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One of the three phone booths has been fabricated. With my blunt fingers, these are a challenge. The lack of step-by-step instructions is also a challenge. Good pictures, but order is important, and I almost made some mistakes that would have been fatal. I'll bet the 2nd and third of these will be less harrowing.
However, one's been dropped off at the coal breaker for the employees in the era before cell phones were ever envisioned. Back in the day we'd use these things to call home to tell the wife that we'd be late for dinner.
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At least those late for dinner need not thirst. A Coke machine is ready and waiting to help remove the coal dust from a day at work.
I might take a look at the Tree Farm Shack and see what I can paint before retiring my squint for the evening. Thank God for magnifiers...
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It is the small details that bring a scene to life. Good job.
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Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!
2023 was certainly one of my more productive years as a model railroader - it was good to share progress with all of you and get inspiration and advice as well.
I'm spending a quite evening in my office working on the Christmas Tree Shack AND ballasting the track leading up to the coal breaker. I used Wayne's tapping technique (which he offered up to me during my last major ballast effort in January) to bounce extra ballast off the ties and it worked really well (kudos to you, Wayne!). Here's my last progress photo of the year, (ballast is still wet) and I'm hoping for further progress in '24.
Rail and tie painting and ballasting is going to be a major effort for some time early in the year since I've now more or less completed all of the major scenery work between the track and the backdrop, which was something I never thought I'd be saying last December.
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Just wrapped up the Christmas tree shack, and because I model August, I decided that until November, this will now be the Coffee Caboose, but the sign for Christmas trees is ready and waiting against the building.
I stuck it near the Lehigh Valley maintenance shop across the parking lot. Not a downtown location, but I figure there probably would have been enough people willing to take a short drive for some good coffee.
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I love that cute little coffee place and the sign waiting for the season to start is a fantastic touch.
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Modeling the East Broad Top as it was between 1937-1942
~Amanda
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Adding some details a little bit at a time here near the breaker. Turns out the manager of the Hazle Steam Plant is a gardener and outdoor type. Probably helps in the summertime when he doesn't have to make steam for the breaker. He also likes having breaker employees over to take their lunchtime breaks in the shade of a couple of mature trees and has thrown a couple of picnic tables out. (I got the tables as laser cut kits from Etsy a few years ago along with some dog houses and mailboxes). There's a Woodland Scenics loader and some miners coming this week that I'll place be placing in the area between breaker and steam plant.
I did finally run the steam lines from the plant to the breaker and secured them with a couple of steel truss supports (more Clever models cardstock fabrications). The lines themselves are leftover plastic sprues from some kits.
Here's a shot of the breaker area via drone. I'm thinking about running another conveyor from the breaker into the brick warehouse, but until I make a final decision, I'm playing around with ideas on how I want to scenic the area across the tracks.
Last but not least, I'm playing around with some ideas for backdrop additions. Found a couple of semi-current long angle shots of the city of Hazleton. Still trying to find the right magnification and eyeline, but this is a rough idea for now.
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Tried printing a different backdrop file, this time with it set to landscape and scaled up to 420%. I think I'll drop it down a bit and pull a little more off the bottom before mounting each individual page to posterboard with some contact cement or roll-on glue. This particular backdrop leads you to believe that the breaker is up on a hill, so I'm planning on running some descending landscape as you get closer to the backdrop (without going below the surface of the supporting structure for the layout). What that means is, I'll only be displaying the top surfaces of a bunch of some of the buildings as they get closer to the backdrop and run downhill. This will be a new challenge for me and I think I'm looking forward to it. I'm planning on adding a shelf for scenic elements to the left of the warehouse in the picture.
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Positioned the loader and industrial junk after painting and distressing same between the breaker and the steam plant. A pile of coal (placed by the loader) is also a welcome addition to the scene.
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Looking great. I love the loader cleaning up the site.
If you get a chance I would like to hear method on printing and making that background.
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There are 124 ties on an average piece of flex track. (I know this because I counted). Painting ties is a true test of patience. 4 feet is about my daily limit since I vary the colors. Painting rails isn't quite so bad, but about 20 feet is my daily limit for that. If I can keep up the daily pace, I might be ballasting by the end of the next weekend.
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Hi Todd---so much detail---very impressive.
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Looking great. Keep up the great work.
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Thanks! Paintin' ties... paintin' ties.... paintin' ties.... Another 20-25 feet to go (I can literally see the end of the tunnel).
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Finished painting ties around 10 pm last night. First phase of ballasting has begun - I put full strength Titebond glue on the edges of my roadbed and then dump ballast on top of the glue. Tomorrow morning I'll pull up all of the ballast that didn't stick with the vacuum and we'll do the "fine tune" ballast install around the ties.
