Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[GPdemayo]

Darn John.....I was hoping you would give me a supplier name and not that you had used the real stuff so I could buy some.   
 
Here in Florida it's difficult to get anything but sand or blackish dirt and I have been looking for something between the lighter tans and real dark dirts. I have tried a few different suppliers, but haven't found anything I really like yet.
 
Thanks again.....looking forward to what you're going to do with the roundhouse scene.

[coors2u]

Greg, you should look into sanded grout. They have them at Lowes and Home Depot. It is the Poly Brand type. They have tons of colors and the texture is about as close as you can get to real dirt. John, sorry to hijack your tread.

[S&S RR]

Greg, you should look into sanded grout. They have them at Lowes and Home Depot. It is the Poly Brand type. They have tons of colors and the texture is about as close as you can get to real dirt. John, sorry to hijack your tread.

Dustin

Discussion of techniques is what the forum is all about so please do not consider your comments in any way hijack the thread. My 2 cents on the use of grout is that it is great for roads, both dirt and paved, and for fine texture applications for dirt. Check out the roads over on Erieman's thread he used grout and they look great.  I have a color sample of all the grouts sold at Home Depot and plan on using grout for my roads. 

[S&S RR]

One more comment on the use of stones found in nature vs. those that you can buy from the sources I have found.  The key to making it look right in my opinion is not just the color but the texture.  The best example of that is using stones with rounded edges for talus in mountains.  It just doesn't look right because the talus off the side of the mountain very sharp edged - just broke off due to the elements. Here in Michigan, it is very difficult to find talus like this because everything was rounded off by the glacier's that ran through here a few years back. On the other hand, the talus you find here in Michigan works real well for stones in a stream where the water rounded the edges of the stones over time.

[GPdemayo]

Greg, you should look into sanded grout. They have them at Lowes and Home Depot. It is the Poly Brand type. They have tons of colors and the texture is about as close as you can get to real dirt. John, sorry to hijack your tread.

Thanks Dustin.....I'll check it out.

[ACL1504]

Nice touch John. I have not build mine yet, but I like this idea.

Bill

Bill,

When you build yours you may as well build two!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Greg, you should look into sanded grout. They have them at Lowes and Home Depot. It is the Poly Brand type. They have tons of colors and the texture is about as close as you can get to real dirt. John, sorry to hijack your tread.

Dustin,

Fantastic tip on using sanded grout! I was in the Floor and Decor store last week and they had at least 30 different colors.

Thanks for sharing!

Tom

[S&S RR]

I made so more progress on the Stone Roundhouse build today - only three more doors to install,  started adding the smoke stacks, and added more trim.  Here is a progress picture.



The smoke stacks will be vertical - I was still test fitting when I took this picture.

[PennsyJ1]

One more comment on the use of stones found in nature vs. those that you can buy from the sources I have found.  The key to making it look right in my opinion is not just the color but the texture.  The best example of that is using stones with rounded edges for talus in mountains.  It just doesn't look right because the talus off the side of the mountain very sharp edged - just broke off due to the elements. Here in Michigan, it is very difficult to find talus like this because everything was rounded off by the glacier's that ran through here a few years back. On the other hand, the talus you find here in Michigan works real well for stones in a stream where the water rounded the edges of the stones over time.

Mr. John, what part of Michigan are you located. I grew up in Walled Lake, moved to FL in the early 70's.

Bill

[S&S RR]

One more comment on the use of stones found in nature vs. those that you can buy from the sources I have found.  The key to making it look right in my opinion is not just the color but the texture.  The best example of that is using stones with rounded edges for talus in mountains.  It just doesn't look right because the talus off the side of the mountain very sharp edged - just broke off due to the elements. Here in Michigan, it is very difficult to find talus like this because everything was rounded off by the glacier's that ran through here a few years back. On the other hand, the talus you find here in Michigan works real well for stones in a stream where the water rounded the edges of the stones over time.

Mr. John, what part of Michigan are you located. I grew up in Walled Lake, moved to FL in the early 70's.

Bill

Hi Bill

I'm in Clarkston, Mi about 15-20 miles North of where you grew up.

[S&S RR]

I made some more progress on the Stone Roundhouse today - added the trim on the upper level and finished the trim on the front.  As you can see in this picture, each of the stalls in the roundhouse is labeled with the name of someone I have found inspirational in the hobby.

The number one stall is named for a John Allen - reading the book,  by Linn Westcott, on his life in model railroading got me in to the hobby many years ago.

Number two is for George Sellios - in addition to his constant inspiration and wonderful kits George also gave me the his leftover castings from his roundhouse as seed castings for this project.

Number three is for Bob VanGelder in addition to his inspiration and wonderful kits Bob designed the original Stone Roundhouse on the F&SM and then released it as a kit.

Number four is for Darrly Huffman who I met at a Narrow Gauge convention many years ago - he is responsible for me tearing up my original layout after seeing there was a whole different level of modeling out there. I learned a lot from Darrly's many DVD's.

Number five is for Karl Osolinski a great modeler and inspiration to take your modeling to the next level. I have spent many hours studying his build threads.

Number six is for Bob Brown who has provided us with his Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette the ultimate resource for modeling.

Number seven is for Brian Nolan a great modeler and inspiration that I had the pleasure of meeting through his clinics at the Narrow Gauge Conventions.

And Number eight is for Doug Foscale for his great kits, inspiration and lessons learned through his clinics.

I ran out of stalls on the Roundhouse before I ran out of names. 

I need to finish the smoke stakes on the front and then it will be time to turn the roundhouse around and add the trim and windows to the back.  I can't wait to move this from my work bench to the layout and do the final weathering and detailing.

[ACL1504]

John,

Well, you picked some great names for the stalls. Pretty cool.

Tom

[GPdemayo]

Great work John.....it keeps getting better and better!

[S&S RR]

John,

Well, you picked some great names for the stalls. Pretty cool.

Tom

Thanks Tom - They do have some name recognition in the hobby.

[S&S RR]

Great work John.....it keeps getting better and better!

Thanks Greg