nycjeff layout

Started by nycjeff, August 06, 2020, 04:15:29 PM

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nycjeff

Quote from: Janbouli on January 13, 2021, 06:51:17 AM
Thank you for sharing , wonderful layout .

Hello Jan, thanks for looking in and for the kind words

Quote from: PRR Modeler on January 13, 2021, 09:09:04 AM
I totally agree with Jan.

Hey Curt, thank you. I'm enjoying your layout tour as well

Quote from: tom.boyd.125 on January 13, 2021, 11:41:23 AM
Jeff,
That tower came out great and will be a neat addition to your NYC empire.
Tommy

Hello Tommy, thank you , I'm really pleased with how it came out as well. Considering the source, George, it would make a nice addition to any layout. I was a little surprised that I haven't seen it on other layouts. I see lots of other of George's structures on layouts.

Quote from: Bernd on January 13, 2021, 01:32:02 PM
Hi Jeff,

Nice start on your layout. Just went through your postings.

I'm in the same situation, built my own house and the wife has the part that keeps the basement dry. Only problem is I'm still working on the house after 20 years. I think the wife needs to get the whip.  :(

Bernd

Hello Bernd, I don't know what to say to that my friend, other than you need to get with the program so you can devote yourself to what's really important.

Continuing on...



Soon after entering the straight tracks on the long wall at the top of the track plan we come to a highway overpass bridge. This is a Walthers kit paired with Walthers street and sidewalks parts. This wasn't in my original plan so I had to add it after track was laid in this area. I removed the necessary track and sub-roadbed and cut the plywood. I saved the piece I cut and lowered it the correct depth and fixed it in place with wood and screws. I then was able to install the bridge. It was a little bit of a project, but I wish I had thought of it before tracks were laid, oh well.



A look from the other side. You can see my passenger train approaching. Trains always look good when crossing a bridge. The streetlights are from another Walthers package of utility poles and streetlights.



A look under the bridge. The NYC decals came from a package of steam locomotive decals I found at my LHS some years ago. Sadly that shop no longer exists. The vehicles are from Classic Metal Works



Gotta have the drone view. I debated trying to carry the road into the backdrop, but hesitated because of my limited painting skills. I really like what Tom did on his layout's backdrops and may look into something like that, but on a very limited basis.



After crossing the bridge, trains enter a deep cut. All I did to create this effect was build up shaped foam panels on each side of the tracks and give them a base scenery layer.



Here's a track level view looking down the tracks away from the bridge. I saw some really nice pictures in my NYC books of trains in deep cuts and wanted to have one on the layout. It's like the trains are going through a tunnel with no top and it wasn't that difficult to do. More in a minute
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

nycjeff

I just realized that I am approaching 500 pictures in my gallery. Wow, how did I get that many so quickly.

Continuing on...



This is a view looking back through the cut towards the bridge. I am working on improving the scenery in this area. I am thinking of more trees , but also thinking about taking the plunge and getting a static grass applicator. I've seen really good results on other layouts.



This is a closer look at the side of the cut, I have added a few trees and you can also see some of my distant hillside painting on the backdrop.



Another look at the basic scenery on the side of the cut. I attempted to cut the foam to show some geological rock lines, but I have to highlight them a little better



This is a look under the layout. My train room has block exterior walls so I used tap-cons (which are a long masonry screw if you haven't heard of them by that name) to attach 2x2's to the block.  I then screwed 1x3's to both sides of the 2x2 horizontally as shown. Another 2x2 was then screwed to the vertical on a 45 degree angle for some strength



This view shows how the angle ties into the horizontal pieces. I then made a long L-girder from a 1x3 and a 1x2 and first wedged it into the angle area and then screwed up into the horizontal pieces. This gives me a nice solid shelf brace for my plywood. I also screwed another 1x3 horizontally across the front of the braces which are on two foot centers to hold them in a good 90 degree position from the wall. You can see the bottom portion of my 1/8 inch masonite fascia board here as well



This is a view of the fascia board. I decided that I liked it's natural brown color. All you have to do is line up the bottoms of the fascia pieces, which I cut in 4 foot lengths, and then mark the scenery profile on the back and then cut it. I use my battery powered nailer to attach the fascia to the layout framework.

We are about halfway down the top wall of my track plan. Next up is my 4 track mainline. After all, you can't model the New York Central without a 4 track main. That's it for now, more later.
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

ACL1504

Jeff,

Very nice layout. I'd love to have the room you have but then again when I look at my 50 X 20 building - I'm thinking I'll never get this finished.

Again, very nice and I envy your staging areas. Well done.

Tom  ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

nycjeff

Quote from: PRR Modeler on January 13, 2021, 05:58:53 PM
Great looking layout.

Hello Curt, thanks for checking in and the nice comments.

Quote from: ACL1504 on January 13, 2021, 06:08:36 PM
Jeff,

Very nice layout. I'd love to have the room you have but then again when I look at my 50 X 20 building - I'm thinking I'll never get this finished.

Again, very nice and I envy your staging areas. Well done.

Tom  ;D

Hi Tom, it seems to me that you do have the room that I have plus some. You are 50 x 20, I am 32 x 18. I do appreciate your kind words and I'm glad you like my staging area.
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

nycjeff

Continuing on...



This picture is looking down the length of the second half of the top wall of my track plan. It shows my four track mainline, which is really a two track line with a passing siding on each, but I wanted a portion of the layout to have four tracks running along side one another.



This is a signal bridge that I scratch-built from styrene parts and some Central Valley railing pieces. I made some signals with round styrene shapes and I printed out some semaphore signals on the computer and mounted them to some styrene sheet cut to the same shape. I wish that some company offered non-working semaphore signals, but I haven't found any to this point.



We are now looking back at the signal bridge. I have not done more than my basic scenery layer on the carved foam hillsides to this point. I plan on adding a lot of trees.



Looking towards the top right corner of the track plan. I curved the corners of my backdrop by bending the masonite into a curve shape and screwing it to the 2 x 2's mounted on my block walls. The masonite bends easily up to a point. I found out how much. The four track main is about 16 feet long along the top wall of the track plan. The corner tracks are on a 30 inch radius that I adhered to on the layout.



I made a cornfield against the curve of the backdrop. I raised the cornfield area about 2 inches by placing some carved foam slabs which I cut to the shape of the curve. I got the cornfield from Busch products and it went together easily and  it was not that expensive. I like how it came out. I am modeling rural Ohio in the fall so I had to have a cornfield.



In front of the tracks on the curve, I placed a farm with a produce stand. The stand is from JL innovative Designs and the pumpkins are from Busch. I scratch-built the water tower base for one of the Walthers roof-top water towers. I believe the vehicles are from Classic Metal Works and I'm not sure where the farm out-buildings are from. More in a minute
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

nycjeff



The barn for the farm is from Alpine Designs. I modified the barn slightly  by adding first a foundation and some trim pieces, along with a second floor. I also added some detail castings and plan to add more.



The Mail Pouch roof sign is what caught my eye about this barn kit. My father and my brothers and I built a family cabin in central Ohio and when driving to and from the cabin we saw lots of Mail Pouch signs on barns.



Finishing out the farm scene is a plowed field and some haystacks from Busch.



Looking back towards the corner from the top right hand corner of the track plan. I've added some trees, but plan on adding some more.



A track side view of the corner looking at the cornfield from the top wall perspective



Looking back at the cornfield corner from the right hand wall view. That's it for now, more later
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

nycjeff



Looking back at the farm scene. A reefer train lead by two NYC GP-7's is on the main.



The turnouts at the end of the four track main. We are at the halfway point on the right side wall on the track plan. The scenery is pretty basic in this area, more ground cover elements and trees are in the plan.



This is one of two scratch-built background flat buildings that I placed in this area.



This is the other background flat that I scratch-built. I used materials that I had in my stash. I studied some background flat kits and planned my buildings using those as a guide. They are only about 3/4 inch deep. I plan on more scenic elements around these flats. More in a minute
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

nycjeff



Here is a look along the top wall of the track plan of the layout's lower level. This wall has 32 feet of mainline run and the shelf is 18 inches deep. The aisle is 30 inches wide. It's nice to walk along the aisle with a train running on the mainline.



A look at the top right corner of the lower level. Trains look good going around this wide curve.



A look at the top half of the right hand wall of the lower level, the shelf is 24 inches deep at this point. All of my wiring is run below the top level and all track control switches are located in the top fascia board. That's it for now, more later
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

GPdemayo

What a tremendous amount of time and effort you've put into this layout.....well done Jeff.  8)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

nycjeff

Quote from: GPdemayo on January 17, 2021, 09:31:30 AM
What a tremendous amount of time and effort you've put into this layout.....well done Jeff.  8)

Hello Greg, thank you for the kind words. I've been working on my layout since 2007. As with all layouts I'm sure, I have spurts of activity. The nice thing about a train room is that when I leave it, whether for a day, week or month, when I come back it is just the way I left it. Train room time is relaxation time for me. I've had some medical issues over the years and when my real world activities are stalled by those issues, my time in the train room really helps. I know that I'm not the only one that has had these experiences, our hobby helps us in so many ways.

Continuing on...



The next scene on the right hand wall is my Woodland Scenics cemetery. I'm not sure why, but cemetery scenes seem to crop up on a lot of layouts. Of course, I have a mini-scene with two guys digging a grave.



This is the other end of my cemetery with the entry gate.



The entry gate seen from the other side. I also modeled an entry road lined with what I hope looks like cypress trees, which for some reason seem appropriate for a cemetery. This cemetery scene filled a long narrow space between the tracks and the backdrop and I am very pleased with how it came out.



A long view of the cemetery road from the county road that crosses the tracks.



As you can see this road crossing scene is a work in progress. I still need to do the other wood crossing and scenic around the cross-bucks. I attempted to carry the road onto the backdrop and I'm not real happy with what I came up with. This is one of the locations where I am thinking about some sort of photo backdrop picture to continue the road.



We are entering the curve at the bottom right hand corner of my track plan, which can be viewed on page three of my layout thread, and here my corner scene is a church. I raised the area two inches on some foam layers cut to fit the curve. The retaining wall is some flexible stone wall material from Chooch and the vertical grey rocks are real rocks that I came across in my travels. More in a minute

Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

PRR Modeler

More great looking scenes Jeff.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

nycjeff

Quote from: PRR Modeler on January 17, 2021, 12:18:12 PM
More great looking scenes Jeff.

Hey Curt, thanks for checking in and also for the nice comment. I've been working on my layout for a long time now, but as I go around with this tour I see that I still have a lot to do. Since joining the forum and seeing the level of excellence that many members show in their layouts and hopefully learning from them I can always improve on what I have done.



A better look at my church, it is a Life Like kit. It fits into my corner space nicely and is meant to be a background type structure.



Coming around the curve we see this billboard at the end of the raised area.



Next to the billboard is a small homestead with several small scratch-built buildings and a windmill.



Here is the windmill. This is a kit, but I don't remember whose, it is a metal kit with nice detail. Next to it is a small scratch-built dock.



The dock leads into a small lake that still needs some work. I keep finding areas that need to be completed. I can never understand it when somebody says that their layout is done. I can't ever see mine being done, there is always something else to do and improve. More in a minute

Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

nycjeff

I've reached the bottom right corner of my track plan. I'm going to finish up with a couple of overall shots of this corner.



Here is a track level view coming into the corner area



Here we are looking back at the corner from the other side.



My workbench area is tucked under the lower level in this corner. I have built shelving under all of the benchwork in this corner for most of my building materials and tools. It's convenient to be able to reach most of what I need when working by just swiveling around in my chair. That's it for now, more later
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

ACL1504

Jeff,

Thanks for the tour of the NYC layout. It's also nice to be able to get to many of the tools we use without having to go find them. I have tools at hand and still find that often I'll need one I need to go and find. Just part of the hobby I guess.

Tom  ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

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