N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[nscalbitz]

heh Heki grass matts.... I have one 'reclaimed' on my lounge floor now, awaiting an application for Resource Management, to create a field of something... 

[wm3798]

It's actually a piece of Noch grass mat, which dates back to the Christmas garden my dad used to put up in the 1970s.  It featured two tiers of 4x8 goodness (HO) and he kept a roll of loose "grass paper" to stuff into the gap where the high board crossed over the low board...  It has been applied to numerous layouts over the years... the scraps I have left are as precious to me as that blanket is to Linus VanPelt....

Lee

[OldEastRR]

Hey retro layout guys ... do you only consider mass-produced products of that era -- or does this hand-produced item count?



I bought it pre-made like that, can't remember if by mail order, at a hobby shop, or some club member making them up to sell. Came in pairs. Certainly IS retro. And reminds me of other small run items like that pewter shell for the Atlas/RR 0-8-0 ... certainly Lee could find one of those for the 0-8-0 he has. And there have to be other retro things made by basement entrepreneurs or clever modelers for sale. Anybody else know of any?

[wm3798]

I have a Camden and Amboy resin cast I-1 conversion presently underway on a Minitrix 2-10-0 chassis...  It's always fun to do a retrofit with a retro kit!

I would love to find one of those pewter 0-8-0 shells... but I'd need 4 of them to properly equip the whole fleet!

As for track bumpers, I have several old Peco plastic ones, the kind you fold up and click into the track.  They may show up in lieu of the Atlas ones you see in my picture... they're taking up a lot of space...

Lee

[dem34]

Hmm how about a Black River frankenstein?

[DKS]

As for track bumpers, I have several old Peco plastic ones, the kind you fold up and click into the track.  They may show up in lieu of the Atlas ones you see in my picture... they're taking up a lot of space...

Suggestion on track bumpers... I chopped the light support block off the back of the Atlas bumper. This both reduced its size and made it look much better.

[wm3798]

A bridge too far?


There's a new route to South Cornersville!

Lee

[OldEastRR]

SOUTH Cornersville? Name change or is there another city jammed into that corner?

Personally, I'm a guy who likes to see roads on a layout that look at least somewhat logical. And like seeing they go somewhere or connect to something. Not a comment on this layout, just a general preference. Minor roads have minor features -- timber trestle or skimpy steel bridges over land gaps, crossbucks at RR crossings, barely two-lane and usually gravel, steep grades, etc. Everything thing big, modern (for its era), and well-tended for major highways.  Minor roads can end up going nowhere on a layout-- major highways, no.

[amato1969]

A bridge too far?

Classic movie reference - well played 

  Frank

[Point353]

Has the LV established run-through service in cooperation with the NYC?
Or is WM-LV-NYC a new 'alphabet route'?

[wm3798]

No...  That shot was posed for the previous owner of that unit.  We did a little swap deal, so he posted a picture of the engine in tow leaving his layout, and I reciprocated once it arrived on mine.

As he pointed out, he bought it at a swap meet with intentions of repainting it because "it looks like it was painted with a potato", but he never got around to it.

Within 24 hours of arriving on the LRV, it's already been put into the "dip"...  It's either going into the simplified B&O freight scheme, or the even simpler Penn Central.

Lee

[wm3798]

A closer look at the new arrival...

My critique was that I had never seen pin striping painted with an actual bowling pin!
Lee

[CRL]

A bridge too far?


There's a new route to South Cornersville!

Lee

Hmmm 🤔... I partially agree with @OldEastRR on bridges to nowhere (or South Cornersville 😉), but if one is necessary, I prefer to see the bridge end past an abutment where the fascia can come up to meet the roadbed instead of the end of the bridge hanging off into space.

However, it’s just a pet peeve of mine, and if you like it, that’s all that really matters. I do reserve the right to laugh & point.   

[Point353]

As he pointed out, he bought it at a swap meet with intentions of repainting it because "it looks like it was painted with a potato", but he never got around to it.

One LHS used to do a significant business in pre-owned models.
The shop's proprietor would characterize poorly executed "custom" paint jobs as looking as though they had been painted using a hairbrush (as opposed to an airbrush).

[wm3798]

@CRL This Bud's for you!


I prefer bridges that appear to match the task they are assigned to do, even when that task continues beyond the modeled scene.
That allows me to crop my photo to give the illusion that the scene continues beyond the frame.  Ending a bridge arbitrarily at the layout's  edge looks more "off" to me.



Plus I can get this shot.



Lee