Blackwater Canyon Line - May 17, 2024 - Thinking About a Downtown Structure

Mark, you may find this interesting'... and is applied to many buildings nation wide...

Mark, That beautiful structure and scenery just cry out for a backdrop.

Rubin

Idaho definitely needed all that neat landscaping. It's amazing how well things look when the settings become more realistic. All that Victorian "Main Street" gingerbread just begs for 3D printing, doesn't it?

Thank you, Gene, Ted, John, Bob, Rubin, Myles!

Ted, Yes I have the same trouble with files.  Even when I put them in a folder, then a year later I think, "What folder did I put them in?"    Those terms for parts of a Main Street building are great!  Some I already knew, some I learned from Myles, and a couple are new to me!

Bob, I will try what you mentioned on the site you shared with the crates cutouts.

Rubin, I purchased the Idaho Hotel from Myles when he was looking to free up some space in his downtown for some 'urban renewal" namely some of his wonderful scratchbuilt buildings.  As far as the backdrop goes, I have it here but took it down for two reasons.  One, to finish painting it, since it was the tail end of a painted backdrop I bought from another forum member and had a section of the Masonite left unpainted since it was hidden by a three dimensional hillside.  The other reason was so I didn't get the already painted part messed up with my scenery work.  Since I hadn't originally planned for scenery at this level, I will have to position it higher on the wall as well.

Myles, yes I need to smooth out the 'ground' before putting down a nice lawn, driveway, and gardens around the Idaho Hotel.  It's a long awaited start. 

Mark I think your doing a wonderful job with your Coffee building and your landscaping is wonderfully done! 1 head of warning, the more trees the more leaves you will have to rake and Myles is correct you need a smoother lawn unless you plan on getting one of those GR Mowers that eat everything! LOL

Keep yp the great work and please keep posting so I can keep learning!

Thank you, Mike!

Not to worry, Myles and Mike!  Since I sold Dad's 1951 Gravely when we sold the old homestead back in 2019, I decided to get landscapers in.  The Gravely handled worse terrain than what you saw in the photograph, if you could find someone like Dad who was man enough to handle the machine!!    It was a rare sunny February day today, so they did the first overlay of topsoil and grading at the Idaho Hotel site.    More to come.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Thank you, Mike!

Not to worry, Myles and Mike!  Since I sold Dad's 1951 Gravely when we sold the old homestead back in 2019, I decided to get landscapers in.  The Gravely handled worse terrain than what you saw in the photograph, if you could find someone like Dad who was man enough to handle the machine!!    It was a rare sunny February day today, so they did the first overlay of topsoil and grading at the Idaho Hotel site.    More to come.

WOW your paving crew is brave! I cant wait to see how it turns out! I remember one day when I was working for the Roads Department they had us paving in the snow! LOL

Mark, I like how the building interior is progressing. I like your thought process and will remember it for my next build. The choices you’re making are adding some nice details, well done. Scenery Hill looks great! That area is an excellent addition to the layout. Keep it up.

Andy

Wow, Mark! I am just getting caught up on your progress. Love the interior floor of the Coffee Co. I just received my order of MIG concrete paint so eager to play around with it. Yours looks great. If you haven't already you need to ask Santa for a 3D printer. Makes making those interior details really slick. There are so many free files for printing various things on OGR's 3D file area and on the internet. Has made a huge difference for me. Don't have to buy everything anymore. Scenery on Scenery Hill looks wonderful. It's always a work in progress. I have to do some, leave for a while then come back. I see different things and have different ideas when I return to it after a few hours or a day. Keep up the good work. Thanks for the update!

Mark, the building and landscaping look great. A ton of progress since my last check-in

Thank you, Mike, Andy, Mike, RJ!

Mike g, yes these paving guys around here are like school bus drivers when I was growing up.  Not much stops them!    I put down two coats of vinyl spackle over the hotel site, letting the first coat dry thoroughly before the second coat.  I could stand to scrape away some ground foam and extend the hotel lot a little more on the left front.  You can see they won't need the Gravely or your GR Mower when done. 

This is a good time to show a photograph of the backdrop section I pulled down since @rubin asked about it.  Our artist daughter gave me a wide selection of acrylics that should match the colors the original artist used.  I will also need to adjust the mounting brackets for the backdrop since the layout level on this section is about 8 inches higher than originally designed.  I'll need to chop off part of the blue sky since it would go higher than the 7' 4" high ceiling.

Andy and Mike LT1Poncho, I received the detail parts I ordered less one.  The one with the man moving crates with a hand lift is out of stock and they gave me a refund.  Drat!  That was my favorite.  Regardless, here is what I got.  The unpainted crate on the left looks to be 3D printed, since I can see the striations on the bottom.  The men at cardboard boxes are from molds.  They actually take up more floor space than I was thinking, which is a good thing for me.

Three more crates on the rail side dock.  I think I could put these on the docks and make some more cardstock printed ones inside.

Mike, Yes, I can see a 3D printer would be handy to have for detail parts.  With as many details as I want to make for my empty buildings and exteriors, I could probably find free drawings on the OGR and other libraries to pay for the printer over time.  I guess I need to be real good to impress Santa. 

RJ, I'm glad to see you back!  I hope you have been well!!

I'll add here that I was in historic Zelienople yesterday and stopped at CT McCormick Hardware for some additional containers of Woodland Scenic ground foam.  Of course I had to take a look at the rolling stock on the shelves.  This new Atlas PS1 boxcar followed me home.  I saw so many RF&P cars and engines for that matter during my years working for Virginia Power.  I want to make sure Jeff @ScoutingDad sees this car.  Yes, it is BLUE!  It isn't boxcar red, which always looks brown to me. 

Mark, if I recall correctly my class was the first and was done on an old Apple computer with floppy disk.

Mike, floppy disks for sure!!  I self taught a smidgeon of CAD when I moved to engineering from being a technician in 2008.  I love copy/paste!  👍🏻😃

Floppy disks?  You guys are youngsters.

My first project in the commercial world was the writing of a program (in DECSystem-10 assembler) of a paper tape reader to input data arriving in 8-bit packed image mode.  Yeah, that was arcane even in 1980. 

Mark - are you using joint compound or vinyl spackle?  Vinyl spackle is flexible and likely to be more forgiving than joint compound (that can crack under normal expansion / compression).  Just FYI.  Ohio River shorelines on the Panhandle are made using vinyl spackle for that reason.

George

Thank you George!

I didn’t know the difference.  Here’s what I am using.  I take it that it is vinyl because I can compress the thickest glob of it with my finger, and it returns to shape.

Programming?  I was never exposed to programming.  My background was in electronics hardware and starting at about age 40 as a computer user.  Dumb users!  😉

I just corrected my post a day ago to read 'vinyl spackle'.  Thank you again, George.

Mark I like the people and crates you did get, they help provide detail to fill out the scene. The backdrop section looks great and will help with a more finished look. Looking good.

Andy

Thank you, Andy!!

I have nothing new to report.  Many thanks to everyone who looked, commented, and 'liked'.

I have an update on the Sanky Wanky kit and the Idaho Hotel-Scenery Hill area.

I finally found photograph of warehouse boxes that I liked and printed out for the upper floor.  I sliced to size and glued to thick stock.  I didn't like the look of the print in the middle of the floor as it would make the area look half empty, so I printed another sheet, glued sections to each end of the section as long as the interior of the building, then folded it back to make it look like boxes are stacked near the middle two windows on either side.

The sections are not glued, but just sitting in place while I size up any other ways I could do it.

Notice too that I cut the double doors in half and glued them in place so they can show more of the lower level interior.  I decided how I can run wires for lighting (which I haven't even started to research what to buy) with very little cutting.  More on that when I get to it.

On to scenery.  Here are a couple photographs of the Idaho Hotel lawn and driveway.  I need to purchase a different color material for the dirt road.  One color labeled 'earth' took on a slight green hue.  Two others don't look quite right either.  I may have to build up the lawn to match all the layers of driveway before it's done.    It's a start.  My daughter gave me some flowering bushes that I am going to plant in front of the long porch and I'll get some more shrubs and trees as I go on.  I just sat the backdrop section in place for the photographs to show what I have and what needs painted since that was brought up before.  Yes, it is a little high as you can see through to the wall on the slope to the right.

Incidentally, the LED lamp closest to the hotel blew out, so I adjusted the next closest one for the photographs.  They are so hard to push in and twist to get in and out, that I didn't swap another in service LED to that spot for the photographs.  I ordered a pack of 6 yesterday.  There goes some funds I had earmarked for scenery. 

Looking good Mark. The interior view thru the windows adds a nice touch of realism to a vacant floor.

Gene

Mark, I like your thoughts for the interior. It looks good. As far as the dirt road, you may want to mix a custom batch of paint. Write down the exact amount of each color so that you can replicate for future projects.

Andy

Thank you, Andy!  Now I just need to figure the lower floor with the open doors.  That is where the three dimensional items will look much better.  I got thinking like you since any ground cover, whether ground foam or the finest sifted sand, would look too granular for a hard packed dirt road.

Looks good Mark.

The gap in the backdrop could be hidden by another hill with trees and shrubs.

I have a load of light brown sand that I co-worker gave me. It's good for dirt but it's too light brown so I usually do a brown wash over it after the glue dries. I left the original color on the hill to the left of the tunnel.

Same sand in the yard toned down with a dark brown wash.

Good morning Mark, Things sure are looking good I like how the interior of your coffee building turned out.

The hotel area is coming along nicely and a few more flower and shrubs should look perfect! As for the dire driveway, I know this might be more then you were thinking, but for my dirt work on my old layout I took dirt from my yard sifted it down to as small as I could and then cooked it in the oven to kill anything that might be growing. LOL To apply it I put down some white glue dirt and water and glue mixture again. You cant beat the real stuff! LOL

  Mark, I’ve built a few dirt roads. I’ve used Mike’s method but I believe I used sifted real gravel. I’ve also used Woodland Scenics fine buff ballast mixed in with some of their earth. Pretty much a lot of my scenery was in place before Scenic Express came along. So most of what was done was referencing Dave Frary’s book on scenery and using home grown recipes.

I use to watch a lot of Allen Keller VHS tapes when I started. Dick Elwell who had a fantastic New England themed RR. . Offered one tip in the construction of dirt roads. After everything was good and dry. He went over the road with sandpaper wrapped over a block of wood. It would tone the road down color wise and take the coarse harshness out of it by I guess. Scuffing some of the ballast material off the surface.

Mark, I'm so happy that Idaho has found such a nice home. I wasn't giving it the TLC that it deserved. When the landscaping is finished it's going to be a great installation.

@Mark Boyce posted:

I have an update on the Sanky Wanky kit and the Idaho Hotel-Scenery Hill area.

I finally found photograph of warehouse boxes that I liked and printed out for the upper floor.  I sliced to size and glued to thick stock.  I didn't like the look of the print in the middle of the floor as it would make the area look half empty,  ...snip...

Don't forget to leave some room/aisles/ whatever for the material handling equipment.

Another thought: A freight elevator to get material to and from the second floor.

It is progressing very well. The Hotel is a great-looking building!

Mark,

You may also want to dedicate part of the ground floor to an office and counter area. You could do this with backlit images or with 3D models of desks, chairs, bookcases etc that are found in doll house  catalogues. You can also find miniatures of all kinds of joists and equipment that might be useful for the warehouse. I’ve got a whole raft of models of table saws, drill presses and other equipment for a factory that I will return to after I’ve made more progress on my layout.

Both of your structures are looking great !

Rubin

Excellent work, Mark!

Peter

Thank you, Bob, Mike, Dave C, Myles, Rubin, Dave, Peter!

Bob, good suggestion.  I could certainly put in trees and bushes to hide the gap.  I need to revise my brackets holding the backdrop if I am to leave it at a higher level than the original position.  If I do that, I will need to put another small backdrop between the original table top and the lift up.  Or, since I have more painting to do, I could paint another mountain/hillside higher than what is there now and put the backdrop where it originally was.  That would cover both problems.  I'm starting to lean that way; but who knows?   Your brown solution worked out well!

Mike, real dirt.  Baking dirt.  You took me down memory lane.  How many times did we walk into my grandma's house to that distinctive aroma? odor? scent?  Who needed potting soil from the hardware store, when you could just dig some out of the compost pile, and bake it?  I do have two dirt piles from my drainage ditch work two years ago that I could dip into for some scenery!

Dave C, those are all good ideas for dirt patches and roads.  After typing out the last message and posting photographs, it occurred to me I am doing this all wrong.  Certainly a sizable mountain hotel set in the mid 50s would have a gravel lane and parking area to keep the guests' cars out of the mud.  I have a selection of gravel and ballast from my HO days that could work for a gravel road.  I will certainly be putting in some dirt roads later on the layout, so all your suggestions will help.

Myles, I have you to thank for the star of the scene!!  It still looks great!  With moving the hotel back and forth, I can attest to the fact that it is built rock solid.  It is a testimonial to the care you gave to make sure everything was glued tight.  I know it will hold up to moving on the rare occasion I need to lift up the base to access track below!  Thank you!!

Dave, I have been thinking about how they would move freight between floors and of course move it along each floor.  As far as adding an elevator, I am thinking it may not be seen from the windows, but I do need to have some workers and equipment right inside a few windows.

Rubin, I am thinking the single story portion could be a supervisor's office, and the area with the lower floor and door that a person could walk in or even drive a truck in could be a sales counter.  I just need to start looking for items to use.  The dollhouse detail parts is a great idea for some of those things.

Peter, I'm always glad you take a look knowing you have so many irons in the fire!

Here's the Idaho Hotel scene with freshly graveled lane and parking area and fertilized lawn for a greener tint.  There is still a lot to do.

I'm in the process of matching colors that daughter Heidi gave me to finish the backdrop.

Great looking scene Mark.  The balcony needs some rail fans with that view. I really like the tree. Is this something you made ?  I see the roots at the base. Something you don’t normally see with commercial trees.

That really looks great Mark. Real statement piece as you come into the train room.

Bob

@Dave_C posted:

Great looking scene Mark.  The balcony needs some rail fans with that view. I really like the tree. Is this something you made ?  I see the roots at the base. Something you don’t normally see with commercial trees.

Thank you, Dave!  Jeff @ScoutingDad made the tree.  He did a great job.  Yes, rail fans will be there when word gets out!

@RSJB18 posted:

That really looks great Mark. Real statement piece as you come into the train room.

Bob

Thank you, Bob.

I’m a tree junkie. Layouts well populated and I’ve made them a variety of ways over the years. This one got my attention because it’s different from anything I have. I like variety in my trees.

  Jeff did a great job on it.  I’m guessing maybe twisted wire to for the armature seeing there’s visible roots. The flocking has a nice airy look to it. Nicely done.

Picture perfect! The scene looks warm and inviting! Can't wait to see what you do next!

@Mark Boyce that’s a great looking hotel and very nice scenery. I love the large tree. The positioning of the hotel looks really good on the curve of the railroad. Can’t wait to see what you do next! Thanks for taking the time to share.

Mike

@Mark Boyce posted:

Here's the Idaho Hotel scene with freshly graveled lane and parking area and fertilized lawn for a greener tint.  There is still a lot to do.

I'm in the process of matching colors that daughter Heidi gave me to finish the backdrop.

As Bob mentioned that is a great statement piece. You have to feel great about your accomplishment. Congratulations!

Jay

Looks very welcoming Mark!  Super!