Mid March Update

This update is long over due... some significant progress has been made on the Dragonfly Sub in recent months.  I have focused on many things including building structures, scenery, operational changes, and adding/modifying industrial tracks.  Some on-going projects worth noting:

•  Eliminated towns, in favor of modeling two towns (Walnut, Illinois and Prophetstown, Illinois).  This major change will require modification to the Operating Plan.  It appears now that two local turns will leave Mendota (staging) with one traveling to Prophetstown and the other traveling to Walnut.  The turns will switch the respective towns and return to Mendota.  This scheme would work if multiple operators are available... if not...  then a single turn could be run to handle all of the work.
• Removed the Green River in favor of more Midwest style flatland.  My initial thought in including the Green River was to provide a visual barrier between towns (switching areas).  In the end, this was not effective and was more of a stumbling block, trying to tie two industrial areas into a "country scene".   It has been removed and replaced with flatland.
• Started to build structures and place them on the railroad.  This is a trial and error process.  A building can look very different if placed at various locations on the railroad.  With that in mind, some time has been spent moving structures around and determining if 1) Does the building look believable in that location, does if fit (both physically and conceptually) and 2) Can rail be used to serve it?  This has been a fun process and the moving about of the buildings seems to be about done.
• Added a coal unloading dock in Walnut.  This will add some coal hopper traffic from both the Q at Mendota and the CNW at Walnut.
• Added two additional industrial sidings in Prophetstown to generate more traffic.  The tracks will serve a grain company, warehouse, bulk oil dealer, and lumber yard.

As time allows, pictures of the various projects will be posted.
Happy Railroading!
Scott

Scenery Progress Part II

Included in this post are several photos of the scenery near the Green River.  As mentioned previously, the scenery is no where near complete, except for the "prime coat" which helps to begin the transformation from blue foam to realistic scenes.

 

The base scenery for the Green River area.  I have still not decided exactly how to complete the river.  The bridge is an Atlas steel deck bridge that has been painted and weathered.  The concrete abutments are 1x4's painted and weathered to simulate cast-in-place concrete abutments.

CB&Q 900 (GP-20) rolls through the cut and over the Green River on it's way to Walnut, Illinois.

Another look at CB&Q 900 as it meanders along the line to Walnut.

One more shot of the 900 on it's way to Walnut.  The Great Northern 40-foot boxcar is destined for L.D. Spaulding Grain in Walnut.

Now that the base scenery for the Green River area is complete, my next focus will be the town of Walnut, Illinois.  I have developed a basic footprint for the town using paper cut-outs to simulate the building sizes.  Walnut will be the largest town modeled on the Dragonfly.  It will include several buldings, streets, a city park, and other details.  

Check back soon for the next blog post and more information on the progress of the CB&Q Dragonfly Subdivision.  Happy Railroading!

Scott

Photo Update

As promised, the blog has been updated with a few photos of the scenery progress at/near the Green River on the Dragonfly Sub.

The scene at the Green River and Ohio, Illinois is to the right.  The mainline bridge (track at back) has been temporarily removed during the messy scenery work.  The stub track is the tail of the track serving the Tampico Elevator.

This is a view from the "air."  The tracks have been covered with tape.  Ohio Elevator is along the wall next to the light.  The cross hatch area at the lower right is an area slated for a state highway.  When viewed from eye level, at the fascia, the viewer's eye will be drawn along the road and into the scene of the Ohio Elevator... at least that is the goal.

The hillside immediately to the left of  the mainline will be built up with rock castings to represent a rock cut.  Not exactly prototypical for the Midwest, but I wanted to try my hand at working with rock molds/castings.

As mentioned above, a state highway will be constructed in the area of the cross hatch.  The goal is the draw the viewer's eye from the foreground to the back of the layout and the scene at the Ohio Elevator.

More photos as the work progresses!

Base scenery work continues!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I had some help today working on the railroad.  Both Makenna and Carter put on the work aprons today and helped with the base scenery in Walnut, Illinois.

The first layer of paint and earth tone Woodland Scenics foam was already in place.  We added the fine green foam and coarse green foam, wet the entire area, and then applied a diluted water/glue solution.  I added an updated album of the days activities to the slide show at the right.  What a great way to wrap up 2010!

Happy Railroading!
Scott

Scenery Work Continues

I had extra help yesterday working on the second layer of plaster for the hill in Walnut, Illiniois.  Our son, Carter, was having fun playing in the plaster and getting dirty! 

More pictures as the progress continues!
Scott

Scenery Work has Started!

I have started the next step in construction of the model railroad.  The scenery construction is underway in the Walnut, Illinois area.  I am currently working on the base scenery.  I am tired of seeing the blue insulation board!  My goal is to work in small areas and move progressively around the layout.  I decided that I am going to take my time and enjoy learning this new part of the hobby.  I will post additional photos of "finished" areas (at least the scenery base) as I have time.  As a primer I will update the slide show to the right of this page with some current photos of work in progress.  (Ya, I know I should have removed the tape from the rails!) 
Thanks for visiting,
Scott

Progress Update

Now that all of the trackwork is complete, I have been in the process of cleaning and reorganizing the train room. Shifting gears from laying track to now getting into the wiring and scenery aspect of the hobby. I am also going to be starting the process of filling out the Car Cards and Waybills for the car forwarding system I will be using to operate the Dragonfly Sub.

Part of the cleaning process involved opening up boxes of railroad cars that have not seen light for a couple of years! I have concluded that I have a lot of rail cars, considerably more than can be keep on the layout. I will need to build or develop a way to store the cars off the railroad. I call it beyond staging storage.

When a car completes the waybill cycle and ends up at the staging yard, my plan is to pull that car and store it for a couple of sessions. This will add variety to the car movements and prevent the same car from making the same moves each time the railroad is operated. The question is then, what do I use to store the cars, while they are beyond staging? The storage has to be easy to use, allow the cars to be visible, and protect them all at the same time. I have thought about buying some small clear plastic drawer sets and mounting those under the staging yard, but that seems to be a costly option.

I would be interested in hearing what others have done to solve this problem?

Comments/Suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott