GEOEng03 Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 (edited) After a number of weeks doing considerable reading around the subject, I have no started and taken the plunge with moving fully over to North American HO scale. I have recently foregone a mobile upgrade for a tablet and taken a subscription out to Model Railroader using this as the format, while buying a number of other digital publications. All the OO stock is pretty much sold now and I have a float that has disappeared into the depths of the Wife’s plans to purchase items as a when I see the need. Trips to the US will now involve some research and hunting down of shops with suitable stock for bringing back. The Layout currently occupies an area of 3.6m (3.0m on the interior wall side) x 2.4m with each of the board being 800mm wide. They are made from 9mm ply for what was my first attempt and are connected by M5 bolts and supported on softwood legs. I feel that they are not up to the standard of others but are much better than the softwood and chipboard attempts of previous layouts. I am undecided as to whether I will add an additional section to close the loop, but I am thinking if I do that, I would lower this by 100mm to allow a bridge to be inserted across this span for some 3D scenic affect. I have recently brought a double track truss bridge to look at mixing with a number of others as well. 20190503_113848 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr The following Walthers Kits have been brought. The Oil refinery was brought because I really liked the look of the kit and I was quite surprised when I saw etched parts in the box for the railings! I intend on having a two-track line elevated around the layout, hence the purchase of two of these elevated kits (which will double the height if I span the void as discussed earlier). I will then have a number of streets and a lower line running beneath this. 20190503_114311 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr And this Modern Cold Storage Warehouse Kit. Wow, I just did not appreciate how big this kit was until I saw the box and looked inside it. The Americans really do know how to provide plenty of scope for modelling! 20190503_132827 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr The intention is to have one corner occupied with the oil refinery and then part of a straight will take the Cold Store. The northern lights will also occupy a corner at some point. I have a number of Locomotives already and have decided to go along the lines of a UP/BNSF layout, which will see occasion CN trains operate through this area – I have looked at route maps and CN run down the Mideast side, so wouldn’t be too far from prototype. I intend on using intermodal (connected to the Cold store perhaps), oil and grain. But will build each up individually without committing too much. Track is Peco Code 83 and is concrete for now, but I will have to but some wood track to match the points which are only sleeper at the moment. We were quite busy during May, but the wife is having minor surgery this weekend, which means the above was brought to fill some time that has appeared. I must say. I am quite excited to have made the switch and I am looking forward to being able to build the kits away from the layout as much as do the layout. Track planning is next... Edited May 10, 2019 by GEOEng03 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickBrad Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 I look forward to seeing this progress. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 You have a good space to work with there. Close the loop, too - a roundy-roundy gives the chance to run-in locos, and sometimes just sit back & run a train for the sheer hell of it, or leave one running while you do other work on the layout. Of no significance whatsoever, especially at this stage, but the name "Willow Road" doesn't sound very American to me? "xxxxx Road" was a common naming practise for railway stations in the UK, often on rural lines where the station might be some distance from the community it was meant to serve, so was named after the road that led to the village or town, from the railway station. But I can't say I've ever seen that sort of name in an American setting - of course now there will be posted many links to prove me wrong!! On the other hand, some places we would call a small town at best in the UK, carry the name of City in the USA, & "Willow City" would to me convey much more about the layout, almost without even seeing it!! That is, of course, just my opinion, offered in a spirit of helpfulness; feel free to ignore it totally!!! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 (edited) Or Wilow Grove. Edited May 5, 2019 by Night Train 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 On 05/05/2019 at 19:34, F-UnitMad said: You have a good space to work with there. Close the loop, too - a roundy-roundy gives the chance to run-in locos, and sometimes just sit back & run a train for the sheer hell of it, or leave one running while you do other work on the layout. Of no significance whatsoever, especially at this stage, but the name "Willow Road" doesn't sound very American to me? "xxxxx Road" was a common naming practise for railway stations in the UK, often on rural lines where the station might be some distance from the community it was meant to serve, so was named after the road that led to the village or town, from the railway station. But I can't say I've ever seen that sort of name in an American setting - of course now there will be posted many links to prove me wrong!! On the other hand, some places we would call a small town at best in the UK, carry the name of City in the USA, & "Willow City" would to me convey much more about the layout, almost without even seeing it!! That is, of course, just my opinion, offered in a spirit of helpfulness; feel free to ignore it totally!!! Thanks for the feedback. I have decided on closing the loop, so need to measure and build the suitable wood for it - but need to decide which bridges will join the double truss to span the gap... Currently thinking a higher double and a lower single bridge. Agreed that it sounds too UKish… Thanks for the suggestions and will have a rethink.! I do like Willow Grove if I am honest and that is a rather good suggestion - City sounds too big (although the two have different concepts of size don't they!). Will do a bit more research of suitable donor places to help rename it. Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 On 05/05/2019 at 21:11, Night Train said: Or Wilow Grove. I do rather like that TBH.... Can see the royalty charges now! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 (edited) Part 2 After the wife had brought forward surgery at the weekend, I had the whole BH weekend to get on and do some hobby works. This was amongst other round the house tasks, but I feel like I did quite a bit – although the pictures may suggest otherwise… I made a start on both bridges (steel and concrete), building them to a level that will allow me to paint before completing them fully and then priming with a standard grey. While I know the preference is to paint then build, I felt I could get these to a level that would be easily enough to paint for me… So, the following pictures are of the models around 80% built and primed ready to paint. It is now that I can see just how big American Outline is against UK, with the scale differences showing the size of these things... The US 40ft wagon and trailer shows this quite well, looking much smaller than UK 1/76 scale. 20190507_071842 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Concrete 20190507_071747 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20190507_071821 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Steel 20190507_071759 (1) by Bryn Jones, on Flickr The kits were great to build, and I really enjoyed doing them, getting more satisfaction than a normal resin plant on board that I’ve used in the past. I struggled to find suitable concrete and steel paints off the shelf and in the end, purchased the Woodland Scenics set from Hobbycraft with some vouchers that made it similar to online vendors when postage was factored in. Not sure if they’ll be any good, but I wanted to try and get the concrete as close as possible, and to my eye, it looks ok... 20190507_072057 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Cold Store Warehouse Lastly for now, I made a start on the cold store warehouse – wow, big kit. I looked at the moulded plastic colour and decided that it just did not look convincing, so primed with Humbrol Grey and then added Humbrol Matt White as the main colour. So far, I am quite happy with the colour and think it will start to look much better when it is weathered and toned a bit – the panel at the top of the picture is the original colour it was moulded in, this may not show up on the picture too much, but the paint does look much more realistic... At this stage, I have built or four sides and need to detail paint next before I pull together. I had put together the aircon units, which are amazing little things in their own right as well… 20190507_071939 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Cheers Edited May 7, 2019 by GEOEng03 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) On 07/05/2019 at 14:59, GEOEng03 said: I do rather like that TBH.... Can see the royalty charges now! I have decided to go with Willow Creek. Didn't want to go with City as the layout will never quite look that way too me (but aware that Cities can be quiet small in the US). The truss bridge arrived this week and I have had the ply cut to fill the gap for the valley area at the front now - so I am hopeful of making a bit of progress this weekend. Though a number of 'house' projects have come out of the blue!!! Edited May 10, 2019 by GEOEng03 Complete post 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covkid Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 (edited) On 05/05/2019 at 19:34, F-UnitMad said: Of no significance whatsoever, especially at this stage, but the name "Willow Road" doesn't sound very American to me? "xxxxx Road" was a common naming practise for railway stations in the UK, often on rural lines where the station might be some distance from the community it was meant to serve, so was named after the road that led to the village or town, from the railway station. But I can't say I've ever seen that sort of name in an American setting - of course now there will be posted many links to prove me wrong!! On the other hand, some places we would call a small town at best in the UK, carry the name of City in the USA, & "Willow City" would to me convey much more about the layout, almost without even seeing it!! That is, of course, just my opinion, offered in a spirit of helpfulness; feel free to ignore it totally!!! I tried to reply to this last week in Florida but not sure why it didn't work. My friend and I visited the preserved line nearest to the condo we stay at which is located in Parrish FL not far from the Outlet Mall at Ellenton on the I75 south of Tampa. We drop the ladies off at the Mall and take a ten minute drive to Parrish where trains leave every weekend at 1100 and 1400 for the trundle to Willow. Most of the kit is kept at Willow where there are sheds for repairs and plinths for a handful of long term stored steam locos. On this occasion we drove to Willow but it was all locked up and is better accessed by riding the train from Parrish where you have the time to wander round. The train is normally formed of an open gondola with a homebuilt roof, then a couple of air conditioned steel / aluminium coaches and a couple of cabooses. The staple power was an ex US Army GP7 painted in an L&N inspired livery nd a more recently acquired chop nose GP10, but they a beautiful Alco RS3 painted in Seaboard green which is waiting repairs. On this occasion the GP7 1835 was left in the siding at Parrish and the recently acquired Conrad Yelvington flatroofed Alco S2 hauled the train from Willow to Parrish. Chatted briefly with the engineer who stabled the S2 and he was less than impressed with the 72 year old, which he described as a "POS" loco. I naively asked what POS meant and was told "piece if s**t" !!!! Worth a visit if you in the Tampa/ St Pete / Sarasota area, although it is definately a museum totter rather than a proper working railroad. Some nice stock though. Edited May 13, 2019 by Covkid 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted July 11, 2019 Author Share Posted July 11, 2019 I have been making some progress on the layout recently - been over 2months, but work has been rather hectic. Have started to build the raised areas with foam and have brought a couple of bridge kits to sit and span some areas for further detail. This update is on the progress of the bridges, will push some of the elevated areas up later. Both kits are the Walters Cornerstone kits and have been a pleasure to build, though I have used a rattle can to paint both. Also, have built an additional board to span the entrance area between sides and allow the double track girder bridge to be installed... Concrete Bridge Side view of bridge – dry fitted together. I have used a rattle can from B&Q that represents concrete and has small texture. There are so many different types of concrete and colours out there and I struggled to find many in rattle can form, after failing to use the paint kits, I opted for these. I am quite happy with the way it has applied, aside from some initial flow issues and these will need sanding down. IMG_20190711_103906515 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190711_103858640 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190711_103730270 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Top view of bridge and deck IMG_20190711_103911136 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Steel Bridge I have also built a second bridge using the Walthers Cornerstone Steel Bridge kit. Again looks quite good and has been done from a rattle can, will have concrete abutments as the concrete kit. Side view – issue with paint bubbling on one side, that I need to sand and respray. Think the colour is quite neat though and how I’d expect steel to look, pre-weathered. IMG_20190711_103938472 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Other side view – without paint blemish… IMG_20190711_103931898 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Underside view IMG_20190711_103943932 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Top view IMG_20190711_103928299 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Overall, two fun kits to build and I have brought a number of the street sets to build up around these areas at the toe. Currently have the double track girder bridge on the go as well. Cheers 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted July 11, 2019 Author Share Posted July 11, 2019 A second and further update of ongoing work is the construction of this Walthers Cornerstone ‘Modern Cold Storage Warehouse. This has been quite a task to date and there is plenty of work to still do with this. The following pictures show the unit in its current condition from various angles: Air con units to still be painted up, along with stairs and disabled ramp. IMG_20190609_143502833 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr General view from the front. I have current scored a number of 4in squares into 0.5cm foamboard to represent concrete and have started to toy with what colour to paint this. I may not go with this ultimately – may not have design life in it – not sure what others have done… Athearn truck in for view. There is still quite a bit of touching up and work to do with this unit, but is on the way. IMG_20190609_143448965 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190609_143445303 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190609_143455594 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Attempt at concrete hardstanding using foamboard – not sure at the moment, but will continue to trial this… IMG_20190609_143256884 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190609_143239495 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr The unit had been built in sides, primed and then sprayed with off matt white, which I felt was a reasonable colour for such a tin shed, then glued together and a floor put in to add rigidity. Roof has been painted in primer and I quite like the colour, so this may stay as is… I have also added or started to try/attempt to add an interior for the unit, using 0.5mm foamboard – not sure how much further I will go with this, but wanted to make a start and will be looking or some half decent interiors to at least show the offices on the right hand side… IMG_20190609_143300315_HDR by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I have brought a pack of these Walthers Scenemaster lights as well, to add to the exterior, not shown, but holes drilled. Could’ve have gone for a cheaper set of Gaugemaster lights, but much preferred the look of these. IMG_20190609_143312496 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr New addition – Canadian Pacific ES44, I also secured a heritage (Jersey) and black Norfolk Southern pair of Athearn G locos. IMG_20190609_143511637 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Overall, I am sure that things could be better, but as my wife said, she has seen me do more scenery and thought with the US layout, than I ever did with the UK outline ones…. Cheers 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longmire Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 Nice start. I'll follow your thread with interest. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted July 11, 2019 Author Share Posted July 11, 2019 On 13/05/2019 at 19:52, Covkid said: I tried to reply to this last week in Florida but not sure why it didn't work. My friend and I visited the preserved line nearest to the condo we stay at which is located in Parrish FL not far from the Outlet Mall at Ellenton on the I75 south of Tampa. We drop the ladies off at the Mall and take a ten minute drive to Parrish where trains leave every weekend at 1100 and 1400 for the trundle to Willow. Most of the kit is kept at Willow where there are sheds for repairs and plinths for a handful of long term stored steam locos. On this occasion we drove to Willow but it was all locked up and is better accessed by riding the train from Parrish where you have the time to wander round. The train is normally formed of an open gondola with a homebuilt roof, then a couple of air conditioned steel / aluminium coaches and a couple of cabooses. The staple power was an ex US Army GP7 painted in an L&N inspired livery nd a more recently acquired chop nose GP10, but they a beautiful Alco RS3 painted in Seaboard green which is waiting repairs. On this occasion the GP7 1835 was left in the siding at Parrish and the recently acquired Conrad Yelvington flatroofed Alco S2 hauled the train from Willow to Parrish. Chatted briefly with the engineer who stabled the S2 and he was less than impressed with the 72 year old, which he described as a "POS" loco. I naively asked what POS meant and was told "piece if s**t" !!!! Worth a visit if you in the Tampa/ St Pete / Sarasota area, although it is definately a museum totter rather than a proper working railroad. Some nice stock though. Hi, sorry, totally missed this!!! Thanks for this, though I am not sure my wife would be as ameniable to us/me doing this , this based on our recent Canadian visit this year, when in Toronto, I saw the outdoor part of the museum by the CN Tower and took pictures, wife was not happy, but it was throwing ice pellets and -10... have pushed a couple below. have you any pictures from that visit - always good to see these. We do have a visit back to Florida on the cards later this year, and it is my 4oth year as well, so I may get lucky Cheers Definitely all my pictures! - Toronto 20190212_101133 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20190212_101139 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20190212_101115 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20190212_101041 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20190212_101029 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Vancouver 20190216_142240 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20190216_142244 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr made me smile 20190216_142601 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covkid Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 22 hours ago, GEOEng03 said: Hi, sorry, totally missed this!!! Thanks for this, though I am not sure my wife would be as ameniable to us/me doing this , this based on our recent Canadian visit this year, when in Toronto, I saw the outdoor part of the museum by the CN Tower and took pictures, wife was not happy, but it was throwing ice pellets and -10... have pushed a couple below. have you any pictures from that visit - always good to see these. We do have a visit back to Florida on the cards later this year, and it is my 4oth year as well, so I may get lucky Cheers Definitely all my pictures! - Toronto Hi Glad to see you braved the elements for a few memories. Love the old stuff particularly the Geep. To be honest I don't take many piccies in FL because he sun can be quite harsh - the opposite to your conditions !! We were fortunate in that our two brief visits to Canada were in May and July and were actually "barely over the border" and the one was actually an eye opener in terms of geography. July - we flew into Boston then drove up through New Hampshire to Stowe in Vermont for two weeks. On the middle weekend we had planned to meet our Canadian friends from Burlington, in Gananoque, so we drove more or less west. We crossed Lake Champlain on a ferry, then drove across New York state, eventually crossing the river into Canada for a weekend stay. Looking at the map shows the Toronto area in Canada as being more Southerly, and we actually drove south for a spell, which messes with your mind when you mentally expect Canada to be "on top" the US states !!! Anyway this link is pretty succinct in it's description of the Florida Railroad museum. It probably wouldn't be worth driving a long way for six miles of pottering along the railroad. But it is worth a visit if you are in the Tampa Bay area and fancy a bit of "rail" leisure. If you google search images of "Parrish railroad" you will find plenty. https://www.edwardringwald.com/FRRMParrishFl.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEOEng03 Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 A few pictures on the completed loop now. Size is 3.6m by 2.4, boards are 600mm wide (will increase this by 100mm where reach is easier to allow. I also intend on adding a board across the middle to give it some additional dimension, will get around to making this, but was planning on using low relief buildings to allow this look reasonable - thoughts for now!!! Now I have closed the loop I can start to really consider how I will go about building the layout etc... I had originally intended to have a dropped point where I have closed the loop, but will go with this for now. happy that iw ill have to crawl under, though will be building as much as possible in sections 1.2m x 0.6 for each piece, to allow it to be moved at a future date. I could have gone for a lift section and may still, but needed to see the loop closed. have made very little progress in recent weeks, due to work etc... but did want to close this out. Cheers IMG_20190723_114157857 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190723_114151986 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190723_114149228 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr IMG_20190723_114209752 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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