Summer Progress and Planning

As I make my way through the summer heat here in Vegas, I have been plinking away at different projects. I have a few more articles off to N Scale Railroading, they should be in the next few issues. I've been working on some freight cars for a friend (pics are coming soon), I've added few small details to the layout, and I'm planning for a year away.

As many of you know, the NMRA convention was this last weekend in Kansas City. I didn't make that show, but I am planning on being at next years show in Salt Lake City. The plan is to bring the entire Skally Line up to join in the MASSIVE FreemoN layout. I think the layout is already scheduled to be about 110 feet by 110 feet. To make the full scale ops work better, I am planning a few additional modules. I have already started prep work and I will pick up lumber next week.

The first module planned is Pine City. I will have the Depot, the Snake River Bridge, and a small MOW siding.

The next module is the South Siding Switch in Hinckley. This will extend the BNSF side of my interchange modules. I would like to get the BNSF siding up to 10 or 12 feet long for the show so it will be a good spot for meets.

The weather is cooling off already and I would like to take advantage of that for module construction. 

November Update

This has been a busy month. I finally finished some engines for a friend in Chicago and got them off my workbench. I had an MRC Sound decoder fail in SCXY 1325, so I swapped an ESU LokSound Micro in its place (huge improvement). I am having fun making layout progress right now, so that has been a big focus of the month.

I made some more progress on Ivy Farms Trucking. I added the shingled roof to the main building. I also repainted the pole barn and got it weathered.

I got the Creekside Cafe almost done. The outside is painted, roof is on, and signage was added for the cafe and the Other Side Bar.

Inside I added tables, chairs, bar stools and a pool table.

 I got a Willy's to park outside the Corp. HQ. That was fun to paint.

More trees planted in Hinckley.

I completed a sideboom crawler I've had on the bench for years.

I added some powerlines in Rush City. there will be more of them coming soon.

 I added the camera pole for the Mill. The solar panel is a decal.

And I ran trains. This run helped me find a troublesome spot in my 5/6 switch. A quick shim on the throwbar in it was back in service.

Hopefully December is as fruitful as November was!

So much to share!

I know it has been a while since my last post (2 months, sorry about that). I've been getting an amazing amount of things done. I will break this into three posts, the first one will be layout progress. The second will be freight car projects and the third will be my latest magazine article.

I added another grade crossing, this one is 420th St. I wanted to add this crossing for the unique NP style crossbuck posts. I painted them myself and I added the switch stand for the sand plant.

 Here it was in the rough stages.

 I added more trees and a switch stand in Hinckley at MP 74.

Yesterday and today in Rush City I ran trains. Sometimes it can be therapeutic to have an ops session.

I was having some camera fun and shot this picture of Ivy Farms Trucking. I have a new special edition Prairie Shadows/TrainWorx James Bond Edition Kenworth coming that should look right at home here.

 I added the 415th St crossing to Zinpro and Titan last month.

 As well as signage and trees at Titan Lansing.

Zinpro progressed rapidly from foam core mock up to styrene structure. I still have a lot of work to do, but it looks better than an empty scene.

I also built the loadout shed for Zinpro. This really changed the look of the scene too.

So most of the progress has been scenicing. It is nice to be getting the layout to a more finished state. I hope to get back into tree making soon, that always helps.

3 Month Update

I've been horrible about keeping the blog up to date this summer. I'm happy to announce I have another article coming out in the upcoming issue of NSR. It is a full build up on my AC44C4M. 10 pages of fun!

It has been warm working on the layout, but I have been progressing just the same. Mostly scenery work. I was heavy into the making of trees, but now I have transitioned into roads. It feels good to be getting all this asphalt down.

To recap:
More trees in Hinckley. I have now planted two full boxes of Scenic Express Super Trees (250-ish trees). I think 4-5 more boxes will get me to a good place. MP 74 looks good, I need to fill in all the way to MP 75.

At the Horizon Mill, I added the fall protection system above the flour cars (yellow structure) and a radio tower behind the HQ.

I started experimenting with the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It Road system. I started with W 1st St in Rush City.

 From there I went to CRR 133 in Hinckley. The Pan Pastel weathering really brought it home.

Next I added the blacktop to 415th St in North Branch. I mocked up Zinpro in Foam Core before I started the project. Since taking this photo I have weathered the blacktop, contoured the terrain between Zinpro and the road and I added the crossbucks at the grade crossing.

I mocked up the Titan office in Foam Core, but then I got excited, so I built the styrene verion. I still need to paint it, but I have since added the grass to the right of the building and one of the AC units outside. I hope to install the Titan-Lansing sign tonight.

I think that gets everyone caught up with the bulk of the work. Hopefully my next update will come sooner!

May Update

Where did this month go? I seriously blinked and it was gone!
I've made progress in a few different areas this month. Engines, freight cars, structures and scenery.

I finally finished the BNSF AC44C4M I started 3 years ago. This will be added to my BNSF fleet for unit sand train power.

I also finished a custom ES44C4 project. This one will probably head to eBay. I like the Swooshes, but I think I have more than I need.

Work has started on the control tower for Titan-Lansing. I have a ways to go, but I'm happy to get this one kicked off.

 You can see the prototype in the lower left part of this photo.

I also got another box of SuperTrees. I made about 100 so far, I think that gets me up to about 400 or 500 trees on the layout so far.

I also body mounted the couplers and added conspicuity striping to a few more freight cars. I think I have about 2/3 of the layout cars body mounted at this point. I think I'm only about 60% on the conspicuity striping. At least they all are weathered and have metal wheels.

Happy New Year!

I find when I get on a roll making progress, I forget to document it. I missed December altogether, so I will get you up to speed.

First I want to take a look back to a year ago to remind us what the Skally Line looked like then:

Since then I replaced the foam-core mill with the styrene version (still not painted), I finished the engine house and the speeder shed. I have done a bunch of ballasting and ground cover as well. The same scene looks a lot different today:

Taking a step back we can see the park across from the Masonic Lodge. I've started making SuperTrees where appropriate.

Here is the view looking south at the Mill. You can see the north engine house switch that got added just after the prototype last year. I finally got some good PD hoppers for hauling flour, thank you BLMA/Atlas. These are amazing looking cars.

Ivy Farms Creamery has started to take shape just north of the Mill. I still have a building and a half to finish there, but the scene feels more complete already.

Here is a look at the Masonic Lodge before I installed it on the layout. After sitting for two years I finally finished the front stoop, the front door, the fire escape and some other details. I just need to make decals for the signs now.

I'm glad I got the pictures looking back. When you stare at it every day, it doesn't feel like much has happened. But then you look back and see how much you really did get done. I hope this year yields the same amount of progress.

Ardent Flour Mill

A recent arrival got me to make some progress on the permanent Ardent Flour Mill for Rush City. I had a foam core mock up in place for the last year. It was time to start the upgrade. A couple pounds of styrene later, it's starting to come together. I need to detail it and paint it, but it already looks better than the stand in. Next I have to add all the concrete floors inside, the scale on track 6 and the floor grate on track 4. One thing at a time.

In this area I will add the fall protection system over the tracks. It will also get the weather sealing around the loading lock doors and small roofs above each door. In this shot you can see part of the reason for all the progress: the new BLMA PD hoppers (more info below on those).

Inside the north end doors there will be a scale house (yes it's inside, between tracks 5 and 6) as well as a bunch of other mechanical stuff.

The BLMA (now Atlas) hoppers. Wow. I have been in N Scale for 30 years and these take the cake. I got them in three reporting marks, CITX, GACX and TILX. I need to weather them all, but that will be a little ways out.

The cars are fabulous. Body mounted couplers, metal wheels, air hoses, reporting marks stenciled on the trucks, the blue bearing caps.

The trucks are mounted with screws instead of pins. Check out the rear profile on the wheels. You don't see that on FVM.

 The cut lever, etched metal walkways and crossover platforms.

The underbody piping runs to both sides of the car (something Walthers never tried). The pnuematic lines are even painted!

A side shot to show off some of the fine printing. In full disclosure I did have some flash I had to trim inside of one of the couplers to get it to couple just right , but if that is the worst thing that happens, I am one happy camper. 

I'll get all of the ones I bought out of the boxes soon. I picked up 15 total. That helps my layout out pretty well. I'm hoping they rerun the TILX cars so I can add more of those to the fleet, but this set gets me a great flour hauling start.