Enjoy the weekend everyone.Big NFL weekend.I'm sure the conductors are happy with this consist :shade: .
Well I think I will get in on this one. I hope over the next two weeks this scene will change somewhat
Our F-3 led coal train rounds the bend behind J-Town, the north end of the West Harbor. Maybe I should just make it the North Harbor? The water in the lower left is obviously fake. I haven't built the extension yet; it's next on the list.
A view of J-Town from the edge of the pier. The V1000 is pulling refrigerated cars on one of the two service tracks. I've got some bloom of highlights on the low-res jpg. I'll work on how to fix that. The Nolan family pretty much owns this seedy side of town. There's my fish processing plant, Mick
Pete: Los Angeles had a bunch of "harbors" there together. Navy Yard was one they used, I think. "Yard" or "Pier" or something. Some of those "piers" were massive company operations.
The scratchbuilt buildings in the foreground were fun for me to build. Jeanne did most of the rest. The cobblestone sidewalks are printed paper. One of the things I have to work on is the consistency of the backdrops, especially the sky.
We just catch our coal train passing behind J-Town. In the foreground, the bow of a small coastal freighter, 350 feet long and perhaps 3,000 tons, looms over the dock. This is one of the ships you often see on eBay, heavily modified. I can see from the photos I'm going to have to replace the ventilators, windlass and bits with better stuff! The hull, however, is very well done. Aft of the ventilators are details from other suppliers, which are much better. Not a big deal to replace things; I just have had time. J-Town is the red light district, and a number of ladies are conducting their business while a cop turns his back and studiously ignores them. Mick O'Nolen claims his dance floor is built timbers from the USS Constitution--I think I ran into this claim someplace in Charlestown, a part of Boston.
I received a Frisco car from a poor lost soul who believes there is no other railroad that existed so these images are for him, he know who he is
Colonel.. I always enjoy looking at your Mopac stuff, those locos look like they just rolled off the paint line. Nice stuff!
After clearing J-Town, our coal train heads south along the western side of the bay. It passes a battered, decommisioned YMS-class minesweeper about to be broken up. Actually, this ship was badly damaged when I fell through the East Bay Harbor. This bent the mast, stove in the port gunwhales, and destroyed a lot of the smaller details. The 3-inch gun at the bow was scratchbuilt, along with most everything else on the boat besides a few ventilators and bitts. I built it while visiting for a week in Florida with Jeanne's mother. It's a built-up styrene hull--what a pain!--and mostly toothpicks, copper tubing, and wire. I had a lot of time on my hands! The railing is Gold Medal Models, from the Yamato 1/200 set. I like it because it's delicate compared to the styrene alternatives. In the background at the right are the office buildings for the Atomic Energy Commission regional office. In the left background is the first of the engine repair sheds. Both camoflage the return track to the yard. I decided to use this approach rather than hidden tracks. The buildings do hide the tracks, but are easily removed for track cleaning. I'm going to have to restring this 137-foot long ship, and try to fix the gunwhales. (Ooops, forgot to upload the image.) OK, here it is.
WOW those are some vintage photos I like the black and white photos like that.....makes the model seem even more authentic to me anyways.
We catch the train rolling south, and starting to see the bigger ships in West Bay harbor. In the background is a long engine repair facility, built from five Bachmann kits. Instead of a tunnel, it hides some of the return tracks. In the foreground is a C2 freighter, 453-feet long, and about 60 in the beam. It's riding a bit high becasuse it's almost empty. This ship is due for an overhaul, as it was one of the first I built.
The F45's are very near completion! Only tiny (glazing, windshield wipers, window frames, ect) details are next, and then couplers, and shipment!
Hardly a fancy setting (the track on the layout is masked off for scenery, and a diorama is waaaay down my to-do list), but here's my newest toy :teeth:
We're poking along here at about 25 MPH. There's no need to accelerate, as we'll soon have to slow to 10 MPH to cross The Portsmouth Bay Lift Bridge. To the right of this image is the fast freighter Rachel Cristianne. To the left is the main yard. One of the challenges of model railroad photography is getting down low. This was taken with A Nikon D70 with a 12-20mm zoom, sitting on the tracks. The center of the lens, and thus the center of the image, is still too high. Rich Yourstone shoots with mirrors; I'll have to explore that.
