(09-30-2025, 06:36 PM)TMo Wrote: After a bit more hacking and grinding, the camera body fits lower on the frame of this sacrificial car and now proceeds under that low point on the layout. Therefore, I ran it on the front end of the Apollo tonight and recorded a trip around the layout without stopping for derailments.
It's certainly different perspective from the front end of a locomotive, and I'm glad I reinforced the camera car even if it resulted in having to redesign it. The text was added and the video cropped using Microsoft Clipchamp which I think is free and may come with Windows by default. Works well enough for my purposes even if I didn't use some of the bells and whistles.
My GP39-2 wasn't fixed with a swap of DCC decoders... Doing some further digging I found some charring on the underside of the board under one of the components nearest the motor pads. I'm afeared that it's toastiness is an indicator of defunctness, but there are plenty of replacements out there. Kinda confirms my diagnosis with a multimeter - I'm getting track voltage into the board but no output when I put the throttle to the loco. What's life without unexpected projects?
I cut out some 1x4's from a leftover 1/4 sheet of plywood and joined them together to make an extension for the lower portion of White Haven. Secured the extension by screwing it into the main frame members. Since it's only supporting some fairly light scenery, it's overkill. With the extension, I doubled the space available to place structures and scenery, and the slope is now 1 unit down to 2 in run. Because it's a town, I've always found it important to be able to place the structures on level bases. I'll be cutting 6" wide strips of foam board that I can stack and cut to fit to the building lots - just like what I did with the residential side of town back in 2021. Looks like I'll need some more 1/2" foam board, and I need to figure out a rough layout of structures, roads, etc. before I start gluing the foam board in place. I have some structures in mind and I have a couple built, but it's close to a blank canvas and I need to try to do a bit more work to find out when the CNJ yard at White Haven was pulled up and sold off, and when the market and its associated shops went in.
I'm starting to get some ideas for structures and types of buildings I'm going to put on Main Street, which runs perpendicular to Berwick Street which I currently feature with a railroad crossing over my track. The topology is very similar (if not a little bit steeper) than the residential section of town behind the tracks, and I offer two photographs - the first running along Main street with the fronts of businesses on the west side of the street with the LVRR track (used to be a double mainline) running behind those buildings. The second photo shows the track view with the same buildings to the east (right side of the photos). You'll note that the first story of each building lies below track level, so I'll be mimicking that along my Main street. With buildings that close to the track, there are retaining walls on the rear of each of the buildings, so I'll also be establishing them with each building lot. As you can see from the Main street view, the roadway also has a good bit of side slope. Main Street is also pretty wide with parking spaces for customers. I suspect that the CNJ station sat just below Main Street, and I need to find out when it was torn down - another research need!
So, I can lay out the rough elevation of Main Street by positioning a couple of buildings with some styrofoam blocking underneath... (note the tracks are running at about the same elevation as the top of the first story of each building). These are a barber shop and a grocery store that I've had in mind for White Haven for a few years while they collected dust.
Anchoring Main Street will then give me an idea of the available space left for other scenery proceeding down toward the river.
It included the locations of both of the stations (LVRR and CNJ) in White Haven. The LVRR station wasn't torn down until sometime in the 1980's, so that would be an item worth modeling. The site did not indicate when the CNJ station was torn down, but did give an accurate location (a bank is currently occupying the same space), and I'll endeavor to find out the when.
Since I've been furloughed by the closure of the gov't (I won't get into my feelings on that fiasco), I've had some time to do some digging into all things White Haven, PA. Here's a link to some shots of the LVRR station in town that was torn down sometime during the 1980's and is now part of a parking lot of the diner next door. I think this station could be a good kitbash project if I can find a good base structure to start from.
I was thinking that the former CNJ yard in White Haven wouldn't have been built up so soon after ripping up the tracks in the mid sixties. Wrong! Looks like an ACME was built on what is now White Haven Market in 1970! The internet can be a wonderful resource if you have time to separate the wheat from the chafe!
This "strip mall-ish" property might also be something I could kitbash and would reside between the water treatment plant (which I'm going to build regardless of historical accuracy) and the tracks.
Based on the Main Street topography, I decided there wasn't much sense in building up off of my new structure with layers of 1/2 inch foam board - not much is going to be modeled in the first 4 inches off of the platform (maybe just some rocks, shrubbery and trees climbing up from the river bank), but I do need the base to be level to support the structures. I'd bought a 4x8 sheet of 2" foam board and lopped a small amount off to build my bridge abutments a few years ago, but I had most of the sheet left. I cut it into 13" strips and laid it in on top of some luan plywood. Base is set. I can always glue the foam board up and rough in the terrain with a hotwire foam cutter after I get a better idea of the areas I need for businesses and roads. Everything will (eventually) get the plaster cloth and Sculptamold treatment after roughing in the terrain.
The remainder of the base for the structures will be strips of 1/2" foam board, but I don't want to glue anything in place until I rough the structures and lots in - it'll be a while for that.
But, structures. As I indicated, I have a few already finished plastic kits that I got for Christmas a few years ago, but I need another 5-10 businesses to run along Main Street. Ideally that'll be a bank, a diner, that Acme strip mall facility and a couple more. I've had my eye on a couple Clever models, and I just bought Rudy's Printing and Central Camera - both should fit nicely on Main Street next to the food store and barbershop.
Before I get to the Main Street businesses, the idea of scratchbuilding the LV station has been running around in my mind, so I'm going to get that one done first. I thought about doing it in plastic or balsa, or maybe even looking online for something close as a kit, but it's a really simple rectangular building with lap siding and a steel roof. There was a Clever paper model that had some promise - it was a small Flag Stop station that I thought I could blow up in size. Then I started to think about textures. Clever sells 8x10 siding, roofing, and other detail textures. Cost is between $2 and $2.50 and you can print as many sheets as you like. I thought if I bought that and cut it to the sizes that I want for the four sides of the building, and then adding doors, windows and other detail parts from other kits that I've bought over the years, I could make something pretty close to the prototype. That's the initial plan anyway. Downloaded HO Scale Lucky and Knotts Siding. After I printed it out, I thought it might be overscale - I think the siding exposure should be a bit smaller, but I'm going to go with it anyway.
Based on the pictures I have on hand, I can estimate the size of the building fairly well. It looks like the endwalls are about 10-12 feet wide, and the long section of the building looks to be somewhere between 50 and 60 feet. Got my drafting board, a pencil and my triangles out to draw out each wall.
Found some doors and windows I thought would look good out of other Clever buildings and added a small loading dock to the end of the building as in the prototype. None of it's exactly to scale from the prototype, but it will work. I do need to build some rafter trusses to support the extended roof lines on the long sides of the building, and I think I've found a stone or brick foundation that'll go under everything. I do not have a photo of the back sides of the building, but I think there should be at least a couple of doors and a long loading dock.
