Seaboard Central 2.0

[mu26aeh]

@davefoxx - might I suggest that you explore turning the stairway 90 deg. or parallel to the wall nearest the tracks.
That would be pretty logical and ease your concerns over the awkwardness.

OldWest 

It would also help that one side of the stairway doesn't have a railing.  Turning it would only cause you to add a small section on the landing, could even just be a small chain across.

[Chris333]

And add some clutter. Geez.

[John]

make it a 2 story building

[Kisatchie]

Hmm... paint it orange
while you're at it...

[John]

Hmm... paint it orange
while you're at it...

Why?

[Kisatchie]

Why?

Hmm... because I like
orange...

[davefoxx]

I built up the foundation with three layers of cork and a sheet of 0.060" black styrene that will be, where exposed on the far side of the structure, the parking lot.  I also roughed in the sidewalk and went in with my first application of lightweight spackling.  When dry, tomorrow, I'll add a second layer, where needed.

Here it is.  Deal with it.   





DFF

[davefoxx]

@davefoxx - might I suggest that you explore turning the stairway 90 deg. or parallel to the wall nearest the tracks.
That would be pretty logical and ease your concerns over the awkwardness.

OldWest 

Too funny, Bryan.

DFF

[davefoxx]

And add some clutter. Geez.

Clutter?!  I like organization in my life.  My layout is the only place that I have that control.   

DFF

[OldEastRR]

Wait this cannot proceed without Oldeast's input on this. 

Where were some YMCAs that were right at the tracks. Maybe tilt it a bit to match the angle of the road, this will pull back the steps a bit.

Yes, I've fallen behind on reading the threads. I was wondering if anybody would mention anything about those stairs. Obviously, Chris333.
What's wrong with having a three-story building in downtown? One slightly taller building among the rest makes the scene look better because of contrast. And putting the RR offices next to the RR freight station might be a logical placement, since a lot of railroad structures group together. I assume the RRs do this because of financial and convenience reasons.
I assume you're going to keep this building once you sell the layout? Then really doesn't matter where you put it since its just a temporary site.

[Dave V]

Dave,

You'll want a pipe railing along the sidewalk parallel to the tracks.  Doesn't need to meet modern OSHA standards, but something real railroady with a patina of rust.

[davefoxx]

I haven't been able to do much modeling lately, but, thanks to the advice of @Bendtracker1 on types and colors of static grass, I finally got around to placing an order with Scenic Express two nights ago.  Somehow, less than thirty-six hours later, a large box of static grass, ground foam, Super Leaves, and Super Trees was on my front porch!

I really was dissatisfied with my first experiment with static grass a few months ago.  So, I scraped off most of the Woodland Scenics static grass and tried the Silflor grass that I received today in a small test area.  I do really like the color and texture of this Silflor grass much better than the WS grass.  With practice, my application should even get better. 



Oh, and I came up with a tip that I've never seen before.  To help with pulling off loose static grass pieces that were laying in or on top of the grass, I tried taking my shop vac to the hillside before the glue dried.  Fortunately, it didn't pull off anything that I didn't want to remove, but it did remove those loose pieces and even helped stand up some of the grass.  Now, I just have to wait until the glue dries to see the final result, before moving on to the rest of the area.

Thanks again, Allen!
DFF

[Chris333]

What kind of zapper do you have?

So far I've only tried Silflor grass and like it. If you end up not liking it may I suggest a goat farm 

[wazzou]

@davefoxx - if you put a piece of paper towel or sock over the nozzle of your Shop Vac, you can recycle the vacuumed static grass rather than waste it.  Additionally, vacuuming is a good idea because it stands up what grass isn't already standing vertically.

[davefoxx]

I wish I had that goat farm to get the Woodland Scenics grass off the layout.  I sanded and sanded and sanded, and you can see in the picture above (at the top of the knoll where I haven't applied the Silflor grass yet), I couldn't get all of the WS grass off.  I guess that's a good thing that the static grass is really stuck.  Hopefully, the Silflor grass will bond just as well.

I bought a GrassTech a few months ago for about $35.00.  Yes, you can build it cheaper, but I didn't feel like messing around with the construction only to find that it sucked.  This GrassTech works pretty good at a fraction of the price of the Noch applicator.

DFF