I guess I will open this topic up so we can kick off the New Year. I will have to dredge through my box-o-slides to find something new to post for the occasion. Stay tuned. And for the rest of you, show us what you got. It is always a pleasure to see everyone's work.
If you think this grade looks impossible, it probably is. But my engines manage it just fine (with a little help). This is a new section that I opened last week and I am still tinkering with the scenery. Bryant (@http://www.railimages.com/gallery/Bryant-Mansfield)
I remember some grades as steep s 8% out in the Rockies on 4'-8-1/2" gage with some around 10% on narrow gage, so yours may not be too bad if it works for you. If your railroad does what you enjoy, no one else has any right to criticize, unless they put money or time into building it. As a boy I was happy as a 4 footed clam with my Lionel going up a 25 degree slope and none of the other boys complained. Your grade looks good with the scenery.
Happy New Year. Here are some black and white photos to start off the new year. Pueblo roundhouse. Narrow gauge at Radium. Pueblo on the RGW
Thanks for all your kind remarks. To the question of the rocks, I put a bunch of driveway stone in a baking pan, sprayed silcone lubricant over for release, then pored latex rubber over them. It took several coatings, but I finally ended up with rock molds (I guess this is the conventional way to make rock molds). I mixed up plaster with cement coloring and smeared it over cut and glued insulation foamboard to make the hills. I pressed the rocks into the plaster while it was wet. When hardened, I lightly spray the rocks light brown to give some depth definition, then hit them with a wire brush. I think it helps to use the same coloring for both the plaster on the hills and in the rocks. Some pics of the materials I used are on the site (above). Incidentally, if you look closely at the foreground, you can see that I just smear the plaster on with my hands like cake batter. I knock objectionable areas down with a wood rasp and fill crevices with bushes. In this pic, I only added some flock grass to the resulting plaster surface using spray adhesive. Bryant [ 01. January 2005, 19:54: Message edited by: Bryant ]
John Widmar--outstanding modelling! I can see you have been at this a while. Your expertise shows! Bryant
Here is a shot of the Mississippi Valley Railroad layout that belongs to a good friend of mine. Danny Dodson was kind of my mentor and got me modeling in N scale again back in about 1989. He was trying to get his layout ready to be on the tour for the NTRAK convention comming to Houston that year. I got involved in structures, bridge building, track ballasting and scenicing. His layout represents the Illinois Central around Natchez Mississippi.
John, Just luv the shot of the round house,never tire of your layout,dont get to see alot of the Nn3 either. Bryant, That shot could be some where on the Monarch branch,even though they never ran GP60's,but still a nice scene. Aww the IC,I still have a soft spot for the IC,ICG,GM&O,nice shot Russell.
Neat stuff, folks! I've been too busy working on other photo stuff, both industrial and nature, to have much motivation to shoot the trains, but January is supposed to be slow, so I may do some new stuff. Here's a photo I posted in response to another thread. It shows that I'm replacing my "printed" skyscrapers with more 3-D models. Since this was taken, we've added crossing guards and a lot of details. As before, the buildings serve well to hold up the second deck.
good shot, Russ! Lonestar: I have not measured the actual grade, so I can't say. To some extent it is an optical illusion that is created by the background. If I remove the background it settles down to a more realistic grade. Pete and J. Widmar: you guys are way ahead of me on your modeling. Incredible complexity with those buildings and all! All I have is plaster and rocks. I need to get some structures! Bryant
Bryant Great shot! John Awesome roundhouse shot! Russell Great looking shot! Pete Nice layout and nice use of available items!
Here is 2 different versions of Nn3 Carson & Colorado Ventilated Boxcars I made. The C&C did not own any reefers, but used these cars to move perishables, even thoug it was a desert line. -Robert
Not a model but interesting I caught this in lovely and beautiful Commerce City, CO (those that know of Commerce City will understand the sarcasm) on 12-29-04 at about 4pm. I had it at a crossing but couldn't get my camera out in time for a close up. Bryant, here's a photo that looks to be about the same grade Eric
Hey folks! Great stuff! I just got back from 'fanning the Moffat Route, here's a sneak preview of a coal load exiting Tunnel 23, eastbound, with my position above T22:
Bryant, Jason, and Tom, Thank You. Bryant, I like the shot you posted, looks very realistic. The scene blends together nicely. When you start doing towns or buildings I have a feeling that they will come out good also. Here are a few other photos that I haven't posted before; Looking up at the Royal Gorge bridge Zooming in on the bridge. From the West side of the canyon.
SNFF 1 1 05 Synopsis of Walthers Buildings installed on Peavine Line Happy New Year, everybody! Here's progress of Walthers buildings being installed on the Peavine Line. I designed the little Peavine Layout with the Walthers Geo. Roberts Printing company and the Walthers Ice House specifically in mind. As I tinkered with the track plan, I dreamed up the idea of two fairly good size buildings to act as: - View blocks to track entering/exiting the Glendale Junction module - Give some 'heft' to the scene, i.e. have the buildings appropriately overwhelm the trains a little - i.e. a little bit of visual illusion trickery So I actually ended up sizing what buildings were available, and selected these these two Walthers buildings. The Glendale Junction module is an attempt to use diagonal arrangement of lines-of-sight to optically distract from the small size of the module. A view that shows the buildings and how they relate to the scene: How the Printing Company relates to the layout. The intent is to decal this building as 'Glendale Produce': How the Ice House relates to the layout: A closer view of the Ice House installation in progress. The intent is to decal this as 'Santa Fe Ice House No. 1': A final angle view of the Ice House: Take care, all!
Quick upgrades to the Atlas Airslides: The biggest improvement was thinning the roof. Smaller improvements included lowered bolsters, lo-pro wheels, Z scale couplers, and new roofwalk supports at the ends. Next is a backdated Atlas NE-6 to an NE-5: Bryan Bussey was nice enough to send me some parts he had etched a while ago after I asked him about the NE-5 on his workbench (seen in one of the photos in his newest NSR article) I ended up using the sides and cupola roof on an Atlas NE-6. The roof was sanded smooth, the 'gutters' were filled in with quarter round to get the curved roof of the prototype. The cupola was heightened by 0.020" and a new roof glued on the get the extra height. Its the closest I can get so far to a CGW eastern style caboose.
