I am working on a H0 scale around the room shelf switching layout in my little 6 1/2 x 11 1/2 foot storage room/workshop. The layout is inspired by urban scenes from Minneapolis ca 1957 - mainly the Omaha Road's trackage in the Warehouse District, but also a grain elevator scene and a scene loosely based on the municipal barge terminal in Minneapolis.

UPDATE 6: current plan as of fall of 2010:


Track schematic as of fall 2010:



UPDATE 5: current plan as of May 2010:


Updated track schematic:



UPDATE 4: current plan as of March 2010:


UPDATE 3: current track plan as of January 2010:


UPDATE 2: current track plan as of August 2009:


UPDATE 1 : - this is the current track plan as of 24 May 2009:


Here is my original layout plan:


If what you see is not an around the walls (ie a closed circle), then the forum is cutting off the image.
Full image here: http://home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/mo...ouse40.jpg



Some links to prototype photos of the area modelled from the Minnesota Historical Society Visual Resources Database

West Minneapolis yard, Omaha Road freight house+ 500-700 North first street: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=74550
Looking NW between Omaha Road yard (left) and NP depot (right) http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=78811
Security Warehouse 1: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=183217
Security Warehouse 1: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=77820
Hunt's Perfect Baking Powder Company: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=76752
Commutator Brass Foundry Company : http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=113026
Buckley's Lunch: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=75418
Creamette Company: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=75710
Municipal barge terminal (overview) ca 1950 - http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=81148
Municipal barge terminal (dockside/barges) ca 1950 -http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=102086
Calumet Elevator Company: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=75754
Star Elevator Company: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=80536
Washburn-Crosby Elevator 1: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=78106
Washburn-Crosby Elevator 2:http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=51657

The MHS visual resources database can be found at: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/



Engine roster for layout:

I've picked up a total of 7 diesel engines for my layout. Two will be home road (Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha - "Omaha Road") yard switchers, one parent company (Chicago & Northwestern) road switcher, and 4 neighbouring companies (MSTL, GN, NP, MILW) switchers or road switchers for dropping off or picking up interchange traffic. Of the seven, I expect a maximum of 3 or 4 to be on the layout at the same time - the two home road yard switchers and a couple of road switchers either delivering a cut of cars or picking up a cut of cars from my yard.

CMO GE 44-ton switcher #51
CMO GE 70-ton switcher #53
CNW FM H16-44 #1514
MSTL Alco S1 #142
MILW Alco RS3 #2475
GN Alco RS3 #228
NP EMD GP7 #569

Last digit of road number is DCC id.

I am using a wee bit of artistic license here - I know that the Omaha road didn't have GE 44-ton and GE 70-ton yard switchers in 1957. And that the M&StL did not have an S1.

So I am justifying those by rewriting history a little bit. I am pretending that GN GE 44-ton switcher #5201, sold as an industrial switcher to Iron and Steel Products Co in 1948 and renumbered #51, instead was sold to the Omaha road, was renumbered #51 and used at the West Minneapolis yard, along with a GE 70-tonner #53 aquired from somewhere else.

CMO had a mix of other switchers in the 50-series of road numbers when it was merged into C&NW in 1957 (#55 was an EMD SW-1, #56-57 were Alco S1s, #58, 59 and 60 were Baldwin VO-660s), so it is not such a stretch to assume that #51 and #53 could have been GE switchers.

Same with the MSTL Alco S1. MSTL didn't have any S1s - but they had an S2, aquired in 1941, and consequenly numbered 741 (engine no 7 bought in 1941). So I am postulating that they also got an S1 in 1942, and numbered it #142. C&NW had S1s, but I like the red and white post 1956 paint scheme of the MSTL better. Mmmm - I just saw somewhere that the M&StL renumbered their engines when they changed to the red and white scheme in 1956. I might want to come up with a new number ending in 2 for this one.

The rest (CNW, GN, NP, MILW) road numbers and engine types are reasonably historical for the company and type of engine, courtesy of http://www.thedieselshop.us and http://utahrails.net/cnw/cnw-index.php



A few images showing the current state of the layout:

Left end of warehouse district - leftmost track is mainline/exit from yard, low building straight ahead is freight house. industry/warehouse flats along wall on the right.


Looking right along waregouse district - mini yard of three tracks, more industries/warehouses.


Right side of room, North Star Elevator in the background, Hunt's baking powder co (red paper over foamcore building) at rear, Williams Hardware (two Pikestuff warehouses spliced end to end) at front:


Cassette/bridge in front of door - buildings in background has since been replaced by Hunt's baking Powder and Willliams Hardware


Testing out track alignments for the barge terminal scene using various placeholders:


I have since scratched out a coal barge that hopefully looks a little better than the placeholder tray in the picture above, even though it still needs sanding, detailing, painting and weathering


Anyways - that is the present state of my layout. It obviously needs a lot more work before it start look anywhere even remotely as good as some of the layouts I have seen in this forum.

But I'm having fun "working on the railroad" and hope to learn more and get more ideas following this forum


Smile,
Stein

Stein, its great to see you here and posting!! Like i said before, i love your layout. You do some nice modeling and im looking forward to seeing you progress on it :mrgreen:

Stein, good to see you made it over here. We really would have missed something if we could not have seen the progress of your layout.

Very interesting layout, I shall keep an eye on this one! Looking forward to updates!

- Dan

Looking nice Stein, and I like how well thought out your plan is. I look forward to seeing your progress.

Gary

Plenty of operation opportunity .

Thanks for the nice comments, guys.

I'll try to post some updated pictures in a couple of weeks - won't be time for much more modelling before Christmas, but I have some some stuff ordered that I hope to get before this country more or less closes down for Christmas - I'll have (paid) time off from work from the afternoon of December 23rd until the morning of Janury 2nd. And, of course - one can always hope for Santa to come through e.g on an airbrush - time will tell

Have updated my post above with links to protype photos from the Minnesota Historical Society's online Visual Resources database - an excellent prototype research resource for Minnesota - they also have quite a few aerial pictures showing various rail served industries. Well worth a visit for people modelling places in Minnesota.

Smile,
Stein

That is a neat switching layout. Looking forward to seeing more progress!

Nicely done! Lots of great operation potential. Looking forward to more pictures.

Andrew

I just went through all the links for your referance pics, wow you sure did your homework.

wgrider Wrote:I just went through all the links for your referance pics, wow you sure did your homework.

Thank you! But research and planning is easy for me. The hard part is actually building the stuff. You guys builds truly amazing stuff !

Stuff I am working on now:

1) Trying to learn to repaint an engine.

My first attempt can only be described as pretty attrocious:


I did pretty much all possible errors - did not strip old paint, no primer, just thick layers of paint dabbed on.

For my second attempt I stripped the old paint using isopropanol (anti-condensation additive for fuel tanks in cold weather) and a toothbrush, primed the stripped down model with a thin coat of gray primer from spray can, used a bigger brush, and tried to get a little more fancy - first painting the sides of the engine white with a bigger brush with very little acrylic paint on the brush, using a hair blower to speed up drying, masking away a stripe and painting the rest of the model red - in thin layers. Result is slightly less attrocious, but still far from acceptable.



For my third attemp I am awaiting to see if Santa can find an airbrush for me. And I have read up on advice from Doctor Wayne about how to get better edges when masking quoting from a post of his on zealot:

doctorwayne Wrote:Once you have initially applied the tape to the model, sight along the line of the tape - this will show any deviations from a straight line: despite your most careful measurements when cutting the tape, raised details on the model can throw the tape line off. When everything looks satisfactory, use your finger nail or a suitable tool to burnish the tape in place. While the tape will stretch to allow you to mould it over raised details, you'll have less chance of the tape lifting from these areas while you're painting if you allow some slack in the tape as you're burnishing. A good way to maintain your straight line during this step is to first apply a temporary strip of tape on the opposite side of the line that you're attempting to mask along - this doesn't need to be burnished, but allows you to burnish the actual masking as you apply it, while still keeping a straight line. Obviously, remove this guide tape before painting.

If you're really worried about colours "bleeding" under the tape, apply a spray, using same colour over which you've applied the tape, along the edge of the newly applied tape, in order to seal it. When that's dry to the touch, apply the new colour, and as soon as it's dry to the touch, remove the masking tape. To do so, use the tip of an X-Acto blade to lift an end of the tape, then pull the tape back over itself at the sharpest angle possible - the sharper the angle, the less chance of lifting the paint under the tape. Even after exercising all of this care, you may find areas that require touch-up. To do so, wait until the paint is completely dry, then use a good-quality brush and unthinned paint to perform this task.

- making another foamcore w/paper overlay building (International Harvester) - I've made the foamcore part, but not printed they brick walls yet:


The foamcore with a thin veneer of something on the outside was inspired by Ken Spranz's technique described n his excellent online tutorial here: http://www.horailroad.com/clinic2/cl2_005.htm - but Ken got a better look using styrene as a veneer than I got using paper on my Hunt's Baking Powder building (in my first post above). So I am waiting for some styrene brick sheets I have ordered before continuing on this one.

- I want to build a couple of big 4-story brick warehouses on my layout to give a feel of the six story brick warehouses of the Warehouse district in the 1950s. So I grabbed a Walthers modular three-in-one kit I had to start planning how to put one together. I ran out of pieces, so I took an old building apart to get some more pieces to experiment with, and came up with a plan for how putting together 12 columns of walthers modular small wall pieces for a 24" long 4 story building. I am waiting for some more pieces I ordered, so I can make the building look a little more realistic.

Edit: here is a picture of the pieces laid out - I think I will be wanting to not have quite as many doors, and to replace more window sections with plain brick sections for the lowest two floors.




- I also fell for the temptation to order a 25 ton brownhoist (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-5611) - it just was too reminiscent of this protype photo of an eclosed cargo barge being loaded at the municipal barge terminal: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=163371.

- I also started thinking about whether to redo that coal barge - the metal plates around the bulk area got to be too high, I did not leave enough flat deck on the long sides of the raised walls, and it lacks the triangular gussets.

Plenty of projects - I probably get started on way too many projects simultanously. I probably should do one thing at a time, and finish one project before I start on something new.

Oh well, hopefully I can get some of this suff moved along a little this christmas.

In the meantime, I am enjoying reading the stuff you guys are posting and looking at the pictures of your modelling.

Smile,
Stein

Stein, The progress is looking good, i like the start of the new foam core building and im looking forward to seeing the other one you mentioned your building with the Walthers Module Walls too

I like the idea of having a rail crane scene unloading a small cargo barge or ship, that would be neat and really be a fun scene to model

Looking forward to seeing some more work from you, keep up the good work and keep us posted :mrgreen:

Stein,

Re: painting without an airbrush...

This reefer was "dry-brush" painted using silver craft paint over a grey primer from a spray can. It is definitely a more labour intensive method, but if you count clean up of the airbrush, it's probably even for "one off" projects.



Using a dry-brush method avoids the potential globs, drips, and so on. I used a small (~1/4" diameter) round brush with a flat tip (i.e. the bristles are all the same length, not tapered to a point like some round brushes). The craft paint does not stick well to plastic, but did stick very nicely to the primer, allowing the details to show. The CDS lettering was put right onto the final coat of paint. Dullcoat will eventually go over all (when I can spray outside again).



This refeer will not get any weathering, except the trucks, as the aluminum paint scheme was a trial that was only installed on two cars for a year or two circa 1931.


Andrew

MasonJar Wrote:Stein,

Re: painting without an airbrush...

This reefer was "dry-brush" painted using silver craft paint over a grey primer from a spray can. It is definitely a more labour intensive method, but if you count clean up of the airbrush, it's probably even for "one off" projects.

Andrew

Your reefer looks good. Just to be certain - by dry brushing you mean putting just a little paint on your brush, and then wiping off most of that immediately, before you apply the brush to your model ? Or do you mean something else in this context ?

Stein

steinjr Wrote:Your reefer looks good. Just to be certain - by dry brushing you mean putting just a little paint on your brush, and then wiping off most of that immediately, before you apply the brush to your model ? Or do you mean something else in this context ?

Stein

Thanks! Yes, I mean the regular/traditional method of dry brushing. Nearly no paint on the brush, and lots of quick, light strokes to apply what paint is there... This avoids drips, streaks, brushmarks, and obscuring details. I guess the one difference would be if you happen to get too much paint on one stroke it really doesn't matter too much. You just keep working it until all the paint is spread out.

Good luck! Hope that helps.

Andrew