Finally, some updates at Dunnville...
#46
Well, I managed to surprise even myself this morning, around 3:00AM, when I was looking over the scene in Dunnville, and decided that I might as well just get on with the ballasting.

After clearing away a lot of detail stuff, I had to remove the lower part of National Grocers (for access to the tracks, which accounts for the hole in the right foreground of the first picture), then removed the upper portion, along with the station, and Languay's Pump & Compressor Works, as I wanted to cover their bases with Saran wrap, in hopes of keeping them at least semi-removable, mostly for cleaning and for when the layout gets removed.
Here are some "before" photos...

   

   

   

   

   

...and some views showing the material applied, but not yet wetted...

   

   

   

   

   

...and one showing the entire area with glue added...

   

...and the job was done in only a couple of hours.

It'll likely take at least a couple of days to fully harden, but I may continue ballast and ground cover at Languay's factory....there's a lift-out nearby, which will hopefully provide better access, as it's a 4' reach from the aisle to the north end of the factory.

Wayne
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#47
WOW!!! Icon_e_surprised ....just WOW!! Icon_e_surprised Worship Worship Worship FANTASTIC JOB Wayne!! Worship

Not only the work you shown you had just done, but i was eyeing up EVERYTHING on the layout in the pics, I just cant get enough of seeing your layout, would really love to see a real in depth current tour sometime Wayne. 

Anxiously awaiting on your next post Icon_e_biggrin 

Side note, really dont remember seeing many people on your layout in the past, but looks like your putting more on these days...or am I losing it 35 Icon_lol
[Image: sig2.jpg]-Deano
[Image: up_turb10k_r.gif]
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#48
Very nice Wayne!
Mike

Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
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#49
Got to agree, beautiful job Wayne, as always... Worship Worship
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#50
Wayne,

the nightshift overtime seemed an excellent payoff!

  Thumbsup Waveof7

Very well done Wayne!



Lutz
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#51
Thanks for the favourable reviews, guys.

You're right about not seeing many people on the layout, Deano.  There are a few, but because there are so few areas that I'd consider "finished", I just haven't bothered too much with them.  I did put engineers and firemen in all of my locomotives, though, but only the "BEE" has passengers, too.  I have a small bunch of painted figures, that sometimes make it onto the layout, usually for a photo set-up, and a larger bunch of unpainted ones.  I don't mind painting them, but that's one of those gotta-be-in-the-mood tasks.
Most vehicles on the roads have drivers, and some a passenger or two, but I usually don't cement the body on vehicles so that the LPBs can be added or removed, as needed.

Wayne
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#52
It appears that I've neglected to post photos of the completed area through town, so here are a few photos of the main lines through Dunnville, with the Saran wrap removed and the structures mostly back in their usual places...

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   


Last night...well, actually this morning, I decided to ballast the last portion of the main line between what has been done recently in Dunnville and the Mercury Mills knitting factory near the edge of town.
With the lift-out removed (where the residential neighbourhood will be built), I used aluminum insulator's tape to create a temporary dam to prevent glue and ballast from falling onto the stuff stored on shelves beneath the layout.

With a suitable length of the tape laid face-down on a cutting mat, I removed about a 3/4" strip of the backing paper from one edge, then formed the exposed portion of the tape over the irregular face of the edge which abuts the lift-out...

   

This tape sticks like sh...um...excrement to a wool blanket, so even a thorough application of "wet" water and lots of diluted glue won't cause it to separate from the plywood sub-roadbed

The ballast and various ground cover is then applied, followed by a thorough spray of "wet" water, and a generous application of diluted white glue.

The two views below were the only ones I could get that are clear enough to show much, as there's not a good spot where the camera can be placed to get a decent view in the opposite direction....

   

   

The glue will not likely be hardened for a couple of days, as the ballast is fairly deep along the rear slope of the roadbed.

Once the tape is removed, I'll likely put the lift-out back in place for a while, as it looks like some non-model railroading tasks are beckoning.  I'm also considering some minor modifications to Mercury Mills.

More to come when I have time.

Wayne
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#53
Wayne: Is the National Grocers building based on the one in Niagara Falls? My grandfather was a manager there, and I remember it had a curved side where it was up against the spur that curved off the railway line. Not sure if it's still there.
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#54
Hi David,

I built the structure to fit the space that I had available.  My version of National Grocers was based on the one in Hamilton, even though I've never seen it.  However, friends of my parents owned a hotel in Caledonia, and often went there for wholesale food and beverage supplies.
When they sold that hotel and bought another one in Hamilton, they also relocated to Hamilton, just a few houses down the street from us, so my mother often went along with them to pick-up some grocery supplies, also at wholesale prices.

Like much of the stuff on my layout, things such as place names and locations, along with industries, and rivers, and even some of the LPBs, are named for things from my childhood and teenage years, and later from my time at Stelco. 
My username here originated at Stelco, dubbed-so by a fellow employee, as did the Hoffentoth Bros. of the coal and ice dynasty that's modelled in most of my on-layout towns.

I wasn't even aware that there was more than one National Grocers, but I guess "National" might have been a clue, now that I think about it. Icon_redface

Hamilton, not the current-day one, but that of my youth and before that, has been a big influence on my choice of both industries and of the road names that appear on my rolling stock, as pretty well any of them could have been seen in the city in that time frame.  I often smile when someone asks what freight cars might be seen on their layout set in City X or Y, because I can choose just about any road I want....I must admit that's a benefit of freelancing, I guess, but I've based it on the reality that I knew.

A quick search shows that there's a National Grocers Cash & Carry
at 5772 Main Street, Niagara Falls, and two in Hamilton, one on Gage Ave. South (I'm guessing it's the building just north of Kinnear Yard...and not too far from where the real Mercury Mills was located.  The other one is on Nash Road North, and there's at least one more in Brantford.

Maybe I'll take a spin down to the Falls and have a look.

Wayne
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#55
Worship Applause 2285_
Mike

Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
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#56
I'm not sure when it happened, but National Grocers ended up part of the Loblaws empire. I remember in the 50s going around with Grampa to visit the Red and White stores which seemed to be the local affiliated chain.
I looked at Niagara Falls on Google maps and there is a building on Victoria St at Clifton Hill that could be it -- still has a curved side in the right place. I remember an elevator inside that was controlled by pulling on a rope!
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#57
Things are progressing nicely. I like your tape method to help corral the glue.
Tom
Silence is golden but Duct tape is silver
Ridley Keystone & Mountain Railroad
My Rail Images Gallery
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#58
Thanks, Tom.  It's worked for me a couple of times, but this time the ballast was cemented to the backing paper on the tape.  That surprised me, as it's pretty slippery stuff.  The ballast there ended-up fairly deep, so I did use quite a bit of glue.

Wayne
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#59
That look fan-freaking-tastic Wayne!
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#60
Thanks Shane, but I wish I could work faster...there just seems to be so much that needs to be done.

Wayne
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