Santa Barbara in N scale_ at the NMRABR 2022 convention near Crewe

[roundhouse]

After many years I have finally managed to find a suitable photo that I took from the upoer deck of an Amtrak service as it crossed State Street into the station, that after a few adjustments on Photoshop just about fits the road where it meets the backscene. This photo shows the bridge that Highway 101 passes over State Street. It's actually more the case of State Street burrowing under thr freeway. I remember back in 1989 when this was done on the level and it took ages for the lights to change to allow pedestrians to cross.

 

The photo shows the  draft print which will now be replaced with a higher quality one.

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Where is Amtrak Coast Starlight?

 

Should have been here by now.

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Good BH Sunday morning.

 

After a good day out yesterday I have this morning to work on the layout.

 

The backscene now has the highway 101 Bridge over State Street fixed in place. It couhavr done with a bit of brightening up the palm trees but even with colour fixer applied it will probably fade a little anyway.

 

There are a few more pedestrians added to the sidewalk.

 

There are also a few other figures added including one dubious female.

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

This morning I decided to try and add a driver to the truck in the previous post.

However on taking the cab apart I found that this Concor truck has a solid glazing blow. So now the driver is seen after getting out of the cab to have a closer look.

 

I also decided to add drivers to a couple of cars on State Street. These were much easier to fit as the cars come apart much easier and have interiors. What I didn't realise is that the front bumper on the pickup is missing.

However the normal viewpoint most won't see that.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by roundhouse

[ChrisH-UK]

On 01/09/2021 at 16:20, roundhouse said:

What I didn't realise is that the front bumper on the pickup is missing.

However the normal viewpoint most won't see that.

 

 

 

A friend has an f150 pickup that they had to replace the front bumper, they drove around without one for a few days so it's 100% prototypical

[roundhouse]

We had a good day operating Santa Barbara today. Even had a couple come all the way from Milton Keynes to see the layout. They also made a weekend of it staying in Southport.

 

My other half also got UP 1111 for a very good price. I borrowed a decoder from another loco so we could run it.

 

Good to see numerous fellow modellers who we haven't seen for two years.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Now back home so a little bit of work on the new UP loco.

 

The steps have had the edges painted white using a fine paint pen. The couplings have been swapped for Microtrains ones and the wheel sides painted.

 

The loco will get a very light weathering on the chassis and roof but it's too nice to do any heavier weathering.

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Santa Barbara is going to be at the NMRABR convention near Crewe in early November. Originally it was going to be my HO scale layout Fort Myers but the change gives the layout an outing for this year.

 

I have ordered more graffitti to add to various freight cars, so it wont be long before there is more to post here.

Edited August 7, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

After seeing a photo of the real autorack I couldn't resist doing an N scale version  using Circus City decals on a Scale trains CN autorack.

The decal went on very well after applyid gloss coat to the side then using decal solution both under and on top of the decal. Al pressed into the recesses using my fingers.

 

Once dry another coat of gloss varnish will be added before a final matt coat and then a final l weathering coat.

Edited August 19, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Homer has been finished. Weathering done and the autorack is ready to go in the stock box.

I have some interesting graffiti to go on UP covered hoppers from CircusCity.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Whilst in the real world I'm not a fan of graffiti, especially 'tagging'; when it's done like homer there I can't help but be impressed and do appreciate that level of skill. Very nice!

In a similarly realistic style I once saw an SBB van wagon while on holiday in Switzerland with a very realistic 'Johnny Bravo' on the side but i wasn't quick enough to take a photo and have never seen it online.

Turns out the wife has a friend that lives in the next town to Santa Barbara, planning a trip at somepoint in the next few years so may have to take her to the station ;) 

[roundhouse]

5 hours ago, Satan's Goldfish said:

Whilst in the real world I'm not a fan of graffiti, especially 'tagging'; when it's done like homer there I can't help but be impressed and do appreciate that level of skill. Very nice!

In a similarly realistic style I once saw an SBB van wagon while on holiday in Switzerland with a very realistic 'Johnny Bravo' on the side but i wasn't quick enough to take a photo and have never seen it online.

Turns out the wife has a friend that lives in the next town to Santa Barbara, planning a trip at somepoint in the next few years so may have to take her to the station ;) 

Downtown Santa Barbara is very nice. Its also improved a lot between the station and the seafront in recent years especailly where I have modelled wasteland. We are hoping to get back there soon.

Plenty of brewpubs in easy walking distance of the station with two just off scene of the modelled area.

Edited August 23, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

A few photos of Santa Barbara from our last visit xmas 2018.

 

Downtown area

 

State Street new development just South of the station towards the beach.

 

Us eating ice cream on the pier on Christmas eve. my other half was taking the photo. Much better than he weather over xmas back in the UK. Cant wait to get back there.

 

[roundhouse]

This weekend Santa Barbara is at the NMRABR convention near Crewe. Saturday is open to all visitors.

 

As the layout was last out in September 2021 I have been checked ching the boards for any damage including the scenery but all looks fine.

 

I am going through the rolling stock and have had the brass Surfliner csn car apart to clean the pickups as it has a decoder to work the lights. It even has working ditch lights. This was produced by Lookmodels in Japan but they no longer appear to be trading since the earthquake and Tsunami some years ago. Whether that was a coincidence or otherwise I do not know but they made some lovely models.

 

The layout is now ready for loading for our trip to Crewe.

[z4driver]

Hopefully see you there.

 

Lee

[roundhouse]

The last day of the NMRABR convention near Crewe and the layout is running fine even though we have lost power to all the turnout solenoids at one end of the layout.

I wasn't going to dismantle the layout to try and find the problem so we have improvised using numbers on paper that the operator at the other end hold up then the turnouts can be switched manually. It's worked well.

Edited November 9, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

A few more photos taken today

[roundhouse]

Today I finally managed to find the fault with the turnouts on the first fiddleyard board. A failed Digitrax DS64 accessory decoder that was knocking out the two adjacent decoders. I swapped it with the one of the High Line test circuit and then reprogrammedthe routes etc using JMRI.

 

All working fine now which will be good when the fiddleyard is next out with Banbury next year.

 

In the meantime here is a video taken last weekend at the NMRABR Crewe Convention.

 

Looking forward to being back in Santa Barbara in the near future.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by roundhouse

[Johann Marsbar]

11 hours ago, roundhouse said:

Today I finally managed to find the fault with the turnouts on the first fiddleyard board. A failed Digitrax DS64 accessory decoder that was knocking out the two adjacent decoders. I swapped it with the one of the High Line test circuit and then reprogrammedthe routes etc using JMRI.

 

All working fine now which will be good when the fiddleyard is next out with Banbury next year.

 

In the meantime here is a video taken last weekend at the NMRABR Crewe Convention.

 

Looking forward to being back in Santa Barbara in the near future.

 

 

 

I'm impressed with the perspective on the backscene in that clip!

[roundhouse]

12 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

I'm impressed with the perspective on the backscene in that clip!

Thanks

 

I upgraded the backscene last year ready for the Liverpool show. I had eventually found a photo that I took from the upper deck on Amtrak as we crossed State Street, arriving into the station (then quickly got down stairs to get off) so the perspective of State St and the freeway overbridge works well when looking low down at the layout.

[LBRJ]

Is that a large dog in the back of the pick-up truck?

[roundhouse]

1 hour ago, LBRJ said:

Is that a large dog in the back of the pick-up truck?

Yes.

 

The building over the other side of the tracks to  the pickup truck is Big Dog T Shirts. It has closed in recent years.

[roundhouse]

Santa Babara is at the Seaboard Southern show in Crawley today. Come say hello if you are visiting.

 

https://www.seaboard-southern.org.uk/annual-exhibition/