Conrail Windsor St Yard (York PA) Engineering Report

[wazzou]

@Ed Kapuscinski - a couple of serious comments instead of just busting your balls as some of your peers are apt to do. 

I would take advantage of the nice clay base you have made and topcoat it with lightweight spackle to make it a little more level.
After application of the spackle and once dry, take a damp sponge and smooth it over so it's good and flat without the undulations that are present adjacent to your sidewalks.
Additionally, not being familiar with the locale you're modeling, the sidewalks look a little yellow to me where I would think they should be closer to the color of your road surface.

Keep up the good work.

[nuno81291]

This is very very old work of mine but these sorts of undulations visible on right side: (ignore my horrible expansion joints) [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

At most do what wazzou suggests, and I’m sure you aren’t done with the color aspect there. Minor leveling is alright but so many styrene roads end up looking far too perfect for my taste. Then again I am not interested in modeling the pristine. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The second shows plaster roads smoothed with styrene sidewalks (unweathered). The large cuts were for a removable section (the subway above was accessible by this removable panel). I think this is a case where the eye wants texture and why in N we don’t see much in the way of scale ballast, leaf litter, ground textures etc. you could make dirt smooth but some element of exaggeration helps in my mind. Sure Mindheims styrene roads are great, he also dosnt model an area with frost heaves and a tremendous amount of road salt and sand.

[Chris333]

This corner desperately needs an old car on fire.

[DKS]

I disagree with Lee. Putty is the way, styrene looks entirely too uniform for a gritty area. You could not model my local industrial areas in styrene effectively, talking 1’ + deep potholes (craters really) keep pushing on Ed I think what you have looks great and as far as removing that bit of sidewalk for clearance I can find all sorts of similar quirks in old eastern cities like Lawrence and Holyoke, good tight confines eastern industrial railroading! No offense to Lee but styrene is only good for a fairly well maintained road. None of which is prototypical in industrial areas that I have seen. In comparison Lee must have an extremely highly funded DOT; not a single pothole anywhere, for someone who pushes the Bible of contours and slope, your roads are far too ‘perfect’ for my taste and could use the blemishes present for added realism.

Beg to differ. It's not so much the material used as the treatment of it. Styrene can effectively be distressed to simulate beat-up roads quite well. Remember, the worst potholes measure a tiny fraction of an inch in depth in N Scale, which can easily be added to styrene (or any other material) with a knife, Dremel or other tool. As for the rest, it's simply a matter of finishing effects.

I would take advantage of the nice clay base you have made and topcoat it with lightweight spackle to make it a little more level.
After application of the spackle and once dry, take a damp sponge and smooth it over so it's good and flat without the undulations that are present adjacent to your sidewalks.
Additionally, not being familiar with the locale you're modeling, the sidewalks look a little yellow to me where I would think they should be closer to the color of your road surface.

I'd be more inclined to go this route, as it's far less work than what Lee proposes. But, it may still be much more work than you're willing to invest. If the roller-coaster streets make you happy, then you can tell everyone else to go fish.

That said, the biggest issues I see are where the sidewalks meet the street--or not. This could be handled a number of different ways... Run a sharp knife along the curb, and strip away the clay under the sidewalks to let them settle into the street better; this will likely require adding some depth to the curbs with some more strip styrene. Or, run a very fine bead of clay or other filler material along the joint to fill it in, then sand away the excess.

I do agree that the colors seem off. Recommend using satellite images as a reference for coloration, as well as for road surface effects.

 

[sirenwerks]

You need some drainage grates, Ed. Great Lakes Models makes some etchings.

[C855B]

You need some drainage grates, Ed. Great Lakes Models makes some etchings.

I think this is why Ed said something like "Urban modeling sucks" several pages ago. Once you start down the rabbit hole of paying attention to details, where do you stop?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok.

Tear it all out and start over.

Lee

Well, that IS actually the plan. I mean, you know, in the same way in which we all die in the end.

As for color and texture. Yes, I think some refinement may be in order.

First, I can always sand it some more. This is just the first pass and I was curious to get some reactions (it's tough because there's always the "***** it, move on" voice in my own head). I think another pass may be worth it to smooth out some of the remaining undulations. I don't want them all gone because, well, I kinda like it not being perfect. I am well aware of the issue of scale though. A "small" divet is a tranny eater.

Color wise. I think the color balance of the photos may not be doing me favors. I think it's ok in person though.

Here's a photo of the scene. I hate that they went and "street scaped" so much of it since my era though. I mean, good for York, but it's annoying for me.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

https://www.google.com/maps/place/N+Pershing+Ave,+York,+PA/@39.9632695,-76.732613,3a,75y,160.04h,87.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shNlDFGv_M9AkU91yIkSU6w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c88c1e0b2e3c37:0x7442bc320c67fb94!8m2!3d39.966715!4d-76.735095

As for the grates. Yeah, you're right. But that's why I'm going for Hopper, not Sellios. Not just for the artistic effect, but to keep myself sane.

[seusscaboose]

Congrats on 100 pages

[lashedup]

Lee, I like that Beatles tribute.

Ed, I can live with the clay street as I think its good to experiment with different things. I think (at least in your photos) that the colors and detail need some refinement like you said. The sidewalks are too tan and the street too light gray. Can you cut the clay with a razor/box cutter or is it rock hard at this point? Ideally cutting the curbs in would look best but that might not work. Also most curbs are poured separately and include the gutter. If a top coat of asphalt was thrown down it might go clear to the vertical part of the curb, but most cities grind the edges down next to the gutter (to leave it intact) and lay the new asphalt into it.

Barring that though, refining the colors, getting the curbs down and adding details like cracks and manhole covers and such will go a long way towards getting that looking better. Keep at it.

You got me second guessing an urban section on my layout. 

[Dave V]

For all the discussion on how best to model paved roads I know I for one would like to learn how to do effective, realistic dirt roads.  Even in Ed’s era there are plenty of dirt roads to be found in York County.

[mu26aeh]

Here is one way that looks really good for dirt roads, as well as a lot of scenery information in general.

[OldEastRR]

ED: That elbow corner road intersection -- neither one continues over the tracks as a thru route? Just curious.

Styrene roadway height variations: 1. Place sheet of styrene on about 1/4" of flat newspapers. 2. Take ball-peen hammer - use ball end.
3. Whack sheet in various places. Alternate #2: Take bowling ball. Use in same manner as hammer. One perk to this method is sometimes you get pavement cracked here and there as a bonus. It depends how mad at urban scenery building you are.

Roadway coloration: After a grayish base coat of paint, use various color chalks. Scrape some off the stick onto the road, drag or smear it around with a soft brush. Put a line of black chalk dust down the middle of each lane and brush back and forth until it reaches your desired griminess for the "dripped oil trail".

Broken sidewalks: You know, styrene IS breakable, warpable plastic. Snap long pieces into several -- nice jagged breaks -- then glue them back together once you set them in place permanently. You may have to hammer the ends totally flat again (see Step 3, above).  You can also make "humps" in the sidewalk by a little bending. Easy "urban scenery stuff" for Ed!!!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Can't wait to see it in person, maybe have some steam tourist power slip through.

It's funny. I was at the NKPT&HS meeting this weekend and was listening to Wes Camp's stories about the High Iron Company. All I kept thinking was how I want to grab a Bachmann K4 and letter the tender "Northern Central". Then grab a dozen various heavyweight coaches to string behind it.

But I think an EM-1 would be even more fun.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

More progress this weekend.

I took a little break from working in the city to finish ballasting the bridge.





More shaping happened before the scariest step: glue.



Then I returned to the city. Here the station got some curbs, and I trimmed down the edge of the pavement ahead of bringing the gravel up to it. The clay, even while dry, is very easy to work with with a knife.



And I fit the pieces up all the way down here. Curbs are next.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I pulled off the tape. I'm pretty happy. Some more work to do, but not bad.