Sunday Scenic Showcase March 3, 2019

Good morning,  I have been working on this kitbash building for most of February.   Finally placed it back on the layout last night.   Glad to have completed disguising this corner, where the 2nd Arrival/Departure track goes around the back of the yard.    Still have to go back in and do some ground work, back drop work, and replace the "caboose" track, but at least the heavy lifting is done.

Chris, I can see why that building took you most of February, but it was well worth it.  Reminds of the so many buildings off the West Side Highway back in the '70s.

Chris I just love that building. You definitely hit a home run on that project.

Alan nice work on those tanks. I need to start my Hooker Chemical plant build.

City Viaduct city wall got finished this week

Sawmill project is nearing completion. I worked on changing the color of my camp cars last night Got 1 of the 3 done. I didn’t plan my colors. 

Thanks Joe,  So ironic that you would mention that.   Brings back many memories of riding in the car with my dad down that highway,  RR yards on the left side, piers and shipping docks on the Hudson River.    Haven't thought about how much I enjoyed those drives with my dad, when I was a kid in 1960's.   

Exactly right Chris.  I couldn't wait to see the truck on the roof.  I forget which shipping company, maybe Roadway.  I knew it wasn't a real truck but that was one heck of a 3D billboard.

Chris, That's a really nice piece of work! 

Chris,

The building is fantastic.

Al,

Sawmill and viaduct are first class. Excellent job.

Here are the completed pictures of the Engine Wash Bay

Another great showcase !   Alan, love the engine wash rack. Chris A, CSX Al excellent work as well. All of the structures are amazing.

-Tom

To all - excellent work!

Chris - it looks like you used OGR panels?

Joe

I have started work on a coaling tower based on the Suncoast Models kit. I am building one using kit parts and building one from scratch. I have built one in the past - changed the apron/chute design plus the stairs and railings. The kit comes with wood but I substituted plastic for all pieces except the base units.
I'm not sure if Suncoast offers this kit any more. They list on their website but offer no pricing info.

Joe

Alan, JackD, Tom & Joe:  Thanks to you guys for the positive feedback, and also to those who hit the like button. 

This forum, and particularly this thread provides a lot of inspiration, and great modeling examples.   Without it,  I doubt I would have ever come up with the ideas for that building.   

Yes Joe,  those are the OGR - Ameritowne walls and inserts.   It's a great set of panels with the interchangeable inserts.     

                                                   #1676 NYC COIL CAR

                        Heavy ones over the trucks and lighter ones in the middle.

                                         Might be switching through the B&S Yard?

SIRT posted:

                 #1676 NYC COIL CAR

                        Heavy ones over the trucks and lighter ones in the middle.

                                         Might be switching through the B&S Yard?

Yahooooo!

 I've always enjoyed working with wood kits. I recently completed this Rutland stock car. I needed a 36 ft. car. I found one on the bay from Mainline Models. Brought back memories of building the Gloorcraft structures. Basically just built the kit per instructions. The chassis took some time as you have to make sure everything is square. Once that's done. The rest isn't to bad. One thing required. A caliper to precisely measure the wood strips to make sure you are using the correct piece.

 The car is suppose to have truss rods. Thought about trying to adapt an Atlas chassis that had them. Not sure how to model them and not sure if the as built chassis was correct for them. Decided to stick to the instructions and pass for now.

 The Rutland rostered one single sheathed boxcar. #7999. Originally was a Canadian National. It ended up in a river for years. The Rutland retrieved it and re built it. The good news I only need to build one. The easy route would be to reletter an Atlas. The Rutland car had wood ends rather than steel and ladders instead of grabs. Again I went with a Mainline Models kit. I did have an extras Atlas reefer chassis. 4 holes later and it adapted quite well to the kit. I had the ends and the roof somewhat assembled. I looked at the 2 prototype pictures I could find and decided the supplied sides weren't correct. The boards were to wide. I also found doors off an Atlas doublesheathed that were close to the prototype. Certainly better than anything I could build.Also there weren't enough steel ribs included with the kit. I decided to use what I could out of the kit and scratchbuilt the rest. It's not going to win any contests as far as true prototype accuracy. But still more accurate than an Atlas repaint. Still has a ways to go. I have about 10hours into it. A lot of this time is just planning your next move as there are no instructions. It's getting there. I know how to finish it up so it's just a matter of waiting for a few more supplies to arrive. I found this pic of an HO car. This one isn't dead on accurate but is a good reference.

Wow, excellent work everyone! I agree with Chris, this thread has always inspired me. I’m working on the long retaining wall between the grade and the industrial area above. As with the small wall I recently posted, the wall and vertical pieces are 1/8” Masonite (hardboard) and the cap is 1/4” MDF. I’ve already glued the cap on, then I’ll glue the vertical trim pieces in place. After that, I’ll break all the edges (lightly sand) to get it ready for primer. Then I’ll spray paint it with Rustoleum Desert Bisque I’ve been using and install it. Then I’ll give it a dark wash. It’s all one piece, and measures about 81” in length. The last picture shows where the wall will be installed. After the wall is in, I’ll put some basic ground cover down. 

Andy 

Built 7' of Downtown Deco this weekend. Of course its raining again so i wont get it painted any time soon. 

First is the Rainbow Beverages flat. Going to do some modernizing of the details.... aluminum roll up doors, different signage, etc... Waiting for some parts. 

(Dock and stairs are just sitting there, I have a bit more fiddling with them before they're ready to go).

The length of it just seemed to require some serious support, so I used a couple of 1/2" square dowels to keep it straight.

This one is the Fish Market Alleyways flat. I bought it off the bay and it came kinda incomplete. Someone started trying to do the prep work but ended up breaking a bunch of the window frames and stuff. I've managed to get enough Grandt Line ones that fit in the castings to proceed. I'm also missing the loading dock wall, but thats OK given the place I'm planning on putting this flat. 

Its still 2 pieces as the instructions say to not bond the buildings together until its all painted up... makes sense as the 4 wide piece already weighs a ton with all the bracing needed to hold it together. Still a little bit to go here, I havent put on the stub side walls or anything yet while I waited for the braces to dry ($0.98 home depot yardsticks work wonders for this) but this is where its going to end up. The foam its sitting on isn't cut to size either, the Scenic Express Retaining walls will be all you see when all's said and done. 

Now if only I had something for the corner behind the tracks.... oh well, time to go buy another building 

The project I worked on during this past week was so trivial, especially compared to the beautiful and significant work already posted, that I hesitate to include it in this thread. But here it is.

I completed a narrow strip between the track and the front edge of my 10’-by-5’ layout which was the last unfinished piece of terrain on the layout. Rather than just adding ground cover, I decided it would be more interesting to add a wood-plank walkway crossing the track to the station platform. To do this, I used a small kit made by Scale University.

The first picture shows the area at the edge of the table after I had painted the surface shades of brown.

I then glued two thicknesses of roadbed cork at the edge of the table to raise its surface to the level of the track ties. I also glued six strips of wood to the section of track on which the walkway planks would be mounted. These strips raised the walkway planking so that its upper surface would remain just below the tops of the rails and not interfere with wheels or pickup rollers.

Next, I glued in place four sets of planks from the kit. I trimmed the edges of the inner strips so that there would be a 7/64-inch-wide slot for wheel flange clearance. I also cut a slight angle on the ends of the strips to guide the wheel flanges into the slots.

I then glued a piece of “taskboard” atop the cork and painted it black to simulate asphalt. I also cut “stone” borders for the walkway from pieces of Woodland Scenics rigid urethane.

Finally, I painted the stone borders and added ground cover in the form of dark brown ballast, real dirt and ground foam.

I apologize for not having something more significant to write about but the terrain, ground cover, streets, sidewalks and structures on the layout are complete. So – no other projects currently underway.

An article about the layout appears in OGR Run 304.

MELGAR

Looks good Mel. It may be a small project, but it gives the scene some nice detail.

Andy

coach joe posted:

Exactly right Chris.  I couldn't wait to see the truck on the roof.  I forget which shipping company, maybe Roadway.  I knew it wasn't a real truck but that was one heck of a 3D billboard.

It was YALE. Yale trucking.

SIRT posted:

 

                                                   #1676 NYC COIL CAR

 

                        Heavy ones over the trucks and lighter ones in the middle.

                                         Might be switching through the B&S Yard?

 SIRT.

YEH. I like those cars even better when they are weathered. You should post them on our Steel Mill thread fit right in. Thanks. Roo.