What's new on the layout?

It's been a while since the last post. Here's what's new new on the layout....

Picked up a customized American Flyer K5 locomotive recently. The prior owner did a great job customizing it for the Pennsylvania railroad.

The latest addition to the roster.

Marker lights, bell and headlights. Really well done work on this.

Whoever did this added the running boards to the headlight.

close up on the tender. Really nice work on this!

But wait, there's more!

I'm building coal loads for the S Scale America Coal Porter cars.

The GP-35 is fixed and back in the rotation

The Burlington Northern GP-35 from American Models is fixed and again rolls around the layout. If took a bit of detective work and some new power pick up leads, but the motor again picks up track power and hauls the train around the track.

The GP-35 hauling a string of cars. The Railbox car contains the American Models sound unit.

While a picture is nice - a video really shows how well it runs.

A milestone - all the track for the intial plan is installed

The west yard looking southeast. The three mainlines are on the right.

The west yard looking southwest.

 

I picked up a 30B from the Fall S Fest. It works great is fills the need I had for replacing the 4B and 8B transformers I was using.

The urban planning and landscaping continues!

A few more picture and a video or two showing the progress I've made on the town. I do feel like I'm turning a corner as I think there is more 'done' now than 'not done'. Scott's benchmarke question seems to be "can we game on it?". Scott - the answer is now yes, we could game on it. Not all of it, but enough for a game.

Now on to the pictures!

This is the east section of the layout. We're looking north from the south end of the layout. The wall sections in the foreground are from Acheson Creations. The near buildings are from Armorcast.

Pulling back a bit for an overview. The old Marx tower is a placeholder for now. Trying to decide if I like a tower there.

Cheaspapeake Stree takes a sharp turn into town here. It's a light industrial area.

Another shot of Chesapeake Lane, this time at the intersection with Butler Street.

The Plasticville factory has rail service in the rear with the ability to load trailers as well. The yard signs are from Armorcast. They are actually 'business cards' with their name and number embossed in the casting.

Another shot of the Plasticville factory. It marks the start of the industrial area.

Looking north from the edge of the bridge, the Burlington Northern U33C is bearing down on the cameraman. Better clear that track quick! 

MOVIE TIME!

A short video showing the U33C hauling a string of freight cars around the layout.

And another short video as the train rolls through town.

Examples of the recent landscaping work underway

A few pictures of the landscaping work underway on the layout. The current focus has moved past the Kwiky Mart and on the the section of town near the railroad station. For the layout I'm modeling the 1980's, so for this town, the area near the train station has seen better days. The conveinience store is the most modern thing around and it's an optimistic business venture based on having enough traffic derived from the train station, the local businesses and the proximity of some housing (the apartments are adjacent to the store) to make a go of it.

The businesses are definitely on the low end representing light industry and commercial endeavors that don't mind the close proximity to the railroad tracks.

Here's Chesapeake Road looking south. We're at the intersection of Butler Street.

Another view of the station showing Lackawanna  Street in the foreground.

Lackawanna  Street looking north. Miami Street is on the left where the State Trooper sits.

Similar to the preceding image, this shows the paved lot in front of t he Plasticville factory.

More of a street view. The 'grassy' area is a vacant lot.

Flipping the camera around we see the intersection of Warren Street and Lackawanna  Street.

The buildings are just resting on the table. I'll have to address the warped resin in the left hand building,

Lackawanna  Street curves around this building. While the public entrance is off Warren Street,  the freight entrance is here. These buildings are produced by Armorcast. They are intended for the tabletop gaming market, but they can work with S and give a nice change from the Plasticville landscape so common amongst hi-railers.

Landscaping work on the layout continues!

Spent some time this week making progress on landscaping the layout. After scrolling back through the archives of the blog, it's nice to see the layout taking a more finished shape. But words fail where pictures excel - see what I mean below.

From the south end of the layout - the east yard and town.

The town fronting the train station.

The Kwiky mart

The police make a stop for coffee

 

Landscaping progress on the apartment district

Managed to paint/flock the ground cover in the area of the apartments. What a difference a little flocking makes!

Landscaped with a couple of palms tossed in to flank the door. These trees are cake decorations that were based on a washer, had the trunks painted light brown and hit with a coat of dullcoat to remove the shine off the plastic leaves.  The car is Dodge Charger from the M2 line. The dumpster is a resin piece from the Armorcast line.

Overview shot showing the landscaped grass and river bank. The parking lot is gray paint with light gray fine ballast dropped onto it. The mottled effect reflects old payment that has seen better days.

MRC field grass installed between two tracks. In S scale, it's between 2-3 feet tall.

Same grass from a different angle and no rail car in the background.

I'm really liking the field grasses. Yes, it's labor intensive to install, but it looks good when it's done. I'll be slowing adding the tall grass highlights around the layout as the basic scenery gets installed.