Weekend Update 5/20/12

[up1950s]

Richie, your locomotives are amazing!

I'm always impressed by your skills. 

Thanks for sharing...

-Phil Brooks

Coming from you Phil , that is quite a generous complement . Thanks .

[shark_jj]

Since I decided to tear down the PRR Allegheny Subdivision and start building a new proto freelanced layout the Grand Trunk Southern, I have been busy lengthening my staging yards and retrofitting them with tortoise machines.  The yards will be 26 feet long and as per my thread on building a layout as you get older, I am building the staging yards on the bench in sections and then installing them.  Finished the last straight section this morning.



Next step will be to wire the straight section and get started on laying track on the last curved section.



I will be starting a thread on the Grand Trunk Southern in the layout section and explaining why the PRR Allegheny SubDivision met its end.

John

[MichaelWinicki]

Building #1 of Model Tech Studio's Merchants Row...

[Dave V]

More Conrail fun...  Was shooting movies and grabbed this still.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Very cool scene, Dr. Dave!
Really dig the power lines.
And can a car really go 45 around that curve? 

Been continuing to install Bullfrogs on my Free-moN staging yard module.
Also got all four shelves installed, to protect the knobs and to provide a non-layout surface for our Powercab and iPhone throttles:



Also been watching my daughter bust out her mad MR skillz as she builds a diorama of the BFG's cave:



She got a blast (not a jolt) out of using the Banananator static grass applicator.

Keep up the groovy work guys!
Always a pleasure to see.

[R L Smith]

Nice work this weekend, as always.

elsnscale, what did you use for your ballast?

rls

[Dave V]

Very cool scene, Dr. Dave!
Really dig the power lines.
And can a car really go 45 around that curve? 

Take a closer look...  That's a keystone-shaped route sign.  That's PA Rte 45:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Route_45

The real PA 45 does the same thing under the Pennsy at Spruce Creek:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=spruce+creek,+pa&hl=en&ll=40.61177,-78.140173&spn=0.002118,0.004823&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.178967,79.013672&t=h&hnear=Spruce+Creek,+Huntingdon,+Pennsylvania&z=18

[wazzou]

we chose this one as our first for N scale based in part on the feedback of Railwire members.

I'm eager for this kit, however I would have guessed the Bank or the Five & Dime would have garnered the most interest.

[MichaelWinicki]

Nice.

Wired telephone poles definitely add to the scene.

[Packer]

Some nice stuff going on this weekend. I especially like Dave's shot.

I started on some BN F-units. Buying a full ABBA set of the newer RTR ones (the Genesis ones would be nice to have) would cost an arm and a leg. So I decided to make my own using some Stewarts. I have an ABBA set of shells, and 2 chassis (1 powered, 1 dummy) already and am only in about 70 bucks. Best part, I get to have Fs with snow plows.

Here I'm test-fitting parts from the Details West kit for F-units (not the one for the highliners shells, but the older one). On the F9s the previous owner cut the rear doors off. So I took the Details west door and Striker plate and modified them to fit the stewart shell. The test is on the end that the end door wasn't cut off. I figure adding a piece of styrene the thickness of the shell to fill the gap from the cut-out doors and using the Details west doors and striker plates all around would look good. I would of used Highliners shells, but I want to keep this cheap because I still have a GP5 to finish building, 2 C425s that I need to make new fuel tanks for, and I'm still in college.


The F9A will recieve the same mods, but I have to add a lower headlight. The pilot on the F9A is buggered up to, so I'll add a snowplow pilot and it'll still be prototypical.

The set will be BN 824 (F9A), BN ??? (F9B), BN 737 (F7B), and BN 668 (F7A).
The 824 is one of only a couple F9s with plows, and there are quite a few good pictures of it on rrpictures archive
The 737 looks like a late phase F3B, but is labeled as an F7B. The portholes on this unit are also plated over. This makes use of a late-phase F3B shell I have
The 668 is one of the ex-GN F7s that has both dynamic and the pilot plow (I like the look of the plow). There are ex-NP units that are similar, but they have lower headlights.
As for ???, I haven't choosen a prototype F9B to make it... 

And can a car really go 45 around that curve? 

If one used both lanes, knew how to take a corner like a racecar driver, AND had a decent-handling car then yes.

[btsnyder27]

Take a closer look...  That's a keystone-shaped route sign.  That's PA Rte 45:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Route_45

The real PA 45 does the same thing under the Pennsy at Spruce Creek:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=spruce+creek,+pa&hl=en&ll=40.61177,-78.140173&spn=0.002118,0.004823&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.178967,79.013672&t=h&hnear=Spruce+Creek,+Huntingdon,+Pennsylvania&z=18

Glad to see that meteorology major drifting into some highway engineering here...  That road design may have passed muster back in the day, but nowadays, that'd be an epic no-no.
Scene looks great Dave...especially love the pavement marking detail..

[shark_jj]

Dave, excellent photo and modelling.  I feel like I've seen that scene so many times when railfanning the ex PRR mainline.  You certainly got it right.

[elnscale]

Nice work this weekend, as always.

elsnscale, what did you use for your ballast?

rls

Hi RLS, it's just Woodland Scenics ballast. It's fine gray I think, or maybe the light gray. I know lots are not keen on it but it seems to work for me. I tidied up the ballast a bit after I took those photos.

[nkalanaga]

I've seen a lot of roads like that since moving to Appalachia.  Also, even if it was a speed limit sign, there's nothing to say one HAS to go that fast, unless it says "Minimum Speed".

[Dave V]