All change.... new start

[e-paw]

Great job on the track work..

[jerseycentraluk]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Its always good to hear the views of fellow modellers.

The way the layout is designed means that this is the first building seen when anyone enters the layout room. I wanted to create a bit of an impact so I decided to add some interior detail to both the office and the warehouse, but not so much as to detract from the layout itself.

I added a basic reception and dividers and an office at the back. On the layout only every other door is used for unloading (I think its the same as the prototype judging from alignment of boxcars from satellite photos). So doors 1, 3 and 5 are the doors that are used, the others are modelled closed. I left Door 1 closed too as this is used for frozen goods so I thought that the doors would not be left open. Door 3 has a plastic curtain, and some wooden blocks covered in printed photos of racking/shelving that are supposed to represent food storage. LED Lights were added above each of the loading doors on the warehouse building as well as one light inside to show off the detailed interior behind the plastic curtain.


Door 5 is for paper rolls. I made some tubes of brown paper to represent the paper roll stacks and found a pack of Walthers paper rolls to use.

Small LEDs were added inside the ground floor of the office building to light up the inside. I used one of the Busch sets of computer desks with lit monitors.



The prototype site is protected by chain link fence, so I have tried to replicate what I can see from the photos. The chain link fence and gates are made from brass rod and wire. Walthers chain-link material was glued to the posts. Thin multi-strand wire was stripped out of some cable and soldered the posts. The brass rods for the pair of gates were soldered together, very fiddly job. This will be installed when the ground surface is finished.




Hope to post some more updates shortly

[Twist]

Wow,
love the iinterior and the plastic curtains of the doors...very nice details....maybe I´ll copy it for on of my buildings...

Cheers,Chris

[faraway]

I like the new building very much. The surface structure and the color are something new.

[rrinker]

That building looks absolutely spot on to those prototype pictures. Love all the little details. What did you use for the clear plastic curtain strips? Don't see those on many model buildings, but they are all over the place in the real world.

--Randy

[jerseycentraluk]

The plastic curtain is just a square piece cut from a heavy gauge plastic bag, but I can't remember what. It needs to be a heavy gauge plastic co it will hang down. The sort of bag you get screws or washers in.
It had a slight bluish tint to the bag so I thought that would be suitable for a chilled food storage clean area. I cut the strips with a pair of scissors, not all the way up to the top, leaving a section to glue it inside the doorway.

I've got a load of Rusty Stumps pallets to make up for detailing the loading dock even more.

I’ve had a couple of attempts at making the road. The first was made using pre-torn wet/dry glued to cardboard as per CNW1961 <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=6560&start=60">viewtopic.php?f=46&t=6560&start=60</a><!-- l --> .I could not get the result I wanted, and besides the actual road is concrete sections so I tried another method. Using 80 thou plasticard as the base, painted with Rustoleum Limestone textured paint. This was then washed with a gouache grey/brown wash. When it dried the colour wasn’t quite right but it had given an extra texture to the surface. I airbrushed it lightly with acrylic paint and then marked out the 15 foot sections these roads are generally made from, cutting the gaps with a razor saw. I scribed cracks and carefully painted the cracks. I used some MIG weathering powders to add extra effects.



I'm quite pleased with the result and I will use this technique elsewhere on the layout.

[jerseycentraluk]

A fascia and valance made from MDF, and ‘Bendy’ MDF for the curves, have been added along with fluorescent tubes fixed to steel angle section to light the layout. As the peninsula does not have a backscene either down one side or along the centre, I had to find a way to support the valance and lighting rig above the peninsula. My friend Brian helped with the job of mounting through the ceiling into the loft above using threaded rod, and secured with lock-nuts.



Operations have always been a priority for my layouts. I’ve never been one for just watching trains go round and round. My last layout used Ship-It successfully to generate switch-lists, but for this layout I wanted to use something less strict in terms of what I have to run next. I chose to use two cycle waybills as there is no real scope for redirecting cars within the layout. Some of the corn syrup cars though are moved twice from steam heating spots to unloading spots, and other cars that have been switched to off spots when final destination is full, then moved to final destination when the spot is free.



I integrated the car card boxes into the fascia. There is little enough room in the aisles without car card boxes getting in the way. When friends come round the layout is operated intensively. I noticed that the operator’s natural inclination was to use the layout top for sorting out the cards for switching. Whilst this is ok when the layout is not scenically finished, when it is it would be a problem. I saw somewhere that someone had used shelf display strips, the sort they use to slip price tickets in. I found a supply of these self adhesive strips on ebay (where else......!). They have proved to be useful in reducing the numbers of times the layout is covered in car cards, especially when switching the corn syrup end, when up to 20 car cards can be spread around.

[torikoos]

That's starting to come along real nice Robin!

Keep the updates coming! :-)

Koos

[Twist]

Hi there,
wow,that´s coming along very nice....keep it going....

Cheers,Chris

[sailormatlac]

Astounding work... What a furious pace! You did a great job on these neat little industrial buildings.

Matt

[Painkiller]

Great progress and love all those small detail! Keep it up!!