Your golden-era model railroads!

[p51]

What is essentially a staging area with scenery passes on front of a window. When the sub is just right, and I can get some decent shots if I open the blinds. Everything looked just right last night:

 

[p51]

I took a few more photos with my cell the other night…


GI waiting to go on leave at the Buladeen depot:

The old men are hanging around at the Grindstaff store at Sadie again, pondering the war “across the water” and some are remembering when they went in 1917:

The Unaka factory at Winner sure could use a new coat of paint as it hasn’t been painted since the Depression. But they still know their role in the war, as the war bond posters are out and the sign on the door keep applicants away who are either going to be drafted soon or are listed as conscientious objectors (which was not a popular thing in that time and place):

 

[p51]

August, 1943:
The old men are hanging around at the Grindstaff store at Sadie, TN, talking about the raging war "across the water," some comparing it to their time in France in 1917. A farmer digs out his ration card for his aging pickup truck, thankful that the tires are still in good shape.

Not far away, a Jersey cow grazes and ponders nothing about such things...

 

[p51]

I was playing around with the cell yesterday afternoon (my trains weren't running for much of the weekend due to a bad breaker in the panel that ran just the plugs in this and two other bedrooms, but it got fixed) and got this once I was able to power everything up again.

 

[GHT]

AM-AZ-ING! What a treat you make this thread.

 

[p51]

Last night, I was running more experiments with colors for night shots. I used a battery powered 'candle' light inside a flag stop. After seeing the results, when I string in lighting, I'm going to put a permanent light of this type in that structure:

 

[p51]

Over the weekend, I stripped off what never looked like a realistic walkway to the back of the Buladeen, TN depot.
I scraped out a realistic path, then laid in some real soil from the area I model, added static grass and I think it looks much better than before...

 

[p51]

I took a few 'old' shots the other night:

 

[p51]

In an attempt to keep my mind off the hurricane that is rolling into my parent's area right now (also where I grew up and have several friends in the area, NONE of whom are going to get out of the storm's way), I decided to make a new layout booklet.

It looks like a timetable on the cover, but it's really a general guide to the layout for visitors. It has the fictional history of the line I model, a list of the magazine articles in which the layout has been featured, and some other information.
I had changed some typos, changed out some WW2-era ads, and put a new cover (with a drawing of a ET&WNC train, in place of the post-war ET&WNC logo that never looked right to me on the cover).
Every first-time operator to the layout gets one.

 

[p51]

So, I was hanging around the Grindstaff store at Sadie, TN, just waiting for something to happen.
It was a little boring at first:

Then, here comes the 12:30 to Buladeen. Naturally, my camera jammed right after taking this shot, losing the best photo I'd hoped to get. Oh well, that's the chance you run when you're shooting with a Speed graphic...

 

[scotrace]

Unbelievable! I love miniature work, and yours is fantastic, P51!

 

[p51]

I added some WW2-era speed limit and Victory Garden signs to the layout:

I also took a 1/43 scale Chevy 1941 pickup truck model and modified it to better look right for the timeframe. I painted over the whitewalls, dulled down the finish, added period-correct license plate and even a scale gas ration sticker to the windshield. I really like how it turned out.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Note the license plate, even has the right county code for it:

 

[EngProf]

I added some WW2-era speed limit and Victory Garden signs to the layout:

I also took a 1/43 scale Chevy 1941 pickup truck model and modified it to better look right for the timeframe. I painted over the whitewalls, dulled down the finish, added period-correct license plate and even a scale gas ration sticker to the windshield. I really like how it turned out.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Note the license plate, even has the right county code for it:

For the non-Tennesseans among us (most everyone) our license plates from 1936-1956 were shaped like a map of the State. Or as some used to say: "Tennessee: The only State shaped like a license plate."
Also, license plates for many years had a county number that was proportional to it's population. (21 in this case.)
This whole setup looks great (i.e., REAL).

 

[David Conwill]

Great job on the truck! And I love the attention to detail with the county code. When I had my '62 Falcon, I was adamant about tracking down plates with the right county code for where I lived.

Those skinny whitewalls would have been perfect for 1965, but way out of place for the '40s.

 

[p51]

Yep, those whitewalls had to go, even though they looked nice...
The county code for Carter County TN back then was 21. I have just a few civilian vehicles on the layout at any given time but the ones that are there all have that county code on their plates, and a couple have codes for surrounding counties.
I've been hoping to find a 1942 TN plate with that county code to hang on the wall of the layout room, but no luck so far. I know I'll never be able to afford a TN plate with the 43 metal tab in the corner, as license plate collectors pay big bucks for those.

 

[p51]

Last night, I decided that a pathway on the layout didn’t look right at all to me. I’d sprinkled Stoney Creek soil over the top of existing scenery and it looked like something was spilled, not a walkway:

So, I scraped the pathway down with a caulking knife, put down the dirt and then added ground foam to the sides to make it look recessed into the earth the way a path really does. It looks better now:

Then, I covered over a turnout to hide the HO scale ties (nobody makes a curved one in On30 gauge). I think it looks much better now as well:

 

[p51]

This car model came from a model train show over the weekend (the only thing I bought there). It's a Rextoys 1935 Ford, which usually retails from $40-60 and I got it for only $11!

The following day, I took it apart, removed all the window glass and cut out a spot where the driver window would have been rolled down, removed the pre-war unit markings from the door, dulled the finish, highlighted the perforations around the engine compartment, added a driver, repainted the interior to include gauges, gave it some very light weathering, and I think it looks very much improved from its original version.
Before:

After:

A couple of days later, I found a good 1942 government tag online, printed out copies in O scale and placed to each end:

 

[David Conwill]

Wow, looks quite authentic!

 

[p51]

I did this video to show after a presentation next week, and thought others would want to see it:

 

[David Conwill]

Very cool! I'm a little suspicious of that fella photographing all the trains. Is he a spy?