Your golden-era model railroads!

[Robieman]

Here are some more shots of the new hoppers. They were not easy builds but now they're here, I am glad I handled the expense and effort!

They came out rather well I think. Great job.

 

[p51]

Yesterday, I finished painting these two figures. I used white oil paint for parts of them, so that took a few days to dry. I have not painted many figures in my lifetime, and it's hardly the best figure paint job ever, but I like how they turned out. They are both 3D prints from "ScaleHumans" at Shapeways, something I had never painted before. The scan work is amazing, as they really do look like Cy Crumley (the conductor) and Sherman Pippin (the engineer), two beloved employees on the ET&WNC RR. I have no idea how these were made from simple 2D photos.

Right now, I'm in the middle of scratch building a new country store with gas pump out of styrene and wood, which will replace the Woodland Scenics structure at Sadie, TN. It'll be a little but shorter from back to front and a little bit narrower, but now by a great deal. I'm currently waiting for some interior stuff I have on order to finish the interior as the roof is done already.

 

[Robieman]

Your figures came out really well. That is not an easy thing either. I did some military modelling years ago, and painting figures, especially the faces, was a real pain.

 

[p51]

I'm working on a new structure for the layout, a gas station Loosely based on a real building not far from where the layout takes place...

 

[p51]

It is on the layout now. I just need to add a couple more figures, and a lot of clutter around the area, then the scene is complete.

 

[Robieman]

It is on the layout now. I just need to add a couple more figures, and a lot of clutter around the area, then the scene is complete.

Looks great. Your detailing is fabulous.

 

[p51]

Well, the Grindstaff store project is DONE, finished last night. I added grass all around the concrete base for the room supports and pump, some bushes and weeds along the bottom edge of the entire building, two figures standing outside (Mr. Grindstaff himself looking in the direction of the tracks and another guy looking at him), and then I painted some new and old oil splotches in several spots on the small concrete base, as well as new and older bird poop on the roof. I continued the oil spills to the gravel, roughly where you’d expect to see cars sitting at the pumps, facing either direction, and trailing off toward Stoney Creek Road. As the gravel lot needed more randomness, I sprinkled some ground up leaves and some random small debris especially on the outside edges as you’d expect. It’s now no longer a consistent monochrome surface.

I started this project with a simple sketch when the pandemic started, in April, and it almost feels weird that it’s actually done. I’m so glad I did this as the pre-built structure that was sitting there never looked ‘right’ to me. I had a blast working on this and now I’m thinking of another project. Maybe a small shack that has burned after being hit by lighting?

 

[p51]

I shot this video late last night, on my third attempt, just to show what I’d been up to and for those who have just seen the layout through still photos. It was all in one take, so when my phone booted me off near (but not at) very end of it, I didn't bother shooting it yet again:

 

[Robieman]

I shot this video late last night, on my third attempt, just to show what I’d been up to and for those who have just seen the layout through still photos. It was all in one take, so when my phone booted me off near (but not at) very end of it, I didn't bother shooting it yet again:

Came out really well. I enjoyed you telling the construction details, and history behind the area.

 

[David Conwill]

That was a fun tour! Man, do I hear you about having too many hobbies for one's pay grade.

Thanks for doing that.

 

[p51]

That was a fun tour! Man, do I hear you about having too many hobbies for one's pay grade.

Thanks for doing that.

Well, I do public relations work for space camp, and I've been there several times.
I also have World War II Jeep in the garage, model railroad layout, and I often go try to chase down full size trains anywhere I possibly can.
Not to mention, I also collect War correspondent stuff from World War II, and do living history displays with a local group. That said, We're not doing any events this year due to the pandemic, but all the gear is in the closet just waiting for the day.

 

[Robieman]

I would enjoy seeing pics of your Jeep. I am on a Jeep forum, and, with your permission, would like to re-post them there. I think all the gang would enjoy seeing them.

 

[p51]

Which Jeep forum? I'm on the G503 forum for WW2 Jeep owners...



Here we go, my newest project. A while back, someone uploaded color movie film from Hampton, Tennessee during what it labelled as taken during the fall of 1940. Sadly, I looked up the Vimeo video and can’t find it there now. I’m glad I screen saved a few shots from it. In this film, they showed a few Carter County school busses heading back to Elizabethton from a football game. They were 1939 Dodge truck fronts with what have to be custom bus bodies.

Sadly, nobody makes a ’39 Dodge truck in O scale, so I had to find something that could be used as a representation. My scratch-building skills to create the bus body (with all its compound curves) are nowhere up to the task. So, I had to compromise there, too. I’m going to use a Russian GAZ bus body, grafted onto the front of another maker’s truck front end.

I’m going to grind off the nose of the truck from the firewall, do the same to the bus body and graft them together.

After that, I’ll shorten the truck frame to match the wheelbase for the finished body and mount it onto the shortened truck frame. It’ll then be painted in yellow, and I’ll make my own decals as I have a typeface very close to the original busses already prepared for the decals.

The irony here is that I model the summer of 1943, so a school bus doing anything doesn’t make a great deal of sense, though I assume they did get used in the summer for moving people around as needed?

 

[Robieman]

Like your plans for the truck.
I have one of the new Jeep Gladiator trucks. I'm on the JL Wrangler Forum and the Jeep Gladiator Forum.
There's a guy from UK on the wrangler one, that often posts pics of older Jeeps of all types. He has an occasional military one.

 

[EngProf]

Which Jeep forum? I'm on the G503 forum for WW2 Jeep owners...



Here we go, my newest project. A while back, someone uploaded color movie film from Hampton, Tennessee during what it labelled as taken during the fall of 1940. Sadly, I looked up the Vimeo video and can’t find it there now. I’m glad I screen saved a few shots from it. In this film, they showed a few Carter County school busses heading back to Elizabethton from a football game. They were 1939 Dodge truck fronts with what have to be custom bus bodies.

Sadly, nobody makes a ’39 Dodge truck in O scale, so I had to find something that could be used as a representation. My scratch-building skills to create the bus body (with all its compound curves) are nowhere up to the task. So, I had to compromise there, too. I’m going to use a Russian GAZ bus body, grafted onto the front of another maker’s truck front end.

I’m going to grind off the nose of the truck from the firewall, do the same to the bus body and graft them together.

After that, I’ll shorten the truck frame to match the wheelbase for the finished body and mount it onto the shortened truck frame. It’ll then be painted in yellow, and I’ll make my own decals as I have a typeface very close to the original busses already prepared for the decals.

The irony here is that I model the summer of 1943, so a school bus doing anything doesn’t make a great deal of sense, though I assume they did get used in the summer for moving people around as needed?

Now that Nashville is a big city, they keep all the school buses in one big school-system parking area, but when I was a kid the bus drivers drove their buses home with them.
I'm pretty sure they would have done that also out in the sticks of upper East TN during WWII. So, you could have a school bus parked next to the bus driver's house as part of the layout.
Our group of kids happened to ride in what had to be the oldest bus in the school system. It had a "nose" on it like the ones in your photos, unlike the modern big-box buses.
Speaking of noses, our bus driver was a scrawny old guy with a big hooked nose. Kids being kids, we referred to him (among ourselves) as "Parrot Beak".
If you decide to have a school bus and bus driver's house, how about having a little guy with a big nose sitting on the front porch or working on the bus. He should be wearing bib overalls and a ball cap.
He was a good old guy and never yelled at us, unlike some other bus drivers. Having him "commemorated" to a small extent would be a good thing. Our bus was good old No.63, if you need a number for it.

 

[p51]

I’ve been experimenting with some photos after changing the structure I use to represent smoke from locomotives in photos. It had been covered in cotton balls, but now I stretched foam pillow stuffing over it and painted it black. I’m just playing around trying to determine the best way to represent smoke with it, as it looks great in person.

In this shot, ET&WNC # 12 brings water car WC2 (formerly the tender of now-scrapped Stoney Creek Southern RR locomotive #2) slowly past the Unaka Company barrel plant at Winner, TN

And here, #9 brings passenger coach 23 around the curve at Sadie, TN. Photographer Clarence Ilyankoff watches through the lens of his Speed Graphic camera:

I will be doing more experiments to best show the smoke.

 

[Robieman]

I’ve been experimenting with some photos after changing the structure I use to represent smoke from locomotives in photos. It had been covered in cotton balls, but now I stretched foam pillow stuffing over it and painted it black. I’m just playing around trying to determine the best way to represent smoke with it, as it looks great in person.

In this shot, ET&WNC # 12 brings water car WC2 (formerly the tender of now-scrapped Stoney Creek Southern RR locomotive #2) slowly past the Unaka Company barrel plant at Winner, TN

And here, #9 brings passenger coach 23 around the curve at Sadie, TN. Photographer Clarence Ilyankoff watches through the lens of his Speed Graphic camera:

I will be doing more experiments to best show the smoke.

It looks pretty convincing in the color photo.

 

[p51]

A couple more recent shots:

​

 

[p51]

I got a new cell phone over the weekend (my old one was ready to give up) and I'm playing around with it's camera. Frankly, I think the camera in my previous one was better, but we'll see...

 

[Robieman]

I got a new cell phone over the weekend (my old one was ready to give up) and I'm playing around with it's camera. Frankly, I think the camera in my previous one was better, but we'll see...

Seems to me its taking a very good pic there. And I can't get over the detail you have put on that store! The peeling paint, the worn step going into the door. Amazing!