Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

Looking down between Trujillo & Sons and Graulich International.

Yes, Graulich International is no longer rail served and hasn't been for over 15 years. This building and layout suits the era I'm modelling.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Moving along to the next set of building, being Asami Foods and Vision Candles as posted in post #549.... Well, maybe not !

Earlier today I took a look at the area where these two businesses would sit on the layout and I realised that the curvature of the track that would serve these two, is too tight of a radius. Here is an aerial pic of the area and I have included the length of the buildings.

As you can see, the radius is quite generous and on my layout, I don't have that. The buildings would not look all that prototypical if I forced them into the area.

The dead end curve in this photo is the siding I wished to place both Asami Foods and Vision Candles on...

So, what to do...??

To be honest, the answer to this had been starring me right in the face for quite some time and when you look at the aerial image below, you can see I was blind to the forest because of the trees...

This area on the layout is the corner module that feeds the Trujillo/Graulich module and on the prototype, directly opposite Trujillo and Graulich is the Bay Rag company. It is a sizeable warehouse and has been in the area for quite some time. This aerial pic explains the area quite well.

So, how does this look on the layout ? This mock up of Bay Rag and the road shows that this works quite well. I have included the road surface to give the image some proportion.

From the viewing side...

...and how it may end up with double siding behind Bay Rag...

Maybe the first siding right behind the palm tree could service Bay Rag or I model it as a disused siding and keep the original.

So a good lesson was learned here once again... 'LESS IS MORE' ! We ain't immune to this mantra and I'm sure we have all been down this same track...

Okay, what are the benefits...
1. I scratch build one less building.
2. I create more negative space.
3. Easier on the eye by not having too many visuals.
4. Reduce the amount of track crossing base boards.
5. Much closer to the prototype.

Personally I think this change is a good thing and I'm sure you can see why I have changed my previous thoughts once again. This is another benefit of not diving in too deep and getting ahead of oneself. I have had time to mull over this and I think I have made the right decision.

Cheers, Gary.

ps, less is more, less is more, less is more....

 

I have removed the curved siding altogether, although I have left the point it comes off in place. Whether I remove this or make a double track dead siding, I will make a decision on that later.

Having the track lifted allowed me to measure up the area for the Bay Rag building and after I took measurements, I went back to the computer and checked where each detail on the building belongs.
The details include the furrowed (grooved) concrete front wall which forms a pattern to the face, the glass brick windows, air conditioner, the down pipes and other items including conduits and the alarm. This overall screen shot of the building is from 2013...

I started with the wall with all the grooved detail first, as this wall will take the longest to draw up and cut.
You can clearly see the grroves in this screen shot of the building that was taken in February 2023...

I cut all the grooves in with the Stanley knife and then used the back of the blade to widen the groove. Time will tell if this is effective, especially after paint is applied...

Next was the diagonal wall... Unfortunately I misread the rule and cut the card 20 scale feet short, hence the gap between the twp pieces. Luckily a down pipe will hide this.

The next two sections of wall was cut to size. I have yet to cut the wall that will sit against the backscene.

All three walls have the glass brick windows so rather than cut and remove the whole lot of card, I simply removed a few layers of card and I will sit the windows in this.

All three sections were glued together with gussets cut to the correct angle being glued to the inside.

The shape of the building works well in the area it will sit...

The windows is something that I pondered for some time and it bugged my for a while on how to replicate these glass bricks.

I did look online to see if they are an available item in HO scale, but couldn't find any. Found a few people who 3D print them in clear. After looking at various photos of these glass bricks and working out they come in approximately 8" square, I decided to use a scalpel on some clear sheet and proceeded to do a grid at a scale 9".

Some areas turned out better than the rest as I didn't get all lines perfectly square...

My next question to myself is how do I get the colour (very light bottle green) into the clear sheet ??

Simple... I searched around my home for the appropriate colour in any printed media and this will be glued to the back of the scribed clear sheet !

Here is a small example...

I'm not totally happy with this as the caulking between the bricks simply fades into itself. To counter react this, I wiped some white paint over the grooves like we do for mortar in a brick wall. These small sections here show the caulking very well.

I have yet to glue these to the printed paper. This will be tomorrows job and fingers crossed this will work !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks for the kind words Gormo. I had looked at various photographs, yet I wasn't in that frame of mind thinking on how I could use the images.... I blame that on covid.

I will find out later today how well the method I have chosen works. If it doesn't work, your solution may be my next step.

Cheers, Gary.

 

June 2024 layout update video... Enjoy.



Cheers, Gary.

 

It would be nice to escape winter and head over to the sunshine of Miami !

Cheers, Gary.

 

So I continued on with the Bay Rag scratch build, yet I have not added any details like wall cappings, down pipes, conduits etc. I wanted to get the building into 'box mode' so I could add the interior bracing and rood supports. The details can come later as the model will be much easier to handle.

The rear wall panel and roof was cut, although the roof is not secured permanently as yet. I will do this after painting and weathering. It looks kind of ordinary in this state, but hey, it is a rather ordinary building to look at !

I made sure I added lots of internal bracing with four major floor to ceiling internal walls and a tonne of roof supports !

Did I mention the tonne of roof supports...? Also a lot of gussets to keep the building from imploding...

Now to move onto the next scratch build....

Cheers, Gary.

 

I decided to take a look at more google maps/google earth images of the Bay Rag building, thinking it was lacking some features, or perhaps something I overlooked...

So, Google Earth showed me what I was missing when I saw these steps under the small tree...

From here I went into Google maps and found the street view image, which showed a black shade clothe fence hiding this area on the building.

I decided to roll back a few years and hey presto..., a door appears above those steps !

Now having already put the bulk of this building together, I had to carefully cut out the door aperture, which wasn't really that difficult with a sharp scalpel !

Now I have the door in place and you will notice that I have also added the wall capping/weather seal and also the down pipes.

The prototype has some interesting detail, so I just had to add it on the model !

This is a reasonable copy. The only difference is that the top of the box drain should have been level with the roof capping....

I think it represents the down pipes well....

Cheers, Gary.

 

I'm glad I found the door ! The plain wall doesn't look all that inspiring ! Both google maps and google earth working hand in hand, got to love these two tools !

Cheers, Gary.

 

I have to admit that I have not done a lot on the layout of late, been too busy with weekend work and a few repair jobs for my local hobby shop, Casula Hobbies. The weekend just gone I had spent Thursday evening through to late Sunday night moving my mum from Nowra on the South Coast, back to Sydney, some 187km (116 miles) each way. Today is all about rest, although I still need to drop off a car load of boxes etc...

Whilst just going through my emails, I read that Rapido had sent out my pair of GP38s, that I had pre-ordered approximately 12-18months ago and paid for only last Wednesday evening and delivery is scheduled for this coming Wednesday... Damn, I'm at work all day...

Low and behold, they were delivered today to my surprise. I even mentioned to the courier that he is two days early ! Mind you, I ain't complaining, although I was lucky to be home when I heard a knock on the door ! Talk about a quick delivery, Canada to Sydney in under 5 days !!

Here is a few pics of the new locomotives. You can see the subtle differences between the two models.

The Conrail model, to pair up (?) with my other two Conrail locos, again both from Rapido...

The CSX model, to pair up with my CSX GP9...

Both run and sound superb as you would expect from Rapido and the factory fitted keep alives are an added bonus. Maybe a layout update showcasing these two is called for, well when I find the time that is...

Cheers, Gary.

 

As you may be aware, I'll be taking the layout to Goulburn for it's first 'official' exhibition on the 6th September.

Over the weekend I have been making a few repairs, adding more grass tufts, weathering containers and I'm waiting on 15 x small 3D printed switch stands to arrive from the Czech Republic... I'm still waiting on these as they should have arrived on the 8th August...

Anyhow, a few pics of the repairs being carried out...

The fuel unloading rack needed to be fixed down again...

The roof of Ferris Processing needed reattaching on one end.

I snapped the gantry in 3 x places by accidentally dropping the overhead light bar onto the layout... But all good to go now !

Picked up some excellent Martin Wellberg grass mats from Casula Hobbies and have been adding clumps of grass around the layout where there were a few blank spaces...

Using the autumn coloured grasses to represent older grasses...

The darker grasses were used under the bushes to create that shadow effect. Lighter green grasses out in the sunshine !

Roadside clumps help to hide the edge of the road so much better.

Eight weathered containers. I used Tamiya XF10 Flat Earth for the rust streaking and on the roofs I also added some rust coloured pastels whilst the paint was still wet.

Photo of an existing switch stand. Being so delicate, a few were damaged over the last 10-12 months...

Still plenty more to do and the weekend before the exhibition, I will move the layout out into the lounge room and do a full systems check.
I don't want anything going wrong with the layout 18 hours before the layout has to be packed into the van..., unlike what occurred prior to the NMRA Convention....

Cheers, Gary.

 

Strangely enough the switch stands were on my door step when I arrived home today. As these are quite delicate, I may not paint and position these until the weekend prior to the exhibition, for safety sake.

Tomas whom I bought these from actually sent me out 18 stands, even though I only needed 15. He even threw in one modern electric switch stand with lever, sorry, no photo...

So another task I have started on is making another 8 utility poles. Previously I placed the current poles along the back of the layout to see what they looked like. They looked the part running down the back of the layout so I have started on these.

I am using the same technique that I posted up in Scratchin The Surface : https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/inde...an-exercise-in-ho-scale-telegraph-poles.5831/

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Gormo.

Knocks and hazards are always a thing that at times cannot be avoided. At least these can all be repaired !

Cheers, Gary.

 

A strange looking locomotive has traveled down from Pennsylvania to Florida...

I picked up this beautiful model 2nd hand from Casula Hobbies this afternoon. It is a Broadway Limited Imports (BLI) PRR E6 4-4-2 (Atlantic), complete with sound and all the proper bells and whistles.

I have been wanting (not needing) an North American steam locomotive for some time now and Joe had this in his display case for a little while. I gave the loco a run on the test track in store and was mildly impressed with its performance and sound. Several hundred dollars later, it was on my layout !

Cheers, Gary.