Building a coach yard

[nycjeff]

I don't know if this qualifies as a diorama because I am redoing an existing scene on my layout. This isn't really a scratchbuild either since it isn't a structure. Anyway, I decided to place it here and here we go...

I have a three track stub end classification yard on the lower level of the middle peninsula of my layout. I wanted to put all of my passenger cars on the layout and the ones that weren't in designated trains sort of ended up here at the ends of the three tracks of the yard.



Here is the same area with the cars moved out.



If you have followed my posts, you know that I am a big fan of Cliff Power's work on his layouts. On his old Magnolia Route layout, Cliff had a beautifully modeled coach yard. The idea of a modeled coach yard really appealed to me and in doing research on the web it was difficult to find any pictures of prototype or modeled coach yards except for Cliff's. A picture of his exceptional work is below.



To get started on my coach yard I had to figure out the width and length of the platforms. When laying the track in my yard I left a one inch space between the cork roadbeds of the tracks. After scraping up the ballast between the tracks I cut a one inch wide piece of cardboard to fit in the space.



With the cardboard as a base I measured between the tracks and found out I could have a 1 1/4 inch wide platform. I wanted to use thin styrene for the platform surfaces so I made a small 6 inch long platform to see how it would look. As you can see below, I guess-estimated the heigth of the overhead pipes and made a sample platform piece.

[deemery]

Jeff, the last 3 images did not come through.  Can you double-check the filenames?  When adding a file on-line, it's best to use ONLY numbers, letters, dashes and underscores.  Spaces (or tabs) in particular cause lots of problems.

dave

[nycjeff]

I placed the sample platform piece next to some of the passeenger cars and found that the pipes were too high. This gave me valuable info for proceeding with the actual platforms. The material that I will use for the overhead pipes is as follows- I used 1/4 inch drinking straws for the red steam pipe and 1/8 inch wood skewers for the small compressed air line. I wanted to also put a third pipe in to represent an electrical feed, but decided I didn't have the room for three.



I cut pieces of cardboard and placed them between the tracks to figure out how long to make the platforms. The two long ones are about 44 inches long and the shorter one is about 25 inches long.



Next I cut the styrene pieces to fit onto the cardboard bases. I also scribed some concrete section lines on the styrene at this time. Using the back edge of my #11 blade I made the lines as far apart as the width of my 6 inch metal ruler. It was starting to look like something at this point.


After gluing the styrene to the cardboard base I took the pieces outside and used rattle can grey primer to give the platforms a base color.



After letting the spray paint dry I brushed on a light grey chalk paint. I didn't put a real heavy coat on, I wanted some of the darker grey to be seen through the lighter chalk grey color. I then used some pastel chalks to weather the platforms and to highlight the scribed section lines. You can see the difference in the picture below



That's it for now, more later.

[Vietnam Seabee]

Jeff...great sbs. 5 images came thru for me. The first image is going to help me on a passenger car I judt took down from my orphan shelf. I needed some ideas on weathering the roof snd your pic helps
Terry

[Vietnam Seabee]

Jeff...your images came thru on your first post but none came thru on the second post
Terry

[nycjeff]

Jeff, the last 3 images did not come through.  Can you double-check the filenames?  When adding a file on-line, it's best to use ONLY numbers, letters, dashes and underscores.  Spaces (or tabs) in particular cause lots of problems.

dave

Jeff...great sbs. 5 images came thru for me. The first image is going to help me on a passenger car I judt took down from my orphan shelf. I needed some ideas on weathering the roof snd your pic helps
Terry

Hello Dave and Terry, I hope all of the pictures are there now. Terry, I have to admit that some of the weathering you are seeing on the roofs of my cars is just dust. They all need to be cleaned up, but it doesn't look too bad, I might just leave them as they are.

[Vietnam Seabee]

All came through for me
Terry

[deemery]

Jeff, the photos came through.  A comment on coloring concrete:  I've found it looks good to add a very small amount of olive paint to your concrete color (I like unbleached titanium as a good starting point.)  Of course, concrete comes in various shades of white and beige, and then weathers unevenly.  So there's probably "no single right answer."

dave

[Zephyrus52246]

Coach yard is looking good so far.  You're correct that Cliff Power's work is outstanding. 

Jeff

[nycjeff]

Hello Terry and Dave, I'm glad that all the pictures finally came through. It seems that it takes a while for all of the pictures in a post to get to where they are supposed to go. I don't put more than 5 pictures in a post for this reason.

Dave, thanks for the tip on coloring concrete and I'm really enjoying your row house pictures.

Hello Jeff, thanks for looking in. Cliff's work is an inspiration to me and I have tried to copy his work more than a few times on my layout.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

Here is a picture of the overhead piping support stands. I used 3/32 wood dowels for the posts and 1/8x1/8 styrene angle for the top part. I dipped the wood pieces in my A&I solution and then painted the bottom area with red craft paint. I used super glue to attach the styrene to the wood. Any time that I have dis-similiar materials to join together I use super glue. I also painted the styrene with the same red paint. As you can see, I made plenty. The sample portion of platform that I built had the pipes about 3/4 of an inch above the roofs of the passenger cars, I thought this was too much, so I shortened the posts by 1/2 inch. This places the pipes just above the car roofs and gives a more pleasing appearance in my opinion.



I glued the painted and weathered platforms in place on the layout. I then drilled holes just big enough for the pipe stands and glued them in place. I spaced the pipe stands 6 inches apart, no reason other than they looked right to me.



A closer look at the in place pipe stands



If you look at the picture of Cliff Powers coach yard, you will see that he placed tall power poles on his platforms. I decided to use some more of the yard light towers that I had used in my engine service areas. These light towers are from Details West and can be ordered from Walthers. I first sprayed the parts with rattle can grey primer and then assembled the metal towers using super glue. I then painted them with craft paints. The towers come two to a pack and are reasonably priced. These are non-working lights.



I placed the light towers so that they would be between the overhead pipe lines. I tried several different ways of joining the pipe materials together and finally decided to just use blue painters tape which I painted the same color as the pipes. I sprayed the drinking straws that I used for the larger steam pipes with a rattle can flat red primer and the smaller wood dowels with a light grey primer. In the picture below the pipes are glued in place and some detail castings have also been glued onto the platforms. I backed some cars in place to see how everything looked and I'm very pleased so far.



That's it for now, more later.

[tom.boyd.125]

 Jeff,
Your modeling of a coach yard looks great. Don't see that detail added on many layouts. Remember many prototype ones on the south side of Chicago growing up. The Sante Fe had one near my dads work place. You can still google it to see old photos from the past.
 Tommy

[nycjeff]

Hello Tommy, thanks for looking in. I got interested in modeling a coach yard after seeing pictures of Cliff Power's work. While researching the project I had trouble locating pictures of any prototype coach yards showing platform details. I would appreciate any info regarding pictures. Where was the Sante Fe coach yard you spoke of ? Thanks in advance for anything you can show me.

[GPdemayo]

Great redo of the space Jeff.....

[ReadingBob]

Coming along nicely!  Like Greg said, great redo of an existing area.