Progress on the Housatonic Railroad Layout

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Man that is looking good. Its nice to see a full sized New England layout. We always seem to get lost in the mix of UP, SP and BNSF.

More importantly, when can I run the big blue on it?  ;D

[central.vermont]

Eric,

That is one nice looking layout you have going there!!! That bridge........ !!!
I was glad to have met you at the Springfield show and am looking forward to seeing
your layout when John N and myself make the trip down your way to work on
Scott's layout. I would say it's a must see.

Jon

[Pomperaugrr]

Thanks Jon.  It was good to meet you too.  John N. has my cell phone number.  Give me a call if you can stop by.

Eric

[MEC_FAN]

Eric,

It was good to meet up with you at Springfield. The bridge is awesome, great job on it. Like Jon said we'll see if we can meet up when we go to Scotts, probably in March.


John

[Pomperaugrr]

Here's an update on layout progress.  This past weekend, I finished wiring in feeders for the second power district.  I also spent some time roughing in the steel viaduct.  Next, I tried airbrushing tie and rail colors.  Here is one of the combinations I like best.  Finally, I scratchbuilt a road bridge for Newtown, to help disguise the hole in the wall leading to Hawleyville.  The railings are from Rix, but everything else is laminated styrene, styrene beams and bronze wire for rebar, where there was concrete spalling on the bridge supports.  I need to make the rust more subtle, but this is where I am for now.

Two of the steel viaduct roughed in:




Track paint test.  Foreground painted.  Back track is stock:


Newtown road bridge.  Again, only the bridge railings are from Rix.  Everything else, including the girders and New England style bridge supports, is scratchbuilt.  Overview and close up shots of spalling concrete and rebar showing follow.  The rust needs to be subdued a bit with an overspray wash of aged concrete mix..







Eric

[UP1996]

The viaduct looks great.

[Ian MacMillan]

Eric what size did you use for the I beams, or did you make those as well?

[Pomperaugrr]

Eric what size did you use for the I beams, or did you make those as well?

Ian, I'll have to check.  I honestly just eye balled them at the hobby shop.  They are about 1/4" tall from Plastruct.  They scale out about the same size as the ones in the Rix bridge kit.  I didn't bother with the kit, since it builds up too narrow for my application and I don't like the rounded piers.  I used 1/4" square styrene for the horizontal supports and smaller Plastruct square tubing for the vertical legs on the bridge piers.

Eric

Eric

[jsoflo]

Love the work! Is the Newtown bridge leading to Hawleyville going to represent I-84 or another spot? Nice track weathering as well, I am enjoying following this thread, reminds me of the old hometown!
my best,
Jan

[Pomperaugrr]

Thanks Jan.

There are a couple of road bridges that cross the HRRC in this area.  My model is a generic one to help disguise where the tracks tunnel through the wall into the next room where teh Shepaug Transload Center in Hawleyville will be located. There will be a curved rock cut and foliage to further hide the pass through the backdrop.  I wanted something that would look appropriate for this part of CT and didn't want a tunnel.

The steel trestle is purely fictional.  It is my one concession to having a fun, non-prototypical layout element.  I did cut it down by half its height to make it look a little more plausible.

Eric

[Pomperaugrr]

Here are a few progress shots showing some projects I have been working on.  The first is an in progress shot of Quality Oils.  This is an actual customer on the HRRC.  It still needs details like trailer bumpers, piping, tanks, etc, plus weathering, pavement and scenery.


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[Pomperaugrr]

Next are a couple of Progress shots on the purely fictional bridge scene.  I cut off the solid cast legs from the ME towers and installed HO scale Central Valley box girders in their place.  This is only the base layer of scenery.  I still need to add dead leaves, under growth, static grass, hundreds of trees, water, etc.  The track goes through the wall into the 6' x 10' closet adjacent to the main room.  Sorry for the blurry shot with morning sun.  Still a long way to go:

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[Pomperaugrr]

One more:

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[Ed Kapuscinski]

Eric, that's looking great. I might suggest turning the tree color down a touch (maybe hit them with some dullcote?). Also, I think the whole hillside needs more growth on it, as it is, it looks rather Californian.

[Pomperaugrr]

Ed, I agree about the tree color.  Those are just placed there for now.  I am looking at the viability of using these, in lieu of puffballs, which I do not like.  I really like the texture these provide as background filler trees, but the color is horrible, even with the washes I used.  I am hitting them with various shade of greens to tone down the neon color.  These are cheap chinese trees from e-bay.  I'll top them with more appropriate ground foam and transition to super trees as I move toward the foreground.  

The barren areas are just some ground foam and tile grout sprinkled on latex paint for the base coat only.  Those areas will be tree covered eventually.  I like building up scenery in layers for texture and variation.  I need to use a darker grout, as what is in the photos lightened up too much.   I will still be applying static grass, home made forest floor cover/clutter, under growth, etc.  I will be putting thousands of trees on the layout.  This is a prototype western CT and MA railroad, so heavily forested areas are a must.

I appreciate all feedback.  That's why I am posting progress shots, rather than waiting for a finished scene.  

Eric