M.O.W. boxcar scene (part 2)

On my layout, the boxcar was left at the end of the siding and neglected. Over time, the trucks and rails rusted away and the boxcar was in danger of collapse until they put strong wooden cribbing made from old railroad ties under the ends. Then, the Maintenance of Way crews repurposed it as their storage shed and hangout place.

To make everything line up height wise, I glued down a strip of cork roadbed leading from the switch to the boxcar shed area. The next day I took the track outside and sprayed it with my standard Rustoleum camo brown paint, and finished that up by brush painting the rails Tamiya brown.

Though probably overkill, I ran a feeder to each outside rail as well as the middle one. The middle rail is isolated for this siding in case I want to park an engine (at least that was the plan when I designed the layout), and though I might not do that anymore it made sense to wire it that way. Thankfully, I remembered to remove the middle metal rail joining pin before gluing the track down.

The ties were painted various shades of brown and gray, and then drybrushed with black. This made them look like wood that had aged at different rates. 

The boxcar and base were then attached to the layout with caulk and left to dry for a couple of days.

A couple of days later, I lightly ballasted the track with cinders. Then, a healthy dose of dirt and ground foam were applied to the track. My plan is to leave space at the end to park a car permantently in place, and also leave space for another car to be spotted on occasion while still maintaining clearance of the road crossing.

This part is always painful, though the brown paint mixed in the glue makes it look especially bad. I have learned to simply walk away and just let it do its thing overnight. Naturally, a hole in the benchwork leaked while I wasn't looking but I caught it in time. I had caulked the hole, but not good enough apparently.

A day or so later, I mixed up ground goop and applied it in front all around the boxcar. I tried something new by first putting blue tape over the area I didn't want goop, and then spreading the stuff down. And viola, peeling back the tape produced exactly what I wanted! Why had I never done this before?

More dirt and scenery materials were applied.

I still wasn't happy about the last foot of track so I really buried it in dirt and weeds to really set the scene that it is overgrown.

But something wasn't right until I painted the tops of the rails brown to reflect that it hasn't been run over in ages. 

I left an open area in front of the boxcar so crews can easily get in and out without tripping. OSHA, you know. Then, I added some details nearby like a stack of newly creosoted ties cut from stripwood. They are not "scale" size but instead match the width of the Gargraves track ties that I used on my layout. I also included a pile of code 125 rusty tie plates on a pallet. These are 3D printed items from Ebay. A stack of joint bars was placed nearby too.

A rail storage rack was also built. I used code 215 rail that had been gifted to me by a friend who used it for G-scale trains, but rail is rail. Something smaller like code 148 is typically used in O scale (and that represents heavy rail in the prototype world) but Gargraves track uses rail that is equivalent to code 230 so what I used is actually slightly smaller. But it had the right profile. I painted it rusty brown and lightly sprayed it with flat brown. Some smaller pieces have fallen by the wayside. 

Some metal barrels are more 3D printed items that I painted and lightly weathered. I looked online for photos as reference and saw that they came in lots of color variations, so I painted them many different ways. If I put them together in one area they would look out of place, but a few of the rusty brown were located next to the boxcar. The green ones with the white lid will be used by Northeast Chemical. The others... into the parts box for future use. By the way, they are all the same size even though the picture makes them look different.

I took a plastic barrel that I got somewhere and filled it with HO scale track spikes that I had on hand. They are oversize for O scale, but true 1:48 spikes likely wouldn't be very visible. 

The Fairmont Speeder model fit right into the scene parked at the end of the track. A nice old hopper or boxcar or flatcar in maintenance of way service would be perfect to abandon next to it.

As previously mentioned, my Autumn scenery initiative hit this area too. Lots of the large green ground foam bushes were removed, and some fine ground foam and dead grass (Like Like earth) was added. Then, some of my colored lichen bushes were added.

I still need to add a few more details which I hopefully will find as train show season starts. It is a lot easier, and cheaper, to find them there then to purchase them individually on Ebay.

Fairmont Speeder

I wanted to include a Fairmont Speeder on my layout in my M.O.W. scene. Companies make operational 3-rail models but they don't look very realistic, and some of the 2-rail non-operational models appear too old-fashioned for the era I was modeling. I don't really know what type the Maine Central or B&M used in the 1970s-1980s, but more than likely they just used company pickup trucks. But that wasn't going to stop me.

Walthers originally released a built-up Speeder house kit, complete with nonoperational speeder to park outside on the ready track. Atlas later acquired the tooling and still offers the item today (item #W2701).
I didn't need the speeder barn (there really isn't place for it on my layout near the MOW siding) but I decided to buy the set anyway because I can store the building for the future, and the speeder looks like what I want.

I bought a used copy of the Atlas set, and for some odd reason the speeder was speckled with green paint all over. The seller fully disclosed this on the internet listing and priced it accordingly, and I figured I would just repaint it anyway so it was fine. The building looked in perfect condition.

After looking for prototypical pictures of a speeder painted for the Boston and Maine or Maine Central (and striking out), I decided to "proto-freelance" one. Is the Atlas kit even based on a real speeder? I dunno, but I was ready to have fun. 

I first painted everything with yellow, but it didn't look quite right. I later went to the store and bought a can of Rustoleum "Golden Sunset", which seemed to be a perfect match for construction equipment yellowish/orange. 

After letting it cure, I used brown and black and silver paints to pick out various details. I consulted online pictures but I can't quite say I got it all right. Or wrong, for that matter. Because of the current interest of operating speeders, many owners paint them up in fanciful paint schemes which are nice but make it hard to determine what an "original" looked like. 

Next, some extra details were added inside like a red toolbox and a can of something, perhaps grease. Some foliage was glued on to give the impression that it had been sitting outside for a while and the wind had carried debris onto it.

Finally, I installed window glazing on the front windows. I left the sides open for now, but it would be pretty easy to go back later and add it.

And there you have it. It was pretty simple to upgrade i and I am pleased with the result. Mine will be parked at the end of an abandoned siding, though if the crew ever need it they can easily dig it out and press it into service. Putt putt...

The bushes are changing colors

As mentioned last week, my layout is undergoing a scenery makeover. The ground had been stripped of all the dark green bushes and grass, and in its place was dirt, dying grass, and lighter green foliage. It was now time for some bushes. Unfortunately, based on what I observed outside I needed round, light-green bushes with splashes of red, orange, and yellow color. Now how could I model that?

Not knowing what to do, I hiked down to the nearest hobby shop to see what they had. The answer was not much. I noticed some bags of old Woodland Scenics lichen labeled in various shades of green, but quickly dismissed them because lichen was "old school" and they looked faded and dead. However, I quickly realized that the dying muted green lichen was EXACTLY what I needed for my bushes! The prices weren't great, despite having tags indicating that this was at least the third hobby store to have them in their inventory. But, I brought them home anyway.

Digging through my stash, I also found some small bags of fall colored ground foam that I had received as a gift during a model railroad event years ago and never knew what to do with. How fortuitous!

I have never worked with lichen before and expected it to come out of the bag in bunches or roundish blobs. Instead, it was large, stringy pieces that I had to cut apart and massage into bush-like shapes. I can't imagine building a layout 30 years ago with only this stuff. But... it did look like bushes. The light green stuff was nice and soft, but the dark green bag had much firmer plants.

As an experiment I tried painting some lightly with red paint in places, almost highlighting certain areas. It was okay but not vibrant enough. The three on the left in the picture below show what they looked like. Okay, but not great.

Then, I dipped parts into thinned down white glue and lightly dipped them into piles of red, orange, or yellow ground foam. I made all sorts of shapes and sizes, not really knowing what I would need. A James Bond movie was on in the background so it wasn't all that tedious, and in fact I had fun. That's good, because I will need to make a bunch.

After about a half-hour I had a pile of ready-to-plant bushes. I took them to the layout, along with some plain green lichen, and started to glue them in place. I attempted to go for natural positioning, and also not overdo it to start. I could always add more later. I quickly realized that I had made many of them too large to be bushes, and for my next batch I will aim for the size of an acorn. But, a pair of scissors quickly sorted it out. 

I also scattered some of the extra ground foam onto areas that already had green bushes, just to give them some color transformation.

Along the fence, more bushes were added. This was the place for the larger ones, which ended up looking like small trees.

At a craft store I also found these premade flowers by JTT, and I may use them eventually. But having seen how much nicer my lichen bushes are these may go into the stash for the future...

I am happy with my first results, and I may start working on other areas of the layout. I also need to experiment with static grass again. 

Autumn season is here

It was bound to happen eventually. As I was working on my layout a couple of weeks ago something was bothering me, and I realized it was the scenery. It was too lush, too green. And perhaps took uniform and "fake". It needed some static grass to help break everything up. This was especially true near the gully I had carved for my water area.

I started with some 4mm long "light green" static grass from Woodland Scenics. In reality, it is a blend of yellow (dead) grass and green grass and not light green at all. I thought it would capture the partially living, partially dead look of grass in the fall. But after I applied it, it looked terrible and just stood out like a sore thumb. 

I used some light green craft paint to add highlights to the static grass and that helped, but it still didn't look like what I envisioned in my mind. It didn't look like fall. It reminded me of what I had done on my previous layout, which was set in May.

Assuming I had just used the wrong color of grass, I added a different shade of green grass to the patch of land between some of the train tracks. To mask the track I used strips of posterboard.

The result at least had the right texture, but I had gotten sloppy along the edges and grass had landed where it wasn't supposed to. But it was also too vibrant for some ground surrounded by dirty train tracks and a lumber yard. In all reality, it should be filthy, probably polluted, and have bits of trash here and there. 

Eventually, I stopped working on my layout. It wasn't right. Part of it wasn't entirely my fault: I had never attempted to model autumn before and I didn't know how to do it. I was used to modeling spring. And autumn came late this year, so I was doing it from memory. (Not a good thing, I admit).

However, on a family drive the next day I saw what I was trying to achieve... and how my layout wasn't cutting it. All along the edges of the road were either piles of dead grass and leaves or bare earth. I needed light green grass as a base color, with patches of reddish/brown dirt and grass showing here and there. Accents would be some lighter grass in areas, with lots of collected leaves and brown dirt on the edges. 

Trees were still mostly green and only starting to turn yellow, orange or red. It was beautiful. And not like my layout. I had gone too far down the "green path", focusing on mid-green and dark green and then attempted to highlight it with straw and light yellow static grass. My work was hideous.

So, I came home and used my shop vacuum to forcibly strip all of the green clump foliage off, as well as any loose static grass and turf that was willing to go. It looked better already. I didn't do every area at once, though, because I wasn't sure how my next steps would turn out. I guess that is why scenery takes practice just like anything else. 

Then I started in one area and applied some brown stuff that came from Life-Like many years ago. It essentially looked like ground up leaves or grass, and I had never known what to use it for. I applied it along the edges of the scene I was working on. Next, I went over it with some real dirt to lighten and muddy it up, with some fine light green ground foam was sprinkled on. I could tell I was on the right path, so I glued it in place. No large bushes were added.

I redid the area with the bad yellow static grass, I applied more leaves, dirt, and light green ground foam. Instead of leaning into dark green, like I had originally, I completely left it off. Mid-green and a little brownish-green foam were also added. I wasn't going for the final look now, because I would try some static grass again later. Just an initial coat base layer for now.

Then, the rest of the right side of the layout was given the same treatment including the back lot by Northeast Chemical.

It isn't finished, but it is a start in the right direction. Now to add some bushes and larger foliage (and not those large green clumps of foam).