And that trestle makes me green with envy...
Is it a kit or scratchbuilt..??

[jwb]

I did it from a pair of partial Campbell kits. I think if you had a single new one, it would build that.

[jwb]

Another modeler who's inspired me is an Australian, Mike Cawdrey, who is active on a number of forums including the now-gone Whistle Post. He gave me the idea of using water putty for road surfaces, which he discusses at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14628">http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14628</a><!-- m --> I've done this on the road leading to the station area here:

   

I'm cleaning out the flangeways and polishing the railheads. Next step will be ballast on this spur and more ground cover:

   

[jwb]

Acid test: a loco on DCC runs back and forth over the flangeways without stalling:

   

So I went ahead and painted the water putty road surface dark gray:

   

And while I was at it, I did the same to my other water putty road surface:

   

[MountainMan]

It looks to be coming along beautifully.

[jwb]

Built up the ground cover for the shed and slowly adding other ground cover:

   

I tried rubbing fireplace ash over the road surface, but it didn't work out very well. I need to look at other options, but I dug out a box of pastel chalks.