Weekend Photo Fun 5-29-20-??

Very cool Scott .

The ultimate BBQ for extreme rail fans.......a New York Central Hudson visits.......

Have a great weekend, folks.....and stay safe.

Peter

Model is an MTH Premier New York Central System USRA 0-6-0 #231 (PS2) with two cabooses.

MELGAR

Starting early this week I see...

Having finished a big gap in a long stretch of scenery back on March 29, I’ve tried to focus on finishing some small scenes and details.  Normally, when I say I finish a scene, I finish a scene. But being only human, there are some small details I don’t get to in the rush to try to get the scenery finished. So being home pretty much most of the time over the past few months, I’ve tried to focus on some of those neglected details. Here are three of them.

The first two images show a farm truck at Goodman’s Feed Mill in Port Royal. The truck is by Whitebox (one of my favorite diecast vehicle manufacturers) which I weathered up a bit and filled with a pile of feed sacks. In front of the truck, a figure from Arttista stacks a few more in a pile.

The next two images show a long planned unloading platform at the Mifflin team track. Here, the figure on the platform (also from Arttista) guides the driver of the truck as he backs the vehicle up to the platform where the crates of new farm equipment parts will be loaded onto the truck. The vehicle merits special attention. It is by SpecCast, a manufacturer primarily of 1/64 Scale vehicles. I came across this by dumb luck while doing a search on the internet and actually found this on Walmart’s website! (Other vendors stock it as well). I looked at their 2020 catalog, and it is their only O scale vehicle (actually 1/50^th which is perfect for O scale). It is one of the nicest vehicles I have ever purchased for the layout. I weathered it up, and positioned the front wheels which are moveable to make it look like the driver is carefully backing up to the platform.

The last three pictures are of a pair of classic cast metal PRR signs found along the railroad right of way. These ones are specifically meant for the ends of major bridges. I scratchbuilt them out of styrene, and they have all of the ribbing on the back and the sign faces are accurate for the Pennsy. I included the third picture of the group simply because it shows other lineside details, but more than anything, the beautiful Path Valley. Here Tuscarora Creek winds its way through the valley just before it empties into the Juniata River at Port Royal. Tuscarora Mountain is in the distance beyond the farm fields.

Enjoy!

          Moving on... Finishing 3 more buildings tomorrow!

SIRT,

Tremendous modeling!

           Same to you Neal! 

A Pennsy J1a is pulling a fast freight past the depot on its way west, while an OEG415 is waiting for passengers and mail at the depot.

The J1a is Lionel, the cars are Atlas, and the Brill 660 is 3rd Rail.

Great posts everyone!!  Here's my photo fun for this fine weekend!

My we did start early!  I agree with Neal and Sirt, each has outstanding modeling.

Here is my contribution for the week.  Last week you will recall I had finished a stretch inspired by New Brunswick or Elizabeth NJ.  But I needed to tune up the lighting of the buildings. "Tune up" means getting rid of bright spots and dim spots. Generally this requires several lights, placing them behind the near side wall (closest to the viewer) and positioning/aiming the bulbs or LEDs so the light bounces off a piece of white cardstock on the far wall. Aluminum foil between the light and the back of the near wall prevents the light from shining through the wall.  You also have to be careful to eliminate light leaks around windows, doors, joints etc.  I use black gaffers tape, electrical tape,  and even liquid electrical tape.

As you might guess,  its tough to get it right the first time. Hence the tuning.  So here, one week later, is the row of buildings with the illumination properly tuned

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And now a story.... Further down the tracks a photographer was standing on the station platform on a glorious late summer afternoon. He got a nice shot of the Afternoon Congressional leaning into the banked curve and heading into the setting sun

Six months later, the same photographer, in the same spot, and the same time of day,  again snapped the Afternoon Congressional as it leaned into the superelevated curve at full speed.  But this time it was under the early evening full moon...

Action on the Seattle & Yakima RR. A NP / Railway Express special with priority

I just finished hand painting my new backdrop.

A 2019 Christmas Layout memory . 

Last week started showing images of the 'zoo'/nature park. Here's a quick reminder:

A closeup of one section:

- walt

We’ve had a lot of sunny days so we’ve been mostly outdoors biking and biking and biking and then biking some more!! We did get this cool look down at a coal train. For you super detailers it offers a unique view to get some ideas on how to make your coal cars a little more realistic when empty. 

Yes, the engineer did waive to the kids on the bridge making everyone very happy!! And yes, we were on a bike ride...

@Christopher2035 posted:

 

 

 

Some really good stuff in this week's thread already.

PW: Color me a sucker for it.

Along that vein, gotta' say that to me, the above pics are really wonderful settings for PW equipment! Good job Christopher!

Andre

I often have a train or two on display in my dining room, and decided to change which ones to display this week.  Both are Lionel.  On the left is the Norfolk & Western J locomotive, and a few cars from the "Warhorse" weathered series train set.  It is numbered 600. On the right is the Postwar Celebration Series Congressional GG1 set and aluminum passenger cars.  

After Christmas, I kept a couple of the light sets around to accent the trains.  It also allows me to keep the other lights off, and still navigate my way through the house at night.  

Here are some fun photos from an earlier iteration of our home layout.

@laming posted:

Some really good stuff in this week's thread already.

PW: Color me a sucker for it.

Along that vein, gotta' say that to me, the above pics are really wonderful settings for PW equipment! Good job Christopher!

Andre

Thanks! I'm a sucker for early PW!

Continuing to make progress on my Roundhouse area, Happy Weekend!

I visited the Colorado State Railroad Museum outside of Denver in May 2016.  The museum has a wonderful HO display in the basement.  Here are a few photos.  All the photos had to be taken through a plexiglass barrier so they aren't as clear as I would have liked.  NH Joe

Here is updated pic's of my die-cast 1:64 scale 6 piece car sets and they are very nice and work perfect in my lionel chessie car carrier!!!

                                                                  NEW BUILDS...

Lots of great stuff I see as usual. Love all the scenes and such. This weekend will mark some sad tidings for 18064 Lionel New York Central L3a Mohawk. No longer the great runner it once was, it sort of died on me last weekend by not working in command. It would spark to life conventionally, but alas, that really doesn't work much for me now.

So, all packed up, but not for the locomotive graveyard. Nay, no, never, not at all. Like all locomotives of their time, it needs to move along to get retrofitted if you will. Tomorrow I will be heading out to the post office to send it out to get several upgrades to get it into "better than was" working order. I actually have quite a few that I will be working on upgrading over some time, I had already gotten my Niagara fixed up, and this engine as well as its predecessor 18009 Lionel L3a will also get fixed up especially since it has not had any operation time because of a broken coupler for more years than I can even remember.

It will be some time when I see 18064 again as there is a backlog, but I don't mind it one bit. It will be in great hands, and come back a better champ.

The new MTH RailKing MONON four-bay, open-top has been produced.

Andrew

Falcon Service

A little action at the station......

Peter

Peter,

That's just plain fun!

                        Marci's photo, taken in Maumee Oh.

@SIRT posted:

          

                                                                  NEW BUILDS...

SIRT,

The structures that you posted images of this week are truly exceptional. Can you post some information about how you built the Bulk Terminal East and the Empire Carpet structures? (Not sure why the images are not showing up in this post)

Scott, sorry to hear about the water damage.  Very nice job on the building.  Church or school house?

Neal perfect amount of weathering on those trucks.

SIRT your superior modeling skills on display once again in those buildings for your new layout.

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

SIRT,

The structures that you posted images of this week are truly exceptional. Can you post some information about how you built the Bulk Terminal East and the Empire Carpet structures? (Not sure why the images are not showing up in this post)

The OGR software changed a few months ago. If you reply or the poster alters the text, you get an "X" Nothing seems to be corrected so far. I think it was changed to prevent duplicate photos during reply's?

Copy and past photos into Excel.  Change, cover unwanted areas in the photos or add additional items like signs. Make signs and slide / drag them in place over the photo. Size as needed and print using regular paper, better quality setting. I found everything on the net them customized it to my needs.

I build using MDF on top and bottom. I glue and brad nail  door skin Lauan to the MDF.  Add filler spackle to joins and spray paint base color. Spray 3m spray glue to paper and wood, wait 5 - 10 min. and paste. Add front details to add 3D depth. Spackle side walks, paint using Linen. Rub brown powder over the walks to highlight cracks and pencil across joint lines every 1 inch.

Photos on my Shutter link below. Choose drop down 76 to 100 group of album BUILDING photos to see more.

My wife and I went out for a drive here in the Texas Panhandle yesterday,  We saw two trains between Claude and Clarendon, on the ex- Fort Worth & Denver/BN line from Amarillo to Fort Worth, formerly the route of the Texas Zephyr.  Both were operating at what looked like 20 MPH.  There were piles of ties, indicating recent tie replacement, and perhaps that was the reason.

I've wanted to photograph a train at this concrete culvert for some time, and this is the 3-unit locomotive on an empty coal train heading back to Wyoming.

A week ago Saturday, I met a friend and we went out at twilight for some blue hour photos.  Here, at 9:16 PM, a BNSF general freight train is charging west, up the 1% grade west of Canyon, Texas.  I hand-held this shot at 1/250 second, f4, ISO 12800, using a fairly new Canon mirrorless EOS-R.  It is a great camera for low light.  It has almost no knobs, and all the settings are adjusted using the screen or in the viewfinder.  There's a learning curve involved.