Challenge #3 - Vintage Chemical & The Philadelphia Belt Line

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Big step forward this week.
Got the replacement warehouse assembled and painted. Now to fill it with windows and a roof. You can also see the REAL big step forward here: painted rails and a quick coat of paint on the foamcore. The ground is going to get a better treatment than this, but I've always been a big proponent of doing this so it all looks less "undecorated" as I continue to make progress. The plan is to pave around the tracks, but for now, this looks way better than it did.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Suns out, guns out. Tank tops are finished.





I think they turned out well. A little sanding and some paint and I'm in business.

I also did the roof for the warehouse. It's just sitting loose for now while until I get its final fitment done.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Slow going while I wait for some parts, but here's the retaining wall for the pond.

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[Vince P]

Looks great Ed.

[OldEastRR]

Don't be afraid to butt one kind of building construction against another -- like wooden to curtain wall to brick to sheet metal siding. They just added on to plants like this as they needed new space to expand into a new building -- they didn't tear the old one down and build a whole brand new building for the expanded operations. Having all different types of building construction built onto or added to as one complete structure is a feature most layout builders don't think of. And it means you can make a very large complex of connected buildings which LOOKS like a huge plant.  Look at the thread about jdcolombo's National Carbon Company to see a whole mishmash of buildings sprawling out from each other. Almost every addition was made at least 10 years after the previous one, and you can tell that from the types of architecture each section used -- the best techniques of each one's time.

[wm3798]

Hopefully you received your packet of bits and pieces before you left for the beach...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hopefully you received your packet of bits and pieces before you left for the beach...

Nope. But it'll be in the big mail delivery when we return. Thanks!

Your carts will be on their way when I return.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Back in the paving groove:



Thank you @RAIL N SCALE for the new roller design! It's working great!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I had recently thought about planning an ops session for these modules and what that'd be like. It made me realize I really needed a Conrail style ZTS map to make it all make sense.

So, while sitting on various calls, I whipped one up.



It's not a perfect match to the real deal, but it's close enough for me!

You can see examples of real ones here: http://conrail1285.com/conrails-zts-maps/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok! The N Scale Weekend got me into the groove of working on this some more, so here's a big "bulk update".

Here's how she sits today.







I'm looking forward to seeing a Shinkansen running over THAT track!

Here it is while I was working on it yesterday. Oddly, I think it looks better wet... lol.







And over the past few weeks.

[DKS]

Looking good, but man, that blue trim is... intense.

[peteski]

Looking good, but man, that blue trim is... intense.

Since he is a Conrail-man, I'm not surprised he used Conrail blue. 
But I agree that it seems a bit out of place.  Dull silver, black, or even dark green would attract less attention.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Since he is a Conrail-man, I'm not surprised he used Conrail blue. 
But I agree that it seems a bit out of place.  Dull silver, black, or even dark green would attract less attention.

Yeah, I generally agree, but that's the color that my dad chose, so... here it is!

[nuno81291]

It seems to be all I post any more but I really like the ground cover. Weedy tracks are easy on the eyes. A very cool module!

[OldEastRR]

Only thing I'm wondering is if there'd be overhead pipes and materials transfer bridges connecting buildings to each other --- especially the older ones that would have been modified with new technology and processes over time. Plus it would visually tie all the structures together.