Conrail Windsor St Yard (York PA) Engineering Report

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Maybe enough room, but I don't want to get that fancy.

I'm trying to keep it "simple" and "attainable". I should add that in, actually. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Holy crap. I'm always amused at how long I go between posts here.

However, it's been a busy summer, both on the railroad and off, so here's just a sampling of the latest.

I've mocked up a building to form part of the background. This is made from a Bachmann car shop. I don't love the red color though, and I'm thinking I'll be going gray with it. There are some similar buildings in the area, but they're all too light of colors to be effective backdrop material.

It's far from finished, so I'm looking for some feedback.



I've also started doing more scenicing, first I ground covered the area between the yard and the backdrop. This is done with Scenic Express's leaf litter.



Now I've moved on to doing the yard itself. Right now, I'm working on adding some grout between the tracks to cover what won't end up being ballasted.





You can see it in progress here:


I also built and painted the Interstate 83 bridge that bisects the yard. I really like the paint, it's from Krylon's "chalky finish" collection.



I'm really happy with the progress, and one of the things that kept me busy this summer was interviewing for new jobs. I got one, and it's going to involve primarily working from home, so I'm hoping there will be a bit of lunch time layout work over the next few years.

[Philip H]

Ok, first we had to crown you Grout King, now we have to add Chalky Paint Prince? 

Perhaps that can be a short video tutorial on your website?  Reposted here?  Or at least tell us which one you used.

On another front, I assume the Leaf Litter is in play because your doing one of this "Weird" fall/winter things, or is your prototype yard surrounded by so many trees it naturally has that much leaf litter all the time?

[Dave V]

Striping that interstate bridge is going to be fun!  Are you going to use some BLMA jersey barriers (K rails) for the median?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, first we had to crown you Grout King, now we have to add Chalky Paint Prince? 

Perhaps that can be a short video tutorial on your website?  Reposted here?  Or at least tell us which one you used.

It was super simple! I just sprayed it on. I used this stuff in "Putty":
http://www.krylon.com/products/chalky-finish-paint/

I got it at Michaels for 50% off.

On another front, I assume the Leaf Litter is in play because your doing one of this "Weird" fall/winter things, or is your prototype yard surrounded by so many trees it naturally has that much leaf litter all the time?

It's the first step in putting trees in. I'm doing winter, but even in summer, forest floor is forest floor.

I've got the trees built, I'm just waiting to plant them until after I get the ballasting in that area done.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Striping that interstate bridge is going to be fun!  Are you going to use some BLMA jersey barriers (K rails) for the median?

I know...

I think so. Or I might just run another strip of styrene down the middle. I need to run it by my civil engineers.

[davefoxx]

Get those road stripes correct.  A lot of people mistakenly make those broken white dividing lines (between passing lanes) way too short and too close to each other.  Most people don't realize, because they view from a foreshortened perspective, how long and how far apart those dotted lines really are.

DFF

[Dave V]

Get those road stripes correct.  A lot of people mistakenly make those broken white dividing lines (between passing lanes) way too short and too close to each other.  Most people don't realize, because they view from a foreshortened perspective, how long and how far apart those dotted lines really are.

DFF

This!  I did shorten mine somewhat on the JD because had I done them right, they would have looked wrong to the average viewer.  Same idea behind power pole spacing.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks for the heads up Dave. That's a really good point, and as you can tell, unnecessarily shrinking things is something I'm trying to avoid doing on this build.

I'll think I'll try and base it off published standards. That's one of the nice things about being friends with some civil engineers: I can get details on stuff like that.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This!  I did shorten mine somewhat on the JD because had I done them right, they would have looked wrong to the average viewer.  Same idea behind power pole spacing.

Speaking of... I'm planning on tackling details around the pit and cabin tracks soon, and I loved your treatment on your Enola area. Got any words of wisdom? I particularly liked your poles (especially the yellow markings).

[Dave V]

I particularly liked your poles

 

Naw, man, those poles were just standard Atlas poles cut down to one cross-arm and then painted.  I heard that Atlas quit making them, and come to think of it, I never see them on the shelf anymore.  Bachmann poles might work.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Where did the originate and terminate?

Also, what did you look at for inspiration? I remember some good proto photos back when you were working on it.

[Dave V]

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Where did the originate and terminate?

Also, what did you look at for inspiration? I remember some good proto photos back when you were working on it.

CRHS had a gallery of Enola shots from the late 70s.  Also looked at my Morning Sun book that covers Enola.

The poles run from the abyss (the aisle) to the pit tracks where they go to ground in the vicinity of a relay shack.



I think this pole is actually Bachmann Atlas.  I think I mixed 'em up a bit:



The pole is Floquil Rail Brown (yeah...I know) and PolyScale Reefer Yellow (any yellow craft paint will do just as well).

The relay case in question is just out of the picture to the bottom right.  I do like this angle, though.  The diesel shop makes a nice backdrop.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Cool. Where did the relay shack come from? Also, that awesome little cinderblock building in the last photo? I'm also curious about the tank too. Old MTL car?

[Dave V]

Cool. Where did the relay shack come from? Also, that awesome little cinderblock building in the last photo? I'm also curious about the tank too. Old MTL car?

Relay shack is from Railway Express Miniatures:  https://www.nscalesupply.com/rem/REM.html

The cinderblock building came with the Heljan fuel rack set.

Lastly, it's an old Intermountain tank car whose detail parts exploded one day.

It's funny, I don't know the first bloody thing about how a real yard is supposed to work..but I do enjoy modeling the cinders and the weeds.