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Scenic upgrade on Sweethome Chicago


Jon Grant 4472

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With less than a week to Manchester Exhibition, I finally got round to working on some much-needed scenic aspects on Sweethome Chicago (SWC).

 

Having spent several weeks building trees for Sweethome Alabama (SWA), I decided that the existing trees on SWC were not up to scratch any more.

 

With time an issue, I de-forested SWA and quickly replaced the ageing trees on SWC. It was a relatively simple task of pulling up the old tree and replacing it with one or more of the newer trees.

 

I also had time to replace some figures and vehicles that had fallen off when the layout was out at Easter, and add some new scenic details.

 

Here's the progress so far-

 

Before

 

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After

 

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Before

 

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After

 

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More to follow....

 

 

Jon

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  • RMweb Gold

One of my favourite layouts made even better!

 

Will Chicago be venturing south again?

 

I suppose Manchester is south to you Jon, but I would second Gordon's question as to whether it will be coming south of south anywhen soon?

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Jon,

 

That bent tree. Very prototypical, you often see them. Hurricanes, major league thunder storms with heavy duty micro blasts of powerful winds. Definitely not unusual at all. I have two on my property and they are bent over way more than your one and its quite happily thriving.

 

Apart from all that, nice job on the before and afters.

 

Cheers, Tony

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The new trees really do look fantastic and along with the flowers and other small details really do make a great layout even better. And I have to agree with Tony, the leaning tree is very prototypical, we see them all over the place...I'd say leave it as is....reminds me of the trembleing aspens we see all over the country here.

Cheers

Gene

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I added a new board last week specially for the exhibition at the weekend, and moved the water tank.

 

It is only three inches wide but is 6 feet long and totally changes the feel of the right hand end.

 

Originally there was a retaining wall along the front of this section to prevent stock accidentally falling off the layout, because the tracks were so close to the baseboard edge.

 

I decided to open the area out but this meant adding some protection against accidents, hence the 3 inch wide board.

 

It also restricted the camera angles when photographing the area

 

Before moving the water tower

 

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After moving the tower

 

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The view before removing the retaining wall

 

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Jon

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The new open plan 'narrow' board and the re-sited water tower

 

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I've added trees, fences and ground cover since the above shot was taken last wednesday

 

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I've also added a grounded caboose body, but didn't get a chance to photograph it at the show.

 

Jon

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Jon,

 

That bent tree. Very prototypical, you often see them. Hurricanes, major league thunder storms with heavy duty micro blasts of powerful winds. Definitely not unusual at all. I have two on my property and they are bent over way more than your one and its quite happily thriving.

 

Apart from all that, nice job on the before and afters.

 

Cheers, Tony

 

Me too. I keep putting off calling the tree guy........These are North American forest trees that prefer to be surrounded by others, when isolated they often develope leans - plus Chicago is the windy city.

 

Great work, Jon.

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

 

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Jon,

Having (finally) seen your layout in the flesh at the Manchester show, i think it is absolutely STUNNING!!! Not to knock your photos as they are very good indeed but i now know how everything fits together and recognise the scenes.

Many thanks indeed for great entertainment all round, he, he! (the layout doctor:lol: :lol: :lol: , brilliant!!!!) That certainly is a great way to do a show, liven things up, not too serious, have a laugh! Wonderful stuff, wish i could have spent longer there but duty called.

Till next time,

John E.

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Jon,

Having (finally) seen your layout in the flesh at the Manchester show, i think it is absolutely STUNNING!!! Not to knock your photos as they are very good indeed but i now know how everything fits together and recognise the scenes.

Many thanks indeed for great entertainment all round, he, he! (the layout doctor:lol: :lol: :lol: , brilliant!!!!) That certainly is a great way to do a show, liven things up, not too serious, have a laugh! Wonderful stuff, wish i could have spent longer there but duty called.

Till next time,

John E.

 

 

Thanks John.

 

Yes, the layout needs to be seen as a whole to get the full'entertainment' package - Sound, background noises/street sounds, banjo playing, the layout doctor!! (Miami vice cop arrived later), and me in the hat - I'm thinking of going in full 'Blues Brothers' mode for the next one at Hull B)

 

Jon

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  • 3 weeks later...

I thought I'd finish off this thread with some sepia photographs of the layout, including some of the new board in the East yard. My son added some crumpled newspaper to the layout before the show a couple of weeks ago and some may show up in the photos - I haven't found them all yet.

 

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Jon

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