WOW this is shaping up to be a sweet project Don. I LOVE Denny's LOL. Im looking forward to seeing some more progress, that roof and the main structure is looking great!!

For the record, I have finished my project. The grand opening for this Denny's has already come and gone. There were free Grand Slam breakfasts, all the coffee you could drink for one low price of $10, and they even brought in a few hundred Happy Meals since they ran out of pancakes early on. :oops: We are still taking pictures and want to see how everything looks at night. Right now they have a conditional C of O, pending the hookup to the city water and sewer. They do have power though, just don't try to flush one of the toilets just yet.

I will post pictures as early as I can tomorrow. Right now I'm helping out in the kitchen, cleaning up after the grand opening, and trying to wash dishes without a sink. They borrowed a tub and a long hose from the Shell station down the street. Man, I don't know where the plumber went, but I doubt that the health dep't will allow this to continue.

ezdays Wrote:For the record, I have finished my project. The grand opening for this Denny's has already come and gone. There were free Grand Slam breakfasts, all the coffee you could drink for one low price of $10, and they even brought in a few hundred Happy Meals since they ran out of pancakes early on. :oops: We are still taking pictures and want to see how everything looks at night. Right now they have a conditional C of O, pending the hookup to the city water and sewer. They do have power though, just don't try to flush one of the toilets just yet.

I will post pictures as early as I can tomorrow. Right now I'm helping out in the kitchen, cleaning up after the grand opening, and trying to wash dishes without a sink. They borrowed a tub and a long hose from the Shell station down the street. Man, I don't know where the plumber went, but I doubt that the health dep't will allow this to continue.

Thanks for letting us know after the fact. I didn't have to buy dinner for my guys as they missed the dead line also. They claim it was my fault because the material wasn't there on time. That was the supplier. Besides they couldn't have made it any ways. Buy the way are we supposed to buy this?

Lester Perry Wrote:... Buy the way are we supposed to buy this?

Of course. This really happened, ask any LPB in my train room. They claim to have waited in line all day and wound up eating at Burger King 'cause we ran out of clean dishes and I couldn't wash fast enough...

Judging from the progress pics this one looks very promising...can't wait to see pictures of the finished Denny's!

Here's some shots that I took just a week ago of the roof details.

Here is the next step on the roof. In the foreground are the components of the HVAC system. The ductwork is cut from rectangular sprues. Also note that I've added a chimney to the roof and back wall and the upper facade trim in in place.
[attachment=3063]

Here is the HVAC in place
[attachment=3062]

I decided to back light the signs so I had to cut out a hole to put the LED's in place. I covered the hole with an overlay with the right size hole in it and glued the sign to a transparent backing. Note that in the second picture, the roof has gravel on it and there is some weathering.
[attachment=3061]
[attachment=3060]

The next step was to work on the poll light. I used flat LEDs for that, and wound up using three, but I'm still not happy with the results. Incandescent lamps would have been too hot and I didn't have any white LEDs for either this or the facade sign, so I did what I could. I used three tubes for the poll to give it strength. Inside is a coffee stirrer to feed the wires through, then a clear plastic jacket to give it some bulk followed by a soda straw to keep it straight and smooth.
[attachment=3086][attachment=3085]
I made some parking lot signs on my printer and had some .040 wide printed circuit tape that I painted white and gold for striping.[attachment=3084]
[attachment=3083]

The final results viewing it in the daytime:[attachment=3087][attachment=3090][attachment=3088][attachment=3089]

Here are a few night shots with the lights on:
[attachment=3092]
[attachment=3093]
[attachment=3091]

Nice!! That's so cool!!!

Very cool indeed. I think I might subcontract you to "light up" my layout. That is if I can ever get over there to help you with your trackwork! :oops:
How big did that end up being? It looks to take up a considerable amount of real estate.

Thanks guys,

TrainNut Wrote:Very cool indeed. I think I might subcontract you to "light up" my layout. That is if I can ever get over there to help you with your trackwork! :oops:
How big did that end up being? It looks to take up a considerable amount of real estate.

Remember, that's N scale so the building footprint is 7" wide by 4" deep or around 93' X 53'. I wanted to keep it to a reasonable scale. I plan on keeping it on the cement pad, but I'm not too sure I'll keep the asphalt parking lot. If I do, it'll be much smaller, and given its popularity, most of the LPBs will just have to walk there.

I'll be glad to help you when you're ready. Right now, the trackwork on my new section is about 80% down, everything but the tricky parts and a few changes I need to do to fit my new structures in, including Denny's... Wiring, ground throws and balast all are yet to be done.

That looks really cool..!!! Like the lighting too...
Are the burgers any good there..?? I'll have to send my surrogate LPB to check 'em out..!!

Looks good to me. My crew just left in their pickup trucks headed west after seeing your entry. I heard some of them talking about stopping at the Jones sti no wait that is store on the way out there. If these guys make it that far feed them and send them back. Send me the bill. I will even give a good tip to the waitress if she doesn't file any charges.