Southern Pacific Coast Line in HO


The gas station is a holdover from my old layout and needed to be re-branded to something more appropriate for California. I did a Google Images search for "vintage California gas stations" and found a few photos of Flying A stations. Another Google Images search came up with a logo, which I ran through Photoshop and created some in the size I needed. I made the tall sign from scratch using some Evergreen styrene stock.

As you can see in the photos there are two cars in the service bays getting some work done and a customer in the office with the owner.

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A bunch of nice looking work you have there......really like the look of your road in the pic on page three were you show the wig wag crossing signal & the gas station. I like the Flying A brand. I put together the Campbell's, Associated oil co. bulk plant modeled from the one in Quincy Cal.
 
Thanks for your comment, the idea for the road came from a video on Model Railroader Video Plus. It's 100 grit sandpaper glued to .040" styrene sheet. Drybrushed, weathered, and detailed. The wig-wag is made from scratch out of Evergreen styrene and bits and pieces.
 
Layout is looking good. Have you put in any lighting and interior details? I started to build the grocery exchange several years ago, and was looking at having open doors, with a view of boxes and pallets of stuff looking to be shipped to the local stores. I ended up moving, and its been put on hold ever since, but yes, I'm looking to have a perishable train come up from Florida on the Philly & Scranton. Will probably be 10-15 fifty foot mechanical reefers, maybe with some FEC run thru power.
 
Love your factory and buildings. Your modeling and attention to detail really shows - very nicely.
 
Haven't done very much more work on the layout lately. Dealing with some lighting issues above Watsonville and Santa Cruz. In the meantime my local Hobbytown recently had this Athearn Genesis GP9 on a deep mark down and I couldn't resist it. I know this is pushing my modeled time period a little but I'm okay with that. I weathered it very lightly since it would be either relatively new or recently rebuilt.

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As usual, it has been almost a year since I have been down in the layout room. But now that the weather is beginning to turn I may start having more time for trains.

One of the first things I wanted to get done this time was rearrange the trackwork in Watsonville. When I operated in the past I had almost no room to stash cars out of the way while I switched others. So I nearly doubled the length of the passing siding and added two more yard tracks that form a run-around. Should make future switching much easier. You can compare this photo with a couple of the earlier ones and see the difference.

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Next I needed to replace the brick buildings you see there against the backdrop. Brick buildings really aren't appropriate for California. I wanted something with more of a mission style so I made this from scratch.

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It's really just an extended building flat that is up against the backdrop. It's made from Bristol Board, a type of art board that you can get from any art supply shop or Hobby Lobby. It's easy to work with and takes paint well.

Anyway, that's it for now. It's good to back on the railroad.
 
I should mention a few things about lighting. These are 4 foot LED strip lights that I found at my local Home Depot.

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They are made by Commercial Electric. Part number : 1001 391 348. Being LEDs they are not hot and draw a lot less power than conventional lights. They are designed to be daisy chained together so you don't need a separate outlet for each one and they give off a nice bright, white light. I paid $30 for each of them and I have a total of five of them around the layout now and could use one or two more. Eventually I'm going to install a valence around the layout to hide them.
 



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