DanielB

Glad to see he is still inspiring modellers. I think he'd get a kick out of it. Be sure to show your progress on the forums here, Jack did love a good micro layout.

EDIT: DOUBLE POST

Following on from my previous post, I am seriously considering selling off Piedmont Blues and freeing up space to make a proper go at the Interstate layout. The pandemic has made me revaluate how I engage with this hobby, and I don't see myself engaging with exhibitions nearly as much as I used to, especially with such a large layout. Clearing out the space in my layout room will give me the opportunity to build a layout for my own entertainment rather than for others. I'm considering having a layout building company come in and do all the parts of the process that I don't enjoy - baseboards, trackwork and electrics. This will give myself the freedom to work on scenery, structures and rolling stock whilst still allowing me to run operations whilst I do. I guess we shall see where this goes.

Cheers Al. I'm finally ready to start working on my layout again so I've just purchased 5 bags of it. Should last me a while.

Hi guys! Just touching base so you know I'm still alive. Not exactly a given these days. Not a lot to update the thread with, besides another couple of freight car purchases - including a Walthers Interstate lettered coal car. I think I have five ready to run Interstate cars now. I also managed to snag a Bachmann Spectrum decapod for the princely sum of £60 plus postage from an eBay seller. Not sure what I'll use it as but for that price I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

As for modelling a shortline - Lance Mindheim's Miami Downtown Spur layout is a fantastic representation of a US shortline without actually being one - as he runs it as a CSX operated branch line, as per the prototype. https://lancemindheim.com/model-railroads/downtown-spur/

To me, that's the draw of US railroads - they're still operating "branch lines" as it were - US operations are reminiscent of steam/transition era UK railways.

You can't let us have all the fun Nick.

Drayton Blackgrove of Scaletrains has his own YouTube channel, Delay in Block Productions, and there are some fantastic videos focusing on Shortlines. https://youtu.be/ZIzXJMyw6fE And of course, the return of The Rock: https://youtu.be/OUWU7gGf6EU

And some close ups of the dirt and the asphalt.

And the last bit...

With it being nice and sunny here this week I decided to get out into the garden and get the first layer of ground cover and ballast done. It appears the glue has pretty much set so here we go:

Very quick update today - some new purchases for the layout. A couple of Walthers and an E&L Shops woodchip cars.

Quick update for now. I've been busy with work and a bunch of things going off that have used up what hobby time I have had. What I have done is put down the first layer of ground cover. I've had issues in the past where flock I've put down on a layout has ended up flaking off due to poor bonding with the glue, so I've been experimenting with some techniques I normally use for doing scenic bases for wargaming Miniatures: You can see the effect in practice here to represent snow. Essentially you can use it for any ground cover depending on the ingredients you use. The technique is simple: add modge podge (gloss or matte depending on the effect you want), a bit of water, and then either paint or flock, or both. For the snow above I simply used woodland scenics snow flock in the mix. For the layout here I wanted a reddish clay look that you get in bayou country, so I used fine aquarium sand and burnt Sienna paint. For the base layer for the faded gravel/asphalt road I used neutral grey paint instead. So you add the desired materials to the water and modge podge, mix it all together into a paste, then apply it with a suitable tool - I used an old wallpaper scraper. If you want it to bond quickly with your board surface, pre-wet the board with a thin layer of PVA glue left to go tacky. After about 12-24 hours it sets into a solid layer. I do believe that if you get it wet with hot water it should break down the glue bonds and allow you to easily remove it, if you need to in the future. Anyways, here is where I've gotten to so far - I'm building this up in layers and patches to make the area look neglected and overgrown.

Hi gang. Just a quick update for now. Sophie at Anoraks has found me another Bachmann RS3 in Interstate colours, so I should have that soon, plus I found this on eBay, I figure it will make a good company store/warehouse for the coal camp on the layout. I believe there were similar large brick or concrete structures at Andover and Norton yards, but I'll have to check my reference books for more accurate information.

I'm more than happy to have a go at recreating shortline colours - it's the decals (or lack thereof) that usually puts me off.

Isn't that Bob Boudreau's work? It looks familiar. Either way it's awesome.

And some videos:

A quick source of inspiration for this morning: https://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/lnw/lnw.htm L&NW is now owned and operated by Patriot Rail, still based out of the same shop facilities at Gibsland, LA. Motive power for this layout will be a patched out ATSF Geep until I can get some more suitable power.

Well, alas this layout has gone to the skip. I needed to clear out my layout room and this was something I no longer really need. I did learn a few things when making it, and I'm putting that to practice with new layouts. Thanks for the interest guys. Onwards and upwards.

Morning everyone, I got bored the other morning and wanted to run some trains, but I don't have a functioning layout outside of Operation Dark Winter, and I wanted something a bit bigger. Thanks to Nick Quinn, my interest in Louisiana railroads has been sparked again. So I started building. I wanted to make a modern era layout for a while, so I can make use of all the rolling stock I've collected. This is as far as I've gotten so far - some nice Jordan-inspired knackered trackwork: I've run cars over it by hand and they seem to work fine on it. I'll know if it works when powered hopefully tonight once I've had more time to work on it.

Hi James It's your layout, run whatever you like. I've got that Pennsy K4 that I plan on running on the layout despite it not being prototypical. Besides, I'm not sure how far those hoppers got from home rails, but the Interstate did seem happier when they weren't at home!

Rails of Sheffield very kindly ordered in one of each of Bowser's 3 currently offered road numbers of Interstate hoppers, and they arrived last week, along with some Wills brick sheets - which will help with more scratchbuilt structures. Not much more of an update beyond that, for now, as March was spent painting wargaming miniatures - 32, in total. One for every day of the month and an extra for good measure. The K4 decals arrived a couple of weeks ago too, so I can begin working on the hopper fleet during April.

Agreed. Always one of my favourites. Once the pandemic wanes and we get to return to some semblance of normal, I'd love to see it in the flesh.

And as if by magic, they have arrived.