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.

Cityscape - scene 1 the low rent apartment district

A couple of years ago I picked up two of the Plasticville apartment buildings. You likely know them - two story buildings that look like they have 2-4 apartments. It's an old staple of the Plasticville line and represents apartment buildings from the 1950's to the early '60's that captures some of the modernist and art deco elements that give Plasticville kits their character.  I want to drop them into the layout, but where?

After fitting in the track plan and the train station, I feel pretty confined with locating the apartments. There is an unused section that fits between the river, the railroad tracks and the convenience store. It's a little cramped, but 'compression' is how we usually rationalize this for model railroading.

Who would want to live in an apartment right next to the railroad? You can find plenty of towns where the rails run next to residential properties. In addition,  I can say is that I've lived in two apartments in my life that were in close proximity to the rails - one was right next to a major yard. After a while, you do get used to it. To some degree I want to model these buildings as a reminder to my earlier adventures and experiences. 


I assembled the buildings and placed them on the layout, adjusting them to get an idea of exactly where I best want to site them before I starting painting and flocking the landscape. We've got the river flowing close by on the north boundary. I'm thinking of squeezing in an access road to the rail yard next to the river bank. More a dirt/gravel track than a formal road.

Looking to the left

 On the south we bump up against the back of the convenience store. This area needs more landscaping.

Looking to the right

 Here's the view from the convenience store looking north toward the apartments.

Looking north

 And here's the view from across the river looking south. The river bank when finished should be covered in brush and trees providing some additional screening.

Looking south

 From a modeling aspect, separating the railroad right of way from the apartments seemed like a good safety aspect, so I dropped some brick wall sections from Armorcast around the east and south sides of the property to secure the boundaries. It also makes a nice divide with the backside of the convenience store 6' tall

Boundary between the store and the apartment. It's going to be a tight fit for the garbage truck.

The parking lot feels cramped, but again for modeling purposes, I'll be compressing the scene a bit to better fit the buildings into the available space.

The parking lot will be a crowded space when the cars and dumpster are added.