Summer of '17 photo fun
- Thread starter Rico
- Start date
Selector
Well-Known Member
Thanks for starting the thread, Rico. Good to see some MOW equipment on a layout. It's not depicted nearly enough.
This is an outdoors image of a diorama with a real local background. It's an image comprised of four separate ones stacked using CombineZP. I used a clone brush to depict the smoke and steam effects. This Heisler actually ran, in proto scale, in the distant hills about 90 years ago.
This is an outdoors image of a diorama with a real local background. It's an image comprised of four separate ones stacked using CombineZP. I used a clone brush to depict the smoke and steam effects. This Heisler actually ran, in proto scale, in the distant hills about 90 years ago.
Very Nice to Both U Guys!
Love the "Frontal Range"shot - cool
Love the "Frontal Range"shot - cool
otiscnj
Well-Known Member
Here's a mock up that I made in about 5 minutes tonight of a parking garage, which will be across the street from the Franklin St. Station in Reading, PA, on my Philly & Scranton layout. It took me about 5 minutes with some cardboard, and blocks of wood. The plan is to build it right, with ramps, and some structural and façade elements to make it look more realistic.
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otiscnj
Well-Known Member
Are you done with your layout? maybe you could show it to us?
FWIW, its nowhere near finished. You can read all about it under the Layout Construction & Design thread, with the title 'Philly & Scranton; A Branch of the NEC.'
N
NP2626
Guest
A couple of build projects almost completed this summer. Still need some weathering.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Last weekend I pulled the #212 Mississippi Merchandiser, east bound out of Chiloquin Oregon. The run ended up being one delay after another. Right off the bat after getting clearance to pull up onto the departure track, the locomotive would not respond to the throttle. I reported the malfunction. In the real 10 minutes that it took to get that straightened out the #601 Passenger train was due to depart so I had to wait for them, followed by the #141 Hot Pigs Rail Blazer. Both priority trains over my lowly merchandise. 15 real minutes later I got permission to pull up to the departure signal. I did so and got my wheel check done, but once there still had to wait for two more west bounds (don't remember which) to get into the Chillquin yard. Another real 10 minutes and I was finally off. Off to a very short distance (less than three scale miles). The first town out is Kalamath Falls, where I ran past two trains working in the yard. I got a yellow half way through and had to wait another hour (now I'm on scale time so 10 minutes real), for my west bound counterpart the #211 to come down the mountain.
From there it got better, apparently all the westbound traffic had gotten backed up nose to tail, and I was past them all because I ran green lights through Sprague all the way to Quartz Mountain. Quartz was yellow going in but green on the other side meaning I was following someone. I suppose the passenger and pigs had also been hung up and I had caught their tail. Going down the hill one of the trains that had been working in the Kalamath Falls yard started calling dispatch telling him to get that slow train (me) out of his way. Note that speed limit for a general train like the #212 is 20 smph. Speed limit for the passenger, pigs, and express is 30 smph. To start from dead in the yard and catch me when I had no stops this #281 had to be running over 40.
There was a facing train at Bly, so it was impossible to run the 281 around. Then something happened and Dispatch stopped the 281 at Bly so he wasn't on my tail. I coasted down the rest of the hill in full dynamics. When I saw the green light on the east end of the siding I hit notch eight to get there before Dispatch could stop me and run the 281 around there. I made it and didn't see or hear him again.
All told the trip took about two and a half real hours, meaning I spent one and a half waiting to get out of the yard or at red lights. Sometimes realistic operation is just waiting.
Here is a shot of the lead unit climbing out of Grizzly River Valley toward Sprague.
P.S. I had a matched set of 5 GP9s on the point and 2650 feet of train. So average 50' per car - 47 cars.
From there it got better, apparently all the westbound traffic had gotten backed up nose to tail, and I was past them all because I ran green lights through Sprague all the way to Quartz Mountain. Quartz was yellow going in but green on the other side meaning I was following someone. I suppose the passenger and pigs had also been hung up and I had caught their tail. Going down the hill one of the trains that had been working in the Kalamath Falls yard started calling dispatch telling him to get that slow train (me) out of his way. Note that speed limit for a general train like the #212 is 20 smph. Speed limit for the passenger, pigs, and express is 30 smph. To start from dead in the yard and catch me when I had no stops this #281 had to be running over 40.
There was a facing train at Bly, so it was impossible to run the 281 around. Then something happened and Dispatch stopped the 281 at Bly so he wasn't on my tail. I coasted down the rest of the hill in full dynamics. When I saw the green light on the east end of the siding I hit notch eight to get there before Dispatch could stop me and run the 281 around there. I made it and didn't see or hear him again.
All told the trip took about two and a half real hours, meaning I spent one and a half waiting to get out of the yard or at red lights. Sometimes realistic operation is just waiting.
Here is a shot of the lead unit climbing out of Grizzly River Valley toward Sprague.
P.S. I had a matched set of 5 GP9s on the point and 2650 feet of train. So average 50' per car - 47 cars.
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Time to boil up a brew, mate.
GPwrangler
Active Member
I might be a little late for the "summer" part, but its still 78 and sunny here. Anyways, here's a few of my summer time projects this time around.
First up is and old Athearn blue box SW7 I repainted. I had previously painted this one in L&N colors, but the gray I used didn't look right, so I re-did it. Still seems a little dark, but I think I can fade that out when I eventually get to weathering it.
Then there's another blue-box SW7, but this one I painted for the Huntsville and Madison County Railroad. The real HMCR 8933 is still in Everett RR colors, and will probably never be painted to match the other locos on the roster, as HMCR has put it up for sale recently.
I've been doing some weathering on a few pieces of rolling stock as well. The transfer caboose is in the scratchbuild thread here too.
And..... I finally bought that Athearn Genesis GP40-2 I've been eyeing. This thing is SHARP. I'm almost scared to run it because it's too nice for me. The lighting and sound is great too.
First up is and old Athearn blue box SW7 I repainted. I had previously painted this one in L&N colors, but the gray I used didn't look right, so I re-did it. Still seems a little dark, but I think I can fade that out when I eventually get to weathering it.
Then there's another blue-box SW7, but this one I painted for the Huntsville and Madison County Railroad. The real HMCR 8933 is still in Everett RR colors, and will probably never be painted to match the other locos on the roster, as HMCR has put it up for sale recently.
I've been doing some weathering on a few pieces of rolling stock as well. The transfer caboose is in the scratchbuild thread here too.
And..... I finally bought that Athearn Genesis GP40-2 I've been eyeing. This thing is SHARP. I'm almost scared to run it because it's too nice for me. The lighting and sound is great too.
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Re the Genesis GP40-2. Athearn are really pulling out all the stops with Proto detailing these days. With some of their rolling stock, the only obvious difference between Genesis and RTR are the cheaper trucks used on RTR versions. If this one is factory painted and not by you, take notice of all the tiny bits in particular, they are only press fitted and have a distinct habit of falling off.
GPwrangler
Active Member
Thanks for the info on the Genesis Toot. This is the only L&N piece i have that came already painted, so I guess I'll be on standby with some thin CA.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Can hardly call it summer any more as there is an inch of snow on the ground but -
Last weekend 11/05, I pulled two tours. First was the counterpart of my prior post the #211 The Westbound Mississippi merchandizer. There were four cab F7s in Black Widow paint and one GP with a bloody nose on the point. These were followed by 3050 feet of train. Because of the late on-duty time, many crews were heading to lunch so it was mostly high greens for the entire run. The big exception was Bly where there were two trains waiting on the siding. I say "on" the siding because even though Bly is the second longest siding on the railroad (not counting yards) two normal sized trains do not fit. The tail of the 2nd was hanging out there on the main in front of me. I slunk down the main as far as I could and came to a stop to watch the tail of the 2nd train clear the turnout. The #281 hot pigs and express was waiting in Quartz Mountain but caused no delay at all. Had the engineer of the #281 not been quite so heavy on the throttle we could have probably done a rolling meet. Since he was running so fast he had to stop, snicker snicker, while I breezed right on through. Coming down grade out of Sprague River caught the lead units on the camera that monitors the lower helper pocket. Even Tony might like this kind of operating.
The next tour I pulled was Pilot for the #105 Westbound Union Pacific train the Portland Rose, being diverted over OC&E tracks due to flooding on their line. Powered by three E8s there were more than enough pony's for the 14 car consist. Even though I was the pilot, the engineer gave me the throttle. Too bad the speed limit is still only 30 smph. Once again, mostly because of the late hour, the run was almost all high greens. Kept catching a high yellow at the entry to a siding but then as we rolled by there was no train present. At first I thought I must be chasing someone, just almost catching their heals at each segment. Around the curves past Sycan where one can see the track ahead for miles there was no train. I then figured that it just must be the dispatcher giving the train permission to roll one segment at a time. Was surprised at the low yellow approaching Quartz Mountain, but it soon became apparent why. Here I met the "big guy". The eastbound glow worm. The glow worm is a shorty tank car train of liquid chlorine. Despite its lower dispatching priority it always gets the main. So we waited at the light and counted 84 cars roll by. I think he was speeding but I did not report that to dispatch. Soon the light was green and my passengers were on their way again. Here is a panned shot as the train glided past the lower helper pocket on full dynamics.
A good day for pictures at the lower helper pocket.
For Reference http://cmrm.org/assets/images/OCEDiagram_Medium.jpg
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Dave S
Tree Farmer
Not sure if I posted this one already but this was my summer project. I had gotten a bunch of Rocco and Herpa minitanks for my layouts military rail head and on a whim I also picked up the Rocco Huey, just because it looked so cool. Unlike the vehicles and figures I didn't really have a place for it so it languished on the "let's think about this some more" pile for almost a year when I hit upon the idea of suspending it over the layout. I cut open the doors and frankensteined a bunch of Preiser figures into the Paratroopers on their way to the Drop Zone. Reminds me of me way back in day!
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Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
That is something I've not seen before.
Gdelmoro
Member
Dave S, if you’re going to hang that chopper over your layout try fluorocarbon fishing line 6lb test. It refracts light and is very hard to see.
http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Seaguar_Red_Label_Fluorocarbon_Line/descpage-SRLF.html
http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Seaguar_Red_Label_Fluorocarbon_Line/descpage-SRLF.html
