The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[davefoxx]

I ordered some scenery materials this week, because, while I had just enough of the light gray ballast to finish the SBD tracks, I ran out of the medium gray ballast for the A&R.  So, at the same time, I ordered another box of SuperTrees and a bag of SuperLeafs.  From a tie every night to a tree every night.  Yay, model railroading is fun.  🙄

DFF

[Chris333]

Add Preiser back alley crackhead set to order.

[wm3798]

A little inspiration derived straight from the A&R yard in Aberdeen.

[chuck geiger]

Add Preiser back alley crackhead set to order.

[davefoxx]

My recent efforts in ballasting and the completion of the beer distributor’s warehouse have got me much closer to a finished looking scene on the Aberdeen side of the layout.  Oh, there’s still much to do, as evidenced by the picture below: structures, foliage to the right against the yet to be installed fascia, trees behind the city buildings, detail work, weathering, etc.  But, I’m getting there.

Here, it’s 1980, and the southbound Amtrak Silver Star is highballing through Aberdeen, North Carolina, on the Seaboard Coast Line main.  In the distance, we spot Aberdeen & Rockfish GP7 No. 205 (“John Blue”) trundling into its western terminus to interchange with the SCL.



DFF

[davefoxx]

In two or three weekends, I made it a marathon to paint and ballast the track on the Aberdeen side of the layout.  Approximately eleven turnouts were included, and I’m waiting to see if I gummed the last one up with diluted white glue. 



This finishes all ballasting on the main portion of the layout, leaving only the A&R’s shelf trackage and staging yard to go.  I have to decide what I’m going to do there first, though.  Likely, it will be fully scenicked, unlike the A&BP staging yard, which will probably just be painted flat black as off stage.

DFF

[davefoxx]

I guess I didn’t get my fill of slinging stones, so I built this gravel road crossing for trucks to use to leave the transloading area.  I’ll build another road crossing on the other end of that turnout for the entrance.  This worked out well.  All I needed was some scrap rail, paint, and ballast.  By taking my time applying the “gravel” a pinch at a time, I avoided making a mess.  The transloading yard will be a sand and gravel surface.



DFF

[davefoxx]

I roughed out the hills between the A&R’s mainline and the backdrop.  There’s not a lot of space there, but it doesn’t really matter considering the water main and sewer line in close proximity.  A bonus is that I finally have a safe place to put the old WM commissary building that I took off of @wm3798’s hands about ten years ago.  It’s been homeless since the Seaboard Central 2.0 went to a new home in 2017.  I’ll just have this structure poking out of the trees.  Forced perspective, baby!



DFF

[davefoxx]

🎼 They paved paradise and put up a parking lot . . . 🎵

This morning:



Now:



This is still sopping wet.  It’s my sandy-colored latex paint under a layer of sandy-colored grout topped with a layer of gravel.  I rolled it with an old wallpaper seam roller to flatten the gravel and bring some of the sand to the surface.  Once dry, I’ll go over it with more grout to create a sandy parking lot/unloading area for my sand transloading site.  It’ll be much more sandy when finished.

DFF

[John]

I spent the night in Fayetteville on Thursday -- but didn't have a bucket or shovel to run out to the LZs for some of that Carolina dirt for you ..

Next trip south will book a room in Aberdeen instead

[davefoxx]

Haha!  That’s awesome, @John!

DFF

[wm3798]

That's going to work just fine with that building up there in the trees. 
Thanks for making a spot for it.
Lee

[packers#1]

This is still sopping wet.  It’s my sandy-colored latex paint under a layer of sandy-colored grout topped with a layer of gravel.  I rolled it with an old wallpaper seam roller to flatten the gravel and bring some of the sand to the surface.  Once dry, I’ll go over it with more grout to create a sandy parking lot/unloading area for my sand transloading site.  It’ll be much more sandy when finished.

DFF

So it’ll be a sandy lot then huh?

[davefoxx]

So it’ll be a sandy lot then huh?

The irony is that the sandy-colored grout is unsanded grout. 

DFF

[davefoxx]

I went back this afternoon and applied more grout to represent spilled sand around the track.  I may go back and add more.  Although the loading area surface is still slightly damp, I couldn’t resist setting up the truck, trailers, and rail car.  I plan to use the grout powder to weather the vehicles.



DFF