Sunday scenic showcase november 5, 2017

It's well up to your usual standard, Alan. 

What scale is it?

That looks great Alan! 

I haven't been working on much scenery, but as part of my signaling project, I am trying to scratch build a Conrail-era signal bridge with PRR-style signals from Custom Signals.  My inspiration was the WB signal bridge at ALTO in Altoona.  The build from Plastruct parts was not terribly difficult, and Dave Minarik fabricated custom railings and painted & weathered it for me. 

My biggest problem was that the attachments I made to mount the signals weren't sturdy enough and the plastic joints kept breaking.  So, with Dave's micro-drill bits and some metal rail spikes, I was able to sink metal pins through the supports to the structure and fill the holes with CA.  So far, so good!

Here's the bridge with supports in black.  I re-sanded and re-glued each in place.

I drilled holes through the base of each, filled with CA, then inserted a small metal spike to give the support some "roots"

After the glue dried, I attached the three signal heads, and this time, the supports didn't crack & break.  Of course I'll need to hide the wires, add some additional railings, and touch up some paint, but at least I'm making progress.

The photo in the background is from Conrail Central Region volume II by Steven Timko, and shows the type of signal bridge I'm trying to model.

Anthony,

the signal bridge looks good. CA can be a problem because the joints can’t take any shock loading without cracking.

Max,,

I hate to admit that it is HO scale.

Alan Graziano

Thanks Alan for the tip regarding CA.  I know what you mean, it is rather crystalline.  When I re-fastened those supports, I used the pro-weld liquid (smells like methylene chloride) that fuses the plastic together.  I just squirted CA into the spiked holes since the bottle has a long spout & the lower viscosity made it easy to pour in.  The Testors model cement would have been tricky to get in those tiny holes without making a big mess.  Can you recommend another low viscosity alternative to gap-filling CA that would be less likely to crack?

Thanks,

Anthony

Here are a few pictures around the new logging line at the TMB model Train Club. Next time there will be a logging train on the line !!  BTW the four tracks in front are main lines

Steve,

very nice. I like the wood retaining wall.

Anthony,

it is always better to use solvent cement. Use plastruct bondene for similar plastic gluing and plastruct plastic weld for dissimilar plastics. I use plastruct code cyc3 thick ca glue to reinforce solvent glues and fill gaps. You can also use an accelerator cya3 to make the ca glue set up quickly. 

Alan Graziano

Alan, I really like your building. 

Steve the club layout is looking great.  Did you sell the Bud grain elevator today?  You were busy with others when I past your table today.  I didn't want to butt in.

Gosh Alan That’s beautiful, as always I love the images shared here. 

Coach Joe

Thanks for the compliments on the Budweiser grain silos. Its still for sale and I just listed it on the 4-sale site on this forum

Steve

Nice work guys!

I am in the middle of a icing platform for my layout, hope to have photos for next week.

I spent Sunday making trees, putting them in place.  Alas, early on it looked like a carefully manicured garden and I'm trying to get back to the feel of native forest.  I am trying to finish off one part of the mountain covering the tracks while still framing the rest of it.

They look great 

sandysimon posted:

I spent Sunday making trees, putting them in place.  Alas, early on it looked like a carefully manicured garden and I'm trying to get back to the feel of native forest.  I am trying to finish off one part of the mountain covering the tracks while still framing the rest of it.

I have had the same issues trying to fill in between trees to make the spread of trees look realistic.  I am sure you have also observed that dense forests have lower foliage on younger trees and other vegetation.  I have seen some videos of methods to replicate that look.  Your deciduous trees are well done and you have filled the in between areas pretty well. My attempts have been poor. What else are you going to do to fill in?

As usual, a terrific Sunday Showcase.

It may not be clear from pictures, but I tried a few things: 1) For the trees near the front, they have more lower branches.  I plan to add more; 2) I have been creating bushes; 3) Under the trees I have been clearing away some of the green and putting browner dirt; 4) I have been putting some "downed" dead trees; 5) I have started adding some standing dead trees (you can see one evergreen that browned).  

SANDY:  Thanks for the reply. Your scenes are really good.

Not exactly 1/48 scale model railroading - a friend bought an old bell and had it cleaned up. I built the cradle.

Back to 1/48 scale - a customer just received a distillation tower. He has it on display in his office.

Joe

you had the same problem as I did working out of scale.

your tower looks real good.

alan graziano