Way Down Yonder - Somewhere in Louisiana (HO)

[DanielB]

Morning all,

 

After the wrap up of Mansfield Show 2024 I thought it was about time I started working on something else to take to shows. Seeing as my space is limited for now, I've brought out an old 3' Inglenook I was working on a long while ago and feel now is the time to make use of it and try and push it over the finish line.

 

Though my main planned layout going forward is steam/transition era, I do have a lot of modern era stock that I really don't want to part with, so I am hoping to plan Way Down Yonder as being useable - with a few quick changes and swapping of details - for any time from 1970 onwards.

 

I made the effort when laying the track to make it quite unstable to replicate the rocking of freight cars - time will tell if that is a mistake or not! :D

 

I've made a quick mock up of what the plan is for the layout, fingers crossed it's a least partially legible.

 

Along the back of the layout I plan on using the Walthers Grocery Distributor to kitbash a backscene building, with lighting and interior. The entrance from the fiddle yard will be the sides/backs of commercial properties for the view block, to try and give a "run-down backlot" appearance.

 

Once the Walthers kit arrives I'll make a start on that, but in the mean time I'll be looking around the internet for interesting looking structures to scratch build for the view block.

Edited March 5 by DanielB

[DanielB]

I spotted this whilst browsing Google Maps - this is in the Louisiana and North West Railroad yard at Homer, Louisiana.

 

Seeing as I purchased a couple of 20' containers at Mansfield show, I thought I'd have a bash at making one to go on the layout somewhere. :)

 

Model photos to follow, of course! :D

[dave1905]

Be kind to yourself.  Move the grade crossing about 3" to the right and get it out of the switch.

[Liam_uk]

Looks good, looking forward to seeing this one come on!

 

Will it be ready for Mansfield 2025?

[dave1905]

If it's Louisiana you ought to have a chemical plant.

[DanielB]

11 hours ago, Liam_uk said:

Looks good, looking forward to seeing this one come on!

 

Will it be ready for Mansfield 2025?

 

I guess we shall see! 🤣

[DanielB]

Tonight I've been having a pop at building 2 on the plan, using a Walthers concrete structure which has been included in a load of their kits so I can't remember what it's called. 🤷

 

The back of the building will have some sort of painted on advertising but I'm not sure what yet. I'll have to raid my collection of printed adverts and do the old "sand the back and soak it in glue and water" trick.

 

Failing that I'll likely just freehand something then fade it out with drybrushing over the top.

 

Not sure exactly what business this will be but I intend on adding a bunch of details to it as it'll be right at the front of the layout.

 

Next job might be building some basswood pallets to add around it, including the ubiquitous stars and stripes painted one.

 

 

[DanielB]

A bit more progress made by adding some black florists wire to the outside of the building to form power cables. I'll put a little junction box on the end of it when I've knocked one together from scraps.

 

I've also added the start of a ghost sign to the building, though it's likely not going to be seen at shows to begin with as that's the edge that go against the backscene.

 

Still, it never hurts to future proof something.

[DanielB]

9 hours ago, dave1905 said:

If it's Louisiana you ought to have a chemical plant.

I'm not sure I'll have the space. 🤣

 

Maybe on the backscene though. :)

[DanielB]

For whenever I want to run the layout during the 1970's, I was planning on taking inspiration from many different Louisiana shortlines, giving a general feel for the period rather than copying any one railroad specifically.

 

A couple of these shortlines will be the Louisiana Midland and the Louisiana & North West.

 

As can be seen from this photograph by Brian Allison from abandonedrails.com - the Louisiana Midland purchased and patched out a number of Penn Central box cars. What you can't really see here is that they essentially just replaced PC with LOAM for the reporting marks, and the car numbers remained unchanged.

 

With help from @long island jack I've managed to find a couple of PC boxcars in stock with a UK supplier, which were deftly snapped up. They are Plug Door rather than (what I believe to be) Evans 50' smoothsides, but I'm sure with a bit of work I can get them looking somewhat similar to the photograph.

 

I also grabbed a couple of modernised 40' box cars in PC colours that will get the same treatment as it looks like there's a couple of those in the photo too. :)

 

Edited March 6 by DanielB

[DanielB]

As for the L&NW, they ran some interesting combination caboose/baggage cars that just cry out to be modelled. A preserved one photographed and uploaded by a Facebook group (as such I can't credit the photographer I'm afraid).

 

I'll certainly be having a pop at one of these at some point.

 

 

[DanielB]

A bit more modelling. I've spent the last few hours experimenting with making the roller shutter doors on the concrete building functional.

 

I don't know why I bothered, but once the idea was in my head I couldn't NOT do it.

 

After a bit of trial and error I've gotten something that works fairly well.

 

One door will be permanently fixed in place, the other two will be functional, which leaves me with one more to sort.

 

Here's a few photos of the basic idea.

 

 

[DanielB]

A bit more work tonight (can you tell my night shift has been boring?) - work in progress on the container store:

 

 

[DanielB]

The 50' Penn Central cars arrived this morning so I've spent a little time patching them out. I'll fade them a little as the next task before adding the LOAM reporting marks, then they'll get some weathering to make them suitably battered.

Edited March 7 by DanielB

[Rich_F]

27 minutes ago, DanielB said:

The 50' Penn Central cars arrived this morning so I've spent a little time patching them out. I'll fade them a little as the next task before adding the LOAM reporting marks, then they'll get some weathering to make them suitably battered.

 

As someone who often dabbles in US HO,  find that weathering & patching freight stock is surprisingly fun to do. 

[DanielB]

Working on freight cars is one of my favourite aspects of the hobby, as there is so much variety in how they look that there's endless opportunities for modelling projects.

 

I had the chance to pop into B&Q today so I bought everything I'll need to make the backscene for the layout. I even managed to find a few bits of timber in the freebie section to hopefully make a fiddlestick too. :)

[DanielB]

Today I've been doing some Art Curren inspired kitbashing for building #1, using a couple of old Walthers kits. Long ways to go on this but I'm enjoying the process. :)

[DanielB]

Saw this little gem on eBay and had to have it. Bachmann loco with a Tsunami sound decoder fitted.

 

Nice and loud, runs beautifully. Not sure what I'm going to do about the U(gly) P(aintscheme) yet though.

 

Might be a full repaint, might end up being a short line patch job.

Edited March 12 by DanielB

[DanielB]

I thought I'd take a photo or two of the structures placed roughly where they will end up on the finished layout, to get a feel for how big the layout will seem, and to work out how long I'll need to make the factory flat along the back of the layout.

 

2' should give me plenty to work with, whilst not dominating the entire space.

 

We shall see how things turn out.

[DanielB]

The kitbashed commercial building/store is vaguely inspired by the thrift store by the L&NW facilities at Homer, seen below in a Google maps screenshot.

 

 

It'll need a lot of detailing until I'm happy with it.

 

 

 

 

And then of course there's the container store...

 

 

Once they're all bedded in I think they should be a decent representation of the 'built up but falling down' aesthetic that Louisiana conjures.

[dave1905]

You need some metal buildings and it can be pretty overgrown with vegetation in places, it's a sub tropical climate.  Lots of vines, lots of tall grasses.

[F-UnitMad]

On 05/03/2024 at 02:26, DanielB said:

I made the effort when laying the track to make it quite unstable to replicate the rocking of freight cars - time will tell if that is a mistake or not! :D

Only just catching up with this layout, Dan. Hopefully, from the sounds of it (quoted above) I've been a bad influence on you!! 😂👍 of course it'll work! Bad track is why American trains adopted trucks so early in their history.😉

[DanielB]

If memory serves I did test it, back when I first laid the track. It seemed okay, but I guess I'll need to do a little running session at some point soon just to ensure that coupling works, etc.

 

So it looks like the grocery distributor kit I am waiting on might be waiting on a resupply from Walthers, so I think that one may end up in my bits box.

 

Because I'm impatient, I started bashing up a suitable alternative from DPM modular parts I got from Kent Garden Railways.

 

I've gotten the first part of it to a point where I can prime it. I want to make the place look like it has been extended and expanded multiple times throughout it's history, so I'm planning to add a modern metal structure to the end of the facility.

 

For now though, I'm calling it quits for the day. I'll probably work on it some more tomorrow on my night shift. :)

[DanielB]

A little progress on the corner filler building tonight, I think for the most part the brick building is ready for painting. Any detail parts can be added as I go I think.

 

Need to sort the door and roof on the annex building next.

[DanielB]

The basic build is pretty much done, so the next task will be painting it. :)