British Columbia Railway Dawson Creek Sub in HO

[Twist67]

Hi John,
yes,You´re correct with the backdrops. I will add it before I install the structures and scenery details permanent......

Regards,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

The layout is really looking great. You certainly have been very busy. And, I agree with John, now is the time to get the backdrops in place.

Tom

[Twist67]

Tom,
the material for the backdrop is on it´s way to me... I had a small op session two weeks ago and I was asked if I can make some changes to the northwestern wood preservers mill on the upper level. The tracks are hard to reach so we decided to change the area.
The structures moved to the back and tracks to the front. There are still 3 tracks, one for pulwood and wood unloading, one for plywood loading and one for unloading chemicals and other needed things delivered in boxcars and tankcars.


I made two panorama shots of the whole room with the helix. First one is what you see when you enter this room,second is looking opposite direction along the long wall.



I also glued down some kork on the engine service area and made some work on the two bridges on the upper level. I´m also doing small things here and there like installing the feeders at the canfor mill and the engine service.

More progress will follow,soon.Thank you for looking.

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
again it´s been some time since I last updated my layoutprogress so this time here is a bigger update.
The next area I started to work was the place for the engine service. After the tests with the Walthers dieselhouse I decided it was to big and did not match the look I wanted for it. So I searched the net and my books for pictures and finaly found some place I like. It´s the old PGE enginehouse at Lillooet. This could work for me in a similar way and I decided to try to build something like that. Here´s the picture I found on Flickr. It´s not my own picture and I use it for reference. I have some similar photos in one of my BCR books but this one shows the tracks better.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37908073@N04/3494972727/in/album-72157621907755857/

And here´s my version of that place. The enginehouse was scratchbuild/kitbashed from pikestuff parts, the Shop building is also made from pikestuff walls. The other structures may be used as the are or will be changed with other structures.



As you can see in the last picture I shortened the main to the far left. The caboose track will be extended to the left track next to the engine service shop and it will be connected with a turnout and the small structure in front of the tanks will be removed and there will be a track for delivering dieselfuel for the engines.


Some engines stored in the engine house and on the tracks around. I have to do some work on the base for the structure and start with some basic landscape.

And after all that work I decided to made a last change on the layout. This time on the upper level in the other room around the mainstreet and the industries around. I reworked the tracks and turnouts and now I have a more straight look. I also removed one of the two elevators, moved the mainstreet into the far right corner. On the liftout in front of the window the structures moved to the back and so giving more room for operations.

New place of the mainstreet. There will be a small scrapyard behind the gas station.

Maybe this will move a bit to the right to allow two longer tracks for the elevator.   

A&C Cylinder Head rebuilders to the right, Mikes Custom Woodworking to the left.

The new place for Diamond Fertilizer.   

The left over elevator. You can see the rebuild still in progress but it´s finshed now. Have to take some pics.

Loomis Express building moved into the corner to give more room for the trucks in front.

I´m still thinking about the structure. I don´t know if I´ll stay with that structure or will add a new structure made from pikestuff walls and doors, which will match the look of the prototype much better. Here´s a google street view picture of it. I could simulate a much bigger structure with the pikestuff kit.

So this was a big update on my layout but I´m quite happy with he changes I made. Now I can go back to finish the work on the helix with the two new bridges and the final trackwork.

Removed the old trestle but have not made a final decision for that.

This one will be placed right to the other bridge over the tracks heading out of the helix and will hide the hole to the helix.

Thank you for reading and following.Any comments are very welcome.

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
here are some recent updates of my layout.....and again some changes.....only small changes.
First change was done to thenorthwestern wood preservers plywood mill again. I was thinking how the prototype would do it. I think they will feed raw wood into the mill on one side, add some ingredients during the manufacturing and will get finished and packed plywood on the other side....so it will make no sense to deliver the glue and paint on one end,the wood on the other and load the plywood in the middle....so this is what I came up with:

First part is a part of the area where the Logs and pulpwood is stored. The logs will be deivered by trucks as is on the prototype

Next step is the inbound track for tank and boxcars.


And the second track is for loading the outbound finished plywood into boxcars,flatcars and trucks.This will be the other end of the mill.


It´s only a rough mockup with leftover structures etc. but it will give me a better feeling for the whole thing.

The second part I´m working on was the interchangetrack and the look of this end of the layout.
I moved Wright´s food service around the corner and removed the cold storage. I placed the interchange to the rebuild area next to the teamtrack with the siding.


This gives me some new space where Wright´s was located. The single track is the NAR/CN row heading into Alberta. I will scratchbuild a road overpass maybe a third structure...I´m still searching for something maching to the two other buildings and will add some backyard scenery to it...some trees bushes etc.


More progress wil follow soon. Thanks for looking.

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
It´s been a month since my last post. I was very busy with my work and had not so much time for the hobby. I was not so happy with the last conversion on the layout for some time. The Modules and benchwork I made for this part of the layout were not all level and I was not happy with them. So finaly I decided to remove that part for now. It was not a big deal to remove the trackwork and cork. The wood will be fired up the next winter .The industries will be placed on other locations on the layout and the G.E.R.N. Industries Ltd. Facilitiy got some more tracks and has grown bigger...Here is the new trackplan. As you can see I changed the liftout at the entrance door,too. I removed the curves and have now a straight piece of track...I also started with the trackwork redo at Dawson Creek Yard. I used a shematic track diagram of the prototype for that and only removed one of the yardtracks and the spur to National Food. I added one track in front of the No.3 elevator and it will be used as teamtrack and also for loading TOFC cars.

I started with the G.E.R.N. complex. The trackwork is glued down and wired. From left to right starting with the truck loading structure.There will be a background structure behind the warehose connecting it with the mill building. I´ll add a door for boxcars to that new building where the track will disapear into it.

Mill structure with the elevator in the background. I will add an addition to the mill with an overpass to the other side of tracks next to the elevator. There will be also some pipes etc. going over the tracks to the mill.


Diamond Fertilizer on the right side to the front (blue and beige structures with the silo) is one of the railserved customers from the old part of the layout.




I also have some first pictures of the new arranged Dawson Creek yard.First pictures entering the yard from the east coming back from the G.E.R.N. area around the next corner


From right to left or front to backdrop are mainline, two yardtracks, runaround and elevator track


Looking from the other direction with the station and freighthouse in the far distance


More pictures will follow as soon as I could do some more work on the yard. I hope to get the Industry area with G.E.R.N. finishe d by the end of the week with painting the backdrop and adding some cork as a baselayer for the paved areas. I´ll use styrene sheet for most of the paving again. Some tracks will be paved in and some not.

Thanks for looking. Any coments are very appreciated.

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi,
I made some progress last week on the new liftout. The sharp curves are gone and I made a straight part for the liftout. It looks much better and I hope it will worke better when it´s finished.
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Left track is the spur to G.E.R.N. with the liftout, right track is the main heading east to Alberta. It ends in front of the wall behind the roadbridge. I´ll use it as an interchange with the NAR/CN.
I started the basic trrain with foam and will use a hot wire cutter for more shaping and the fine part will done with sandpaper. The top will be coverd with plastercloth. I don´t know if I´ll stay with the residences or will build some downtown area on this place.I´ll decide that when the terrain shape is finished.
Here are some more pictures of that area.




Looking back from G.E.R.N.






I hope to get some more work done this week with more landscaping...

Regards,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

You've really been busy on your layout and have made fantastic progress. I love all the side tracks to the industries. The possibilities are endless. Great job.

Tom

[S&S RR]

Chris


Good to see you back working on the layout - I'm following your progress.

[Twist67]

Hi,
Thank you for the kind comments. I try to find an hour or so every day to work on the layout. It´s a lot of fun to start with the landscaping progress....

Regards,Chris

[ak-milw]

Lots going on there Chris, looks good.

[Twist67]

Hi,
Thanks Andy.
Again I made some small progress on the liftout area. I have done more foamwork. I´m searching for a name for that section...It´s a part of the residential zone of Dawson Creek...So any ideas are very appreciated





Next step will be finishing the corkbed and trackwork and do some painting. After that I will go on with the foreground scenery. I hope to finish this part and the liftout next to it by the end of next week....
I´ll post more pictures soon.

Regards,Chris

[Zephyrus52246]

The multi colored foam looks funky!     What do you use to carve/shape the foam?  Looks like you're making good progress.

Jeff

[Twist67]

Hi,
Jeff, thank you. I use a hot wire cutter and a small tool  for working with drywalls. It looks like this

It´s a bit messy but that´s okay. I hope to get a bit more done this evening when I´m back home from work.

Regards,Chris

[jbvb]

I first saw 'microplane' tools like that in the US offered by the 'Surform' brand.  They work on wood too.