Putting up the trim boards

Big accomplishment of the weekend was getting the trim boards up on the exterior edge of the layout AND the hinged walk-thru bridge. It's starting to feel like a train layout! More importantly - the chance of a catastrophic derailing have been substantially reduced.

The bridge and ends of the layout with the trim boards up.

Time to restock the Pizza Hut..or Taco Bell...or KFC.

Adding this board makes the river appear much more complete.

Need to touch up the stain on the left end of the board. It broke off during sawing.

Getting 2015 off on the right foot!

The first week of 2015 has seen signifigant progress being made on the model railroad. Lots of landscaping work is being done along with trim boards on the exterior of the layout.

An aerial shot of the southeast corner of the layout.  Inner loop on the left.

Oblique view of the same scene above.

The apartments have recieved additional trees and the parking lot as a few more cars.

Added the stained trim boards to this corner of the layout.

The trim boards really class up the layout. Adding the road and flocking the corner helped as well!

The bridge was flocked as well, adding to the finished look of the layout.

Added the pine trees along the river bank. The diner is a temporary set up to help gauge in determining what fits in the space and what else can fit (like maybe a post office or gas station). Clearly, more trees are required.

Same trees - different perspective.

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.