nycjeff layout

[S&S RR]

Jeff


I just got caught up on your layout tour.  Very nice - thank you for posting it here on the forum.  Great modeling I look forward to future updates.

[Bernd]

That group of buildings look great in that area.

I like the canning building.

Bernd

[postalkarl]

Hey Jeff:

Love the Ice Cold Beer and Ice building. Great colors and weathering.

Karl

[nycjeff]

Great scenes and details Jeff. Are you able to do a video of the layout from the track perspective?

Hello Curt, thanks for checking in. I'm not able to do a video, I don't have the correct equipment or know how at this point, although it is something I want to do at some point, sorry

Hey Jeff:

All the building and scenery look great also.

Karl

Hey Jeff:

Love the Ice Cold Beer and Ice building. Great colors and weathering.

Karl

Hey Karl, thanks for the kind words. I did a build thread on the Beer and Ice building, it was a CCK kit and I really enjoyed building it.

Jeff


I just got caught up on your layout tour.  Very nice - thank you for posting it here on the forum.  Great modeling I look forward to future updates.

Hello John, thanks for your interest in my layout. I'm having a good time working on the tour of my layout, but all the pictures seem to show me just how much more work and improvements I can do. I've been following your layout tour as well and I am just blown away by the quality and craftsmanship that you have achieved.

That group of buildings look great in that area.

I like the canning building.

Bernd

Hi Bernd, I appreciate the nice comments. After looking at the pictures of that area, I can see that I need to do some more work to improve it. That's the thing with the forum, you see all the high quality work and learn more and newer techniques and you want to apply what you've seen and learned to your own layout.

Continuing on...



The other half of my city area is a retail street. This is the drone view of the area. There are five buildings along the streets along with some vehicles and little people.



This is a street level view. I used cardboard stained with India Ink for the street material. I made a stencil from an index card and cut out the holes for the stripe down the middle of the street. I then dry-brushed it with a light grey color. The sidewalks are styrene painted with a dark grey craft paint. The utility poles and streetlights are from Walthers and the vehicles are Classic Metal works and Mini Metals.



This is an a back alley view of the first two buildings on the left side of the street. I believe that both buildings are Woodland Scenics kits. I added a Walthers vintage fire escape kit to the rear of one and used several detail castings on the ground and on the roofs. The red building is a fire dept and I scratch-built a roof-top siren for it. The fencing is from Central Valley.



Here's a view of the fronts of the two buildings.



The two buildings on the other side of the street are a DPM Kelly's Saloon kit and a Walthers White Tower Restaurant kit. The awnings on the restaurant came with the kit, but I scratch-built the one for the saloon.



Another look at the front of those two buildings. More in a minute

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



At the end of the street is a little "other side of the tracks" area. A Downtown Deco Trackside Tavern kit is here and a small shack is also seen. I can't remember where I got the shack- it is a metal structure.



A closer look at the trackside tavern. This was my first hydrocal structure and I had a great time with it. I've seen several very good build threads of this structure.



And a closer look at the little metal shack. I added half of a boat for the front porch roof. My brother and I used to see a similar structure along the road when we drove to our family cabin in central Ohio years ago. We called it the boat house and I wanted to have it on my layout.



A track level view of the back side of the city area. The paved street ends here and the dirt road leads to the railroad yard area.



Another view of the city area, sorry about the light fixture. More in a minute

[nycjeff]

This is a view of the tracks behind my city scene. The top two are the inbound and outbound tracks to my west staging area. The west staging area represents the real world south of central Ohio on the New York Central. Tracks went to Columbus and Cincinnati in one direction and to Indianapolis and St Louis in the other. On the NYC these tracks split at a town called Galion, Ohio. The third track is the yard lead for my layout. The hillside is just stacked foam blocks painted and covered with trees.



This picture shows the entry and exit tracks to the west staging area. I agonized over how to do this for a while and ended up just cutting slots in the backdrop and folding the flaps back. Sometimes the simplest way is the best way. I think it blends into the backdrop just fine. The track at the top right middle is the approach track to my helix.



A closer look at the staging entries. You can't really see this angle when viewing the layout from the aisle. I reached out with my arm to get this shot.



Another look at the staging entry tracks. I like how trains just seem to disappear into the woods. Next up on my tour is the railroad yard area which leads to the engine service facility. That's it for now, more later.

[tom.boyd.125]

Jeff,
You have put in a lot of hours to make the NYC RR your own...
Keep the pics coming...
Tommy

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking good, Jeff.

I'm enjoying the tour.  I think your little metal structure is a Woodland Scenics icehouse.

Cheers, Mark.

[ACL1504]

[nycjeff]

Jeff,
You have put in a lot of hours to make the NYC RR your own...
Keep the pics coming...
Tommy

Hello Tommy, I have been working on my layout since 2007, so yes I have put in a lot of hours, but our hobby has helped me quite a bit over the years in terms of stress reduction, relaxation and just plain enjoyment. Thanks for looking in

Looking good, Jeff.

I'm enjoying the tour.  I think your little metal structure is a Woodland Scenics icehouse.

Cheers, Mark.

Hey Mark, I believe that you are right about my little metal structure coming from Woodland Scenics, thanks for the info. I take it that you have one of the kits on your layout.

Hello Tom, wow, that's quite a statement. I can never find things like that on my computer. I appreciate you checking in.

Continuing on...



This is the drone view of my railroad yard entrance area. The track along the backdrop leads to my helix. The yard lead splits into two yard areas. The left track leads to a three track classification area and the right track leads to my arrival and departure tracks and also to a yard run-a-round track that leads to the engine service facility. The spur track to the right leads to my city scene industrial area and also serves as a storage track for switchers that are working in the yard. The ballast on the arrival and departure tracks is the same as my mainline ballast and the rest of the tracks have a darker cinder type color for yards and spur tracks. A dirt road leads from the end of the paved road to the railroad property structures.



This is a closer look at the Alexander Scale Models NYC freight house kit and a Walthers water tower kit.



I enjoyed building the freight house kit. This was my first kit with paper shingles



I have several of the water tower kits on the layout, I think they are a realistic looking copy of the prototype and they are fun to build.



Next to the water tower is this Walthers interlocking tower kit, again I have several of these on the layout. The small tank is from the Walthers industrial tank kit. The NYC decal on the tower comes from a steam locomotive decal sheet that I found at a LHS. Unfortunately, that shop is no longer there.



The above mentioned interlocking tower was supposed to be the control area for my little people at this end of the yard, but then I was looking through John Siekirk's excellent thread on the FSM and I saw this structure and knew immediately that I had to have it on my layout. I had a Life Like two track signal bridge here, but this track tower is a huge improvement. I did a scratch-build thread of this structure on the forum if anyone is interested. I had a great time with it and I'm extremely pleased with the result. How can you go wrong with a George Sellios design ? More in a minute

[nycjeff]

The stairs were the most challenging part of the build and I was pleased with how they came out.



Another view of my scratch-built track tower and the small yard shack.



I scratch-built this little shack. Shacks like this were used by the workers in the yard to protect them from the weather. My father was a car inspector for the NYC and he spent a lot of time in shacks like this at the Collinwood yard in East Cleveland.



A look at the yard entrance through the legs of the track tower. Here you can clearly see the different ballast colors.



A track level view looking back at the yard entrance area.



A track level view of my helix approach track and a look at the backside of the freight house. That's it for now, more later.

[ReadingBob]

Very nice Jeff!  Love the Trackside Tavern (my version is sitting on the A&S and apparently has developed quite a reputation).  Mark is correct about the little Ice House being a Woodland Scenic kit.  I built that one ages ago and it's buried in box somewhere in my garage.  I may have been reverted back to kit form for all I know given how poorly I packed it away.   

[PRR Modeler]

Excellent layout scenes. I had to blow up the first picture because to my eyes it looked like the tower was a building sitting on the tracks.

[Bernd]

Jeff,

Nice pictures and nice work on that part of the layout.

Are you modeling spring or fall? Just wondering since I don't see any foliage on the trees.

Also like that track tower. I think that would look nice  in my version of the Rochester Jct scene. I'll have to find your scratch build thread.

Bernd

[nycjeff]

Very nice Jeff!  Love the Trackside Tavern (my version is sitting on the A&S and apparently has developed quite a reputation).  Mark is correct about the little Ice House being a Woodland Scenic kit.  I built that one ages ago and it's buried in box somewhere in my garage.  I may have been reverted back to kit form for all I know given how poorly I packed it away.   

Hello Bob, thanks for looking in. Yes, the trackside tavern was a fun build and I'm really enjoying the colorful life that yours is having on the A and S. Blood on the ceiling- that's great, bet you didn't model that.

Excellent layout scenes. I had to blow up the first picture because to my eyes it looked like the tower was a building sitting on the tracks.

Hi Curt, glad you like the track tower, it's a great structure. One of many, many on the FSM

Jeff,

Nice pictures and nice work on that part of the layout.

Are you modeling spring or fall? Just wondering since I don't see any foliage on the trees.

Also like that track tower. I think that would look nice  in my version of the Rochester Jct scene. I'll have to find your scratch build thread.

Bernd

Hey Bernd, I'm modeling the fall. When I started my layout the trees with foliage that were available to me did not look very realistic, but now with the Super Trees available I have had to rethink that and I have some on the layout with more to come I hope. My scratch-build of the track tower is on the Scratchbuilding forum board under FSM tribute build, if you want to see how I did it.

Continuing on...



The area that we are looking at is now on the center peninsula of my track plan on the lower side. The back side of the peninsula is the staging area and on the end is my helix and the engine service facility.



In this picture we are looking down the length of the yard. The track on the left is the approach track to the helix, then there are the three classification yard tracks, then, with the different color ballast are the arrival and departure tracks and finally the run-a-round track. The entire shelf is 28 inches wide at this point and the yard area is 22 inches wide. The yard is about 16 feet long from end to end



These two small structures are about in the middle of the yard, I believe they are Atlas structures. You have to keep the little people happy.



This is a drone view of the middle of the yard opposite the swinging gate that is the entrance to my train room. The aisle width here is 30 inches. This is fine when I'm in the room and running trains, but I ran into a problem.



When entering the room and opening the swinging gate the aisle width was only 21 inches. This proved to be a problem. When people enter the train room they have to duck under the bridge across my upper level. Asking them to duck and then squeeze through a tight aisle was not convenient. So...



I cut out a portion of the yard to give me the full 30 inch aisle width when the gate opens. This made it much easier for visitors to enter the room. More in a minute