Hi all. I've had a quiet couple of months not doing much Z although I have cracked on with my 1/35 scale Thai railway stuff ( I finished six M113 APCs to go on the military train) but I've had to knuckle down now as the London Festival of Railway Modelling is fast approaching. held At Alexandra Palace in North London it is one of the Big 3 shows here in the U.K and sadly I'm the only one there flying the flag for Z. Its over the weekend of March 28-29th I'll be there with Shasta pretty much as it has been for a while although I have indulged in some more SD70Ms and SD75s recently If anybody can make it please introduce yourself I'm always happy to chat to fellow Z modellers cheers Kev
Sounds like it should be a fun show for you Kevin as always, share pictures of anything cool. Even if you haven't done much to your layout share some shots its always been one of my favorite.
A rather belated update this one. As some of you are aware I had a bit of a disaster back in the spring just before The London Show when I found I had a burst cold water pipe in the layout shed and it had been aerosoling a fine mist for week over the back of the Shasta extension module, the two boards for the new British layout and the bare board for the 'Republic Steel' extension board for Cuyahoga. Fortunately the existing layouts Shasta, Cuyahoga and Midsomer Mardy were unaffected but it meant I went to Ally Pally 4 ft short and had to apologise to Nick Freezer for the rather truncated form it arrived in. ONCE I HAD CALMED DOWN! I started to assess what was salvagable which wasn't much really so the rebuild was more work than expected but I'm getting there now you can see in this picture how the board slots inbetween the Cantara Loop and Dunsmuir yard board and gives me another 4ft in the marshalling yard at the back . By tonight I had got his far on the front of the board which is going to represent the Dunmuir depot in its recent run down state Going to look good with 4 SD70M lash ups with 124ft of manifest on the back! Kev
Can't blame you for feeling that way. To an outsider it would seem silly to be upset. To a model railroader, it's pure trauma.
Good progress now on the front board although still a lot of fine detailing to do. The 2 road shed is a shortened copy of the cab forwards shed at Dunsmuir really glad I bought all those Architrees now! Turntable is the Peco N scale one again The derelict shed on the turntable was a representation of one of the ones that gradually got demolished until only a couple of roads were left and is full of, and surrounded by, junk. The big oil tank with its Southern Pacific painting on the side (still there last I heard) needs the edge of the decal painting in. two U.P SD40-2s wait their next helper turn as an elderly GP7 and GP20 take a ride on the turntable. Seen from the other end you can see how nature is reclaiming the remnants of the roundhouse. In the background, hired in BN Rotary and F7B Power unit wait for the winter snow. This wide shots shows how well the new board blends in. I believe it is because modern scenic scatters don't fade badly like the old sawdust based one Next thing will be to send an order to Showcase miniatures for a ballast regulator and a couple of MOW trucks and get some Stonysmith speeders from Shapeways. I'll give you an update on the back side as it progresses. Kev
Passing through Dunsmuir many times on the way to see relatives in Southern California, I will say you've done a great job capturing the "feel" of the place... Mark in Oregon
Just added some more flesh to the bones. Lurking in the abandoned roundhouse is an ancient derelict Grant 4-4-0 waiting for some TLC the other side of the turntable is a lot more active as the depot is still busy as an MOW site see here are Stonysmith Speeders, The fabulous Showcase miniatures Ballast regulator and a couple of Showcase trucks, The MOW truck and the log truck. The hired in BN rotary and support vehicles is on the shed getting readied for Winter The Railking RK 275 (also Stonysmith) has just been positioned on the tracks ready to move the dead GP7 and GP20 off the turntable Need to add some figures now Kev
