I have not done much on my layout but I've made progress on my hobby room. I completed framing the next wall and only have one to go, which hopefully will be completed by this summer. It feels good to get this done. Now back to the layout. Enjoy, John
Ah, looks nice and open. Pre-wire AC outlets in several (many) places below. You could run separate AC that can be used just for the layout so you can completely shut off the layout. We moved in to our new retire home June of last year but taking some time to creat some space in the 3rd garage. Finally some shelves along all the walls (for the wifey crafts and N trains). After our first show, I hung the modules on the wall to start getting more space on the floor but, sucking up the only space I’ll need for my minimal show tubs (now stacked on the modules). After next GTS show in 2 weeks (San Jose, Feb 22-23), I’m put some angle steel framing up for the modules to be horizontal. I can the have pull-down covers to help keep clean.
Hello, So I put my train room back together as best I could with the wall framing still on going and was able to work on my layout again today finishing the National Casket Company. I have some minor scenery details to do around it but its basically finished. Enjoy, John
Fantastic! The details look better everytime I see your work! With the new room are you thinking of building an extension to this layout? Like a staging yard or something?
That sounds fun John. In the mid 80's I was working for a company in Veldhoven, and fell in love with Fleischmann Piccolo N, which is arguably the most detailed and finest N Scale I have ever seen anywhere. One of the sets I got was this Prussian Die Alten set. I actually bought mine from a shop in Hamburg, while doing an install at Valvo-Philips. I never got to build my layout though, having lost it all in a nasty divorce in 1995, so I had to start collecting all over again.
Happy Spring! I got some time today to work on some rooftop detail projects for my layout's city buildings. I completed the Micro Art rooftop water tower (I just noticed the two holes in the water tower's roof, I'll have to fill those) and a scratch-built pigeon coop using one of the sheds from the Luetke Modellbahn 74505 Equipment and Telephone Booths set. I used some left over wood pieces I had laying around for the roof and a piece of fence from an ARCHISTORIES ARC-823171 Security Fence kit for the opening. The pigeons are N scale (they are SO small who can tell looking at them) from American Archetype on Shapeways https://www.shapeways.com/product/836AQ58X4/n-scale-1-160-pigeons-set-of-121 tedious to paint but well worth it. I'll be working on more city rooftop projects over the next few months. Enjoy! John
John, that looks great. Aren't the pigeons supposed to go into the coop? That's a lot of droppings...looks very realistic.
Just finished a La-Z-Way-Out Vintage Street Sweeper LZ-SV-1001 in DSNY - The City of New York Department of Sanitation colors with decals made by Dan Pikulski (Dan's Decals). It was a good break from working on the rest of the layout. Here is the street sweeper next to a garbage truck produced by Stony Smith in DSNY colors with Dan's decals. I remember seeing these street sweepers doing their thing when I was a kid in Queens. Enjoy, John
LOL! Testors yellow paint, a steady hand (which sometimes gets to be a challenge) and a 10/0 paint brush. Thanks for noticing them.
Hi, John. I like the rooftop details. The pigeons look fine. Maybe they are Sicilian pigeons? We visited Catania in 2017 and they DO have really large pigeons there. I think they are wood pigeons. We saw several of them in the Villa Bellini gardens. Water towers are much more common in NYC than Boston. I love them though and will add them to all my industrial buildings. I'm modeling a real portion of the NHRR with some Union Freight thrown in for my waterfront area. All buildings and scenes are based on my recollections and memories of them. The stores are real businesses on my street. The pigeon coop was my grandpa's as are the gardens. It is mostly a history project using z scale trains. In retrospect it probably would be closer to done if I had used n-scale instead. But then, where is the challenge? Your work has been an inspiration to a fellow urban railroader. Thanks. Jim
John, your LIC set is great. Love the old Dentyne building. I actually work there. Lots of old rail in the neighborhood, too.
Back in Aug 2019 I started to work on Mr Robinson's Building for my layout. I needed something city gritty for my layout. First I was inspired one night watching reruns of Saturday Night Live with Eddie Murphy in a skit as Mr. Robinson in "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood", a spoof on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. What caught my eye was the building that was at the opening of the "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" scene. So I took an old Downtown Deco Z scale building (the "Old Brownstones" kit that is no longer produced by Downtown Deco but revised as the NSM "A-B-C Recycling Warehouse"). This would be the basis of my building. I had a friend laser cut some windows for me and I cast another wall section to increase the apartments from three rows to four rows. My second inspiration was the work that BostonJim did on his fabulous buildings. The details, both front and rooftop, he did was unbelievable! The first photo is the SNL "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood", the second is the Downtown Deco Z scale "Old Brownstones" and the rest are what I just finished tonight. I still have some additional neighborhood people to place in front of the building. The fruit and vegetable store the "Vegetable Garden" is a sign I pulled off the internet from an actual building of a produce market in Greenwich Village, NY. Enjoy, John
This looks awesome, John. Very gritty looking and definitely a "down on its heels" neighborhood. I am humbled and pleased that you found some of my work to be inspirational. Thank you. I have been inspired by the LIRR since I first saw it. I wish Downtown Deco would surprise us with something new in z. I have used the same building as a backdrop. I boarded the windows up. Nice to have some laser cut windows to give it a lived in look. From one urban railroader to another, Great work! Jim
Wow John! That building looks just like what you see track side riding BART through Oakland, or from the freeway in Berkeley! You got it down!
Thanks Rob and Jim! I have to add some more passersby on the sidewalks. I need a guy on the sidewalk waving up to Roxanne who is hanging out of the third-story window waving invitingly from her red light lit apartment.
