East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR ("The Tweetsie") branchline in On30

[wm3798]

I'll be down in Tweetsie Country over Thanksgiving. (Boone)  Beautiful area... you've captured its essence nicely.

Lee

[p51]

Thanks for the kind words! 
Five years to the day when the first train was run to each end of the layout, onto the powered turntables.
This is the very last of my "five years to the day" series showing the progress of my layout.
So much has changed, you can't even see the same coach is tacked onto the locomotive (which was changed from 12 to 9 after the original shot was taken)...

The funny thing is, you can't get the exact original shot anymore, as there are trees in the way of where the camera was in the original shot!

[p51]

Random shots, mostly around Hunter, Sadie and Winner, Tennessee...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That second one is KILLER.

[p51]

Another random cell shot, of # 9 rounding the curve before crossing Stoney Creek Road at Sadie, TN:

[p51]

On Friday, I got a diecast/plastic 1/43 scale model I'd ordered from Estonia of all places. It's a Chevy WW2 1.5 ton truck, a model that is nor marketed anywhere in the US or Western Europe (I assume because they didn't get the rights to make it with the brand name). It wasn't cheap, but it was way cheaper than the few I've seen on eBay. I immediately stripped the Russian markings off it, put on mid-war US markings (and butchered two decals when I masked off the windows, but managed to cover that with weathering), then weathered it for a hard service life stateside. I know I weathered it a little too much, but I like how it turned out.

[p51]

last night, I got my brand new Bachmann On30 gauge Baldwin Class 10 2-6-2T 'trench' locomotive. This one will eventually wear the markings similar to the Davenport copies wore during WW2 at Fort Benning (which were black, not OD green as the incorrectly painted one at the museum at Benning wears today).
I'll be doing a review of this for O Gauge Railroading magazine very soon. Until then, see how good the sound system is on this tiny little locomotive:

[Chris333]

This is supposed to be one of the first locomotives with "Chuffinity" sound so it doesn't sound so much like a computer sound on repeat.

[p51]

This is supposed to be one of the first locomotives with "Chuffinity" sound so it doesn't sound so much like a computer sound on repeat.

Yeah, I was impressed by that. If you chop the throttle, you're hearing the clang of the rods, then the chuffing picks up again, like the real deal. I just wish it had better electrical pickup as it can be picky with dirty track.

[p51]

Two updates over the weekend...
First, I got some paints (mostly washes from a company called 'AK', made for military modelers), as I'd read one made to show fuel stains makes an excellent finish for greased side rods on a steam locomotive. Others were for rain streaking and other grime effects. They worked great, and was worth the long drive to a hobby shop to get them!

Long ago, I wanted to make a fictional insignia for the railroad operating Battalion. Last night I decided to draw it out on paper, as someone would have done in real life.
Originally, I was going to do it with a ET&WNC locomotive, but I realized that would be very complex and hard to put on an Insignia. An Army 'trench' locomotive made a lot more sense to me. I drew the stump underneath the locomotive, alluding maybe to something that it happened to one of their engines in the past. Somehow the motto 'stump jumpers' popped into my head as I was drawing it.

I'm going to put it on signs on the layout and paperwork. I wish I still knew someone who could make a short run of patches, as I'd love to have some made of this.

[p51]

I created a RR unit sign on Photoshop, using the Insignia I just created.



I used a background photo of boards painted in white, then ran ghost lines through the lettering and the Insignia where the board lines would be.
I think it worked pretty well, and could possibly fool the eye of anybody looking at it in person.
The back has the same white board graphic with no lettering.
One thing's for sure, it doesn't look like your normal model railroad sign where someone just printed it out on white paper. I made the frame out of scale lumber, just needs another hit of dull coat.
Now, I just need to figure out exactly where I want to place it.

[p51]

Last night when I checked the mail, I was very surprised to have a thick mailer from White River Publications, with whom I've bene published on a couple of their magazines in the past.
Thinking it was a mistake after seeing the "Author copies" stamp (I shrugged and thought, "well, at least it'll be something to read", I opened it and found that a photo of my layout made their narrow gauge modelling calendar for 2020!
https://shop.whiteriverproductions.com/products/ngc20
I'd had NO idea this was going to happen.

[Hawghead]

Lee,

That's quite an accomplishment.  Congratulations.

Scott

[p51]

I'm still pondering where the Army unit sign will go but I think this works. Really, the sign should face completely away from the viewer but from this angle, the viewer can see it and it does make some sense why it would be placed like this:

If it stays there, I'm going to make a pile of earth around the feet of the posts, to show where it'd been recently placed there.
This is the graphic I used, though printed out you just can't see all the detail I put into it:

This is the image I used, and I have decided that I will be making a small run of patches from this:

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yeah, that spot seems somewhat odd with one foot in the grass and one in the lot. If you go with that spot, I'd recommend extending the grass wider so it fits.