Weekend Photo Fun 8-6-20-????

For this fine Weekend!  " More postwar paradise from the 1950's."  Have great weekend everyone! Be safe = be healthy!

I got detoured a few days this week with the storm knocking down power lines and trees. The main road I take from work is still blocked so I had to head towards Manville where one of the main lines travels through and over the road. I was able to run along the tracks and at least get one picture. I would have tried to get some more since the train was standing still but too many things blocking view.Just a few cars, would have been better if I could have gotten the longer string of them but I would have had to stop and walk between two buildings and that was not going to happen.

Well, I'll join in the early start. A few days ago, I was walking past the part of my layout pictured here, and wondered what it would be like to take a photo from water level. I tried it out, and it was pretty cool, so I set up this picture to post this week.  This shows the PRR stone arch bridge carrying what by now was Conrail over the mouth of Tuscarora Creek as it drains into the beloved Juniata River at Port Royal. I built the bridge over the course of a year way back in 2000. I consider it to be the most difficult modeling project I ever attempted since the model, just like the prototype, is built on a curve. This made it's construction very difficult. It is built out of 153 pounds of hydrocal plaster which required four hours to mix and pour. It took SIX weeks for the plaster to fully dry.

If you think that is a long time, consider the fact that it would not be until March 29, 2020 that I finally finished the scene! But the bridge had to go in early on to lay the track in this part of the layout.

This shows the bridge as is would have looked in the early days of Conrail in the mid to late 1970's. The railroad was created in 1976, but just kind of stumbled along until about 1980 when Stanley Crane took over as CEO and finally rebuilt the railroad after the daze of Penn Central. Before his tenure, the bridge still looked like it did in the PRR era.

The second image was taken in 2016 and shows the prototype bridge after it was reinforced by Conrail with the use of concrete columns and horizontal members that prevented outward bowing of the spandrels (side walls). They also replaced the classic PRR pipe railing with new railing made of steel angles. This didn't exactly help the aesthetics of the bridge, but it kept it from falling apart.  This image was taken during a kayaking trip on the Juniata. That is a picture of my son Steven whose kayak is at almost the exact same spot as the two canoes in the model picture.

I've managed to return to the area every year for the past 45 years. I haven't gone back so far this year with the pandemic, but I'm grateful to have the area modeled on my layout. At least when I'm in the layout room, I'm taken back to that day 45 years ago when I first set eyes on the Juniata River Valley. 

I don't have any new photos.  Here are some photos taken during the annual New Year's Day run taken on the G&O on January 1, 2019.  The G&O crew is hoping to continue the tradition this coming January, 2021.  NH Joe

Remembering my Dad(Tinplate Bob)on his 80th birthday Thursday by running his G scale radio controlled live steam engine. So many great memories!

This week I thought I would run my "merger cars" with a Conrail SD-18.

Have a great weekend,folks.....and, be safe....

Peter

A Seattle & Yakima RR Alco with local freight passing through on the S&Y RR.

After many years, I decided to detail the interior two floors of my Walthers Cornerstone Series, Nicole's Java Hut building, which like most buildings is a hollow shell. Added floors, several faux walls to hide Evan Designs lighting wiring, several detail kits from Berkshire Valley Models, and some figures (soda jerk, waitress and business man) from Arttista Figures. Then to top it off, I added a Breyers Ice Cream sign from Miller Engineering to the roof that I've had for a while. Lot of work and tons of fine detailed painting of the Berkshire Valley kit parts, but in the end, it makes this piece much more realistic. 

Here's some interior shots of the two floors before I covered them with the upper floor and roof. Here's the ground floor of the soda shop & cafe.

Here's the second story floor, a generic office layout. Placed most pieces by the bay window since you don't see much beyond there from the outside view.

Finally the roof underside, showing the Breyers Ice Cream sign's wire routing.

Some outside shots.

Enjoy your weekend!

Tom

Some new military loads:

                    have a great weekend !!

Tom,

Beautiful work! I have a question for you. Mine sat in the box for many years, and I finally put it together about a year ago. I found the plastic in the kit to be extremely brittle. I've had other kits sit for years, and they never got brittle like this one did.  I think the plastic may have been bad. Was yours like that?

Postwar style. Texas Special  AB with 2400 series "red letter" passenger cars.

A 2019 Christmas Layout memory 

The left side of the 11'x14' display

- walt

Storage shelves.

Tom

Those interiors are spectacularly well done!

@NJCJOE posted:

Storage shelves.

Love that Plasticville truck!

- walt

Having allowed myself to re-enter the 3-rail aspect of model trains, my long history of appreciation for traditional-sized trains (all makes/types, not just Lionel) is already causing a flow of acquisitions to my doorstep.

I have a "direction" for my 3-rail, but it will be a while in the transpiring of same (if it comes to pass).

In the meantime, here of late, I've been enjoying posing certain traditional pieces on my existing leftover bench work from layout experiments past, and trying to envision if my ideas for 3-rail could look as good in person as they do in my mind's eye.

Here's one such "posing" effort I shot just a few minutes ago, and if you'll use your imagination along with me, then replace the Marx track with weathered-black GarGraves track, also see in your mind cinder ballast even with the ties and the cinder scrubble of a cinder-based yard, a few weeds, and such as that. Let's title this "12th St Yard Freight Departure"...

So far, my little experiments are reinforcing my thinking this could be a fun and personally rewarding approach to model trains.

Andre

@laming posted:

Having allowed myself to re-enter the 3-rail aspect of model trains, my long history of appreciation for traditional-sized trains (all makes/types, not just Lionel) is already causing a flow of acquisitions to my doorstep.

I have a "direction" for my 3-rail, but it will be a while in the transpiring of same (if it comes to pass).

In the meantime, here of late, I've been enjoying posing certain traditional pieces on my existing leftover bench work from layout experiments past, and trying to envision if my ideas for 3-rail could look as good in person as they do in my mind's eye.

Here's one such "posing" effort I shot just a few minutes ago, and if you'll use your imagination along with me, then replace the Marx track with weathered-black GarGraves track, also see in your mind cinder ballast even with the ties and the cinder scrubble of a cinder-based yard, a few weeds, and such as that. Let's title this "12th St Yard Freight Departure"...

So far, my little experiments are reinforcing my thinking this could be a fun and personally rewarding approach to model trains.

Andre

In a word .... AWESOME!!!  The figures posed in the foreground allow the the mind to interpret/appreciate the vast size of the steam locomotive.  The postwar Erie boxcar is posed perfectly, giving a sense of forced perspective.  Tying the scene all together is the perfect choice ( IMHO ) of background buildings you have chosen.  Keep the photos coming Andre'!!