British Columbia Railway Dawson Creek Sub in HO

[Twist67]

Hi there,
thanks for the comments.Bob,that´s also my way of testing the trackwork.Thankyou for the advice for the expansion joints,I´ll take a look on that...
Here are the pictures of the mill scene spread out on blue foam with some tracks and buildings



And this is a picture of the changes of track on the north end of the yard.To the right there will be the small off scene north end staging.More on that later


And some of the buildings of the townscene moved to this place...will be a nice scene with a good view down the road later with a lot of cars and people and details....so someday....


Sorry for the quality of the last pictures,I made them in a hurry before I went to work today.

That´s all for the moment,more later,
Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
with some delay I´ll post some progress on my layout.I made a change toand new arrangement to the elevator scene.First I made a drawing with Anyrail for the changes.Here´s the picture of th drawing.

The elevators where placed on the right side of the three benches.I think now it looks much better with more place between them and some additional structures around.Also this will catch more of the prototype look....The end of the tracks will be hidden with a roadbridge and some trees...A small downtown scene with stores,gasstation and farmequipment dealer will also be there.






Around the other curve there is the mill complex and another industrie with some structures...I´m not finished with this scene and will play with those buildings....but made some pictures of it...





So the industrie in the last picture is the one that needs some finetuning...don´t no what kind of company it will be,maybe lumber or hardware or both of it....
Next part will be mounting and wireing the track,adding a fascia and starting with some rough groundwork for scenery....more progress will follow,soon.....

Thanks for looking,any ideas and tips are very appreciated.

Cheers,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

Looks like you are having fun and Bob's advice on the expansion joints is very good. I had an older layout where the temp. changes in the room actually bowed the track.

Also, I like what you are doing with the track plan as it gives you lots of possibilities for switching. Thanks for sharing all your progress.

Tom

[Twist67]

Hi there,
Tom,thanks for the advice with the joints....and yes,I´m having fun and finaly do some base scenery work...
As I wrote in my last post I did some work on the warehouse and added some pikestuff walls and some styrene base and finaly came up with this one....
It will recieve inbound goods by rail in boxcars.Outbound traffic will be empty boxcars...Trucks will be used for delivery....



I´ll add more windows to the grey building as it will be an office part of the complex....I´m only thinking about cutting a second opening for railtraffic to the left of the current opening and adding some length to the track in front of the loadingdock into the building....so not more tracks,only the second track is going into the building,too....
What do you think about.Any suggestions are very appreciated...

And while I was playing around with styrene I thought about working on the street scene in front...I decided to rip out that foam and go with some type of MDF board as a base....so I could lift it out and work on the workbench on the streets and structures....






There will be no sturctures in the background area between the mill complex  and the warehouse,only trees and other scenery....maybe the backside of a small structure with a fence or something like that....surrounded by trees and it will be non railserved...it depends on how I will like the look through the buildings on the street scene     .

Any comments are very appreciated as always...Any tips and infos are also very welcome because I could only work von photos and not on traveling through time and space to the locations I´m modelling     

Thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[jerryrbeach]

Chris,
I really like the street along the front and the railroad behind the storefronts, it adds a lot of interest to the layout and breaks up the look and feel of a narrow shelf.  I also like your modern industrial complex.  You have done a great job changing building heights and colors so the complex looks like it has grown over time.  I think what you have now is much, much better than the smaller complex shown in previous photos.
I'm torn on the second RR door into the warehouse, makes logical sense, but I think it might open the building up a little too much, and detract from the scene.  How about modeling a closed rollup style door instead, and adding the rollup above the open door?
I think cut second floor windows in the gray building, then decide if you want to add some to the ground floor.  My experience is that many companies put their offices on the second floor above warehouse/manufacturing space, or above employee facilities, i.e. locker rooms, restrooms, break rooms, etc.
Last, the road that leaves the right side of the layout and runs into the wall needs a "distraction", maybe add another building across the road with some type of overhead structure crossing the road to help disguise where the road meets the wall.

[Twist67]

Hi Jerry,
thanks for your input and the kind words...I thought about that second opening and I have not make a decision for now....The Idea with the closed rollup door sounds good and I also thought about building some Interior for the loading area inside like a loading ramp and some details......
I´ll follow your advice for the grey building....that´s what I thought about.
The road that leaves the right side of the layout curves to the front and leaving the layout that way...otherways I´ll try to hide the roads or tracks running into the walls....

Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
I made some progress or better track changes to the warehouse and GERN Industries Limited area.Here is a drawing with Anyrail for that area

After I´ve played with the current track arrangement for some time I wasn´t happy with that....so I ripped the track off and started from new....okay,I only have to pull out the tracknails....and moved the turnouts around the wood and finaly I found the way to go....

I added some length to the track in front of the loadingdock on the warehouse part.I have to cut the sheet for the new arrangement but that will be no problem....

To the back I´ll be add another smaller non railserved warehouse.As you could see I added the masonite for the backdrop....have to paint it some kind of blue and add some backdrope to both sides of the area...


A bigger change was done on the GERN industries complex because i added a third track for the mill building and seperated it from the to tracks for the elevator.I´ll build an open shed for the loading/unloading area for the hoppers.You could see where it will be placed in the picture below where the metal sheds are located.

The shed will be kitbashed/scratchbuild from Pikestuff parts and sheet...I´m thinking of removing the Walthers grain silo to another location and building an addon to the millbuilding from metal siding....will do a mockup from cardboard and show it here.....
So,that´s all for today.When I´m at home from work this evening I´ll finish tracklaying and will add some feeders....More will follow,soon.

Thank you for looking, any comments are very welcome.

Cheers,Chris

[LongHornCaddy]

Nice job!!

[Twist67]

Hi there....
wow,how time flies..............hope you all have a nice and save christmas and also wish you a happy new year.
During the holidays my bad back went better and better and I could get some progress done on the layout....first point is to post a complete trackplan of the upper level of my layout.

It was made with Anyrail.The total lenght from right to left is about 13,70 m and the far left room is about 2.60 to 4,40 meters,the far right room is about 3.50 to 3.50 meters.
When you look at the plan you will see some small changes I made to some areas on the left side.Those areas will be shown here in later posts when I´ll get to that area.
But here are the updates I made on the part of the layout I was working on before the holidays.I started with the industrie to the left side,the GERN Industries Limited,Dawson Creek,BC part with the mill building and the elevator.

I made a 1:1 scale copy of the plan and printed it out and taped it to the 6mm plywood board I cut in shape for that.After that I started laying out the lots around the buildings from 1.0 mm styrene sheet on 3.0 mm kork.


After that I glued the tracks to the base and started painting it.
I also finished the basic work with the Mill and the Elevator.I also made an additional structure for the GERN Industries Limited Research Facility to the right of the elevator complex.

The roads are painted with two different grey paints and get a light wash for some first weathering...Buildings are painted in a light yellow to brown paint and will get some weathering,too...


And finaly I put the whole piece back on the layout to see how it will look....




It´s time to do something with that backdrop.... :dumb1:

Last picture for today is the area I mentioned in the begin of my post.


Thanks for looking,

Cheers,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

Looking good and it appears you've been busy as well. Lots of progress on your side!

Tom

[Twist67]

Hi,

Tom,yes,you´re right and I always thought about a solution for my lower deck with Chetwynd and  that there is no staging....And finaly I found a solution and made a big decision...

This will be my new version with a small village with mostly lasercut kits,lots of scenery etc...
I think this will make the most use of the space I have.Going through the helix to the upper level you will see this:


So while the paint is drying on the last structures I started to carefull rip off the old track on the old Chetwynd yard....
Last picture with the old trackwork etc. in place


Tracks removed and first part layed upside down...you can see the old corkbed on the second piece of lumber...


And playing around with some track....I´ll print out a scale version of that part of the plan later to use it as template.


right track will curve right onto the other side into the staging...(not installed) I´ll build a fold down bridge for that.....It will be used maybe twice a op-session....and because I´m a lone operator of my railroad it will be no Problem

left track will curve to the left around the corner into the planer and lumber mill at sundance....So this siding will be called sundance siding as on the prototype.

I´ll do a google search to find a small village I´ll use it´s name for my village...Next time I´ll be jumping from this part of the layout to the other one I was working on....I think there will be a lot of updates the next time....
Please tell me what you think of my ideas...

Thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

So I made some small progress last week on the basework for the new area.Changed the benchwork ,added subroadbed and some wood for the roads.Also added some first foam for the scenery...around the bridge and road underpass I will use some fine mesh and plaster strips....I have to rise the tracklevel to pass over the radiator.Here are some photos where I´m for now....

left track in the front is the spur to the canfor planer mill,right track is will pass over the fold down bridge into the staging.


Left subroadbed for the track and right side is the base for the road.This is the area I´ll do the scenery with fine mesh and plaster....


Tracks pass over the radiator and go on around the wall and finaly enter the helix.There will be a small rural village to the right side of the radiator with a teamtrack,some lasercut structures around,gas station etc...

This week I´ll mount the track and turnouts,wire and paint it and will do some scenery work.I also will adjust the subraodbed and track for the bridge etc...So still a lot to do,more progress will follow,soon.Any comments are very appreciated...

Thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

made some progress on my layout redo.Kork and track are glued and wired.Made some testruns and it worked out good.The bridge is not glued down but I started some rough scenery around that area.Track is layed and connected to the Helix and I run some trains to Dawson Creek on the upper Level.

Planer mill at "Sundance".



Sundance siding



Bridge scene


Small Village behind the bridge


Turn to the right entering the helix.The opening into the Helix will be hidden with a road bridge,some hills and trees....

So that´s all for the moment.It´s nice to have some trqains running again.
More progress on the other areas will follow soon and after some more testing I´ll start with painting tracks and ballast.....
Thanks for looking.Any comments are very appreciated.

Cheers,Chris

[bparrish]

Chris........

Thanx for the many photos............. You had better be careful........... with what you are doing there you could end up with a really cool railroad ! ! ! !

Thanx
Bob

[Twist67]

Hi,
Bob, thankx for the nice comment. and because we all love photos,here is a bunch of new ones.

It´s been some time snce I posted last time about progress on my layout....But I´ve made some little progress...Had some trains running the whole tracks up to Dawson Creek and back and all worked out fine....Had some fun switching the several spots in Dawson Creek And the Lumber Mill on the lower level.I started to search for a name for the small village on the lower level..Any ideas for a name are very welcome... I also made a minor rebuild to some benchwork on the upper level,because I wasn´t happy with the construction and look of it....Now it´s made from plywood segments and looking much better....Track was down for some testing and will be permanent glued down on some kork this week...But first change was the small business warehouse in the right corner on above the TV.It will be replaced with some structure made from Pikestuff walls and left over parts of the red wing floor mill kits.I found pictures of a structuremodel like that on the internet and thought it will be a perfect fit for that corner.



As you can see I´ve switched some cars for that business....It will get hoppers and boxcars....
Next on the list was the row of elevators around the corner.Had the structures in front of the benchwork and the track for switching behind it....was no good deal because of the hight of the layout....so turned the scenery around,elevator to the back and track to the front.And changed the look of the two buildings and additional structures.....



And finaly here is the "end of the line" Industrie area on the last part of the layout.The structures are not final,still playing around with the placement of them....





And some final pictures of the G.E.R.N. Industries Limited complex with some car´s spotted to the loading areas.




I also started a blog on my layout build on blogspot : http://dawsoncreeksubh0.blogspot.de/
I will do it in German and English but have most of it started in German.Have to do the English part soon before it will be to much to write...
Feel free to comment and visit the site.

Thanks for looking,any comments and ideas are very welcome.

Cheers,Chris