Weekend Update 6/24/18

[Dave V]

I'd been stewing over the photo backdrops for my HOn3 Rio Grande Southern.  I knew I needed 38 linear feet of backdrop.  Several companies offer scenes from the real Rio Grande Southern territory but none offers as comprehensive a library as LARC Products.  He has multiple scenes for every location on my layout, often in both summer and fall.  But even then, I was wary of dropping hundreds of dollars on a backdrop before I'd worked out all the scenes and the necessary transitions. 

Not to worry...  LARC offers six volumes of backdrop "kits" that are essentially PDFs and Word docs designed to be printed on a standard printer and pieced together with little work.  Originally I bought them to plan for the custom backdrop but I'm thinking I'll just use these.  They're printed on 65 lb paper and I plan to seal them with a flat fixative.  You can see the seams right now because there's a little bit of a fold at each joint, but once they're affixed to the wall they'll be flat and the seams will disappear.



On the left in the picture below will be the yard throat to Ridgway Yard (and that's Log Hill Mesa in Ridgway on the backdrop) and the right side will be Placerville (the backdrop scene there is from Vanadium, just below Placerville, but identically the same geology as at Placerville).



It does well under close-ups too:

[peteski]

[F]an grills are nylon teabag material cut to fit (probably my favorite paintable fine mesh material to use for models)

Which brand/type of tea?  The Lipton ones I have are made from some sort of paper material?

[bnsfdash8]

I scored a Life Like (older plastic frame version) PA AB on Ebay last week and I quickly got to work detailing the A unit. I installed a MT Z scale coupler in the pilot to see how it fit, but I think I'll go with Tru Scale couplers on it. They'll end up being painted for NYC.

[JanesCustomTrain]

Which brand/type of tea?  The Lipton ones I have are made from some sort of paper material?

ebay 'nylon tea bag'   

Jane

[mark dance]

A big box 'O Diesel House bits arrived this week!



Here are the three layers of the heavy repair bay's Northern wall sandwiching the mylar sheet of ALPS-printed mullions.   They are slightly off scale by 0.6% in the X direction so new Mylar is being printed.



Assembly to begin next week.

I also finished the design of three standard CPR structures: a portable station, a portable bunk house, and a two storey section house.  The layout needs 3, 7 and 4 of each structure respectively.





Maybe 9 months of assembly ahead!

Have a great weekend!

md

[Wutter]

ebay 'nylon tea bag'   

Jane

Yep that works, the ones I have are also Lipton but you'll see on the packaging that its a pyramid shaped thing. You can just rip it at the seams and it unfolds to be a nice rectangular strip.

[peteski]

ebay 'nylon tea bag'   

Jane

I looked. Lots of different bags listed. Many are not made from a mesh material. I finally found few mesh ones. One indicated 150x150 nylon mesh. Others gave no specs.  It would be nice if @Wutter gave more specific info.

[JanesCustomTrain]

It would be nice if @Wutter gave more specific info.

He already did, see post above yours.

Jane

[OldEastRR]

And a couple of closer shots from either end:

And this scene shows clearly the progress made in technology between the beginning of the railroads to the beginning of the interstate system: the tracks had to go around the mountain -- the roadway just sheared off the mountainside. A great scene.
 No place I know makes rock castings of drilled and blasted rockface, so that's a DIY project. I was fooling around with making a model to make a mold but then I switched to the NH and it doesn't have rock face cuts like that.

[peteski]

He already did, see post above yours.

Jane

LOL, I missed it somehow.  Thanks Alvin!  Pyramid is the key!

[Mark W]

@RBrodzinsky and I staged a PhotoOp with the whole @scaletrains family.


https://i.imgur.com/PVaBrJK.jpg

We turned the odometer from 0 to 61.3 scale miles Saturday.  I just need one word to describe the look, operation, and sound of the new C39-8; perfect!

[trainforfun]

You may recall the disaster that befell the Sub because of a leaky valve in the kitchen above (disregard the fact that the total insurance settlement went to nearly 50k) and caused some scenery damage - here's a shot to refresh your memory:






I'm pleased with the progress so far; the road is based on the one that crosses the real thing near Keene, and thanks to Google's street view I can capture the details nicely.

50k for a 4 lanes road and bridge is not bad at all !!!!
You almost did it like prototype does , cut thru an existing mountain , super job .

[packers#1]

Finally got started on my GP15-1. I decided to paint the entire stairwell white, as I feel like it gives the unit a really nice look. I also just noticed the horn is bent, so that will be something to fix, but overall I'm pretty happy with how the unit is looking for my first modeling project in several years. Next up will be a coat of dullcoat and some basic weathering. More details on the project can be found in my thread on the project https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=44807.0

Front1 paint and decals by Sawyer Berry, on Flickr

I also finally have settled on a track plan for my layout. The back two spurs will serve a cold storage warehouse (near spur) and a plastic packaging industry. The front spur will serve Cerro Flow, a copper fittings company. The side of the door closest to the camera will have a busy road, while I will build an interstate overpass on the back end to hide the 90 degree curve. I might try to sneak in an abandoned spur next to Cerro Flow and model a brewery in an old industrial space. Everything behind that is staging for the layout. I will probably also use some of the foreground area as a workbench.

layout overall 62418 by Sawyer Berry, on Flickr

[bnsfdash8]

I was up late last night and got the A unit pretty much done. I still need to figure out if NYC had the twin beam headlights on these. I haven't found and good photos to show how they looked up there.



I used some Unimates to try and bring the locos a little closer together, but I think They could still come in a little more to look the best. I might have to give MT true scale couplers a try.

[brokemoto]

I still need to figure out if NYC had the twin beam headlights on these. I haven't found and good photos to show how they looked up there.

P&LE's PA-2s did.  Extra 2200 South, Issue #84, Second Quarter, 1986 has an article about P&LE power.  On page 30, there is a photograph of #4213.  A peak through a magnifying glass at the photograph clearly shows the twin beam.

Page 109 of the Edson/Vail book shows #4208 (PA-2), and it does not have the twin beam.  That unit also still has the cab guttering, which 4213 lacks.  Page 191 shows #4201.  The shadows are funny, but it does not appear to have the twin beam.

Twin beams om PAs may have been peculiar to the P&LE.


EDITORIAL NOTE:  I took a peak at the McLean book.  It has a photograph of 4205 and one of 4206 (PA-1).  They do not appear to have the twin beam headlight.  Point 353 posted a photograph of 4201 on Page Ten of the "Swaporama" topic.  It is hard to tell, but, it might have a twin beam. Perhaps there was no consistency to the headlight on these things on the NYCS?