E-paw's Orphan challenge part 2

[faraway]

I like it! The colors of the green and the ballast are a perfect match.

[ngauger]

Great Work!!!

[Charlie B]

Epaw, It's looking great. I like the look of the ballast. It really looks great, and true to form. Great idea mixing the different types to get that appearance.
Charlie

[e-paw]

Thank you all. Your words of praise keep me going.

[tomustang]

Fantastic! Can't even recognize the location

[e-paw]

I started the installation of the fascia on the layout today.    

There are a few spots where I need to add a little wood filler before I paint, but it went up pretty easy. I figure that I'll paint it one of my railroads colors, I normally use Polly scale Empire green and Aged concrete. Off to the hardware store I went to get some paint chips to match them to. So that will be finished soon, I hope..

[e-paw]

Aside from the fascia board I have also been working on my roads, they are another item that needed attention.    

I added stop lines and other lines denoting where the railroad crossings are. This was done by masking off the lines with tape and dry brushing white paint onto the street.

    I then thinned some basic weathering colors and brushed a few different washes all over the roads.

The finished product looks like this.    

[Ralph]

Wow! You're getting a lot done...and done well! Neat to see some of the overall pics of your layout too!

[e-paw]

Thanks Ralph,, It's hard to find time to do any work (playing with) on any trains or the layout, but when I do I try to make the most of it.

I have did get the chance to paint the fascia today and here is how it came out.
   

   

I went with the darker , " Empire ", or " Carbon Green " as I call it now. It just looked better with the natural wood of the control panels and the black skirting. In a few spots I had to use some painters calk to fill in the gap between the new fascia and the scenery. I painted that also, when the paint is dry enough, I'll cover it with ground foam to match the rest of the layout.

Some time ago I had some signs made up to put around the layout, and now I have somewhere to put them.. once the paint is all dry I'll attach the proper one to the fascia.    

[Tyson Rayles]

[e-paw]

I did a bunch more work.. Only get time to post a few pics, so here we go.

I filled in the gap between the new fascia the layout scenery with some painters calk and painted it earlier, so now that it's dry I masked off the edge and covered it with a mix of different ground foams to match the rest of the aria.    

Next I needed to add a few street signs to the layout.. I found some clip art of street signs and printed them out on some photo paper.     I used a sharpie marker to color in the cut end of the signs so they look less like paper. And yes, stop signs were at one time yellow.

Here's a shot of a few of them attached to their posts.    

[e-paw]

my next thing to do was to add some weathering powers, stick em in some foam, and sprayed em with some dull coat.    

When they were dry,,,I stuck em on the layout.        

I also added some pull knob controls for my two turnouts that use Garry S' design. This one was easy , it just uses a wooden dowel to connect the knob to the 3 way switch.    

[e-paw]

This one was a different story.     I'm talking about the one next to the hoppers.
Here I installed a fiberglass pushrod in a plastic sleeve,, I got it at the LHS.. It is normally used in model airplanes.

It runs through a few 2x3's and it is held in place with J-B weld.. That's some good stuff.    

   

[e-paw]

With the next batch of pics I will consider this challenge finished.
This is more to explain the typical operation day on the branch that is now possible because of the improvements and upgrades that I made during this challenge. Before this challenge this was not possible, so now I am very happy

A train of soft coal and coke comes off the CNJ main in Easton and onto Jersey interchange. This crew will soon be out of hours, this interchange is commonly used as a crew chaining point by the Central.
   
The SH&D will pick this up here and bring it to AT yard to be forwarded east and west as needed. One of the Anna's 2-10-0's normally used as switching power in Allentown's AT yard is todays power for this transfer run. The CNJ's F-3's have been moved out of the way to the loco track to await their new crew. The EMD power will most likely deadhead to either the CNJ's own yard in Allentown or it's roundhouse in Phillipsburg NJ.
   


Once the branch is clear A CNJ train from Scranton drops off a cut of cars.    

The power and caboose has been cut off and parked on the now clear loco track. It will be used to pull empties back to Mauck Chunk PA (Jim Thorpe) where the 4-8-0's are serviced. The CNJ's 0-6-0, a USRA design, is typical switching power here.    


The 0-6-0 goes to work kicking cars around. There are many street crossings and switches in this town that the crew has to deal with.
   

[e-paw]

Here are some of the major industries that are serviced on the Easton branch. I'll list them east to west as they appear on the layout. First is Grain & Son's coal that consists of a unloading track and a holding track next to the building.    


Behind the coal dealer is P O S Tool & die co. P O S also has it's own siding.    

Just past them Is the Easton Ice house. Ice is shipped from Saylor's junction to here for storage from the SH&D. Refers are reloaded here for the rest of the trip to the New York area. Paint and the icing platform are still needed here.    

A little to the west is the future site of a cold storage building and a furniture plant. They will be serviced by the track towards the rear of the pic. The track in front of that is the Team track.