NYC/ACY Hiles Tower - New London, Ohio in N scale

[btrain]

LE&P in Bradylake makes for some awesome modeling opportunities you have the Pennsy switch tower right next to the Erie Lackawanna mainline where it crossed over the Pennsylvania Railroad you had switching where the LE&P switched on and off the Pennsylvania there were 2 LE&P tracks one of them claimed a grade to cross the Pennsylvania tracks on a large truss bridge, there used to be a 4 track lines West signal bridge there too. I model this area in HO.

That has got to be quite the sight on your layout. Looking over the old film footage, it looks like a beehive of activity. Tis' a shame I didn't graduate from Kent in the 40s to 60s, that place looks like a railfan's dream.

[btrain]

Time for another update. This past week I've been screwing around with the backdrop. The paint I got from a big box store was a shade lighter than I expected after it had dried after being rolled on. With some of the reference photos I took in January of the location, I wanted more depth in the clouds (some parts of Ohio can give Montana a run for its money when it comes to "Big Sky" country ) and a darker tone with the backdrop.

This video featuring artist Gil Bennett helped trigger my old high school painting skills by watching his technique. I used a mix of Apple Barrel White and Pewter Grey with a dash of Cobalt Hue. The backdrop clouds were painted in various shades of grey with a 1" brush in a sweeping motion. After it had dried, I returned with the same brush to dab some pure white for the tops and then smeared it a tad with my fingers. The sky openings were a mix of Cobalt Hue and white applied sparingly with a fan brush. I followed the rule of perspective by having many small openings towards the horizon and a few big openings towards the top. The effect turned out not to be like the typical northern Ohio dreariness, but more like what's seen during the beginning of The Simpsons, and I'm okay with that.



Trees and more detailed work on the open fields will begin after the landscape has been formed on the backdrop. For anyone curious, I've found that Americana's Hauser Light Green and Sunny Day, along with Apple Barrel's Burnt Umber mixed in various combinations, gives an excellent match to some of the winter static grass and shrubbery I've found.

Today's work focused on land forming. Looking for a good way to make shallow ditches without using a hot wire or utility knife, I used a Dremel with the 952 attachment at a slow RPM which bravely did the work in no time flat.

Next on the agenda, it's time to slap down the plaster cloth, Sculptamold, and put down the county highway.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Backgrounds... photos man. The only way.

[btrain]

Backgrounds... photos man. The only way.

I know, I looked online for good open farm country winter backdrops and couldn't find anything to fit the bill. Next winter I'll get out my big camera and do some landscapes. The reference photos I grabbed on my iPhone this past January probably aren't high enough in resolution. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I know, I looked online for good open farm country winter backdrops and couldn't find anything to fit the bill. Next winter I'll get out my big camera and do some landscapes. The reference photos I grabbed on my iPhone this past January probably aren't high enough in resolution. 

Wait, you're doing WINTER? You stud!!

Most of my stuff is hilly. But send me your reference photos and I'll see if I have anything "in the archives" that could be useful.

[w neal]

Easy Ed. Easy.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Easy Ed. Easy.

Lol.

[basementcalling]

Easy Ed. Easy.

It's trees. They get him barking.

[packers#1]

It's trees. They get him barking.

If there no leaves you can do two or even three instead of one with leaves!

[btrain]

Recently I've been on a scenery bonanza, completing a few significant elements such as ballast, static grass, and trees this past week.

First was the ballast. I learned that my previous technique of using a paint edger to make clean sweeps along the tracks doesn't really work well with Woodland Scenics ballast. I know it's made of light nutshell material, but I must have gotten it confused with Arizona Rock and Mineral on my last layout. In the future, I think I'll stick with AR&M products.



The majority of the ground covering was a mix of Woodland Scenics Light Green and Straw static grasses, along with 4mm Silflor Autumn grass which filled out most of the mix. This was the first time I've used the WS Static King and compared to my cheap fly swatter-esque applicator I used on the NKP layout. The difference between the two was like going from driving a beat-up Chevy Prizm to a McLaren! It was goofy to see several strands shoot from it when it was turned upside down, but I'll vouch for it being money well spent on a specialty tool. I almost forgot to mention that WS earth ground foam was spread sporadically before laying down the grass. Areas with briar patches used either WS, which was okay on a forest floor here and there, but in the fields, Martin Welberg's Fall Brown bushes mixed seamlessly in with the static grass.





The trees are a mix of Supertrees and speaker wire. I tried florist wire trees, but they never seemed to be easily formed into gracefully curved branches for me. The speaker wire trees were covered with white glue and sawdust mix, and after painting, I was really blown away by the texture that the covering did on the trunks and branches. The only downside to those trees is that it takes me about an hour to knock one out.



In the forest floor areas, I used Ed's approach (https://conrail1285.com/winter-forest-technique/). This worked really well for me and actually was oddly an absolute pleasure. Well, at least opening the jar of Scenic Express Super Turf Leaf Litter put me back to the days I used to smoke a pipe during my breaks while working on steam locomotives. It does make sense that they'd use tobacco leaves for the material. I'm not sure if I should mix it up with coal dust, and valve oil, and then submit it as a sample for Yankee Candle. It would either sell like gangbusters or make people very sick

The real highlight of all of this work was finally getting to run some complete trains today! A list of several things to do before Ohio N Scale Weekend was created, but by and large, the layout is nearly ready for display. Some things like signals will have to wait until this upcoming fall, since I've contacted the good people at Showcase Miniatures, and they expect to have an N scale version of their US&S type-G tri-lights available sometime this summer.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Duuuude. This looks amazing.

Simply amazing. What a cool project and awesome execution.

[btrain]

Duuuude. This looks amazing.

Simply amazing. What a cool project and awesome execution.

Thank you Ed! I’m kind of cramped in the space I’m in with terrible lighting, but I’ll get better photos at the show that help show the skills you’ve written about.

[garethashenden]

Looks great! But should that freight train be bouncing that much? Looks like there's a high or low spot in the track.

[btrain]

Looks great! But should that freight train be bouncing that much? Looks like there's a high or low spot in the track.

Thank you! I didn’t notice it until I shot the video. From other angles and different tests I didn’t pick it up, and the interlocking was all soldered on the flat workbench, so I’m not 100% sure on the reason, other than it’s put down on a foam sub roadbed and not wood. I have noticed in real life that trains do bounce on diamonds like the CSX/WLE one near me in Wellington, Ohio. Often I’ll watch trains further back from it since seeing a GEVO do a good nose bob at 40 mph makes me reevaluate my pastimes.

[btrain]

I’m just updating this post for any NYC modelers following this build. Just got an email from Showcase Miniatures that they now have tri-light type-G in N scale! They even have a custom LED that fits into the signal housing just like their recent Darth Vadar signals https://www.showcaseminiatures.net/n_scale/n_scale_century_foundry_signals/562.html