The Modeler's Forum

I started this thread on RR-Line (now gone) in January 2008, a little more than 17 years ago.  It eventually grew to 96 pages.  Reposted here it will be smaller, because I'm leaving out comments by others: some are members here, some not, some have passed.
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I'm modeling the Boston & Maine's Eastern Route in HO standard gauge in my (now) 225-year-old house's attic. The attic has its pluses and minuses - plenty of space, just up the stairs and finished, but the combination of the sloping ceiling and a 36" minimum radius meant I could only do an around-the-walls plan. Also, it can get a bit hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

The layout incorporates my Rowley MA modules, in 2008 the only finished scenery, in the rural northern half of the attic. The southeast corner is where I'm building my compressed version of West Lynn, MA including the General Electric River works and the West Lynn creamery.

saugus_br_rail.jpg

This photo shows the mainline curve passing the future creamery (spur under the file) and the Saugus Branch (long staging tracks) coming in from the left. I was spiking rail on the branch, building the switch comes next. The flying plywood was actually pretty rigid with the flange below and the backdrop partially installed.  It got better when I brought the backdrop around to the left edge of the photo.

Links to my other threads:  Over 17 years on RR-Line, I added progress to old threads and referred to them via these links:
Page 1 Jan. 2008: Benchwork and track for Bennett St. West Lynn -> Structures near Bexley Tunnel and Enginehouse
2008-12: MRC Prodigy Advance Throttle Control Bus: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6886
2009-02: New England Farmhouse by Creative Laser Design: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6887
Page 2 Jun. 2009: Start on Rt. 1A overpass & Little River benchwork.-> Build diode matrix for west entrance to Draw staging.
2010-04: Merrimac St. Bridge in Newburyport: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6888
Page 3 Jul. 2010: Track through Newburyport to Draw almost complete -> Landforms for Little River
2010-10: Guard House for the Gear Works thread: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6908
Page 4 Mar. 2011: Scenery at Rt. 1A & Little River -> Work on Merrimack & Washington Streets in Newburyport
2011-06: Before Galvanized W-Section Guardrails thread: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6910
Page 5 Nov. 2011: Install Bennett St. backdrop -> Bennett St. Yard track complete
2011-11: Gothic Arch Dairy Barn in HO Styrene thread: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6890
2011-11: Clam Box build with a little kitbashing and detailing: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6911
Page 6 Nov. 2012: Complete Newburyport West control panel -> High St. cut and overpass mostly complete
2013-05: Prototypic Dwarf Signals In HO thread: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6884
Page 7 Jun. 2013: Finish High St. cut -> Applying printed windows to Hytron
Page 8 Dec. 2013: Static grass applied around Clam Box
Page 9 May 2014: Pit track at Bexley Enginehouse
2014-11: Upgrade GHQ 2-Axle Hay Wagon: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6856
Page 10 Feb. 2015: Build Acme Fast Freight in West Lynn, Gorin Machine in Bexley, prep for Model RR Scenery AP evaluation
2015-05: Lineside Signal thread: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6882.0
Page 11 Nov. 2015: Bexley Depot area, finish signals > Bexley Baggage/Express building nearly done
Page 12 Feb. 2017: Completing Boxed Pony Truss Overpass > City RR partly in service
Page 13 Feb. 2018: Completed Newburyport City RR Track.
2020-03: 28 Winter St. house in styrene: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6766
2021-02: PRR 40' flat car in brass: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6764.0
2021-04: Kanthima's Scratchbuilt Structures thread: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6926

Photo's not showing-up, sir, at least not for me. Just a little blue question-mark icon.

I see the photos, it might have been the occasional 'photo resolution delay'.

dave

I see it now.  Benchwork and a clamp lamp.

Stand down the pixel-fire department.

My Rowley MA modules have been to many train shows, most in New England but they've been as far south and west as Kansas City, as far north as Saint John NB, as far east as Dortmund in Germany.  Some photos are on my site: http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/gallery/index.html (http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/gallery/index.html)

In early 2008 the southwest corner had a bunch of structures, but they weren't in finished scenery. I posted a panoramic shot or two over the weekend. Ties in this area are a mix of Campbell Profile, home-made and Mt. Albert Scale Lumber, glued to homasote with yellow carpenter's glue. I use the tie jig/tape process, but usually hand-place switch ties.

February 3 I ran the first train onto the West Lynn section. But before I it got far, I had to recharge the Train Engineer's batteries. Still...

saugus_1st_train.jpg

Because I had the photofloods out, I also shot the area around the Bexley engine terminal (just east of the Bexley Tunnel, which substitutes for Salem MA and its Salem Tunnel, which I hadn't room to model).

turntable_area.jpg

Timetable West, towards the tunnel. The structures are commercial kits, minimally customized. Turntable and ash host are Walthers. Yard office is the BEST Salisbury Point Station kit. Visible track is handlaid code 83.

yard_throat.JPG

Looking timetable East, the body of the yard disappears in amongst the house's frame timbers.

Not sure what happened to the "panoramic views" I mentioned above.  They were gone from the RR-Line thread when I backed it up.  I probably meant this photo. It's the only part of my layout I didn't build myself.  It was the town of Sawyer on the Tech Model Railroad Club's layout at MIT.  I learned how to build the oddball switches I still use working on Sawyer in the mid '70s.

sawyer_2008.JPG

When old Bldg. 20 was demolished, there wasn't room for Sawyer in the new space, so I drove our Dakota to Cambridge, carried it down 2 flights of stairs myself and brought it home. I did have help carrying it up to the attic.  Here I've extended the main around the south side of my attic, made a low backdrop and placed a Red Wing Milling kit I won in a raffle.

mainline_ties.jpg

There are about 2000 new ties in this picture, maybe 1/8 cut down from Mt. Albert's 16 footers.  Looking at the wood in the kindling bucket and preferring the Campbell Profile Tie approach, where theirs are over 20 scale feet long, so both sides of most cuts are usable. I used .0125" Homa-Bed to raise the main and middle siding above the running tracks and GE plant, and it was a joy to work with. Would have gone faster if I'd bought his shims rather than sanding my own.

The Hub Division Modular Group's container got packed around March 1, 2008. I didn't see my Rowley modules until April 14 (setup for Intermodellbau in Dortmund).  So I finally got back to West Lynn. I had gotten the ties above stained and ballasted, and now I'd spiked enough rail so I need another couple thousand MicroEngineering spikes. Wasn't worth a photo til I got into the switches for the Middle track, though.

eb_main.JPG

I'd finished a couple of switches and the first train ran as far as the West Lynn "middle" track switches. Another couple packs of joiners, spikes and a bundle of rail were on the way (via the LHS, not the web site which claimed to have them in stock, but didn't).

tracklaying_w.jpg

I got a little work in before flying off to Dortmund, but I didn't post another picture in this thread till early May. Looking north, I'm building track through GE's River Works in West Lynn, with my future staging location  behind the framing timbers in the background. I install roadbed first (if I'm using it, 1/8" HomaBed here, or 1/4" pine lattice stock), then ties, sand & stain ties, then ballast, then rail.

Hand laid track can't be beat, well done James..... 8)

Thanks, Greg.  I didn't post another picture till July 19; work travel, haying season and a 6-month wait for Code 83 rail intervened.

dairy_switch.jpg

Here, I'd laid 4 switches on the easterly lead. The spur to the right is spiked Code 55 and from then on I thought more seriously when I hear or read "handlaid in Code 55" (or 40, for that matter); I'd glued Code 55 down previously (guardrails on the Rowley River bridge), which I found a lot easier. Also, this represents me switching from M$ Photo editor, which made jaggies in the image, to DigiKam on FreeBSD Unix. DigiKam is still doing the job for me 17 years later.
 
shoofly.jpg

By early September I built a shoofly at the W. end to connect the east running track with an old loop I'd scabbed together. That got me back to running out-and-back from Bexley Yard.

After an 8 month wait, I finally got the bundle of weathered M-E Code 83 rail:

yard_begun.jpg

That let me finish the crossover from the WB main to the westerly running track. And then I started the yard during the month I spent thinking about switch controls and the main line panel layout - Three fourths of the reason this layout goes so much slower than some others is that every !%&$# thing turns into a design project; I can do design, but it would be a thin living at the speed I do it.

lever_mount.jpg

After considering the simple push-pull rod scheme, I settled on more of Humpyard Purveyance's switch levers (now out of production). But I'd never used them in association with a block panel before, so I spent longer than I should have thinking about usability, access, hand clearance etc. I used slide switches for point contacts, so needed to modifiy the cable clamps to hold the cable sheath better.

This post is dedicated to P.L. Robertson, who has saved me from many, many wrecked screwheads on this project...

By November 2008, I'd gotten the West Lynn panel wired up and five of the switches connected to their Humpyard levers.

w_lynn_panel.jpg

I used Radio Shack 2P6T rotary switches - they're only rated for 0.3A but that hasn't been an issue because usually blocks (at least in an
industrial area) don't get switched when a locomotive is in them. I used much heavier-duty toggles where locos will be stored.

Then I didn't post on the layout thread till April 2009. Life intervened, plus I figured out how to use old RJ-45 Ethernet jacks and cable to wire up the MRC Prodigy Advance throttle bus around the layout, and built my second laser-cut wood kit (Creative Laser Designs "New England Farmhouse"). By then I was beginning scenery in the Bexley area:

raiload_st1.jpg

The effort required to do proper foundations for these structures showed why sloping street scenes aren't so common in models. Two of the buildings are DPM, Saulena's is Bar Mills laser-cut wood, the rest were carved out of Walthers' Merchants' Row.

railroad_st2.jpg

The westbound (towards North Station, Boston) commuter exiting Bexley Tunnel shows something I've given a good deal of thought to: The prototype (in Salem, MA, replaced 1958) was notoriously tight; it couldn't even handle PRR round-roof steel boxcars. A few years ago, I scratchbuilt a bridge to clear the NMRA gauge, but in 3/4 angle photos, it looms up above my steam-era equipment in a way that leaves me dissatisfied. This portal isn't as small as the prototype - it will clear Plate C, but IMO it looks a lot better.

Also, I was thinking about my engine terminal, and that led me to dig out my Suydam Diesel House to study how the pits were built. It's first structure I ever built (early '70s), and one of the reasons I've avoided cardstock in my construction since. It didn't fit this layout, so it's since been re-homed.  I hope the new owner got around to popping the old Goo loose, steam-ironing everything flat and sealing the
surfaces thoroughly before reassembling it.

diesel_house.jpg

I continued to work on the west portal area in Bexley. Mid-April 2009 I got the portal's stonework carved, using a carbide-tipped tool I originally bought when I got tired of scoring my 4' x 8' sheet of .040" styrene with an XActo. One tip is a sharp angle, the other is broader and makes decent mortar lines.

WPortal0.jpg

This kind of granite masonry is all over New England, and in most places all that's changed is the soot finally weathering off 40-50 years after the end of steam (if somebody tells me the RRs actually painted the stone black, I'll be astonished). Here's the portal in place, with the buildings that go atop the tunnel ready for detail painting (the next week's project).

WPortal1.jpg

This needed another batch of A&I wash. I've got pictures and notes on prototypes for these cut-and-cover "Arches" here:

http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html (http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html)

James, do you happen to know where the B&M (and predecessor RRs) quarried that dark stone?

dave

Dave the stone itself isn't actually that dark color. Near the coast, 40 years of weather and salt spray removed most of the black revealing gray granite. But in Dover, 20 miles inland, the black remains. I suspect it's mostly soot, glued by dried-up steam oil.

I eventually applied "Wood Putty" over the screen wire - It's basically wood flour and fish glue - dries hard without much expansion or contraction. Compared to plaster, it has two major advantages: It sticks to itself, and it doesn't make dust. It's also strong, and over screen wire fairly light. On my Rowley modules, it's held up for 18 years of transportation and shows. Regrettably, Savogran discontinued it around 2000 (I bought a couple of cases).

I'm not sure what I'll do when I run out of Wood Putty; I'll definitely try Durham's Water Putty, but I don't know how it's made. I've built plaster hard-shell, but I found it brittle. I'm experimenting with foam in another location. I covered it with ground goop, as the foam is removable, and I wasn't sure I could keep a plaster texture layer attached if it flexes.

Progress in the next couple of weeks was two kitbashed buildings that face Maxwell Sq. (intersection of Railroad, Washington and Lafayette streets in Bexley).

arch_structures0.jpg

The left is several different parts of Walthers' "Merchants' Row", the right is most of a Rix "Furniture Showroom". The duct from the hood is .080 x .125 styrene heated in the oven, then bent and mounted with .010 x .030 brass bar from Detail Associates. The roof access way and the chimneys were built from Vollmer brick sheet; the chimneys took only a little less time than it would have to drive to the LHS and buy some castings. I used 91% isopropyl in this batch of A&I, and did not expect what it did to the paint. I let the paint dry more than 24 hours the next time. For these purposes I'd normally use 70% anyway. I tried a gravel roof on the Rix building, using WS fine gray ballast, came out OK.

Progress in the next couple of weeks was mostly a pretty much by-the-instructions build of Walthers "Parkview Terrace" for behind the engine terminal:

parkview.jpg

Progress in the next couple of weeks was mostly a pretty much by-the-instructions build of Walthers "Parkview Terrace" for behind the engine terminal.  All I added was paint and the window treatments (two colors of masking tape). The one glitch in the build was that the back step casting (from the porch to ground level) need another step's height to really reach the porch. I didn't fix it, as it will be well into the background for both in-person viewing and photos.

The layout didn't get much attention in the next 6 weeks; I had to get my Rowley modules ready for showing at Hartford National. And it was haying season...

I had some modeling time in early June 2009 (we didn't get 3 days of clear weather to hay), and once I got the Rowley modules jobs mostly done, I started on some benchwork at the north end of the attic (Rowley is visible on the left):

newbury_framing1542.jpg

I used L-girder to reduce the number of support points; a major theme of this layout's engineering is to keep the eaves accessible for storage. I also have to install and remove storm windows and screens under the layout, so there are two legs facing the modules and all other support is from the north wall. The backdrop is hardboard painted with two colors of blue latex, blended.

Only two sunny days in the next two weeks stalled haying, so more layout progress. And in 65F rain, the attic is quite comfortable compared to a normal midsummer evening. On 32-Jun-09 I ran the first train on the new track east of Rowley (there's a bit of Newbury before I get to Newburyport, MA off to the right):

newbury1stTrain.jpg

The track/roadbed, backdrop and overpass were all originally built several years ago when I had Rowley in the SE corner of my attic, where Lynn is now, so getting them into place wasn't too much work. Next came hardboard fascia - I used a cardboard template.  But I didn't get that done before I packed Rowley for the Hartford National.

With going to Hartford and cutting hay, I didn't get back to the layout till August. I had a bit of work in Bexley (SW corner of the attic) to show:

chipman_st0.jpg

The cardboard was a stand-in for a model of a boxed pony truss bridge I needed to get the wood for. But when I could, I preferred to visit Northeastern in Methuen (and their hobby shop). Next up was finishing the carved styrene stonework, plus some ground cover and
finishing off the end of the flour mill spur.

August 2009 was nice, so my next post was mid-September: Most of what I'd done wasn't very photogenic, like working on switches, cleaning out the NW corner of the attic, building some L-girders and studying how to selectively compress the 700+ foot drawbridge
at Newburyport. But while I was waiting for ballast to dry I decided to build a Blair Line GE billboard.

ge_sign0.jpg

The base timbers and the brace across the rear were cut from leftover plywood from the kit. My "finished" photo revealed it wasn't really finished yet (too many contact-cement spiderwebs). Sixteen years later I still haven't started mocking up the plant's buildings.

Most of the last weekend in September 2009's progress was building switches in the West Lynn yard, but that didn't photograph well.  I was trying out my then-new Pentax iSTDL and with Aperture Priority at f/32:

chipman_st1.jpg

I did a web order from KingMill for the backdrop. I was also waiting for the right light to shoot some buildings in Haverhill to mix in with the commercial offerings. I tried to support the LHS, but he'd only order from his regular distributors.  Closed not long after.

The ballast I used here is mostly Highball Products (limestone) HO cinders. However, I find they have too many white chunks, and they're a bit large for the clinkers I remember from my teen years. I sprinkle Woodland Scenics Fine Cinders on top to darken it before bonding, and then pick out visible white chunks till I like it. In time, dust will take the edge off the black, too (happened on my Rowley modules).
9/30 I managed to shoot this across the Merrimack in Haverhill, MA without shadows (it's prettier in the sun, though I waited an hour that day and the clouds never co-operated):

river_bldg.jpg

I did make it into a photo backdrop, but in retrospect it would look more realistic if I'd shot from the top of the bank behind me.

This is the staging yard project as of 8-Oct-09. The chimney comes up in the center of the attic, and the house is supported by a frame of posts and braces around it. Not much to do there but stage:

staging0.jpg

The L-girders are visible; I'm simply screwing the cross-pieces to the flanges and then to the bottom of the plywood. Here work was interrupted by a trip to Colorado.  On Nov. 1 roadbed at the RR East end was complete and I was placing ties.

plant_crossing0.jpg

Where the ties stop is the beginning of the salvaged Code-100 staging yard. I hoped to get at least a couple of the tracks finished before Thanksgiving, as my wife and daughter were egging me on to complete the loop around the attic (about 20 feet of benchwork and roadbed to go). But fate interfered.

Fundamentally, I'm a 'nail straightener'. Nothing on my RR shows that better than the test loop I built about a dozen years ago:

mianne_loop.jpg

The Mianne benchwork was bought new, but the plywood roadbed was scabbed together from stuff a guy down the road threw out and the fiber-tie track came from my high-school era layout. This south-looking view also shows the layout of the attic: West Lynn is on the left, beyond the chimney and the house brace frame. My workbench is under the shelf across the south end. At any rate, 4-Nov-09 I finished   the final drawing for the main line through Newburyport. The depot is to my left, the drawbridge between me and the staging yard to the left of the posts. Thursday and Friday the loop came down much faster than it went up. Saturday I built L-girders, Monday I set them up.

Roadbed for Newburyport began before Thanksgiving - this area is Newburyport West, after the interlocking at the west end of double track 1959 - 1965 (the current passenger station and storage yard). The City RR and the Pond St. spur will diverge to the right here.

nbpt_w2.jpg

It isn't be exactly the prototype's track arrangement - I didn't have room after measuring just how big the Newburyport draw is earlier in 2009. I had to allow 54" for even 3 spans. I also need a crossover the prototype didn't have. When I started this layout, I wouldn't have thought to cut the ballast slopes and paint the homasote before installing it. Neither would I have added supports for the backdrop to the end of the joists. No doubt I've forgotten something else...

James,

Nice to see you have gotten back to the layout building.  looking forward to seeing your progress.

Ron, this is me reconstructing my thread from 2009.  I've got 90 more old pages to get back on-line in this thread.  My current modeling project is the scratchbuilt brass flat car; it only needs a few finishing touches.

By 8-Dec-09 I was laying out the West throat. Initially I planned to build the west throat of my staging as below. Alas, it didn't make the curve into the two farthest tracks:

staging2.jpg

This second arrangement worked, but cut a foot off the 3rd track from the back. I was reluctant to limit one of my commuter slots to only 3 full size cars and a loco (4 RDCs or ex-PRR 54-footers aren't so bad).

staging1.jpg

I could have handlaid the first arrangement, but I decided to try once more with commercial curved turnouts first. The 3-ways had already
enriched Mr. Walthers considerably. BTW, Having gotten a look at the underside of a "DCC-friendly" 3-way, I'm enlightened. I spent over an hour at Hartford trying to debug an installation for another participant, and I finally saw where they put their jumpers. Personally, I'd have traded these 3 for the older solid frogs and power routing, but progress marches on...

When cutting commercial turnouts I like to leave 4 ties to ensure the stock rails won't come loose while I'm assembling it.  After I took the photos above, I drew how it would go hand-laid and decided that I could make it work with the commercial #6 cut down a little more.

27-Jan-10 was the first time I looked in on RR-Line in about 6 weeks. Aside from the holidays, I made a business trip to Mexico and two to New Jersey, the company I've worked at since 1998 was sold, I've got a new job and I haven't gotten much railroading in. Tomorrow night was packing for the W. Springfield show, so I had to move the staging yard I was working on. The only thing standing in the way of wiring it was deciding whether to re-work the Walthers "DCC friendly" switches for power routing (cut/splice the under-tie jumpers) or just wire the frogs via contacts. My friend's problem was back-to-back shorts in the leftmost frog, between the running and guard rails, and I wanted to avoid pulling my 3-ways out after I got the wires and switch mechanisms installed.

There wasn't much railroading in February 2010 - I hurt my knee, leaving me on crutches for several months. However, it did
keep me indoors despite the nice weather, and I made some progress on the staging yard.

staging3.jpg

I used old Earl Eshleman "turnout links", some from my HS layout, some from a White Elephant table at a show. I used twin-coil switch machines to allow diode-matrix routing, but my inventory was 3 short of the number needed for this throat. I have to say, I'd never before in my life installed & wired 5 switch machines in an afternoon. "Build out of place" was also a big win given my mobility problems ('hands and knees' was then 'hands,knee and toe').

In the middle of this, there was some 'stunt soldering' as I improved the 2009-version Walthers 'DCC friendly' 3-way switches I used. Comment if you want me to post, they could be long out of production now.

I asked my good friends at the Hub Division (NER, NMRA), and lo and behold, dozens of idle twin-coil machines come out of the woodwork. Problem solved. I picked them up at the HUB Spring Show in Peabody, MA mid-March 2010.

There was plenty to do, so the last bit of mainline benchwork for the Newburyport draw waited till I could carry heavy things up the stairs again.  If any of you think I'm a little off for hand-laying, wait till I start writing about the Newburyport draw (Fig. 10-47 in Mallery's bridge book). *If* I can make a decent model of it at all, it's going to take me quite a while..

I spent the afternoon of 14-Mar-10 installing the last three switch machines and wiring the frogs. After dinner, with help from my wife & daughter, I got the staging yard into position:

staging4.jpg

After an evening on the floor screwing it into place, I moved on to connecting the tracks and building the control panel.

By 27-Mar-10, standing up to do trackwork was actually more comfortable than sitting at my desk using the computer, so I got quite a few hours in toward connecting the West Lynn area to staging that day:

ge_xovers.jpg

I got the middle track operable earlier that week. I was fairly far along on the eastbound tracks - three frogs ready to solder, the fourth lacks one closure rail.  But I had to shift gears and cut gaps and wire, to get rid of the short I just created. And I didn't try to install any switch mechanisms with my knee as it was.

I got 30 degrees of movement in the brace early in April, so I could drive a stick again. I still couldn't mow the lawn (never in my life was
mowing needed before 4/15 up here, and the horse chestnuts were in full leaf two or 3 weeks early). So I used up 100 feet of 1/16 x 3/32 stock I got from Northeastern in Methuen, MA doing this:

nbpt_curve0.jpg

I should have gotten at least 50% more, but I didn't mind making the trip again; Wayne G., who was running a hobby shop in their building, had a decent stock for the small space he's in. The only obstacle was getting there one of the three half-days he opened. My next step was sanding and staining.

A drizzly, cool weekend produced a lot of progress. This isn't a very compelling photo, but it does represent two turnouts ready for mechanisms and benchwork complete through the foundation for the Newburyport depot area. The unballasted spur is turned around from the prototype, but will serve a post-war bakery whose building is still standing off US 1.

nbpt_curve1.jpg

On 02-May-10, I had more progress to report:

nbpt_station0.jpg

Ballast was drying between the Newburyport depot and the current end-of-roadbed at the riverbank. I had been roughing in the roads in the area, because I had to finish at least part of the cut stone abutments before I can make the track across the Merrimac St. underpass permanent.  At that point I had a bit more than 2 meters of track to lay to complete the circuit of the attic. Alas, most of this would be on the Merrimac River bridge, (still) a big, complex modeling project which will probably take a year or more to execute well.

Clearly a Golden Spike wasn't imminent. I chose to cobble up some temporary track, hot-wire around two missing control panels and a number of turnouts lacking mechanisms and have a 'brass spike' ceremony with a 'Gansett (because champagne was clearly not in order).  I finished the panels and mechanisms soon after, but in 2025 I still haven't put my nose to the grindstone on the bridge.

On 19-May-10, my recent progress was mostly tracklaying, so not very photogenic. That day we left for the Tracks & Tides convention in St. John, NB, so no layout work for a week.  However, I had been reading a layout article in RMC, and they included the traditional turnout count. I find this to be a decent way of comparing layout size, complexity and maintenance. So I counted mine:

31 (1 commercial, 10 came with the piece of the old MIT club layout) fully operational.
9 (5 commercial) with mechanisms, awaiting control (wiring or hand-throw).
15 (1 commercial) awaiting mechanisms.
8 at some stage of construction
17 not begun (9 go on benchwork I won't start till the main line is finished).
80 total.

Since I joined RR-Line in Dec. 2007, I'd completed 7 turnouts, gotten 9 ready for control and 14 ready for mechanisms.

On 31-May-10, track in Newburyport was in service as far as the turnout at the End of Double Track just before the bridge:

merrimac_st5.jpg

A tripod and some photofloods would have improved the depth of field, but I like the twilight effect in this shot. There was more work to be done on the cut stone retaining wall and the bridge. TODO: Recreate my Merrimack St. Overpass build thread. Paint was drying on the 'Draw' control panel.

People asked why the stone blocks are black: Prototype pictures of the bridge and retaining walls will appear in my Merrimac St. Overpass thread. In 2010, the stone looked to be granite, probably quarried on Cape Ann (20 mi. by ship, 40 mi. by rail). However, in the era I'm modeling RR stonework was uniformly black all across this part of New England. I can't imagine the RRs painting individual stones and skipping the mortar lines; I've always assumed that some combination of soot, engine oil and steam condensate acted like paint on granite, but wouldn't stick to the mortar.  I've been working on modeling it for years; I showed some photos of mortar lines cut into black-painted styrene earlier in this thread, but that surface is too smooth for walls of this vintage and technique. This picture of Dover Arch shows about what the bridge abutments looked like when I was a kid. It was taken 50 years after the end of steam, but it's 20 miles from the ocean and less exposed, so the soot is only starting to weather off.

d_arch01.jpg

A larger version of that and other examples of soot-colored granite stonework are on this page: Dover Arch, Dover NH (http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html), or search for images of the East Portal of Hoosac Tunnel.

I made this stonework by painting flat black latex on damp Wood Putty. Once it dried to the touch, I scribed the mortar lines with a stainless sculpting tool I got from a 'tool guy' at a show. I like it enough to use the technique again, but this example needs touch-up and some time applying washes before I'll call it done. Maybe a slightly browner black too.

13-Jun-10: No really photogenic progress since last time, but the back of my Draw control panel photographed better than the switch mechanisms and wiring under the layout:

draw_panel_rear.jpg

The rotary switches had to be re-done, as I hadn't remembered how I'd wired my first panel with rotaries until I opened it up to check my bus connections :( To the DCC converts who say "but he's doing all this work to run the power, not the train", I don't really disagree. I've been designing this to make the block switches and panels less important during operation. What I'm working on right now is a
swing block, where a piece of track that would normally have a block selector gets its power selected by turnout position instead. Linn Wescott called them "X sections".  Is this old hat to everyone or should I write it up in another thread?

29-Jun-10: I'd been a model railroad ascetic recently: Only a couple of inches of track remain for the Brass Spike, but I worked on the wiring instead.  I got all the blocks and some of the switches wired. I had decided to order Miniatronics' capacitor discharge device rather than build one, but no joy: Walthers backordered it and when I called a week ago they didn't have an arrival date. I though about buying some PCB terminal strips from Digikey to build the diode matrix; I could have ordered some capacitors too and canceled with Walthers.

But the next day: LHS for the WIN!!! Things were slow around lunch time, so I biked the mile and a half to Charles Ro (still in business in Malden MA). Lo and behold, up on a shelf behind the counter they had a Miniatronics PDC-1, for $26 (2010 list $35). So I canceled with Walthers and installed it that evening. Too bad it sat on Charles Ro's shelf for probably 5 years, but they finally got their money and I'm certainly happy!

4-Jul-10: Finished the "Draw" control panel I did the lettering by applying 1/2" vinyl self-stick letters before the blue coat, then peeling them off and cleaning up with Goo Gone. After I took the photo, I painted the block boundaries.

draw_panel_front.jpg

It controls Newburyport, staging, the Saugus branch (two long staging tracks) and the crossovers at River Works. Calling it "Draw" lets me think of it as either the Merrimack River or the Saugus River, depending on which end of staging is active. I couldn't wire the west (left) end's diode matrix till a Digi-Key order arrived, but the rest was all live.

About half my modeling time that day got eaten up by testing and adjusting track that just became operational. That would been more fun if the 40-year-old phenolic board insulating the frog contacts on a Tenshodo twin-coil machine hadn't broken :( The rest was mass-producing a dozen brackets for slide-switch turnout contacts. But that's the next post.

Howdy James, 

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.  Good luck with the reconstruction of your Boston & Maine Eastern Route thread.

Have fun,
mike

James,

Following along down memory lane like Mike said. I remember seeing a brick chimney picture like above.

Bernd

11-Jul-10: Progress last week was mainly bulk-fabricating parts for hand-throw switch mechanisms (lots of drilling & tapping) and installing several of them:

push_pull_rod_switch_mech.jpg

This was the first time I did a slide-switch mechanism with a layout-edge rod to actuate it. The rod I used is 1/16" brass, which has been rigid enough.  For knobs, these got brass balls made to go on the end of 1/8" or 3/16" rod, soldered.  Later I switched to brass acorn nuts. Here I'd finished enough of the switch backlog to resume work on closing the mainline loop. But I didn't complete it until the diode
matrix for the west end of staging was installed.

How I build "heel thrown switchpoints" will get added in due time.  Meanwhile:  The points are silver-soldered to the tops of the 3/32" brass rods that go through the roadbed. They run in the 1/8" brass tubes that the feeder wires are soldered to, and are threaded 3-48 on the bottom.

Over the weekend, I ballasted the commercial turnouts at the west end of my staging. I'd never done that before, and the trouble I had keeping ballast out of the throwbar and points really made me think about all the hand-laid turnouts I've done recently: With hand-laid, once I get the mechanism right and control set up, it works. But ballasting commercial track gives you another opportunity to screw up what you just got working...

But ballast, particularly cinders, is not photogenic. What is photogenic, maybe, is how I built my diode matrix: I needed to map 9 pushbuttons onto 8 twin-coil machines. I worked it out on a spreadsheet some time back and the last of the parts arrived a week earlier. The natural layout on this perfboard worked out to be 2 1/8" x 3 1/8".

matrix0.jpg

The PCB connectors I got from Digi-Key have pins on .156 centers. Alas, all the prototype board I had around expected .100 centers. I broke the last of my 'resharpened' carbide drills trying to make them fit, so I finally used sprue nipping pliers and a hobby knife to slot out between pairs of holes. I stuck the connectors in place with contact cement, but they get held with solder in the next step.

(seems  I can only post 2 photos at a time here)

I started out using some old tinned buss wire, but whatever they'd used had a higher melting point than my 60/40 solder. I switched to 24 GA solid copper for the rest of the cross-wire but the lousy solder gave me intermittent open circuits till I replaced it years later.

matrix1.jpg

matrix2.jpg

I did get all the diodes pointing the right way, but I found and fixed three bad joints testing with the "diode check" function of my DVM.
Next morning, before it got too hot up there, I started running feeders. Once those switches worked, only six inches of track was needed for the Brass Spike ceremony.

20-Jul-10: Someone hid a moron magnet in my car? The night before on the way home someone tried to replay my summer 2009 accident by coming out of a side street (stop sign) without looking. I had a bad feeling and slowed down and was able to dodge him. That was good luck, as my wife was sitting where the last guy center-punched me. Also luckily, the guy coming the other way stopped short as I crossed his lane to the shoulder. That day I biked 8 mi. to the train station: smaller, more agile target.

In non-photogenic model RR news, I worked off the tension by wiring up the diode matrix. Two sets of points were sticky from ballast but *tried* to throw.  Alas, one coil wasn't getting juice, so the DVM accompanied me under the layout, the next evening.

21-Jul-10: With apologies to Bret Harte:

What was it that the engines said
Pilots still a ways from touching...

engines_meet.jpg

I fixed a couple of bad connections, cleaned out more ballast and adjusted one machine. Then everything worked, but alas, not enough oomph from some buttons. (turned out to be high-resistance joints solder and terminal strip connections).

29-Jul-10: How to make trackwork photogenic? Run a train past it? At any rate, I had the switches on the siding at Newburyport West about half done. You can see the first "fascia knob" control in the lower left (except I hadn't chosen a knob style yet). I had to build more fascia before installing controls for the new switches.  Also, the boxcar for testing track has wheels .088" wide.  They look better end-on and I build my track to suit them but I doubt I'll ever convert my whole fleet.

nbpt_w3.jpg

I completed the main line on July 23, and I spent time running trains thereafter. I was happy with how several design decisions came out:

Grades: The ruling grade is around 1.2%, which happened to be westbound through staging. It turned out that my 8-coupled steam can just manage the longest freight that fits in staging, 28 or 29 cars.

Mainline configuration: The main is mostly double track, with single track segments through Bexley Arch (stand-in for Salem Tunnel) and across the Merrimac River drawbridge. I can run two passenger trains in opposite directions without a lot of stress. It remains to be seen how well I've emulated the web of running tracks and leads the B&M used to let switchers work while the commuters streamed past.

DC + DCC: What I use depends on what I want to run. I don't think I'll be mixing them much until things are complete enough for guest operators. DCC works best if I'm running two trains myself. DC lets me bring out the exotic (to me) equipment that hasn't gone to a Hub show in years.

As might be expected, the track needed more shaking down for long freights. So did the cars; the freight shown is mostly older equipment that I pulled out of module service as I completed my 'Green Dot' exhibition fleet about 10 years ago. Several cars need a trip to the workbench, once I get the taps and dies put away. Wiring and panels have been (knock wood) fine, except that I need to spend another hour with the diode matrix one of these evenings. I had some work ahead of me before I could leave a train orbiting and railfan it, but it sure felt good to take a break from work and run something for a lap or two.  I hoped to finish some scenery that Fall, but that wasn't to be.

9-Aug-10: I had 8 turnouts ready for mechanisms, which in turn were waiting for me to build the fascia/control panel. But the previous evening I was drawing the panel to scale, I had a flash of inspiration about my track plan for Newburyport's City Railroad spur. This two-mile spur ran down to the waterfront and served various industries. It and the Pond St. freight house spur were originally built by a B&M venture into the Eastern's territory around 1849, when the fact that neither competitor was more than 70 miles long didn't prevent them from waging a bitter 30-year railroad war. Here's some ace Paint work to illustrate:

Newburyport_1950.JPG

I had planned on modeling the waterfront runaround, in part because it made the area more self-contained. But I also wanted a fairly heavy passenger service. I'd been worrying about how the daily local could clear both mains at Newburyport if it had more than 5 cars (even the prototype's siding was a little short to reliably hold the local when it worked through to Portsmouth). But then I got thinking about the runaround beside the Rt. 1 overpass (current site of the commuter layover yard). I never saw the City RR in service, and I only saw that siding used a couple of times in years of watching B-21 switch town. I realized that earlier, when the City RR was active (including perishables to Swift), those two tracks made a usable replacement for the yard that used to be between Low St. and MP 37.

Next I measured exactly how I built the siding along the main and re-drew the City RR. I hoped for 7 car lengths, but got 6, which works OK for a reasonably sized local.

22-Aug-10: I had got the fascia/control panel for Newburyport West installed, decorated and wired. I spent most of that day installing a couple of switch mechanisms, but as dinner time approached I set up the camera and ran the first train into the new block:

nbpt_w4.jpg

The westbound local running wrong main (because the crossover wasn't finished) to switch Georgetown Sand & Gavel.  B&M 1170 is a stock P2K S-1. The pushrod switch knobs are brass acorn nuts drilled out 1/16" and soldered to the brass rods. Between the panel and the roadbed you can see several different approaches to stabilizing the rod under compression.

nbpt_w5.jpg

22-Aug-10:  Another view, looking west along the tracks from more or less the roof of the future bakery.  It was getting near time to buy masonite and install the backdrop in this area. There were a number of roads to get sorted out before I could do the next big chunk of fascia. And of course, six more switch mechanisms here and the westbound main to lay in West Lynn...

15-Sep-10: No photogenic progress to show, which is not to say I hadn't progressed. There was more backdrop, but just blue hardboard. I was up to 55 turnouts and all but one B&M block in service. I only had about 10 feet of B&M track to lay before I ran out of benchwork. And I spent a couple of evenings running trains and tuning track and cars. At the end of that I blew my 16V power supply fuse, so I was working on the right way to power my mix of 48v and 24v single-coil turnout solenoids. I started with 2A at 12VDC. And I drew a wiring diagram this time. My color coding was good enough that I was able to figure it out, but it took a while to remember I'd used a common ground for the 28V and 16V supplies 12 years ago.

19-Sep-10: Another weekend of non-photogenic wiring and tuning track and equipment. However, it ran much nicer. I asked my daughter to take pictures of how I "scribed" a piece of backdrop to get it to fit:

scribing1.jpg

The mismatch is present because the ceiling is straight and the baseboard under River Works isn't quite level. I set the compass to the size of the gap.

scribing2.jpg

I 'scribe' along with the compass point following the surface I want to match. In this case, I took off the extra material with a plane. A bandsaw, saber saw or jigsaw would be better if more material needs to come off, such as when coving a backdrop corner against a sloping ceiling.  I learned the technique and the name from Wooden Boat magazine. Carpenters may call it something else.

26-Sep-10: Progress since my last report was limited to backdrop and roadbed:

nbpt_curve2.jpg

This is the coved corner between Newburyport West and Newburyport. I started with a cardboard template and adjusted both that and the final hardboard with the "scribing" technique from my prior post. The backdrop's radius is about 18".

nbpt_curve3.jpg

That night I built the last bit of roadbed that goes on the currently existing benchwork: The spur and foundation for the CBS/Hytron (later Owens-Illinois) plant (left of the main).

11-Oct-10:  I was getting up early the next day to catch the Acela to DC, but I did get some modeling in:

nbpt_w6.jpg

The Owens-Illinois spur (stone ballast, because it was built during or after WWII) and its turnout were in service.

nbpt_station1.jpg

Fascia-mount turnout controls work well for local spurs, but you do have to get the fascia into place first. It's masonite, and I also used that as substrate for the roads.  I was waiting on both another bundle of Code 83 and some Humpyard Purveyance turnout levers to continue trackwork.

13-Oct-10: I'd gotten a lot done for a handlaying, rivet-counting lone-wolf in the past few years. Encouragement from RR-Line people
helped. Business and vacation travel prevented much more progress in October, but I hoped to get more done in early November. Late November will be cleanup, organization and polishing, as I invited locals to drop in before or after the Tour De Chooch (North of Boston layout tour Thanksgiving weekend, 2010 Tour Flyer at http://www.trainweb.org/cmrc/TdeC2010.pdf, see trourdechooch.org for current).

28-Oct-10: Since I returned from my K&WV Ry. vacation (West Yorkshire, UK), I'd only gotten a little modeling done: tracklaying on the last of the westbound main past River Works, but I tried to make it photogenic:

frog_model0.jpg

When handlaying a crossover or anything else where turnouts are close together, particularly when points aren't all facing the same way, there's a choice: If you build each turnout independently, you get extra rail joints and potential difficulty getting everything into smooth alignment. If you minimize rail joints, alignment is smooth but several individual rails will be parts of more than one turnout. What I do is spike on alternate sides, so I can wiggle the rail out of place, file it or clean weathering off, and put it back to check. This also lets me get one turnout right before starting on a frog or point notches at the other end of the same rail.

Above, I was at the stage where I want to move the rails back and forth to adjust the location of the point of the frog relative to the stock rails installed earlier. It's just about right, so after I took the picture I spiked the rest and started on the closure rails.

7-Nov-10: Yesterday was unphotogenic track laying; all I did with the guard house was cut out the roof. This day started way too early because my wife forgot to cancel the alarm she set for Saturday. With company asleep I couldn't go tramp around in the attic, so I set to work upgrading my home FreeBSD computer. What does this have to do with model railroading? I got XTrkCAD running and made a partial track plan. Alas, I didn't save that version of the .xtc file so actually showing you the image would require pulling it out of a PDF, and I can't say if it would be readable.

I let local modelers know they could visit the Eastern Route as a 'sidebar' to the Tour de Chooch: I got 10 visitors, ran a lot of my equipment and only encountered two operating problems.  But the only picture I took was a new angle on my Rowley modules:

bm1170rowley.jpg

I like it, but I haven't ever gotten around to re-shooting with headlight and more depth-of-field.

3-Dec-10: The HUB Module Group set up for the Hub (Marlborough MA) show this afternoon. Between this show, business travel next week and showing at the Museum of Our National Heritage (Lexington, MA) next weekend, I didn't get a lot of modeling time. But I did generate another image of my plan, and posting it here will save people scrolling when we move on to the next page.

EasternRouteSchematic1.jpg

Save As Bitmap from XTrkCad at 16 DPI, resized to 1600 pixels wide and saved at 50% JPEG quality with ShowFoto. I did some more surveying and spent a while adjusting locations etc. relative to the original plan. This is pretty close to what's built, except the two
peninsulas aren't begun yet. And of course I hadn't made a layout of the GE River Works (right top, between the wye and the backdrop) I was willing to commit to. I should add station and street names, and figure out how to display tunnels and overpass vs. underpass.

A note about the long mainline straights in the left end of the room: it's prototypic. The Eastern built straight across the marshes;  I can see an eastbound's headlight before it arrives at Rowley, 5 miles away.

4-Dec-10: The basic operational scheme starts out with the prototype's:

The 6 short staging tracks (top center) will begin with 1 through and 2 commuter consists in each direction.

The commuter consists will likely make more than one trip per session.

The middle track gets used for freight, most of which moved to and from Boston in 'haulers', jobs which often
made two round trips. These come on stage, work Lynn (top right) and turn in Bexley (bottom center/right). One
commuter train turns there too, but most work at the enginehouse is supplying engines for the Bexley and West
Lynn switch jobs.

A pair of daily locals operate Bexley - Newburyport (left end) - East staging, with most spurs being switched by whichever direction has them trailing point. GE has its own 44-tonner. Because Bexley freight yard has no lead, it will mostly be used for block swapping. Traffic will include two perishable customers, several team tracks and two freight houses, with high/wide loads coming out of GE's Gear Works.

During planning, I decided to extend the prototype for more interest: I plan to operate the two long staging tracks (top center/right, Saugus branch on the prototype) as a connection to the New Haven in South Boston. The EB (clockwise) State of Maine (overnight Pullman) goes on one, and the EB Maine Bullet (NYC - MEC fast freight) on the other. I tentatively plan to run 12 timetable hours per session, with 4-6 operators, so I'd need to wye at least the State of Maine between sessions.

At this point I was of test-operating one freight or another to get a feel for timing and how it will interact with the parade of passenger trains. I thought I had enough running tracks etc. to will go smoothly, but there are several options I was thinking about, depending on crew size/experience/interests.

09-Jan-11: It was more than a month without progress: business trips, modular layout setups and the season left little hobby time.
Over the holidays I mostly repaired scenery on the Rowley modules; to fit into my wife's Prius one must ride upside down, which was harder on the scenery than standing on their backboards in the truck.

I began wiring the MRC Power Station 8 (amps) booster I got at the Hub Show's White Elephant table. Alas, it turned into a reminder of why I still don't want computers between me and my trains: The old MRC booster appeared not to get along with DCC Specialties' "Power Shield" breakers - a PSX-1 decided it saw a short, even with nothing connected to the output terminals. Move it over to a location fed directly from the Prodigy Advance, it's happy. Further, MRC's instructions were written by a B- East Asian english student, and DCC Specialties' had errors over and above poor proofreading.

The monetary pain was the PSX-2 purchased for the Draw/River Works area. But it turned out to work. Adding termination to my DCC buss in that direction (the booster is at one end of a 30' segment of 12 GA) helped too. But I did eventually have to buy an oscilloscope to see what's actually going on.

I don't ever want my hobby to morph into something I need a logic analyzer for.

20-Jan-11: My Division Point B&M P-4b (postwar era) arrived:

3717turntable.jpg

The prototypes were too large for the Salem Tunnel, so they never ran on the Eastern Route, but things worked out a bit differently in my imagination. It fits on the Walthers 90' turntable (barely). It runs nicely too. The lights (including class lights, backup light and firebox) come on just as it starts to move.  I am a bit worried by the projecting lever at the front of the trailing truck (just ahead of the angle brace on the TT). It is as wide there as anything else on the engine, but it hasn't hit any of my Eshleman "turnout links" or the like. And unless I install DCC, it won't run on the Hub modules, where obstacles near rail level are not unheard of.

I had put the DCC wiring back together, but didn't write down where things went with it next.  Likely the DCC snubbers fixed it.

8-Feb-11: Heavy snow followed by rain had me clearing roofs and chopping ice.  I was stalled on other projects, so I started scenery in the Rt. 1A overpass area (Rowley & Newbury).

newbury_scenery1.jpg

The masonite on the right was to be salt marsh, after the bed of the Little River was cut out and dropped ~1/2 in. I planned to model a now-gone relic of the Eastern RR: a two-span deck bridge where granite slabs were the load-bearing beams. When the MBTA rebuilt the line in the late '90s, the engineers couldn't prove it would bear the load (even though it had for 100+ years) and they replaced it with concrete.

BTW, that bit of rail was given to my father by a friend in the diplomatic service; it's from the Hejaz Railway (as blown up in various books and movies by Lawrence of Arabia).

16-Feb-11: I was asked about the Salem Tunnel: When the Eastern RR built through Salem MA about 1838, they had to get down to tidewater right through the existing city. They used Washington St., but because of pressure from the city fathers, they built a cut-and-cover tunnel rather than a cut. It was single track and so tight that by the 1930s was a real operational problem; PRR round-roof boxcars were too big, as were most of the other WWII era steel house cars. Steam the B&M bought after WWI didn't fit either. The grade crossings at either end didn't help.

In 1954 they started replacing it, eliminating the grade crossings at either end by making it longer. They also replaced the old at-grade stone castle-style station w/trainshed with a belowgrade station below Mill St. They started out planning for double track, but changed to single when they did the middle part. About 20 years ago, the MBTA built a new station with no need for elevators and much more parking at the Bridge St. portal, on the former enginehouse site. Google satellite & street view of Washington St. in Salem shows it fairly well.

Dave Emery added a Shorpy link to a 1910 image: http://www.shorpy.com/node/9975?size=_original (http://www.shorpy.com/node/9975?size=_original)

Years ago, I sketched a few plans involving a recognizable Salem, but nothing that I could fit in my space inspired me; the chimney & framing around it were a big handicap. A now-deceased ex-B&M employee was modeling Salem north of me, but he never got to the scenery stage. But there are at least two models of it in the Wenham, MA Museum.

25-Feb-2011: Progress since I returned from Europe was non-photogenic: filling in spikes where I'd hurried, making a turnout work. But for a while, I'd been thinking about my favorite dinosaur:

1538_chassis.jpg

I painted a stock Hobbytown RS-3 as B&M 1538 about 1974, long before I had heard of Extra 2200 South or had any source of photos for detailing. I've always loved the way it runs, but some years back the gears got out of whack and I put it to one side. Last night I got it out and fixed the gear tower/truck mesh by careful filing. I lubed it, and the bare chassis took 20 cars around the layout just fine. I plan to fix it up further, but that got posted elsewhere.

28-Feb-11: I responded to a comment: At that time I'd done a number of DCC installations in equipment lacking all-wheel pickup; the only ones that operated decently use Lenz Gold decoders with the supercapacitor add-on. Someday I may get back to that, substituting time & patience for serious re-work of power collection for pricey decoders.  But I don't know if I'll ever do 1538 or my other Hobbytown locos, as part of their charm is the combination of straight DC with a substantial flywheel. I was working out my operational plan and found myself short of a few types of cars and engines. 1538 and an E&P import awaiting paint will fill a gap in "dual service road switcher" assignments circa 1954. I needed to paint/detail several more steam locomotives for circa-1950 operations, and several more RDCs for post-1956. I had plenty of deluxe passenger equipment for 1950 - 1956, but I needed 4 or 5 commuter coaches of various types.

6-Mar-11: The 1538 project reached the "order detail parts" stage, so most of the weekend's progress wasn't photogenic: Digging in the parts drawer, wiring, organizing things. I did get somewhere with GE River Works' Building 41:

ge41dock11698.jpg

I built the receiving area from Walthers modular walls, using about 1/3 of a tube of Testors to fill joints from behind for strength. But in researching the main brass foundry building that goes behind it, I found a photo of Bldg. 41 before the windows were covered with corrugated fiberglass panels, making this obsolete. The main part uses metal-frame masonry windows; think two Walthers' locomotive shop stacked vertically, with three floors behind the bottom's windows and two behind the top's.  I may be able to use this for Bldg. 30.

Next in line was finishing the River Works backdrop and deciding if I like the tentative plan (the switches are placed according to it) enough to start laying track.

22-Mar-11:  Ron G., who I met via the BM_RR@yahoogroups.com list (now BM-RR@groups.io), gave me a copy of the ICC valuation survey of the Newburyport depot (he got it from the B&M RR archives in Lowell):

NewburyportDepotWest_v1.jpg

I know of a dozen photos from this angle; I have yet to find evidence of a photographer actually walking around the building. Given the survey, I'd been working on a drawing, but I have to recreate the image of it.

Finally getting around to get caught up with your layout James.
That's an ambitious plan but you're tackling it well.

Thanks, Rick.  Here's the current plan view of the Newburyport Depot, as I drew it in XtrkCAD.

NbptDepotPlanView202502.png

The drawing is full size. The roof itself is 80' parking lot side to track, and I have at best 70' scale feet.  I will have to compress it or build it a little under scale to fit my space.

[comment if you see a file name above instead of an image. Firefox on ubuntu linux shows it, iPhone Safari and Firefox on FreeBSD don't]

I wish I had kept the contact info for the person who did the spectacular colorization of the Salem depot image from Shorpy... 

And that must have been one of the inspirations for doing slate/stone walkways in cobblestone streets.  That's something I did on "Subduction Way" because I knew I had seen it before.  ;)

add:  It took a while, but I now see the Newburyport station drawing on Safari on an old version of Mac OS

dave

Now I do too.  I will ask if there's anything special about how Modelersforum handles PNG images.

27-Mar-11: When I get stalled on one thing, the railroad has plenty of other opportunities: I had been thinking about how to do the salt marsh banks of the Little River, just railroad-west of Newburyport. I had done the Rowley marshes with screen, but I had trouble keeping both banks flat and at the same level. Here I used masonite:

LittleRiver0.jpg

I planned to use Enviro-Tex for water, so I took care to level everything. Next I made "bathtubs" for the river bottom using more masonite and 3/4" high strips of plywood; the straight pencil lines show the edges of the "bathtubs". The second one (shown) I knew to scribe and cut the curved ends *before* adding the plywood strips.

LittleRiver1.jpg

I fastened them in place after I cut the outline of the river. I made the near-vertical part of the banks from screen and wood putty.

29-Mar-11: Last night I cut out the river and glued the 'bathtubs' into place.  When dry, I cut away the stone culvert area and installed screen wire banks and embankment.

LittleRiver2.jpg

Then I got started on support for the US 1 overpass at Newburyport West, as I needed to design that before adding screen on the E. shore. Then I did the river banks.

Quote from: jbvb on February 06, 2025, 08:12:06 PMNow I do too.  I will ask if there's anything special about how Modelersforum handles PNG images.

I'm inclined to think it's a common practice in forum applications to do image processing in the background.  I've noticed these delays not just here, but on RR-Line and elsewhere.   If so, it's someone being "clever" to the detriment of the user experience.  But as a class of applications, I'm not impressed with the set of forum packages I've used.  

dave

James,

Thanks for the time and effort you are taking to re-post your construction blog.  I'm really enjoying reading it again now that I remember it from the RR Line forum, don't know why I didn't catch it the first time.  :o

James,

Good to see the revitalizing of the layout. The double track curve looks great.

It has been several years since I've seen screen used to scenery. Can't tell you how many times I "poked myself" using it.

Tom 

Nice work James! How far along are you currently? That is a very detailed pike!

Philip

Thanks, Ron, Tom and Philip.   My benchwork is about 90%: the smaller peninsula in the south half of my attic remains to be built.  76 of a planned 86 turnouts are operating.  Two more signals will complete signaling the main line. I've been hosting timetable/card order operating sessions since April 2014, but only five since 2019.  Next op session will be part of the HUB High Green event May 3 and 4.

A little more than half the scenery is complete except for detailing - detailing could go on the rest of my life. The south half of the layout needs perhaps 10 more structures, all scratchbuilt.  The north half needs about 20, also scratchbuilt.  The most challenging structure is probably the complex deck truss swing bridge over the Merrimack River in Newburyport.  Paul Mallery's bridge book has a sketch, it's also visible in Google Street View as you 'drive'  south from Salisbury MA to Newburyport on US Route 1.

All will be covered as I find time to recreate my layout's RR-Line thread.

Back to 2-Apr-11: Some fine Sunday in the middle of the week, I'll get down to the Newburyport Public Library and search the 1892 newspapers for an 'official' reason for that tower. Much later, one author said it was made to look like a salt marsh haystack. The 1915 valuation survey doesn't show access to it other than up a ladder and through the attic. Then there's the two small windows and the vestigial gable (if it was for a clock, it was gone by 1915). I suppose it goes to show that an architect *will* find a way to spend the budget; it's entirely covered in slate, as is the arched gable facing the tracks behind it. Luckily for me, the valuation surveyor drew it's shape in some detail, so he could figure out the volume.

3-Apr-11: I'd been thinking about "ground goop" for a while, because Savogran Wood Putty (no longer available) is my favorite scenery material but it can be tricky to mix (a sloppy mix will set up faster than plaster) and apply. I got off the dime and experimented with mixing it with sawdust and brown latex paint. All but one of my test batches set up overnight; the one that didn't probably had too much sawdust, but I'm still hoping. The one that was easiest to work with was 2 parts paint, 3 water, 4 sawdust and 8 Wood Putty. Alas, while it had a working time of an hour or more, the part that I left in the sealed tub overnight was hard as a rock next morning. I'm well along on what was 20 sq. ft of bare screen at noon Saturday.

4-Apr-11: Word was out there was steam on the Eastern route. The fans set up overlooking Little River, and waited quite a while:

LittleRiver3.jpg

It was even clean (rare in this era) but what was that funny piece of work equipment?

Before I got started on the ground goop, I did a little stonework on the Forerock bridge (built by the Eastern RR of granite slabs). There's a lot more ground goop to go, but there are also a couple of scenes I can finish and photograph. And then the odd: it's an old house, so I hear Deathwatch beetles once in a while. The previous afternoon one sounded loud and odd. I looked around and it was drumming on the roofwalk of a boxcar trying to find a mate. Evolution didn't favor that strategy, but now I've actually seen one.

10-Apr-11:  I'd applied a lot of ground cover around the 1A overpass and Little River, as well as some other areas where I had bare screen. Then I started on grass (just WS dyed sawdust for the RR-owned strip to start) and it looked like there might be a few decent photo locations:

3717wb1a.jpg

I've returned to this place after more scenery work.  Setting lights up for better depth of field helped.

4-17-2011: The bridge is a selectively-compressed model of the Rt. 1a overpass at Eastern Route MP 31.9 in Rowley MA. Per a friend who did bridge engineering for the Commonwealth, it was built in two stages: The concrete arch to the RR east was built in 1907. The road was widened in 1931 with concrete-encased beams on the west side. The line was single tracked in 1959 and is used by MBTA commuter trains to Newburyport. Freight service ended in 1983.

1aOverpassE.jpg

I scratchbuilt the bridge structure from wood (pillars, abutments) and styrene (arch, retaining walls). using Rix beams and balustrade moldings. At this point I had an article in progress, which I submitted to RMC once I got far enough along to take some "finished" photos.

1aOverpass3821.jpg

That weekend was devoted to scenery work, including the greenery and fences. The photo revealed several things to fix, mostly painting the fence and abutments and trimming the copper wire holding it to the posts.

5-1-2011: More scenery progress:

ClamBox0.jpg

The future site of BEST's "Clam Box" kit had a fence and a parking area. The Atlas "post & rail" fence is about right for a roadside attraction of the era, but it needed either weathering towards gray, or white paint. Also time for  power/phone poles along the road, and solve the cable guard problem. I eventually chose to use the self-stick commercial road you can see. The color is pretty good, but the center line still isn't double yellow.

LittleRiver4.jpg

I had grass mats on order for Little River, but they didn't make a better salt marsh than fake fur. The landscape needed a little more stonework and painting and detailing the river banks first, though.

The next scene to the right (East) is the US 1 overpass, but I had gone far as I could without finalizing the design of the bridge. My friend who works for the state copied me some pictures from the archive, but there isn't a commercial path to the piers. I have yet to make four patterns and mold/cast all I'll need. I've never done that before, but much has been written about it.

I'd also done a lot of work on the High St. overpass area, but it was still bare screen then. I like how I laid it out, even though I had to compress it a lot.

Awesome!

I had an HO layout but could never finish it. It overwhelmed me. My closest helpers were 40 miles away and my novice plan was never realized. I have a 6 x 6 On30 that keeps me busy. One day I'll try again.

Philip

Thanks, Philip.  I got my High School HO layout in my parents' home to complete track, wiring and hard-shell landforms, but then I left home for college. I dismantled it as I started work on this attic layout, and some materials got re-used.

5-May-2011: I finished installing screen on either side of High St. in Newburyport the other night, and applied wood putty glop. After I cleaned up, I shot a panorama of the north end of the attic, but something ate it between 2011 and 2025. I pulled these out of the PDF I'd made backing up RR-Line:

E_Bexley_Rowley.png

East Bexley and Rowley River module.

RowleyDepot.png

Rowley Depot module.

1A_Overpass.png

Route 1A overpass and Little River.

NewburyportWest.png

Little River and Newburyport West.

HighSt.png

High St. overpass and Washington St. grade crossing, Newburyport.

NewburyportDepot.png

Washington St. past depot site and Merrimack St to Bridge Rd., Newburyport

MerrimackRiver.png

First temporary crossing of the future Merrimack River.

22-May-2011: Most progress since my last update was non-photogenic; my drawing of Newburyport depot, foundations for structures. However, I did start the Washington St. (Newburyport) grade crossing.

washingtonst_xing0.jpg

I worked from standard plans published by the B&MRRHS: Two 10" planks outside each rail, one with a flangeway on the inside. I used Micro-Engineering "Micro Spikes" where the prototype installed drive screws (every 2nd or 3rd tie depending on traffic). For my code 83 rail, I chose 1/16 x 3/32 (tie stock) basswood. Closer to the layout edge, I might have shimmed .010 or .015 under it, but leaving the rails a little proud won't do any harm here.

merrimac_st8.jpg

This completed the carved wood putty stone retaining walls in the Merrimack St. area. I considered doing the High St. cut with carved styrene overlays but wound up using wood putty again.

A little later I started a thread about highway guardrails before W-section galvanized became universal:

https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6910

22-Sep-2011: It had been three months; in that time, I separated from my wife, my mother died and my employer spent two months in "we have to have this code frozen by Friday" mode.  But that evening some friends came over and I ran trains, and I'd been experimenting with different track plans for the GE River Works in West Lynn. The area I was considering is in red:

RiverWorks3.jpg

This one makes more work for the Lynn Switcher, because he has to pull GE's outbounds first, then come back with the inbounds. The runaround is always available for GE's 44-tonner, and it has a few more spots. But if receiving (Building 41, upper right) uses bridge plates to the 2nd track, that gets in the way of the runaround.

RiverWorks2.jpg

This one lets the Lynn Switcher set inbounds on one track and pull outbounds from the other. But if GE's 44 tonner spot cars alongside Building 30 (left top), they have to be moved before any cars can be run around. The next variation I tried was moving the left crossover to the right, between the two sharply curved tracks that go off to the rest of the plant 'behind the backdrop'.

The B&M tracks here are the prototype's arrangement: a "middle" siding, with the EB & WB mains on either side, and running tracks outside them. Staging is to the left, the West Lynn yard (4 stub tracks) is on the upper right.

25-Nov-2011:  2 months since I'd done something photogenic to the layout - life events were some of it, but once you've seen one block panel, you've seen most of them. Here I'd done the hard part of the remaining West Lynn backdrop:

dscn1809_v1.jpg

I used 1/8" lauan plywood, because the reverse curve where the Saugus Branch exits staging would have been tough to do in hardboard. Also, I can cut lauan with several passes of a utility knife. Hardboard would have needed many trips up and down the stairs to avoid getting sawdust all over the rest of the layout. Technique as I posted before: Use "scribing" with a compass to make a cardboard template, then more "scribing" to refine the fit of the plywood.

I was having "milestone" feelings;  It was just about four years since I started this thread. In that time, I'd built as much layout as I had when I started, gotten the oval closed and the control system finished and even had time for a few structures. And the first photos I posted here were of the switch that's now under the backdrop opening. The Railroad-Line community helped, offering ideas and feedback and an interested audience.

12-Jan-2012: Most of my modeling time between the holidays went into structures - the Gothic Arch dairy barn scratchbuild and a ModelTech Studios resin tenement.  Neither was finished till February - I went to Germany on vacation, work called me to HQ in New Jersey for the week before the W. Springfield show.

ClamBox1.jpg

This is B.E.S.T's 'Clam Box' kit, moved on my layout from the north side of Ipswich to north of the center of Rowley. The prototype has grown many additions, I only modeled one.

16-Feb-2012: A test assembly of the Clam Box and addition.

ClamBox4.jpg

A test assembly of the Clam Box and addition. I re-ordered the walls so the door would be visible to visitors and the shed would be up against the blank wall.  Ready to airbrush the shed.

21-Feb-12:  I took a break from structures to start the diamond crossing in West Lynn. This is where the Gear Works track crosses the future wye. The diamonds I'd built previously were in Code 100, where the rail bases touch and leave a reasonable HO flangeway. Not in Code 70; I needed brass shim under it all for the guardrails. I hadn't found a picture of one of the low-cost industrial track diamonds I remember from 40 years ago, but on reflection this would have been built in 1942 so heavier construction is warranted.

gearwks_diamond0.jpg

I experimented with leaving the wye rails continuous and cutting the flangeways later.  A few years after I built this, the NMRA relaxed the Civil AP judging rules so I didn't have to detail with joint bars and bolts.  It's always been more important to me that it operate well.

29-Feb-2011: I was pretty sure I could make it operate well; less sure I could make it realistic enough to qualify for the NMRA's Civil Engineering AP. But waiting to burn that bridge when I came to it turned out to be the right call...

gearwks_diamond1.jpg

While I was waiting for glue to dry on my RR-Line Challenge project, I got started on the other rail.

11-Mar-2012: My model work was all on my Challenge project. This is the shed addition I scratchbuilt for my B.E.S.T "Clam Box".

ClamBox7.jpg

Anyone running a fryer in late August will want the windows open, but even in a rural area the Health Officer will require screens. I used some package wrapping ribbon I kept from a few Xmases ago for the screen. white-glued to the window frames. At twice life-size, it's clear a bumblebee could fly through the mesh, but at normal viewing distances I like it.

24-Mar-2012:  I took some pictures of the mostly-finished Clam Box, featuring Rt. 1A's new pole line and the detail painting on the railroad's telegraph poles.

bm1562eb.jpg

bm1562GoingAway.jpg

bm1550wb.jpg

Next, I planned to work on structures between Rt. 1A and the Little River.  But as usual in these years, something else came up. It was only indirectly progress on the layout. But boy, did it make me feel organized

bound_MRs.jpg

bookcase.jpg

The binding was done by a librarian friend who specializes in that. It cost more than buying MR's DVD, but I don't have to start a Windows box to use them (and I didn't get burned when MR didn't update the software for newer versions of Windows). The bookcases are just as homebrew as they look..

22-Apr-2012: When I looked over my little people, folks dressed for a tourist trap on a sunny summer day were pretty scarce. I found a couple at now-gone Northeastern Craftsman Supply that looked useful. The fishing guy is Preiser, the girl Merten, the bare-headed guy from Kramer.

ClamBox15.jpg

I also cleaned up, painted and detailed a Plastruct (repackaged from some other supplier) swing set for Rowley:

Rowley_swings.jpg

1-May-2012: I heard that Scale Rails would publish my article on my Rowley Modules (appeared June 2012).

4-Jun-2012:  A rainy weekend produced this progress on the farm on the north (RR east) side of Rt. 1A:

Rice_Farm0.jpg


The Post-1850 New England Farmhouse from Mt. Blue Model Co. was well along. The Sylvan resin barn kit was just taped together.

17-Jun-2012:  Being Father's Day, I more or less took the day off (except for two loads of wash and some bookkeeping this morning). But no modeling, because I discovered I'd given myself an accidental present: My Canon MP990 all-in-one has a slide scanner!!!
(It still scans slides for me today. I gave up on it as a printer in a couple of years. Inkjet ink is a racket, laser print is much more durable)

bridge_gate.jpg

I'd forgotten this had ever existed till I looked at my 1979 slide. It's a mechanically-interlocked warning gate on the approach to the Merrimack River bridge in Salisbury, slightly in the rear of the 3-head searchlight WB home signal. It had been out of service 14 years, and was entirely demolished a decade or so later. I'm still not sure of room for one at each end of my planned model bridge, but it would be easy to animate.

Dave Emery asked how it works:  The pipe at the lower right comes from somewhere out on the bridge, either the locks that hold the swing span, or the levers that raise the approach rails above the swing span rails (I recall them as being the lifting rails - the ends were mitered). The lever mounted on the tie end reverses the motion. There's a rack on the end of the pipe engaged with a 2' or so gear wheel. The larger vertical pipe mounted to the gear's hub rotates, swinging the gate. All that's left of the gate is the two pipe tees it was attached to. I think it was a horizontal pipe with a diagonal brace coming down from the upper fitting.

5-Jul-2012:  I'd spent the last couple of weeks scanning slides. But with a rainy morning on the 4th, I got up to the attic and made
some progress:

foam_cutting.jpg

First I got out my makeshift foam cutting setup. In the 1950s Lionel made products of a quality we may never see again. The Nichrome wire came from a surplus site.

I don't use a lot of foam, but there are three places on the layout where it lets me do a simple lift-out:

gas_station0.jpg

This is behind Bexley Engine Terminal, and might need to come out for easy access to a couple of switches, but also made creating the scene much easier. The raised area is a site for a City Classics Gulf gas station then under construction.

WLynnFlats0.jpg

This is a similar situation in West Lynn.

I also noted my first day working in Seashore Trolley Museum's Restoration Shop.

12-Aug-2012: It had been a month with little layout progress, but the weekend's weather was too unsettled for relaxed sailing, I needed buckets from the guys whose wheat I harvested before I could clean it, etc. So I worked on scenery:

bexley_tenements0.jpg

This removable section behind Bexley Engine House needed screen and goop to make transitions between levels and fill gaps behind the retaining wall along the tracks.

I usually put off making and applying my Wood Putty ground goop until I have a few hours to work (because I can't store it more than a few hours). So I did four locations that day:

e_bexley_overpass0.jpg

This overpass crosses the east throat of the Bexley yard. No tint for the stonework, black for the road, brown latex paint & sawdust for the embankment.

12-Sep-2012: The previous week I got going on scenery in the Bexley (yard/engine terminal on the west side of the attic) area. It wasa all in-
progress, so not pretty for pictures. But I did indulge in an impulse, and the results pleased me enough that it might be interesting to others.
I had built some removable streets in Bexley's downtown out of hardboard, and I'd put the rough side up to bond some kind of road surface to it. However, concerns about getting at the screwheads later and how the paving would respond to flexing kept me stalled. While was waiting for scenery to dry, I noticed a can of "Cape Cod Gray" stain I'd picked up on sale , and decided to see what it looked like:

BexleyStreet.jpg

It has enough "cobblestone nature" when viewed from a distance that I painted the rest of the "rough-side-up" hardboard with it next. Which inspired me to expand the part of the city I'm working on (this started out as finishing the "gothic arch barn" farm area). Many urban streets in New England initially got asphalt only in the travel lanes, leaving the gutters or parking spaces cobbles. I was able to reproduce this by going over the middle of the street with black latex paint and sanded grout, putting less strain on the incomplete "cobblestone nature" of the hardboard.

Three hours, a little crawling under the layout, a lot of leaning over it, a batch of wood putty and a fresh bottle of diluted white glue was enough for that night:

BexleyTunnelE.jpg

My Pentax Kr has a flip-up flash which doesn't do well against my white, sloping attic roof. I tried the shot above upside-down and like the result.

e_bexley_overpass1.jpg

The East Bexley dairy farm is what I started out to work on. The road overpass uses some Atlas girders I had around. I suppose the work at the other end was me avoiding an evening of building fences here.

At that point I was mostly using photofloods for photographing my own layout. Now, the effort I've put into into decent room lighting almost always lets me just place the camera and take a shot.

bexley_yard0.jpg

Testing arrangements of flats to go with a new one I built from DPM parts, and one shot of them came out ok. Ambient light, 1/8 sec. f/40 is strained at this depth of field. I've fiddled with image-combining programs but haven't actually laid out money for a commercial program. This would benefit from a bit of fill from behind the camera so you can see the caboose platforms and weathering the GP-9's trucks so they show up better.

18-Sep-2012:

h_arm0.jpg

I decided to build what the B&M called an "H-Arm". These were used at transitions from open wire to cable, and at some interlockings. I used Rix parts, but didn't try to fill in the insulators in the middle, where the pole normally goes. It's 2 feet from the closest viewers. So far I've been able to put up with the crooked bracing.

Model photography is more important to me than many in the hobby, so depth of field is often on my mind. I was first introduced to the idea by Ben King's late '60s articles in MR, where among other things he built a pinhole camera from scratch. The zoom that came with my Pentax Kr DSLR will stop down to f/40 at some settings, but I also use an old Pentax 100mm macro in full-manual mode. It only goes to f/32, but it will focus much closer. Usually (as above) I shoot with room light, but I also use inexpensive tripod and clip-on photofloods when I need more/better illumination.

22-Oct-2012: Recent progress wasn't photogenic, but I'd just gotten in about 5 hours with my airbrush - I had to refill the nitrogen tank before I did any more, but here's what happened to my "equipment waiting for weathering" queue:

w_lynn_weathered.jpg

08-Nov-2012: I'd stalled on finishing the West Lynn yard lead deciding if I was going to do River Works' in-plant track with ties, or just rail on the Homasote, paved over. Finally, I decided I would do the receiving tracks from the B&M to Bldg. 41 as open. This leaves it open to do the remainder, past Bldg. 30, as paved-in. The previous evening I started on ties:

riverworks_ties.jpg

I'd been reminded that my spurs didn't have anything to keep cars from rolling off the end. Most got wheel stops, but there are a few that need a full bumper. CMA (Tichy) makes nice injection-molded styrene, which took some effort to assemble but they proved fragile.
Walthers has a similar plastic bumper which proved much tougher.  I have a couple of metal bumpers but have never installed them because the required gaps are that much more trouble.

21-Nov-2012: The Seacoast Division organized an operating day in October, which I'd enjoyed a lot. When I got home, I got back to the unfinished track in West Lynn; I really only needed the yard, the interchange tracks with River Works' in-plant railroad and the Gear Works track to make the Lynn Goat an interesting 2-trick job.

ge_receiving.jpg

I decided this area should be open track; I'll save the street track for the GE-switched part of the plant (lower left). There's been a lot of rail laid in the yard (upper right), but that wasn't photogenic for a while.

23-Nov-2012:  One side of the the non-urban end of the room has about 14 feet of line with only a single turnout. But GE's River Works and the B&M plant that supported it were heavy industry by everybody but a steel mill modeler's standards.

riverworks1.jpg

This larger view took more time fixing up than it would have to get out the lights.

WLynn0.jpg

After Thanksgiving dinner, I finished the final track in the yard, actually a team track (Public Delivery on the B&M). The cardboard mock-up was replaced by an Acme freight forwarding facility - the prototype was on the Western Div. in Malden, MA but they generated interesting priority traffic. The Walthers plastic Hayes bumpers are temporarily installed pending painting. Track in the area needs only a few more spikes. Wiring in this quadrant of the room was complete until I start laying the GE receiving area.

This also advanced me on the Model RR Engineer - Electrical AP: "One yard with a minimum of three tracks and a switching lead independent of the main line." - Bexley's yard doesn't have an independent lead unless you count one of the two mains at East Bexley.

Also, I submitted the Author AP paperwork earlier this month.

29-Nov-2012: Non-photogenic progress:
1. Wired a new outlet box with a switch to control layout power.
2. Mounted a power strip where I could plug all 5 power supplies into it (8A booster, Prodigy, 28VDC, 18VAC/16VDC, 10VDC) and organized the cords.
3. Installed LED light strips E of the chimney and in the N end of the room.
4. Fixed my modified 90' Walthers turntable - Goo had dried out, so the bull gear had dropped down the shaft (can't happen if you build it according to the instructions). Fixed by applying electrical tape below the gear on the shaft.
5. Designed how I'll wire the in-plant track at River Works. This is consistent with my overall goal of making block power as easy to use/transparent to the operator as possible, and may be worth an article some day.
6. Ran trains till I found a few problems, fixed the problems, ran trains some more...
7. Started reading about C/MRI, JMRI etc. - many features I wouldn't need, but the Hub Division has chosen that as the signaling standard for the modular layout.
8. Figured out how to add my own objects in XTrkCAD, so I'll be starting a "Signals" layer in my plan. I think I'd need 23 to properly follow B&M practice.

The GP-9s a couple of posts ago are Genesis, with DCC/sound. It makes me feel lazy, a bit, as I have a couple of Cary shells and Hobbytown power for them on the shelf. They still haven't gotten their day a decade after I retired. These were my 3rd and 4th sound units, and the first freight units. I've always had mixed feelings about the sound - I spent more time around 1st generation Geeps than
most people who haven't worked as engine crew. It sounds right when I throttle up, but as soon as I start switching, it's wrong. John Armstrong didn't like sound-as-a-function-of-voltage either, and I recently re-read his ?1969? MR article on how he fixed it, analog, in an 0-scale 4-8-4. Given that decoders have sensed back-EMF for a while, with the right tools I could probably re-program one to do what I want, but that's another thing I haven't gotten to.

09-Dec-2012: I had joined RR-Line five years earlier, and this thread was to be five at the end of January. I wanted to do a photo fan trip (which may double as NMRA AP prep), but lacked time
.
Recent progress hasn't been photogenic. Getting away from trackwork Thursday night, I set up my 1996 Digitrax PR-1 with a computer old enough to run the software, wanting to get the two GP-9s set up the same to simplify consisting. Alas, while it works fine on non-sound decoders, it screwed up both sound locos pretty much completely. One took a Reset command OK, the other didn't. So I had a $250 engine which rang the bell once when I asked it to turn on the headlight. I still wish DCC vendors were paying more attention to how interoperability and conformance to open standards made the Internet successful. I was thinking of getting a PR-3 to use with JMRI, but the web tells me they don't reliably program Soundtraxx. A Sprog eventually solved the problem.

I  worked on the switch controls in Newburyport instead - One knob had come loose, and I'd been moving fast on completing the loop when I did that panel. Some of the switches don't throw very well, and with the way I'd done the knobs to minimize risk of catching on clothes, several others required finger strength to grip that not everybody has. I got it partly fixed.

12-Dec-2012: I'd been doing more operational tuning - running trains and fixing things that get in the way of enjoying it, either for me alone or for a group. This is the Newburyport West panel after some time with the Triton resistance soldering tool (which required fixing itself):

push_pull_rod_switch_ctl.jpg

I'd originally turned the acorn nuts point-out, but some of the mechanisms took a lot of finger strength. So I turned them around. While I was at it, I filled the openings with solder to improve the bond with the brass rods and steel wires. They're all in 'normal' except for the lower left.

The next operational problem was how to tell when trains in Saugus staging were at, or too close to the easterly switch. There will be a building in front of the backdrop to disguise where the track comes through, but it can have windows & doors in the critical area. The backdrop is lauan plywood, so I made 1.125" holes with an expansion bit and squared them at the bottom with a utility knife:

location0.jpg

You can just see the cylinders of a Mountain in the left window. The gaps are at the red line. I'm thinking about ways of using colored LEDs to make the position easier to see. I know some people use IRDOT sensors and others CCTV, but they seem complicated and likely to take longer to get into service (Took me about 8 years).

20-Dec-2012:

location2.jpg

This is a 3-diode section of "Warm White" LED strip (wrong color for RR lighting, and my ex didn't like it for room lighting either). They plywood block is yellow-glued to the back of the backdrop above the windows I cut. It draws 20 mA at 12 VDC, so I tried feeding it off my 18 VAC buss with a diode bridge and one of Micro Lumina's 20 mA "Current Limiting Devices". No smoke!

location1.jpg

This is what the operator sees (if their vision is a bit blurry, sorry). I had a Walthers background building on order to replace the cardboard mockery - er, mockup.

30-Dec-2012: I took last week as vacation, but there were lots of family goings on, so not too much to report. Most of the time spent was sitting next to the wood stove and wiring up another extension for my Prodigy Advance control buss:

DrawDCC.jpg

Now I could use the tethered throttle at West Lynn and Draw. More details in my yet-to-be-posted thread on the MRC DCC buss.

I also took up the "PSX DCC circuit breakers vs. old MCR booster" battle again. To my surprise, both halves of a PSX-2 worked, where the PSX-1 I bought at the same time didn't.  They were in service with red short indicator LEDs. And I eventually got it so the MRC booster trips before the PSX.

10-Jan-2013: The good news: as the 5-year anniversary of this thread approached (and people asked me about availability for tours in Fall 2013), I started shooting a railfan-style layout tour. I've posted room shots and a trackplan earlier in the thread; they haven't changed significantly. I'd done the southern half, starting at Draw (staging), proceeding through West Lynn to Bexley. Alas, Google took away PicasaWeb. If there's interest in a 12-year old layout tour, I could load them into a Gallery, but shrinking 39 photos will take time.

The bad news: something I did to the DCC decoder in 3821 bricked the loco - headlight on but didn't respond to any commands, or operate in DC mode. I eventually fixed it, but it got dragged the length of the mainline for the photo shoot before I got into the mood to touch another piece of DCC %#$%.

11-Jan-2013:

3821_1a.jpg

I shot the north half using +2 exposure compensation because the first shots all needed about +1.3 gamma correction. I eventually learned more about the camera's metering options. But there turned out to be a couple of nice angles on the N (railroad E) side of the Rt. 1A overpass. Alas, the other was blurred; I also needed a sandbag. So far a delayed shutter option has saved me from buying a remote release.

13-Feb-2013: An RR-Line Challenge inspired me to work on my Little River scene; it was too big for the challenge rules, but I had almost everything needed handy. My very busy January and a large snow storm kept me from actually starting until a couple of nights earler:

LittleRiver5.jpg

Earlier photos show how I built the marsh and river bed. I cut brown fake fur out for the marsh grass. I used the cut-out bits of hardboard riverbed as a pattern. Next was the stone work for the bridge, first looking for a slide of it before it was demolished in 1997. I needed to know if there was a center pier like the still-extant road bridge has.

The anvil came to me when Joe Singerling, born Newark, NJ 1902, passed on. It came with a few other more-or-less makeshift shop items, but I don't know whether he made it himself or picked it up from somebody else who'd made it. It looks like about 60 lb. rail but measuring it and consulting a rail section chart would confirm.

If Kodak had left enough white space on slide boxes so I could have written all the places on every one, it would have taken me 5 min. to find this, but as it was, about 2.5 hours of memories:

forerock0.jpg

The Eastern RR stone slab bridge at Forerock (Boston St., Newbury MA) in 1995. The rebuilding between Ipswich and Newburyport was just starting, you can see the erosion control. The intermediate piers are about 18" wide, so I can model one of them. I also built my track a good deal higher above the marsh than the prototype. Later I found a prototype still exists about a mile West in a higher fill between Hay St. and Kent's Island.

15-Mar-2013: Last weekend, I did a Scratchbuilding in Styrene clinic for the Hub Division's Spring Training show. The subject was Mike D's house on Winter St. in Newburyport when we first became friends in the late 1960s:

Mikes0.jpg

It's a modest house, built about 1850 as the nearby depot changed the demographics of the area. I paced off the frontage as about 25 feet and figured the rest of the dimensions by counting clapboards etc. Here's where I got to last night:

Mikes1.jpg

I used plain .040" styrene because at the time I'm modeling, it had asbestos cement shingles. I will use one of the peel-and-stick products and apply the windows, doors and trim over them.

Other parts are Micro-Engineering 80-067 windows (25x50 4 over 4, but I'll cut out the horizontal mullions), Campbell 903 "6 Windows" for the attic (which hadn't been converted to living space yet) and Northeastern D100NEB 30x80 4 Lite Door.

03-Apr-2013:
I hadn't made any photogenic progress since my last post, but I had been working on the railroad. The Hub Division organized an
operating session at Keith Shoneman's (since passed on) layout, and during it a couple of members remarked they were looking forward to trying out the Eastern Route. My track and control system are complete enough, but aside from a timetable and 100 car cards/waybills, I also need more equipment:
1. Convert or buy a DCC switcher (I have 7 DC switchers ranging between "undecorated in the box" and "needs weathering")
2. One more DCC roadswitcher (I bought a Bachmann RS-3 yesterday, but I may not have the willpower to put off fixing the details)
3. Several more DCC RDCs (I have 3 in-progress, having finally worked out how to get the right trucks on a P1K)

I made a start at organizing the layout space for company, moving a lateral file full of papers and structure kits to a semi-permanent home under Newburyport, but there were also several in-progress projects which will be better completed than boxed up and put away. Which is why I typed this while decals dried on a Branchline 6-3 becoming the B&M's Gounod. And also why I was thinking about more/better tool, parts and material storage.

I also need to run the various jobs, with the multiple goals of a) checking feasibility and fun value, b) shaking down infrequently-used track and c) shaking down the freight car fleet. I did a little of that trying out 1536 last night, but much remains. The routine "op setup" stuff I'll talk about here, but if I have any ideas that seem new, I'll start a thread in the right forum.

Structure and scenery work continued, with a potential deadline of November if I was asked to join Tour de Chooch.

04-Apr-2013: Equipment progress is also clean-up progress, and working on Hobbytown RS-3 B&M 1538 has a sentimental element: Given clean wheels and clean track, it's been a joy to operate for more than 25 years (then, 50 now).

p4040010_v1.jpg

08-Apr-2013: More work detailing 1538, my old Hobbytown RS-3:

1538bodyDetails.jpg

Here the photographer catches the 'glint' as an eastbound Portsmouth local stops in Rowley. 1538 shows off her new Pyle dual sealed-beam headlight, Nathan M-3 horn bracket-mounted to the front of the cab and ATS equipment on the running board.

09-Apr-2013: Yesterday my Atlas HH-660 arrived. Nice engine, decent sound, programs OK on my Prodigy Advance's programming track just like the Bachmann RS-3 (are you listening, Athearn?). Much better printed documentation than Bachmann's, but a significant omission: the exploded parts diagram doesn't show the user-installed end handrails. Not too hard to figure out, but I did have to drill the holes in the cab out to #74 (0.0225) and both end platforms/steps to #72 (0.025). I had a moment's worry before I realized it arrived in "full shutdown" mode, needing either the magnetic wand or an F6 DCC operation before it would do anything.

Running it, I found it could handle about 12 cars on my layout's grades. Since one of the ruling grades is pulling west from the Bexley yard into the tunnel, and that's only 2/3 of a track, the HH-660 is now in last place for Bexley switcher. I tried some of my others:
P2K Alco S-3: 16 cars
P2K USRA 0-8-0: 14 cars
Kato NW-2: 20 cars (the clear choice for the Bexley Switcher, if I can get DCC into it without removing too much weight)
P2K EMD SW-900: 16 cars

By comparison, my R-1b 4-8-2 handles 29 freight cars - once you get to that length, the yard exit and a couple of other locations become momentum grades. This has me thinking about the Tonnage Ratings page for my Employee Timetable - it would be easier on operators if I assumed 100 ton cars, or maybe I should just skip the realism and give train lengths. Another variance from the standard format will be the difference between Hobbytown 1538 and Bachmann 1536, RS-3s from the same order, but the former is likely to haul 50% more than the latter.

The set of cars I was testing with included empty hoppers & gons, plus a Tru-Line-Trains 8-hatch reefer that arrived with all 4 axles out of gauge and is still picky enough that it's going back to the bench after it's done its job finding glitches: One bad solder joint, a bunch of spikes I'd skipped in the rush to finish track, some gauge and point issues, closed gaps; West Lynn yard is much better now.

12-Apr-2013: Wednesday night was more track and equipment tinkering, last night I got back to the Hobbytown RS-3 project:

1538_end.jpg

I haven't seen zinc alloy casting taken to this level by any other manufacturer. Using mostly needle files, I removed the draft angle and thinned and rounded sections that needed it. A little blackener worked like a charm; both castings were back on the loco in an hour.

17-Apr-2013: I haven't put DCC in anything by Hobbytown. One obstacle is the motor - it draws about 0.3A and 'cogs' in a way that works with slack in the universals to contribute a lot to the unit's noise level. The other is that all pickup comes through four brass wheels. Bear Locomotive Works had vanished by then, but NWSL had a nickel-silver wheels of the right size. That's another story.

I spent about half my personal day yesterday working on the RR. Here are the most photogenic results:

IMGP1518_v1.JPG

Decaling residue washed off and Scalecoat Flat Glaze applied to 1538's cab and 6-3 Gounod, but I lost the 6-3's bag of toilet windows (it was built as a traveling project) so I need to get some from AMB.

Weathered & Grimy Black applied to the new 'high window' coach. Alas, the blue masking tape did a little damage to the Maroon, so I'll be coming back to it in a few days.

Bethlehem Car Works underframe applied to it and the older coach (NPP/KMT left the floors flat, partly because they'd put a battery box where one of the crossbearers was supposed to go).

Foundation interior color applied to two P1K RDC-1 shells.

Air-brush weathered the REA express reefer.

Started to put better couplers on the Atlas HH-660, but ran out of couplers.

All of this took longer than I expected, because my Passche H airbrush had been getting more and more balky. Finally, I took it apart and found thinner wouldn't flow through the needle. So I cleaned it out with a piece of .020 piano wire - lots of gunk had solidified in the neck above the needle opening. The stuff was mostly gray, which could have been pigment from 'aluminum' paint, or possibly ground glass from Scalecoat Flat. At any rate, I knew where to look when I see that symptom again.

!! And that's 20 pages from RR-Line fitted into less than 6 on Modelers Forum.  So this thread will take about 24 more pages !!

James,

I just finished going through the thread. Thanks for taking the time to move and post it here.

I like your rural country scenes, especially the little river scene - well done.

Looking forward to more updates.

Tom

Thanks, Tom.  I'm done working outdoors today, so I'll update for a while while my pants dry out.
------------
19-Apr-2013:  At the old TMRC (MIT) club layout, I would sometimes run unrealistic 75-car freights led by a Cary/Hobbytown E-7 with 1538 midtrain at the 60 car point. Went right up the 2% grade with 36" radius curve at the bottom. I could pick up a milk car in 15 fast-clock minutes, without banging it around either. But the other members still said "grind me up a pound".

I rewired my block busses to all 5 control panels. I had originally put the DC mainline cab in the leftmost position on the rotary block switches, with Local straight up (next position) and DCC 45 deg. right. I did this because the DC metering was to the left of the DCC master. But when I started playing around with operations, I didn't like moving through the DCC position every time I turned a block off, or switched it to Remote (all the way right). So I put the DCC at 45 deg. left and the DC Train Engineer at 45 deg. right. Then I ran a few trains, shaking down equipment and just for fun.

I needed to do some bartering with someone who could debug analog solid state stuff better than me - I'd always wanted a DC throttle with a brake lever. I'd picked up two over the years, an MRC handheld and an old Heathkit TAT-V clone console unit. Neither worked. A little later I made a deal with a modeler who also collected old Heathkit equipment.

30-Apr-2013: I'd done very little modeling in the previous week; work, protecting my orchard from Cedar Apple Rust, comforting my GF Jane and her poor cancer victim cat, who's departing tomorrow. At least the weather was nice, and I had parts on order or on hand for several projects.

This picture arose from someone on RR-Line's Nantahala Midland thread, asking "where were the cow flops" in Tyson Rayles' pasture.

1706CowPie.jpg

Having had cattle off and on for decades, I thought a bit and decided a simple blob of Raw Umber artist's acrylic paint might meet the need. Two are visible in the cow pasture on the right - they take a day or so to dry completely.  They've proved (2025) tough enough to stand up to all the hands (one cow recently lost a leg).

I was thinking about how to model one of those rings of rank green grass around a bare spot which you also see in cow pastures. Possibly that will be my excuse to buy/build a static grass applicator.

1706 is an Athearn Genesis lightly airbrush weathered. I didn't want to post a picture which was just model cow pies, lest it show up later when someone wants to embarrass me.

03-May-2013: An RR-Line member asked for advice on fitting a pilot coupler to an Overland B&M G-11 0-6-0. Mine had never been run, so I got it out:

pilot_coupler.jpg

I did the pilot fairly simply - use the hole on the top of the pocket as a guide for drilling through #65, cut down a McHenry, mark & drill the shank #75 and pin it in place with a Perfect "#8 modeling pin". A shirt pin would have worked, just more excess length to cut off.

tender_coupler.jpg

The tender was more work: First, Cheyenne hadn't included screws for the mounting pad. Experimentation showed it was 1.4mm metric thread, and NWSL 6mm screws would hold a Kadee box. But then it was low. I didn't want to make pickup worse by using a fiber washer, so I made metal washers from .015 nickel silver sheet using a Micro-Mark punch/die set (left, above the spring, washer & screw). The 3/32" die made a hole that fit the kingpin screw. I also cut one kingpin spring in half and stretched it a bit for more flexibility.

Then there were a couple of hitches in the mechanism. One was the left crosshead/piston assembly hanging up on something inside the cylinder bore. I tightened up the crosshead guides with gentle application of pliers, then ran a #51 drill into the cylinder and finished by rounding the ends of both piston rods.

The next was the connecting rod screw on the front driver catching the crosshead. This was cured by carefully adjusting the position of the
cylinder/crosshead assembly relative to the frame.

I only ran it around the layout for a bit - it was late. Appears to be rated for about 12 cars (same as the Atlas HH-660 I just got). The boiler has a weight installed, there isn't room for a lot more.

9-May-2013: I'd  done a partial dry run of an operating session: I ran the 'Casco', a Providence - Portland time freight, the Newburyport Local (until I get more track built, there isn't room to get a Portsmouth Local entirely in the clear at Newburyport) and three local passenger trains. This turned up some problems, but generally it went smoothly and I had fun switching. It was too late to slow it down with picture taking, though.

12-May-2013: I don't expect this is common in other layouts, but the corners of mine must leave clearance for me to get at the attic windows. West Lynn is the lowest part of the layout, so I've got about 30 inches of flying plywood with no fascia. Vehicles needed access to the West Lynn public delivery tracks, thus Bennett St.:

bridge1.jpg

Micro-Engineering 30' girders, with the middle one cut in half so it fits in a slot I sawed in the Homasote.

bridge0.jpg

I undercut the plywood with a coping saw and painted it black. The girders were taped in place till I airbrushed them.

In other progress, I replaced a broken axle gear in P1K RS-2 1501 and it ran nicely again. Non-progress was finding out that modern 'lacquer thinner' will only make the coating on a 20 year old brass tender bubble, though it worked on the boiler/cab. I have commercial stripper on hand, but I'm going to research things I can get by the gallon locally.

As I don't find it in a simple web search, let it be known that the old Anderson (or Eshleman) "Turnout Link" has an 0-80 thread in the top arm (the one that screws into the throwbar). Flathead screws improve the clearance relative to the supplied hex-heads.

19-May-2013: This weekend's work was mostly on the High St. overpass:

bridge0.jpg

I'd made the roadway 30 scale feet wide, but that wasn't going to look right after allowing for sidewalks. So I shimmed the abutments out 6' with foam core.  I got a pretty good start on the bridge and retaining walls too - I hot-glued fiberglass screen to support a coat of wood putty which I planned to paint & carve like the retaining walls around Merrimack St.

cut0.jpg

Finally, I made a try at coloring the brown fake fur for the Little River marshes:

LittleRiver7.jpg

This is mostly Pthalo Green artist's acrylic, with a little Green Gold. When I wrung out the water most of the color went with it. I reapplied and it was air drying (slowly, it got cloudy & cool after I took the picture).

21-May-2013: The High St. overpass dates to the 1910s, when an earlier gauntlet-track 'arch' was widened to 3 tracks and made strong enough to carry a trolley line.

west.jpg

I have tree-free pictures (which I could have taken in the '70s, but didn't), but they're copyright the Walker Transportation Collection.

bridge1.jpg

I had to compress both the width and the depth, so there's space for longitudinal girders but no room for water lines etc. I used half a package of .015 x .100 getting to this point last night.

My first try at marsh grass didn't have enough green, though I liked the texture and color variation. I got back to it on the next good drying day.

This is how the ~80 year old concrete has looked for most of my life:

parapet.jpg

I've been thinking about the Rustoleum "American Stone" that Elliot Moore (ETinBH on RR-Line) showed, with a light overcoat or wash of a more sandy color. Assuming I can find it, and I'm not otherwise too annoyed at RPM/Rustoleum, and that the assembled wisdom doesn't advise me against using it on a styrene base?

I need a little surface roughness, but maybe about 200 grit, not 60 grit. I wondered if I could get the effect by simply airbrushing it from too far away, with too much air pressure, but that's chancy.

02-Jun-2013: Another "so a search will find it" post: My Overland 3899 HO brass model of the B&M's C-100 - C-137 cabooses came with wheels that intermittently shorted against the sideframes - not bad enough to bother my DC locos, but unhappy-making for DCC. The problem was the axles were too short (or the holes in the sideframes too big). Reboxx 33-1-0.995 replacement wheels cured the short and made it roll beautifully. My trackwork is OK for .088 width wheels.

5-Jun-2013: Last night's progress included re-cutting rail gaps (not photogenic), a try to improve the color of my fake fur marsh grass for Little River (not dry yet) and adding concrete sidewalks to the High St. overpass:

east1.jpg

I scribed joint lines in .040 styrene and glued it to the parapets. I used a pencil to make a guideline so the sidewalk curves to match the road. The west (longer) side doesn't have its curb yet.

west1.jpg

This test shot is for comparison with a prototype photo from 1949. Close enough to be recognizable, but not exact..

07-Jun-2013: Here's last night's progress:

cut1.jpg

Apropos of my question about Elliot Moore's use of rattle-can texture paint for concrete, what I found at Amesbury Industrial Supply (an excellent reason not to drive to the big box stores in Seabrook) was Rustoleum Multicolor Textured 223524 Desert Bisque. I like the color, it doesn't attack .040 styrene, but boy is it thick: I completely lost the rather deep scribed joints in the sidewalk.

This is my first experiment with rattle-cans for model work, and I'm not a convert - no control over how much paint, not sure exactly where the nozzle is pointing till you push the button. Still, I managed to mask/paint three wood-putty concrete retaining walls & abutments this morning, in situ.

Here Dave Emery suggested I try dabbing on Folk Art texture paint.  But I still have part of the can of Desert Bisque.

11-Jun-2013: A good deal of progress on the High St. scene, working both in the evening and before I left for work:

west2.jpg

I wanted the stone rougher than I can get by scribing styrene, and proud of the concrete/steel above, so I wrapped aluminum screen wire around the lower abutments.

west3.jpg

Here's wood putty applied to one side of the cut, and partly painted/scribed at the right (East) end.

west4.jpg

Here's the finished carving from the west side.

east2.jpg

And the east side. Still needs some touch up and a weathering wash.

If anyone tries this, DO NOT USE semi-gloss latex paint. The film is too strong, so it is prone to peeling when you scribe it. Working on the Merrimack St. retaining walls, I got the same amount of carving to this stage in half the time using flat black latex.

13-Jun-2013: The last couple of days' hobby time has been focused on the south side of the High St. cut:

south0.jpg

I couldn't recall seeing this style of 'no loitering' done commercially, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was to be found somewhere in a German or UK catalog. If I'd had more than 15" to do, it might have been worth making a mold. But I decided I could probably manage it in wood putty.

south1.jpg

The other night I made the base wall.

south2.jpg

Last night I applied a 1/16" layer of wood putty to the top. While it was still wet I carved the nubbly tops with a hobby knife. This could probably be done with 'leather hard' plaster, provided you made the whole wall in one go, to avoid issues getting new plaster to stick to old.  The dilute black latex wash revealed that a lot of finish work is needed before final painting & mortar-line carving.

16-Jun-2013: A discussion in another thread got me thinking about how I model; I tend to get a project to a certain point, then work on something else. For a change, I'm going to finish the High St. scene as best I can. This hasn't kept me from making progress elsewhere this weekend, but most of the effort went here:

west5.jpg

The house is a temporary view-block, not what goes there in the long run. This needs more diverse grass, the H-arm (left) where the open wire changed to cable and telltales.

19-Jun-2013:  Robert Goslin complimented my stone work.

Thanks, Robert, I've seen plaster/putty/spackle lift when the substrate flexes or expands/contracts, and don't want to lose my investment in carving. The diesel is a P2K EMD BL-2 I detailed and painted. The BL-2 was a bastardized F-3 rushed into production about 1949 to compete with Alco's RS-2. Not many were sold, and few were as long-lived as the GP-7s which replaced them in EMD's catalog.

In pursuit of completeness, the last couple of evenings went to building the H-arm:

h_arm1.jpg

To the Rix parts, I added a cable termination box (.125 square styrene tube with .060 channel for the wire hoods) and a work platform (Plastruct 3/64 angle brackets, .020 wire rail w/ .010x.018 flat brass braces) for signal maintainers. Now that I've built it, I thought I'd find the slides I took in the '80s or '90s. But actually I found my sketch, showing I forgot the large wood terminal box below the crossarms which the platform provided access too.  Someday, when I need another H-arm...

west6.jpg

I also added a few tall grass bunches, I will do more based on the picture.

30-Jun-2013: The previous week, I'd gone to Atlantic City by train (work, not play), so I used some laptop time to make the panel diagrams I need for my Electrical Engineering AP certificate. This is Bexley (see about halfway down pg. 3 of this thread for the track plan):

BexleyPanel20250216.png

Original image lost, excerpt from my XtrkCAD signal plan of Bexley substituted. The 'arrow' block gap symbols show where individual 'swing block' segments are powered from depending on the switch position. The printing quality suffers because it's a screen capture rather than an export: XTrkCAD won't export at more than 100 DPI, which doesn't work well at the scale of the electrical symbol parameter file I'm using. But it's OK for documentation.

I was working on a couple more H-arms (I made a jig, why not) and had started the CBS Hytron (later Owens-Illinois) warehouse that will be the biggest building on the Newburyport end of the layout. Pictures when I got the walls up (later the same day).

The temperature outside is above 90F, but my old house holds the cool well so I'm downstairs doing computer work till the sun gets lower. But before the attic got too hot, I got the core of the Hytron warehouse together.

OI2006.jpg

The prototype was built in 1952 using concrete up to just above the floor, then block, then fibreglass windows and a steel trim piece at the
top. There was no wind generator, and only one other building in the 1/2 mile square "block" it occupies. The original shed roofs were segments over each freight door, I now suspect what I've done is the 1970 version.  Either complicates uncoupling, but so far we've managed.

OI0.jpg

Thinking about warping, I checked my pile of scrap acrylic, and decided to use it instead of foam-core. The foundation is 1/2" plywood, the roof is recycled political sign material; it's about 3/16" thick and appears to be extruded polyproplyene. Next step was applying laminations.

07-Jul-2013: Here it is with styrene applied for pilasters and the strip that will support the car shed roof. I used the flat car to set the loading door threshold heights.

OI1.jpg

This morning I sanded the area near the top of the wall that will represent the fibreglass windows, then masked and applied Plastruct .020 cinderblock sheet using 3M 77 spray adhesive.

OI2.jpg

I wouldn't have masked the bottom of the wall had I realized I only needed to spray the back of the cinderblock sheet. When dry, I can paint the concrete and cinderblock portions. The corrugated metal and flashing at the top of the wall awaited buying more styrene.

Knock on wood, but today's work went so fast I felt like I was channeling Harsco (RR-Line member rapidly building structures for his steel mill layout at the time).

09-Jul-2013: I was keeping up with BigLars' challenge to get things finished, because my project list is too long, and there's a real risk of losing important bits if I leave them too long. At the bottom, I want a working, good-looking model railroad, nobody is going to build it for me, and I'm able to do the work now.

OI3.jpg

Recent progress: Sunday a coat of rattle-can texture paint for the concrete areas, overcoated with gray. I don't like the finish and the color is too brown, so I'll be airbrushing it anyway. But it will be almost a meter from viewers. Tuesday AM I trimmed the masking and applied the corrugated strip at the top, using Evergreen .080 spacing sheet. I plan to paint it red before I apply a separately-painted silver cap strip. Then I can try out my ideas for the windows and doors.

14-Jul-2013: The chalky red was photographed in 2006. The shed was at best a few years old at the early end of my 1955 - 1965 modeling era. I intended to try a can of ancient Floquil Caboose Red which is much closer to Tuscan than current production (no help to anyone following along, though). Then I took a detour and photographed the underside: The exterior corrugated metal has been repainted at least once, but the protected parts apparently haven't been:

shed0.jpg

I found some only-a-little-oversize corrugated-both-sides styrene from JTT Architectural Models at The Hobby Bunker in Malden, MA (war gaming, auto & military models) and decided to do a fairly accurate underside, even if nobody will ever see it. So this is stalled till I can buy another pack of 12 inch (0.125) I-beam and some ~7 inch (.080) H column Monday.

I went back to my Hobbytown RS-3 project (which happens to be spread out in my much cooler living room):

wheel_axle.jpg

I ordered NS wheels from NWSL before I took an axle assembly entirely apart: Observe wheel with 3/32" bore & 1/16" shouldered axle end. I'd waited quite a while for unmounted wheels, so I decided bushing the bores down would be faster than ordering the right wheels. K&S 3/32" brass tube was a tight press fit in the wheel, but loose on the axle. I heated it red hot to soften it, then pressing it in made it a so-so slip fit on the axle. After soldering and reassembly, a couple of wheels are maybe .002 out of true, which works OK with my track. Still, not the recommended approach :(

16-Jul-2013: As late afternoon sun glints off the nose of a Portland-bound E-7, extra 1538 West (a job known as The Camel) waits on the yard ladder. When the varnish clears, she'll double her train together and begin the final leg of today's two Mystic Jct. - Bexley round-trips.

bexley_yard1.jpg

1538 won't really be finished till the headlights are installed, but the cosmetic work is done. Unless I decide to adjust one of the cab windows. This job greatly increased my respect for people who hand-fit windows - accurate laser-cut parts would have saved me about 2 hours of filing and trying and filing...

And of course there's work to be done on the building flats. The new one with nice window detailing is my friend Ron G's work.

28-Jul-2013:  I was stalled on Hytron (airbrushing time) and my Hobbytown RS-3 (electronic parts), so I decided to do something about the above scene.

BexleyTunnelE1.jpg

I had built the left flat from DPM modulars a while back, I'd just built the middle one from a mix of Walthers & DPM parts, and Ron G. gave me the one on the right. They're mounted to the backdrop, which got black paint where needed and my flats were ready for windows. But first I finished the foundations and added trees & shrubs.

04-Aug-2013: All my modeling time the past week went to scenery around Maxwell Sq. (over the Bexley Tunnel). The Engine Terminal (E) portal area was the more photogenic at this point:

bexley_yard2.jpg

Based on prototypes around Boston, I decided that I needed an employees' shortcut between the residential area and the yard:

path_stair.jpg

I started with CV stair moldings and added a platform with rail. .080 square posts, 'car siding' deck, 2x4 bracing & railing.

Twelve years later, I still need to work out how to model the two signal/telephone cables that would have been hung on cleats mounted on the retaining wall. I don't think I'll try doing the separate carrier wire and suspension loops the prototype used, as this is fairly far from viewers.

06-Aug-2013:. Last night's project had been placing some trees, Woodland Scenics fiber grass and Noch grass tufts here and there. Then I mopped my attic's linoleum floor in honor of potential company. Ron G. wound up not being able to make it, but I enjoyed how much better it looks. I shifted to completing an old NPP brass NYO&W coach as a B&M 4500 series car. Windows cut and one side decaled. I needed more acrylic solvent to work on Hytron, and a bit more thought about fences & structures before more work in Bexley.

A bit of hot air while I waited for the decals to dry: Some of my posts here are journaling; I make notes to myself so I'll be able to retrieve some fact, or understand how I did something years later. Some are for others: interesting prototypes, useful techniques. Some are so my friends can see what I'm doing without making the trek to the New Hampshire seacoast.

RR-Line had a sticky thread (stayed at the top of its sub-forum) with pointers to people's layouts. I commented that some threads don't progress much, some are cut off by life issues, some continue. I looked up a few authors to see if they were still active. I wish all of you
enjoyment; I'm plugging along on my own motivation, but this site, the magazines I get and the Hub Division are important sources of encouragement. I respect those of you who build dioramas, but I don't always look in on your work, lest I overwhelm myself with wanting your craftsmanship over my whole 240 sq. ft. of benchwork and 75 - 100 structures. I understand that all the active members are looking for community and encouragement, so I will do my best to hold up my end.

11-Aug-2013: I was away for the a few days, but that morning I got to work on the enginehouse end of the tunnel. But once I had the portal built, I looked in the other end and realized with the lining I'd installed last week, I was pretty close to a nice photo from the west end:

TunnelW0.jpg

New England still has quite a few of these short cut-and-cover 'arches' or 'tunnels'. Photos of several are here: https://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html (https://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html). Exposure was 1 sec. at f/40 with only room lighting. Next time I used a longer focal length lens and placed the camera a little farther away. The railing over the portal is .025 brass wire, the right retaining wall is wood putty, painted black and carved through for the mortar lines. And of course, the photo revealed a little more to be done.

On 11-Aug-17 Orionvp17 asked: What is the stone used for the retaining walls? I have a lot of B&M/New England "picture books" with shots of retaining walls in this configuration -- black stone and tan mortar. The coloring of the stone is so complete and uniform that I have a hard time believing it's simply dirt/coal dust, and the material seems to be ubiquitous. Thoughts?

Pete, I've watched the black color weather off the stone over the years, especially near the coast. In and around Newburyport, it's almost all visibly gray granite now: This is visible in my Merrimack St. bridge thread (not yet copied to Modelers Forum).

Inland, the black color persists; these photos of the Dover & Greenfield arches were taken in the past 10 years: http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html

I can't imagine the B&M or any of the other RRs where this is found painting the stone, neatly skipping the mortar. Neither can I imagine paint of the 1950s lasting 50 years on exposed rock surfaces. So it has to be some combination of coal soot and steam oil condensate.

22-Aug-2013: I'd been away from home a good deal, and hadn't found a store that stocks 3' lengths of K&S brass wire, so no additional railings. But I did get a package:

riverworks_panel1.jpg

Forum member Wallace S. said he would post about this project, so all I said was 'Thank you very much'. I was very happy to be running DC trains a la Linn Westcott, with a realistic brake. The Kadee brush has been moved elsewhere, lest it short against the throttle case.

riverworks_panel2.jpg

I use it as the 3rd throttle, for local switching in West Lynn and GE's River Works. To get it out of the way when idle, I built a simple slide-out shelf using mostly scrap I could lay hands on at 9PM.

riverworks_panel0.jpg

A "True Action Throttle", of which this is a variant, really benefits from a voltmeter to adjust starting voltage etc. To keep the wiring simple, I connected it to the 'Loop' output, which I'm not using otherwise.

I painted the shelf the same blue as my other control panels.  I hope it helps visiting operators spot it ('this blue means electrical controls').

27-Aug-2013: Machining and welding a new seat subframe for my 1984 Yanmar-built JD 1050 tractor (still running in 2025 at Seashore Trolley Museum) and doing things with family & friends consumed a lot of the weekend. The only progress was this:

lever_mount2.jpg

Having a Lynn throttle got me going on completing the River Works panel, which is needed before any in-plant track I lay can be used. For those who have Humpyard Purveyance levers (company closed 2024), this is the simplest and most functional mount I've done yet.

I had posted this next bit in RR-Line's Model RR Construction but there isn't an equivalent here:

Simple under-the-baseboard mount for Humpyard Purveyance turnout control levers:

 lever_mount1.jpg

Note that the lever is facing the wrong way in this picture.  I cut the shape from a scrap of 3/4" birch plywood using a bandsaw, but a
handsaw or sabre saw would also work. The main part is 2 1/4" deep, the mounting ears are 1" deep. I marked hole locations using Humpyard's template and drilled them with my drill press. I could have cut off the unused actuating arms, but I prefer to leave them intact, fantasizing that I may live long enough to complete this layout, scrap it and re-use them. So I sanded a pocket with the front roller of my hand belt sander.

This is another Humpyard lever mounting block, slotted with a table saw to avoid cutting off one of the arms.

lever_mount.jpg

31-Aug-2013: Getting everything in place to use the turnouts led me to start laying rail for GE's receiving & interchange tracks in front of Building 41 (left).

ge_bldg41_0.jpg

I had laid the ties and ballasted in 2012. This was about 6 hours work, the usual sequence: Temporarily position the stock rails, make the frog points & determine the frog position, file switchpoint notches, spike the stock & frog rails, make the closure rails.

In other news, the first part of my article on the Hytron warehouse has appeared in the Hub Division's Headlight:
http://www.hubdiv.org/docs/Headlight2013_0910_v30.1.pdf (http://www.hubdiv.org/docs/Headlight2013_0910_v30.1.pdf)

Many of the pictures have been posted here, but the text has more history & narrative. The editor was likely to ask about Part 2 the next week. So as soon as I could spot cars on the interchange track, I started clearing up the maze of "but I should do X first" issues that stalled finishing Hytron.

01-Sep-2013:  I found out I wasn't on the right email list to be included in the 2013 Tour de Chooch. But probably in 2014. This retroactively justified my switch to trackwork - it contributed to my planned first op session this winter. Meanwhile, scenery work (other than Hytron) needn't be rushed.

11-Sep-2013: After I got the first GE receiving track operating, I went back to scenery. West Lynn now has some ground cover, the 6th St. (GE Plant) grade crossing is paved but not dry enough to clean up, and there is gloss medium water in a number of ditches beside the RoW. This consumed most of Sunday and several evenings/mornings. But only one part advanced enough to look photogenic to me:

BM1550FourRock.jpg

Ron G. confirmed the actual name of the head of navigation on the Little River in Newbury, MA is 'Four Rock'. This photo is framed to omit the unfinished riverbed, lack of water and lack of marsh grass. Prototype photo posted on Page 6 of this thread.

I had to compress it, and had I found this picture when I built the baseboard, the river bottom wouldn't be as deep. Stonework is wood putty painted with latex flat black & carved. The center pier is "1/4 lattice stock" (actually 3/16" thick) wetted & dipped in wood putty powder, then sealed with Scalecoat Flat Finish. Twelve years so far without flaking...

28-Sep-2013: A busy month between town & personal chores, hiking, an overnight trip to the Common Ground Fair in ME and most of a week at corporate HQ. But I had squeezed in a little modeling: wiring, ground cover and grade crossing pavement in West Lynn, progress on my Hobbytown RS-3.  Not much photogenic till tonight:

OI4.jpg

I began the Hytron warehouse car shed, using the JTT corrugated styrene. I spliced four pieces and reinforced them with Evergreen .125" I-beam for the roof. I got the vertical sheets cut out, but I'm going to make an angle template before I apply them.

29-Sep-2013:  I replied to a comment: Most of the layout models track ballasted with cinders. The bridge area is done with Woodland Scenics "Fine Cinders" with modest quantities of "Fine Brown" and "Fine Gray" mixed in to represent clinkers. Part of West Lynn is done with a stone 'cinders' product which I stopped using because the white chunks were too big. Elsewhere, I've used Highball Products limestone cinders, but nobody in my area stocks it and I haven't been motivated to order it since I figured out how to get the effect I want with WS products.

Most of the ballast is applied using conventional 'bonded' techniques, but when I want it to stick to an unrealistically steep slope (If I was HO scale, I wouldn't want to be a brakeman on this road), I paint the slope with a 50/50 dilution of white glue and sprinkle ballast mix on it.

30-Sep-2013:  After maybe 6 hours work Saturday & Sunday, the Hytron warehouse looks like this:

oi12.jpg

Idea Scoreboard: Wins

Gluing styrene to acrylic with Weld-On cement.

Masking warehouse doors so they're clear and look open from a distance.

JTT corrugated styrene for the shed - more brittle than Evergreen or Plastruct, but glues OK.

Angle jig so I could make the shed removable.

So-so:

Polyethylene political sign material sprayed black & ballasted for the roof - when a grain gets knocked off, I get a white spot.

3M spray cement for the Plastruct cinder block - should have used Weld-On, it worked to repair loose bits.

Fail:

Sanded acrylic isn't opaque enough for the fibreglass windows.

I'm going to try printing a scaled photo of the prototype's windows and gluing it on with contact cement. But aside from that, a sign and some roof details, the building is done. Next job was writing part II of my article for the Hub Headlight.

6-Oct-2013:  Layout progress was going to wait about three weeks.  My role in the NER "Tracks to Lakeport" convention 10/17-20 expanded - beside my passenger car clinic, I subbed for a guy who wasn't able to put on a slide show, and opened my Eastern Route open for visitors Thursday afternoon & all day Sunday.  Suddenly it was cleanup/organize time. Some in-progress projects are getting put away, some are getting finished:

DrawCoved.jpg

This is the last piece of backdrop in the south (West Lynn/Bexley) end of the room. I scribed/cut the cove curve in 1/8" masonite with a compass and a utility knife. 2" angle brackets and countersunk 12-24 flathead machine screws hold the bottom. Despite all the fancy gadgets and numbers, paint matching is still inexact. I took a little extra time to blend darker blue with my latest can of "not quite Sherwin Williams 1787" from the local hardware store.

22-Oct-2013: I didn't get a lot of visitors, but I enjoyed showing the layout to everyone who stopped by. And I met a couple of new-to-me local modelers. My presentations at the convention went well, though between cleanup for the tour and a short-notice trip to NJ courtesy of my soon-to-be-former employer, I did a "yellow box/stack loader" slide show. No time for operations, but I saw Dave Sias's layout and had a great conversation with Dwight Smith (B&M employee & historian, founder of Conway Scenic Ry) after buying some of his photos, which I can use on my Unofficial B&M Page.

Since I got home, I've completed 1538, my Hobbytown RS-3, and another NPP O&W coach is ready for diaphragms before joining the secondary passenger service fleet.

24-Oct-2013: I installed diaphragms on my latest passenger car, "high window" (24"x36" glass) coach 4501. Because my other Nickel Plate Products NY,O&W coaches have Walthers, and John B. was asking about them, I got a pair the other day.

walthersDiaphragm0.jpg

I'm switching to a shorter coupler as soon as I can get #153s, so I cut these in half. The new pressure plate is cut from an aluminum EMF shield from a scrapped electronic gadget.

walthersDiaphragm1.jpg

If I feel ambitious, I will apply the rooftop conduit to at least 4501, as even many of the AC-equipped cars of this type had the head-end lighting setup.

1538WPortal.jpg

Here it is behind headlight-equipped 1538 drifting into Bexley depot.

11-03-2013: I didn't expect a lot of uninterrupted time this weekend, so I worked on track, which I usually put down and pick up without a glitch. I completed one turnout in the GE main plant's private trackage, and made progress on two more. Details inline from a Track thread.

Someone asked in another thread about how to use slide switches for frog power and point locking. I use mine with heel-thrown points, but parts of this how-to should be usable with conventional throwbars.

PointsRodsTubes.jpg

Here I've made the points (lower right). I cut the 1/8" brass point tubes (left center). I drilled 1/8" holes for them at the end of each closure rail (top). I cut the 3/32" point rods (next to the points). I drew where the points should be positioned on the rods to line up with the closure rails. This step could be avoided by carefully locating a smaller pilot hole before changing to the 1/8" bit.

BlockWireThread.jpg

Both points have been silver-soldered to their rods, and the rod threaded 3-48.  One is in place.

I use .025 music wire for the two throws (one shown).

The block is lexan, drilled #50 and tapped 2-56 for 3 locking screws.  One locks the block to one of the throw wires from the points
One locks the block to the brass rod connecting it to the slide switch.  One locks the block to the push-pull wire or rod from the layout edge control knob (or Humpyard Purveyance lever).

TubesFeeders.jpg

The loops of wire connecting the closure and stock rails visible in the first picture are also soldered to the point tubes.  This is how the points are powered.

WireNuts.jpg

The throw wires are clamped to the point rods with 3-48 nuts.  Get a nut-driver that fits if you build more than a couple of these. They sometimes need maintenance every few years.

SwitchBracket.jpg

This slide switch's bracket is 1" aluminum angle. Smaller switches use smaller angle. Mounting holes are #50, tapped 2-56.

Modern industry thinks it more profitable to make SPST switches like this. I bought it accidentally because I was hurrying. I paid by stunt-soldering the red wire to make it SPDT.  I use DPDT for switches in signal territory. I've used 3PDT and 4PDT to power diamond crossing frogs and swing blocks. Paul Mallery calls swing blocks X-Sections in his wiring book. I forget if they're mentioned in Linn Westcott's book. In block control systems they save you a knob or toggle by changing the power feed with turnout position.

SwitchRod.jpg

The screws are cut off flush to clear the rod. The switch's slider is drilled #53 and tapped 1-72. I thread the 1/16" brass rod with a 1-72 die.

Mechanism.jpg

Here the mechanism is far enough along to throw and lock the points.  Track power isn't connected yet.

WiredHumpyard.jpg

Here I've wired the slide switch to the frog (yellow/brown going left) and the block feeders (terminal strip).  The block feed is also connected to the point tubes.  And the yellow out-of-focus push/pull rod behind the Lexan block comes from the Humpyard Purveyance lever on the fascia.

Why do I bother with all this? The point rods can be whatever length is necessary. The mechanism can go on either side of the rods, up to about 30 degrees off the center line of the track. You can use it with push/pull rods, solenoids, twin coil machines or stall-motor drives. You must be able to get at both the mechanism and the points simultaneously to get it adjusted (or have a helper).  Once it's right, it stays right for a long time.  The oldest ones in service on the Eastern Route were built at TMRC in the 1970s.

07-Nov-2013: Part II of my Hytron Warehouse article had been published in the Hub Headlight:

http://www.hubdiv.org/docs/Headlight2013_1112_v30.2.pdf (http://www.hubdiv.org/docs/Headlight2013_1112_v30.2.pdf)

16-Nov-2013: Some photogenic progress: Bachmann's B&M RS-3 detailing reflects the price. A little airbrush weathering helped, but I really noticed the absence of a steam generator. The other night I applied a stack & vent from Custom Finishing. Floquil Weathered Black isn't an exact match, but I'll work on that next time I'm using my airbrush.

1536WPortal.jpg

In other news, my timetable was just about complete, so I knew how many throttles I need. It was more than I had, so off to MRC.

24-Nov-2013: I had a few minutes to browse in a Michaels and picked up a tube of Liquitex "Hooker's Green". I spent a while tinkering with it to adjust the color of the marsh grass pieces for the Little River scene:

LittleRiver8.jpg

This was better, but still a bit bright at a low angle. Anyway, I didn't glue it down till I finished the water. I mixed Mars Black, Titanium White and Raw Umber acrylics till I got a mud color I liked. Then I thickened it with Wood Putty and painted the stream bed and banks.

LittleRiver9.jpg

The marshes around here are pretty muddy, but there is often some sand and gravel showing on the inside of meanders and other places where the water flow slows. I used some beach sand for this, fixing it in place with some "scary hair" spray.

29-Nov-2013: Responding to New Haven modeler Bill Shanaman:  Your timetable & other documents look good; I've never had to learn Word or Excel to that level for work, but I clearly need to study what you've done.

Today's progress all took place outside the layout room:

IMGP1764_v1.jpg

That afternoon, with the sun relatively low and nearly perpendicular to one of the Hytron warehouse's walls, I set up my tripod and almost froze my fingers taking photos. Then I spent a couple of hours learning how to make the above with the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, a free tool which is the best available for the set of operating systems I want to use it on. I have more to learn, as I had to work out the size iteratively, but once I can get a couple of good prints on matte paper, I'll be all set to finish the building.

1-Dec-2013:  I find layout tours helpful as well as fun. I saw several of the Tour de Chooch layouts Saturday; I didn't visit any Sunday because of chores, including cleaning the house in case anyone dropped by. I guess it was just as well, as what has been drizzle here was ice farther inland and higher up. This contributed to my not getting any visitors.

At any rate, one thing I really noticed about the layouts I saw was lighting. Several used track lighting, which had good color rendition, but only in the hot spots. One was only lit by the room's two overhead incandescent fixtures, so photography was really tough, and I'd have brought in extra lights just to work on its corners. One had relatively even lighting from fluorescent fixtures in the suspended ceiling, but they were standard tubes, so my pictures came out greenish.

All of which made me really glad I took the time to work out daylight-colored, even lighting over the whole 'visible' part of the layout. Most of my pictures here were taken with room lighting; only those with shadows hinting at a sun direction used my photofloods. I must use a tripod when I stop down for good depth of field, but that's inevitable: enough light to shoot handheld at f/32 would make summer modeling even more sweaty.

2-Dec-2013: I'd never brought myself to the point where I'd pay the going rate for a commercial static grass application, but Ron G inspired me: Last month I bought a Harbor Freight hand fly zapper and last night I did a really simple conversion using a sink strainer found in a good hardware store:

static_grass0.jpg

The only flock available locally ws Woodland Scenics 2mm - I didn't like their Medium Green in the bottle or as initially applied - too blue, but vacuuming it improves the look a lot:

static_grass1.jpg

The tree in the background is a Hemlock Pine I got via Scenic Express - I think JTT is the manufacturer. It's the closest mass market item I've found to an Eastern White Pine.  I also spent a while coloring fake fur for marsh grass - I think I've gotten the tips right, but the base color needs adjustment.

2-Dec-2013: Bill Shanaman commented

Quote"I like to mix the static grass colors for variety. Greener for better moisture areas, more yellow for dryer areas. One technique I'm going to try is using the yellow static grass and paint it with acrylic greens so you get the yellow stem and greener leaves in sun light. Static grass is a great texture difference to ground foam. The type of 'color' lighting also affects the way the color of anything on the layout. I mix mine between cool and warm in the same florescent fixture which balances it out a bit."

3-Dec-2013: Thanks, Bill. If any HUB NEMTE train show vendors have a variety of flocks, I'll look them over next weekend. If not, I can either mail-order or wait 6 weeks for the W. Springfield show and see them first hand via Scenic Express & others. Last night and this morning I worked on my one little bit of exposed rock. The Eastern Route doesn't have much, 6 or 7 cuts in 50 miles, but some was in a
location I'm modeling:

red_gate_rd0.jpg

The material is schist with a long geologic history.

Here's a try at the basic rock shapes, carved into tinted Wood Putty:

rock_cut0.jpg

Lots remains to be done with paint. And I should probably re-shoot the photos when the sun is fully on the rocks before I start painting.

Orionvp17 commented:

QuoteI like what you've done up near the road. I think adding some tan static grasses to the mix you have above the rocks will do it. And I'd add some longer grasses along the fence line.

Grtlakeslogger added:

QuoteAnd maybe a little drybrushing light gray and white onto the sunlit parts of your schist would be effective.

4-Dec-2013:

Pete: Yes, as soon as I can lay hands on the materials.

Stu: This schist is fairly colorful in a good light - orange and black tones from iron, quartz intrusions etc. But I'm going to work from better pictures so I don't get laughed at by a geologist, if one ever visits my layout,

6-Dec-2013: An off-line comment made me realize I hadn't linked this thread with my Operations thread: <not yet uploaded>

Here's a much better track plan than that I posted 3 years ago:

201312Eastern4.jpg

Neither of the peninsulas had been begun, but all other track was complete except the left end of the GE in-plant trackage.

The usable area of the room, with track at 40-43 inches above the floor, is 14 x 39 feet. Mainline minimum radius is 36", though if you plotted what I actually built, it might get down to 34" in places. The Oil Terminal (by West Lynn) and Downtown Newburyport peninsulas will use 30" minimum radius. As you can see from where XTrkCAD colors things pink, I have one tricky switch/curve to build when I start on Downtown Newburyport.

22-Dec-2013: Shortly after my last post, my main PC's motherboard gave up the ghost. No data loss, but due to the season, what I decided to replace it with took a while to arrive. So I put things in place to post pictures from my throwaway Windows box (I use the free photo database/toolkit DigiKam. It runs on Windows, Unix and Mac).

<link to recreated Little River Farm thread here>

PC170007_v1.JPG

My first real resin structure kit is Sylvan's HO-1042 "Barn with Silos". It's intended for Gilbert Rice's farm, between Rt. 1A and Little River. As such, it will be a bit out of date but well maintained.

PC170009_v1.JPG

The castings had nice detail and no bubbles, which you'll see in the painted pictures. This window started out with mullions for 6 panes, but the flash was thick on this side and I damaged the mullions beyond repair. I've since installed a single styrene mullion to look like a later 2 pane replacement.

As with other resin items I've worked with, dimensions are a bit squishy. Once I got the walls and ends square, I found that the ends only fit the stone foundation one way, and that one of the sides was half a board short. I didn't contact Sylvan, because fixing it myself was less effort than trying to get replacement bits through US Customs. You can see the .188 x .100 styrene brace I used in that corner. I've since installed a filler board made of .040 styrene offcut.

23-Dec-2013: A picture of the Sylvan barn with the roof on and entrance ramp assembled:

SylvanBarnSiloRamp.png

The barn's roof overhang is bigger than usual for New England, but not a real outlier. Scalecoat "Graphite & Oil" and ancient Floquil Boxcar Red from a can stuck to the resin pretty well, but I did make a few chips cleaning up visible ACC blobs, so take care.

The silo is finished per the instructions using Floquil Concrete.


RiceFarmStructures.png

I've never owned or worked in a silo, but I'm pretty sure that Harvestore and other mechanical top unloaders didn't exist when this style was current.  I asked how they did it, and what I should add to the model and got several answers:

grlakeslogger said:

QuoteI live in dairy farm country in Wisconsin. They used a long auger to load the silage up to the top of the silo. The auger was only wheeled into place when silage was being made. The silage then fell downwards inside the silo. The silo was open to the inside lowermost level of the barn, where the cows were kept and fed. Incidentally, the entire silo below the formed metal dome top was concrete on one of these. That includes that far left portion you have painted red. That vertical shaft housed iron ladder rungs so the farmer could climb up the outside tunnel-like shaft to get above the silage.

24-Dec-2013:Thanks, Stu. I think Sylvan's prototype had a wood vertical ladderway; it's molded in 3 parts with horizontal boards and vertical trim. I followed the instructions when I painted it like the barn's wood. They included two side walls and a flat roof for a shed to connect the silo to the barn, which they said to paint as concrete if it was used. It has a notch in the roof for the ladderway, which they call a 'chute'. I'll have to adjust the ground level for it. Knowing about the auger is helpful: it gives me a lot more flexibility in placing the silo - I had thought I had to make sure Mr. Rice could park a silage chopper/blower under the chute.

Does this barn look like the cows were kept in the cellar, and the main floor was for hay? The cellar has a lot more windows and doors than old barns in my part of NH. My grandfather's barn had a wood silo whose base was well below the main floor of the barn where the cows were kept. The open side of the foundation faced away from the barn. Hay went in the loft, which was only about 6' above the main floor. Manure went down hatches into the cellar, where a spreader could be brought in and loaded. I've only the silo foundation to go by since my mother passed, but I guess he unloaded the last few tons of silage, or maybe all of it, into a wheelbarrow or sled and brought it around and in. He only had six milkers.

bxcarmike said:

QuoteOn barns here in upstate New York, the lower level is for livestock, if it's a dairy, there's usually a small room off to one side or end where the milk is stored, either canned or bulk. On the barn I used for my livestock, the covered ladder side was next to the barn with a small shed-like addition connecting to the barn. I'd climb into the silo(wooden) and shovel down silage , usually corn. As the silage lowered, I'd remove a ladder section until it was ground level. The lower level would have stalls, either larger pen like or individual stanchions, where cows would be kept in, used primarily for milking. Some barns also had gutters in the lower floor for manure removal, some gutters had conveyors to remove to an outside place where the manure spreader parked. Upper levels are for baled hay mostly, and occasionally a hay wagon, pick up truck or even a smaller tractor.

grlakeslogger:

QuoteJames, what bxcarmike describes was common around here too. Here, the majority of barns had concrete around the ladder ways, but there were a few wooden ones too, like your model.
I do not recall when blowers became common. What I described earlier was based on memories from my elementary school years. Many of my childhood buddies were farm kids, and I thought farms were great places to play then. The small shed you described definitely had concrete walls, because it had to be strong enough to withstand the force of the whole column of silage in the silo when full. The lower level here usually had stanchions. Cows wore numbered ear tags, and, somehow, each cow got into its own stanchion at feeding time. They were fed and milked twice a day. Long ago, that all happened in their stanchions. Sometimes, to maximize milk production, nutrients or medicines had to be added to a particular animal's feed. That's in part why the stanchions and ear tags. Later, milking happened in a "milking parlor" a separate, sanitary addition to the barn. Otherwise, both hay and straw went up in the wooden portion of the barn.

QuoteIn addition, a visible detail you might add are about four lightning rods along the peak of the barn's roof. Those were common here too.
Oh, almost forgot ... when weather permitted, cows were given free access to the barnyard outside. In good weather, they were pastured much of the day. They were not always in the barn.

Thanks, Stu and Mike, knowing how Sylvan's prototype worked will help a lot in getting this scene right. Sylvan does suggest lightning rods, and my own barn still has the system my grandfather had installed.

I'm modeling a new gothic arch freestall dairy barn on the other side of Rowley, MA - Sylvan's newer-style silo with the domed top is going there. But Mr. Rice is not the sort to haul feed to cows when they can walk to decent pasture. And the mandate to have a bulk tank and a concrete-floored milkroom is still in my layout's future.

01-Jan-2014: I've gotten a good deal done over the holidays, but my main PC's power supply failed and the new machine I ordered is still somewhere on CSX. Finally, I found time to get the old one repaired, so once again my pictures are organized:

Rice_Farm1.jpg

This is Gilbert Rice's Little River Farm with ground goop leveling the yard and making the ramp up to the barn. I used plastic wrap to protect the foundations. All in all, I'm reasonably pleased with the suspended masonite building supports, though it's definitely more work than placing buildings on a flat foam or plywood substrate.

schist_cut0.jpg

This is my attempt at blasted schist: base of wood putty tinted with black dry color, damp-brushed (kind of like dry brushing but wastes less paint) with white, raw umber & burnt umber artist's acrylics. Once I get good sunlit photos of the prototype, I may try to re-do the quartz intrusion (white streak near the right end).

2-Jan-2014: Basic ground cover is complete and I've got the foundations looking decent, except for two door stones I'll look for when Jane walks her dogs at the beach.

Rice_Farm2.jpg

The genesis of the scene in March, 2011 is shown on Page 3 of this thread.

Next is more wire mesh cow fence than I had time for this evening - the next day start with dealing with a snowstorm.

Just over the horizon, I try making an apple orchard out of blueberry twigs.

08-Jan-2014: The Little River Farm house now has two doorstones, the barn has all the scribed wood floor you can see through the door, there are flowers by the front door and the highbush blueberry patch is planted:

Rice_Farm3.jpg

I hadn't expected to be cutting stone for the model RR, but I'd gathered stones at a beach in Kennebunk and the one that fit the side entrance best was too long. So I made grooves with a cutoff disk and whacked it to break the ends off.

12-Jan-2014: I made a bunch of barbwire fence for the farm, using 1/16 x 3/32 tie stock and single strands of copper from a dead power cord. Today I did the mesh fence for the other side of the tracks.

Rice_Farm4.jpg

Not pretty yet, but it's getting closer.

13-Jan-2014: Yesterday evening I used up all the WS 'foliage' netting I had on hand making trees (visible behind the barn). Highbush blueberry twigs work fairly well, particularly the bark color/texture, but they wouldn't be durable enough for the front of the layout. My treemaking also needed practice & possibly better materials & techniques

Rice_Farm5.jpg

This shot got better with orchard in the gap between the barn and the house, plus something for a backdrop between the orchard and the edge of Rowley. But it wasn't warm enough to pour Little River and finish the marsh. The marsh grass color is way too light at this
angle, which was improved when I trimmed the fake fur to a more realistic height.

21-Jan-2014: I started building the Rt. 1A overpass about 2004; I thought it would make a good subject for an article, so I took progress pictures. The bridge itself was finished in 2005 and moved to its current location in 2009. However, I expect my target publication would want shots of it on my layout, and I hadn't really finished the scene around it until a week earlier.

1aOverpassOverhead.jpg

After returning from Wenham & some landlord work last night, I got out the tripod and lights. These are outtakes, and there are some others I need to re-shoot due to spider webs and lighting issues, but I hoped to get the article submitted that week.

1aOverpassWest.jpg

I'm glad I coved the backdrop corner, but I wish I'd brought it all the way around to the window frame.

23-Jan-2014: Part of the day was probate things, but a lot of the rest was photography, prototype and model. But after I'd shot everything I could think of, and played games with lighting I'd never tried before, it was "Once more unto the breach, dear friends..." for the show in West Springfield. I've been taking Rowley to Hub Division modular setups for just about 25 years now, Rowley River for almost 20. Fate permitted them to be back in the layout Monday.

ModuleDismount.jpg

This shows the aluminum angle bracket that supports the end of the module. I've thought about a free-standing pillar to support the middle joint, but that needs a socket in the floor - an idea I still haven't really bought into.

30-Jan-2014: The W. Springfield show was almost all good - I saw lots of friends and acquaintances, saw some nice modeling and new offerings from vendors and bought some books, freight cars and one loco. But there was bad news about an old friend, railroader and modeler, which changes my priorities for this spring: I'd been thinking about the NRHS convention in Springdale AR, but if he may not be there, I need to make an earlier trip.

Before I put the modules back in the layout, I tried an angle which is normally impossible for the tripod:

1aOverpassSW.jpg

This is an outtake because it reveals a gap in the scenery that's otherwise only visible from under the layout. It also pointed out that I'd get a lot of much better photos out of a few days' work on the backdrop.

I was seeing light at the end of the tunnel on my estate wrap-up, so there was more time for modeling the next week.

03-Feb-2014: I'd been working on my passenger cars over in the Car Shops <link BCW ex-RDC klt build>  but it stalled for painting weather (I open my window for the vent). So I took up Mike D's house (see page 6). Mike told me what he remembered about the little kitchen addition, and I built it as a demonstration at the Wenham Museum in January.

Mikes2.jpg

I also laid out and partly cut the bay for the front. I decided to score/fold rather than cut and re-glue, which worked out well. Then I assembled the shell.

Mikes3.jpg

The corner braces will support the 2nd/attic floor/interior walls assembly, which got built next.

07-Feb-2014: I was planning on 13 bridges over or under the RR, one of which is going to be a really big job. But I had several other things to finish before deciding which I should work on next. My priorities were equipment, operation and scenery/structures in Newburyport.

Mikes4.jpg

Here's Mike's house sitting on its hardboard foundation. This photo emphasizes how steep my compression is going to make Winter St. There will be angles where photos will look good, and others where the natives might not recognize what I'm modeling.

I didn't add brick foundation walls till I gave thought to the next house downhill. I planned to shim the ground at the penciled property line to level fore-and-aft, but I  built a mock-up before mixing more ground goop.

10-Feb-2014:  I had visitors on the Eastern Route yesterday; Ron G. brought two Ambroid open platform coaches rebuilt as work cars, and Victor C. brought some NYC locos he wanted to run. I was Towerman, so I didn't get to take any pictures, but was pleased that my idea of adjustable clearances worked, and Victor's 50' TOFC flats were able to run. A number of videos were shot in Rowley, but I don't think they ever made it onto the internet.

I put some time in on Mike's house:

Mikes5.jpg

After figuring out why the bay's roof is so deep (the 8 foot long 2x12 header spanning the opening), I built it using 3 pieces of .020 sheet and .080 square. Life is too short to calculate the roof angles; I just penciled lines outside each piece to make the next.

Mikes6.jpg

Then I assembled it with solvent cement.

I started on the main roof and realized it would have been simpler to do the soffit if I'd made the ends higher than the sides. Oh, well..

Mikes7.jpg

I was considering whether to cut the window openings lower to leave room for the trim between the tops of the windows and the soffit. Viewers who kneel can able to see this from LP-eye-level, otherwise not worth the trouble.

18-Feb-2014: I got the eaves done - .015 x .125 styrene strip removable with the roof.

Mikes8.jpg

Mike couldn't remember the trim and interior colors, but his sister had some pictures. It needs a portico roof over the entrance door.

After that I experimented with Phragmites reed trees and MRC DCC decoders. But with warmer weather this week, I did some airbrushing. Once the interior and trim are painted, I applied asbestos shingles and finished it (much later).

24-Feb-2014: The editor said they'd publish the Rt. 1A overpass story :) but they need a few more photos. After dinner I got out the lights but I made myself a sandbag while daylight remained.

rt1a1538eb.jpg

No spider webs in this outtake, but I think I can light it better.

27-Feb-2014: I was feeling ambitious, so I called Minuteman Press in Newburyport to see what they could do for the long-delayed fibreglass windows for the Hytron warehouse. After a couple of emails, I picked up 8 copies of this printed so the vertical dimension was exactly five inches:

IMGP1764_v1.jpg

The non-opening sections turned out to be narrower than the others, so I took more care when I started printing them myself.

Minuteman printed them two-up, so I only used 2 of the 8 sheets to get this:

oi13.jpg

I used 3M 777 spray adhesive, but it made a bit of a mess and I was rolling it off my fingers for a while. I should have figured out how to dilute one of the contact cements I have and applied it with a brush. I made the corner verticals from Evergreen .060 angle.
It needed more ground goop, vegetation and fences, which it got years later.

28-Feb-2014: I hadn't seen the proof, but I was told "the April issue". Now since many of us already had the April MR, I wasn't really keeping any secrets. However, for all I knew it was still subject to change, so I tried not to jinx anything.

I wanted to know when the warehouse passed from Hytron to Owens-Illinois, and the web rewarded me: It was built the Korean War as Hytron expanded from a single facility in Salem MA to 4 plants employing more than 6,000 people. CBS was playing conglomerate and bought them in 1951. Newburyport had a very advanced picture tube plant 1/2 mile from the depot, but CBS closed it in 1959, throwing 1,000 people out of work. CBS-Hytron was also in the semiconductor business, but apparently punted it in the early 1960s (as conglomerates tend to).

Since my modeling ranges from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, I decided to make removable signs for the warehouse. Owens-Illinois' is still up there, all I need is a telephoto and a tripod. But for CBS-Hytron, I wound up extrapolating from a photo of a radio tube box. This required my deepest exploration of the free 'GIMP' image processor to date. I fixed up color and printing register issues, shifted the relationship of two logos and set a reasonable size. Then I printed it on matte finish paper.

HytronSignFrame.jpg

I built a styrene sign to suit, painted it primer red and applied the image with white glue. The inkjet-printed sign survived that, but didn't like being weathered with A&I.  The picture shows I need to be careful about where I set the sign; I don't think it's actually out of square.

1550Hytron.jpg

I fixed up the landforms and installed a foundation for the Newburyport section house. Vegetation may happen tomorrow. But I
got distracted by writing a "how I used GIMP" tutorial making some farm signs I'd needed for a long time.

11-Mar-2014:  A good deal of progress in the past week, but nothing finished enough to be photogenic. I'd just reached a milestone closing
out my mother's estate, and went to work on the RR: I installed windows and detail-painted this modified RailroadKits EF-13B, the cinderblock 'Used Car Dealer'. It's to stand in for the real R.E. Walters Buick/Olds. I applied some diluted white glue to the lot and sprinkled on SpectraLok sanded grout: Raven for the paving outside, Natural for the cement floor inside.

walters4.jpg

Then I caught #205 departing Newburyport with two new coaches right behind the engine. They were so new they lacked window shades, but that's another thread.

Memo to self: dial the exposure compensation up when a white structure is in the foreground.

12-Mar-2014: I had a "Crafton Ave. Service Station" sitting partly built for several years. I started to paint it the other day, but stalled because the back will be visible. I don't have prototypes around anymore, City Classics' site showed only the front and I couldn't find anybody building it on the web. Is the back supposed to be brick or block? If the latter, I suppose it would have been painted white?

[edit]: At Dave's Emery's suggestion, I emailed City Classics: the molded back wall is block, and the prototype might have been painted or left plain concrete color.  I chose concrete for the contrast with the white front and sides.

walters5.jpg

My first try at a word-processor-generated sign. I think the DejaVu Sans Mono extended about 4 points works OK for a '50s enameled metal sign, but I'd like to reduce the inter-line spacing. In the final, Buick will be red, Olds blue. [Even before the inkjet ink faded, the red and blue were very difficult for visitors to see].

BM1550MP37.jpg

The unfinished forest behind the BL-2 is Phragmites tops spray-painted two shades of green. I'm trying to model young-ish White Pines, but looking at it from this angle shows I should go back and get more of the heads with more fuzz on them. And I need to borrow a blender to make the ground cover.

23-Mar-2014: I wasn't expecting the April issue of RMC for at least a couple of weeks, given when I got March's.  Recent progress hadn't been awfully photogenic, but I'd been doing both little and big things:

3717wbRiver.jpg

The photographer set up by Rowley River (bridge 30.94, recently labeled) but #22 was a little late and even with the aperature wide open his film was too slow for 3717 making up time on the straightaway.

1545wbRiver.jpg

The sun was brighter when the local from Portsmouth came along, so he shot it even though it had one of those dratted roadswitchers.

I corrected the handrail while weathering it...

13-Apr-2014: I'd mostly been setting up for operations, but rather than leave this thread adrift any longer, I posted:

HighStCut0.jpg

An operator's eye view of the intersection of High and Winter streets in Newburyport, with a westbound local accelerating out of the station.

Love the farm scene James , reminds me of days long gone by when I lived in Canada

Thanks, Jan, and good to see you in this forum.

20-Apr-2014: Needing more DCC motive power for my next op session, I got out MEC 622. It's a factory-painted Genesis USRA Light Mikado. I renumbered it from 626, added the handrail atop the tender and weathered it. I'd done this about 2001, but after an epic struggle to take it apart and put it back together, an intermittent appeared which made it useless for DCC. It stayed in the box 12 years.

I found and fixed the problem, temporarily at least: it was designed DCC-ready via a cable into the front of the tender with with a 9-pin socket and a dummy plug. But there was no strain-relief on the engine, and the shortest wire went to one of the motor brushes. Now it's a little shorter but soldered to the eye again. I'm trying to figure out a way to supply strain relief, lest this turn into another "only the owner picks it up" engine.

The next question is "sound or not"? No doubt Athearn used the cable/slot scheme so the tender could be uncoupled without taking it apart. But I've only found one sound decoder with a 9-pin connector: QSI. And I'd need to slide it through the slot and put a plug on the speaker to retain Athearn's scheme. More "only the owner picks it up" issues. That might have worked if it stayed home, but I chose a non-sound decoder and it's still that way.

BM2703BexleyTurntable.png

Here it arrives in Bexley to take the Portsmouth Local east while K-8 2713 (Sunset, purchased painted) heads for the house for a minor repair.

MEC622_LittleRiverFarm.png

After a quick trip up Rt. 1A, the photographer caught it in Rowley.

3-May-2014: Prep for my next op session continues. The photogenic parts are:

IMGP2161_v1.JPG

I needed a switcher appropriate for the Portsmouth Local, so I got an NCE decoder for a P2K SW-900 I'd bought years ago. I milled the slot in the weight to 3/16" to make room for a 3mm LED without filing the flange off. The MicroMark connector for the rear headlight wound up requiring several cycles of "remove plastic at the front of the cab, see if it fits" after I took the picture.

03-May-2014: My PC was completely upgraded and everything worked again. Here's 1231 shot from Bridge Rd. in Newburyport, with the NCE SW9SR decoder running both the front LED I installed and the factory incandescent bulb on the rear.

BM1231MerrimacSt.jpg

The B&M's last round of switcher purchases, between 1952 and 1954, were to eliminate steam from various branchline and local freights. It's been said that's why they were delivered in maroon/gold, where older switchers were black. Alas, they all had handrails alongside the hood.  Plus 1231 is one of two B&M SW-9s with factory MU and drop step on the cab end.  And it had large numberboards on top of the hood.  Someday, I need to either add handrails, drop step and numberboards, or just handrails and renumber it.

7-May-2014: All I did this week has been timetables and waybills. So here's an outtake from my April RMC article on building the Rt. 1A overpass. I like sunrise/sunset light, but the editors chose others.

rt1a1550wb.jpg

16-May-2014: BL-2s certainly had a unique look, but I've heard it was tough to work on their prime mover and electricals. I saw them in service on the Bangor & Aroostook, but the B&M's barely lasted 10 years. Some of that was lack of MU, some of it was a great surplus of more modern roadswitchers due to McGinnis' odd attraction to Budd RDCs and EMD's easy credit terms.

Not much modeling yet this week. But I got a truckload of firewood into the barn getting my lawn ready to mow, and my girlfriend's container is all packed, so the weekend included layout time. Necessary, since I'd agreed to be on Tour de Chooch after Thanksgiving.

18-May-2014: B&M 1550 is a P2K unit re-detailed: steam generator, a lot of WM items removed including MU, with the solid 3-stanchion handrail of a post-1950 B&M unit, Athearn Blomberg sideframes and DA bearing housings. My paint, Accu-Cal decals.

20-May-2014: Layout progress: My second op session suffered from congestion in the Bexley engine terminal when the Oil Job, the Portsmouth Freight and the Bexley Goat were all in the yard. So I started the first enginehouse track:

EnginehouseTrack0.png

I bought the Peco track pit castings years ago, but got stalled over track layout: enginehouse doors were usually barely large enough for the biggest loco that would fit on the turntable. Some kit doors are way oversize, which would cost me too much of my tight space.

When need arose, I realized I could build the leftmost track without committing to a geometry. I cut out the Homasote per the directions, and waited for the solvent cement to dry. Then putty, paint and weathering *before* I install and wire it. The pit doesn't look exactly like
the prototype I'm following, but I doubt I'll get called on it.

Next settle the rest by mocking up doors and walls. And leave my mockups in place for an op session to see if they annoy the Bexley yardmaster or get damaged.

I'm seeing much great layout construction and modeling here.
I enjoyed looking through the last 4 or 5 pages of updates.
I'll try and stay current with this thread as you make more progress.

Thanks, Rick.  There's a decade of history before anything I do in 2025.  I didn't do much modeling 2022-2024; I spent a lot of time at Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME.

25-May-2014: I added the steps, then puttied and sanded the pit, then installed the rail and resistance-soldered the joints between the clips. I brush-painted it with Floquil Concrete, then did the rails and clips with Weathered Black. I brushed lacquer thinner around to give a basic grease/soot/dirt effect.

EnginehouseTrack1.png

I sanded & stained the ties when I got up. Next, ballast the track outside the door.

26-May-2014: I finished the enginehouse track, but it won't be photogenic until work on the structure begins. So I chased a flaky contact in
the turntable and got to work on the west portal of Bexley tunnel.

IMGP2185_v1.JPG

I originally made it 13 scale feet wide, but it was too close to the switch points; my big steam locos caught the corner of the cab roof when backing through the diverging route. And that's a natural move for the westbound Narragansett while working Bexley yard.

I built the styrene portal fabrication to be removable. Here I'm sawing/filing it a foot wider. Then I painted over the carved mortar lines in the area I needed to re-do, and carved new ones (right hand side of the arch, below).

IMGP2190_v1.JPG

Here T-1a 4012 demonstrates that I removed enough. That's it for track issues turned up at my last op session.

31-May-2014: Thinking about visitors this fall, the Scenery AP and Pete's (Orionvp17) backdrop clinic got my mind on backdrops. I watched Chris's (LVN) videos and stopped by Michael's yesterday. Their assortment of brushes did not include exactly what Chris used, but then again, I'm not trying to do exactly what Chris was doing. There used to be real art supply stores convenient to me, but they've been big-boxed; I tried a new-to-me one that morning.

IMGP2205_v1.JPG

I painted Rowley's backdrop before it went to Dortmund with the HUB Module Group in 2005. The low horizon is a priority for realistic model photography of a prototype where the horizon is, in fact low. It went slowly because I was pre-mixing colors, and the distant hills don't stand up well in close ups because they're too uniform. Chris's dabbing will help that.

IMGP2206_v1.JPG

I experimented on Newburyport last night, since the scenery below the backdrop hasn't been started and I hadn't invested any effort in shading the sky. I got the treetop horizon line too high and too uniform on most of it. The green I got from Mars Black and Yellow will do for the most distant trees, but I will come back with something closer to what I used for the distant White Pines. Everything but the piny area by the window will be rolled over.

IMGP0874_v1.JPG

This is the effect Newburyport needs: trees in residential areas usually higher than the building roofs, but not always. East Bexley and Newbury ought to look like Rowley, but with better technique. We'll see how I do.

1-Jun-2014: I found better brushes at an art supply store: A 1" "Mop" and a thicker, more dimensionally stable "Fan":

Backdrop0.jpg

The Good: I mixed gray and yellow into the base green to give more distant colors, and didn't try to do a distant horizon, just trees on the other side of Route 1. But Rt. 1 needs more visible cues that say "road, viewed at low angle". Maybe a baluster on the bridge, guardrail posts, telephone poles. If I can come up with a photomontage of cars and a business that was just south of the Little River bridge, that would really do it.

Backdrop1.jpg

The Bad: The perspective view of Little River coming under Route 1 works from a standing position, but doesn't stand close inspection when viewed from track level. I can fix it with a repaint, but I think I'll leave this version in place till I've done the rest of the current project.

Orionvp17 commented:

QuoteI like the hillside look in the Newburyport area, but would recommend eliminating the "Hero" trees that stick up above everything else. Yes, they exist, but for the effect you want I think you'd be better off without them.
If you look around with a critical eye, you find that most of the foliage is the same height unless it's been "tampered with" by a fire, lumbering, farming and so on. The trees there compete for the same light, water and nutrients, so most are the same basic height. I'm looking across the bay right now at a tree line on a ridge -- pretty much the same height all the way up the Bay. The Heroes are right next to fields or areas now growing houses.
Don't worry too much about trunks, either -- the understory tends to fill in the blank spots and the trunks don't show.
As to Route 1, if you lighten up the black to a medium grey (I'd mix a dot of black with white and tan to get a "brown" grey rather than a "blue" grey) you should like it a lot more very quickly. Right now it's ten-minute old asphalt, and the trucks are already gone....
Your original Rowley backdrop works well, but could stand some variation in the colors, which Chris' Dab-Dab process will produce.
So keep at it, have fun, and don't forget that it's just paint. If it doesn't work for you, roll it out and try again.
Oh-- I really like that culvert, too....

2-Jun-2014: The culvert is compressed from the prototype Four Rock bridge over the Little River in Newbury, MA (prototype &
construction photos earlier in this thread). Essex County in Mass. was pretty much deforested by 1800 and this area was all cow pasture in 1930; it wasn't till the 1980s that regrowth reached the height of the old fence line trees. Nearby trees were coming out well that evening, but I haven't yet dabbed my way to the distant forested hills that should be this scene's horizon. Here, where flat land was available, farmers let the hills go to woodlot, sugarbush, or planted them to orchards. Some had been chestnut orchards before the Blight.

22-Jun-2014: That this was only my 2nd post in June doesn't mean I forgot my hobbies; far from it: I went to the R&LHS convention in Nevada, followed by the NRHS convention in Arkansas. Then Friday evening I did an airbrushing clinic for the Hub division, Saturday a BoD meeting and today our cookout at Waushakum Live Steamers.

IMGP3155_v1.jpg

This is what I painted or weathered at the clinic. Setting up my spray booth and other cleanup will be this week's next task.

26-Jul-2014: I'd been in Cleveland at the NMRA National. I might have a few photos which would add to what's already been posted, but I couldn't till I got a new DSL router. Lightning struck my wind generator tower while I was gone; I'm pretty well grounded so aside from DSL I thought I'd only lost my inverter and my PV charge controller.

But last night I went up to the attic to work. After fixing some freight cars with minor damage from the National Train Show, I turned on the layout and found three casualties I hadn't expected: My P2K 0-8-0 (old Soundtraxx) makes sound and moves, but the LED headlight appears to have blown and there's a nasty 'hot electronics' smell coming from it. The P2K SW-9 (Digitrax) shown above doesn't move. And my Bachmann RS-3 (factory sound) blinks the rear headlight and doesn't move. The layout wasn't connected to AC power, but there's a lot of wire to collect induced currents. The 0-8-0 and the SW-9 were in blocks that were connected to the DCC buss, the RS-3 wasn't (I think). More when I have time to dig into them.

27-Jul-2014: I checked the damaged locos out: The SW-9's NCE decoder is completely blown, no response to programming and draws .75 amp w/o action on DC. The Bachmann RS-3 can be read, reset & programmed, but won't make sound or move. On DC, it moves with sound for a second or two, then stops/shuts off, repeats. The 0-8-0's Soundtraxx is operable but acts like it's on the way to burning out its headlight driver. I've never had the boiler off that one, but I don't know where tracing circuits will lead me.

8 other locos that were on the layout work OK, so it isn't a major service interruption. But I'm either going to fix these or buy/convert replacements before my next op session, to avoid McGinnis-painted GP-9s next to steam. I know it's my railroad, but because it's my railroad I'm allowed to care about things like that.

The NCE SW9SR acted up out at the far end of my DCC buss, so I'll probably try something else in it. The RS-3 is probably just a new decoder, assuming the OEM Soundtraxx decoder is the same form factor as one they offer retail. If the 0-8-0 has wiring issues, Atlas may have another customer for the B&M S-2 their website shows as scheduled for late 2013 (great updating, guys). Or I could just do a couple of RDCs in the delivery scheme (no paint, just road name & numbers).

29-Jul-2014: I opened up the 0-8-0; the only obvious problem is the front headlight LED is a short-circuit, which was overheating the 1/4 watt resistor I had installed it with. I'll see if a new LED fixes that.

IMGP3160_v1.JPG

I had this engine out on the main testing a telephoto zoom I'd bought before the trip. It was sitting in a block connected to the DCC buss, but it's Lenz decoder survived.

Anyway, I got my other module home, so the layout will be operational again soon. I also helped the Hub crew clean up the place where we'd staged the club modules to work on signals and spruce things up for the Cleveland train show.

MarkF said:

QuoteThat's scary to think that you suffered that much damage from 'induction'. When I built layout room, I installed a double pole wall switch to minimize
possible damage from a lightning strike, but it appears that extra step might have been futile. Scary

Orionvp17 said:

QuoteOuch again, James. I feel your pain and wish you well.
If it's any consolation, the HubDiv layout showed well in Cleveland, with "information systems" from an operating ball signal to that ultra-high tech, seriously cool, multi-screen computer display for the DS. Spectacular.

30-Jul-2014: Mark, my new policy is that all block toggles are switched Off before I switch layout power off. I'm also thinking of a loco rack or case for engines I'm not using in between op sessions. More handling, but less loco cleaning/dusting. I just need to find a place near my staging yard.

Thanks, Pete. It's just more DCC conversions, but it's tiresome to have to go back to two engines I just finished. Four or five HUB members put a lot into getting the modular layout signaling this far. It's going to continue to evolve, and we'll keep spreading the word.

6-Aug-2014: Since my last post, I finished fixing my old AC All-Crop 66 combine and harvested 2100 lb. of wheat. Last weekend I made a trip up to Auburn ME for the Seacoast Division meeting (I was a candidate for the NER BoD) but all I've done here is set up my modules so my main line is complete again.

Something the layout photos I took in Cleveland don't show is the many cases where I saw what looked like a nice scene with impossibly poor lighting. Often these were in the shadow of an upper deck, but some were either in a hot spot under a ceiling fixture or where a track light was aimed. I'm not going to knock anyone by name; it's the owner's layout, and I have no idea how hard it is to get wiring done in any jurisdiction but my own. But I am very glad my own layout has only a few places where the light is a little dimmer than elsewhere. And I'm seriously thinking about supplementing my 48" single T-8 fixtures with more LED strips to even it out completely.

8-Aug-2014: I continued prep for pouring Little River. I need this scene for both November's Tour de Chooch and the AP Scenery certificate, but I can't dawdle: getting the attic warm enough to cure Envirotex in November will be difficult or impossible.

IMGP3486_v1.JPG

I tried sealing the ends of the watercourse with Aileen's Tacky Glue. It didn't hold my test pour of water as well as I'd hoped (the drips evaporated before I took the picture), so I'll be back to it after I get the mud color right. Perhaps a little conventional epoxy, which will also give me confidence that the clear plastic won't dissolve at an inopportune time.

I used the baster to remove the water. It's got a stainless body, but the bulb had gone soft/sticky. So I replaced it with an old bulb that I'd been hanging onto for at least 15 years...

13-Aug-2014: This morning I  added a Gold Green/Raw Umber wash to the Little River's muddy banks:

LittleRiver11.jpg

Then I staredt the water with a little pour which I would spread over potential leaks. I took a gamble on my understanding of epoxy
chemistry and used the leftover Envirotex from Rowley River, poured in the late '90s. If I get burned, it will be all my fault, but I'll know tomorrow night.

15-Aug-2014: 24 hours later the 1997 Envirotex was hard & clear, with maybe a bit of brownish tint from the hardener. I used the rest for the bottom pour on the remainder of the river.  Then I switched to some I bought a couple of years ago.

18-Aug-2014: A 3rd pour this morning:

IMGP3490_v1.JPG

I'm running out of height on my dam in front, so that section's next will have to be tinted and final.

22-Aug-2014: My RR-Line thread had been viewed more than 100,000 times. Thank you all, I appreciate your interest, it encourages me.

I was planning to post this picture of a couple of mistakes along with my intended corrections, but it's cool and damp here, not the right weather to pour Envirotex:

LittleRiver11.jpg

The visible mistake is I dipped too much of the blade of my mixing spatula in the Floquil Big Sky Blue: I got about 1/2", should have been more like 1/8". This looks OK in a thin layer in front of the bridge, but way too blue in the deeper part of the pour behind it.

The invisible mistake was how I measured and mixed: I weighed out 29.5 grams of each component into a cup, then poured them back & forth, stirring. I think unmixed stuff on the sides of the cups got in as I poured; most of it is nice and hard but some is still a bit sticky 48 hours later.

For the next pour, I'll weigh both parts into the same cup, one after the other. And I'll start tinting with a toothpick's worth of Pullman Green, then maybe a bit of Roof Brown. The front will get a very thin layer, the back more. And we'll see. I get another chance to tint when I apply Acrylic Gloss Medium...

23-Aug-2014: Another pour last night; about 35 g total, mixed in a single cup, with a couple of little dots of Floquil 'Pullman Green' (which is actually a good deal grayer/lighter than the real color).

LittleRiver12.jpg

It's still a little blue in the 'stark' shot, taken at night with only normal layout lighting (it also reveals cruft on my sensor). But with daylight and marsh grass, I think I'm getting there:

BM2713EB_LittleRiver.jpg

Shot with +1 exposure compensation.

FourRockK8.jpg

I put some extra effort into continuing the riverbed under the bridge, and making it more or less fluid-tight. This is my reward (picture fiddled to try to undo the +1 exposure comp).

26-Aug-2014: One more pour, again tinted with Floquil's Pullman Green, but only to the stream back of the bridge. I'm planning a "tide turning" scene at the bridge, reminiscent of what I've seen many times at the prototype.

BM4012LittleRiverV1.jpg

This doesn't show the pour, but it does show the marsh grass (+1 overexposed) after spray painting the underside Rustoleum Primer Brown and trimming the grass to finished length (10 - 20 scale inches). Note that the spray paint appears to have shrunk the fake fur 5-10%.  It is also the last appearance of the V1 backdrop in this area. I have to re-paint, then finish the river banks & water before permanently gluing the marsh grass down and doing the 'beaches' where it meets dry land.

28-Aug-2014: After applying the first coat of sky blue over the v1 backdrop, I finished putting the new headlight LED in 624, my P2K USRA 0-8-0. Placing it on the track, the engine would move, with sound, but the headlight wouldn't go out. The smokebox front wasn't installed yet, and I found the LED was hot to the touch, even with the larger resistor I'd just installed. Power OFF!

The meter showed 26 VAC to the headlight terminals. Checking with two different meters showed 26 VAC to the rails. When fiddling around before I went to Cleveland, it was always the expected 14.3 VAC. Voltage from the MRC power supply 'brick' is 17 VAC, which isn't really out of line for something rated 15 VAC.

Email to MRC support sent.

I don't have any hope for the NCE decoder in 1231, it acts burned up. We'll see about the Bachmann RS-3 once I get my Sprog set up.

1-Sep-2014:

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I've spent several hours painting backdrop using a few of Chris Lyon's techniques, aiming at the Great Marsh and adjoining farmland in
August. I like what I achieved in this shot of the Rowley - Newbury line (module joint at the left). But now I've cleaned my brushes. My modeling time for the next couple of weeks went to preparations for the NER convention September 11-14 in Palmer, MA.

10-Sep-2014: Yesterday Pete dropped by, so I got out Rowley's scenic details. After he went on his way, I decided to re-try a shot I'd originally taken for the Scale Rails article:

RowleyTele1545WB.JPG

This one uses a telephoto and isn't quite the same angle, but it makes the best use of my recent backdrop work. And as usual, shows some things I should fix for a re-take after the NER convention.

18-Sep-2014: I did the Heubach Farm (East Bexley) scene's backdrop:

backdrop0.jpg

Up to this point, I'd been using acrylics with techniques borrowing from Chris Lyon's videos. But now I needed to do a building front in perspective.

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The Boxcar Red came out of the same ancient Floquil can I'd used to airbrush the barn's base color. The black is acrylic semi-gloss house paint.

backdrop6302.jpg

The white is acrlyic house primer, done with my finest brush and everything I could do to steady my hand and paint straight. As usual with perspective views, it only works from one point (see above). So I need to add a tree or two to hide it from long views across the Rowley River.

1-Oct-2014: Since that burst of painting, I've tried out a couple of phragmites pines I had around; they show where the better trees need to go, but better trees haven't been made yet. Instead, I've been doing prep for future activity: A fast clock (future op sessions), sorting through all my signal parts (op sessions & AP Scenery certificate), cleaning up. The last two evenings have gone to installing AC panel meters on the two parts of the DCC buss. It wouldn't have taken nearly that long except the meters (GME PM89 series from All Electronics) had a design/manufacturing defect: When I tightened one binding post, it broke the etch/solder connecting it to the PC board inside. Rather than put the time/effort into returning them, I shifted a resistor lead on the board so it made direct contact to the binding post screw.

The photos you posted about six minutes ago are all hiding behind the blue box with the question mark....

Bummer!

Pete
in Michigan

2025: Pete, past experience suggests they'll show up in 5-10 minutes?  I'll check back.

8-Oct-2014: I wasn't satisfied with the color of my first try at Little River's marsh grass, as illustrated by the low-angle shots of 2713 and 4012 above on this page. So I made a couple of new pieces just colored with Liquitex Basic Green and Yellow.

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New is on the left.

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New in front.

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Old front & back.

I was unsure. I did the backdrop to match (more or less) the old. These pictures were taken with only room light. The earlier pictures were taken with room light and daylight coming in the window. I think that's where the excessive brightness of the grass came from. So there may not be a perfect solution.

Orionvp17 commented:

QuoteAlthough this looks good, I share your misgivings on color. Both of these areas look overly green to me. The only marsh grass I've ever seen had a lot of brown in it, no matter when I drove by it. Would adding tan to the mix help tone things down and make them look "better?"

Marsh grass changes color a lot with the seasons, but I've been neglectful and don't have any pictures of my own from mid-August (the target time for this scene). Brown increases as Summer ends, then dominates the picture October - May. This page has a mid-summer shot first, then an October shot further down:

http://blogs.massaudubon.org/landpro...on-initiative/

The salt marsh photo at the bottom of that page tells me "more green, but no Pthalo Green" (source of the blue tint on my 1st try). It also tells me "can you get a little light brown on the tops of the tall parts?". Dry-brush? Airbrush at a low angle? Brown static grass? I'll experiment.

As it happens, I photographed the Great Marsh (Newbury division) in September 2013. I think this was near the intersection of Hay St. and Newman Rd., on the Little River not far from Old Town Hill.

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Bror Hultgren commented:

QuoteLiving on the edge of the marsh in Ipswich, my observations:
My initial response is that the colors are too saturated, whatever the hue. (This is a natural tendency for how we remember colors). Regardless of the season, the areas need more variety (see the 3rd to last of the pix in the Audubon link and your own), not so homogeneous. Your lighting is not helping you, especially when trying to match the color in the backdrop(having seen your layout, I can sympathize with the difficulty with the sloping ceiling). Can you place a few small bush size trees to break up the interface between the 'backdrop marsh' and the 'layout marsh'.

10-Oct-2014: I did a soak in gray to reduce the saturation; it helped at high angles but not down low. My friend Deb suggested hitting the tops of the grasses with a fan brush, which improved the low-angle view a great deal.
LittleRiver13.jpg
But it still was way too bright unless I blocked the window behind it. That just seems to be the nature of the ?polyester? fake fur. So that's how photography here will be done, I guess.
22-Oct-2014: Yesterday evening was all RR-related, but the only actual layout work was wiring a phone extension up in the attic. This is a convenience for one who does not carry a cell with him every waking minute, but there's also a cautionary tale: A modeling friend who lives alone out in the woods had a stroke late one night. With half his body paralyzed, it took him three hours to struggle to a phone. Now every floor of my house has a phone which I can reach with one hand while lying on the floor. And they all work when the house has no power.

Dave Emery commented: The last time we lost power, our Verizon land-line went down with the electricity (but the Cox cable home office phone worked just fine.) It appears as Verizon rolls out FIOS, their fiber based infrastructure is not as reliable in the face of power failures as their old copper infrastructure.

Fairpoint has some backup, but not like it was when our copper went straight to a New England Telephone CO. When Comcast is feeling prosperous or there's a big game coming up, they drive around and chain generators to the poles holding their head-end amps for each street. But in the best of times, that takes a while.

29-Oct-2014: The farm at East Bexley has had a cardboard mock-up of a pole equipment shed for some time, but with Tour de Chooch coming up, I decided to join the RR-Line "shed & shack challenge" and get it built. But first I needed workbench space: I like the express box car I built from this Red Caboose kit, but I'd used the original split-shank couplers and one had lost its pin. The door steps had also suffered from handling over the years:

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I popped off the coupler box covers and installed Kadee #148s. Then I bent new door steps from Detail Associates .010 x .018 flat brass bar (I can still see the difference in cross section) and pushed them into #78 holes in the edge of the frame. After I reinstalled the trucks and the Blacken-It did its work, it was ready for a car card & return to service this morning.

MEC 622 behind it may get shelved in favor of the shed - the lead has broken off the motor a second time, so a better fix is in order.

6-Nov-2014: My friend Victor came over to tune up & run one of his passenger consists:
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Generally, the BLI T-1 ran pretty well, but the long wheelbase, low pilot and weak lead truck springing found a couple of dips in the track.

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Handling an engine this large with a delicate multi-pin plug between the engine & tender is tough. But I thought of using the wood/cloth loco cradle I built last month:

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Victor thinks he'll build one of his own, but 3-4" longer.

The T-1's volume was enough for a TRAIN SHOW. But it had a great variety of sounds, and a bigger/better speaker than any
other HO steam I've heard.  I won't hurry to fix the dips which hung it up; they don't affect the westbound main and the westerly staging tracks anyway. I like to give people a chance to run their equipment, and I have broad enough curves for pretty much anything. But I'm not going to rebuild my prototypical clearances for double stacks.

Everything should clear a dome or Superliner, but the first lap will operate at Restricted Speed as a High & Wide.

18-Nov-2014: Standing by the Rubicon (Little River):

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I think this is about as good as I'll get the marsh grass, and I've spent too long on it anyway. With the Tour de Chooch looming, tomorrow I'll glue it in place and finish the beaches & wrack separating the marsh grass from the land.

25-Nov-2014: Ron G. came over to see the layout before helping at the upcoming Tour de Chooch. We got talking and while we were talking, I kept on working. One project got finished this morning:

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Behind 1231 you'll see Farmer Heubach got the roof on his pole equipment shed.

The rest of the evening's labor went to the Little River area, but several steps remain.

30-Nov-2014: Before I switched to Tour de Chooch cleanup, the Little River bridge area got a lot closer to completion:

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This angle doesn't show the 'beaches' at the edge of the marsh grass, which I did with sand from Hampton Beach. But it does show the 'sea wrack' which gets floated by spring tides into a layer above the normal high tide line.

No more pictures till I get the camera thoroughly cleaned.

Tour de Chooch: Wow. I didn't have anything on hand for a guestbook, and didn't think to ask my friends who were guiding visitors in/out to count, but I'm sure I had more than 100 visitors. And I talked to them all. The layout behaved pretty well. A couple of my cars derailed a few times, which I'll investigate this week. Ron's locomotive hit some condition which got it blinking its headlight 3 times, then pausing, then repeating for a minute or two and then going on normally. He needs to get the decoder manual to see what it was trying to tell us. Nobody who operated really knew the interlockings, so most of the day two trains were chasing each other around the main oval. But no smoke, no broken bits and everything's in place for the next op session.

So now off to dinner & a beer

3-Dec-2014: It warmed up later in the day, but was gray & damp out, so I gave myself a RR day. I ordered the last PSX-1 I need. Then I replaced a marginal homebrew turnout control at Newburyport West. Then the track gang went around with gauges & lining bars and fixed several glitches that had manifested after I started heating the house. In late afternoon, I decided it was time to do this:

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The library card file is my main parts store and also holds a number of unbuilt car & loco kits. When I'd first got it up there, I'd placed it to keep people from falling into the attic stairwell. But it made an unnecessary radio shadow for my MRC throttles, and I'm going to need the space it was in anyway when I start on Newburyport's City RR. peninsula ( http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmrr/Newburyport_1950.PNG (http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmrr/Newburyport_1950.PNG) )

So I moved it, built myself a sound but not pretty railing, then spent the rest of the evening cleaning and organizing. And as far as I can tell from this picture (Rowley on the right, Bexley behind the chimney), the cleaning I gave my camera & lenses worked.

The house appears on the 1800 tax rolls, so it was built in 1799. Some of the story behind it is here:

http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/ae_house.html (http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/ae_house.html)

The visible chimney is 3x5.  At ground level (the four visible posts are roughly the footprint, 8x9)? It has seven functional flues, but I've got stainless pipes in three of them for two woodstoves and the furnace. One of the two original beehive ovens is usable, the other
needs minor brick/mortar work.

28-Dec-2014: One aspect of getting the layout this far while active in the Hub Division is I now have nearby model railroading friends. Most of them don't have layouts, but want their equipment to run well when they take it to a Hub Module Group setup. Thus:

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Victor came over with his new Bachmann NYC S-1 4-8-4 and a bunch of bargain freight cars he'd accumulated at various train shows. He'd brought a Kadee coupler height gauge and some tools, I got him started with the NMRA gauge and supplied a bunch more tools, washers etc. Then I cleaned wheels, leading to dismantling/reassembling the coupled drivers of my 2-8-4 and various other variants of 'yak shaving'. After about 5 hr., we assembled the train and observed as it ran all the way around the main line without a glitch. I made several more loops so Victor could make phone videos.

Bachmann did pretty well, but one driver and three tender axles were slightly broad-gauge. Luckily, I budged the drivers with finger pressure, avoiding bringing my NWSL Puller to bear. I really liked the way the engine drifted/coasted when you shut off the throttle.
I hope the various DCC fiefdoms will agree on which function keys should be apply/release brakes; WOW chose F7 & F6. Lots of SOUNDS, ALL AT TRAIN SHOW VOLUME. This can certainly be changed, but the dogs I was sitting needed dinner, as did I.

<to do: post the Dec. 2014 Eastern Route tour that once was on Picasaweb>

12-Jan-2015: This post was sponsored by RR-Line's "Unfinished Symphony" gallery. This project ran around my layout just as
Rapido made it for four years.

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Victor came over, and in between showing him techniques to build a P2K boxcar with separate ladders & grabs, I cut off the unprototypic (for the B&M) skirt remnants, opened it up and applied tape window shades. But since I actually finished it (there's light weathering around the trucks & roof), I wasn't sure it should go in the gallery.

AF (Osgood Bradley to those who have trademark lawyers after them) cars were the first choice for Boston - Portland trains from delivery to the arrival of the stainless-sheathed lightweights in 1947, and some of them used the Eastern. Even right before through service ended in 1952 Rowley saw #21 (unnamed, no consist listed) and #22 the Penobscot with three sleepers and "deluxe streamlined coaches Bangor - Boston". But only momentarily, as neither stopped.

Very little modeling was done in the very snowy February of 2015.

11-Feb-2015: So far all my roofs have held up; the Eastern Route is fine. But the snow is a foot above the windowsill in front of me as I type, and moving it around has consumed energy that might have gone to RR projects. A couple more snowstorms are expected, then maybe it'll warm up a bit next week. I was restaging for my next op session, which has led to completing weighbills I'd only put one or two entries on, messing around with a weighbill-generating spreadsheet a more experienced operator gave me, playing with spreadsheet programs to clean up some errors on it and so forth. I spent some snow-free time today looking into a dedicated layout LED power supply, which goes slowly. I'm not an EE and nobody else seems to have had the idea I have, so I've looked at 50 or more circuits, forums discussing them, etc.

23-Feb-2015: Finally:  a weekend with only 4" of snow, only one roof to clear, plus an above-freezing day with sun, actual layout progress.
Acme Fast Freight is a major, high-priority customer in my version of West Lynn, with cars dispatched 6 days a week to other regional hubs. Because their prototype Boston-area location was in Malden, I didn't have to research anything; I bought a Walthers Allied Electronics background building because it had enough windows to work with my 'staging viewer' holes. The brick fill areas got hit with leftover paint in an airbrushing session a year or two ago.

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I decided I was tired of looking at the cardboard mock-up and started sawing.

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I used model airplane cement for the joints and reinforced them with .100 x .188 styrene strips located to support any floors I decide to install. It's big enough and my workbench had sufficient other stuff on it that this has been a stand-up job, using the track as a work area.

26-Feb-2015: Because Floquil has changed thinners over the years, I usually use lacquer thinner when airbrushing; it works with all versions, but I can't put leftovers back in the jar. So when I mix too much, I wind up patrolling the layout room looking for current & future projects that could stand some of this color of paint.

I  made a quick trip to Newburyport to get some detail photos & measurements of the first firehouse ('Deluge #1', built 1864) before it was demolished. The city was delaying the owner's plan to replace it with condos, and somehow nobody bothered to shovel the roof. The rear part, which looks a little tired here, finally collapsed Monday.

Lawlers0.jpeg

This photo from happier & warmer days shows its final occupant, which moved out a couple of years ago. I will model it as Lawler's store with a dry cleaner in the recent 1-story addition. Then I took a look at one of the roofs of my mother's house and decided it needed shoveling, so no modeling that day.

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I got some time in on the Acme Fast Freight building. The roof & 3rd floor are .040 styrene 'scribed' with a compass to match the backdrop's curve. It's waiting for airbrushing weather (when it's not bone-chilling to open the window for my vent hose).

I was invited to two op sessions this weekend, and had opened up a ModelTech Studios "3D Background Tenement" kit for the other side
of the Saugus Branch track.

4-Mar-2015:

 AcmeFF3.jpg

The attic was comfortable enough that I got Acme Fast Freight to the point of ratifying my choice of kit: Allied Electronics is enough of
a see-through building that my "where to stop" windows to the Saugus staging fouling points still work.

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As if I didn't already have 15 buildings 'in progress' (though some just need signs), I figured out how to connect the scene behind the Saugus Branch to Bennett St. This is DPM's Carr's Parts facade coupled with a bunch of leftovers from other DPM kits. Here I'm using the Sears vernier caliper my parents gave me when I was in HS to mark the height of the roof.

I also put in several hours on roads, abutments and retaining walls but it's late and I still had two chores to do.

11-Mar-2015: I try to think like some combination of a businessman and a contractor. I thought about a blank wall, but I needed the
thickness to match the others, so it wasn't going to be simple. And I had an appropriate leftover.

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How things stood after a couple of days of building/painting retaining walls, paving roads, and adding ground cover to the areas not directly under trackage.

22-Mar-2015: I'd been working on other structures too:

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I accumulated a lot of Walthers modular parts. After a failed attempt to make a used, re-kitted Geo. Roberts Printing fit the Gorin Machine site, I made a try with the modulars. This was made easier by re-flattening the cardboard mock-up I'd gotten tired of looking at for a pattern. The big, flat, solvent-proof work surface is the pull-out shelf of a replica Hoosier Cabinet that had been accumulating clutter for several years.

I'd used almost all my flat pillaster parts. I looked for more at the Wilmington, MA Greenberg show that afternoon.

23-Mar-2015: More progress on Gorin Machine in Bexley. It's named after Howard Gorin, a lifelong live-steamer. In the 1980s he sold me a Walker-Turner drill press that still graces my wood shop.

GorinMachine1.jpeg

There was a lot of new styrene dust, but I got the basic form together. The stock modular parts only do right angles, so I looked around and the clearest write-up was R. W. Holmes' Oct. 2008 MR article. He used a razor saw on his corners, but for the two acute angles, I widened the cut with a new hacksaw blade.

Once everything was aligned properly, I backfilled the cuts with model airplane cement and scrap styrene. Tomorrow morning everything should be dry. I'll try to get the cornices on, as they'll make the structure rigid enough that I can trace out a floor.

1-Apr-2015: After I got back from the Finescale Expo, I buckled down to clean up projects ahead of Saturday's op session. First, I made a canopy out of JTT corrugated styrene and Evergreen .080 and .125 I beam for Acme's newer dock:

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Then I built a dock to match it:

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Scalecoat 'Aged Concrete' is a little darker than Floquil 'Concrete', but the design is intended to suggest the curved dock was added when Acme moved in.  Paint's drying now, I'll assemble it in the morning.

2-Apr-2015: There was more roof work to be done, window glazing, some attention to the doors, then signs and finally detailing. But the canopy and dock are done:

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The X-29 is an old Trains-Miniature car with simple modifications to improve the looks: I filed the running board down to about half it's original thickness and trimmed the door 'claws' down to minimum size. It doesn't stand up to the Red Caboose die work, but it doesn't fail horribly as part of a mostly 'Green Dot' fleet on my layout.

5-Apr-2015: Since Saturday's op session I have:

- Fixed the turnout that bothered the passenger cars

- Loosened the truck pivot screw on the Rapido Osgood-Bradley coach

- Fixed the yard throat turnout lever

- Re-switched the misrouted freight cars

- Restaged passenger & freight

- Organized my timetables better

- Charged the radio throttles

Since I won't get the replacement PSX-1 circuit breaker till the middle of next week, I moved on to other projects:

Initially on kitforums, then on modelersforum, Tom Langford has organized a 'Traveling Freight Car' using Atlantic & Southern 3667, a loaded 55 ton hopper car. I picked it up at the Finescale Expo in Scranton and it finally made its way across the Hudson and up to Boston today:

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Setting up for the photo shoot, I spent about three hours with four colors of paint on the DPM leftovers kitbash visible to the right of 4012. It's my first attempt at beige brick, using Floquil Depot Buff. It still needs mortar, when I figure out where I put my paste away.

Finally, a note on my 'Floquil Life Extension' technique: I dip my brush in lacquer thinner and then in the paint that collects in the Floquil lids. I keep doing this till the lid is pretty much paintless, then start taking it straight from the bottle. The model gets essentially 'free paint' which would otherwise dry in the lid, the lid goes back on clean and none of the cheap lacquer thinner gets into the liquid paint itself, so it doesn't curdle.

9-Apr-2015: My upbringing didn't give me much knowledge of 'sin'. It wasn't till I was working as an engineer that I really came to understand how careless or convenient actions can have a price which WILL be paid someday:

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In 2007 I really wanted an operating layout, which ultimately led to me building the Saugus Jct. turnout across the joint between some existing track and the new roadbed. And I sinned, twice: First, I didn't move the shelf bracket. Second, I decided to just drill through it and make the point rod hole oversize, using only the air gap to insulate between the two rails. I didn't apply insulation, I didn't even drill both holes oversize; the shelf bracket is at the potential of one rail.

I am repenting (and re-doing) my sins now, after this led to a short circuit taking much longer than it should have to debug.

27-Apr-2015: I completed the Acme Fast Freight kitbash. It still needs a billboard on the roof, but I need to learn GIMP better to get the colors more uniform.

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This also shows Busch flexible self-stick cobblestone (Walthers #189-7078) in the area between the two team tracks. I'll post more when my experiments at coloring it are thoroughly dry.

28-Apr-2015: An intermediate step in last night's GIMP activities produced this, which I post here for pre-1970 B&M modelers and anyone else whose prototype used similar signs:

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The original is at a museum in upstate NY, Steve Labonte gave me his photo. This isn't shown in any B&M plans I have, but I made GIMP print it 24" wide in HO. If anyone wants the GIMP .xcf file, it's quite small enough to email.

1-May-2015: I'd been going back & forth about how to build the roof sign for Acme Fast Freight. I got past that:

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I'd printed the sign on regular paper and sprayed it with matte finish. Then I mounted it on heavy kitchen aluminum foil with 3M Super 77 spray contact cement. Then I figured out a plausible frame design using Evergreen styrene I had on hand:

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The vertical posts are .080" H column, the horizontal members are .080" channel, the braces are .060" L. I primed it with rattle-can gray before sticking the foil to the frame with Walthers Goo.

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A westbound engineer's eye view of the completed structure looming over West Lynn yard. A couple of weeks ago I got the truck dock roof done and added the ACME sign to it using Plastruct styrene letters. With the roof sign, the structure is done. Even though the photos  show me a few color shifts I could go back and fix with GIMP...

There's scope for detailing, but I'll get the overall scene a lot more complete before I come back to this.

4-May-2015: After yesterday's op session, I closed out the evening doing this:

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Dip the end of the .010x.030 styrene in Goo, insert into rail gap, nip, repeat. If I let it hang over in line with the rail, I don't have to hold the styrene while I nip it. This is fast enough that I did about 1/3 of the main line turnouts/gaps in an hour.

Once the whole main is done, I'll come back with a sharp file and a Bright Boy to make sure nothing fouls the gauge. No running trains in the mean time.

7-May-2015: I finished all the gaps, along with soldering a dozen neglected rail joiners. I went back to Gorin Machine (started in March).

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I'd made a couple of tries at adding mortar; Between the pillasters and the stepped-out portion of the roof pieces, doing it with liquid or paste was going to be a lot of work. Here I've used Savogran Wood Putty (out of production, but I think Durhams Water Putty might also work). I pressed it into the mortar lines with my fingers, brushed and picked off excess and then set its fish glue component with steam from a tea kettle.

Last night I painted a lot of lintels, next is to install a lot of windows. Then some details on the roof and walls, followed by signage and weathering.

13-May-2015: The clear styrene skylight casting from Walthers' Allied Electric Motors kit is far and away the most picky job of painting I've ever done. Pictures when I don't hate the results.

No skylight pictures yet; I may have to mask & airbrush it. But the project advances:

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This illustrates a minor Walthers modular gotcha: the 'wide walls' with pillasters used the paired window castings. Those without pillasters use single window castings (which I didn't paint enough of).

20-May-2015: Mieke's Yard Office kit is pretty much finished; she added a few extra details like the stink pipe, a scratchbuilt electric meter and the signs I made for her. Once I finish the scenery around it, we'll make the pedestrian bridge from the top of the stairs over to the main line atop the retaining wall.

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Today, Boston Engine Terminal assigned a Maine Central Mikado to the Camel. It's on its way back to Mystic Jct., braking to a stop so the conductor can get weighbills from the yardmaster while the rest of the crew is picking up the Boston-bound cars.

2-Jun-2015: Things have been quiet on the Eastern Route since the long weekend - lots of signal gangs working and the long haul trains diverted to the Western Route to give them uninterrupted nights to work: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6882.0 (https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6882.0)

Today, while waiting for signal pier concrete (glue) to set, I finished installing yellow joint bars (laser cut resin board from Precision Design) over rail gaps everywhere except Newburyport. I don't think they'll be much of an issue there, but that'll only be eight more if I'm wrong.

24-Jun-2015: I was walking down Bennett St. to the plant and noticed a shiny new car parked at the West Lynn yard office, so I snapped a picture. Turned out a Traffic Department man named Smith was learning the territory; he'd just been promoted down to headquarters from Concord.

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After I got the setting for Mieke's yard office mostly done, I tried out a little point-and-shoot whose lens location would let me frame this picture. It reveals a few things I should fix before I can hope to publish it, but it's progress.

James,

Just finished getting caught up on this thread. Lots of great stuff here and again, thanks for giving us all here the work you did on RR Lines. The rural scenes, the overpasses and scratch built structures look great.

Tom

Thanks, Tom.  A good memory of your A&S hopper car on tour.

30-Jun-2015: The signal setup at the east portal of Bexley tunnel has looked complete for a while, but I was talking to one of the gang at Bannon's last night; he said there's a lot more work to do on the electrical controls at Bexley Tower.

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The first two styrene dwarf signals are in place but not wired. The remaining seven are on my #3 workbench in various stages of completion. An op session was coming up in a week, so I shifted gears to cleaning up and re-staging before the weekend.

9-Jul-2015: My friend Mike was covering the 3rd trick Newburyport Drawtender job while the guy who owns it was on vacation. He knows I'm usually up early, so he called me about 5 AM, saying there was an R-1 on the 'Narragansett' and it was late enough that I might catch it in daylight.

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Sure enough, when I got to Robinson Rd. there was 4108. The brakeman was just climbing back on after pushing the button to line the automatic interlocking into the yard. That 'run-down' timer is 4 minutes, so I grabbed a quick shot of the engine and the red 'jack'.

I was trotting under the Robinson Rd. bridge when the engineer gave two short and cracked the throttle. I sprinted a little past the home signal and got another shot as it entered the yard. At Bannon's after work, Ernie told me that 4108 was the Rigby protect engine and ran light to Arundel after the diesels had fuel trouble.

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My first interlocking was in service. A day too late for the op session, but better late than never.

17-Jull-2015: After the op session, I ordered a bunch of signal parts. Meanwhile I worked on the NMRA AP certificates for Civil Engineering and Scenery. The former is waiting for evaluation to be scheduled, the latter has had me adding details and fixing little problems in my planned 32 sq. ft. area: East Bexley through Rowley to Little River.

Wednesday Ron G. brought a P2K RDC-3 to try out. We set it up leading an eastbound train. I remembered a photo of a similar consist arriving Rowley circa 1957, but even if we could have put the camera where the photographer had been standing, the backdrop would have been my chimney. So this one's from the opposite side of the tracks:

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I scratchbuilt the crossbuck to B&MRRHS plans in 2000. In 2015 it finally got its "2 Tracks" placard.

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The B&B gang put up some new fence at Little River and painted the flanger sign and switchstand at Newburyport West.

I had Author, Volunteer and Electrical (my most recent, a year ago). Getting Civil, Scenery and Dispatcher in 2015 seems within reach. Structures is a little farther out. Fates willing, I qualified for Official in 2017, not that it advanced my pursuit of MMR.

27-Jul-2015: It appears the wheels will eventually grind me out a Civil certificate. I'm continuing to work on Scenery, while pondering a comment my AP Chair made while looking over the area I plan to submit for evaluation:

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The left (RR west) end of the section is East Bexley, where the backdrop coves in and the Robinson Rd. overpass exists to separate the sceniced area from the unsceniced Bexley yard tracks.

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But the right end, at Newburyport West, was just the visible line where I reached 32 sq. ft. and stopped applying ground cover. He says it would be better if the scenery ran up to a natural divider.

The US 1 overpass will go in the gap between Little River and the Hytron plant. But it hasn't been begun: I need to learn to make molds and cast multiple complex parts. But also, I can't get the level and vertical curve of the east (right) end of the embankment right until I'm roughing in the landforms on the un-built 'Downtown Newburyport' peninsula.

I explained this and he responded that completing and scenicing the sides of the embankment would work, though not as well. But then I remembered the Georgetown, Rowley & Ipswich trolley embankment west of Rt. 1. Almost all of the fill was east of the B&M, so it might do the 'divide' function decently, while avoiding Rt. 1's issues.

So I dug out O.R. Cummings book and when detailing gets tiresome I'll mock something up. The abandoned abutment will go a little right of the switchstand. I just need to make sure that the block signal (yellow push pin) just west of the Rt. 1 overpass still has decent sight distance.

28-Jul-2015: I was completing the cable guardrail on the approaches to the Rt. 1A overpass. But with .010 wire (scale 7/8") the longer parts on the far side of the tracks take some looking to spot:

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The lens was about 8" from the truck.

29-Jul-2015: I'd concentrated on the Heubach Farm in E. Bexley and now it's almost finished.

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Mrs. H's kitchen garden will be hard to see behind the house: I used Alkem etched corn, Busch laser-cut rhubarb and JTT cauliflower and broccoli. I hoped the phragmites tufts would look more like asparagus ferns, but I suppose they're OK as some sort of allium. The picket fence is elderly Atlas (why it isn't pure white). The little patch of flowers is a snippet of a 'wildflower' grass mat surrounded by a fiberglass window screen scrap painted white.

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Two jobs remain: The collage photo of the "Blue Tombstone" (Harvestore silo) behind the barn needs to be reprinted in color, and I need to make a 'barnyard pole' with light and electric meter. But if I want it actually lit, I should spend the hot part of the day digging around on the web for the right 1/8" audio jack/socket combination to mount it removably.

5-Aug-2015: Here's a try at 'night' photography by turning my camera's exposure compensation down. This is about -1.6 stops with only the 'walking around' LED strips for room lighting.

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Mr. Rice's new 'yard post' light isn't very bright, but that changed when I built the real power supply for it. Here it's powered by the 'Diode Test' function of my multimeter.

6-Aug-2015: Passing by Robinson Rd., I saw an Alco switcher working the east end of Bexley yard. When they stopped on the main beside the Heubach farm, I tried a time exposure in the last bit of twilight:

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This work included making two rectifier/current limiter LED supplies and finishing & wiring the associated yard poles. On a roll, I took a look at doing one for Rowley Depot. DC power is already available, but I must remove a chunk from the stick of wood that holds the big tree in place before I can mount the socket.

12-Aug-2015: I'd opened a Pandora's Box by starting with lights. The Rowley depot's outside light won't look good in a picture till I've
also lit the station interior and the platform shed. And the Clam Box positively cries out for lights. It also looked easier, so:

I finished the kit (in a 2012 thread not yet moved here) with no thought of lighting. But years ago I bought a set of extra-long drills. The 1/16"
was long enough to drill completely through from the roof to the floor. And a #30 solid wire fits into 1/16" brass tube.

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I soldered the cathode of one LED to the tube. I'm about to solder the + feed to the anode of the other LED. In between them I'll have another joust with #38 magnet wire.

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The time to have used a plug/jack to connect the wiring was long past. I put a small terminal strip under the layout and hoped nobody (least of all me) picks the structure up abruptly.

17-Aug-2015: A couple of hours of RR work today was enough to finish outside lighting for the Clam Box:

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#38 wire is soldered from the left LED's anode to the right's cathode (note color marks to keep track). I made sure both would light before cutting off the unused leads. Because they're in series my meter's 'Diode Test' setting wouldn't light them. I used the current limiter already in place for the Rice farm instead. Next step was 'galvanized' paint for the LED bodies and leads.

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The finished scene. Until I decide to illuminate the Rowley platform shed & interior, or the houses, lights for this part of the RR are done.

30-Sep-2015: We'd gone to Portland OR for the NMRA National, then Phoenix for the PSW Region convention, with lots of scenery & friends in between. I'd finished a project for the Hub Division; back to scenery work:

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This 'Ornate Picket Fence' came from Monroe Models' booth at the National Train Show. Tomorrow the glue will be dry enough to paint. Once it's installed Mrs. Rice's garden will be (mostly) safe from the chickens. Beans and Rhubarb are from Noch, young fruit trees (right) are from JTT.

13-Oct-2015: The Scenery AP evaluators will be looking for appropriate signage. So in between picking chestnuts and making applesauce and firewood, I've been trying out new aspects of GIMP on bits of images I found on the net:

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I'll eventually need an 'Entering Newbury' sign, but good images are lacking; I'll just take a quick shot when I go pick this one up from the copy shop (I didn't have semi-gloss paper at home). .xcf or PDF format available on request.

21-Oct-2015: Still applying details:

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I like the way these signs look. But I expect to be asked about license plates. They're on the next sheet sent to the print shop.

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I'm not so happy with this view; commercial picket fence doesn't work well on slopes. But the issues are less clear when viewed from above, so it can stay for now. Tip: the Monroe fenceposts are rectangular. I drilled 3/32" and punched holes to fit with the tail of a 4" file.

27-Oct-2015: I built the Massachusetts town boundary sign and installed it tonight:

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I spent a while installing New Hampshire Red chickens and cows; It was late and I wasn't satisfied with my paint job on Sweetie the Jersey.

That style of town boundary sign goes back as far as I can remember, but a web search reveals that at one point the bottom edge was also curved to suggest the shape of an open book. I wasn''t called on it. Someday I could make a 2nd sign for when it's 1953 on my layout.

29-Oct-2015: Near the end of my punch list; I got 'Sweetie' the Jersey painted to my satisfaction. The NH Red chickens are almost invisible at 3 feet, but they photograph OK.

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The biggest decision remaining is about my AP Chair's suggestion that I supply a 'frame' for the right (Newburyport West) end of the area to be evaluated. The abandoned embankment and abutments for the Georgetown, Rowley & Ipswich trolley overpass would suffice. I've got photos and maps but I must mock it up to see if I have room for a credible representation.

5-Nov-2015: What the right (RR east) end of my scene looked like at the end of October. The gap against the backdrop existed because I won't be able to get the levels right for the US 1 overpass until the Downtown Newburyport peninsula's RR roadbed is half done. The gap behind the fascia is where the peninsula will attach.

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The road surface & guardrails waited, and  haven't made trouble for future me with the fill and gravel where the approach spans will go. But it does look better and the embankment supplies a bit of 'frame'.

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At the other end of the US 1 area of Newburyport, Prost Bakery got a foundation, framed by swamp and the side of the High St. glacial moraine. The ill-founded house is in Newburyport, which is many, many structures away from potential as a Scenery AP candidate. The area I submitted for evaluation goes left from the US 1 embankment.

I was talking about my AP Chair's comment about a 'frame' here when Mieke commented that she wanted to put temporary cardboard filler pieces in these gaps before Tour de Chooch. I filled as much as I could with permanent scenery:

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Mieke commented: After having visited a few layouts in NJ on our way to and from the NER convention, it got me thinking. Some had a curtain underneath their layout, and it really encouraged focus onto the layout, hiding (potential) clutter underneath. So, James and I got 100ft of fabric and a pile of velcro, and I hauled my sewing machine to his place. A lot of measuring later (because aside from 8ft of modular layout, nothing is straightforward, of course) the sewing started:

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Here are the first 2 panels installed:

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James did all the sticky parts. And once he had that section glued, the third piece went up.

One more panel is waiting for 2 more feet of velcro, and 2 panels are prepped and ready for all their velcro. Yes, we woefully underestimated the amount of velcro needed. Needless to say, there is a shopping list. After those are done, probably 3 or 4 more panels, and also go around using the staplegun to reinforce the velcro to the wood. After the glue dries a little more. Don't want to yank off both velcro sides with the curtain.

One of the detailing that you can't see (as intended, but I may take a picture of to show later) is that in some places there are supporting beams going to the fascia, and I had to notch the fabric to make it fit. Usually not more than an inch wide and about an inch down, and I will probably reinforce the cuts at some point, to prevent the fabric from tearing down from those cuts. Yes, I learned to sew long before I picked up modeling.

7-Nov-2015: If I'd been able to get the same fabric in 18% neutral gray (in time for Tour de Chooch), I would have, but this works well for me. I requested evaluation when the last few details were installed. Here's results of the 1953 Mass. license plate endeavor:

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That's a lot of magnification, and means I need much more attention to weathering than 'a splash of A&I' for any vehicles on which I'm going to showcase the plates. I may also need to figure out the right kind of pencil to color plate edges and back sides. At least I'm a lot better at GIMP now.

Here's another kind of detail from the last GIMP session: The B&M used to sell ad space aggressively, in the coaches, on the station platforms and on any building that passengers encountered. What I remember from the '60s was aluminum frames with cards slipped into them. There were many campaigns for Boston's theater district, as well as movies, food products, autos etc.

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I'm following a mid-50s photo of Rowley that I don't have the rights to reproduce. I don't see framing visible around the posters, so I guessed the frames were painted steel angle. I used a pencil to darken the cut edges of each printed poster and stuck them on with rubber cement.

It turns out movie posters tagged by year are all over the net. Theater posters are usually for Manhattan venues. From left, it's 'Guys & Dolls' on tour, 'The Robe', 'Tumbleweed', 'House of Wax' and a Marshmallow Fluff ad that I wish looked less like it came from a newspaper. And yes, I went upstairs and straightened the train order signal mast before I even resized the image.

The actual image/print quality doesn't matter much at Rowley due to the platform shed and roof overhang. I'll need to take more care and maybe find more/better images when I do this with Mieke's Bexley station. That will have four or five feet of inter-track fence, so maybe two dozen card holders on the side facing the audience.  It's much farther from the viewer but not necessarily from the camera lens.

13-Nov-2015: My region AP person liked my write-up; he only wanted pictures to give an overview of the layout to accompany the text. My
division AP chair guesses the Scenery evaluation will happen in early December.

Mieke's work on the Bexley station ( I apparently didn't save it when RR-Line ended ) reached the point where we need to design the relationship between the kit's roof and the platform sheds (can't do a busy B&M commuter district station without extensive sheds): So seven years of thought about the Depot Sq. area turned to action:

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In 1980, the raised area behind the main line was home to Standard Hydrocarbon & Petrochemical in the town of Sawyer on the Tech Model RR Club's layout in MIT's Bldg. 20. I expect removing it will be the last major repurposing change to Sawyer as it becomes Bexley. 

My coping saw is visible on the cut line, leaving 4 carlengths of spur for Bexley Produce.

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The Chipman St. boxed pony truss bridge prototype is at the bottom. With this depot location, I'd add another layer of 2" foam between the bridge and the depot, leaving room for a platform about 2" wide, stairs etc.

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Except for more platform & stairs, the area right of the depot would be filled with 1" foam, using the depot to hide the change in level. I'll ask Sunday's operators what they think, then either implement or sketch out Plan B next week.

16-Nov-2015:

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Ron G. saw me modeling an Acme facility and found this (Athearn, I think). The 'landing gear' was missing, so I made some from .030 x .060 and 3/32" tube. I decided a 28' package & crate trailer didn't need two axles, so one's in my stash now. After a bit of Grimy Black
it made it onto the layout for yesterday's op session.

21-Nov-2015: Mieke put the roof on the Bexley station the other day, so I continued with its setting:

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The hardboard inbound (WB) platform is fitted and supported, with a quick coat of black latex in case I don't get back to it before the Tour.
The foam landforms are my second try at contours, using hot wire, knives and a Surform tool. The ramp up left of the station will lead to a pedestrian bridge, the ramp to the right gets baggage to and from the forecourt.

25-Nov-2015: I'm modeling this area as the result of a grade crossing separation done about 1900, a few years after Mieke's station was built. The railroad got lowered while streets approaching the overpass were raised. And this is why the EF 17 station has a main floor two or three steps above platform level. At least, that's what this hodgepodge of gnawed away foam is intended to convey.

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After painting streets and building foundations roughly, I needed stone retaining walls. I will use Wood Putty, painted black and carved through to white for the mortar lines. But I didn't trust it to stick well to styrofoam. So I used more 3M Super 77 spray cement to stick fiberglass window screen to the vertical surfaces.  9 years later, it's holding up perfectly after many removals and replacements of the foam "station square" liftout.

28-Nov-2015: About 50 Tour de Chooch guest book entries, maybe 65 or 70 total visitors. My friend Alura's father had a layout when she was young, but she never got to run it. Today she ran mine almost continuously for 7 hours when Ron G. got called away. He did make it back near the end. A few cars found new ways to give trouble, but I was too busy talking to visitors to even take pictures so they'll get diagnosed next week.

3-Dec-2015: A tiny step backward on the scenery: While fighting with what turned out to be a diaphragm problem ( <Rapido AF car, not yet uploaded> ), I reduced the grade Eastbound from West Lynn:

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This required breaking the backdrop joint behind Bennett St., but all will be well tonight when I have time for sanding & painting. In other news, the layout is scheduled for AP Scenery evaluation next Thursday.

10-Dec-2015: My AP Scenery evaluation did go well and all that remains for me to do is get the papers into the proper in-box.

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I tried a new camera angle (more or less 'looking west from the future Rt. 1 overpass across Little River'). Pretty much the first place on my layout where I can shoot along a curve and look realistic. Of course, the absence of equipment helps.

17-Dec-2015: Not much layout progress; the Hub's been busy and various kinds of end-of-year cleanup is ongoing. What bumped this thread was I made an index showing page number, date and highlights and added it to my 1st post (Feb. 2008 on Modelers Forum).

28-Jan-2016: or the last six weeks, all progress was in the Signals & Telegraph area: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6882.15 (https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6882.15)

But Newburyport Draw interlocking drew me back into photogenic stuff. 1939 photo of the Bridge Rd. area of Newburyport between Merrimac St. and the river. Thanks to Ron G. for catching it on the way from the library to recycling:

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There's a standard B&M board fence along the top of the retaining wall. I hadn't known about the shanty closer to the river, I'll see if I have room for it too. The home signal for the end of double track is on the embankment beyond the end of the wall.

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I didn't have that luxury, so I imagined them digging out part of the wall and pouring a concrete pier so the signal would clear equipment. Kind of barren, unsafe to boot.

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So I imagined a wood platform bolted to the top of the wall: Scale 2x4 and 2x8s being assembled.

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After an unhappy interval where I found A&I softened Aileen's Tacky Glue and re-assembled it with yellow carpenter's glue, it's in place. Next comes more board fence (some has been on my Rowley module for quite a few years).

10-Feb-2016: Bulletin Order #17, February 9 2016:

Westward 3-light interlocking signal and dwarf signal for against-current-of-traffic moves from the eastward track to single track at MP 12.5, D'Arcy Ave. have been placed in service.

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The camera is looking railroad west under the Robinson Rd. bridge and across Bexley yard and engine terminal (in real-world terms,
south alongside the stairs).

14-Feb-2016: Crossing the Robinson Rd. bridge over Bexley Yard, I saw an F-unit holding at the end of double track. They aren't common on the Eastern and I had my camera, so I detoured through the yard.

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Before I could get a good photo angle, he got a signal and started to pull. Not sure why, as the next home signal was three red and the yard job was cleared to go west ahead of him. But they call the guy calling the shots in the tower Train Director and crews don't disagree with him lightly.

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The switcher finally finished his air test and started to pull as I was walking by the turntable.

This is somewhat staged, as until the next interlocking is built, both High and Middle Green will usually be displayed simultaneously. Fixing that also requires building 2-3 more signals.

[edit] The March 2016 issue of RMC explains differences between 'Speed' signaling per the NORAC rules and the 'Route' signaling common South and West of the former Conrail. In the 1950s and 1960s, the B&M employed 'Speed' signaling, but without most of the 'flashing' aspects found in NORAC rules. So that's what I'm modeling.

Orionvp17 commented:

Quote"The signals "make it" in that area, and it's cool to know that the whole process is yours. You must feel good about that!"

Thanks, Pete. Your comment gave me to think a bit. I did research commercial offerings, but none of the pre-built signals were going to look right and the electronics I could buy were going to take me down paths I didn't want. I'm able set out on a project like this expecting to like the result, but I have to budget my time/attention; Mieke commented on me getting hyper-focused and pushing harder on this than she expected out of my retirement. So, I'm happy about it, but had I been able to buy pre-wired wireless interlocking modules I could install and program in a day or two, the time would have gone to something else useful.

26-Feb-2016: Bulletin Order #21, effective 12:01 AM February 27, 2016.

Westward Automatic Signal P362 at Newburyport West has been placed in service.

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A B&M RS-3 wheels a mid-morning Portsmouth Local across the Little River and into the rural edge of Newburyport, Mass.

This telephoto shot is anachronistic given the pre-1956 subject matter, but I grew up with David P. Morgan's taste in photos. That's one reason I bought the 50-200 zoom. This is 80mm, camera resting on the Hytron spur five or six feet from the loco.

Great job with the signals James..... 8)

Thanks, Greg.  Sadly, Rob Paisley's site seems to have disappeared. Oregon Rail Supply's site is still up, but doesn't say what's in stock.
-----------------------

2-Mar-2016: A 'grab shot' of a new EMD roadswitcher on the Boston-bound Beach Special one day:

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This new Genesis loco is a bit disappointing: It's nicely detailed with the appropriate train lighting box on the long hood, but I shouldn't have paid extra for the DCC/sound version. The decoder sounds OK but they don't support Maximum Speed (CV5). Minimum Speed (CV4) is there, but set to 0 with 28 steps, notch 1 has the loco moving at a slow walk and 28 is way too fast. Also, nothing I did to Acceleration/Deceleration had any visible effect. Maybe they'll have an effect above 128.

<I later figured out how "creeping featurism" in DCC was making things I'd learned earlier obsolete>

3-Mar-2016:

Bulletin Order #23
Effective 12:01 AM Thursday, March 3, 2016.

At Bexley Depot, Eastward 3-light home interlocking signal governing the eastward track, Eastward 2-light dwarf interlocking signal governing the westward track and Westward single light dwarf interlocking signal governing the Ramp Track are placed in service.

Centralized Traffic Control per Rule 265 is in effect between Bexley Depot and D'Arcy Ave., under control of the Train Director at Bexley Tower. Movements may be made in either direction on single track.

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A P-2c Pacific on a Portsmouth Local has pulled forward from the depot to the home signal. The stack is clear, but shortly the westbound Beach Special will clear the single track Bexley Tunnel and there'll be a show.

4-Mar-2016: Orionvp17 and Frank_Palmer complimented my photo.

Thank you very much, Pete & Frank. I'm happy to have gotten it to this point (it isn't nearly as finished-looking to the human observer, but that gets better with time).

In December I was cleaning Broadway Limited E-7 for an op session and it started running erratically: at about speed step 6 of 28, it started to accelerate, then decelerate like the drive had a bind. By speed step 12 it was stopping, jerking ahead, stopping again. It's first run, I think, but with the chip upgraded by Tony's Train Exchange at the same BigE show I bought it at.

I took it all the way apart, looking for mechanical issues; no joy. Needing it for the next op session, I put the chassis back together; same issue.  So I followed the directions in the BLI manual to pull the jumper and do a hard reset. Then I used JMRI's Decoder Pro to dump a configuration I'd saved back into its CVs.

Repairs complete, blue flags taken down, ready for the highball (and blessings on the Decoder Pro contributors).

7-Mar-2016: I spent most of this afternoon experimenting with craft paints on the kitbashed plastic building against the backdrop. I began with a train show rescue of Walthers' Geo. Roberts Printing of the sort that makes me sad: The builder had used something like Ambroid cement to assemble it. Brittle joints, except for a few repaired later with tube plastic cement, brown stains. Never painted. Maybe it satisfied the builder, more likely not. Anyway, I got this background building out of my $5, and I expect to get another.

Learning from experience #1: lacquer thinner will soften WallyWorld's 'Home Shades Primer' even if it's been left to cure for two weeks. So I had to switch to acrylics.

#2: Getting even, mistake-free coverage on plastic with a brush and water-based paints takes about as much time as masking and airbrushing. I may be able to avoid a weathering step, but won't know for sure till I'm done.

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Anyway, it fills a big void in the scene Mieke is working on. Mortar and windows next, but it may be several days.

17-Mar-2016: Shooting 'closure' photos for my 'Prototypic dwarf signals in HO' thread, I got one with potential to be pretty:

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I was eating breakfast when 'Slivers' called to say today's 'Camel' had a Maine Central Mikado. I hustled down to Bexley depot in time to catch the return trip. #622's clear stack surprised me as it left the tunnel; turned out the train was just six empties.

It will get better once I get started on the Bexley Produce Terminal to the left.

15-May-2016: The HUB Division had its Spring Training convention and then I was out of the country for a month. Now I'm back to doing a little on the layout, but so far only renewed work on getting a good Yellow out of Rob Paisley's 556-based signal driver cards.

10-Jun-2016: For the Augusta, ME NNGC layout tours page, I needed current photos of two scenes:

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Portland-bound past Bexley Engine Terminal.

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The 1st Lynn Goat spotted the inbounds and departed for Bexley. Now the team tracks bustle with shippers and consignees.

12-Jun-2016:  The organizers used 7 of the 8 I sent. (2016 NNGC site now only available in archive.org)

I didn't want to show only in/around Rowley, as the urban areas are where my current work focus is, aside from the signaling.

Not much modeling since March. But I'd visited 6 countries & 5 states, my Rowley modules have been out twice, I presented at NE RPM, I'm learning to be a trolley motorman at Seashore and I'm getting ready to send Rowley to Indianapolis. The garden is mostly in and haying is likely to be finished this week, but then I have to get my combine ready to harvest Winter Rye in late July.

25-Aug-2016: I hadn't done anything to the layout since June (conventions, travel, farming, hiking) except start cleaning up for NNGC visitors. What I did here was start updating my index on page 1 to include links to related threads. It's only signaling for now (to help a friend find things), but I'll probably add pointers to the few structure threads I've done

27-Aug-2016: That day started off cool but by the time I finished this job, the attic was almost like I was paving full-scale out in the sun:

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Bexley's outbound passenger platform is paved, as is the parking area behind it and the access road. Platform shed parts were on hand, but I need at least a footprint for the mail/baggage/stairway building (left edge of the picture) before I start work on the sheds.

29-Aug-2016: Thinking about the express building, I pulled the Railway Design Assoc. 'Easton Mill' out of the kit drawer. The bricks look good, but the edges of each molding need a *lot* of filing to get a clean joint. In their defense, RDA does supply downspouts to hide the seams, but I didn't want to commit to using them.

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The two window walls will face the passenger platform, the freight door walls will face the spur closer to the edge of the layout.

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A few minutes with a jeweler's saw produced door openings for the stairway. I'll install steel beam lintels and disguise the remains of the arch lintels with signage.

29-Aug-2016: Mieke commented: I've picked up working on the scenery in East Lynn again, with the tenements (details at another thread <To Be Uploaded>. Clearly, we need to put newer pictures up. Between James and I, there are yard-shaped green spaces and basic pavement and paths. Yesterday I atarted on some of the fence sections - first coat of brownish paint is on. Will have to see how it looks once it has a second coat later this week.

2-Sep-2016: More progress on jbvb's new building (her photos):

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3-Sep-2016: Aside from the windows, I'm about done with the original Easton Mill kit - I'll use the double step casting at the west end, but unless I can ID the 'top step' part on one of the sprues, I'll have to make it from styrene. Their roof castings represents wood shingles with bases for ventilators. I need slate, so more styrene and peel & stick.

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With the building dimensions established, I can go back to roads, platforms & ground cover in the area.

8-Sep-2016: About 2004, when I did the backdrop behind the former 'Sawyer' from the Tech Model RR Club (now Bexley), I hadn't worked out how to 'scribe' a panel to meet the angled roof to make a coved corner. So I ripped a strip of 3/32" lauan plywood and bent it around.

As seen above, the depot loomed above it, and I expected other buildings in the area would also. We made a template to extend it earlier this year, but I wanted to use lauan so the spliced pieces would have similar properties. It's hard to find because it frequently comes from illegal logging. All I needed was a 2x4' panel, which came my way last week, and from this day forward I will abuse no more Philippine Mahogany trees:

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I yellow-glued a splice strip and drove one screw to secure the top. Then spackled the joint.

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The joint isn't perfect, but most will be hidden by 3-D, flat and photographic background buildings. I blended some darker blue down from the top.

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The mail/baggage building also grew the rest of its interior walls.

3-Oct-2016: (ianswering a question): The station's from a kit developed by Ed Fulasz and presently manufactured by 'Railroad Kits!'. It certainly shares some architectural features with Point of Rocks, but it's a lot smaller and simpler. I was aiming for a late-1800s feel, kind of "The Mayor and four Aldermen are holding out for a clock tower. What will it cost us?"

After a summer of working on other things, I've gotten some work on the Eastern Route in, mostly electrical:

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I built the diode matrix for the West end of Draw staging back in 2010. It's compact and was inexpensive to build. However, I made a mistake building it which has required re-soldering connections several times. The lead that loops from the top of the diode to the output buses touches the buses, but doesn't loop around them - no mechanical strength supporting the solder. And I have to handle the board a bunch when I reconnect it after working on it. Next time (or if I rebuild this version), I'll make a 90 degree bend in the looping lead and pass it under the buss, then cut the extra off after soldering.

The other project was lighting some brass passenger cars (chosen because they were easy). My signals are more realistic when cars trip the occupancy detectors, but the resistor wheels I've tried haven't given me consistent results. Lighting kills two birds with one stone:

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I used Evan Designs' U-10 LED/current limiter/rectifier assembly. Some cars require axle wipers, but these old Nickel Plate Product heavyweights work OK if the leads are wrapped around the truck screws. For coaches, I put the LED in the clerestory on top of a white paper diffusor installed with rubber cement. It isn't flicker-proof, and one LED doesn't illuminate a whole coach evenly, but it's progress.

9-Oct-2016: Passenger car maintenance in the DCC era: I built Bangor & Aroostook 6-4-6 sleeper 'South Twin Lake' from a brass kit imported by NJI in the 1970s. I used a nice brass 41-BNO-11 truck kit from Custom Finishing. Last spring I took it to a show and after a bit of running, one of the wheels melted its insulation. Maybe the truck was over a gap, maybe the brake shoe touched the flange:

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Either way, the wheelset was toast. Most new wheelsets have pointed axles, but brass passenger cars often use parallel-sided journals. These were .980" long with .055" journals. In my parts drawer, I found Reboxx wheelsets 1.010" long with .065" journals which would fit the sideframes' bearing holes. With a few strokes of a fine file, I shortened them, removing the points in the process. Measure as you go; you can't put back metal dust.

I found a picture of South Twin Lake taken before the 'hotbox':

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14-Oct-2016: Not much photogenic progress recently, but a good deal of fiddling with the location of the MRC wireless dongle, hoping to improve reception in the north end of the room. Nothing conclusive to report yet. So on to Purchasing: (If people think this should have gone in The Car Shop, I can do so).  I just received Rapido's new HO scale New Haven 1948 Pullman-Standard lightweight coaches. The gauge and coupler height were good on all three, the steam line is high enough and far enough back that I don't expect trouble:

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The interior light is quite bright, enough to interfere with exposures under my normal room lighting.

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I need to look at photos and NHRHTA publications - I didn't realize they were delivered with green roofs. Of course, this might have changed by my mid-1950s era, but it's worth a bit of time to confirm. I only have one other car in this scheme, an Eastern Car Works parlor-baggage, whose roof is black.

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I love the end-to-end uniform illumination, but it makes window shades a priority. When I have the first car open I will take a look at the regulator circuit and see if I see an easy way to dim them.

A friend asked if the New Haven cars would have been seen in Rowley on the Eastern Route: Prototype 1948 P-S coaches in New Haven livery probably never ran through Rowley; the Eastern wouldn't have been a likely detour for the State of Maine or East Wind before it was severed as a through route in 1952. The MBTA fixed up a couple of trains of these for head-end power in the mid-1980s, so they almost certainly ran through West Lynn (with a purple window band). But those were long gone when Ipswich - Newburyport service was restored in 1998. In my alternate universe, the New Haven built the Boston Harbor Tunnel and the State of Maine goes through Newburyport instead of Worcester and Haverhill.

15-Nov-2016: It had been a while: packing, then 3 weeks in Thailand, then the election and firewood. Now Tour de Chooch was two weeks away (I was open Sunday 11/27) and I spent the day in the attic:

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The baggage & express building had a roof, and I temporarily assembled two sides of DPM's 'M.T. Arms Hotel' into a background building behind the depot. The rest of the hotel is another partial structure facing Bennett St. in West Lynn. Painting awaits warmer weather, so I've been working on adding a bit of removable street and rearranging the backdrop in that area.

17-Nov-2016: Another 8 hours in the attic and progress at the Bennett St. site (E. end of West Lynn) has become photogenic:

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Bennett St. used to stop at the near edge of the single track overpass. It now extends to the wall, removably so I can still install and remove storm windows. The roof of my 2-story kitbash on the left is finished; it awaits windows and curtains. The M.T.Arms kitbash on the right will get brick and facade paint as soon as I get more N2 gas from the local welding supply.

26-Nov-2016: Time ran out for more scenery. Just cleaning & testing before the Tour de Chooch tomorrow:

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The express/baggage building is closest to complete. It still needs shingles, downspouts and window glazing. And a big loading platform around it, platform sheds and the pedestrian overpass; it'll be a while. The new commercial building behind the depot needs black on the backdrop behind it, but it isn't as obvious from normal viewing angles.

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The markers got added to C-2 this way: <Tomar markers thread to be added>

This background building is a little farther along, but the scene won't really coalesce until I figure out how to do streets disappearing at angles with available photos. And Mr. Smith's car looks awfully new; some dull varnish appears to be in order.

27-Nov-2016: Dave asked how Tour De Chooch had gone: Well; I had help running trains and help downstairs to guide visitors. I only had one DCC decoder crash and one protocol glitch with old-style consisting. And one RTR freight car with an out-of gauge wheel. The signals did their job with only one glitch, which cleared itself up as mysteriously as it arrived. Ron G. brought some of his equipment, which ran all day after a few shakedown issues. We had 48 visitors total, not as many as some other participants report, but only people who could climb 2 flights of stairs came to my attic.

30-Nov-2016: I needed to understand how West Lynn was to be signaled before I returned to work on the Saugus Jct. interlocking. So I spent a couple of days on it; the dwarf signals at the west end of the running tracks now work:

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After spending daylight hours around and under the layout, I'd almost finished the design this evening. One question to sleep on, then I can build the interlocking itself and the single home signal I know I need (I may decide I need another).

2-Dec-2016:  My old friend John Purbrick, who worked out that way of building searchlight dwarfs, visited during the Tour de Chooch and remarked on how many I'd built (9). Right now I'm thinking about potential issues before I build the rest of this interlocking: If I socket-mount the home signal that goes by the (scale) switch machine on the right, I can build GE's in-plant track behind it with no risk to the signal.

Bulletin Order #35, December 9, 2016:

At Saugus Draw East interlocking, Eastward two-light dwarf interlocking signal and westward dwarf signal on the eastward main track, and westward dwarf signal on the easterly running track are placed in service. Trains and Engines using the running tracks at Saugus Draw East must obtain permission from the Operator before reversing hand-thrown turnout at the west end of either running track.

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My boss sent me over to the Gear Works with a part they needed, so I grabbed my camera from my locker as I left. Since GE bought the plant, the guard towers haven't been manned and the day shift guy at the guard shack by the crossing knows me. I saw the Lynn Goat pulling down the Westbound to run around its pickups so I shot it as the jack turned yellow.

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The Oil Job was on the Middle track; their brakeman said they wouldn't pull over the crossing till the Goat was done, but right behind them was a passenger local; I got all three engines in the frame..

16-Dec-2016: That week, I reached a minor milestone - all 18 of my main line blocks had occupancy detection. 11 of them are completely protected by signals (e.g. a signal warns engineers if the track is occupied or a turnout is reversed). I'm designing the last interlocking. There are still 4 mast and 2 dwarf signals to build. At this rate, I might have it done in time for a February op session - all my weekends were booked through the Amherst show at the Big E.

I'm also accumulating evidence for model rail layout building as a path to fitness: Aside from one errand, all of today has been spent working on the RR. A bunch of that was under the layout; I don't know how my gadget interprets crawling around. But it assures me I've climbed 15 floors worth of stairs while walking 4,800 steps (1.7 mi.). Another reason to get out of the armchair...

Bulletin Order #38, January 19, 2017:

At Saugus Jct. interlocking, Eastward three-light home interlocking signal governing the eastbound main track, and eastward dwarf signal governing eastward movements on the westbound main track are placed in service. Westward movements on either track entering the interlocking must proceed until all cars are west of the governing Eastward signal.

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Walking down Bennett St. the other day, I heard a funny air horn - not the single-trumpet foghorn the early diseasels came with, not the three trumpet model on an EMD roadswitcher. I climbed up the embankment; lo and behold, it was a Buddliner fresh from Philadelphia. There'd been a story in the Lynn Evening Item last month; this order of Budds is supposed to replace the Pacifics and Moguls I grew up with. I've been carrying my camera every sunny day since then. Timmy and Ike down at the Enginehouse are worried, but they haven't gotten any notices abolishing their jobs yet. I won't be shooting many more of these Buddliners - they all look alike. Fooey! Bexley Tower gave this one a Bottom Yellow, lining it up the mail/express track. I guess the brass want to save a little by turning Buddliners there instead of running through the tunnel and into the yard.

Rapido "Phase 1c RDC-1" 6113 in the 1955 delivery Minuteman scheme. The first 8 were delivered in 1952/53 with bare ends, single-chime horns and fabricated trucks. Signal uses Oregon Rail Supply heads, base & finial, Free State Systems platforms and ladders.

24-Jan-2017: My next project wass building the Downtown Newburyport peninsula, whose City Railroad (lower) and Pond St. (upper) spurs leave the main at Newburyport West:

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The prototypes for these tracks date to the railroad wars of the 1850s: a B&M branch trying to steal traffic from the Eastern had its passenger terminal at Pond St. The City RR looped south of downtown to serve the waterfront directly, which the Eastern had never bothered to do. On my layout, the B&M freight house will be at Pond St. and the City RR will serve several active customers, including expedited service for the Swift meat distribution warehouse.

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Work began today, building the two long L girders and moving my parts cabinet to the other side of the chimney. Tomorrow I need to get a long-planned power outlet installed before I clutter up access to the crawl space by putting the girders on their legs.

31-Jan-2017: I finished a long day by going up to the attic and cleaning up after taking Rowley to the Big E. As I was shifting equipment among my boxes and the layout, some clearly needed weathering before the op session later this month. I experimented with a pastel crayon & brushes, but for the main job I used washes:

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Rapido, like Budd, painted the non-stainless part of their RDC underbodies a color somewhat darker than ATSF 'Enchantment Blue'. But the B&M's fleet didn't look like that in service. I brushed on Tru-Color Grimy Black, then Floquil Rust, both diluted with lacquer thinner.

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The exhaust area got more Grimy Black, which I then streaked out over the rest of the roof with more lacquer thinner. I'll probably return to 6113 with my airbrush to get more brakeshoe dust onto the lower sides, but I'm willing to show this to visitors.

NOTE: putting lacquer thinner on Rapido's fancy metallic finish worked for me, but sometimes things that work for me don't for others. Start out gently...

3-Feb-2017: Lining up an op session for the 18th has shifted my priorities to cleaning, including unfinished projects. Yesterday & today I put a chimney and half the roof on the Mail & Express building:

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I have the loading platform for the other side done but for legs and staining, but it got washed out of the pictures I took. And for the other half of the roof, I will take the time to fully lay out the shingle guidelines and see if that gets me a more even roof.

4-Feb-2017: Dave Emery had recommended printing a template for shingle location. I replied: I usually eventually manage to get
something printed to the actual size I need, but it's rarely easy. I measured and scribed for the other half of this roof:

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The loading platforms need to be leveled, stained and embedded in the scenery. I have a plan which I'll try tomorrow. I used a B&M font from the published Standard Plans and digitized by Ken Akerboom for the sign.

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This is the side (and partial interior) that won't even be visible to a micro camera once the platform sheds are in place. The idea is this was the old freight station before Chipman St. in Bexley was grade-separated. During that project it was repurposed as part Mail/Express/Baggage Room, part indoor stairway & limited waiting area.

A question for those who're more on the structures side of things: This took 6+ hours of shingling. I'm looking at alternatives for buildings that aren't aimed at contests and sited 30" from the audience.  A couple of people recommended Clever Models' textures, but as of 2025 I haven't tried them for distant shingles yet.

8-Feb-2017: I postponed erecting the Downtown Newburyport peninsula till after the op session on the 18th, so it's still scenery and structures. I did have what seems a clever idea, shown below:

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I've done OK at embedding loading docks and other post-supported structures in scenery. But the hole layout/drilling is a pain, and the structure always needs fiddly leveling whenever it's touched. The Baggage/Express RR and truck docks are far enough from visitors that I decided to try screw leveling. I also had the idea that if a dock warped badly, I could apply epoxy to the screw heads and weight the whole business down till it was permanent. But luckily, that hasn't happened here (still OK in 2025).

12-Feb-2017: About 2010, I'd started the Chipman St. overpass west of Bexley Depot. I designed the multi-span boxed pony truss bridge, built the abutments and got stalled because I wasn't sure what the surroundings would look like:


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I decided I knew enough about the setting so I collected the research & materials and started a new thread:

 <Boxed Pony Truss scratchbuild To Be Posted>

17-Feb-2017: A week of working on the Chipman St. bridge (intermixed with a snowstorm, etc.) had it almost ready for paint/stain. This afternoon I cleaned up for tomorrow's op session, this evening to testing with trains. But I took a few minutes to play around with the bridge as a photo prop. This one has potential, once I've figured out the backdrop and built a few more flats and partial buildings:

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18-Feb-2017:  Dave Emery posted pictures from that day's Op Session (I didn't take any). "I observed/acted as brakeman/kibbitzed for an operating session on James' railroad today:"

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I'm a complete neophyte to operations, so it was really interesting to see how this all comes together. The signals and interlocking were particularly effective at preventing accidents, and except for one car and a couple of recalcitrant couplers, everything (steam and diesel) ran great! Next time I'll actually try to run a train."

19-Feb-2017: It was good to see you, Dave. I'm thinking the next will probably be late April or early May. We'll see how much the layout evolves before then.

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The weather favored airbrushing today, so I painted the bridge's truss enclosures and road deck. And after setting it to dry, I tried out another photo angle.

22-Feb-2017: I got the basic bridge model pretty much complete - paint was drying on the truss enclosure roofs.

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B&M 6113 by Rapido westbound.

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My model of 3821, the B&M's only E-8, goes back to the first run of P2K E-8s in the early 2000s.

13-Mar-2017: After my last post, I spent a week at an all-you-can-drink place on the Mayan Rivera - not my first choice but a friend in the group demanded a swim-up bar. Returning to frigid weather, paperwork and doing a styrene scratchbuilding clinic for the Seacoast Division, I only just got back to the layout:

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Rapido's Phase II (New Look) RDC is another beautiful model. But its pilot is much pickier about vertical curves in the track; it derails at several places which don't bother the Phase I model at all. Filing will be required, but before I start I'll get out the RDC books and see how much clearance the prototype had.

The other bit of progress visible here is Tichy #8016 NBW castings on the guard timbers. After a slow start, I got fairly adept at installing them - the recommended #77 drill is a light press fit, which worked fine once I got out serrated-jaw tweezers. Motivation: Hoping the Rowley River Bridge earns a Merit Award when evaluated for Master Builder - Structures.

18-Mar-2017: The box pony truss got its last NBWs this evening. Then I installed the sidewalk curb and paved it. Final photos will go in its own thread if the paving dries satisfactorily.

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I was happy to see at least one angle where NBWs were visible: representing bolts holding up the floor beams in this case. The bolt securing the brace to the outrigger beam is also in the picture, but I can only make it out in the original. The ends of the tension members in the trusses are only visible when it's upside down in a good light.

21-Mar-2017: Using serrated-jaw medical tweezers got the patience required well below that required of a saint. They were given to me by my Dr. who said they'd otherwise go to scrap after one use.

I finished installing the Chipman St. boxed pony truss bridge:

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It's been lightly weathered with A&I, next came a candle for smoke stains.

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Once I finish the backdrop and scenery in the area, I'll try these again with lighting over and above my room lights.

13-Apr-2017: I got back from a trip to the U.K. and found the backlog I'd expected. Today finally left me some time for the Eastern Route:

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I'd built a partial eastern abutment for the Chipman St. overpass. This is a 'grab shot' which might have been taken from King Arthur Flour's unloading dock (except in the real world the building was removed to make room for my camera). The visible area needs more cinders and ground cover, and at some point King Arthur's coal unloading pit will appear in the foreground.

21-Apr-2017:  Early in March I'd done a Scratchbuilding Structures in Styrene clinic at the Seacoast Division's Derry Fun Night. As before, my presentation was building something mixed with passing around pieces and subassemblies while answering questions. The subject was the B&M's Newburyport, MA section house.

I'd measured, photographed, drawn and built Ipswich's Section House years ago. Newburyport's housed two gangs, so it was built to the same standard design, but twice as long. It's long gone, but I remembered the speeder doors being at the ends. I couldn't place the people doors, so after finding the B&M RRHS Archive's ICC valuation data covers an earlier version of the building, I chose one, facing the track (breaking & entering wasn't unknown in Newburyport of that era).

Materials are Evergreen .060 spacing clapboard .040 thick, .080 square bracing and .010 x .060 for trim boards:

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Last night I cut the rear wall and assembled the basic structure.

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This morning I added an .040 styrene roof and most of the remaining trim boards. Once I get the rafter tails on it, I'll paint at least the roof.

The only other recent activity is non-photogenic: Beginning to pave the High St. overpass for the Structures AP and cleaning up some punch list items from the last op session.

24-Apr-2017: I had a busy weekend: the Hub Division annual meeting & spring show on Saturday, then re-qualifying as an operator at Seashore Trolley Museum, so no model work till late today.

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The High St. overpass is paved, but needs detail painting to make the granite curbs look better. I've had some success at using colored pencils for lane markings on 'grout sand' asphalt, so I'll try white tomorrow. And then there's a little to do on the underside and retaining walls.

Working in that end of the room got me thinking about other jobs. I've got the L girders for Downtown Newburyport made, but last week I finally got ICC valuation data for the Merrimack River drawbridge. Knowing the pier elevations and truss depths, I finally started cutting the plywood that's sat 5 years in my barn:

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The back and bottom will be 1/2" plywood, the ends 3/4" because I'm making it as compatible as I can with FreeMo. Once all the parts are cut and assembled, I'll reduce the depth of the temporary span's web to clear the piers so I can run trains while work is ongoing.

Most of the area will be river, but there will be a little land & marsh by the abutments. And a timber fender pier with gratings to protect the swing span when open. And a very complicated 3-span deck truss bridge, with animated gates to warn trains. And the true golden spike for my Eastern Route. Someday...

25-Apr-2017: I got the 'kinda FreeMo' module mostly built. I measured enough that initially it was a 'light press fit' in the opening, but it's much easier to plane 1/16" off than it is to add 1/16" to something that's too short.

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The backdrop board isn't attached; far too complicated to get it positioned fairly tight to the ceiling with just two hands. I hope to get help from Mieke tomorrow or Thursday, so meanwhile I'll re-work the temporary chunk of main line and connect it again.

Frank Palmer was looking forward to the river/marsh.  I replied: What salt marsh I can fit in will be on the Salisbury (right, RR east) bank. Newburyport was remnants of shipyards upstream of the bridge, retaining walls and dock bulkheads downstream.

Not being the grade of woodworker who owns meter-long bar clamps or a big workbench with bench dogs, I asked Mieke for help putting the backboard on the Merrimack River module last night. We eventually managed to get it aligned, drilled, screwed and glued together, at the cost of a drill bit. The screw pilot's original spade point was tougher, I should see if it's available separately. Grinding and hardening a new one would be a venture into new territory for me.

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Photo credit Mieke.

Once the glue fillets I applied to seal the joints are dry, I'll start painting. The temporary track is operable, and built to be easy to remove/replace. I expect to cut it down in several stages as I build first the abutments and piers, then the bridge spans.

27-Apr-2017: Annoyed face is because I'd broken both the bit I'd started with and the spare on this job. But I need to go to Amesbury Industrial Supply anyway, and 1/2 doz. 3/32" in HSS will be a lot less than a pair of 1 meter bar clamps that I'll use once a decade.

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I painted everything visible today; the model bridge is stalled pending a couple of dimensions for the prototype's swing span. I don't have room for it full-size, but it should fit if I trim one truss bay off each end. But I need to know how long a bay is; the center bay over the pier is longer than the rest.

29-Apr-2017: Frank Palmer had blamed the hand drill for the broken bit. I replied: Frank, I'm not a very stylish person. I do own a drill-driver, which gets used with the hex bits that its keyless chuck will grasp reliably.

The hand drill works fine till I ask it to swing the big countersink part of the screw pilot with only the 3/32" drill bit to guide it. I go years without breaking small drills by themselves.

2-May-2017:

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With the drawbridge stalled, I went back to the Downtown Newburyport peninsula. Sunday afternoon was checking my CAD drawing against reality (surprise, surprise they're different) and making sure I could build it in a practical envelope. Monday I built the support frames and with Mieke's help got the L girders attached and into position. My hardware store offered me Spax construction screws as substitutes for Robertson square drive. But their modified Phillips heads still make Phillips bits cam out. :-X

Because the peninsula is too big to leave the room in one piece, I've designed the track and scenery as three modules supported by the L girders. I will saw the profile board edges from plywood and frame the middle of each as open grid with plywood subroadbed and hardboard streets. I hope I have the details worked out before the next spell of rainy weather.

6-May-2017: The rain didn't really start Friday until we'd inspected and tinkered with 600 yards of track up at Seashore. So the layout work waited till evening:

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Mieke, my son Frank and I cut a sheet of 1/4" birch plywood into strips Thursday afternoon, while his birthday pork roast was in the oven. Friday night and today, I partly assembled the first of three modules that will sit on the L girders. This one will support the Pond St. Freight House track and State and Pleasant Streets. The inland portion of the City RR will be to the left, and the Market Square/Waterfront module will be closest to the camera.

Since I took this photo, I've been transferring data from the plan and marking cut lines on the plywood profile boards. I'm expecting to have to take each of them apart again to cut the sides down, but I'll make a quick trial of my saber saw and a fine blade first. If the vibration is manageable, I'll glue the ends in place. I'll also try adding the 1/2" plywood subroadbed for stiffness.

The Spax screws turn out to be usable with a Robertson square driver. They aren't quite as cam-out resistant as regular Robertson screws, but I can put much more torque on them with my hands than my drill-driver can manage. Next time I'm in the hardware store, I should see if they have a square drive hex bit. I would probably have to make my own square shank bit for my brace..

9-May-2017: My plan shows peninsulas in each end of the attic, but their trackage is stub-end; no room for a turnback curve. The north (rural) end is downtown Newburyport, under construction. The southern peninsula will begin with a wye leading to a branch to oil terminals, with gestures toward real-world fuel unloading piers in Beverly, Salem and Chelsea/East Boston.

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Being retired, I can afford to do this old-school (as in how I learned at the Tech Model RR Club): the roadbed is 1/4" pine lattice stock, nailed and glued to 1/2" plywood subroadbed. It's ready for puttying to fill the cracks, then sanding, then ties. The module frame itself needs one more crossmember in the triangle closest to the camera, then I will lay out the elevations on the profile board sides and cut them down as necessary.

Next is the City RR/South End module to its left. I was a North End kid, but some South End friends will help me get it right.

14-May-2017: The fun parts of Friday and Saturday involved 1:1 trolleys and trackwork (the less fun was driving a lot and dealing with my former tenants and the mess they left - the first OxyContin tragedy I witnessed up close). Today it rained all day, so I stayed dry working on the layout:

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The basic carpentry for the first module was complete, so I spent the morning with four different levels and pencil, laying out the profile I need on the 1/4" plywood side pieces.

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Without roads, scenery or structures, it was an easy 1-person job to lug the 2' x 8' module to my wood shop. I used a saber saw to cut the profile, then cleaned the cuts up with a plane. Because I was in sawdust country, I got out the orbital sander to smooth out the pine lattice stock roadbed.

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15-May-2017: I started here with all the circa-1800 structures that were on the 6-milker dairy farm my grandparents bought in 1919; my wood shop was originally a woodshed, eventually my grandfather's first garage in the 1930s. My mother wrote 1946 in the new cement floor. It is neither heated nor mosquito-proof, but I can make unlimited sawdust as long as I'm fast on my feet.

24-May-2017: I asked  about cinder ballast.  My Downtown Newburyport peninsula was ready for ballasting. I really liked Highball Products limestone 'Cinders', but they had closed a few years ago.

1. I had Woodland Scenics 'Cinders' on hand; it's really too black at the outset, but I've been mixing in a little Gray and Brown to temper it and provide the 'clinkers' I recall from hanging around the tracks. In the long term, it bleaches a bit and accumulates dust to look OK.

2. Arizona Rock & Mineral has a wide range, but their website photos are plastic-bagged product under what appears to be fluorescent light. Can anyone point me at better photos?  I found out about sweeping iron minerals out of it before my motors got clogged.

3. Scenic Express offers 'Dark Gray' stone, but again the photos don't give me a lot of confidence about what I'd actually get.

4. Walthers has a 'Genuine Limestone' ballast from Bachmann, but Google doesn't seem to know of any other colors. Any experience?

I could lighten a stone product that looks too black in my 5000 K lighting with gray beach sand or sanded grout. If it's too light, I'm not sure what I could do.

10-Jun-2017: My order from AZ Rock & Mineral took about 5 days to arrive:

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Left to right, #122-2 HO Yard Mix, #122-1 N Yard Mix, #103-1 N Cinders. Existing ballast on Rowley is a stone 'cinders' product I bought in 1988 or '89, vendor long gone but I like the effect. Illumination is my layout's 'daylight' fluorescents. The AZ Cinders aren't as dark as I expected, and have a reddish cast which the limestone doesn't. Not unrealistic, but different.

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Limestone 'cinders' (could be Highball, could be the older bag) on the left, Woodland Scenics Fine Cinders with WS brown & gray mix-ins on the right. Both tempered by 7 years of dust.

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Since my computer drawing doesn't match real life exactly, I drew the track plan out full size on cardboard. It will become baseboard
templates next.

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I hot-glued the cardboard sheets together and built the two modules, then trimmed it and turned it into plywood.

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The West of State St. module's profile board will get trimmed after its module is fitted.

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I frequented the Pond St. RoW around 1970, 18 years after the track was removed. I don't recall much there but sand; it was cut 20-30 feet deep through a glacial moraine. I ballasted my Pond St. spur with a combination of AZ Yard Mix, Cinders and Hampton Beach sand. Once I start landforms, I may dust it with a little 'house cellar dirt' for the yellowish color of glacial till in this area.

And of course, once there was rail and enough spikes, there had to be a first run.

16-Jun-2017: The early part of this week was hot enough I was working on track in the early morning. The scrapes on the ties are from the
piece of hacksaw blade I reopened the frog's flangeways with. I touched it up after the mechanism worked.

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Today cooler, cloudy weather motivated me to cut the rest of the parts for the 2nd module, the westerly part of the City Railroad:

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Nothing in the forecast looked remotely like haying weather; I hoped to assemble it to the point where roadbed could be cut before the sun returned.

19-Jun-2017: My attic is usually the hottest part of the house in summer.  I was up there at 7 that morning, assembling the frame of the 1st City RR. module and thinking of a long-ago issue of Model Railroader:

Bill Clouser was a well-known O scale traction modeler in the '70s. He was also a pioneer manufacturer of resin trolley kits. He wrote that he typically went to bed early and got up before dawn. In those quiet, cool hours the phone didn't ring and the distractions of the day didn't keep him from his work.

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I cut the blocks for the left end joints the night before.  I needed to re-cut the short straight bit of profile board on the side facing Rowley. But I also had a photography project to complete before month's end, which will require cleaning up the area. So framing got finished.

I often take a structure or equipment project downstairs where the thermal mass of the chimney keeps things cool,  but another trip was coming up.

25-Jun-2017:  My hobby time went to cleaning up the layout area for the photography project: Modelers Forum had a "Franklin &South Manchester Traveling Hopper Car" which made a trip or two around my layout. Pictures here:

 https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=2042.345

Happily, I got double duty out of my cleanup: Pete (OrionVP17) stopped by this morning and we spent a while looking over the Eastern Route while discussing planning, building, the AP and the potential of Perfect vs. progress toward Pretty Good.

BurleyJim said:

QuoteThe search for the correct color cinders is interesting. I wonder if there is a regional aspect with cinders. As a kid in Chicago, the Chicago Alderman used to do the neighborhood a favor and have cinders delivered to the alleys to cover the dirt and mud. Those cinders were almost coffee ground colored. The elementary school playground would receive the same cinders. None of that sissy chopped up tire stuff for us! I think the cinders came from the coal
fired power plants and they had a glass like texture to them

Jim, industrial cinders around here would be mostly VA and PA bituminous, with anthracite from small-medium building heat. In Chicago, I expect most of the coal came from IL, IN and KY mines, which I recall as having more ash, sulfur etc. I know lignite is also known as 'brown coal' but not where coal from that basin lies in the overall range of coals.

9-Aug-2017: Back from a trip, my internet was down for 2 days.  So while it couldn't gobble up my time, I worked on the Pond St. spur:

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I'd made extra slide switch brackets and acrylic connector blocks last run, so it was just assembling parts. I had to buy an acorn nut to make the knob, but otherwise it worked.

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Of course I had to do a ceremonial 'first switch'. Despite the net, I was determined to start roadbed for the City RR spur that month.

2-Sep-2017: In between trolley operations, harvesting grain and tending my orchard, I've made some progress on the City RR side of the Downtown Newburyport peninsula:

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The 2nd module's carpentry is finished except for one piece of hardboard fascia. Building the roadbed out of 1.25" pine lattice stock is much easier with a good miter saw handy. I had a tricky job laying out the westerly turnout on the runaround to maximize length, but then tracklaying starts.

19-Sep-2017: Fruit season, firewood, home repairs, business, trolleys and their track left me few hours in the attic that Fall. But the HO scale track crew worked on the City Railroad:

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The crew installing ties and ballast was approaching Water St. (but can't reach it till I built the peninsula's final module). I used a mix of Arizona Rock & Mineral 'Basalt', 'Black Cinders' and 'Yard Mix'.

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The rail gang worked on the runaround/yard where the City RR diverges from the main at Newburyport West.

12-Oct-2017: Not much time for track work, and the work was going slowly: the most recent chunk of '1/4" pine lattice stock' turned out to be Southern Yellow Pine or something else too hard to spike into. I spent a number of evenings drilling absolutely necessary spike holes and hoping my first 'Weldwood' turnout works [still together after 7 years of temperature cycling].

But then I completed the Eastern Route's 50th hand-laid turnout (my lifetime total is probably over 100). Lots of scenery and structures yet to be done, but I like the feel of this angle. Regardless of editing the top of the backdrop out of any photos.

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The westbound local's crew is tying up for the evening rush on the City RR and going for beans. The stagger block shows High Green; a Portsmouth express is on the bell and the Newburyport Draw tender has everything lined up.

2-Nov-2017: It had been a busy two weeks; in between cleaning, houseguests, travel and chivying contractors to show up and do what they promised, I did find some time to work on the layout. And I had a little help:

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Namo was 9 years old then.  He's from Thailand. He asked what to do about a meat tray that my town doesn't recycle, so we tried out carving a wall a la RR-Line member Harsco (Rick). My jar of Modeler's Mortar had come adrift in the cleaning, so Namo did the mortar with a wash of white craft paint.

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Here he's running the test train I've been keeping at Newburyport. The Amherst show souvenir cars are Plate C, the largest I expect will ever run in Downtown Newburyport.

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The wall is more than 3 feet from anyone looking directly at it, and Namo's first effort looks pretty good for that purpose.

Not much happened to the layout for a couple of weeks; Namo had to go home for the start of his school term, and his mother and I went to the NER convention in Newport, RI.

17-Nov-2017: It was a while before Namo got another chance to visit, his school holidays didn't match ours and it's a long, long trip.

Tour de Chooch loomed; I focused on the Downtown Newburyport peninsula. The waterfront module was framed, but the end-of-track was at High St.

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The track is powered past the end of the run-around, but I put off the switch mechanism for more generally visible work:

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With the Tour's traditional timing, I have to bracket Thanksgiving with a lot of cleaning both upstairs and downstairs.

26-Nov-2017: Michael Hohn called me a master of lumber re-use. I thanked him; Yes, all the 1x2 visible was part of my High School layout when the words "I am not a crook" echoed around the American political scene.

I survived Tour de Chooch: about 70 visitors Saturday but never more than 6-7 upstairs. I talked almost continually from 0915 to 1630. Nobody else to run trains, so I just kept one orbiting. Three hours didn't melt either RS-3 1536 (Bachmann) or E-7 3811 (BLI). Track  behaved well, signals too except when an apparent open circuit generated two greens on the Bexley Tunnel westward home's upper heads. My Northeastern open platform coach was unhappy leaving Draw westbound. Punch list was addressed that week.

6-Dec-2017: The HUB Division's NEMTE had more kids than 2016, mostly on Sunday. We'd tried ticket giveaways on local radio stations and got a good response.

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Mieke photographed me explaining some aspect of the B&M to a teenage Tour de Chooch visitor. I made the Eastern RR logo up, working with my Thai friend Nid, who designed and printed the shirt I'm wearing.

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And that night I got the last pieces of City RR baseboard cut. But track may take a while - I plan one last op session before I redo the car cards and Freight Train Symbol Book to reflect the new customers.

14-Dec-2017: The customers have all been there quite a while (in the model world), but up until recently, they were switched differently: The 44-tonner based in Amesbury's 1-stall enginehouse worked Newburyport when it came to exchange cars with the east- and westbound locals.

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I chose Homasote for the terminal portion of the City RR - A friend gave me more than I'm ever likely to use, and this portion ran on flat, filled land next to the Merrimack River. I'll cut what ditches I need with a utility knife.

Before laying any more track, I established the river bottom (plywood). Then I took this module out to the barn to trim the fascia boards. Then screw it to the L girders and it will be ready.

16-Dec-2017: Mieke asked why I needed the river bottom first.  I hadn't trimmed the plywood edges of that module down to their final elevations yet. The river portion must be marked at exactly level and about 1/4" above the river bottom. Then I'll take it outside to cut - more room to work and less sawdust in the layout space. Once I've built the bulkheads and riverbank (if I've done it right), I'll be able to pour the Enviro-Tex river 'water' right up to that edge without drama.

11-Jan-2018: I'd been working on roadbed, to the point that I started on ties.

I also put the Eastern Route into the NMRA's 'Layout Directory' with about a dozen pictures. Many have already appeared on RR-Line, but now readers who are NMRA members can find me another way. Those of you who aren't NMRA members, if web search doesn't do the job, feel free to ask.

18-Jan-2018:

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The tie gang working the City RR job has finished up, stain is progressing. Once I get ballast applied, the rail gang will reappear.

I still long for the days when I could stop by Northeastern Scale Lumber in Methuen, MA to buy wood I needed off the shelf. Shipping on my recent order was $10 and I could have bought three times as much without filling the box. This tie job used up almost all the stock I bought, but it will be a while before I need any more: I haven't decided how much of the in-plant GE track will be girder rail in pavement and how much will be open.

22-Jan-2018: The last bit of staining being dry, I put down another batch of ballast this afternoon. Then after dinner I started spiking rail:

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The City RR was now operational to the (eventual) Water St. grade crossing.

1-Feb-2018: Since it needed the metal cutting bandsaw and the mill (my drill press isn't normally set up with a vise), I made all the slide switch and point block assemblies needed to finish the City RR. I completed two more turnouts:

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Then I backed my patient test train out on the main and ran it down to the current end-of-track: Opposite the foot of Federal St. on the prototype. The next three switches and the diamond will all have to be built together; I can post the photos here but I've asked if they would go better in a  Subroadbed, Roadbed and Track sub-forum.

1-Feb-2018: A good deal more progress. This 'quitting time' photo came out kind of pretty, in an engineering sort of way.

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Years earlier, I'd built a curved diamond in West Lynn using the "small pieces of rail & a file" technique.  Here I decided to try Tim Warris's method of notching continuous rails at the crossing points.

4-Oct-2018:  Paused to contemplate the nature of this diamond. In my youth, there were many light-duty bolted-rail diamonds in industrial areas. This one, in Ossipee NH, is the only one I know of that has survived abandonment, redevelopment and rail-trail scrapping.

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Heavily traveled diamonds required a lot of maintenance and were upgraded with heavy rail, cast frogs etc. as fast as the owner could afford to. But a century old relic like this, that might have seen 20 moves in its busiest day, remains in place 45 years after its feed mill received its last car.

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My model diamond is a sharper angle. But I wanted to reproduce the look of the separate guardrails at the acute ends, so I made some parts and considered how it looks. This isn't the most functional position for the separate guards, but the open space looks plausible. Looks vs. function....

4-Feb-2018: Frank Palmer asked:

QuoteI was wondering why you didn't run the guard rails all the way instead of having 2 pieces?

Frank, pretty much any diamond in use today would have guard rails as you drew. But the prototype I show didn't; look at the right
end of the rotting birch log. Problem is, it's probably about a 10 degree frog angle and my model is more like 20 degrees. I can build it either way, but it needs to work and not look silly.

11-Feb-2018: While I was thinking about the Swift spur's diamond, I worked on structures. Then a relatively warm day (for Feb. on the NH seacoast) came along. It was clearly time to airbrush (which needs an open window in my attic):

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I had been working on the Newburyport Section House that I started at a 2017 Hub Division clinic. I installed the roof permanently, then some interior framing and the rafter tails. Then it was ready for a couple of colors. It complements the rest of this scene nicely, but my phone camera was more flattering - lens closer to the ground and it overexposed the sky so much I didn't need to edit out the backdrop-ceiling joint.

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Then I finished up the diamond. The way it worked for me, Tim Warris' method is rather fraught with opportunities for serious mistakes. Of course, rotary tools with cutting disks are not milling machines, and I could have been more thorough about holding everything in place while I soldered. It operates OK, but I'm not sure if I'll build the last three diamonds this way - depends on whether I can find a non combustible work surface I can drive pins or nails into.  The ceramic foam pads don't have a lot of holding power.

14-Feb-2018: Still working on track. The night before I'd filled in two turnouts and the 3rd ready for its guardrails.

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For better looks, I started gapping the area with a razor saw. It's harder to see the gaps themselves, but as usual, there are marks in the ballast and a couple on the ties in the diamond. Win a few, lose a few...

Today was warm (50F is warm for February in NH) so I got the points ready and silver brazed the point rods:

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The only above-the-roadbed work remaining is 4-5 feeders. Switchstands and wheel stops will come with the scenery. But I had three mechanisms to build. Because the pushrods come out below 'water level', they're going to be a little different than any I've built before.

Frank Palmer's image that should have gone with the question above:
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17-Feb-2018: I finished the track and power wiring. And of course, ran a test train to deliver the high priority load of meat so residents of Newburyport and vicinity could have their Saturday roast:

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There was a little tune-up as I played with this area, but construction of Downtown Newburyport will now shift to roads, foundations and
landforms.

Earlier I mentioned that the layout-edge hand-throws for these switches would be different because the track is next to the future bed of the Merrimack River.  On RR-Line, that went into one of the general Track threads, but here I'll put it in-line:

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The push/pull rod goes through the fascia lower right. The slide switch that locks point position and powers the frog is mounted to the river bed so the push-pull force is all in-line.  Yes, I had to thread several inches to keep it attached to the slide switch while reaching the acrylic connector block.  The block is taller than usual, the switch point rods (upper left) are longer than usual but all three switches work perfectly.

21-Feb-2018: It was going to be an 'electrical projects' day. The first one took much longer than I expected. However, it's in service:

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Adding this RJ-45 'keystone jack' box lets operators with wired throttles reach any part of the north half of my layout. To preserve a 'clip up' plug orientation, I screwed what was designed as the cover of the box to the underside of the layout frame.

It took all day because 1) some parts I'd bought got 'put away', so I improvised with what I could find AND 2) I made a couple of punch-down errors AND 3) high-end Category 5 cable is stranded and you can't play 'double-punching' games with it. I couldn't get continuity on all pairs so I had to solder a splice.

23-Feb-2018: I'm one of those who remembers my inventory mostly by position. If it's not filed in a common location and out of sight for too long, I might as well have never have brought it home.

This afternoon, I learned a lesson: track is easy to lay on a prepared roadbed, not so much otherwise. I wonder if this is why I occasionally see an exquisitely crafted, detailed and lit diorama whose track is plastic-tie code 100 painted brown.

Section gangs and track cars vanished from most US railroads pretty quickly as Hy-Rail equipment became practical in the 1950s. I expect the track gang was how many railfans older than me got introduced to the subject. Employees living locally, most walking to work at the same section house every day and then putting away to noisy manual labor jobs up and down the line - summer entertainment before TV. But by 1965 they were gone from Newburyport, so my introduction to railroaders was via train crews.

I recall magazines articles of the 1960s and '70s featuring construction and equipping section houses, but it's been years. They weren't favorite photo subjects and their denizens were rarely social equals of the operating employees. But as I'm a spike pounder at Seashore, the Eastern Route must be properly equipped:

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My Newburyport Section House had a track-car setoff for each door. I knew this was going to fall afoul of the Hytron turnout, but a building of those dimensions would only fit in one place in Newburyport. So I decided the existing section house had been moved to accommodate the turnout. And the rails and platform for the eastbound track were removed in favor of the crossover 100 yards west.

I do creosoted wood with stain, so it had to be wood, which has to be held down so it won't curl when I finish the scenery. I think I bent 25 spikes putting 32 into the plywood and wood putty 'subgrade'. Slow, and not a picture-perfect rendering of the B&M standard plan, but it's 24" from the audience.

6-Mar-2018: Mostly structure work the past few days:

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The B&M had a standard smokejack for smaller buildings - galvanized square 'chimney' through the roof, then a capped pipe extending a couple more feet.

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I've built them for the Newburyport and West Lynn (Ipswich prototype) section houses. But in 2025 I'm still slowly creeping towards requesting a Structures AP evaluation.

26-Apr-2018: After a busy couple of weeks catching up and turning the debris from March storms into next winter's firewood, I had some time for the RR last night. Those of you who've operated here know the Draw staging's diode matrix didn't always throw turnouts completely on the first button press. I went after that.

The first problem was some 'tinned' bus wire I'd used, resulting in many cold solder joints:

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Using magnification as I tried to re-do the bad ones, I realized the tinning was solder with a higher than normal melting point. But the diodes survived re-soldering with my 100W gun on the three old wires that remain on this side.

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I replaced all four 'tinned' wires that had been on the diode side.

It works much better, but still takes multiple pushes for some turnouts. Next I'll look at my Miniatronics PDC-1 capacitive discharge unit - its 10,000 mFd capacitor should be plenty, but it could have been on the hobby shop's shelf long enough to date back to Nichicon's 2001-04 era of unreliable capacitors.

1-May-2018: It appears that capacitor purchasers tightened up their specs and improved their testing in the fallout. At any rate, I had a 10,000 uFd cap, bought for this purpose, and I just piggybacked it onto the non-component side of the PDC-1. That gave considerably more oomph, but not enough to make all buttons '1-push' reliable. Next time I feel like crawling under the layout, I'll look closely at the mechanisms. It probably doesn't help that Draw's west throat uses three kinds of twin-coil switch machines.

13-May-2018:  Blair M (who I don't think I've ever met) commented on the waterfront trackwork:

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"This trackwork is really a nice junction, I like the look of the stained ties and dark ballast, it really does have the new england look. This particular photo really gets me witht the process and I am impressed how you move boldy forward through and beyond the turnout with the rail and then fill in the rest later; I know this is a traditional method, but it is still something to actually see it in progress.

This is really ancient stuff, goes back to the beginings of the hobby when you had to know how to do all of the handlaying if you wanted to be a modeler. I really like seeing how the ties precede the rails just as in old prototype. The warm color of the stained wood really sparks a feeling for me that is a mix of pure nostalgia from prototypes, old-fashioned modeling and memories of some of my early wood modeling in scale.

I love your photo of the turnout in the woods, that is the sort of railfanning I did as a kid, I grew up in Northeast PA where a lot of the duplicate routes were abandoned and you had to use imaginiation to see the railroad back in time past the trees.

Nice work."

20-May-2018: Thank you very much, Blair. I have a little feeling for your native corner of PA: I've seen a lot of old roadbeds off in the woods around Scranton and Reading, though I've never taken a hike on any.

Things have been busy with outdoor work, Hub Div. events, Seashore track work & operations etc. My modeling time last week was a break from structures: building and installing more Rapido switch stands for Newburyport.

Each sprue will build a Ramapo #17 (high, pre-1960), a Racor #17B (high, post-1960) and a Racor #20 (low) stand. I can use all of them, but I have to make B&M-pattern targets from brass. Also, the sprue only includes one lamp molding (I'm not complaining, these were manufactured incorrectly so Rapido gave them away at the 2018 BigE Amherst Club show).

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I'd painted the lamp's roundels on an earlier sprue, but this time I looked through my stock of MV reflective lenses; the LS 220 (red) & 221 (green) were about the right size. I drilled a dimple in each roundel out to #50 and Goo'ed four MV lenses in place. Then I spent a while playing with pictures.

Verdict: The reflected light can be seen, but you have to look (left side, just past the signal). It's not conspicuous more than a foot from the audience. I will move this to a more visible location and glue it in place so it doesn't get vacuumed away. And I will build future switch stands like this batch, with a spike for a lamp.

5-Jun-2018: I'd been working on/around the layout, but nothing really photogenic:

1. Installed cellular blinds w/cords in the south-end windows. I chose a bluish color not too far from my backdrop's sky color. It is less noticeable, but also blocks more light than the plain white ones I've used elsewhere in the house. My goal is less heat transfer (either way) and less UV.

2. Cleaned up the whole attic floor, then vacuumed & cleaned the track for visitors from CA. They'd found me via the NMRA Layout Directory, which I would recommend to anyone else who likes the occasional visitor (if nothing else, the prospect of showing the layout is an incentive to get off my duff).

3. Got serious about my "What have I learned from contest judging" checklist for the Structures AP. The last burst of activity had been gas & electric meters, this time it's doorknobs and stink pipes. And detailing High St. across the bridge. Then I'll put together a folder on each structure (or maybe make an HTML page with links to plans, prototype photos, build photos etc.).

Apropos of that, has anyone ever seen an HO scale casting for a roof drain? In warmer clients, they connect downspouts to scuppers at the parapet, but in Northern New England it's more common to put a domed cast iron grating over a drainpipe that runs down inside the heated interior of the building. Usually 4" to 8" diameter on the bottom. [2025 I still need to explore where the 3d printers hawk their wares]

26-Aug-2018: Well, 2 1/2 months, time for an update. I went to Thailand and rode trains. I went to the Kansas City NMRA convention and rode trolleys on the way, in K.C and on the way back. In between, I harvested hay, wheat & rye, started learning to operate a Pettibone Speed Swing (12"/foot) and made a lot of progress on 5 Strong St. I also shot a photographic layout tour which I'm slowly uploading to Flickr. And tonight I started putting Rowley and Rowley River back in the layout. They got some touch-up for Rowley's 30th birthday in spring 2019. But prep for the NER Mahwah convention (erielimited.org) takes precedence - two clinics and one contest entry.

30-Aug-2018: Reminded by an old post with a turnout count, which can be a rough estimate of layout complexity. In February 2018, when I finished the Downtown Newburyport track, the Eastern Route's turnouts were:

74 fully operational (9 commercial, 56 hand laid, 9 came with the piece of the old MIT club layout),

2 hand laid awaiting mechanisms (inside GE River Works),

10 not begun (5 in GE River Works, 5 on the future Oil Spur peninsula),

86 total.

In May 2010, I had 31 working of an expected total of 80. GE and Downtown Newburyport both got more complicated as I finalized their designs.

21-Sep-2018: I'm [still in 2025] looking for is color photos of Lynn, Malden, Medford, Somerville from before maybe 1975 (when many
started getting re-sided with aluminum or vinyl). I need them for my backdrop in the urban part of the layout.

After I got home from Mahwah, I sat down to fix a problem with Bexley Yard that bedeviled some of my operators:

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I'd built Bexley with a block boundary in the middle (purple line across the body of the yard above), so switching could be done from both ends simultaneously. When I installed power districts, the way I did it made this gap a district boundary too. But operators didn't have a reflex for their loco stopping in the middle, particularly when it made the PSX-1s at each end of the yard feep simultaneously.

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I added new gaps at the fouling points and independent feeders to each body track. Locos can now run the whole length of each track, and only get feeped at by one PSX when a turnout hasn't been lined.

And finally, I had an arty inspiration. "Jakes" was a  bar & pool hall on Merrimack St. in Newburyport. Gentrification didn't get it till around the turn of the century:

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I stopped at Jake's on my way home from second shift at Towle Silversmiths, but I didn't stay long. When I got to Strong St. the 'Theater Train' was sitting in the station. I set my camera on the roof of a parked car and tried a few time exposures - this one came out OK.

The home signal was 'three red', but there was nothing inbound from Portsmouth at this hour of the night. I asked around the next day and found out the draw was stuck.

22-Sep-2018: Replying to comments, The same shot in 'daylight' isn't pretty - unfinished scenery, the ceiling looming over, fluorescent tubes in the background, so I'm pleased with my inspiration. And at that hour of the night, most of the 'not so outstanding citizens' in that neighborhood were either in Jake's, or the Flying Yankee next to the station (24 Winter St., 3rd or 4th down on the scratchbuilding list).

3-Oct-2018: Newburyport in that era was pretty safe: bar fights but gunshots only in hunting season, an occasional B&E but no muggings. Some domestics got reported, most didn't.

21-Nov-2018: This summer I finished a structure I'd begun 16 years ago. Just now someone asked me for a picture to clarify a detail on the prototype, and I realized I hadn't taken any. Here's the subject of my first "Scratchbuilding in Styrene" clinic with everything except finish and detailing:

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Here it is now, though looking at the photos I need to make the yellow more 'creamy' and bleached for a realistic look. This will also ease the somewhat overdone 'mud splash' on the lower walls.

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23-Nov-2018:

Bulletin Order #53, Effective 12:01 AM Friday November 23, 2018.

Newburyport: Spring switch in service at end of double track, MP 37.4 Eastern Route.
Normal direction is for movements from single track to Westward Main Track. Movements on Eastward Main Track between Merrimack St. (MP 37.37) and Merrimack Drawbridge must not exceed 20 MPH.

Talking with John Parsons of Azatrax at the K.C. national convention, I commented that the D2T I/R turnout controller was almost what I needed to model a Spring Switch. We exchanged a few emails and he sent me a prototype. I've still got some wiring to rearrange for manual control, but not with Tour de Chooch looming. John gave me permission to post about it last month, but I don't see it on azatrax.com yet.

If you don't know what a 'spring switch' does on the prototype, or why I've wanted one since 1970, I can explain after the Tour.

9-Jan-2019: Responding to a request for pictures: The Spring Switch Controller circuit board is of limited interest by itself, and Azatrax hadn't updated their website to show it [publicized in 2019 IIRC]. The pretty photos came when I added the prototypic "SPRING SWITCH" sign beside the track and on the fascia.

Meanwhile, people who know me and my layout well might want to sit down before clicking through to this picture:

The rest of the story: My son's regular job had a slow week, so he asked if I needed anything done. And I decided to deal with the part of the attic floor that should have had shimming or underlayment before the original linoleum installation (note open cracks lower left). The floor should look a lot different Friday.

This is the first time my work table had been moved in at least 10 years. Alas, picking through the pile of swept-up debris didn't reveal any useful lost parts, just a #72 drill and my first attempt at an HO adjustable window screen (didn't fit).

4-Feb-2019: The repair got finished promptly, but then a whole lot of things happened which didn't leave much time for modeling. But today I spent a while working on the visible side of the spring switch:

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Here's a B&M spring switch at the end of a siding just west of the Petersburg Jct. NY diamond with the Rutland's recently abandoned line to Chatham NY. The section crew will be making their life a little simpler today. Note the big box supporting a fairly routine high switch stand.

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Later that day, the spring switch mechanism is about to be wrestled into the weeds and replaced with a normal Ramapo #17.

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I built the box from .020 & .040 styrene sheet, adding a Rapido switchstand casting and a bit of half-round styrene for the ?hydraulic? damper. Handle is .025 phosphor bronze, staff is .020 music wire.

5-Feb-2019: Frank Palmer asked what they (section gangs) did in the winter? Pete suggested "freeze", which happens when you're standing around waiting for a train to pass or some other gang members to finish their part of the job.

I replied:  Been there, done that: January 1978 at South Station, Boston (day labor for the Mass Bay Transportation Authority)

There's no ballast between the ties under the points. So in a nearby storage building, there are a bunch of sheet metal objects looking vaguely like Bigfoot's house slippers, with a round stack coming out of one end with a wick. When the Super makes the call, the Section Gang will fill 'em up with kerosene, light 'em and stick one between each pair of ties under the points. Then trudge around the interlocking till the snow stops drifting, refilling as necessary and re-lighting when a passing train dumps enough snow to extinguish one. Then pick 'em all up and put 'em away till the next storm.

Then and 9-Mar-2025, image search for "kerosene railroad switch heater" shows what I'm talking about as the 1st pic

Pete replied "This tactic, BTW, was all over the news media last week as Chicago "burned the railroad!!!" Lots of photos from all sorts of angles, high buildings, etc. showing the switch point heaters in use during the really cold snap...."

When the South Station kerosene lamps were retired during the 1984 reconstruction (along with Tower 1 and the underground baggage ramps and reverse loop), I think that was the last use in New England. I can't imagine anything so labor intensive remaining in today's RR operating environment. I have seen a couple in museums in recent years.

I believe what the newsies were twittering about in both Boston and Chicago was LP or mains natural gas. Most gas installations are easy to spot in fair weather too.

7-Feb-2019: Spring Switch project is complete: Signage on fascia, trackside and on the control panel. The prettiest is shown here:

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Next focus was to be stalled projects and revising the operating plan to include Downtown Newburyport.

8-Mar-2019: One of Rapido's RDC-2s arrived last week. I sent it out on the main for break-in. The baggage-end ('F' mark) truck didn't track very well. Per the instructions, I tried bending the baggage steps out a bit, but no joy. After a number of derailments I investigated:

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I could feel something catch as I moved the truck around: the red power feed wire shown above was bent upwards so it would catch on the underframe at certain angles. I used the back of a hobby knife to bend it back within the confines of the truck frame. All happy now.

Most of my recent hobby time was prep for my Railrun op session that March.

30-Mar-2019: A busy three weeks - the Town Meeting, then the Hub Division's Spring Training event, then lots of paperwork and house cleaning getting ready for Kanthima and me getting married on the 31st. But some railroad work did get done:

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I decided the Market Sq. waterfront terminal of the City RR branch needed a guard to protect teamsters from careless elbows. I used 5 mm acrylic scraps from the hardware store, so it took a while to get the angles right.

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And my stepson has been asking for projects. I started him out on an Accurail 3-bay 70 ton hopper kit. He had lots of questions about the instructions, as an exploded view needs familiarity with the end result to work as instructions. But he did a good job and asked for more. So I gave him a P2K 50' end-door automobile car kit someone else had built the underframe for. Again, lots of questions, and a few lost and broken parts I got out the magnifier to remedy. But a sound result. Here he is with his test train.

1-Apr-2019: Late yesterday, after the wedding crowd had departed, my stepson asked for another project. I gave him a second P2K 50' auto box, which he finished before bed. I need to teach him a little more about applying solvent cement, but a good job throughout.

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Next I gave him a Tichy flatcar kit. Slightly different style and it needed painting. Which fitted in with weathering the rest of his fleet.

12-May-2019: In what has become a theme the past 5 years: Aside from yesterday's op session, not much has changed on the Eastern route since April - school vacation included a multi-day visit to relatives and since then I've spent a lot of time on Seashore Trolley Museum's track and equipment. That will taper off when the Museum opens 7 days/week on Memorial Day. And I've bought a bunch of lighting and signaling parts which I plan to post about.

20-May-2019: In the late 2000s I started the Franklin St. area in Bexley. I needed clearance underneath for Bexley Yard's switch controls and the track through Bexley Tunnel, so I used 1/8" hardboard to support buildings and street. I left the rough side up so scenery and road materials would adhere better as the hardboard (probably) flexed.

Later, I'd used commercial plastic cobblestone on Railroad St. and, looking at Franklin Street's rough texture, I had an idea: It wasn't great cobblestone, but in the '50s many New England cities had covered the traffic parts of busy cobblestone streets with asphalt, leaving strips of stones in the gutters. I applied some "Cape Cod Gray" stain to the hardboard and liked the 'feel'. But I dithered over whether I should add a trolley track, and what paving scheme would avoid cracking.

Saturday, my lighting project motivated me to finally repave Franklin St. I masked off strips along the curb, then painted a test section with black satin finish latex, and sprinkled it with 'Part C' colored sand from Spectralock's StainProof Grout system. After it dried and I brushed away everything that didn't stick, Natural Gray (left) came out too light, but Raven looked good

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I went ahead and did the rest of the street. I clearly didn't burnish the tape down into the texture perfectly, but as I recall that kind of repaving job, they didn't always get picky with full-size sand for perfect coverage of the edges of the asphalt pour. If it bothers me later, I can weather the black down easily while detailing the gutters.

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Next, three WeHonest street lamps should give decent coverage, and then some attention to Gorin Machine's truck dock area.

Pete (Orionvp17) suggested:

QuoteGood start, James!
Trash, streetlights, maybe a mail box and a Gamewell Box (fire alarm call box) on the light pole, some peeps going to or from work and you'll have it.
Streetcar is optional, but since you're in the streetcar business anyway, well....
Apropos of nothing whatsoever, Bowser has some New Orleans cars with DCC and sound that look a lot like the Type Five cars in Boston, so there is that....
And when the cracks appear, simply fill them with very dark grey paint, a couple of shovel-sized and not-very-well-done "hot top" patches, and perhaps even let the cobblestones sneak up through a couple of places where the plows have destroyed the asphalt and the Highway Department crews decided that the holes weren't worth taking another shovel-full of patch off the truck.
I'm sure you get the idea!

23-May-2019: Thanks, Pete. So far I've drawn in some drain gratings, but this led the small fry to criticize my 'cheating'. This afternoon brought me to 'first light', which led to a test photo after sunset:

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The sidewalk needs adjusting, the mill's doors need steps, I need a permanent Colonial Inn structure, No Parking signs, meters etc, etc. But I am astonished how well my Pentax Kr's automation handled this 15 sec. f/32 exposure. All it needs is dialing down the Exposure Compensation for the reshoot.

28-May-2019: More progress on Franklin St. in Bexley: my stepson practicing styrene & solvent technique on window glazing for a DPM building I hadn't gotten to in 10+ years:

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Then we got out some Hi Tech Details parking meters. This time he did break the point off a #65 drill, because he got distracted:

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The Downtown Deco "Addams Ave. Part I" I built before I started this thread on RR-Line looks more than a little 'high water' at this angle'; I'm thinking sandpaper before I add steps to the styrene sidewalk.

26-Jun-2019: June was very busy with Seashore Trolley Museum trackwork, haying and various New England sights and activities with my new family. But there has been some progress:

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I'd had this N Scale Architect kit for a decade when my wife asked me for something to build. She was familiar with the basics from  building architectural models in university, but I had to help her with airbrushing and materials new to her.

The instructions are decent, but say next to nothing about how the prototype (still standing but idle for decades) operated. I'm expecting unloading hoppers in front of each of the elevators and a loading area for trucks opposite, with an office somewhere nearby. Asking the B&M community hasn't produced any 'in service' photos, but if I attend September's NER convention in Syracuse, I can stop by and do some detective work. In particular, there should be some remnant of the unloading gates for the silos.

You can see my mock-up of the Bexley Produce Terminal in the background, and I've also gotten back to work on Gorin Machine (begun 2015). But neither will be photogenic for a while.

23-Jul-2019: . A friend sent me a link to a new (to me) resource: The Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. Their McMahon Coal write-up (with only one picture now) can be found at  http://mhc-macris.net/  Navigate to Williamstown, then McMahon Coal (WLL.907).

That and a picture from BM-RR@groups.io show me I need to build 4 brass coal gate/chute assemblies. The kit's wood chutes are from the 3-silo prototype next door (modeled on Dick Elwell's layout). Brass is on hand.

But I also decided Slovacek Anthracite wasn't going to go under defending the Blue Coal flag; Oil tanks are needed. I looked through several donations of junky train-set cars but didn't find two suitable tank car bodies. So I checked the kit stash:

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Alexander's old 'Parkersburg' kit is about 110,000 gallons, quite enough to match Rudy's 450 tons stored/40 tons/hour coal plant. I plan to repurpose its tank car loading rack as a truck loading rack, but otherwise this will be a stock build.

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I used #53 and #55 drills for the fill double elbow instead of the instructions' #50. They say 'glue' and probably mean Ambroid. I did use that to seal the edges of the cardboard tube tank former, but I used Weldwood for the wrapper and roof former.

The front (door) wall of the pump shed is barely 6' 9" tall, so fitting a 6' 3" door broke the sheetwood. I laminated it back together on paper. The window casting is smooth, though.

2-Sep-2019:  The new school year began, putting an end to summer travel etc.

Mr. Slovacek has heard Alderman Iannella's story about his aunt's fiancee dying in the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 more than once. So rather than hearing it again at City Hall, he told the contractor to include containment in the proposal for the tank. There wasn't room for a berm, so he sighed and paid for a concrete wall.

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The 'primer coat' is latex house paint, which did a good job of hiding the plywood grain and cracks visible below. I'll finish it grayer, so it doesn't suggest most of the aggregate was beach sand.

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I also mostly finished Newburyport's westbound platform. Following a picture of Kennebunk's similar arrangement, I used 1/16" x 3/32" tie stock with the ends cut to 45 degrees for the walkways between the platforms. The whole area had been covered with a board platform before WWII but that disappeared before 1950.

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24-Sep-2019: I hadn't posted in three weeks because 1) my HS reunion, 2) Hub BoD meeting and 3) the Northeastern Region's Syracuse
Jct. convention.

The latter also stimulated a change in my focus. Before I got started on making a 'complete' layout, I'd been building and painting cars and locomotives for years. I'd taken breaks to build pieces of the Hub Division Modular Layout, but I always came back to B&M passenger equipment, plus a 'Green Dot' (NEB&W style) freight car fleet. Enough so when I started formal operations, the Eastern Route only needed a couple of diesels and three commuter coaches to be completely equipped. 6 additional storage boxes supported a B&M presence at HUB Module Group events.

Since 2009, I've been working on the NMRA Achievement Program. I got my 6th and 7th certificates in 2017, but I still needed either Cars or Motive Power to obtain Master Model Railroader. I'd tried a few Cars contest entries but only one locomotive achieved Merit. And the layout didn't need scratchbuilt cars or locos - kits and paint jobs would provide almost everything the B&M owned.

But then I reconsidered: I have quite a few high-quality passenger and freight car models. Turning my Judge's Eye (Jr. Grade) on them, several might be brought up to the Merit level with reasonable effort, and without compromising their usefulness for op sessions or module shows. This rang true to me; my AP is less important than the layout, but I have put maybe 10% additional effort in to document things I'd have done anyway, to get the AP award.

So I re-started work on B&M #32 (Old Orchard Beach), 6-4-6 Pullman-built lightweight sleeper for a contest entry. Back in the '90s, it had started out like this: Brass sides and a car core kit. This old slide shows a finished combine next to diner/bar/lounge sides and an Eastern Car Works core kit, #32 used a then-new Train Station Products core kit:

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ECW's roofs were often warped, so the TSP core was a pleasant surprise. This was also the period when TSP and Red Cap Lines introduced a dozen or two products aimed at accurate passenger car interiors. So I got #32 to the point where you couldn't see through it any place you weren't supposed to, and it spent two decades in the fleet.

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Below, gray parts are from Red Cap Line, brown seats are Rix, white is scratchbuilt styrene. First I added the partitions, sink enclosure, toilets and water cooler internals to the common bathrooms next to the sections:

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I hadn't had an underbody plan, so I'd guessed about the generator, water tank etc. based on what I could see in broadside shots. But now, to achieve Merit I needed plumbing. So I extrapolated from plans for other cars. In retrospect, I could have also installed the 14 toilet chutes with confidence.

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The toilets, sinks and bedroom interiors represent a lot of styrene fabrication and hand painting. The only short cut available was not modeling hidden features. So no bedroom toilets. But yes, the stainless strips around the other toilet lids/seats appeared in 1955 builder's photos.

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I didn't have color photos of the original interior either, so more guessing. And a few of the original details had been lost to derailments and handling, so I made new air/signal/steam connections from phosphor bronze wire:

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Happily, the judges accepted my guesses and awarded 90 points. So now I've picked out a Tichy reefer and an F&C boxcar I'd built with full brake plumbing etc. to polish and see how I do next contest season. And a tip of the hat to Ted Culotta and his excellent photography for his Essential Freight Cars articles. He really made it clear how the plumbing should be modeled.

24-Sep-2019: For my next scratchbuild, I was thinking about Western Union materials car like the one that survived into the 1970s at East Deerfield. That could be put here and there to annoy any excessively cocky operators. And kind fellow modelers sent me copies of the old Ambroid kit plans. My second thought had been a 104000-series narrow monitor caboose, but checking my stash I find I only need to paint the brass model I already own. So I returned to the idea of building a few Laconia cars in O scale while the milled wood stock called for by the Ambroid/Northeaster HO plans is still available. Of course, they'll never run till I paint the O-scale P-2b and find a receptive layout owner.

Regardless, scratchbuilding is simplified by any Merit awards I get for cars already on hand.

1-Oct-2019: Whichever conventions I attend in 2020 (none, as it turned out; the Columbus Day NER convention in Westford, MA was set back to 2021), I hoped to bring an entry or two to see how I did.

I'm showing my layout after the Oct. 12 Seacoast Div. Fall Event, so I did a lot of cleaning up, some of which turned into 'finishing projects so I can put parts & tools away':

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This tight-clearance underpass was built in the 1870s to get the City RR branch under High St. I hadn't realized it was dry-laid until I set out to model it. The batter is as large as I've ever seen on a RR structure. But the span itself is clearly much newer, either just before or just after WWII, and allowed much larger freight cars down to waterfront customer.

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My stepson carved the rocks in meat-tray styrofoam. I built the railings from cut-up Rix parts. I will clean up the shaggy edge on the hardboard before visitors. I eventually modeled the blank panels, but not that week or next.

I think before the real-world bridge replacement, B-15 2-6-0s (the origin of the 'Mogul Country' tagline, for B&M novices) were the largest engines allowed. But I actually built my whole RR to clear Plate C; that gives me enough of the 'that's why clerestory roofs are so low and modern B&M steam locos look so scrunched' flavor.

10-Oct-2019: My stepson and I did more work on Franklin St. over the summer. Here's the color original:

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Headlights could be added, at the cost of making the vehicles tiresome to move.  Here's the B&W period version:

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Room lights would dodge the headlight issue, but then the sloping ceiling looms over the scene.

I returned to a couple of projects on Franklin St. The big acrylic carcass that will become Batterman Press got its first laminated styrene 'concrete' beam. Happily, the acrylic cement didn't affect the well-dried Floquil. But it won't be photogenic till I work out how to do the masonry windows.

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There's also what I plan to call the Ritchie-Gilbert House, which goes behind the Coco Club. I'm using the 'extension' part of the BEST "Colonial Georgian House" kit here; the main house eventually was built for Newburyport. The clamps are on the end wall I fabricated to match the kit's.

17-Oct-2019: The house is a little farther along. BEST recommended pre-painting the parts, but I have better luck gluing bare wood surfaces.

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I've also added 1/16" square reinforcement in the corners. The stock roof is about 3/16" too short with the new end wall. I haven't decided to extend the stock parts or make new. After a day of Seashore track work, glue was dry.

5-Nov-2019: Orionvp17 (Pete) asked how 1/16" square corner bracing worked out:  1/16" square bracing is adequate so far (2025) on this  structure. But all 4 walls and the roof are 2 laminated layers. At any rate, it stood up to me shaving the new window openings with a #11 blade to fit the windows I came up with from the stash.

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BEST's instructions show all the big windows as 4-over-4, but somehow I wound up with two 6-over-6s, much more appropriate for a surviving structure of this age (pre-1750).

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Micro Engineering 28x50" windows are very close to the kit's middle-sized windows, and let me model one open a crack.

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The Ritchie-Gilbert house doesn't match its neighborhood, This is intentional and of course there is a story, which I'll tell when house & diorama are finished.

BEST doesn't provide a prototype photo of the 'Little House' part of this 'Big House, Little House' kit (I'm building the Little House separately). The chimney might have been tall to get smoke above the Big House's windows. Or it might have been so the 4-6 flues in it would draw well. If I don't like it this way, I can shorten it or punch it through the roof. But maybe it got extended when Batterman Press built across the street and the DAR ladies started getting downdrafts when the wind was east (as it often is in Bexley).

7-Nov-2019: Earlier in 2019 there were a few write-ups about a new lighting/interior product line called 'Roomettes'. I've tried one 'pictures from the internet' interior, but will need many more for night-time operations. So I signed up for a Roomettes make-n-take clinic at the NER Syracuse convention.

I chose the interior for the City Classics 'Crafton Ave. Gas Station', which I'd started a few years ago. The kit came with a printed cardboard 'office' interior. Roomettes provided both 'office' and 'garage bay' interiors, plus 3D fold-up counters, tool boxes etc. The clinician/founder also provided Gem-Tac glue, a quick-setting tacky PVA product. Mine went together pretty well at the clinic.

Because I'd already built my building, I had to trim the interiors a bit to get them through the floor opening. Wiring them was a bit harder. The provided LED-on-a-tiny-board is compatible with Woodland Scenics 'Just Plug' system, which uses 12 VDC and JST 2.5 mm connectors. I got some 'male' connectors on-line (Just Plug lights have 'female' connectors with metal sockets inside a plastic housing that looks kind of 'male') and connected them up:

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This blurred shot (sorry) is with my 'walk around' LED strip lighting on. The Roomettes lights are too bright for me at 12V. I thought about  buying a W-S dimming hubs, but in the end just added a resistor to the circuit.

13-Nov-2019: Some more work on the Ritchie - Gilbert house:

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I decided to keep the tall chimney; old New England houses I'm familiar with all had simple open chimney tops. This style of cap seems to represent later rebuilds. So I'll explain it "In the '20s, the chimney was showing its age, and had to be rebuilt above the attic floor. The Colonial Dames' kitchen reenactments had been troubled by downdrafts and the mason recommended raising it and adding a capstone."

It still needs roof flashing, the door, more weathering and finally glazing. But I'm undecided about the ridge & flashing. BEST provides adhesive copper foil, but in a coal fired city next to a railroad yard, it wouldn't have stayed 'fresh copper' for even a couple of weeks. I tried to get the protective coating off, unsuccessfully.

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Here it and its back fence are visible behind evening traffic on Franklin St.

16-Nov-2019: Since I was starting with copper, I thought to make real verdigris. I scraped the self-stick strip to get through any coating. Then, remembering my chemistry, I thought of copper sulfate and tried dilute sulfuric acid. No joy. Then I actually looked up verdigris and now I'm trying vinegar (acetic acid). Meanwhile, I worked on the property fences:

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The back fence is Tichy's, the front is the old standby Atlas picket fence. Both need a lot of weathering. Then I'll dismount them and apply a lawn etc.

Orionvp17 (Pete) asked:

QuoteYou gonna add a swing set, too? Or is that the sort of place that has a rose arbor and a flower garden along the back fence?

As a proper New England Historic House, it will have a flower garden with a gravel or brick path through it, and a tasteful sign on a post giving the name, date and organization responsible for preserving it. For the Ritchie-Gilbert house, I considered either the "house roof over board" style or the "stylized open book" type. Searching images for "historic house sign massachusetts" shows many of both
types.

20-Nov-2019: I did some weathering with A&I and a brass brush - the Dames are perpetually trying to defend their white paint from the B&M (and other neighbors') soot. But I couldn't generate quickie verdigris with any chemicals I had handy, so I put the copper flashing on after sanding it to get rid of any clear coating. I'll get my prototypical verdigris in a few months or years. And I added a stink pipe with the last little bit of flashing.

I applied static grass in Late Summer color (Scenic Express, I think, label unclear) and put the fences back. Then I consumed two cutoff disks making a 'door stone' from a core I found after drilling granite blocks at the old B&M station in Haverhill. It's barely visible in this photo (taken as if from the roof of Gorin Machine across Franklin St.).

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I checked my stash of plants; All I had for late-summer flowers was Hollyhocks and Goldenrod. No flagpole either. So I'll turn the lawn into a garden later, after some sign-painting and shopping.

28-Nov-2019: I made progress on two Bexley-area structures I started for TdeC. The first is an automobile (and other freight) unloading platform for beside the Bexley Freight House area.

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Fairly simple except that 1) it was going to be much easier to build out of place, and 2) I decided to use up the warped Revell 1/32" plywood I had on hand.  First problem solved by a 1/4" hardboard base. Second problem solved by laminating 2 of each part with opposing warps. With the posts it has ~40 pieces.

The second is a platform shed for commuters waiting by the inbound track. I'd found 3D printed support columns on Shapeways several years ago, but I hadn't worked out how to do the curved platform realistically:

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At 30" viewing distance, I didn't do any framing under the .040 styrene roof, but I did do the front edge as a series of straight segments. I painted it soon after. I dealt with protecting the station entrance when I found the EF17 kit box with the front eaves Mieke held off applying.

Meanwhile I'll think about the outbound track. Typical B&M practice was either a smaller canopy or none. It was uncommon for commuter stations to have more than a half dozen people waiting on the outbound side. The outbound shed will also be in the way of uncoupling and rerailing.

Kanthima was working on a couple more kits for this area, but they didn't make it onto the layout till later.

29-Nov-2019: Orionvp17 (Pete) asked how commuters crossed the tracks. I answered: Right now, there is no inter-track fence, so they have to stumble across the ballast. Eventually, there will be a pedestrian overpass scratchbuilt after Winchester MA before the grade crossing elimination. One end will be at the top of the stone steps built into the retaining wall at the left end of the canopy.  The other uses stairs built into the Baggage & Express building I did a couple of years ago. There will be either 1 or 3 board baggage cart crossings with gates in the inter-track fence.

Pete: Any thoughts on the wooden walkway across the tracks? Seems to me that there was something similar up in Wilmington and in other places. This would be a scheduling issue, and would require the "occupancy signals" on both sides of the station, which might make an interesting diversion for your operators. I need to figure this whole process out...

Rule 107 says "Trains must run at Restricted Speed when passing a train receiving or discharging passengers at a station, except where proper safeguards are in place". So the operating department will complain about delays until I get the inter-track fence installed. Because Bexley has two outside platforms, Rule 107's clause "They must not pass between it and the platform at which the passengers are being received or discharged unless the movement is properly protected" doesn't apply. Station signals were used at single-sided stations where the combination of sight distance, speed limit and traffic density created a risk. Newburyport as I built it would need one eastbound, but the prototype's sight distance didn't require one. They'd be easy to do with a commercial photodetector with one SPDT contact.

1-Dec-2019: Tour de Chooch action report: ~60 visitors (48 wrote in the Guestbook). Adjusted one turnout during cleanup Saturday night, all performed well Sunday.

Need to figure out why one or two paths through Draw's diode matrix doesn't get enough oomph - fix will be complicated if it's due to mismatched switch machines.

- BLE E-7 decoder lost its marbles twice, cured by tilting one side's wheels off the rails.

- MRC tethered throttles lost their marbles a number of times, cured by unplug/replug.

- One passenger car developed an intermittent shorting problem through one main line turnout, need to investigate before it grows and melts a wheel's insulation.

+ Fixed truck swing on Ron G's combine.

+ Wound down after last visitor by starting to re-stage the railroad for the next op session.

- Won't be getting a N2 refill in tomorrow's weather, so no airbrushing till late in the week, if not the week after.

5-Dec-2019: About 25 years ago, when I was doing scenic details for my Rowley module, I needed two crossbucks. For a module, they need to be tough, so I made a jig for code 100 rail and .015 brass. I used brads for locating pins and followed B&M Standard Plan K52:

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Last year I'd researched how many I'd need for Newburyport, and my stepson wanted to learn to solder, so I got out the jig. He's made two, but with everything handy I made six more for Ihrie St. in Bexley (three sidetracks cross it, 50-60 feet apart). I believe Massachusetts law would have required a pair of crossbucks for each.

I might need two more for the GE River Works crossing. But I don't have photos and they may not have been required as it was private with a GE watchman.

14-Dec-2019: I had three structures in progress, this was the most photogenic:

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Just before Tour De Chooch, Ron G. offered me a styrene kit for the B,R&P Ashford, PA tower by Railway Design Associates. I had a 'bundle of sticks' B&M tower kit from Sheepscot, but however I assembled it, it would be vulnerable to elbows in a switching area (it also seems to go for north of $100 these days). So after inspecting the moldings, I accepted.

Like other RDA products, the die work isn't delicate, but everything's well molded. And it looks a lot like the Lynn, MA tower, built during New Haven control before WWI. Lynn has 3 stories and 9 track-facing windows, the kit 2 stories and 7. I decided Bexley only need 5 track facing windows. I started cutting with the roof, but I realized the front wall should have come first before doing anything I regret.

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Once I sanded the putty, I glued the concrete parts together and painted them.

16-Dec-2019: I'm not aware of any B&M towers other than Lynn were concrete in the NH/BR&P style.  New Haven control only lasted a few years. Pictures of my three in-progress structures:

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Bexley tower fits together well, next I'll see if I need to trim the base. I didn't use the clunky stairs RDA supplies. I bought BEST's Colonial Georgian House version with the 'extension' that I consider the 'original house', as in Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn (e.g. my own place). So after making a new end for the Little House, I needed a new back wall for the Big House. Tichy #8024 6-over-6 windows fit the original 2-over-2 openings and will give more of the feeling I want for High St. in Newburyport:

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I first saw 'Perplexing Puzzles Plus' (p3nh.com) in 2017 at a local show. This year I'm trying a 'Hardware Store' kit, which fits a footprint I need in Bexley. I like some of the prototype buildings that catch their eye, though the owners don't appear to be model railroaders and this kit had some execution errors: Roof too small for walls, top trim detail didn't fit, 'bricks' sized about right for HO cinderblocks. They seemed receptive to feedback, though.

26-Dec-2019: Recent progress was mostly on Bexley Tower:

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I got the joints pretty well cleaned up, airbrushed it Scalecoat Flat Aged Concrete and detail-painted the windows and doors. A minor annoyance (which might be major for others, but this kit was a gift) is that the box illustration isn't what's inside:

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The model shown has a different stairway and the windows and doors appear to have been replaced with castings: I can see file marks around the door at the top of the stairs and the window below it.

But I was satisfied with my paint job on the windows provided, and the Central Valley stairs look OK once detail painted. In trying to figure out how to do the train order signal, it turns out Lynn had an odd arrangement which will be invisible to visitors. But that turned up interior pictures. I intend to light it, and that will be it for my removable floor. So I'm detailing the interior (while thinking about a possible Merit Award towards Structures AP) before adding an LED. The train order signal will come last.

5-Jan-2020: For the New Year, I'd been cleaning up in-progress projects; lots of little stuff but this view did improve:

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At this distance, Bexley Tower needs windows, a ground floor view block, an order board, lighting and more work on the interior that will be illuminated. Ron G. left his Bachmann 2-6-0 on the layout after Tour de Chooch. He hasn't been back, so I finally moved it out and put it away.

Perplexing Puzzles Plus's 'Hardware Store' kit is behind the Tower on the right - the retaining wall has been extended below it and landform has appeared to its rear.

Further progress not yet photographed:

- The Bexley Produce Terminal mock-up is now sitting on baseboard which will eventually support the final structure.

- Land is appearing around the new auto unloading platform.

- Slovacek's heating oil tank containment now has cinder ground cover.

- Bexley's inter-platform baggageway is under construction and the inbound canopy has been painted.

- Crossbucks have been erected (but not lettered).on Ihrie St. in Bexley and US 1 and Water St. in Newburyport.

8-Jan-2020: I 'finished' the auto unloading platform next to the (future) Bexley Freight House over the past couple of days. I took some pictures which came out OK:

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I thought daylight from the window spoiled this view, but when I got it on a big screen I liked it.

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The remains of the old platform date to the '70s while 'Bexley' was still 'Sawyer' on the Tech Model RR Club layout. Again, it looked much better on a big screen than the back of my camera.

Is there a particular town on the map that Bexley represents?

dave