Mark, glad to hear that you’re healing nicely, and hope you’ll start PT soon. The burger hut kit looks great. I like your technique for the brick, I might experiment with that myself.
Andy
You are becoming quite the craftsman Mark! Can't wait until you are all better and we get to see how you scenic your layout, I bet it will be gorgeous!
Mark, I am in awe of all you are achieving despite your “issues” and surgeries. You, sir, are an inspiration! Keep it up.
All the best,
Rubin
Thank you, John, Bill, Mallard, Andy, Darrell, Rubin!
John, Thank you. Doc was well pleased with my report and looking at the new x-rays and incision. On to 4 weeks of PT and back for another doctor visit. Everyone's prayers, comments, and thoughts have been greatly appreciated.
Mallard, No I have never had anything published in OGR magazine. I have had thoughts of submitting photographs, but I always thought sceniced photographs catch the eye better. Innovations when working with used materials, basic hand tools, and less than perfect physical capabilities; maybe there is room for that type of article. There are a lot of us out there who are worse off than me, but others who are in a similar boat and don't try. I doubt I would have tried if I had waited to start building a couple years after I did start the layout.
Andy, Bill, I was actually quite surprised at how well the brick turned out on one try. I won't see that happen again! 
Rubin, I think that is the biggest reason for taking the time to document, to help inspire others. I was inspired by authors in hobby magazines in the '60s and '70s with no way to help others. I guess, the desire to help is finally seeing some fruit. Besides, the feedback helps me. My layout wouldn't be what it is without all of you!!!
Mark, your Blackwater Canyon Line is really inspiring ! Thought you would like a recent pic of the Blackwater Falls - what a beautiful area you have chosen to model !
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Rich, thank you so much for the photograph of Blackwater Falls! We’ve been there many times, but it’s been too many years now.
Yes, I have been chomping at the bit to get to building scenery, but I wanted to get the roadbed finished in a way that I will like for a long time. I do have room between my two inclined for the Black Fork, and plan to hide some of the rear incline behind a ridge with no top so I can reach over for derailments.
Good Morning Mark, I am sorry I have been away for so long but this new job is kicking my rear!
I think you did an outstanding job on the Burger Hut building! and I also think the eat sign really adds to the look and era of the building!
I am glad your doing well with your surgery and that the problems have been taken care of! I wish mine would go away! LOL
Just a little advice for those who are retired, if you don't have to work stay retired! Just spend more time in the train room! When the summer is over I am done! LOL
Mike, Thank you! I’m getting along well considering it’s been less than 3 weeks since surgery. I’ve been in the train room puttsying around a bit.
That's great to hear! Can't wait to see what you do next on the layout after your full and complete recovery!
Mark, glad to hear that your recovery is going well. You’ll be back to it in no time.
Andy
Thank you, Darrell and Andy!
I have been able to get in the layout room, after deciding to not start another building kit. I am allowed to lift 20 pounds, and am gaining a little strength and movement. I decided to do some work on the base for the Idaho Hotel area I mocked up before my surgery. I decided to take the suggestion to make the scenery section hinged that I can partly swing up to get at tracks underneath. Coming up with a base to attach the hinges and yet be able to fit in scenery made for one variance in the mock up. I am lowering the lift up 1-1/2" to make things line up. I will post photographs later, since it is 1:00 am and I didn't take any photographs earlier. I decided to type this while I am awake and take some photographs tomorrow. I'm really not pushing myself at all with this lightweight work. There isn't anything outside that I can do at this point, so I thought I would work on this instead. What a shame!
Get better first Mark. Construction can wait.
Geez Mark 1:00am, I guess you couldn’t sleep? Glad to hear you’re slowly moving about, just try to take it slow. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.
Gene
Just take it easy Mark! I just missed 2 days of work due to a lower back spasm, I know it's not fun doing next to nothing but the important thing is to heal so you can keep doing want you like to do!
Thank you, Dave, Gene, Darrell for the good advice!! It’s just been bugging me how I was going to get the hinged flip up scenic section attached not too close to the upper level track, but leaving a wide enough area for the hotel. I know, thinking like that can get you in big trouble!!
Here is the photograph of how it will work this fall when I can do it.
The white board between the roadbed and the lift up will be screwed down, then the hinges will he attached to it and the lift up. I can scenic the stationary part with the thin rock cut and there will be enough clearance.
I think I will work on putting the LED lighting kits and new window glazing strips in my passenger cars that will be pulled by the K-Line Hudson that is at Harmon Shops where Pat is reworking it. That should be a nice job to do until I can get back at the layout.
PT went well today. I have felt stiff more than anything. Maybe that’s where you can get in trouble doing things you think you are ready for. 🤕
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Mark, I love your attitude and positivity. This hobby has many benefits, but most of them require participation.
A note on scenery is that I am always looking for some form of perfection that always seems to elude me. It has prevented me from trying different methods at times because I felt intimidated. Static grass and an air brush are two examples. But, I have found most scenery to be easier than I thought it would be, very forgiving, and easy to redo if necessary.
Love your sharing your journey with us.
Art
Oh you poor baby! Forced to work on you model RR due to recuperation. You're not going to get much sympathy from us. Just take it easy and don't take any chances.
Thank you, Art and Myles!
Myles, 😆😆😆😆 I know, it is really a tough row to hoe! Where the surgery was done doesn’t hurt, but the back muscles are tight as our younger daughter’s harp strings. The therapist worked on that with me at my morning visit.
Art, maybe it is from being beaten down so many times in the work world or from having to wait so many years for room to build another layout that has kept me going. I haven’t actually built layout scenery since my mid-30s. There are so many more products and techniques to use common items as well now. I’m looking forward to it.
Hi Mark, I am with the rest of the guys and just take it easy. I am just like you that if I feel a little better it is time to go when it really isn't!
I think the idea of working on the passenger cars is a great idea and not too heavy to work on! The hardest part is knowing things are just waiting for you to get back to things! LOL
To me scenery is painting the table-top green and sprinkling some bagged "grass" while the paint is still wet! Then painting the track brown and fishtank gravel or non-clumping cat litter ballast poured on after the track paint has dried.
EDIT: That curve is about a 10½" radius; a coupled two-car train of WB&A 52' interurbans will go around it.
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Thank you, Mike and Dave.
Mike, I pulled out the box of LED car light controllers, LED rolls, etc, and the soldering iron, solder, and tools yesterday. I have a total of 10 passenger cars and then someday I want to do the same with each caboose. Yesterday, I got 2 cars done, but quit trying to get the roof back on the MTH baggage car with the sliding doors. 
Dave, I think your photograph looks great! Scenery is something that can be anything you want it to be. It can be simpler than what you do or so complex that it is hard to tell the difference between a photograph of the layout from real life. I think it is something like the difference in artists; extremely real to life, impressionistic, all the way to abstract. I'm on the close to real life end of the continuum, but still with the attitude of stopping when it's 'good enough' whatever that will be at the time. I guess that is why I compliment and throw 'likes' out at all kinds of efforts. We have to remember how scenery started with very basic expressions back in the Pre-war days.
Mark, your attitude, both towards your health challenges and the work of other modelers is just wonderful.
BTW, the notion of scenery began in model railroading earliest days. All of the early twentieth century companies, including Lionel, AF, Bing, Voltamp and the others like Marklin all made structures, house, stations, dioramas, tunnels with houses, etc, on them. The pieces that survive are valuable but a lot fun to see.
Keep getting better,
Rubin
Mark - You really hit the nail on the head about the various levels and interpretations of scenery. When I was a boy, I used to dream about the scenery in books about the big Lionel showroom layout. I never got to see it in person, but I thought it was so cool. Now I have seen scenery that is so much more realistic, that the old Lionel layout is put to shame. But your comments made me realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Considering what was available then, the old Lionel was ahead of it's time. It's a great hobby.
Art
Chugman,
The Lionel showroom layouts were indeed very cool. I was fortunate enough to see both the O Gauge ( as a three or four year old) and the Super O layout. I was also “fortunate “ ( If you can call it that) to be at the the showroom when the Super O layout was being dismantled. The huge mock-up of the PRR TURBINE which graced the entrance and so impressed me was Also no more. I was quickly asked to leave when someone realized that I was a thirteen or fourteen year old kid and had only come to see the layout. So sad, but boy did that showroom impress me, with all the ancillary layouts and the main show in the center.
@RubinG posted:Mark, your attitude, both towards your health challenges and the work of other modelers is just wonderful.
So true, I second that!
Gene
Thank you, Rubin, Art, Gene!
First, I must say I am always humbled by the ways in which my words reach each person on the Forum. Thank you for the encouraging feedback!! I hope I make your day a little brighter, Rubin, Gene, et all! 
My exposure to model trains was Model Railroad magazines. At the time John Allen was the king of scenery; and a lot of creativity as well. HO was the way to go. That said, my desire has been to make scenery believable, though I am not opposed to adding something for fun. I have to be. When scenery has been in place, I have never known when a whimsical article will just appear overnight! I certainly missed out on seeing those Lionel showroom layouts. Seeing articles here and in magazines, they were quite something! Certainly enough to entice any boy and some girls.
Rubin, great story about you being there when they were taking the display down! 
I will add that I received a replacement Cripple Creek Oil and Gas beam pump from Menards today. My original made some noise, bound up, and snapped a coupling at first. I received an RMA as soon as I contacted them. This one works great! It has just enough sound to be believable. 
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Mark,
Somewhere in my afternoon *quiet time*, (wife naps = no trains) I caught reference to your hamburger stand and the bricks. I went back a few pages and found your post and the bricks look amazing! I was curious how you did such a nice job!
That brought to mind an old mill building I started a while back but have had to park for the time being. This memo is to point out something perhaps more comical than useful as a recognized technique, but the masonry on old mills can have a more weathered look, after all.
While dwelling on how to create a white mortar joint on wall panels without making a career out of it, I happened to open this can of flat white paint I had on the shelf. Although the paint had frozen, many times I might add, I figured I had nothing to lose and tried it. The paint had this crumbly dough-like characteristic that lent itself to being rubbed on VS brushed on. After a brief period, i wiped it with a damp rag and the results are as pictured. Being crumbly seemed to help my cause, as the crumbs didn't particularly smear, as paint would have, but rather just rolled around and "found" places to stick. I will paint the trim and doors separately with something that can be brushed. It will be snow-fly before I get to work on this again, as we are putting new windows in the house and doing some remodeling into the fall . (new train layout may be in the offing).
If I do this again, I will use a drier rag, as the smears are from excess water on the rag. The crumbly stuff just fell off.
So if you want to try something totally unorthodox, ruin your paint before you use it!! Also, don't try to stir it first. Crumbs are your friend at this juncture!
On a personal note, I'm always happy to see and read your posts and comments, as they are uplifting, inspirational and encouraging to everyone! God bless!
Bob
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Thank you, Bob!
That isa great story of how you used very old paint for mortar on your old mill model. It looks good! Whatever works is good!
The first part of how I did burger hut building is that I noticed out of the box the composite hardboard that was used for the kit was light tan. I thought that I have seen buildings with mortar that color. I decided I would try to take advantage of that and paint only the bricks and leave the mortar joints alone. I started dry brushing ( wiping the brush on a paper towel until most of the paint was removed) I tried to highlight only the raised bricks and leave the mortar joints their original color.
Of course bristles of the brush would sink down in the lower mortar joints, so I thought it wouldn't work and I would need to add 'mortar'. However, I noticed various color variations like happen with many brick buildings. At normal viewing distance it looks effective as is. I really like it, but it wouldn't have worked if the building wall material was already a brick color.
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Morning Mark, I am glad you got a new Menards oil rig! Those guys at Menards sure seem to take care of their customers!
I think the mortar on the burger Hut looks great! But I think I just might have some paint like Bob's out in the shop that might come into some use down the road! LOL
Hi, Mike! Thank you!
Yes, Menards did a nice job standing behind this product. I was running the walking beam pump this afternoon while I installed LED lights in a couple more passenger cars. I think it is a little quieter than yesterday.
Great job, Mark!
Peter
Mark,
Your bricks and joints look amazing, and I think very much in-keeping with the type of architectural brick I would anticipate a burger joint to look like!! Kudos, mon ami!
Architectural style bricks or mortars were not prevalent in mill construction. Mill bricks had a great deal more anomalies, both in appearances and hardness as determined by their proximity within the kiln to the wood fires used in those days, as well as how they were struck in the molds or handled before firing.
As luck would have it, I stepped out of an ice cream shop in Amesbury, MA just 4 hours ago and behold, across the street was an example of both of our styles on one wall!! Mine looks much more like the patch job than yours!! Too bad there's a car in the picture, as it is a handsome building!
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@endless tracks posted:Mark,
Your bricks and joints look amazing, and I think very much in-keeping with the type of architectural brick I would anticipate a burger joint to look like!! Kudos, mon ami!
Architectural style bricks or mortars were not prevalent in mill construction. Mill bricks had a great deal more anomalies, both in appearances and hardness as determined by their proximity within the kiln to the wood fires used in those days, as well as how they were struck in the molds or handled before firing.
As luck would have it, I stepped out of an ice cream shop in Amesbury, MA just 4 hours ago and behold, across the street was an example of both of our styles on one wall!! Mine looks much more like the patch job than yours!! Too bad there's a car in the picture, as it is a handsome building!
That is a great looking building. They certainly don't build 'em like that anymore. Double height windows, pre-cast lintels, roof cornices..... And it's built into a hill.......
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Peter, Bob!
There was a brickyard along the B&O at the village a couple miles from where I grew up. The brickyard was gone before I remember, but there are a few photographs that the historical society has on display in the old B&O freight station, now historical society. The road is still called Brickyard Road. Dad’s garage was built of two different types bricks with the name stamped into the bricks inside. I took it that one type was used for interior bricks out of the weather. Great grandpa had his cousin build a brick outhouse out back that he used bricks that had been fired too long or too hot. They had blackened sides. The outhouse still stands.
Yes, that is a great example in the photograph. Great looking building. I have another building I put together a couple years ago that looks more like the patch job as well.
Thank you for the information about bricks.
Great story Mark, I bet if the Brickyard Road is still there, then they have a stash of old bricks somewhere! I know when I worked for the local Roads Department, we had an old brick road that was historical site and we had to keep bricks on hand so we could repair any section of that 1-mile road. All the bricks are just set in sand with sand filling around them.
I’ll bet there are bricks there too. A garbage hauling company has occupied that site since the ‘60s. It’s right along Breakneck Creek (pronounced ‘crick’ of course) 😉 I’m sure some went into the crick long ago.
We still have numerous brick streets and roads here in Butler. Cut stone curbs too. Our older daughter lives on one that is a serpentine down the hill to town, at one time it was a main road down into town. They hold up great unless a utility company has to disturb. Then they sink a little like any backfilled ditch.
Still, a great road to model on a layout.
I am sure there is a stash of them somewhere!
You’re right, Mike. However, last year they replaced a hundred year-old water line on one brick street going up a steep hill. Our other daughter lives within sight of there. The water company had it filled in with asphalt. As usual, it became bumpy. The council put it up to the residents whether to replace the bricks right or pave the street. They paved it!!! Say it ain’t so, Joe!!!
Point is, they have the stash of bricks. The money was there to pay the labor to do it too! Wait until they dump salt on the hill this winter, and they get potholes!! Bwa ha ha!!!
Mark, glad to hear that you’re feeling better. I’m with the others, take it easy, do your pt, and you’ll be back to full strength in no time.
The burger joint looks great, I really like the effect on the walls. As you know there are many ways to go about this, but I think you’ve landed on a winner. Well done. Are you going to add lighting and any interior details?
Andy
Thank you Andy!! I am planning to add lighting at some point, probably when I place each building on the layout. I want to put interior detains in some where the details can be seen. That is why I am building all of them with removable roofs and in some cases removable floors.
So everyone can rest easy, I finished adding constant LED lighting into all my passenger cars. No back strain at all! The project went quicker than I had thought. Once I got the hang of one car from each set, they went smoothly. Here are the MTH RailKing Western Maryland Scenic Railroad cars that were produced in pairs on three separate special runs by the Community Model Railroad Club of Frostburg, Maryland. I have a matching Vista dome and reefer on order through them as well.
Now that the cars have good lighting, the need for passengers is all the more pronounced. That will be a future project. I was going to run the train over the entire layout, but these cars are really heavy, I mean way heavier than I would have imagined. The Premier Consolidation started to spin at the top of the grade. I decided to do it this way to show the cars and go back later and figure which engines or lashups would be needed to pull this heavy train up over the top.
Here is a set of Lionel NYC cars I bought from a Forum member to go with the K-Line NYC Hudson that I have Pat from Harmonyards working on. They have nicely done interiors with passengers, so I only need passengers for the WMSR cars.
I did all this work standing up in front of the layout using the foot-deep section in front of the South Yard as a workbench. It is 42-1/2" high and is perfect for standing. It still hurts too much to sit very long. I'm using the rolling cart for tool and material storage.
Here are the 4 Lionel cars done.
Here is my next project. This is a Premier ProtoSound (PS1) F3 AA set with only one engine powered. I was going to try my hand at an ERR installation. This week, Mike Regan announced PS3 Diesel upgrade kits were available, so I bought one for this upgrade since I have done PS3 upgrades int he past. I receive the kit in the mail 2 days ago.
Thank you everyone for checking in!
