Wisconsin Central - Heritage Division

[w neal]

There, thats better then...
















Better here too. More to come...


















I am considering using some of these older style corssing signals for the older, and much less used, street crossings in Waupaca. Just a thought.















I applied some brown ballast for the area around Neenah Foundry. It gives that "abused" soil look that I'm after. The nice thing is that it comes with some odd chunks of black ballast in it which adds to the look. Now, for some scrap...













I took the time to place this instrument house nearby as a major control point is only a few yards away. It also conceals a control arm for one of the turnouts. The control arm was placed on top of the benchwork as my lack of forethought allow too many obstructions underneath. Some bushes and weeds may help conceal the arm as well. I should probably add a gaurdrail here to help prevent forklift "incidents" as well.















Still working on my forced perspective scene here...














I thought I was clever adding weathering to these houses. Then, I realized that it should add a lawn first. Whupps.

[w neal]

It has been an interesting few weeks. It was a dark Christmas and no modeling, with the power being out for a solid week. I would amuse myself by glancing at the layout as I walked past, carrying buckets of sump water upstairs. It was worth it not to have any T.V. however. I enjoyed reading chapters from "A fotunate life" to the family by candlelight each evening. The next week, we received the first "real" winter in nearly two decades. It was a healthy snowfall with blowing winds and very low temperatures. Ahh, how quickly people forget.

Now that all that is past, for now, I did some layout work:


I am making a feeble attempt at simulating the Waupaca depot:








It is not high quality. "Its only a model", as they say. I have the advantage of only having to represent three sides of it as it will be up against the skyboard. I love shelf layouts.













Also I'm trying to get my rocks on here. The cottage owner here was trying to prevent erosion of the river bank. I'll need to weather them, as this is "low water" modeling.














Added a few more details here. Me thinks a drop from the lines above is in order.















This is the end result of my forced perspective scene. I say end, but I'll probably be back...












I placed a strategic tree here to help separate the scene from the rest of the layout.

[mcjaco]

Very nice! 

Got permission to build a 9x8 foot L shaped shelf layout....actually looking at some Soo/WC trackage for ideas.

[conrailthomas519]

 :|well hmmm......? w. neal  Do you plan to run rock along the entire edge of that river in the vicinity of the boat dock? or just in that spot?
 Great idea to prevent erosion in that cottage scene, but I'm just not sure that it looks right. Because I'm very distracted by the uniform and square ness of all the surrounding river bank contours. Thoughts are that the river bank edges in front of the railroad bridge might be shaved a bit; meaning not as steep. I was thinking that when the river swells up and rises during the high water level season, this area would be under shallow moving water. By modeling imported rocked edges along that river bank below the boat dock it would help enforce the purpose and enhance the entire look of that scene as well.

[w neal]

Go Mcjaco! Go!  Try checking out the Neenah/Manasha area!

Mr. Thomas,

Your point is well taken. The rocks will indeed extend along the entire edge in the vicinity of the dock scene, as per prototype cottage. What is shown is just a start.

Perhaps I should add some mud near the bridge abutment area then. Good point.

Truth be told, the scene is full of afterthought. I'm open to suggstions. This is what you get when a model train guy creates a river scene. I should think more about hydrology & erosion eh?

Thanks much!

P.S. The proper book title mentioned above is "A Fortunate Life" by A. B. Facey. Sorry about the typos & stufflk.

[conrailthomas519]

That scene will turn out just fine when you complete it.  Just a reminder I'm a Fan! keep up your Hard Work!

[w neal]

My version of the Waupaca depot, frought with inaccuracies. Oh well, it is only intended as a background item anyways. Again, I can only hope to simulate the real world.













It helps complete the overall scene here in town. It looks better from a distance, as does all modeling.

[keeper]

I like the depot.

Thomas

[mcjaco]

I like the depot.

Thomas

+1

It screams Soo Line, even if slightly inaccurate.  Good on you.

[w neal]

Having some left over pieces of metal siding and so much background to cover yielded another boring industrial background. It was a quick evening project that still needs a roof and some details. My memory of Neenah is of many such trackside views. I don't recall a lot of older factory - type views from the tracks. It was mostly of modern looking structures such as this.

[PEIR]

It took me almost 25 pages before I realized that your layout is N-scale. I would of bet money it was HO until that point.  Your scenery and structures are first class. The Gills bridge is my favorite section of the layout.

[w neal]

Thats awfully kind of you to say PEIR. You remind me that I need to get back to the Gills Landing area to do more work. There are a lot of HO items "stolen" for use on my layout.

I dunno about first class. Sometimes I think I'm still way down in steerage, but thats just me. 




Still messing around with the Neenah foundry area. It seems that some piles of scrap are in order. I need to weather them, and for that matter, the whole area. The "elmers wash" left some nice spots in the soil. Funny, in a way it seems to have added some appropriate mayhem to the area. I may go back and add some more ballast to cover that effect up a bit.




















I also want to add some roof details to the foundry. This kit is a place to start as it resembles some "pipes" found on the roof of the real place. I plan to add some more details, weather and, paint it in some places...

[Denver Road Doug]

Nice progress...thanks for the updates!  Your layout thread is one of my favorites.

[Philip H]

W,
What kit is that?  If it's a detail of some sort it might help me fill out my refinery.  As always you are really tying it all together nicely.  And I think your Waupaca depot works well - the "inaccuracies" are things I view as concessions to the materials we have available to work with.

[w neal]

Phil,

Here it is. But hurry, this is the last one in stock. I'm sure others have it however:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Tomytec-N-United-Oil-Pipe-Still-Distillation-Tower-p/tmx-229124.htm