Hi, I have found some time to work on the railroad. Shot some fast pictures and wanted to share them. A city (GROSE pronounced Grows) has been born. The upper section of Grose. Love the "Bluegrass" or is it some type of pink and blue granite? Okay it needs some work. Please ignore the bridge pier that is just standing in the middle of nowhere along with the bus and the building on the lower right. They are just miss placed. A lower section of Grose. Farmers Grain Coop, one of the customers of the GD&R squeezed in the office building. [FONT="]Bluetop Hill (just a temp name or is it?) separates Farmers Grain Coop and Tuscarora Cement. Both are located in the Brunk Industrial District (BID).[/FONT] The holes in the rocks are similar to the formations in my county of residence. Need to fill in some. [FONT="] [/FONT] I still have a long way to go Painting Paving the streets and roads Covering the top of Bluetop Hill with grass etc. Cleaning up the mess I made making Bluetop Hill Gary
Nice city! I presume the city has another water supply from somewhere. They won't be getting any feed from that water tank! I know the feeling about "temporary" bldg/accessory placement. You put something down where convenient, work for a while, take a picture, then say to yourself "now, why is that there?"
Thanks Train Kid, Nick, and Rick Quoting George AKA mtntrainman "T.H.E. Wife" suggested the large elevation change between [FONT="]Farmers Grain Coop and Tuscarora Cement. I was thinking just a half inch or so with a non railroad related business located there. I have to admit she had a good idea:yes:. I have to drag her out to the trains, so I don't get much input from her. Not really sure where the water tower is going to be. I might have to have a few more. Now that I have a start on some scenery I want to continue. I have one more area in mind that will have an elevation change, but have not started that yet. About 4 years ago I was making progress on the scenery until [/FONT]"T.H.E. Wife" decided that the trains could not be in the house any more. If no one has an objection I'll post more photos as I progress. Gary
I have some scenery questions. Hi, I have some scenery questions. I am planning to cover the blue part of Bluetop Hill (see image below) with a layer or more of Drywall Joint Compound. I’m thinking of adding some latex paint of the same color I plan to use on the part below the blue. The thought here is if the Joint Compound chips it will not show white. Is using latex paint a good idea? Would something else be better? I am planning on adding some real rocks (my grandson gave me a bag of rocks a couple years ago for Christmas) to Bluetop Hill. Would it be best to place them as I add the Joint Compound? After the Joint Compound has dried a bit? After the Joint Compound has totally dried? Any and all input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Gary
Hi, Two days ago I added some more elevated city, not as high as the part with the main part of the city seen in the first posting. I'm [FONT="]mulling over[/FONT] the idea of adding 1/2 inch of foam on top of the pink foam in the corner of the layout, which is behind the track. I'm planning on having a road and bridge connect the two parts of foam. The road, at least in my mind will curve behind some trees and head off into the sunset. The buildings on this section of foam, like all the others, are there for a test placement. This is at least the 10th test for this section of the layout including with and without the foam. The buildings that are in the center of the above image, I had built for 2 layouts ago and have been on each layout since, they are a bit beat up from moving and storage but are usable. The track runs behind this layer of pink foam and is the only part of the track that I can not see. I had mentioned to my wife that maybe I'd put a mirror on the slope of the ceiling over this part so that I could look up and see if there is a problem with the track or any trains in the cut. She is out shopping and brings home a 12 X 48 inch mirror. That was a surprise, because most of the time when I'm talking about the railroad she just nods and does not really listen to what I'm saying. Something is wrong, in the past week she has suggested the elevation change (Bluetop Hill) and bought the mirror. As you can see in some of the photos I still need to install the valance around the layout and do some painting. I have the material, but have been putting it off since I keep thinking about bench work changes, but at this point I think that I am done other then adding a removal staging area which should not affect the valance. Gary
Bluetop Hill now is snow covered and is slightly embarrassed. Okay it is not snow but spackling. I applied the first layer last night, it still had a damp feeling this morning, 9 hrs later, even though it was no longer pink (I use the type that starts out pink and turns white as it dries). This evening I just touched up some thin spots just before taking of the photo. I plan to cover the white part with grass and trees along with some rocks that will stick out. Around here it is a very common site. The next thing to do with Bluetop Hill is to paint the broken ceiling tiles a color about the same as the rock formations around here. They range from limestone gray to black. Maybe it is time to take a few reference photos. Gary
New shed for Adair Scape Iron Yesterday morning I had some time to work on the GD&R, and built a small shed for Adair Scape Iron. This project came totally from the scrap pile (read box/bag). Thanks for looking, Gary
Flooding along the GD&R Hi all, As many of you know the GD&R is located in a 10 X 12 feet building. With almost 48 hours of rain and more rain the building is now located in standing water. If you remember the history of the GD&R, its predecessor was in the basement. Today as I was working in the kitchen just at the basement door I noticed that the two, yes 2, sump pumps were not cycling, but just running. A quick trip down the stairs reveals 1.5 inches of water. Water is coming up out of the floor drain (not hooked to the septic). Setup my utility pump (about 1100 gallons per hr) and it has been running almost non-stop for the past 2.5 hours. With its help, the sump pumps are now cycling but I still need boots to cross the floor. I thank my wife that she did not make me put the RR back in the basement when she took over my office / train room, but let me get the building even if I now need a boat to get to it. Gary Update: The utility pump ran for the better part of 5 hours non stop. After that it was off for about 20-30 minutes and then on for 10-15 minutes. This went on until about 3:00 AM Monday the 3rd. At 7:00 AM Monday the pump was turned on for about 10 minutes for the last time. Standing water in the yard was gone sometime in the afternoon.
Hi, This weekend I took a break from the Car Card project and put some time into Bluetop Hill. This is the first attempt of any type of scenery work in over 20 years and it involved techniques that I have never tried before. Many of them I read about here on TrainBoard. Thanks for help guys and gals. I attempted to simulate how the rock cuts and the hills in my local area look. It is hard to see in the photos, there is real KY dirt and rocks here. I have a few more details that I wish to add to the scene. Bluetop Hill has been transformed The BID switcher is working Farmers Grain Coop As the BID switcher is working below, the campers are enjoying the remote location of their campsite. The bears above are planning their middle of the night raid. Still a lot of work to do and as always there is room for improvement. Gary
Not much progress in the last couple weeks. I did put together another non-rail related building. Introducing the Okay I know that it is nothing special, I got the idea of adding a car wash from comments in a different thread on TrainBoard. Have to have a way to explain all those bright and shiny cars and trucks. Both the walls and the roof were brush painted using paint samples (8 ounces) that I got at Lowes. Yes it is latex paint. The roof paint was a color that my wife needed for a project in the house and 90% of the paint was left over. The wall color was picked just for this building. Why the paint samples? Lowes is about 15 miles away and I'm there all the time getting stuff for the house (60+ years old) which is in a constant state of work, the nearest hobby shop is 63± miles. For the amount I would pay at the hobby shop for 1 - 2 ounces of paint I get 8. As for craft paint the local Wal-Mart has cut back on the number of color choices. Other then that I don't have much choice in getting paint. I believe that Home Depot has smaller samples but the nearest one is 65± miles Signs are printed on card stock and attached with washable school glue. With the size of the signs I guess I did not need to paint the walls. Location on layout is not really picked yet. I just placed it in an open spot that was easy to reach in an area that is still under development to take the last photo. The second yellow building in the last photo is not the same yellow paint. One or both of the buildings will have to be relocated. Gary
Looks great Gary. Stick something just inside the doors that look like brushes. Then a few people outside with towels. This little structure could turn out to be a great scene! Mark
Just found this thread....wow! Nice work. Glad the flood didnt ruin anything on the railroad thatnks to the move. I think a nice dinner for two with the wife is in order. Keep the progress shots coming!
Thanks Jerry. Our children (adults with their kids) and I tease the wife/mother about the eviction of the the railroad and that she is going to make me sleep with the trains. All in all it was a good move, for the most part it keeps the trains out of the living room. I feel guilty going out to the train building in the evenings, but she says there is no reason too. Not sure who would be joining the wife for dinner. I just made an update to the post (#11) about the flood. Gary
My oldest grandchildren (one of each) have been visiting from Alabama for the better part of 2 weeks. The granddaughter, Elizabeth, has been wanting to go out to the train building for a few days. We had planned to go out there earlier in the week when my other two grandsons were going to spend the night here, a sleep over for the boys. She decided to spend the same night with her two girl cousins (the remaining grandchildren) at their house. So today we went out and played with the trains. I have to say that she will follow my instructions without fail. 8 year old engineer running her mixed freight past Bluetop Hill Pondering her next movement Happy Engineer The grandson (11) showed no interest in going out to the trains until I was editing and posting the photos. Can't get him away from his hand held video game and the TV. He has an HO set but has not run it in a while. He will NOT follow my instructions and at this time I'm not sure he needs to be involved with N Scale trains. Hopefully I can take him out to the trains before they leave. Anyways Elizabeth and I had fun. Looking at the photos, I have to do a lot of cleaning, both on and under the layout. Gary
