Thanks. It's 3'x16' for now... I plan to expand to the right off the end by the paper mill, first with staging tracks and then a further expansion across the room, maybe about 3'x8" will fit over there.
I use a combination of Model Masters paints, mainly burnt umber and raw umber, mixed about 50/50. I'm not real picky on the mix, as real rail varies from mile to mile. I use a more "rust" color on sidings/industrial tracks. I airbrush everything, rails and ties, as the color all pretty much blends together in the prototype. On sidings and such I'll brush paint the ties with a lighter gray/brown to reflect the neglected condition of such.
Joe, Great job so far. I'll be watching to get more ideas for my small layout. The industrial buildings on page 2 of the thread are particularly nice. Dave
Continued work on the ground cover and finished the creek bed. I threw a few of the structures on the layout and posed a few trains to see how things looked. You can't see it real well, but the track for the feed mill was ballasted with a blend of WS blended gray, real dirt and finely sifted gravel from the street in front of my house. This helps differentiate it from the well-maintained (yet to be applied) mainline ballast. I am a crappy model railroad photographer...
That looks fantastic. The elevator looks great, adding some more silos out of pvc I see. Keep the updates coming.
REALLY nice job! You're coming along nicely! LOVE the PVC grain elevator trick - great way to save a buck:thumbs_up: I'm starting layout #7 in a few months; first one in N scale! Love the inspirational tips and tricks - thanx!!! biggrin:
As many people have said already, that's a very nice layout... and you work fast... looking forward to the progress...
how exactly do trains use the yard? there looks to be a yard lead-ish track, but it looks very short. curious how that works.
BIG Update... I've been hard at work, but very remiss with updates on my layout. I recently completed my creek and river and a few more structures, as well as the yard, and all ballasting. To the photos!! The river and creek were made with Park's Super Glaze, purchased at Home Depot. It's a two part epoxy with ZERO odor, which I highly recommend. I tinted it with hobby paints, and used gloss medium for the rough water. I actually imbedded some polyfiber yarn used for fly tying in the rapids to give a foamy look and am very pleased with how that turned out. The white water areas have highly thinned white drybrushed on the surface.
This is my ADM corn syrup transloading facility. The building is scratchbuilt, with mostly Micro Engineering parts. I scratchbuilt all of the piping from brass and styrene, carefully bent over a candle I can't recall where the shed came from. I need to build more storage tanks still, and complete the piping to them from the building.
Fire station, scratchbuilt from Pikestuff parts, sheet styrene, and Walther's brick sheet. Overview of the yard. The question was asked how does it function. In front is the a/d track. There are six classification tracks, three stub end, three double-ended. Off in the distance is the lead, which serves to access the two industries that are down that way. Fairly small, but suits my needs.
Some motive power. Atlas SD50 SD60M combo. Both built from undecorated units, with Microscale decals. I added MU cables and hoses, windshield wipers, grab irons and coupler cut levers. Weathered with washes, pastels and airbrushing. My new Kato SD70MAC twins. These were decorated units to which I added grab irons, MU cables from Atlas, sunshades, painted the walkways. handrails and details (still needs the nose set), and washed with an oil/turpenoid wash. Needs a little more weathering, but will keep it light as these were the last new units Conrail purchased.
Walther's Superior paper Mill, with an office from Pikestuff in front, and a totally scratch building behind it. I used the walls from a HO Pikestuff building as a starting point. Still some details to add, but mostly complete. Also the pond behind the mill, made in the same way as my river and creek posted above More to come, stay tuned!!! .