Making a New Start

Looks like tomorrow is going to be a busy day, so no time to run the celebratory Special. Instead here's a shot of number 5 pottering about at Cattewater 
  
  
 
Meanwhile I did some work on the Barber Shop today, fitting a canopy and repainting the corner posts and window frames a better shade of brown. Also bedded the building in with grass so that it sits in rather than on the landscape.

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Sometimes I think that when I only have a short while to work on the layout, the most useful jobs get done. Take today - the unpainted planks on the platforms at both depots got a wash of paint and I finished a roof-top ventilator on the mill's store (made from a bit of an old Triang 00 scale station roof)  that I'd started in hope but then got a bit wrong. Having worked out how to improve it, only about half an hour's work made it look a lot better.
 
I also repaired the bench on the porch outside the general store so that the old guy can sit down again to listen to the panhandler's tale of woe.  Pictures when I next have time to get the camera upstairs.
 
Recently I was asked if I had stories and names for the characters on the layout. The answer was "No, or at least not yet", although the lady on the seat at Cattewater (picture 2, post #36) is Nanny Ferguson from my former Gn15 layout "Futtocks End". Quite what she is doing in rural America in 1941 when she should be in England looking after Sir Henry's children is anyone's guess. War-time evacuation, perhaps???

 
Had a little time yesterday to finish off the trestle and its surroundings. (If you want a "before" picture, look at post #52.)   There are about seven different types of scenic material in the grass and bushes, which seems to give quite a natural look with different colours and textures. I'll leave it there for now to get used to it, but could probably add a little more.

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Certainly looking great - very realistic gulch - you can imagine the rain (especially after Wed) eroding the banks.

Mick

Hey, that looks nice! That really has the look and feel of a dry arroyo.

Its really coming together nice now.  Your doing a great job on crfeating a realistic scene.

Many thanks for the kind comments, particularly those from the US who've perhaps more experience of dry arroyos than I have!
 

 
Meanwhile, here's the latest view of the Barber Shop at Hogwood, still in need of some extra detailing and weathering, I feel. First job will probably be a pole-mounted light to illuminate the grade crossing, plus some more signage on the building "Shaving 50 cents" or whatever the going rate in the 1940s was.  Given the prominent position, the provision of a shop interior may well be unavoidable.  I must also try and find some more figures suitable for a western setting.
 
In the background is the new "What's wrong with my jeep?" group.  Also the mill's stores shed with its newly added roof-top ventilator.

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Three more freight cars were cut and shut over the week-end - 2 flats and a stock car. They need a bit more work on their paint finish before they're camera ready, though.......

Now you need a miner and his donkey.
http://www.ridgeroadstation.com/store/08370310%21083/Schleich+70310Gold+Prospector+w%2FDonkey

Shawn


Now you need a miner and his donkey.
 

I have one of these fellas in a little 'ol' timer diarama, he and his ass (?!) sorry, mule, look really good. The Shleich figures are really 1:20.3 scale or slightly larger but they are nicely painted and 'blend' in so the eye can be deceived.

I have that Shliech miner also, just need to find a spot for it on the layout. BTW almost done with my bridge/canyon addition.

What's the green combine/drovers caboose in the second picture of post #66?

(link :   http://www.gscalecentral..../fb.ashx?m=71023  )

I'm guessing a shortened bachmann combine with replacement roof from either a boxcar or a long caboose, plus the cupola... 

Thanks, J.

JonathanJ


What's the green combine/drovers caboose in the second picture of post #66?
(link :   http://www.gscalecentral.co.uk/f/fb.ashx?m=71023  )
I'm guessing a shortened bachmann combine with replacement roof from either a boxcar or a long caboose, plus the cupola...  Thanks, J.

 
Well, sort of, as it's mostly Bachmann parts, but there was nothing so easy as a complete car to start from.
 
The passenger end of the body is a short section of coach from a show trader's scrap-box, and the baggage end came from a friend, scrap bits from another conversion. The roof is from GRS (I think intended for a Welshpool & Llanfair coach) just using the middle bit, and the cupola was scratch-built. The balcony rails were Bachmann bits and took a long time to find. The chassis is plywood with scratch-built steps. There's a long, thin bit of half-by-one down the spine of the floor into which the bogies are screwed, with rubbing plates of thick styrene.
 
Other parts used in this "bitsa" conversion:  the w.c. compartment was made out of a spare bulkhead cut in half and folded; passengers' seats were small pieces of 1x1 wood with cardboard seat-backs. Roof handrails were garden wire.
 
It was started while I was working abroad and the nearest model shop a four hour round trip, hence the use of some unusual materials (pictured) and finished off at home a year or more later.
 

 
 

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C&S

 
Well, sort of, as it's mostly Bachmann parts, but there was nothing so easy as a complete car to start from.
 
The passenger end of the body is a short section of coach from a show trader's scrap-box, and the baggage end came from a friend, scrap bits from another conversion. The roof is from GRS (I think intended for a Welshpool & Llanfair coach) just using the middle bit, and the cupola was scratch-built. The balcony rails were Bachmann bits and took a long time to find. The chassis is plywood with scratch-built steps. There's a long, thin bit of half-by-one down the spine of the floor into which the bogies are screwed, with rubbing plates of thick styrene.
 
It was started on holiday abroad (pictured) and finished off at home a year or more later.
 

 
 

Very nice work - don't think I'd emulate the scratchbuilt chassis, but looking at the body-in-white photo, I think the bachman umit could be shortened to match, which would make fitting the rails easier too.

Thanks,  Jonathan

Rather a busy time, this week, so progress on the three new "shorties" has been a bit slow. All now repainted and the two flats have had some lettering applied and had their missing brake wheels replaced with some Ozark castings. Pictures hopefully over the week-end. Then to start work chopping a Bachman bobber caboose.

 
A trio of newbies.

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I may have gone a bit too far - but I wanted it to be the same length as the LBB "Toy Train" caboose; only trouble is the balconies are wider on this vehicle so the body turned out shorter. Think it will be OK when I've finished it - tomorrow, perhaps?
 
Edit:  Sunday.  I've spliced some styrene into the hole on the roof. I did think for a moment of taking about 5mm off the bottom of the body to make it look less tall and spindly, but guess what - I'd stuck the body onto the chassis and it didn't want to come apart. Anyway with the join in the body filled and painted it does look a lot better. Funnily enough replacing the two ladders helped quite a bit, by making the body seem longer.  I'll have another go at finishing the painting in the next session, then pictures.
 
Eagle-eyed readers of the previous post may have noticed that the newbie freight cars lack truss rods - but not any longer.

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I know I said I'd finish the new shorty caboose today, but instead off I went and shortened another flat-car body. This one is going to become a Sandy River-style pulp car so as to add a bit of variety to the daily log train.
 
In fact I think I'll run it according to a dice throw - evens and it goes in the log train, odds and it runs independently in a normal mixed or freight working - that way I can use it to deliver timber for fuel to the loco depots and anyone else who needs wooden billets to cut up for firewood.

C&S



 
Q:  -   What do you call a chopped Bobber?
 
A:  -    Is it a Bob-bit? 
 
I may have gone a bit too far - but I wanted it to be the same length as the LBB "Toy Train" caboose; only trouble is the balconies are wider on this vehicle so the body turned out shorter. Think it will be OK when I've finished it - tomorrow, perhaps? 
  

 
Nah, Not far enough, it needs to be a good 1/2 inch shorter to get that real Unitah bobber feel, but it still looks good 

 

Its been a long time since a train ran, so I had a little operating/photographic session this evening.
 
First picture is the Engineer's train pack . The "Make Up" pocket contains cards of cars in the train when it leaves its starting point. "Pick Up" is what joins the train en-route. Next pocket contains the Train Order, while the last pocket receives cards of cars set out along the way.
 

 
 The day starts at Cattewater where #5 makes up the first train of the day , in acccordance with the cards in the top picture.    
   
 
When #5 arrives at Hogwood it has to lay over in the yard, to await the arrival of #8 and its Mixed train coming up from Southvale. 
 
    
 Later, we see #8 running into Cattewater, where the yard is getting rather crowded. In fact by mid-morning a gondola had to be propelled back to Hogwood by the Logging train, as there was no room for it to be spotted in Cattewater yard. It will have to be returned later in the day.
 
 
The empty Minerals headed by #7 runs through Cattewater. Luckily it doesn't stop.
 
 
 Finally when #7 returns to Cattewater there are three freight cars bound for Bonneyville which finally unclogs the yard.

  
 

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