Saginaw Transfer Railroad

[wm3798]

I like the book shelf benchwork.  I get a lot of book shelf units coming through my ReStore, and I often visualize working them into my benchwork.  I've already got two sections that are very useful.
Lee

[Chris333]

Yeah I really like the layout. Not a fan of unitrack, but you made it work.

[Denver Road Doug]

Yeah I really like the layout. Not a fan of unitrack, but you made it work.

Well, trust me I'd love to be at this point with C55 but I'm just glad to have a layout and the ability to run trains.   ;D

Thanks all for all the comments.   I realize I'm bringing Mad Dog to a wine tasting here, but I do have a method to my madness and someday I'll bring more quality to the table, trust me.

Regarding scenery, well I intend to start learning the finer points of static grass!  I model about the flattest land there is, and tall prairie grass everywhere.   I will have very few trees.  If you look closely in the last pic you can see some "dead" trees laying in the center of the field, (awaiting planting) and that might be a double digit percentage of the trees I will have.   I will have an almost dry creek running from the front of the layout (about where the 70MAC's are...you can see my painted on version) winding through to the back.  In that last pic you see it fork with one leg going back to the front corner but I don't think that will make the final rev.  I may have some slight undulations in the scenery using 3/8" foam, but mostly it's just gonna be flat.   Gonna be a couple of roads, and I will likely paint/ballast the Unitrack at some point.

So pretty basic scenery and few structures...mostly railroad related outbuildings, a flour mill, and a couple of flats.  The goal is to keep things very simple.  I want to run trains, and I'm doing that now so mission accomplished...and all in about 3 months.   I plan to play around with the electronics, and do quite a bit with that part of it, but overall whatever else I do is just gravy at this point.

[Hyperion]

Finally someone here discussing some local geography that I'm actually familiar with , since, as you mentioned, this is only a couple minutes away from BNSF's HQ where I used to work and still spend a couple months at out of the year.  Texas Pit BBQ (home of the "Big Nasty") is on the other side of the line, so I've crossed those tracks between the HQ and 287 many-a time.

Where your bookshelves join, you could call turn that gap into McLeroy Blvd.  And if you could squeeze an elevator in between your straight tracks, even if it was just widths of PVC pipe that did fit, 'proper' dimensions be-damned (not like you could ever hope to get anything close to a "proper" size of those massive elevators in that entire room anyway), you'd not only get an effective viewblock but also get some of the feel of the area.  Maybe squeeze in a slim bit of 287 along the front edge.

[Denver Road Doug]

Mark, I think sometimes that modeling "flat" is harder than the alternative.  But you're right....thank goodness for "prairie skyscrapers" to break things up.

I hadn't considered an elevator between the tracks, although that's a decent idea.  I originally didn't even intend for this layout to represent Saginaw...obviously there's no interchange, etc.   Only after I had roughed in the basics did I start thinking about it just having the "feel" of Saginaw and that the yard would represent the old ATSF yard and I'd add a few sidings for cold storage and a couple of other representative industries.   Then I thought I would blow up a photo I have of the "middle elevator" (whose name escapes me at the moment) to use as a backdrop behind the yard, and then it made sense to put a very condensed flour mill on the spur in the back.    So the third/"northwestern-most" elevator was gonna just be left out.  The layout runs clockwise=BNSF eastbound (southeastbound or pretty much due south in many areas) so to somewhat accurately represent that elevator it would really have to be in front.   There is room, and that did actually give me an idea about pulling one or two spurs off the main there and just modeling the "head house"/loading area and of course the signature NP boxcar. (which I have)   That joint WILL actually represent McLeroy Blvd although I was gonna call it San Andreas Blvd for a couple of obvious and not-so-obvious reasons.   

I am also considering pulling a spur into the middle and modeling the car repair facility to the north.  It actually comes off the UP, but again...modelers license.  But at this point it's gonna stay like it is.   I am resisting the urge to keep tearing things down and reworking trackwork and adding complexity for now.

[Bendtracker1]

Excellent!

It's amazing how just a little color and texture changes everything!

I love the black bookcases!  At first glimpse it looked as if you were hanging black skirting! 
We use black Jr. Broad clothe for our skirting on our modules.  Black not only looks clean & sexy, it also draws your eyes towards the layout!

Nice Job, Keep up the good work!

Allen...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like the temporary painted on scenery. I've found that often helps me visualize what's going on, before it actually goes on.

[wm3798]

In fact, on some of Ed's more conceptual work, he uses only paint, with no scenery, or base, or anything.  He sits in a darkened room with a can of raw umber, and listens to pan flute music on his I-phone.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

In fact, on some of Ed's more conceptual work, he uses only paint, with no scenery, or base, or anything.  He sits in a darkened room with a can of raw umber, and listens to pan flute music on his I-phone.

Have you been watching me? I really need to get some curtains for the basement...

[Denver Road Doug]

Here is my latest "lipstick on a pig" project.   Many people have attempted to weather Unitrack to make it *somewhat* more presentable so these are my efforts to that end.  It's actually my first attempt on my second "guinea pig" piece of Unitrack.   On the first one I was trying a variety of things I thought would work and it looks kinda like Tammy Faye Baker right about now.  But, I learned a few things with that one, and developed my "idea" for this one that seems to have hit pretty close to the mark.



My goals here were basically:
1. Make something that looks close to what I see on the railroad I am modeling, color-wise.   Except for most of the higher used mains around here this usually means track that looks pretty weathered...the Texas sun beats up the ties pretty bad, and pretty quickly.  The rail tends to be on the red side, both due to oxidation and from the red/dark brown soils surrounding.  Like any track weathering project, there will be variations but I'm trying to find a good "standard".
2. Something that can be accomplished relatively quickly.   What you see here is currently four steps that probably will take about 1 minute per piece in bulk. (not accounting for paint drying time)  Depending on further testing, there could be 1 or 2 more steps but I think for a quick and dirty process it's looking promising.

My critique (outside of "it's Unitrack, it'll never look good no matter what you do") is the rails are a little too red.  One thing I am considering is either a wash or a drybrushing of rail brown to tone it down before doing ballast.  Also, a light "dust" of the track--post-ballast--might also tie things together better.

The ballast I used for this test shot was just from a "grab bag" of ballast that I'd used to try blending different looks in the past.  So the actuall ballast I'll use will be much lighter.   Also, it is very haphazardly applied, as I was trying to see if the ballast would cover the bottom part of the rail...without the ballast the reddish-brown effect is extreme and accentuates the already crazy tall Unitrack rail.  So unfortunately the ballast has taken away from the overall look of the ties which is the main thing I'm trying to show here.   The area near the uncoupling pin is about the best representation where you can see the ends of the ties defined somewhat.  So I cropped that below just for grins...

[Dave V]

DRD, that Unitrack looks really good...  I know Unitrack has its following, and I enjoyed using it on my son's layout.  Your treatment of it in that pic is about as good as I've ever seen.

[cv_acr]

Excellent!

It's amazing how just a little color and texture changes everything!

Scenery work is great like that. Every little step makes a huge difference. A simple coat of paint really changes things!

[nscalemike]

I'll agree with that being the best looking representation of Unitrack that I've seen as well.  I also tried using it on a layout, and liked the operational parts, but all my attempts at weathering failed. 

Looks good as is, but if you were to try "dusting" everthing when done it might really tie it all together like you said . . . . . let us know!

Mike

[Specter3]

I will ditto the above posts. That is great weathering on the unitrak!

Ryan

[Rossford Yard]

Well, I saw the Saggy Trannie yesterday in person and it looks great.  Not sure how I got the credit for that name........

Unitrak ballasted looks good, and the layout is about all you would ever really need.  It got me thinking about the spare bedroom size layout over a bigger one.

Doug also sold me some extra BLMA spline cars after I convinced him his spline train was just a little too long for that layout.....Did much better at his apt. than at the train show in buying stuff.  Only cost me a few $$ and a hockey ticket.