Merry Christmas 2018

My office view....Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Rob D

Sense of Place

Jack Cutler’s Juniata Secondary

Jack Cutler’s Juniata Secondary HO Scale layout. The Juniata Secondary is a large double-deck PRR themed layout depicting a fictitious PRR branch pressed into mainline service after WWII sabotage has shut down horseshoe curve.

 Tunnels into the helix

 Jack experimenting with some scenery

 Jack builds his own working PRR style signals

 Working CTC, very nice!

Upper staging

Upstate Modelers Train Show in Glens Falls 2018

 Brad Peterson's collection of his Uncles Boston trolleys

The Great Train Extravaganza 2018

The Great Train Extravaganza is eastern New York’s largest model railroad and toy train hobby show. It’s held every year at the Empire State Convention Center in Albany, New York, usually on the first Sunday in December, coinciding with the tree lighting ceremony at Empire State Plaza.

Vermont Paper

I needed a new project away from the rest of the layout, Vermont Paper. It's a fictional space, modeled after the Finch papermill in Glens Falls, NY. Thinking about stuffing a papermill in a 2x 12 space took some planning. I wanted to reuse everything I could from my old layout, plus whatever is in my junk bins. I got a great deal on used code 83 # 5 switches off eBay, that was a start. I realized my original plan wasn't really going to work using what I had so I modified it.

Since I worked the 3 mills on the D&H, I realized what I needed for car space, and different products, and to able to switch. So I planned how many cars would fit where and what a typical inbound and outbound train would look like. I also modified the Walthers mill with a opening on both ends of the main paper dock to increase capacity and ease of switching.

A view of the new old parking lot....
Enjoy, Rob

Pigs on the A&S

I recently decided that my layout needed some TOFC and COFC  in order to really look like the D&H.
Now that the highway overpass had been raised, and inspired by MC’s Allagash photo and some prototype photos from my era, I ordered some Athearn trailers for the project.

Ken Karlewicz

“Modeling a sense of place”

 

An important milestone  was reached on July 26, when my layout upstairs turned two years old.. Don and I met the week after, for work session #42, which brings our work time together to ( 84 )- ten hour days on the layout. Our work schedule originally called for the installation of new  “ fill “ track lighting above Central Bridge and Cherry Valley ( now discontinued at Lowe’s and Home Depot we sadly learned ) so  we moved  to  plan B.

Cherry Valley, which had been the workbench during most of the layout construction, has slowly been coming to life over the past few months, so we decided to extend the riverbed along this area 

Rip Rap was added to areas prone to erosion and we also made a trip to a
local site, to collect the appropriate “boulders” for this purpose. 

Structures above are by Rich Cobb and the 502 was done by Bob Harpe  

The overpass at Frog Hollow was also raised and now allows for TOFC and Allagash woodchip cars. While removed, styrene curbs and gussets were  carved, painted and weathered, then added along the roadway  area of the bridge, which really makes a big difference.

Down in Cherry Valley,there will be a few houses situated on a small hill near the freight house, whose backyards will face the yard.

There is lots more to do down the road of course, but here

is where we are at the two year mark!

Hard to believe but my story

“Modeling a sense of place” will be the cover story in MRP 2019!!

Hope you guys  are all having a great summer!!
Ken...😊

"Inch At A Time"- Chapter 25 Birch Trees

While clearing out last years dead growth from the gardens - I noticed the "Butterfly Bush" flowers had possible uses as tree structures, in particular, birch trees.

Since I, and some others of you, model the anthracite area (NEPA) We NEED birches as background, middleground and foreground models.  I did come up with a way of modeling the middle ground trees (photo 3) a few years ago but, until now, hadn't come up with a way to make foreground models.  The butterfly bush flowers looked like they had possibilities. (The distant trees are painted on the back drop.)

You'll notice in photo 1 (taken in Lansdale, PA) and photo 2 (my back yard) that unlike oaks, maples and other deciduous trees birches are thin bottom to top.  This is a plus since it's not necessary to add thickness as you would, say, to "super trees".  I simply cleaned off the flowers, painted the trunk and branches white, added Polyfiber very sparingly and, after a dose of (cheap) hairspray, added some ground foam foliage.  I painted the black markings on the trunks afterward.

Enjoy, Wayne Sittner