The LIRR Industrial Service, Inc. shelf layout

[Ed Kapuscinski]

John, that looks amazing.

[Lemosteam]

Thanks @Ed Kapuscinski , that structure has been without wires for waaaay too long!

Meanwhile, does this fit into your dead season stuff? I mean, it IS actually DEAD… 



After drilling the trunk from the top and splitting it open, I used black hot glue to create a more real trunk root system. Dirt and moss will be blended into it once the dead tree is installed.



After coat of Tamiya gray primer:



Adding sepia India ink over the grey primer.







The ink dried vey glossy, so, this is after Dullcote. I love the way the Dullcote dissolved the ink on some ridges. I did not even have to dry brush any white on the tree!

[peteski]

John,
The trunk, large branches, and the root structures look super realistic, but the smaller branches look just weird to me.  Like straight pointy daggers.  I realize this is a dead tree with no finer branch structures, but what's there just doesn't look realistic, or match the quality of the rest of it.  Since you spend good deal of effort on the rest of this tree, maybe it would be worth to snip off the smaller "daggers", drill some angled holes in the larger branches and add some smaller branches made from real thin twigs or dried up weeds from your garden?

[chessie system fan]

Or you could add static grass and then paint them the tree color.  I've seen that done to good effect before. 

[peteski]

I'm not thinking about the foliage (which should be none on a dead tree) or the texture of the branch surfaces. I was thinking more about the shape and thickness of those secondary branches, and the angles they protrude from the larger branches.  To me they look like computer generated tree branches in some video games back from the '80s or '90s.

[Angus Shops]

John,
The trunk, large branches, and the root structures look super realistic, but the smaller branches look just weird to me.  Like straight pointy daggers.  I realize this is a dead tree with no finer branch structures, but what's there just doesn't look realistic, or match the quality of the rest of it.  Since you spend good deal of effort on the rest of this tree, maybe it would be worth to snip off the smaller "daggers", drill some angled holes in the larger branches and add some smaller branches made from real thin twigs or dried up weeds from your garden?

 Well maybe… but if the tree is REALLY dead (like for a few years…) then all of the fine twig branches would have bee lost, leaving only the ‘scaffold’ branch structure. But I agree, the ‘dagger points’ should be clipped back to represent to represent the stubs of broken major limbs. But overall, it’s a great representation of a long dead deciduous tree, particularly in N scale.
Geoff - certified arborist

[Lemosteam]

This ^^^^^^^^^ and thank you @Angus Shops.

Plus, I never mentioned how the tree died. Struck by lightning, the top 40 feet exploded off to the side, burnt, and was later removed, but no one wanted to spend the time removing the trunk. All that remains is the burnt trunk and the few branches below the strike that did not completely burn off. The lightning strike burned down into the canter and has over time eroded well down into the center. The left branch cracked at its crotch and fell much later. I have snipped the points off now, but have yet to add the charring at the top and on the branch ends that smoldered out leaving the stubs.

I am also thinking about adding a tire swing to the right branch for the kids living in the tenement housing behind the elevated trusses.

[peteski]

I guess you guys just don't see it the same way I do.  The straight shape of the branches and the angle they protrude from the larger branches look unnatural to me.  Those should be more organic looking. Hard to describe.  But if you like it, that's all that counts.

I guess last night seeing this same write-up in 3 different threads, I didn't realize I already commented on it in one of those other threads.    Actually I had a feeling that I did comment already but couldn't find it. Shame on my for having a "senior moment".  I've been having them more frequently lately.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks @Ed Kapuscinski , that structure has been without wires for waaaay too long!

Meanwhile, does this fit into your dead season stuff? I mean, it IS actually DEAD… 

Lol, yes! I'd love to put this write up on the site.

[Lemosteam]

Finally received, painted and installed some line pole transformers, which allowed me to finish the west side power lines.



This unit powers the poles under the elevated track and the businesses and apartments north of the mainline.







This unit powers the enginehouse, aggregate biz.







This pole powers the large yard light.



This pole will also power the interchange tower.



Next I powered the main catenary with lines from the substation and added power from the substation to the line poles:





Before all that, I added the back roads on the east side of the channel that lead east to the extension, and south toward the scrap yard. Hard to see, but I also added a small streetlight for the beach house, and a large streetlight at the wye of the road.

[Lemosteam]

Soldered up some of the east side structures’ lights.

Here is the light for the fork in the road, and the bath house streetlights.



Here is the substation all lit up.



Also powered up the aggregate yard light. The basement window is casting a great backlight onto the waterfront waves!

[Lemosteam]

Added red marine channel navigation lights to the sea walls and LIRR IS bridge for nighttime marine ops.

Pretty excited to start building and detailing the barges and LIRR IS tugboat soon.

[mkearns]

It may be too late, but you might want to reconsider your marker lights. I have only been dabbling in trains for a couple years, but in a prior life I did ship and nautical things for 9 years.

“Red, Right, Returning” was pounded into my head many years ago as a young cadet learning to drive ships. Basically means “Red markers, on the right, when returning from sea”. Now various other danger, hazard, or overhead warning lights would be red too, but anything typically paired up down a channel would have red on the right and green on the left - if you were headed “away” from the ocean. +100points if you wire these markers to flash at fixed intervals, but varied for any duplicates (eg one at 3 seconds another at 5 seconds flash). The flashing at night is one of the few ways to tell markers apart and which on me your nearest on the chart.

But I get that the wiring and install is done and it might be a bit late for the peanut gallery to chime in. I’m new here and may have missed any earlier chance to weigh in when you started on this harbor lighting project.

[Lemosteam]

Thanks @mkearns , your point is well taken as I know the navigation rules too.

However the channel to the bridge is not to be navigated by powered boats of any kind, so these are warning lights only. The channel is only wide enough for one barge to be moored there. It’s not wide enough for a tug to even turn in.

Any other boat in there goes at their own risk.

I may add some warning bouys as well, but I am still developing the area.

The true navigated channel is really the waterfront along the edge of the layout and I will be considering adding more red along those seawalls.

If you look up thread you can see where the barges will be and where the tug will be.

[Lemosteam]

Took a break over the holiday and when I got back I decided to make a kids play area by the beach.

Here is the process I used to make the swingset. The frame is made with soldered Phosphor Bronze wire, the seats are formed brass strip, and the “chains” are 38 gage magnet wire, wrapped under the seats and soldered in place. The chains are tinned at their ends.



Here I hooked the chains so I could solder the hooks to the top bar. The short swing is from the local bully, you know the kind…



After posing the swings and adding a coat of Rustoleum galvanized paint to all but the seats. The seats are painted with Tamiya TS-6 Matte Black. There will be children glued in place later.



Next I built a slide, you know the one that burned your  on the way down! This was made using scrap stairs, and 1/8” aluminum square tubing sawed in half, sanded down to have shallow sides, and epoxied to the top of the ladder. Small brass wire braces were epoxied to the sides. Then the galvie paint and a wire stake to plant it in the foam.



Painted and mounted five bolyards on the western waterfront for the barges to moor.



I discovered that I broke the concrete bumper on the aggregate siding, so I painted two more bumpers, one to replace the broken one, and a new one for the new scrapyard siding.