Weekend Photo Fun 4-14-23-??

Scott Smith

Thanks Scott for getting us started!   Here are my photos of the fun kind for this fine weekend!  Trains, cranes, and automobiles!   Hope to see some of you at York ... I will be attending on Friday!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Lots of activity at Todds Junction.

Come out and buy a brand new Tucker this weekend!!  There are lots in stock!

B&O Big Hook crane working hard.

B&O passenger trains exits East Tunnel.

Heavy lifting done by the Big Hook!

B&O F3 coming at ya!  

New Haven Railroad trains have been running on my 12'-by-8' model railroad this week.

New Haven 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler #816 is a Lionel Legacy model (6-82272, MSRP $899.99) shown in the 2014 Volume 2 Catalog. The prototype #816 (Class G-4a) was built by Baldwin in 1904 and was used in Shore Line express passenger service when new.

New Haven S-2 #0615 is an MTH Premier model (20-20587-1, MSRP $449.95) delivered in 2016 with PS3. The prototype #0615 (Class DEY-5) was one of 22 built by Alco in 1944 with a 1000 horsepower turbocharged 539T engine and 57,500 pounds tractive effort.

MELGAR

Here's a busy scene from a prior layout in PA:

AND - Breaking NEWS!! - This cute little 0-4-0 A5 Switcher just arrived! My one and only LC+ locomotive and it runs nicely with the LC APP. I have a Base3 on order and plan to run it with my Legacy controller once that arrives - whenever!

I have not posted for awhile, but that does not mean I have not been working on the railroad.  Next Saturday (April 22^nd) morning from 9:00 AM to 12:00 noon I am having an open house for the Potomac Division of the NMRA.   In the afternoon (1:00 to 4:00) Bernard Kempinski will have an open house for his spectacular Aquia Line Civil War O Scale layout.  These are NMRA events

So I have been busy installing scenery in what I call “The North 40” part of my layout. So named because the total length of all tracks is about 40 feet.  This was the only totally unfinished part of my layout.  “Plywood Central” pretty much sums it up.   I had several challenges to creating realistic looking scenery:  There are three sets of tracks that largely go parallel to the wall.  And are level.  The tracks are really close to the wall…like ¾.”  And access is challenging.

I wanted to avoid the common layout look of  “a row of building flats pasted next to each other against the wall with a retaining wall to separate the lower layer from the upper look." So I deliberately left significant gaps between the buildings on the upper level. I filled the gaps with custom photo-shopped perspective views of other buildings or trees.  To define the upper level, and visually separate it from the lower, I used Scenic Express girders, with an Atlas Girder Bridge to break up the monotony;

To enhance the viewblock to the lower tracks (under the girders), I glued a lot of different colored ground foam to a green painted board:

The Atlas Girder has since been leveled since those photos were taken.

To scenic the lower level, I used a front I had made a long time ago. It is made from Bristol Board and Pecos River Brass windows.  This time I added a roof and a side and the appearance of a back wall.

I needed another building, and I became pressed for time. So I ordered two MTH “What Were you Inking” buildings (One was from Muffin’s trains):

Cut them both up:

And put them all back together in a new configuration.  Here it is put back together, painted, and drying in the sun

No, the grill wasn't on!   Here it is on the layout:

The scenery is made from carved 2” thick pink foam, and everything I could find in my stash of bushes, trees ground cover, etc.  Here is a close up view of the same scene:

And this is the view along the upper level, which can only be seen with a camera

A 2022 Christmas Layout memory

Waltburg

Closeup of 2 of the lucky residences that got built there

walt

As is tradition, on the Friday before York, some old York pics......especially dedicated to those no longer with us....

Have a great weekend, folks......and, safe travels to all.

Peter

                                            This weeks RARE find!

                                 Just need some wood chip cars to run with it....

Trackside at the downtown crossing -

I usually don't post as I love looking at the pictures, but I figured I'd add to it today.

Here are pics from my layout.  The layout is 12x20 with 4 mainlines, 1 around the city, and 2 superstreets tracks.  It has 4 levels.

The first having the dispatch station, 2 small towns, staging track, and the lower station.

The second is the coaling station, Salt station, the turntable, and the passenger station lines.

The third is old Chicago.

And the fourth is the El which is static.

Working around the layout, I'll start with Old Chicago (area).

Part of this includes ties to family where both my wife and I were born, and our parents and siblings ,grandparents, and cousins lived.  I have the Menards Grandpa Jack's Hobby Store.  The Papst sign in the Bar is where my Grandpa worked.  The  Zenith Sign is for where my wife's dad worked.  It is on Al's hardware (some of my name).  It is hard to see, but the picture looking down the main street has a building with red awnings.  The one on the left is for Sarah's Salon (my daughter) and the one on the right is for Nancy's Pizza which is my favorite stuffed pizza.

Other stuff - the South Shore is what I took from Indiana to Chicago to visit my Grandmother.  I designed and printed everything for the El except the track and train.  Chicago Union Station was made by me using foam board.  And lastly the passenger tracks go under the city and the columns were also designed and printed by me.

Next is the Lower Town.  This has a station, the road going over the mainlines and sidings.

Here is a shot looking across the turntable:

If you look in the background, you can see the Menards Morton Salt (started in Chicago):

Next is the Coal Dump for public consumption.  The "auger" under the track is the case from a wood chisel:

Here we have the small town behind the dispatch station:

Here are pictures of the 4 "corners" of the layout starting with the City and working my around clockwise so y'all can get an idea of it followed by the displays:

And finally, just some random pictures:

Going through my pics from prior Yorks, I found these in my camera roll.....the out of focus appearance makes them almost seem real.....

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peter

This week a new trailer park started on my layout.

Spent some time today in my photo software creating this:

What you're looking it is a backdrop scene. It's a combination of my photographs. The basic mountain  photo I shot last November and thus was in my photo "Autumn Foliage" folder awaiting use. The sawmill that is integrated into the scene is a heavily doctored photo from a friend that he shot of his layout scene that utilized that vintage sawmill backdrop. In my case, the sawmill is a photo of a long-defunct, and impossible to find, Detail Associates "Rail Scene - Lumber Yard" backdrop. (I've watched the Bay and the HO swap group in vain for over a year trying to source the actual backdrop for use... but they're just not out there.)

Anyway, the entire scene is about 36" long. This evening I started printing out the sheets for assembly, but started running out of ink, so I iced the project until I can get to town and purchase several ink cartridges.

Next to come for me is creating backdrop scene of a cement batch plant using photos I've taken of same. It typically takes several hours to start from scratch all the way to a ready-to-print product. However, the end result once installed on the layout is worth it.

Andre

Here is something you don't see every day. A neighbor brought this over to see if I could get it going. It is a 1961 Pabst beer animated locomotive display. This thing really wasn't designed to be serviced. It is stapled and riveted together. The motor was frozen. I managed to grind the rivets with a Dremel tool to get the loco off of the display base, and then grind the rivets to get the motor loose. After cleaning and flushing the stiff grease the motor is purring like new. I replaced the burned out neon headlight and firebox light, and completely rewired everything with a new cord and switch.