Long Island Rail Road in Z Scale

John Bartolotto Sep 25, 2010

  1. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    That is cool! i'll have to try that.

    Thanks,

    John
     
  2. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    That big rig tractor looks awesome! I can use a few of those around my sawmill, I hope you can offer them as a kit someday soon! :D
     
  3. Nimo

    Nimo TrainBoard Member

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    You have done amazing detailing while modeling in the smallest of scales... incredible... very, very inspiring!
     
  4. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    Robert - Thanks! I have to check to see if I can legally produce it.

    Kaustav and Mouli, Thanks! i love your Wrightsville Port N-Scale Waterfront Layout! Your track work, buildings and ships are amazing.

    John
     
  5. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    So today after a month and a-half of not seriously spending any real amount of time on my layout due to life’s daily commitments (work, kids’ sports, family events, etc) and only at best being able to spend 10 to 15 minutes here and there working on perfecting asphalt roads for my layout I was finally able to work for an entire day on my layout. What a fantastic Father’s Day present!! It felt really great to sit and accomplish parts of my layout.

    Over the past month and a-half I slowly worked on making asphalt roads using David Smith’s technique. David was very helpful in answering my questions and guiding me through my trials and errors, I could not have done it without him. Thanks David. I tried three times to get the roads right, failure, start again, failure, start again, then the third time was the charm. Getting the roads set on my layout was important because they are key in fitting my industries properly on the layout. Now that the roads for the right side of the layout are complete and being installed I can concentrate on laying the concrete pads and foundations for the industries, which once started should go quickly and then I’ll be able to place the industries on the right side of the layout down permanently.

    [​IMG]

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    Besides the oil transfer station the right side industries consist of an auto scrap yard, the West Chemical Products Inc (on the LIRR it's siding was known as the Stink Track due to the nasty chemical smell there), the Maxwell Lumber Company, and an abandon building. The auto scrap yard, West Chemical and Maxwell Lumber Company all existed/exist in the Newtown Creek/Dutch Kills area. The abandon building is my artistic liberty because I think it looks cool and adds an interesting element to that part of the layout. The West Chemical building was kit bashed from a Randy Brown Downtown Fire Station kit and some left over parts from the Kibri factory kit 6770 and the Faller fuel depot kit 2750. The Maxwell Lumber building is a extremely bashed Stonebridge Models Wick Lumber kit. I bought the abandon building on eBay.

    [​IMG]

    I also finally figured out that I wanted a construction scene in the space between the Adam Metal building and the Staley Elevator building so I bought an N scale Tomytec building under construction kit (number 072) and cut it down width-wise to fit in between the two buildings as a back-drop building with the rest of the industries along the back of my layout. Tomytec makes some really great detailed buildings that with a little effort can easily be used in Z.

    [​IMG]

    I made some good headway today and am now energized to finish the right side industry portion of my layout.

    Enjoy,

    John
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 20, 2011
  6. shamoo737

    shamoo737 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    John, it looks outstanding, and I am trying to pick up all the details in your pictures.
     
  7. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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  8. Svein-Martin Holt

    Svein-Martin Holt TrainBoard Member

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    Any links to a description and examples using David Smith's technicue, please?
     
  9. Svein-Martin Holt

    Svein-Martin Holt TrainBoard Member

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    Hm, I guess I found it myself::membarrassed:

    http://www.jamesriverbranch.net/part_20.htm
    Image from David' site:
    [​IMG]
     
  10. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Fantatic work on the roads! I often think that is the most neglected part of modeling, but the one area that sets layouts apart. We cross tracks and that is how we see/veiw trains. So when done in a realistic way like what you've done, it really completes a scene!
     
  11. Rowan

    Rowan TrainBoard Member

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    Very impressive.

    :)
     
  12. HOexplorer

    HOexplorer TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hi John, The layout has come a long way. Looks great. Jim
     
  13. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanks Jim!

    John
     
  14. MrCONRAIL&BNSF

    MrCONRAIL&BNSF TrainBoard Member

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    Very nice John Loving the road work so far. Any one else notice the drain on the bottom right of the switching road crossing picture. Super detailing really does make a model rail road come to life! Hence why people are so empressed over Z scale super detailing then any other scale IMO.
     
  15. TechRepJapan

    TechRepJapan Permanently dispatched

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    The photo that is referenced is that of David K. Smith's work. DKS has multiple web-sites where he covers in great detail many of his projects. Maybe take a look at what he has to offer... and, give credit where credit is due.
     
  16. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    Wow it’s been awhile!! Work, traveling, visiting family in NJ and LI and summer family activities made it difficult to get to the layout, but I did find 10 min here and 20 min there to scratchbuild an important LI City LIRR landmark – the Bliss Cabin. The Bliss Cabin marks the entrance to the LIRR Bliss Yard which is just down the right of way from the DB Cabin and Dutch Kills. The actual structure still exists (although modernized from what you see here circa 1960s) near Borden Ave, Review Ave, Dutch Kills and Newtown Creek in LI City. It was located where the freight line from LIRR Sunnyside Yards meets the LIRR Montauk line. The Bliss Cabin was originally a tower that was an elevated structure on a post column, similar to the old style elevated crossing shanties but it was later torn down, and the concrete cinder block cabin (that I have modeled here) was erected further west of the earlier site.

    http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/bliss/Bliss Cabin Blissville, LI City - 12-70 Keller.jpg

    http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/bliss/Tower-Bliss-RS3-1557-Blissville-12-70.jpg

    http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/bliss/drawbridgetogreenpointave.jpg

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    I scratchbuilt the Bliss Cabin using the reference photos from http://www.trainsarefun.com. It is a tiny thing in Z scale. The walls are balsa wood covered with RS Laser Kits Z Scale Concrete Blocks http://www.rslaserkits.com/Images/Z/4705.jpg and RS Later Kits doors and windows. The awning are left over parts from the Kibri factory. The roof is a piece of sand paper painted Polly S Tarnished Black. The roof vents were leftovers from other kits. The relay boxes are from Stony Smith and BLMA Models. The roof trim and raingutter are pieces of styrene. The base is a piece of styrene painted Testors Light Aircraft Grey and weather with india ink and chalks. The BLISS sign was done on PowerPoint font 8.

    Next to the Bliss Cabin on my layout will be the Bloch & Guggenheimer Pickle Company which I am currently starting to kitbash from an old N scale AHM factory. The B&G Pickle Company is the factory with the skylights closest to the tracks in this black and white photo (you can see some pickle cars on the siding near the B&G building) http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/bliss/blissvilleyardpickelworks1947.jpg This is what I’ll be working on next.

    Enjoy,

    John
     
  17. MrCONRAIL&BNSF

    MrCONRAIL&BNSF TrainBoard Member

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    john very nice as usual
     
  18. Mzbringh

    Mzbringh TrainBoard Member

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    Looking fantastic John. And I like that LIRR RS3.

    Cheers,
    Mikael
     
  19. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Looking great John! You have patiently been making great progress on a great layout. You inspire me to work harder.
     
  20. John Bartolotto

    John Bartolotto TrainBoard Supporter

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    Sometimes it’s the small things that make a modeler happy. In my case I was not satisfied with the color of my roads. I thought I had it down but even with some serious coaching from the asphalt master David Smith I just couldn’t in my eyes reproduce the road color to satisfy my inner urban modeling conscious. Not being afraid to start again and always looking to improve I ended up buying a copy of FOS Scale Models “Volume 3 Roads & Highways For Your Model Railroad” DVD http://store.foslimited.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=FOSDVD-03 Outstanding video, I definitely recommend it. The paint that Doug and Anna Maria Foscale use to make their roads is Ralph Lauren River Rock “Stone Chasm” RR65. Intrigued I bought a quart at a home decorating specialty store. By combining that paint and some of Doug and Anna Maria Foscale’s techniques with David Smith’s techniques I was able to finally create a asphalt road color that I am totally satisfied with. Then I added RSLaser’s new manhole covers and sewer grates to the road. I gave the manhole covers and sewer grates a light base color of Polly-S Tarnished Black F414140 and then after that dried I dusted each with burnt orange rust colored chalk. Then I had to cut holes in the road to install them, which was a pain to do after the road is installed (I didn’t have much choice) so next time I will cut the holes in the road for the manhole covers and sewer grates before gluing the road down (live and learn). Now I can sleep easy at night and move on to more pressing layout issues.

    You can see the color comparison of the old and revised road in the photos

    Enjoy,

    John

    Revised road

    [​IMG]

    Old road

    [​IMG]

    Manhole covers and sewer grates

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    HemiAdda2d, Joe Lovett and JoeTodd like this.

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