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+--- Thread: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge (/showthread.php?tid=9623)
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 01-27-2024
Coming along great!
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - hillyard999 - 01-28-2024
TMO,
love the background to the left of the breaker, it really expands the sense of place.
your layout just keeps getting better and better.
thanks for sharing.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - tompm - 01-28-2024
Looking good.
I need to try the glue on the side of the roadbed. Thanks for the tip.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 01-28-2024
Here's a shot of the "edge ballast" after a night for the glue to set up and the vacuum to be employed. Just makes it a lot easier to dress the ties after you do this step. I've been able to spend some time doing the final ballasting on about 10 feet of track. Unfortunately, I'm going to get decent at it and then I'll never have to ballast another piece of track!
I do plan on getting back to that backdrop next week, so I'll be able to show some progress (I hope).
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 02-05-2024
Another night of multi-tasking after being away in Charlotte for the weekend when I didn't even think about my layout.
I'd purchased a short (2-ft) add-on for my track lighting to increase the distance between the lights and the layout on the Hazleton section of the layout and picked it up the night before leaving for the long weekend.
Track lighting might not be the best light source for simulating natural light, but I like the flexibility that it gives me. Here's the before:
and the after:
Still working on finishing ballast, but we're real close to being complete on that mission, at which time I'll start working seriously on the city backdrop for Hazleton.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 02-11-2024
I'm reaching the time of the year when I have very divided loyalties. Lots of demands on my time, the days get longer and I spend more and more time outdoors when the weather is decent. So, after finishing the ballasting of the track, I thought it was a good time to record another "from the front of the train" perspective of my layout.
I usually do this with a camera mounted to the top of a 86' flat, but there is one place going down to the storage level that cannot accommodate the total height of car and camera. As a result, all of my prior videos started after that spot and ended prior to reaching it on the return. Hence, all of the videos to date have been in the counterclockwise direction around the layout. For this video, I wanted to get a different perspective and run clockwise. Either I demolished some plywood structure or redesigned the "camera car". I elected the latter. Took an old Tyco box car, removed the shell, gutted the floor and slipped the camera in and secured with tape (after checking the clearance in that low ceiling).
One big problem. The structure of the camera car is less on structure and more on flex. When the car gets moving downhill or endures even a little lateral acceleration, it bounces and sways. You've been warned. DO NOT WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE LINK BELOW UNDER THE INFLUENCE!
New layout video (morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com)
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - tompm - 02-11-2024
Todd - Very nice video. Wish I was at the point of doing something like this.
The bouncing did not bother me. I thought it gave it some realism. I have never ridden a locomotive but I spent many times in the front car of a commuter MU train, The Broad Street Subway, or the Market Frankford EL looking out the door window and I remember how much it bounced.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 02-11-2024
Thanks Tom!
I'm pretty sure I can beef up the supporting structure to reduce the bounce and roll, and realism be damned! It'll probably be a while before I do another video, but reducing the bounce and roll is on my list of things to do.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 02-16-2024
Back to the backdrop for the city of Hazleton. After printing and cutting, I started joining the bottom two layers of cardstock using Elmer's Stick Glue, gluing to a strip of cardstock between individual panes (you can see the top of the strips jutting out of the top of the joined panes). I cut out along the edge of the sky on the top layer (that's the stack above the joined section in the photo below), and I'll join that layer to the others tomorrow. I'll further refine the gaps between individual panes of the picture. Then comes the posterboard backing before placing it permanently on the backdrop.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 02-19-2024
Finished the joins and installed the posterboard backing - toughest part was cutting the posterboard to an equivalent horizon line to match the cut cardstock on the top layer. I got some thick posterboard we use for tire prints at work and the stuff is thick. Laid it against the backdrop for the time being to get it off of my bar table. I still need to work a little on the seams and do a little more touchup on the gluing before I mount it permanently to the backdrop (homasote), which will eliminate all of the shadows at the top.
We got some snow Friday night, but I spent all day Saturday and some of Sunday working the finances and getting my taxes done. The snow had all but melted today, so I spent a whole lot of time outside and not much inside - which is going to be the theme going forward into the fall. Much less model railroad, much more working on my property and my other pursuits, especially when daylight savings time kicks in in about 3 weeks.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - LiveSteamer - 02-22-2024
The background looks great. Really gives depth to the scene.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 02-22-2024
That backdrop looks phenomenal and the improvements to the layout lighting look much better.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 04-02-2024
Probably like most of you, we've been socked in with rain over the past two days which has certainly put a crimp on my outdoor work, and I've found myself with a bit of extra time on my hands that I can start to devote to some railroading. I guess Mother Nature is trying to tell me something!
I've had plans to patch out a Reading C630 with CR stencils and an appropriate Conrail road number. Here's the Stewart Hobbies Reading #5304 which I picked up (at least) second hand a few years ago.
Added a decoder previously, but really haven't addressed some missing parts and non-prototypical details I thought I could do something about. What I really want to produce is something like the locomotive in this link:
CR 6757 Dayton, OH 05-3-1978 | Conrail Photo Archive (thecrhs.org)
So, black patches over the diamonds, a new set of road numbers, "CR" stencils. I also want to try to add the Reading "rain gutters" on top of the roof above the windows (if I can find a good way to do that), add a set of horns in the right side of the roof, and I'll have to purchase a new set of railings to get the missing short corner piece on the front of the cab, and I need to get the air tanks installed so they won't fall out, and then a ton of weathering.
As I get a little time I'll be pecking away at this project and I'll try to post sporadically. Stuff like this is going to be my limit until I hit the summer months.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 04-02-2024
So, I explored the rain gutters that are a classic touch for anyone who models the Reading cabs. Love the internet for this kind of stuff. Link to ideas to form up and install the gutters is here:
Reading Rain Gutters (trainorders.com)
Looks like I'll be buying some wire, and I'm wondering if maybe I can try to flatten it - a number of people talked about how hard it would be to make the prototypical angle iron that was used. I couldn't bend it, but maybe a flattened piece of wire would look better than the round.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Charlie B - 04-02-2024
Todd, I managed to get one picture of that unit. I don't have any thing else but at least this is one side
Charlie