Sunday Scenic Showcase January 29,2022

My switch engine needed a place to refuel so I built this diesel fuel station. The tank car is from a damaged Red Caboose kit that I picked up at a Strasburg swap meet. The structure is made from strip wood and various detailed parts. Based on some pictures I saw on the internet.

TW TrainWorx 3 stall Engine House.....week 5......

The 1st thing I need to say is that I originally planned to be finished this project by the 1st weekend of February.......boy, was I wrong......there is too much to do and rushing is the wrong thing to do.....I've given up on estimating......my new time is: whenever....

After assembling the foundation and internal skeleton pieces, and painting them, I began structure assembly.

I left off with one wall partially supported.....

This is where I restarted.....

The other side......

Next is front and back.....

Then, the layered brick detail.......

You know, you can never have too many clamps!

Now, the fun begins......taping to do some additional painting of the foundation.

After the foundation painting/weathering is done.......I will finish the layered brick trim and then tape over all the windows, openings, exposed areas and foundation. Then, it goes outside to spray the brick its color.

I guess that I didn't realize how massive it is.......~100x68 scale feet! Lots to do!

Have a great and safe Sunday, folks!

Peter

The photograph below shows a module at the rear of my 12’-by-8' model railroad that I built to partially conceal a recess in the wall. The module was the subject of an article in O Gauge Railroading Magazine Run 327. It is mounted on a piece of extruded pink foam that sits on the rear edge of the table and a sill in the recessed wall and is easily removable for access to the track and switches. The rockface and stone wall are part of the module. The three large structures at the rear of the module are O’Doul’s Flophouse, Witzinger’s Washboards and an A&P warehouse. O’Doul’s and Witzinger’s are background buildings built from kits by Bar Mills Models. The A&P warehouse is a foreground model that I built from scratch. This was the first modification to the layout of any kind since its completion in 2004.

I plan to post about the individual structures in the coming weeks.

MELGAR

After having not touched the layout for 11 months, I decided to wire up the Port Anne harbor buildings. Below are some test photos of the lighted buildings:

Matt,

Very neat structure. I really like it.

Peter,

Your right. That is quite a large building with a lot of detail. It will be beautiful when finished. Enjoy the construction.

Mel,

Your diorama is great. Being a lover of storage tanks, the one on the A&P roof is a very nice touch to the building.

@Alan Graziano posted:

Mel,

Your diorama is great. Being a lover of storage tanks, the one on the A&P roof is a very nice touch to the building.

Thanks Alan. From a kit by Banta Modelworks.

MELGAR

@Putnam Division posted:

TW TrainWorx 3 stall Engine House.....week 5......

The 1st thing I need to say is that I originally planned to be finished this project by the 1st weekend of February.......boy, was I wrong......there is too much to do and rushing is the wrong thing to do.....I've given up on estimating......my new time is: whenever....

Peter

Looks like great progress so far Peter. 
I think in model railroading, just like riding the railroads, it's the journey not the destination...
I'm always sad when I finish a build, though at the same time impatient to complete a project. 

@MELGAR posted:

The photograph below shows a module at the rear of my 12’-by-8' model railroad that I built to partially conceal a recess in the wall. The module was the subject of an article in O Gauge Railroading Magazine Run 327. It is mounted on a piece of extruded pink foam that sits on the rear edge of the table and a sill in the recessed wall and is easily removable for access to the track and switches. The rockface and stone wall are part of the module. The three large structures at the rear of the module are O’Doul’s Flophouse, Witzinger’s Washboards and an A&P warehouse. O’Doul’s and Witzinger’s are background buildings built from kits by Bar Mills Models. The A&P warehouse is a foreground model that I built from scratch. This was the first modification to the layout of any kind since its completion in 2004.

I plan to post about the individual structures in the coming weeks.

MELGAR

Great work Melgar!  Looking forward to details on the scratch build in particular as that's my next challenge to take on...

@wbg pete posted:

After having not touched the layout for 11 months, I decoded to wire up the Port Anne harbor buildings. Below are some test photos of the lighted buildings:

Pete, the lighting adds so much to your already museum quality work!  The way the light glistens off the waves makes the scene come to life.

I'm so inspired by the talent on this forum and especially the posts this week.  I have alot of work to do!

From foam board to mountains on the On30 Utacolzona R.R.
The hardest work for me was getting the color right.  It took a little work & a lot of paint.

Thanks for looking.       Dennis.

Utacolzona Railroad in On30 (built 2020 - 2022) Last Update 1/29/23

Alan, I believe I remember that build.  The Cathedral is gorgeous.

Matthew that's a neat little project and a good reuse of materials.  What did you use for the corrugated tin roof?

Peter that build definitely doesn't need a time limit. There's a lot going on there.

Mel, I remember you posting here on the forum when you began work on that module.  I never realized you didn't post the completed module until the magazine arrived.  When I saw your name on the cover I immediately thought about your post even before seeing that was the content of your article.  I remembered it with the Witzingers and the house.

Pete you did a fabulous job with he illumination.

Wow lots of spectacular work this week!

Matthew: that fuel station is really cool. I’ll have to attempt a similar build in the future.

On my end I recently ordered an Atlas O Station Platform 2 pack. It was a great deal until I opened it and realized it was a box of leftover plastic sprues! The kit was used and what remained was 1 of 2 roofs, some small details parts, and 3 of the 4 supports needed for one platform. Thankfully the seller (a non train source) issued a refund and said I could keep what was there.

I’ve begun rebuilding the kit and fashioning the missing parts. Aiming for something that looks PRR like (but the main goal is to have fun.) The platform end caps were redone with wood which look nicer than the original plastic.  I also fashioned a new platform base out of concrete and added a few cracks here and there. The plastic baggage scale looks nice with some added wood and repainting.

I did some rough painting of the inside of the canopy too. I’ve noticed the paint inside these often are rough or peeling, so I thought I’d replicate!

Up next is some paint for the gutters and downspouts. I found a copper based paint that should provide a green patina - will be a fun experiment. I’ll also add some paper shingles to the roof and some Locomotive-Joe hanging ceiling lamps to provide light.

Still need to figure out some signage. I’m thinking a station sign on one end and maybe a railroad schedule mounted to a support post. Stay tuned!

Pete,

Just spectacular.

Dave,

You are right. The journey and not the destination. A perfect slogan for model building.

Nice work Hartman and Alex.

Thank you Joe.

@coach joe posted:

Alan, I believe I remember that build.  The Cathedral is gorgeous.

Matthew that's a neat little project and a good reuse of materials.  What did you use for the corrugated tin roof?

Peter that build definitely doesn't need a time limit. There's a lot going on there.

Mel, I remember you posting here on the forum when you began work on that module.  I never realized you didn't post the completed module until the magazine arrived.  When I saw your name on the cover I immediately thought about your post even before seeing that was the content of your article.  I remembered it with the Witzingers and the house.

Pete you did a fabulous job with he illumination.

coach joe,

The corrugated roof was in my parts bin. It is real corrugated metal. It was from a kit from many years ago - HO scale Suydam Black Bart Mine kit. The kit had a lot of corrugated metal parts which I have used over the years for various projects. You can still get the old kits on ebay. Because it is real metal, you can get real rust effects on it.

Nice work everyone!  
My contribution this week is just slow progress photos of my two Korber kits. I’ve just spent a little time masking to paint doors and weathering brick and foundation.
The roll up doors really didn’t want to take the Krylon silver paint I was using. I’ve had good luck with it on styrene, but these Korber walls didn’t like it. Next time I’ll lay down a thin layer of white primer first.

For the foundation, I tried the technique Ryan Kunkle demo’d on the Lionel workbench Wednesday segment a few weeks ago. For some reason the ink washes I used didn’t easily wet the crevices! Maybe the chalk paint I used was different from the one on the Lionel video.  

I finally picked up one of the new Lionel SW1s.  This is a cool little engine but was a little too bright. I think I’ll tone it down a bit more but for now, this will have to do.  I wish MTH  made fixed pilot end cab switchers when they did this engine.  I painted a few in this scheme but never painted one for myself.  

David,

From your picture it looks like a fixed-pilot switcher to me. Is it? Were there any manufacturing issues?

MELGAR

@MELGAR posted:

David,

From your picture it looks like a fixed-pilot switcher to me. Is it? Were there any manufacturing issues?

MELGAR

It does have fixed pilots.   I believe it is MTH shell tooling fitted to a Lionel frame with Lionel guts.   No manufacturing issues.  Runs and looks pretty nice.   The only issue is wrong numbers on the lights.  The MTH version didn’t have fixed pilots but still had two motors.  This has only one located in the fuel tank.  

@Hartman posted:

From foam board to mountains on the On30 Utacolzona R.R.
The hardest work for me was getting the color right.  It took a little work & a lot of paint.

Thanks for looking.       Dennis.

Utacolzona Railroad in On30 (built 2020 - 2022) Last Update 1/29/23

Dennis,

Two things I especially like about your Utacolzona Railroad are the scenes and realism that you have managed to blend into a small layout. It all goes together seamlessly and the small size of the layout is not apparent. That is skillful planning and modeling. I dealt with the same issue on my 10'-by-5' layout.

MELGAR

@Alex W posted:

Wow lots of spectacular work this week!

Matthew: that fuel station is really cool. I’ll have to attempt a similar build in the future.

On my end I recently ordered an Atlas O Station Platform 2 pack. It was a great deal until I opened it and realized it was a box of leftover plastic sprues! The kit was used and what remained was 1 of 2 roofs, some small details parts, and 3 of the 4 supports needed for one platform. Thankfully the seller (a non train source) issued a refund and said I could keep what was there.

I’ve begun rebuilding the kit and fashioning the missing parts. Aiming for something that looks PRR like (but the main goal is to have fun.) The platform end caps were redone with wood which look nicer than the original plastic.  I also fashioned a new platform base out of concrete and added a few cracks here and there. The plastic baggage scale looks nice with some added wood and repainting.

I did some rough painting of the inside of the canopy too. I’ve noticed the paint inside these often are rough or peeling, so I thought I’d replicate!

Up next is some paint for the gutters and downspouts. I found a copper based paint that should provide a green patina - will be a fun experiment. I’ll also add some paper shingles to the roof and some Locomotive-Joe hanging ceiling lamps to provide light.

Still need to figure out some signage. I’m thinking a station sign on one end and maybe a railroad schedule mounted to a support post. Stay tuned!

Alex, could you provide more detail on how you made the concrete base?  Looks very realistic and if you're using off the shelf concrete it maybe economical as well...
I have this same kit but planned to use only parts to build a Boston South Station style of platforms so I find your post solving some of my questions - Thanks!

@MELGAR posted:

Dennis,

Two things I especially like about your Utacolzona Railroad are the scenes and realism that you have managed to blend into a small layout. It all goes together seamlessly and the small size of the layout is not apparent. That is skillful planning and modeling. I dealt with the same issue on my 10'-by-5' layout.

MELGAR

MELGAR. Thank you so much for the great compliment.  It was originally just something to run a couple of On30 trains around but when I got started it took on a world of its own. I model mostly in 3 rail but this was just going to be a side project while I needed to heal for a few years. Funny how things work out like that.   There are a few projects to do on it yet but I'll get there.  Dennis.

Utacolzona Railroad in On30 (built 2020 - 2022) Last Update 1/29/23

@EmpireBuilderDave posted:

Alex, could you provide more detail on how you made the concrete base?  Looks very realistic and if you're using off the shelf concrete it maybe economical as well...
I have this same kit but planned to use only parts to build a Boston South Station style of platforms so I find your post solving some of my questions - Thanks!

Hi Dave,

Glad I can help. I've been using cool supplies from a Spanish company called AK Interactive. I order these mostly online and find they offer some items we don't really see on the model train side.

To start, I took their 8mm carving foam (manufacturer link: https://ak-interactive.com/pro...orama-building-foam/) and cut the platform size using a saw. I also scribed in lines to represent three concrete pads.

I followed this up by applying AK Interactive Terrains Concrete (https://ak-interactive.com/pro...ains-concrete-250ml/) on the top and sides. While wet, I used a toothpick to add cracks and reclear the space I scribed to represent the concrete pad separation. After drying, I gave the platform a sanding and black paint wash.