Reinhard ...

I decided to spend some time reviewing the progression of your model railroad from what I remember as steam in the thirties to modern day railroading ... but the images on the first page did not want to load. I did not know if you were aware of this problem or not.

But good grief, my friend! You hve come a seriously long way! And I enjoyed re-living the journey ... I only wish I could have seen those first few photos. But even without them, you have done some amazing modeling!

Kudos to you, Reinhard!

P5se Camelback Wrote:... but the images on the first page did not want to load. I did not know if you were aware of this problem or not....

Yes, I am aware of that trouble. My web space provider had problems, went offline for a long time and all data have been lost when he came back online. I did switch to another web space provide while the old one was down and recovered all data I could find on my harddisk. However, lots of images are lost and all old links are broken

Ohhhhh! That's too bad!

I'll remember that and back up all photos on a thunb drive ... or to Carbonite® ... or something like that.

I won't trust that Photobucket will always be there!

Well done Reinhard, like your layout very much and I'm sorry that you lost your pics!

Gruß aus Berlin

Reinhard,

I really like the new touches to your layout. Once again, the structures look very good. Man, you are fast at getting them together. I usually take two weeks to come up with an idea and then another two weeks to get something together. I'm also out rattle can spray painting my buildings in between snow squals then finishing up with an air brush. I wish I were as driven as you are.

Larry

fast car Wrote:... I usually take two weeks to come up with an idea and then another two weeks to get something together...

Larry, I did ran out of ideas some weeks ago. I had no more plan how to get closer to Vernon than it had been about a month ago. The foreground was "lost" due to my failed attempts to place buildings at the edge. The right side failed due to the "banana" building. I did think about a new approach.
But when I saw this photo

of your layout it was like an electric shock in the brain and I developed within a very short time a new vision what I was looking for. It did take about two weeks, like you do, to do the base work of the structures. I will take now my time, may be some month, to do all the details. You are the intellectual founder of the rework on my layout

The last days have been used to do the two small parking lots. The concrete K-rail barrier (left) and the white wall (right) separate the parking lots from the first track that is also the programming track and needs some free space to put and get engines on and off the layout. A delicate fence would be damaged soon when the 0-5-0 is handling the engines. The barrier and the wall will sustain that stress better. The space between parking lots and track has been expanded by about 1/2". Some weathering will be applied to the parking lots and the little white wall.
The white and yellow street marking are made with a lacquer pen of the brand Edding (#751 and #780). It was very easy to do. Give it a try if you can buy or online order them.

The P1K GP15 with the worst drive became a dummy and makes a nice silent ensemble with the Genset. I did see a couple of photos and videos of that combination used by UP doing switching in the LA basin. Looks like it is a frequent used combination.

I did still not make up my mind how to proceed with the white walls of the buildings. All the roofs got a good deal of medium gray weathering over the light gray base. That did tone down the entire south yard due to the large roof spaces. That does also take some of the brightness of the walls. I feel there is even less urgent need to tone the walls down. However, I am still thinking about it...

Those buildings are concrete tilt up type. If you are modeling unpainted versions they should be about the same color as your concrete street pavement without any "grease" spots. Often companies will paint a stripe or band of color somewhere on tilt up buildings to give it a little character. They will often have the company name or logo on the side of the building as well, but most likely the decorations and logo will be on the side facing the street rather than the side facing the tracks.

Russ, I did see some great "artwork" on those white walls. That is one of the reasons why I did the two buildings facing to the street in the background. But I have to admit that I have absolute no idea how to get that "artwork" on the walls. There are some buildings that have lots of brand logos, some have only a company logo.
May be I will search the web, print a logo on white paper (as white as the wall) and glue it on. We will see if that looks good.
Yes, I did also see the painted stripes on some buildings. I will try that too. I had some problem with my masking tape. It did not work well with the white paint. One half did not mask good enough the other half ripped of the paint Have to play with it.

Thanks you for all the hints and suggestions.

ps. I did also see the UP GP15 often combined with a SW1500 too. That fits my small ISL even better.

I think the question of what to do on the walls is a toss-up. They look great just like they are, but a weathering wash would work fine too.

Your work looks great and is always an inspiration. Really, even though my layout is somewhat bigger, the industrial areas will be very very similar. As always, I eagerly follow what you are doing, both because it is good looking work, and because I will be using your ideas!

I did just give it a try :-)

Fond this company http://www.bobcometal.com/ in the business pages close to Vernon with a nice artwork on their homepage.
Printed 75% with HP Inkjet on simple white paper, dull coat, cut out with sharp knife and scissor and glued on the wall. It is not perfect but a useful first try.



And another kind of artwork from Vernon where the white paper should blend with the white wall. That does not work. It is very well visible and looks like what it is, a piece of paper glued on the wall. It has been removed before the glue set.

You don't need to paint stripes on a building. You can get trim film from Microscale in clear for painting or in a huge variety of colors. If you want to make a 1/2 inch stripe across the top of the wall, just cut strips 1/2 inch wide from the trim film and decal your stripe or stripes on the building.

The 4 seasons sign doesn't look bad. It coould be that the sign was painted on a backerboard in a sign shop, then installed on the building. Maybe put a border around the white?

Russ, good idea. I have some decal strips. No 1/2" wide but should be fine.

Gary, that would be a board like I had it at the blue whale. I want to mimic the painting on the wall like in this example:
(No, it will not work letter by letter, the outcome would be lousy)


And here is the real thing. The painting fills all over the wall. In both cases is it required to blend seamless what ever I put an the wall with the white wall.


This is my favorite!

Wow, I haven't seen that many painted on signs on a building around here! Come to think of it, in the two industrial parks that I am usinf for inspiration, none of the buildings have painted on signs, for that matter, hardly any signage at all. Typically just a "sheet of plywood" sized sign attached to the building. Now, they do seem to paint a stripe around the building though.