Weekend Update 7/1/12

[mplsjct]

Bart, that is a nice looking layout - got a track plan you can share with us?

+1

[Puddington]

A very nice looking layout Bart....more is better...photo's that is....

Nice gon Bryan.....what will he think of next....

The "Trek" touch is great.....and I like the fact that Eric found a way to add a tender and drivers to what is obviously a Klingon battle cruiser..yes...right...I win the prize...?

Modeling time is rare right now but I did manage to weather a couple of Trainman flat cars for general service on the pike...



Here's one sitting at the Samuel Ridge engine terminal awaiting a shunt.

Happy Canada Day to my fellow hosers and a very Happy 4th to all in the US of A !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Vince Gortner]

Wow....   I've been taking a model railroading break for a couple weeks (you know, summer and all...) but wow!  This is quite the weekend update.  Richie: gorgeous 2-10-2.  Eric: Yeah, I'd imagine that was a major investment but one that should last. T-1 is a favorite, even with my western bias.  That's incredible.   Bart: Your layout looks enviably done, finished, and clean. Beautiful presentation.

So I took an MR break, but not necessarily a train break.  A few weeks ago my son and I took the Amtrak CZ from Naperville, IL to Glenwood Springs, CO and back, with a week of exploring CO in the middle.  What a fantastic and relaxing trip.  I had never been to Colorado in the summer - plenty of ski trips but never summer.  Amazing, beautiful, and with any luck a future trip out there will be made with a moving van and all my stuff.  Not to make this a trip report, but the thing that really struck me related to model railroading is that as I'm riding in the sightseer lounge I was recognizing scenes from Mike Danneman's layout.  That was weird.  I had never been through the flatirons, but immediately recognized a part of the real world based on what he's done in a basement.   

And here's Byers Canyon from the rails.  It looks much nicer in real life than my carved foam.  But Now I have a much better sense of how it is supposed to look.



Got to ride behind a nice 3' Baldwin 2-6-2 on the Georgetown Loop Railroad.  Again, the trains themselves are almost secondary to the beautiful mountains, river, waterfalls, trees...  it was a reset of my thinking on modelling.



Same goes for a ride on the Royal Gorge Route along the Arkansas River. 



So when it was time to head home I had 20 or so spare hours to think about my model railroad plans and really develop a much more scenery intensive vision for what my "someday" Colorado layout would look, feel, and operate like. 



Along with the realization that I should start making trees NOW cause I will need 20,000 pine trees.  The nice part is that the little bit of scenery experimentation I've done on my kitchen HCD foam layout gives me a sense of, yeah, I can do that as opposed to not even knowing where to start.  It's do-able. 

And I'm really sorta toying with the idea of pulling up the double track superelevated Unitrack on my experiment layout and laying down a loop of rickety looking On30 or HOn3 and buying a narrow gauge steamer to chuff around the layout in circles until I move later this year.  Sort of a souvenir of our Colorado trip. 

Hope you are all enjoying a great summer!

Vince

[Bart1701]

Thanks for the comments on my layout! For those that were asking about the track plan, it is based on the Naugatuck Valley layout that is featured in the Kalmbach book "Building a Model Railroad Step by Step, 2nd Edition" by David Popp.  Now that I gave the book a plug, I am hoping I am allowed to post the layout plan. It is a reverse image, since this is the way the layout fits into the room. I omitted a few industries and trackage that was going to be somewhat inaccessible on the left side, and reworked the yard area on the right side since the actual track plan extended further up and there was a wall and a garage inconveniently in my way that prevented me from doing the same:)




Here are a few more photos of the layout.


Early shot - trees are not installed and are still sitting on their plastic bases


This helps explain why there are so many cars from the 50's - 70's on a modern layout. This shop has restored quite a few cars for the residents of my towns.






I'll post some more pics in the coming weeks.

Thanks,
Bart

[SecretWeapon]

Execllent work Bart!

[Kevin C]

Well done Bart. Very neat layout.

[SecretWeapon]

[eric220]

That is a gorgeous trip.

[Frisco Larry]

Eric:  I have the 5500 version of the T1.  The most expensive loco I own, but well worth it. Runs, pulls and looks great.  Ran it on our club layout until we went DCC.  Hope you can post "how to" photos when you add decoder.  I don't have a clue how to do it.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Needs more Conrail, and I want three.

[packers#1]

Spent today adding some bragdon powder layers to the C420. I'm pretty happy with it overall, not my best job (that's still my U23B), but it's "good enough." Still no decals yet, I have the handrails soaking to remove paint...

[S Class]

Thanks for the comments on my layout! For those that were asking about the track plan, it is based on the Naugatuck Valley layout that is featured in the Kalmbach book "Building a Model Railroad Step by Step, 2nd Edition" by David Popp.

yep, didn't even need to go to the second page to know where I've seen that almost-as-recognizable-as-the-Carolina-Central layout.

Fantastic job you've done, keep the pics coming.

[eric220]

Hope you can post "how to" photos when you add decoder.  I don't have a clue how to do it.

send it to Lee for the install, then we can get it photoed on the WM . . .

That's the plan.  My goal is to have the upper level mainline installed and running for this beauty by the time my dad comes to visit in August.

[One of One-Sixty]

So your gonna tease us with a engine shot, and not show what they are pulling?

[C855B]

Mentioned in last night's update in the Gibbon, Cozad & Western layout thread, yesterday we closed on the purchase of the building. The layout space will be roughly from the left side of the glass door to all the way to the right, and from the front to the back, about 45x45 ft.



And the first use of a model railroading tool for the new digs - using the Silhouette SD to cut a little vinyl:



Much work ahead.