Guest engineer visits the railroad

Recently my Granddaughter Laua came to visit with her Mom Stephanie and as usual Laua wanted to head to the basement to run trains with her Papaw. She's a very good engineer keeping her train under control (using the Digitrax wireless radio control) and ran both the 4-4-0 steam engine and the U28B diesel loco. I also ran a train at the same time and really enjoyed the visit!

Forced Perspective - A Basic Primer Video

Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine(tm) published a video I created showing the basics of using forced perspective on your layout to make it look deeper. Please click on video below to view it and remember your comments and suggestions are welcome. Once you click on the video and it starts playing if it doesn't play in full screen, click on it again and it will route you to YouTube(tm) where you can see it in full screen. Also be sure to check out Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine(tm) for the best on-line mag in the industry!

The Henderson Building - Part 2

Construction continues on the Henderson Building. Since the last post all cutting, fitting, filling, painting, mortar lines, and weathering on the outside have been completed. I've also added the interior window treatment and I'm presently working on the lighting (thus the wire hanging out)


In this picture (sorry for all the junk) I've attached the back and two side walls together. I'll leave the front off for access during the lighting phase. I haven't painted the store front yet and will do that later.


I'm trying something new for the lighting - a "light tunnel". I used foam board to create a box the entire height of the building. I cut out openings on all sides for all floors and covered the openings with translucent velum paper printed with a wallpaper pattern. I added horizontal pieces for each floor covered with wood grain. The lighting will actually be multiple lights hung down from the top inside of the box to provide a glow through the translucent paper. The idea is to make sure that you can't see any "naked" light bulbs. I've yet to add some "walls" on each floor that will act as view blocks so that you can't see through the building from one side to the other.

More to come.......

What a Deal!!! - Hobby Lobby closeouts

I was in the local Hobby Lobby the other day using a 40% off coupon to by some epoxy and as usual I cruised by the "Closeout" back wall. A few months ago they discontinued stocking specific model railroad supplies and apparently I missed the closeouts on the stock. When I had checked the closeout wall the previous week there were only a few HO figures and that was it.

Well, what did I see this time? A number of DPM HO structure kits deeply discounted! The picture below is of the "Goodfellows Hall" which Hobby Lobby was listing at $17.99 and it was discounted to $6.47!

I also bought the following discounted DPM kits: "Robert's Dry Goods", "Front Street Building", "1st National Bank", and "Pam's Pet Shop" - all at similar or better discounts. I got $85.00 worth of kits for $32.00! I already have many of the kits; however, I can use these kits to add extra floors / stories and/or as kitbash material.

Sometimes it pays to be persistent. I'll be sure to check the Closeout Wall each and every time!

The Henderson Building

My latest kitbash project for the Hoovertown expansion is The Henderson Building named after my sister and family. It is a combination of Bachmann's Ambassador Hotel and Walther's Merchant's Row II. Actually, it is mainly the Ambassador Hotel as the only parts I'm using from the Walther's kit is the ground floor retail front and the very top cap.

Here's the Walther's kit after I cut the sections out that I will use.

This is just one wall that I cut up from the hotel kit and I'll use the upper right section.

Here are the four assembled walls - from left to right: Right side / Left Side / Front/ and back. The walls looked like they are curved, but that is a distortion from my camera.

Here's the front after painting, motar lines added, and a black wash. I've got a ton more work to do, but when it's completed I'll have an eight story building that is 12-1/2 inches tall. Stay tuned for more progress reports.

The Chicken or the Egg?

I currently have the "Merchant's Row" structure on my layout and the other day I was cruising the web looking for structures when I ran accross the "Burlington Street" structure by SS Limited. The only difference I can tell between the two structures is that the Burlington Street has a column on the left corner building. I wonder which came first, and who copied who?

Alcove expansion continues - walls painted

The alcove expansion was limping along as I seemed to be taking FOREVER doing the finishing on the drywall mud work. The other day I decided to get at it again, and to my surprise there was very little finishing to do, which I finally completed. Since I was on a roll I went ahead and painted the walls and everyting came out fairly good (I'm no drywaller!) I really like the way the curved walls "blend" the back wall and make the area look deeper.

The next steps are to paint the floor, add molding around the bottom, and trim rings for the lights. After this is completed, the area will be SCREAMING for some track!

L&N Steam Passing behind my house in the 50's

This 11 second film clip was shot from my backyard by my Father in the 50's as a double headed steam heads West through St. Matthews, Kentucky.

Two Story Farmhouse diorama

Recently I did a "show & tell" of my homemade static grass applicator at the Piedmont meeting. I wanted to show what the device could do, so I created a little diorama using my 2 story farmhouse (by AMB) that I had previously built. This structure will probably occupy the residential district of Hoovertown that is presently under construction. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Hoovertown residential construction begins

I've finally started to do the residential area behind the Hoovertown business district. As with the business district I want to do the work off the layout, so the first step is to make a removable support structure. Once the support structure is completed, I'll remove it from the layout and place it on my work table to add the streets, landscape, structures, etc.

I wanted something light and easy to work with, so I opted to try for the first time PVC lattice. I know that it's expensive compared to wood, but I like that you can bend sharp curves (using a heat gun) and that using the standard PVC primer and clamps can work very fast. For you engineer types this may look over-engineered and you are probably correct. I never claimed to be an engineer!

The next step will be to add a 2" thick foam top to the PVC base and then add individual foam pieces to get the contours I want. As you can see in the back left of this picture where the track crosses over itself there is a big change from in track heights around this area. So, basically the foam top of this area will have to be built up more on the left and even more in the left rear.