Thank you for the kind comments - I am not personally happy with the graffiti yet however! To try and improve I have started compiling a personal database of images of weathering (on railroad cars but also on non-railroad items) as well as graffiti. When I am working on particular cars I will select a few images to work from to try and recreate those particular images. Once I know how I want a car to look, then I will research ways of achieving that look. I am signing up to the protomodeller forum as well to gain a variety of perspectives on my work.
As for the conductor, in real life he or she would move around during the switching operation either on foot, by car, in the loco, or even by hanging on one of the cars. It really depends on the size of the operation, the local conditions, and that particular railroad's operating policy. I am, of course, only speaking of modern-day railroads as that is the period I am modelling.
The last couple of days as I have been working on my latest boxcar project, and some more scenery. The boxcar is a Walthers product, and I was not happy with its crisp white finish! So, I have given it a light weathering, some rusting on exposed parts. The roof is still a work in progress, but I need to do some research on getting the right effect before I do that.
On a side note, having updated my rolling stock inventory, I can now say that 10 out of the 35 cars that I own are now in what I define as Class I condition - meaning that they are ready for active service and require no further modifications or upgrades, including weathering. As time goes on I will revise my classifications as my standards get higher.
Clas III - Cars which are ok for now but will be sold or upgraded in the long-run. Not ready to be used.
Class II - Cars with a good level of detail, no urgent upgrade requirements but will receive upgrades in the future. Ready to use.
Class I - Cars which are ready to be used and are in excellent condition all-round.
I then also have cars which are in pieces, kits, etc, which come under different classifications.
Just a tidbit of information. CSX_UK I am not sure about how it is done in the US but here in western Canada major industries are mostly located in larger cities and would be switched by the main railroads. This means that a switch job would do this work. This means there would not be a conductor but yard foreman. He and the engineer would be on the ground together as the railroads adopted DCC for yard and industrial switching a long time ago. Most yard engines are radio control with the engineer using a belt pact to control the engine while he pulls pins and throws switches with the foreman. On some warehouse jobs they still use a caboose because it is quicker to just revers move back to the yard when finished. You can see trains of up to 20 cars or more backing though the city with two men standing on the caboose platform and no one in the engine on the other end.
Robert
Modeling the Canadian National prairie region in 1959.
Thanks, that is interesting to know. I think it depends on the railroad as well as local conditions. I don't think there is a consistent approach, although I could be wrong and I have no first-hand experience of it whatsoever. I have largely gone from youtube videos and interviews/ articles from railroaders working the railroad I am interested in. For example, in the future, I plan to have my next layout depict part of the railroads in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area in the present day. I haven't as yet decided between modelling an exact location or a proto-freelance location. To achieve this I am currently conducting extensive research into local operating practices through information readily available on the web (being a UK-based modeller).
So, this morning I did some work on trees. I find trees to be the most awkward things to model. The tree I have made has been made out of dried out natural products. It was then sprayed with two colours of grey, followed by a lighter spray of brown on the branches. This tree is meant to represent a winter deciduous.
My thoughts - I think this tree works as one of many, but as a standalone tree I think it needs more detail in regards to colour. *The ground also needs to be covered in dead leaves.
Any comments would be very welcome!
Edit: One of the photos shows the current ground cover around the base of the tree. This was very experimental and it hasn't worked out as I hoped so I am in the process of ripping this patch up and re-doing it. I am going for a muddy, slightly marshy look.
Very good! There is a quite well known New England layout without any green (http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14628). It is a great winter layout. Everything is muddy, dark and depressing. It has a very special atmosphere. It would be great to have another one in a similar direction.
Thanks for the link - I actually came across that link a while back and I forgot about it so thanks for reminding me! My next layout will be larger, with a greater percentage area of scenery to play with so I intend to do a cold wintery scene - possibly with snow but that is not decided yet. More likely I will do a late-Autumnal scene as that is more what I prefer.
I had a very productive day yesterday. I finally finished off all the ground cover in the corn syrup transload area and properly installed and weathered the control building. I have also finished the weathering of my latest boxcar - I am especially pleased with the rust effect I achieved on the wheels. I also made a lot of progress on the small tarmacked area that will at the back of the layout next to the warehouse building. It is only a slightly larger area than the size of a mug coaster, but it has been a very interesting learning curve trying to make it realistic. I used thick styrene and the instructions given by Lance Mindheim on his website blog. I have still to paint on white lines to delineate parking spaces, but I need to find some decent masking tape before I start that.
I have attached several sets of pictures showing my latest work. I have also attached a picture of the two "stunt double" models I use for practising techniques - a Lima BR blue parcels car, and a broken lorry trailer.
Tomorrow I will start work on the piping for the corn syrup. I have been drawing plans for this today so fingers crossed it goes as planned...
Edit: In the second picture down you can see where I have started to paint an area in the field to the right of the control building which will eventually become an area of marshy, wet soil surrounding the tree.
Just a few photos showing my latest work. Couple of areas have been updated. I have finished constructing the backscene, although painting is still WIP.
I have also been practising my road building skills. This is an aspect of scenery building that I surprisingly found a lot of fun, following the techniques laid out by Lance Mindheim and Mike COugill. I have built a tarmacked area (a parking lot for the warehouse at the rear of the layout), and I am in the process of building a larger concrete area which will eventually become a storage area for steel. Obviously, both of these areas need to be completed and fully scenicked.
I am going to buy some plaster of paris soon to try making road surfaces from this, as a few people have said that this method makes the creation of a cracked and weathered surface more realistic.
A few close-ups of my recent work. I am especially pleased with the concrete area. This will be host to the back end of a steel yard, featuring a portacabin and piles of steel ready for distribution. The car park is still WIP but is slowly getting there. Finally, I have fitted some "lighting"!
The concrete was done using the following method:
Firstly, I cut out a thick piece of plasticard. I then sprayed it dark grey. I then painted it with a blend of paints that I felt made up a concrete effect. I then left it for half an hour so it was tacky to the touch, but not yet dry. Then, rather than letting it dry I blow dried it using a hair dryer on "hot", in order to produce cracks in the paint. I then varnished it using clearcote. After this had dried I drew on, using black pencil, the cracks and the lines of the slabs. The cracks were drawn on over the cracks in the paint (I realised I would be better off making the paint crack naturally and using these cracks as the basis of my effect rather than trying to draw cracks from scratch). I then put a layer of clearcote over this, being careful not to smudge the pencil. The final step, other than adding the portacabin and steel girders, will be add some moss and weeds growing in some of the cracks.
To develop the cracking technique I used scrap plastic first. I find using a stunt dummy model to try out a risky new technique is definitely the way to go!
Overall, the last few days have been a huge learning curve for me in educating myself (with a LOT of help from others) on how to build roads and concreted areas. There are a few things I would do different next time, but overall I am happy with the effect I achieved. As mentioned previously, I will be trying out plaster of paris soon to see if that makes for a more realistic concrete surface. I think it will, especially in regards to producing cracks and crumbling edges (which are pretty difficult to do well when you have a sheet of plasticard as your foundation).
So, this weekend I managed to run the first operating session on my layout now that the scenery is nearly completed. Definitely time for a celebratory beer!
Nearly everything ran without any faults (not that surprising given the very simple electrics!) However, three cars had some issues - two have coupler issues, and one has a wheel gauge problem. They are now on the workbench to look at repairing. Overall, running the layout as an inglenook puzzle switcher was really good fun, and a full operating session took over an hour to complete at prototypical speeds with consideration of basic safety practices as well. That is pretty good going for a 4 foot x 18 inch layout! (plus 4 foot hidden staging) In the future I will run the layout in a more prototypical fashion, switching corn syrup cars, but I will need to get more corn syrup cars to do that...which is expensive given that I have to import most of them from the USA/ Canada.
A few pics of my new forest that I am currently installing. I need to find some shrubbery and other bushes. I am looking into making some out of wire and foliage netting...The trees were made out of natural products.
In addition, I went to Darlington this weekend (birthplace of the railway) to get some inspiration for my scenery work. It's only down the line for me so why not.
