Conrail Windsor St Yard (York PA) Engineering Report

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That's a great photo. Have any in winter, by any chance?

[GaryHinshaw]

Here's a few that might be of interest:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=555333&nseq=6
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=548245&nseq=73
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=548068&nseq=74

[OldEastRR]

Don't forget to dump spilled load material between the yard track rails, all over the yard. And a grease line running down the center of the engine track. Pure PC.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Excellent photos Gary. I've been to that location in the first one a bunch of times, and it looks pretty decently different today.

And Old East, that's a really good point. I'll make sure to do that (but I might wait for an ops session or two to figure out which tracks typically collect grain hoppers).

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Came across a fun Youtube video last night of when they ran a dinner train on the NCR.

I hate the "fake" locomotives (that's not a WM RSD5 nor a B&O FA) that are painted for railroads that don't belong there, but I love the view of the charm of the line that it provides.

http://conrail1285.com/alcos-on-the-ncr/

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[davefoxx]

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=548245&nseq=73

This picture's great!  Who needs ballast?  Just a lot of dirt.   

DFF

[seusscaboose]

I've worked on that RR....  Kenny Bitten was running it and the Catalpa Falls was stored there for a while and used on the Dinner train as 1st class service.

although the video is shot before that all happened.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, so I wasn't happy with the ground cover that I had tried, so I used the scenery Control-Z (the vacuum cleaner) and tried again.

First I removed the wiesengras (the poly fiber stuff that actually looks good in other contexts) and took another shot.



This time, I threw down a base of unsanded grout, and then added some simple WS "burnt grass".



I'm much happier with this.

So then I moved onto the office, engine pit, and caboose tracks.

I just gave these a similar unsanded grout treatment. I really wanted these to capture the "muck" look that was so prevalent in these areas in real life.





And then, the really scary part...

[seusscaboose]

don't touch the roundhouse section at all... I think it looks sweet with the old shadow effect you have going on there

the trailers parked on the old site really tell a story of "then and now"....

my 2 cents (with a little Scotch thrown in)

[Ed Kapuscinski]

don't touch the roundhouse section at all... I think it looks sweet with the old shadow effect you have going on there

the trailers parked on the old site really tell a story of "then and now"....

Oh yeah, I really like the shadows.

The trailers are just there temporarily, but they DO look good there. Hmm...

[conrail98]

Small container/TV yard like what they used to do up in Allentown?

Phil

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, had some downtime today so I got out the groundfoam and went to town.

It's not glued, so I'm soliciting opinions.





























No groundfoam here, but it's a good illustration of the pit track muck.


And, nicely illustrating the color changes in the grout, this one. I'm not sure if I like the natural variation or not.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Small container/TV yard like what they used to do up in Allentown?

Phil

I've been thinking about that, but I realized that in order for trucks to get to it, they'd have to cross either the yard tracks or the mains, neither of which are things that Conrail would've been hot on doing, so I've kinda killed that idea. I'm just thinking I'll have it setup as dead storage for something.

[svedblen]

Looking good. The colors are nice and you have generally the right amount of it I think. Like here for instance:



But I was never very fond of ground foam. What kind of vegetation growes like foam clumps? It looks good from a distance, but more close up...



I admit, I use ground foam myself, but I don't really like it. So what is the alternative? Static grass of course, but you cannot have grass everywhere either. I would like to find a way of modelling grass like this:



Or stuff like this:

[pjm20]

And, nicely illustrating the color changes in the grout, this one. I'm not sure if I like the natural variation or not.

I think it looks realistic and maybe even put some slight water effects in order ot achieve the muddy basin effect you are going for.