Substation

Built and painted this substation today for the North Atkinson Paper mill.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Tomorrow I'll take it to the layout and hang the power lines across the high tension towers to this and then from this to the buildings in the mill complex.

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

Exploring new weathering technics

The little lady is under the weather so, I'm spending time at the bench.  The layout is detatched from the house and I didn't want to be that far away.  I practiced weathering with my airbrush.  Below are a few pics of cars that I messed with today.

 

A modern potato mover.

 

 

Just pretend it's not for molten sulfer.

 

 

Cement service.

 

 

No one seems to make a really nice stake sided pulpwood car.  I can make due with fixing up these Walthers cars, though.

 

 

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

Making brown go green

Spent most of my layout time today putting cable staples on the bus to hang it up tight against the bottom of the benchwork.  That doesn't make for good pictures, so I snapped this pic of some of the bottom layer of the basic scenery.  I really love the transition from pink to brown to green.

 

 

The layout mascsot, Angry Pink, has found a new home on the very top of the Kraft process mill so that he can keep track of everything.

 

 

Of course, in both pictures, you can clearly see the wrinkles and creases in the Walthers instant horizons backdrops.  Trying to remove them to take out the wrinkles destroys them, so I have to choose between leaving the creases or buying a different backdrop. 

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

 

Kraft Mill

Finished up the Kraft proccess building today.  Here are a few views of how it sits in the complex.

 

 

 

 

I weathered a pile of cars today too, but the pics didn't come out very well.  A few of the useable ones are below.  Sorry about the quality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Disappointed

I don't think that I have ever been as disappointed with a product as I am with the Walthers instant horizons backgrounds that I recently purchased.  I bought them because they were economical compared to the other photo backdrops out there and the pictures were acceptable to me.  I had used them in the past and was very satisfied.  I was very surprised to find that these are no longer printed on nice cardstock like they used to be.  Instead, they are now printed on normal paper.  They are a nightmare to apply and no matter how careful I was, they were filled with bubbles and creases. 

 

It's not all bad though, I got a lot done today.  I even had time to run a few trains.

 

 

Weathered this Exactrail boxcar with blair line decals, oil washes and weathering powders.

 

 

Finally finished the bridge for Brownville Jct., next is the river.

 

 

You can see in this photo how the backdrop ended up with numerous bubbles and creases.

 

 

Worked on this culvert and small stream

 

 

Took a few runs with my Shay,

 

 

And switched some cars at the mill.

 

 

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

Today's update will be late

Due to a medical emergency, I have been at the hospital all day, so no work got done today.   Backdrops arrived today though. Maybe tomorrow.

High tension towers

Didn't have much time today, so all I managed to get to is starting on the pile of high tension towers that I have to build. 

 

 

To make up for so little progress today, here are a few pics of my old diorama that never quite got finished before the new house.

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

Structures

Finished up the boiler house for the paper mill.  I'll add all the piping after the base scenery is down.

 

Also finished up the other set of silos for the concrete complex.

If anyone has a couple of Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

Structures and scenery

The Dullcoat that I ordered is taking a month of Sundays to get here, so I spent a ton of time in the spray booth today painting on everything in the pile that didn't need it.  Almost finished up the cement factory.  I still have another set of silos that need piping on top and a ready mix building that needs paint and the structures for this complex will be complete.

 

 

I built these propane tanks from a Walthers kit.  I couldn't get the seems to disappear for the life of me.  I sanded and filled with squadron putty and sanded, filed, and sanded some more and the seems are still noticeable after painting.  I'm sure some creative positioning and bushes will hide it just fine.

Put down some more basic scenery today.  I start everything with a base coat of fine ground foam sprinkled into wet latex paint.  If the area is going to be grass or tree, I used a green mix.  If the area is going to be bare or earth, I sprinkle in sifted dirt.  

I started on a culvert project and it's coming along nicely.  This was the last picture I took today before the camera battery died, so the anti-shaky thing didn't work and I couldn't retake it.

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

More cars ready for the layout

Put 3 new tanks in the fleet today.  This 3 pack was almost half off because two had broken couplers in the box.  I change all my couplers to Sergent Engineering scale couplers, so some broken Kadees is no biggie.

 

 

I love these Blueprint series Berwick boxcars, but I hate putting them together.  The small parts are so fragile.  They sure make a nice finished car though.

Now that the track is down and wired, I went around and filled all the gaps with wooden ties. 

 

Worked on a bit of road under the watchful eye of the layout's mascot, Angry Pink

Put down a sheet of styrene and painted it concrete for the employee parking lot at the paper mill.

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38's in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

Running trains!

Got my hands on a 16v 5.5 amp power supply and hooked it up today.  After testing, I put  all the locomotives that have sound in the yard.  The sound of 10 diesels spooling up at the same time was really awesome.  A trip around the layout and in and out of each siding found a turnout with a point that wasn't getting power and 2 spots that need feeders. 

 

Spent some time at the bench today too.  Put together this little Pikestuff kit for the engine house at the Brownville Jct. yard.

 

And put the final touches on this Walthers kit for outbound paper loading at the paper mill. 

The view from the outbound loading end of the mill.  Should be a great spot for some good photos once the scenery is down.

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

Frustrating day

I got the bus wires installed and hooked to all the feeders today.  Unfortunately, when I went to hook up the new DCC booster and wireless cabs, I realized that this equipment didn't come with a power supply.  So, no testing track while I wait for one to get here in the mail.

 

I had the fumbles today and spent as much time fixing broken handrails as I did building stuff.  I installed a new Tsunami sound decoder an atlas GP7 and when I put it on the program track, it wound up, went about 3 feet, and stopped and now will only flash an error code.  I had it apart about a half dozen times to no avail, so it's relegated to the back of the bench until I can get the decoder replaced.

 

But, it's not all bad.  I did get the frames milled out for speakers on the twins.  Both of my CP SD40-2s now have great sound and run like champs.

 

I put some minimal weathering on a few cars.  I know there is no need for corn syrup tanks on the line, but I really like them, so I will be running a few.

I'd never heard of this roadname before and I liked the idea of a splash of blue on the layout, so I grabbed this hopper and weathered it fairly heavy.

It's pretty hard to cover a cement colored hopper with spilled powdered cement.  Light rust will have to suffice.

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com

 

The last of the track

The last of the track is down and all of the feeders are in place.  Tomorrow will be running the bus wires under the layout and testing.  Once everything runs, I will be able to put up the fascia and box in the area under the layout.

 

This is the view from the west end of the Brownville Jct. yard.  The track running off the edge is the CP interchange leg of the wye, which I chose not to model in order to keep the layout under 24" wide.

 

 

This is the east end of the yard, looking from the west.  The center track will host a small engine house and the old brick station where you used to be able to get on VIA rail.

The east end of the yard, as seen from the west. 

 

Heading out of Brownville Jct. headed west.  Here will be a few old potato houses and a small transformer manufacturer.

One of the short ends of the layout is home to a siding with a potato house and a grain elevator.

The bridge at the east end of the North Atkinson Paper mill.

 

The view into the mill complex after crossing the bridge.  I have a LOT of buildings half built for this area.

 

The west end of the mill viewed facing east.  It shows the mill's storage and sorting yard.  The siding on the left of the yard will be for pulpwood unloading.

The other short end of the layout houses a fairly large cement factory, a fuel and propane dealer, and the woodchip unloading siding from LaGrange.  Around the curve is the Brownville Jct. yard again.

 

If anyone has a couple Atlas GP38s in the Bangor & Aroostook red, black, and grey paint that they would be willing to sell, drop me a message at hobbezeq@gmail.com