Freelance 2015-2

[dickgreen]

Very nice fire escapes who's are they

Thanks

Dick

[faraway]

Very nice fire escapes who's are they

Thanks

Dick

Dick, they are from Walthers Cornerstone "Vintage Fire Escape" PN 933-3729. Walthers offers modern fire escape too PN 933-3736.
Three platforms with the stairs etc. are one kit.

[faraway]

Even after several attempts to improve the overall impression is this structure not my favorite. I am not sure what it is but it looks odd to me.


May be it is best to do a new kit bash start based on Walthers American Hardware Supply structure.


Some time later, still two walls only but with windows and some paint


The roof and a loading dock inside complete the basic structure, at least for today.

[faraway]

A black wash at the next day makes a difference

[sailormatlac]

What kind of black wash do you use? Airbrushed or painted on?

Matt

[faraway]

What kind of black wash do you use? Airbrushed or painted on?

Matt

In this case: Indian ink, 75% water and 25% alcohol. Several times applied with a wide soft brush.

If the surface is very glossy I use 75% alcohol and 25% water.

[faraway]

At the foreground at the right side was an area covered with rich vegetation on a layer of virtually unremovable "concrete". Only chance to get rid was to level as good as possible and cover with a styrene sheet. Nothing important but the fresh green patch ruined the dark gray industrial impression.

[faraway]

I am modifying the very left area to get rid of the run around architecture, remove the hatch and make the left track straight to the wall. That results in a yard and industrial area on the south side with the scenery and a imaginary float operation simulated by the four track staging yard at the north side. Both are connected at the west side. The new stub track is in fact put on top of the nasty "concrete". That is ok for a simple stub track as long as the switch is level.



The other side of the hatch (end of the staging yard) got a safety bumper.

[faraway]

A series of photos from the right to the left documenting the current status of almost completed main components (all buildings are only put on the ground) but without details

[Tyson Rayles]

[Catt]

I agree with Mike,but you need more greenery.Weeds in the US are a stubborn lot.They will grow anywhere including some places you would never suspect.

[faraway]

I agree with Mike,but you need more greenery.Weeds in the US are a stubborn lot.They will grow anywhere including some places you would never suspect.

That is a complicated matter. I studied a lot of photos of that area and found an interesting comment in a Yahoo news group. It looks like in the beginning (prior to 1900) did they really eliminate all kind of vegetation and kept the area virtually free of any green. As time goes by and the transfer railroads became less important started the weed to grow. Photos taken past 1950 show more and more weed. My layout is at about 1930. There was only very few weed visible at that time. I will add some but it will be much less than in industrial areas usually modeled.

ps. I have no idea how they kept it free of weed for some decades. I have doubt if they removed weed manually. At the same time do you see a lot of litter and garbage on the ground. Did they have powerful chemical weed killers at that time? I don't know. An other idea is the kind of ground cover. It looks not like anything like sand etc. It is dark and muddy. May be it is some kind of cinder full of toxic parts preventing weed from growing?
In the Yahoo group is a speculation that the enormous number of labor works simply walked steady over the weed and destroyed it. But tat would permit weed to grow in corners and niches etc.

Refer to : http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1614/00...lCode=wees Not a good explanation how it was done in 1890 cleaning a terminal railroad property.

[sailormatlac]

They did use chemicals, also hand labor was much cheaper too. I agree, on very old pictures, everything always seems to be perfectly manucured. I also suspect the chemical cocktail in the roadbed was probably more than enough to virtually kill any form of life that could grow there. I'm curious to hear from more learned folks here.

Matt

[shortliner]

Reinhard - I believe one way of keeping the dust down was to spread used oil on it, which would make the surface very dark and muddy and blackish. I think there would be plenty of bunker oil around the docks in New York.

[Brakie]

That is a complicated matter. I studied a lot of photos of that area and found an interesting comment in a Yahoo news group. It looks like in the beginning (prior to 1900) did they really eliminate all kind of vegetation and kept the area virtually free of any green. As time goes by and the transfer railroads became less important started the weed to grow. Photos taken past 1950 show more and more weed. My layout is at about 1930. There was only very few weed visible at that time. I will add some but it will be much less than in industrial areas usually modeled.
---------------------------------------------------
I fully agree. Using old photos as a research tool will reveal a lot of solid information.

Even today there are weed free industrial parks-the one North of town is 99% weed free. Another thought is most industrial areas lacks trees as well.