WM Western Lines Engineering Report

[Zox]

Lee, now you need to add an N-scale ReStore to the layout, to sell all the dormer windows you won't be using... 

[Dave Schneider]

I took a look at the area via Google Maps to get a feel for what you are doing. Noticed that it is near the Crabby Pig restaurant. Looks like a decent place to have beer and something to eat. I like what you have done with this scene. Thanks for the updates.

Best wishes, Dave

[wm3798]

I think this is going to be a very popular photo angle...  I'll need to work on making the shelf above less visible, either by zooming in on the building, or by shopping out things that don't belong in the sky...

You can see that I've painted the Star Apologist building in the background, and I added the windows after I shot this.  I'd offer you a more complete view of the building in living color, but the cam batteries shat the bed.  So, onto the charger, and off to bed!

Lee

[sizemore]

Mikey likes it!

-Mikey

[wm3798]

Okay... freshly charged batteries, and a few more baby steps...
First, the view from the Goodyear Blimp...



Obvious things to do include installing lights and the roof on the newspaper plant.  But this gives a pretty good idea of how the massing of the buildings and the colors will work together.


Here's a full frontal of the station, and the platform is still topless!  All right, stop fogging up the monitor...  next...


Looking north and west from the overpass.  Look at all that real estate!  This will be quite the tasty urban panorama when all the blanks are filled in.


Looking west along the tracks.  The hole under the platform is where the fire breathing turtles live.  The blue DPM building indicates where the grade crossing for Baltimore Street is.... going to be.

So tonight, I'll be working on finishing the station building, and perhaps doing the lights and all on the newspaper.  My plan is to work from the skyboard forward so everything is set from the main line back.  Once that's done, I'll ballast the track, and finally, build the flood walls in front of the station tracks.

Carry on!

[Philip H]

Like Eric I have to agree - you have done a HAWT job here buddy-o!

[davefoxx]

The station looks fantastic in this lighting and from this angle, even without everything in the shot being completed.  Well played, sir.  I look forward to seeing this in person... hopefully sometime soon.

By the way, that tree looks as if it has bagworms.  You may want to get that treated. 

DFF

[wm3798]

Yes, I have to revisit Master Fuji's School of Tree Making one more time...  I found my coarse turf stuff, so that should help.

Thanks for the kind words.  This morning I ballasted the track through the station, and I'm getting ready to ballast the remainder of the industry tracks.  I dropped the feeder wires last night, and just have to do the five slide switch thingies for the last few turnouts, then I can connect all the wires.

In a brain dead moment, I also cut through the throwbar of a turnout, which will now require an on-site repair...   Oh well, anything worth doing is worth doing twice!

Lee

[seusscaboose]

The blue DPM building indicates where the grade crossing for Baltimore Street is.... going to be.

here is a pic... as if you're standing at the blue building...  am i right lee?

[mcjaco]

Perhaps a little to the right, and lower???  Make the depot block out as much of the shelf, or have the set up of the shot naturally crop it out.

[wm3798]

Finished the chimneys, installed the last few Zox doors on the basement (which sadly will never be seen!) and started on the platform roof.

Closing in on completion, and it feels so good!!

Pics as they happen.

Lee

[DKS]

Lee, as much as you're working hard to remain faithful to the station, I wonder if you're doing it more of a disservice by trying to accommodate the lower floor though considerably trickery and compromise. I wonder if the scene would work better as a whole if you simply leveled off the land under and behind the station and did away with the lower level altogether? Granted, it would damage the model's fidelity, but the setting it occupies might compensate for that loss by having what amounts to a landscape kluge eliminated, which was done just to allow doors that can't be used (or even seen, for that matter) to continue to exist. Just a thought.

Otherwise, quite outstanding work.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It's kinda late to lower all the terrain behind it, right?

[DKS]

It's kinda late to lower all the terrain behind it, right?

Lower? Never said lower; I suggested filling in the depression behind/around it, so it's all on  basically the same level.

[wm3798]

I'm  totally cool with the way it's working out.  A few well placed trees disguise the truncated back yard, and I've added driveways in from the left and the right...  What happens behind the building visually isn't mission critical.

The building is finally finished...  There are a few minor things I might tweak down the road, but here it is in all its glory, divorced from the surrounding scenery...



Here's the back.  I wanted to model the building as completely as possible, as I'm planning to do a module that will include it for either the N track crowd, or just to tote to WMRHS events.  Zox's doors turned out first rate!



And with the lights on...





Uh-huh!

And around to the front...






I wish I had some smaller LEDs on hand for the platform, but the way I installed these, I can easily replace them down the road.  And boy was it a treat sizing and fitting in those damn columns.  You'll notice that the platform rises about an 1/8" from right to left to account for the modest grade that carries the main line.  But it all worked out.

I had to finish painting the columns and some other stuff when Andy came up to bed (school day tomorrow after spring break) so I brought the building down to the kitchen table to finish it, and took the photos there.  I used all the available light in the room, and a 5 second exposure at F8.  The shots that don't have the lights all blown out were done by disconnecting the lights after about a second, maybe less.

So anyway, tomorrow night, it will get installed in its natural habitat, then the push will be on to work on the last 30" of main line (apart from the section behind the yard) that needs to be finished!  (just west of the station).

I'm tired now... 
Lee