Ft #1600

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
If anyone is wondering if this is all there is to my layout, it is at least the only portion pretty much finished. I find the photos let me find all the defects so I can correct them, so I figure I might as well inflict them on you. I'll be moving to another area now, so unless and until visting power needs to be photographed, this will be the last shots of this corner. Hope I haven't overstayed my welcome.
 

Attachments

  • p1010057.jpg
    p1010057.jpg
    90.9 KB · Views: 128

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Tyson, Shamus, Casey, thanks! In regard to the ballast, I was surprised how good it looked in the photos, I had been disappointed with it when I did it. There had been a thread on ballasting where someone (Charlie?) suggested using alcohol with some india ink to make ballast look older. I thought that sounded like a great idea and since the area in the photos had been ballasted a while back(I ballast after gluing down ties but before laying rail) it was looking a little worse for the wear and I decided to reballast over the existing ballast. Well, it worked ok in the end, but here's what happened that I hadn't expected. I had put the new ballast down and had it the way I wanted. I mixed some black and a tiny bit of sienna to some alcohol and sprayed the ballast to prepare it for gluing. The new ballast absorbed (or took) the coloring more readily than the old ballast, which made sense since the old ballast wad already sealed to some extent by glue. I wound up with quite a contrasty ballast job! Applying more of the alcohol/paint mixture with a brush on the older ballast only wound up giving me decent results.

Now, since Tyson has encouraged me, and because I'm in one of those moods where I'm to lazy to do actual work, I've looked thru past shots which were rejected as not good enough and have selected the following to post. The JGL gone modern! Itried but couldn't resist the temptation to buy these locos totally inappropriate for my chosen era. Oh well!
 

Attachments

  • p1010051.jpg
    p1010051.jpg
    92.4 KB · Views: 91

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Thanks Marty, I'm pretty much at the bottom of the barrel, in fact I'm sorry the shots of the R1 were out of focus. Not sure how that happened (auto focus camera?) Here's one more, then off to bed. Have a good weekend, ya'll.
 

Attachments

  • p1010052.jpg
    p1010052.jpg
    95.1 KB · Views: 84

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
Nice Pictures...

Are those locos "Susie Q's ". I couldn't tell from the picture. Plus I wouldn't worry about the era. You can always switch back and forth.
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Thanks guys. 88, yes they are Susquehanna. I lived in Butler for many years and these locos handled the stack trains thru town. They were the subject of my entry in the prototype photo contest. The interchange between the JGL and NYC on my layout is actually a scene from the Butler area. So buying these seemed to make sense in some convoluted way. But now I have to buy stack cars. The concept of switching eras is one I thought of, but money does present a problem! I have mostly stayed in the 1948 to 1955 period. I have a 1938 20th Century and I figured I could just remove the NYC diesels from the layout and use my other steam to get 1940 flavor. Remove the 20th Century, put the diesels back and I have 1950 flavor. But I also own an RS3 in cigar band as well as a GP20, with RS11's on the to do shelf. So I remove all steam and have 1960. But 1990 Susquehanna? A bit of a stretch!

Gary
 

Drew1125

Active Member
Gary my friend,
Those are some spectacular photos of some excellent modeling!
Keep "inflicting" them on us PLEASE !
And I should be taking ballasting tips from you...not the other way around! :D
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Thanks Charlie, but don't be so modest! The idea to color the ballast with the wetting spray is a great one. One thing I do and probably many others do as well, but I don't recall seeing mentioned, is ballast after applying the ground cover. This yields a more natural look as the edge of the ballast line reposes on top of the earth. I hope to have another area to photograph in a couple weeks.

Gary
 

Drew1125

Active Member
You're right, Gary,
Ballasting after the other scenery is done is the best way to represent a well manicured mainline, but for other types of track (sidings, spurs, branchlines) that don't see a work gang too often, I think it might be better to ballast first, & not worry too much about the stray bits of greenery, or other ground cover that finds their way on to the right of way when doing the surrounding scenery.
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
Something like this Gary?
This is the siding going into my industrial area. I was trying to get that "bad need of maintanence "look to it. (Theres that building Tyson)
 

Attachments

  • the siding.jpg
    the siding.jpg
    28.4 KB · Views: 46

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Hi 88, yep, just like that! Looks real good. For industrial trackage I often don't ballast at all, or use cinders. This shot is of a saved portion of an old layout, I had hoped to make use of it, but it would appear it will not be used.
 

Attachments

  • p1010067.jpg
    p1010067.jpg
    74.9 KB · Views: 43
Top