West Allen Street & Thawne

[danielb]

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd arranged to trade my old Southern Pacific and ATSF N and HO locos with Sophie at Anorak's Anonymous, and at Crewe show that actually happened.

Below are photos of the new models I got in return - all HO...

Broadway SD40-2, DCC sound:


Broadway SD40-2, DCC sound:


Broadway SD40-2, DCC sound:


Broadway Heavy Pacific, DCC sound:


Atlas SD35, DCC sound:


Atlas SD45, DCC


Athearn GP50, DCC sound:


Athearn piggyback flat:


Athearn Tank car:


Athearn flat car:


Atlas Tank car:


Atlas box car:


Atlas Autoparts car:


Atlas tank car:


Athearn mechanical reefer:

[danielb]

So, further to the trade I did with Sophie, I also managed to get near the NMRA second hand stall long enough to come away with three extra freight cars.

The stall was about 5 deep most of the morning, as there was a massive selection of freight cars at £1 each and passenger cars at £2 each!

Unfortuntely there were very few Southern cars, and most of those got snapped up quick. I did however get these:







All with Kadee couplers, and the Wagontop boxcar even has metal wheels! I know the Espee never had any of the Southern all door roller shutter cars - why Bachmann did them in those colours I'll never know. I've got some Microscale decals on the way which I should hopefully be able to use on it when I re-paint it!

[danielb]

As a final update for today, I have made a start of the next major part of the layout - along the opposite wall of my layout room to what I have completed so far is what will form Harrison Yard. This is a small marshalling/interchange yard belonging to the Midland Belt, and is also the home of their Maintenance of Way and locomotive stabling facilities.

I'm contemplating adding a caboose track as well, but might instead use the front spur of the locomotive facilities for that task as I don't want to completely overload it with track.

As you can see from the photographs, the switching lead - well, loco release lead - is long enough to fit a pair of SD40-2's, enabling me to run consists for extra operating interest.

The single ended siding at the front will be the line that eventually curves across a lift out section across the doorway to lead into the "Old Town" switching district, as well as (potentially) a downward gradient either to staging or more industries (or both) on a lower deck below West Allen Street.

[danielb]

Progress has slowed considerably for the moment whilst I focus on other hobbies and get some downtime after rushing around between Mansfield, Nottingham and Crewe shows getting the last two extensions done.

Now I'm focusing on fleet and rolling stock projects, repairs to the layout, and detailing projects. Next week I should be able to get the benchwork and tracklaying complete for Harrison and the linking board. Until then I'm taking it easy. I'm hoping to do another layout update video for the YouTube channel, then focus on some project work I've been planning for another YouTube channel collaboration.

For now, the layout has been re-assembled in the layout room and has been tested again to ensure everything works. There's some dirty track to deal with, but the layout should be good to go until October, when it will be appearing at the Derby NMRA convention. As such, here are some current progress photos, showing some damage done to the layout during transit back from Crewe (it barely fits in my car anymore!)

Handy Co - notice the damage to the sign outside of Noel's, as well as the safety railings on the main building at the back, around the rooftop tank.


The oil dealer on West Allen Street - the crossing guard tower has been squashed and will need to be fixed, and you can see the start made on the flagstop depot which may or may not end up in that spot.


Davis Produce - the fence by the trailer shack has been knocked and will need to be glued back down, as will the trash can which sat outside there.


The Davis Elevator - this needs more detail work - pipework, gantries, access hatches, roof details, etc.


The Construction Yard - the cement silo was knocked off the layout when I was setting it back up again, and it's basically fallen to bits. So I need to get it glued back together.


Finally, one of my new fleet - Norfolk and Western SD40-2 #1631



So, since everything has been re-assembled in the layout room, I've started on fleet projects. First up, a very light weathering job on a Penn Central boxcar. The prototype photo I worked from - taken from a google search:



And my attempt at replicating it...

One side:


Other side:


I still need to do something with the roof, but overall I'm happy with it.

Second project is a repaint of an Alco C630 into L&N colours. I've since spotted a few differences between the model and prototype L&N locomotives, but I'll come back to that eventually somewhere down the line. I would have had some photos of it re-assembled, but when I was doing so I managed to pull one of the wires to the front headlights off of the decoder board, so I need to re-solder that before I can put it back together. Then once the decals arrive from Microscale, I'll be able to get it finished.



I've also started work on an F7A repaint, and some more freight car weathering projects, but I've not really got anything to show for those so far.

[danielb]

Update time! I've finally managed to get a new video made for the layout's YouTube channel, though I've had to split it into 3 parts as it's a bit of a monster!

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I think I'll be taking it easy for a while now whilst I wait for a new airbrush to turn up, so I'll likely just paint a few figures, fade a few freight cars, etc. I'll post updates as soon as there's something to show.

[Tyson Rayles]

Nice motive power and rolling stock you got in the trade! Layout is looking good as always.

[danielb]

Cheers Mike,

I'm certainly going to have fun weathering them up, once the new airbrush I ordered arrives.

[faraway]

I like the very urban atmosphere of your layout. It is well done!

[danielb]

Cheers Reinhard, coming from you that's quite the compliment.

[danielb]

Long time without an update - almost a whole week! :O :O

That said, I've not been idle.

I've started work on the Ramon Ave street running board, as well as Harrison Yard. Photos below show a general idea of what is going where. The black foamboard is representative of roads, with structures either mocked up, substituted by other structures, or substituted by boxes, etc.

The screw boxes along the front represent row houses, which will be along a dirt road/track along the board edge. I've been tempted to mock up an old abandoned spur of rusted an overgrown track along the front as well, to use as a programming track, but that seems like a really easy way to knock a very expensive loco off the layout and onto the floor - so if I do do it, it'll probably remain as an unpowered scenic item.


















I've also made a start on some structures for the streetrunning section - Habbaker's Garage and a small cinderblock storage building. You can see that the front of Habbaker's has shown some bubbling/warping on the paper, so I've ripped that off and am in the process of re-doing it:









Finally, I've been working on repainting the Alco C630M and EMD F7 I've got into L&N colours, after some decals arrived from Microscale. The L&N never had any C630M's - the Canadian manufactured versions of the C630, but the model is much more use to me in this paintscheme than it was in it's old one! Besides - rule number 1: it's my layout, I'll do what I want!

C630:


F7 - the black striping around the yellow nose art was hand drawn on with a Pilot gel point pen.






And that's your lot for now!

[danielb]

It's been a loooooong while since I've updated this thread, however I've been cracking on with a lot of structure and rolling stock projects. Rather than spend an age explaining each in depth, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

L&N 812 is ready for weathering:


Airbrush practice to weather up SOU X270. Needs a rooftop solar panel and battery box.



Harbakker's Garage is done - just needs rooftop details and an interior.





More to come shortly...

[Tyson Rayles]

[danielb]

"Shortly"...

More build photos - firstly, Hoosier Mama's Pie Shop. The interior on this one is currently removable, so I can add furniture and diners, as well as lighting.








Next, Wally's Merchantile. This is a kitbash of the wedge-shaped original, plus a modified square version by Paul Egri and David Rarig:








Finally, Smitty's Music Shop. Again, this one needs a detailed interior and lighting, so it isn't fixed down to the foundation yet.

[danielb]

Howdy everyone. Though I've been primarily focused on Piedmont Blues, mine and Ford's new O scale project layout, I haven't forgotten about West Allen Street.

I've been working on a bit of boring, none-photogenic work in the form of some additional benchwork, That said, I've also built a couple of Walther's freight car kits - an Evans 100T coil car and an Airslide hopper.

The later has been given a very, very rough initial blast of grey from a rattle can to tone it down some, and now looks right at home sitting in the builders supply company spur on Thawne.

[Tyson Rayles]

Looking good Daniel!