Cedar Creek Gravel Company

[chicken45]

That does look really good.  Damn, son!

[VonRyan]

This looks fantastic!!!

I know it's a nod to operability, but one thing to think about when laying track for something like this.

My guess is that all of it would be laid with (39'?) stick rail. That means that curves would be more like segmented polygons. Kinda.

Your track work is almost TOO good!

But damn, is it good.

There are a few joints on curves that aren’t quite “perfect” because I built everything with lengths of rail that I cut to 39 scale feet. But yea, the curves are almost too good.

[VonRyan]

Ground is now finished.

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So then it was time for some staged photos.

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And then I decided to start replacing the stock cab on my 0-4-2 porter with the kit I got from Banta Modelworks.

I started with the floor, staining it, weathering it with coal dust, then sealing it.

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Then I built the body and painted it with Poly Scale “Grimy Black” and on the roof supports I used Duncan “Emerald”.

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The roof is currently being formed. Per the instructions I soaked it in warm water for a couple minutes and then rubber banded it to a bottle of acetone (but the instructions say soda can).

[VonRyan]

Cab conversion is done save for the window glazing, which I might leave out anyhow. We’ll see.

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I went all out and painted the underside of the roof green. Seems that variations on that theme weren’t uncommon back in the day.

[Lemosteam]

Your finest work Cody.  Well done!

[chicken45]

Nice man!
What ever happened to that little micro layout with all the grass?

[VonRyan]

Nice man!
What ever happened to that little micro layout with all the grass?

My Nn3 layout is still around. It’s actually in the background of the photo of the porter with the completed cab.
It’s in that APC battery backup box.

[nuno81291]

All around nice work. I enjoy the NE Brownstone cut stone strips I used for an HO abutment. Included some of their dirt which looks great in your application. What’s your plan for the rest of scenery on this?

[VonRyan]

All around nice work. I enjoy the NE Brownstone cut stone strips I used for an HO abutment. Included some of their dirt which looks great in your application. What’s your plan for the rest of scenery on this?

The rest of the scenery will essentially be just a lot of scrub and underbrush on this module. Plus some sort of maintenance/storage structure in the large area inside the first curve. There’s also going to be a gravel road with a crossing.

[dcarrell8]

Very nice, 

I just ordered $80.00 worth of dirt from New England Brownstone.  Please don't tell my wife I bought dirt....You are a bad influence!

[VonRyan]

Very nice, 

I just ordered $80.00 worth of dirt from New England Brownstone.  Please don't tell my wife I bought dirt....You are a bad influence!

It’s good stuff! I bought my first batch last year at the Amherst show and liked it so much to buy everything else from
them that I needed to satisfy the dirt/gravel needs of the layout.

[CRL]

Acquiring dirt for my modeling involves a big plastic bucket, a shovels, a couple of kitchen strainers, and driving around until I find road or utility construction area with an appropriate pile of spoil dirt... preferably where a rock saw has cut through some limestone and left some nice rock dust behind.

[Dave V]

Some damn fine craftsmanship here Cody.  Damn fine!

I really like how the cab conversion came out.  I would guess some 40 percent or more of the structures on my layout come from Bill Banta and I have always been a fan of his engineering.

You're really making it harder for me to resist the On30 bug!

[VonRyan]

Acquiring dirt for my modeling involves a big plastic bucket, a shovels, a couple of kitchen strainers, and driving around until I find road or utility construction area with an appropriate pile of spoil dirt... preferably where a rock saw has cut through some limestone and left some nice rock dust behind.

I’m at a point in life where my cheapness has eased up a bit. When prices are fair I’d just rather reward makers of quality products instead of going and hunting for a suitable patch of soil, sifting it, screening it, removing non-dirt stuff from it, removing magnetic particles, and then finally baking it.

My original plan was to actually go and get soil from the area around the gravel pit near where I grew up, but the site is still very much active, at least six days a week, and is now fenced in on the non-swamp side, so at that point spending the money was much easier.

[VonRyan]

Some damn fine craftsmanship here Cody.  Damn fine!

I really like how the cab conversion came out.  I would guess some 40 percent or more of the structures on my layout come from Bill Banta and I have always been a fan of his engineering.

You're really making it harder for me to resist the On30 bug!

Thanks Dave, but other than building the track, I don’t feel like I’ve done a whole lot on here that qualifies as craftsmanship.

The Banta kit is nice. It was a pretty straightforward build that didn’t take a whole lot of effort. My only gripe with it is that the trim layers don’t properly overlap at the corners. I’m thinking of going back and adding some square stripwood in the front corners to compensate for that.

As far as the On30 bug goes, it’s fun stuff! The RTR stuff can be a bit pricey, and as a whole O scale always tends to be pricey, but with all the different kits and conversions out there, it’s not something that can’t be done on a modest budget.