Walthers 2020 NMRBO Winning Team Entry: Crum Lynne

[Hiroe]

This is the Northeast Corridor Historical Society team entry for the Walthers 2020 National Model Railroad Build-Off competition.
The format for team entries is 24" deep by 72" long, and required purchase of a $200 'entry kit' to get all the necessary required walthers kits.
They offered a number of different entry kit flavors, such as Brickyard or Coal Mine, and we picked City Station (for obvious reasons).

This was right around the time the pandemic first hit, and my employer closed their office for five months, so I basically had full-time availability to work on this. I did about 90% of the work myself, and only really farmed out the platform shelters and school bus. (The contest rules don't specify division of labor for team entries, so this was ok.)

When I started, I already had the location picked out to model, and a general idea of how we needed to get there.
However, I let the entry kit parts and bridge girders inform how the street underpass would go together.
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The 2'x6' blank top with the underpass sketched out, before cutting.
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Every single plastic piece got painted along the way, nothing was left unpainted.
The Entry Kit only included two copies of the Concrete Underpass kit, I ended up needing a third copy of it to get enough of the arched support sections for the whole underpass.
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Some things got decals added as they went.
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Once the top was cut, it took a bit of framing to work out how the different levels would fit together.
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Installation of roadbed, the left side was left unattached until the street underpass got properly finished.
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Spackling and sealing of the road areas, to hide the wood grain of the deck:
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Starting to paint the asphalt color, with dry-fitting of the underpass parts and rail deck:
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Sidewalks and staircase are now glued in, while the underpass side walls are still removable for application of graffiti.
The girders used here are scavenged from Life-Like HO "Over-and-Under" starter sets on ebay, specifically chosen for that curved end.
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Track is down and remaining bridge girders are in progress. One of the side walls is out and laying to the left.
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[Hiroe]

I also like painting the fascia color pretty early on, as it helps me define a clean edge on the public viewing side.
We use BEHR "underwater" in scratch-resistant satin.
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Applying graffiti to the underpass side walls.
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The finished side wall reinstalled in the module.
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How to get a different curve out of the walthers sidewalk set.
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Bridge girders have been finished, painted, and installed; track has been painted and ballasted, and installation of platforms and center railings is progressing. The pipe-railing fencing on the wall above the stairs is Titchy PRR Pipe Railing stanchions with brass wire.
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Filling out the remaining sidewalks on Chester Pike and the side street really helps define the intersection. Also started to add street striping, done with vinyl strips from what I think is a Jackson Railcar street striping kit. Filled in the sloped area next to the stairs, using 3M expanding foam (carved to shape once cured), then skim-coated with lightweight urethane spackle.
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[wm3798]

Top drawer modeling!
Lee

[Hiroe]

Lampposts were sourced off ebay; I don't mind tungsten-bulb accessories when run at half their rated voltage.
These got painted with the same color as the track and the bridge girders, then touched up with white for the reflectors.
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In the interest of saving time, I ended up using Model Memories PRR 4-track K poles. Normally I roll my own out of K&S Brass H4 and c100/c70 rail, but that's a little more time consuming. These poles were also painted the same color as the track and bridge girders.
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More PRR pipe railings and platform lampposts, as well as the steel/concrete cable conduit attached to the bridge side (Central Valley closed box girder, painted in appropriate colors.)
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To install the actual linear catenary, I needed an elbow rest that would let me work in the scene without crushing anything installed so far. This was the solution I came up with.
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My jig for building the actual linear catenary runs.
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This is the most recent evolution of my operable catenary construction method.
The actual contact and intermediate messenger are replaced by c40 rail, with .015 phosphor-bronze vertical hangers and .0285 PB upper messenger.
I source my PB wire from a piano supply house.
The unpainted loop shown is for attaching bridge wires at module joints, which the upward bend in the rail acts as a scoop to transition the pantographs into the bridge wire.
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Track 4 with catenary installed.
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[amato1969]

Wow, just wow.  Seriously great work!!!

  Frank

[Hiroe]

Wow, just wow.  Seriously great work!!!

  Frank

Thanks! It helped keep me sane in a strange year, lol.

[Hiroe]

Used cut-down grade crossing inserts to build the platform-access-extensions for tracks 2 and 3.
This was a required element from the build kit, as a Blair-Line Wood Grade Crossing.
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Cut a walthers bungalow house in half for the first of the homes in the neighborhood.
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Started greening the scene
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Every tree used in scene was carefully flocked with three colors of ground foam, to give them a little more depth and variance.
The 1960's traffic lights were a required element from the build kit, but the street lamps were more ebay finds.
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The corner building represents the very edge of Baldwin Locomotive Works, which was a massively sprawling facility just to the south of Chester Pike in this area. Some of you may recognize the kit used as an old AHM factory from the 1970's.
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[Ed Kapuscinski]

Dude. Awesome.

But those trees suck! Please tell me you changed them later.

[Cajonpassfan]

A very nice scene. Whose track is it..rail size?
Otto K.

[basementcalling]

Dude. Awesome.

But those trees suck! Please tell me you changed them later.

You could make him a few. 

[Hiroe]

Dude. Awesome.

But those trees suck! Please tell me you changed them later.

Thanks! They were one of the Required Elements, and they're not terrible from four feet away at shows. I have some Supertrees in-scene as well that will show up later as the build photos progress; but they don't hold up quite as well to the rigors of Modular Life. These plastic-armature walthers ones do have the major advantage of being robust enough for traveling and setups/teardowns. Will they get replaced long-term? Maybe. It's not as much a priority as getting more scenery and catenary finished on the rest of the layout, but we'll see. Whatever replaces them will need to last, and not end up as loose detritus inside the coffins when unboxing them at the next show.

A very nice scene. Whose track is it..rail size?
Otto K.

It's Peco c83, three sticks of which showed up with the Entry Kit. I'm usually not picky about brands of flextrack, as long as it's 83 or smaller for scenic modules (nickel c100 is acceptable on utility modules); but I chose to keep it all the same brand in-scene for a uniform look. I do like the look of Peco flex, but the only requirement for it's use is that it's got an expansion joint in each rail somewhere between the ends (where the rail ends are permanently anchored with relationship to the endplate). Taking modules from a humid unheated garage/basement to dry heated/air conditioned show halls, we've had the wood framing shrink enough that the rails blow right out of the ties, particularly with Peco and MTH flex.

[Hiroe]

Ultimately the trees kind of disappear into the background once the wire goes up; as it really pops out in front of them.
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Also filled in the remaining landform shapes in the front:
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Installed the fold-in adjustable height legs, mainline bus wiring, DCC Panels and throttle bus, dc lighting circuits, and traffic-light controller:
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First lighting test:
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Some scale signage:
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and some more pipe railing, modeled as broken:
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[Hiroe]

Went a little nuts with the tufts.
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Here's those supertrees, helping push an Atlas house slightly further back.
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Then the platform shelters arrived, built and painted, hit them with a little weathering to blend the color tones with those used on the module before installation; added micro gooseneck exterior lamps and interior LED lighting.
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[pjm20]

Beautiful modeling!

[Hiroe]

Here's the finished entry.

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