Scenery Update

Last time I talked about my process for creating the scenery around the yard.  Well, as I was looking at it while working on other things I decided I didn't really like it.  I couldn't tell why at the time so I just ignored it and kept going.  A few days later I was trying to level out the garden in my back yard when it hit me: it was all too flat!  The fine turf creates a great blend of colors when viewed from above, but when viewed from a sitting or lowered view it is rather bland. 

To break up the boring, I decided to begin adding other types of turf.  In this case, coarse turf in Medium and Light Green from Woodland Scenics.

These two bags contain a product that is similar to taking the fine foam an rolling several pieces into a ball.  It takes a little work to spread around but is definitely a great product for my needs!  I spread it out in a random pattern and then glued it down using the same methods from the previous post.  While the glue was still wet, I sprinkled on a little more the coarse and fine turfs to add more color and blend it all together.  Below are the results.

So why it is all still as flat as a board (get it?!) this creates a better visual that draws the eye away from the flat land and creates a sense of elevation changes.

I plan on enhancing this using grass/bush tufts of various forms from several makers before calling it complete.

And now for the prototype photo of the day!

Here we have BNSF 1244 and a sister, both 3GS21B locomotives, transfer some cars from the Pearland Yard to the South Yard in Houston, TX.  I love whole train shots so this was a lucky catch!   Plus it is always fun to hear the reefer compressor units running (all on the end of the train).  Now if only I could get rid of all of the weeds, signs, old posts, etc. 

Yard Ballast and Basic Scenery

Howdy everyone!  I have been using my recent free time to work on the yard on the layout.  This includes ballasting the tracks and putting down the basic scenery.  Below are the results of the first layer of scenery and what I know of ballast.

BALLASTING is one of those model railroading tasks that you either love or hate.  I have honestly never met anyone who is in the middle on that.  I personally fall into the love category.  I am only okay at doing it though , as this is maybe my second attempt in HO scale.  I had some basic experience while in N scale but that is a whole different beast. 

So while I am certainly no master, I will explain my technique.  Who knows, it may help someone out!  So the best ballast to use (and a lot of others agree and echo this opinion) is Highball Products ballast.  This is real stone!  The yard uses dark grey limestone.  Here is the bag I am currently using.

The first step is to pour a very small line down between the rails.  Put in so little that you don't think it will fill.  Trust me, it will.  Too much becomes difficult to handle once you spread it out.  Anyways, once you have the small line take a foam brush (I like and use the 2" brush with a 3/4" brush for backup) and spread the ballast between the rails.  Clean it off of the tops of the ties and be sure to clear it out of the web of the rail.  A quick tap of the rail head with the brush handle can usually do this.  Also, be sure to check the "tie plate" area where the rail is held to the ties.  The smaller pieces lodge in this area and are obviously out of place. 

Next is the shoulders of the track.  Now, my yard tracks are laid straight on the decking so there is not much of a shoulder.  I try to keep the ballast in close to represent yard tracks that don't handle a lot of heavy, fast traffic.  For mains and sidings, I would want more but that is for the future.  Today we are focusing on the yard.  So what I do here is pour a small line along the tops of the ties on the outside of the track.  Then using the same 2" foam brush, I come along and brush the ballast away from the tracks.  I use a slight angle as demonstrated below.  This allows the leading edge to clear away the larger piles and the back side to clean the leftovers off of the top of the ties.  In this case the leading edge is on the left of the pic.

Now you fill in any gaps or touchup as you see fit!  Then glue it all down and you're done.  One last note, be extremely careful around turnouts and crossings.  These little stone pieces can get in everything and foul it up beyond usability.

SCENERY is much different task for me.  It is so simple that you can't help but love it.  I start by painting the decking a standard brown color, but I certainly recommend using a tan color.  Brown does make a more realistic dirt color, but it make a really dark subcolor for all of the greenery.  So take that advice as you will. 

Once the paint dries, I apply a thin layer of full strength white glue every where that I want to have base scenery.  In this case, it is the grassey areas and the little gravel road.  Next I applied an even layer of Woodland Scenics Green Blend "grass" and some old Highball N scale ballast for the gravel road. 

Once the glue dries, I vacuumed up the extra grass and gravel.  ***IMPORTANT: put down the grass before the ballast so you don't vacuum up your hard work***
Next, I take various colors of ground foam and apply them over everything in a random pattern and density.  Here I used JTT green, WS burnt grass, and WS earth, all in the fine variety. 

Once you get something you are happy with, spray it all with the iso alcohol.  After a little time for it to soak in, I soak everything in a thinned glue mixture.  The glue is 2 parts water to 1 part while glue.  I use a syringe to apply the mix and soak everything in it.  I make sure it gets into all of the ballast and scenery.  Again, be extremely careful around turnouts.  The glue can glue turnout points to the rails...  Don't ask how I know this.

Lastly I sprinkle on a little more random turfs to accent what has been glued down.

The top of the picture has the scenery all glued down and the bottom is only prepped for gluing.

Again this is only the first layer!  So much more can and will be done. 

Hopefully this can serve as a basic guide to other beginners.  Also be sure to check out publications by the professionals, such as Pelle Soeburg or Lance Mindheim or the many great people at MRH E-Zine!

Progress Update

Howdy everyone!

I have had a LOT of free time lately.  Turns out getting laid off can do that to you.  So while this means trains funds are essentially nothing (read: actually nothing) it also means that I can do what I can with what I have.  Which is a lot actually!  There is seriously a huge list of things to do.

Right now I am working on the scenery.  I added some hills of extruded foam and coated about half of the layout in brown paint.  I am most of the way done covering everything in a layer of Woodland Scenics Green Blend fine turf as a base layer.  There will be several more layers of scenery to come.  I also will be adding the ballast to the yard while I do the rest of the scenery.  The basics can be seen in the below picture.  Hopefully I can get some better pictures and process explanations up later this week.

In addition to all of this, I used what was left of the train budget (and some begging of the CFO) on a new engine at the local train show.  I like supporting the vendors at the Greater Houston Area Train Show as they are typically small time guys and they have great prices and even better customer service.  I bought the below engine for only $50.  They are going for over double that on eBay...  Anyways, this Athearn SD45 is a great runner.  I have some extra details laying around that I can spruce it up with.  It is also pretty close to the base black color I want the railroad to have.

I will have to cover up the PRR logos, but I will hopefully be able to do that soon.  I downloaded a free Vector file program called Inkscape.  It will be used to design some custom decals that several fellow modelers on the internet will print for a nominal fee.  That will be so much simpler than putting on individual letters...  

Until next time!

New Paint Scheme

Howdy everyone!  I finally got a paint scheme nailed down that I like.  What do y'all think?

Yes there is also now a new caboose!  More on that later.

The biggest conflict on what I want has been to have something simple but distinct.  I do not have the skills, equipment, or finances to get into really well done painting and decaling.  In my past attempts, the paint goes on too thick or pools up, the decals never come out the right color, and custom work is expensive, etc., etc....  So for now I will stick with the simple design I have on the above.  

I chose to have the body be a simple black color.  Both loco and caboose were sprayed using a regular rattle can of flat black paint.  The bottom of the plow and the edge of the walkways are Signal Yellow by Floquil that I hand painted.  All of the handrails on both were done using a yellow paint pen I got from work.  Big box hobby stores have these as well for good prices.  The lettering, conspicuity stripes, and nose stripes are from Microscale.  And yes, the names on the sides were done one letter at a time.  I spent 2 hours on the caboose name and it STILL isn't straight.  

The face colors are the finishing touch.  I love my home state and I wanted to represent it somehow. Seeing lines such as the Heart of Texas or Alamo Gulf Coast made me want to paint the whole thing in a flag scheme, but that would have killed my OCD (curving masking tape?  No way) and was outside my painting abilities.  So I scaled it back and found out that this looks really nice as well!  I plan to stick with this scheme for all future locomotives and cabeese (cabooses?  Seriously need to figure out that plural).

And now for the random pic of the day!

Today's selection is a fun one.  I found this beauty entirely by accident on my way home from work.  I had heard she was coming, but I figured she would be going well away from my area of town.  Then BOOM! her she is waiting to head South on the BNSF line along Mykawa Rd.  I do not remember much of the history of this engine, other than she is a former Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range (I think that is right) locomotive.  The best my fellow Railspotters and I can make out, she is going to be a industrial locomotive in Bloomington, TX, possibly at the port near the city.  Anyways, it was an absolute joy to see this old girl.  Hopefully there are many more safe miles in her furture!

114th Anniversary of Spindletop Gusher

Today marks the 114th anniversary of the day that changed the oil industry, and the state of Texas, forever.  On January 10, 1901 the Lucas oil well struck a deposit at the Spindletop site.  It was such a surprise, and so large, that it ended up taking nine days to get under control!  Picture courtesy of the Spindletop website.

This event changed the area I grew up in and state I love more than almost any other instance in history.  That is why I named my rail road Spindletop.

If you would like a more detailed hstorical account, click the link below
Spindletop - Gladys City

As far the layout, I am working on painting the track.  Two of the modules are done. Since I have to move them off of the wall anyways, i am also raising them about four inches.  Hopefully it will make them easier to maintain and improve.  Plus the train room is finally getting cleaned!  A surprise, I know!  But definitely needed.  I should finish tomorrow.

Last Post of the Year!

One last post everyone!  I have actually gotten a good deal done lately (by my standards, of course :) ).  I hope this means that 2015 will be just as productive!

First off is all of the replacement ties are complete and installed!  All over the layout there are no more gaps so I have begun putting in the masking tape for painting the track.  Once the taping is done, the modules will be removed one at a time and the track sprayed.  This will also give me a chance to put in new legs and get the remaining wall supports out of the way.  All of this will have pictures in a future post!

Now the only reason I got all of the ties finished is because of this beautiful device:

This is the Dremel Workstation.  More info is available here, but it works like your typical drill press.  The difference is the various things a Dremel can do and be, versus drill bits.  I put in the tungsten carbide cutting tool and went to town on those plastic ties!  I removed a small channel on either end where the rails will go and then flipped the piece over and removed a small bit from the bottom to allow it to slide in easier.  This Workstation is a wonderful accessory and I highly recommend it to anyone with a mating Dremel!

The third major completion is my first detailed locomotive!

I have been working on this particular locomotive sporadically over the past three years.  It started life as an Atlas Trainman GP38-2 in CSX YN3 paint.  I stripped that off and made it the first locomotive for the Spindletop Rail Lines, the previous name of the SRR.  At the time I had the idea of doing a green and orange paint scheme as you can see.  This one is not getting sound as it has all of the weights in tact and can pull like a six-axle engine.  Along the way I added Cannon & Co radiator and dynamic fans, grab irons, lift rings, pilot details, windshield wipers, sun shades, and other details.  But I am now calling this one finished as the ditchlights are lit!  This was my first experience with SMDs and magnet wires.  I got these pre-wired as I cannot hold my hands still enough to solder my own. 

I won't lie, I had a lot of fears about using these.  They are delicate, there is only an enamel coating on the wires, and they are pricey (or so I say).  However, that does not mean they do not work perfectly!  In fact, I kick myself for being such a wuss about getting these installed.  All future engines will most likely use these over bulbs.  They look great, were much simpler to use and install, and put out a great amount of light!

Anyways, thanks for reading this year and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and good luck in your 2015 endeavors!



A Visit to The Bryan/College Station Model Railroad Society

Well I don't know about y'all but I had a fine Thanksgiving vacation and a great visit with the family.  I hope everyone out there had the same or better!

This is a club owned SD40-2 painted in the freelance Gulf, Texas & Western scheme of the layout.  Here number 1000 idles (loudly I might add) waiting for a new train during the open house.

 

The weekend before the turkey day I found myself up at the train club in Bryan, Texas.  I was a member of this club for nearly two years while in school, and I always wish I had more time as a member there.  These are the guys who really got me hooked back into the modeling world, and I can never thank them enough for that.  And because they are that cool, they invited me to come run during their annual open house!

The club is called the Bryan/College Station Model Railroad Society, or BCSMRRS for short.  They have a website here (EDIT: this link is to their Facebook, more updates and pictures there!) with plenty of pictures and general information.  The layout is a freelanced idea focused on operations with the ability to handle and run long trains across many different scenes and towns.  The local line is called the Gulf, Texas, and Western Railroad.  There are operating sessions and regular run nights, with open-to-the-public general meetings every Monday evening.  If you want to visit, do not hesitate!  The members are very friendly and very experienced in different facets of model railroading.

I arrived a bit after the opening time of ten AM.  The weather was not looking good, thunder and rain on a direct course to berate the area all day, but that could not stop the open house!  The guys had setup a large outdoor covering to allow visitors to arrive and dry off before entering the layout building.  All day long people came to visit and oooh and ahhhh at the many different trains running around, and take in the details of the world that has been created on the layout.  All day long, these guys kept the signals green, the trains a rollin', and kept the attention of visitors young and old.

Personally, I had the best time imaginable.  I hope to attend the whole weekend next year, including helping setup on Friday and cleanup on Sunday night.  It is always a blast to see all of the improvements they have made to the layout and building, as well as catch up with friends.

So if you get the chance, go check out the GT&W and be sure to say hi for me!

And now for the random picture of the day:

 This is a perfect example of old power helping out in the modern world.  BNSF 1607 is an old Santa Fe SD40-2 in the classic "yellow bonnet" paint scheme that has been updated to modern requirements (ditch lights, enviornmental readers, etc).  She has been hanging around the Pearland Yard for a few weeks now helping in switching duties.  Apparently, the Gensets are not very reliable and it takes two of them to do what this one loco can do.  So this old girl has been pushing and pulling the long autorack and intermodals into the loading facility.  It is always great to see this one rumbling by!