Prototype Pic of the Day #12

LSRC Locomotives | Image Courtesy of Steven McKay via RRPictureArchives.net

While I am in between modelling posts, here is another pic related to the Detroit & Mackinac. Shown here is a part of the Lake State Railway (LSRC) fleet in Saginaw, MI. On the left is former D&M #181 and on the far right are former D&M #469 and #1280. Both #181 and #1280 were repainted in LSRC's blue and white, while #469 was not at this point.

Structure Mock-Up: Walthers Commissary Building

When it comes to my office shelf layout project, I've gone through several ideas as far as which buildings I want to work with. The only problem is deciding which ones are going to be the best fit. So rather than buying them and hoping they work out, I've decided to mock some up with styrene poster board and cardboard to see how they will fit. Plus, this way I can physically lay the track out to see how I want things before nailing it down for good.

The two building kits that I've been thinking about doing are both from the Walthers Cornerstone series. One is the Commissary / Freight Transfer background building kit and the other is the Heritage Furniture background building kit. I chose them because they are just about the right height to fit on the shelf and are not too deep so they won't eat up the entire depth of the layout. I'm hoping to fit both in, but I'll have to wait and see. Up first was the Commissary building. 

Walthers Cornerstone Commissary/Freight Transfer background building.

When I first decided to mock this one up I thought using 1/8" thick styrene poster board would be the way to go, so I headed up to Dollar Tree and bought myself a couple of large sheets. I ended up going real low-tech on this one and just took the overall dimensions of the stock building and cut some sheets to size. I just wanted to capture the size and shape, so I wasn't concerned about all the minor details. After a lot of cutting, some sanding and gluing, I was well on my way to a good representation of the kit.

A look at the rough shape of my Commissary/Freight Transfer building before adding the loading dock.

After putting together the four sides and the roof, it was time to move onto making the loading dock and overhang. For the loading dock, I did this by cutting some narrow strips and gluing them together into an L-shape. I then glued that to the front of the building and added a couple of small rectangular pieces to fill the gaps at either end. For the overhang, I cut the triangular end pieces first then glued the two long strips to those making one large piece. I then glued that right to the front wall and called it good.

A look at the front of the structure mock-up.

For some finishing touches I thought it would look nice having something to represent the windows and loading dock doors. To do this, I just cut some scrap cardboard from a cereal box to sizes that looked about right, then just super glued them right to the surface of the styrene sheets.

A look at the end of the structure mock-up.

The whole point of this thing was to have something that I could thrown down on the base structure to help plan the track layout. I was using SCARM to do this before, but I'd much rather go with something you can see and feel to plan my track layout. It may be a bit more work, but I think it will be worth it. Here is a look at how much room this will actually take up on the layout. Now I just need to work on the placement.

Trying out the mock-up on the layout for the first time.

This thing came out much better than I had hoped and it will serve its purpose just fine. I even went ahead and added a little bit of paint for fun. It's not quite done yet, but you get the idea. I may or may not end up using this kit, but at this point it looks pretty good. Only time will tell though.

A look at the front of the structure with some paint added.

That's it for now, just need to add a little bit more paint and it will be all set. Up next is the Heritage furniture building.

Prototype Pic of the Day #11

DM Alco C425 #381 | Image courtesy of Garland McKee (alcostalker) via Flickr

I've been way to busy lately to work on any of my modeling projects, so its time for another prototype pic. Today's picture is another Detroit & Mackinac shot from Garland McKee. It shows #381 switching the railroad ferry Chief Wawatam at Mackinaw City, MI. The Chief was used to transport rail cars between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Michigan since there was no rail connection along the Mackinac Bridge. The Chief operated from 1911 to 1984.

Track Painting and Ballast Update

I was finally able to lay down the rest of the track for my second trial piece for ballasting and painting. All I had to do was make about a 1 inch long piece that would extend from the end of the switch. I did this by cutting off part of a curved piece of track. Here's what it looked like before that small piece was added. 

A look at my second trial piece of track before adding the last small piece.

After adding that small piece, I glued it down in place with some gorilla glue, which definitely gives you a good hold for something like this. The next step was to finish ballasting the track. I used a medium grey blend ballast from Woodland Scenics this time around and I have to say it looks much better than the mixture I tried last time. Here is what it looked like after I was finished applying the ballast and gluing it in place.

A look at the track with all the ballast in place.

Now that I've tried out the grey blend ballast and have seen it used and recommended by a lot people on the internet, I think this will be what I end up using for my office shelf layout project. The next thing is finalizing what I want to do for painting the rails and ties. I think the rust color on the rails looks good, but may be a bit on the bright side, so I either need to play with darkening it up or going with a new paint altogether. If any one has suggestions or could share what they use I would really appreciate it. 

Prototype Pic of the Day #10

The entire NS heritage fleet | Image courtesy of Norfolk Southern Corp. via RailPictures.net

This is probably the best photo ever of a group of locomotives. Norfolk Southern really knew what they were doing with this fleet. All of the paint jobs look downright amazing. My favorites would have to be Conrail, Lehigh Valley, and Nickel Plate Road. I've only been lucky enough to see one of them in person so far (Lehigh Valley in the old Conrail Sterling yard just down the road from me), but I'm hoping to see more of them someday.

More Track Painting and Ballast Trials

I've been hard at work on these two sections of track for practice painting and ballasting for a couple of weeks now. It's a slow process because I find myself with very little time for modeling now that summer has arrived. When I do get time though, its full speed ahead with as many projects as I can handle. This one has been the primary lately and its actually been a lot of fun to work on. 

So far I have completed the straight section of track and have made good progress on the switch. At first I said I wouldn't post a picture of the ballast job on the first one, but now that I've been looking at it, I kind of like the color combination. To each their own, right? Here's what a 50/50 mix of Woodland Scenics medium dark brown and medium buff looks like. 

A look at my 50/50 mix of medium dark brown and medium buff ballast.

Here's another look with one of my boxcars just because.

While that one is not the best looking in the world, it definitely taught me a few things about track painting and ballasting that will help when it comes to building my office shelf layout. I think the most important thing I learned was just to take my time, especially when doing the painting. If you want something to look good, it requires patience and that's become pretty obvious through this process.

Now onto the switch. I took the same approach to painting this one and it took me a good couple of hours to complete the painting. I know that seems like a lot, but I want these to look just right, so I see it as time well spent.

A look at the painted switch track before starting the ballast work.

A look at the switch track after starting the ballast work.

I still have one more piece of track to create for this one so the upper left area runs out to the end of the board. I did this by custom cutting a couple of pieces of rail and manually placing some plastic ties I cut from remaining scrap track. It's a bit of tedious extra work, but make for much better looking track if you ask me. The only tricky part is figuring out what to do since I cannot place standard rail joiners in there anymore. 

I'll work on that problem when it comes to having a running train. The office shelf layout will be static, so I don't need to worry about the connectivity between rails just yet.

Prototype Pic of the Day #9

LSRC Alco C425 #281 and LSRC Spreader #DMX20 | Image courtesy of JJ Schrader via RailPictures.net

Today's pictures is another one of former Detroit & Mackinac equipment. Up front you have a Jordan spreader that has obviously seen a lot of use. Bringing up the rear is one of D&M's old Alco century units, #281 in this case. It's a shame that these locos lost what was an excellent paint scheme when the railroad became LSRC. Oh well, that's life I guess. At least they were still using them at the time of this photo in the beginning of 2008.