Martin Fertilizer, Wynnewood

I've set myself the target of having the base scenery done at Wynnewood by the end of this month. That's a big challenge for me as I haven't even built the core structures for Wynnewood yet, or even decided where they (or the roads) will go.

So, over the past two evenings I've been building Martin Fertilizer. I was planning on using a structure I made for my N-trak module, but decided I wanted something a little bigger, and more like the real building.

Courtesy of Google Streetview, here is the real Martin Fertilizer:

And here is my model:

I had to estimate the dimensions.  And I should have referred to the photos more frequently than I did because I missed one door completely and placed another in the wrong place.  I've left the roof off until after I paint the building and install the window glazing).

This building is not served by rail, but the location of the disused siding at the rear of the building leads me to think that it once might have been. That's certainly enough evidence for me to exercise my modellers' licence.

I will be modelling Martin Fertilizer in earlier (and hopefully more prosperous) times.  I believe that the siding behind Martin Fertilizer once extended beyond W. Seminole Street.

In the top right-hand corner of the last photo you can see some of the sheds at Musgrove Lumber, which is the next industry I have to model.

Regards,

Ron

Wet day railfanning the layout

Some more photos from Davis..

13th Australian N Scale Convention

Well, the 2013 Convention has been and gone, and I totally enjoyed every moment of it.  We had around 170 delegates and partners, including six from the USA.

We had clinics - here's Jim Younkins from the USA presenting an entertaining clinic on how he designed and built his home layout:





















We had layout tours, including the GC&SF. Here are some of the visitors outside my train room:

(That shed in the distance is the garden shed. My train room is hidden by the bushes on the left.)

For me, one of the big surprises from this convention was the discovery that there are two extremely good N scale layouts modelling Victorian locations, within minutes of my place.  I am really looking forward to visiting these layouts so I can see them up close.  Darren and Chris do excellent work.

Darren Lagerwey watches the action on Darren French's "Cann River" layout:

Chris Pearce's "Wallan":

The guest speaker at the convention dinner was Craig Martyn from BLMA Models:

A special treat for our crew was that our friend and mentor Rod Warren won the 2013 Dane Parker Award.  Here he is being presented with the trophy by Roger Vistarini:

Congratulations Rod!

All of the above photos were taken by Debra Vistarini (but I have cropped several of them).  There are more photos from Debra on the convention site here.

Now that the convention is out of the way I have no more excuses for not getting on with the modelling.

Thanks for reading.
Ron

Northbound Fast Freight

Here's my first attempt to add a video to my blog.  It's an FT ABBA set with a northbound fast freight train #40 at Dougherty.

 

I shot this video several times from different angles to see what worked best with my Fuji digital camera, and backed the train up between takes. On one occasion I forgot to change the loco direction back to forward before starting it up again, with almost disasterous results:

The flatcar was too light to push the rest of the train backwards up the slight slope beyond Big Canyon, and it 'popped' out of the train, causing several other cars to derail.  Luckily, nothing fell from the layout into the Great Chasm.

This video is linked to on my YouTube account, which was created before I created this Google Blogger account.  Google doesn't allow me to link to the pre-existing account, although it does offer to do just that. When I tried to do that, Google created a NEW YouTube account for me. A search of the Google FAQs revealed that many other people have encountered the same problem, and Google has never even replied to the many requests for help.  (I'm still waiting for an answer to my email. Thanks for nothing Google.)

I'll keep practising with the videos, but I think I really need to get a proper video camera.

Thanks for stopping by,

Ron 

Arbuckle hills

Rod came over this afternoon and painted some distant hills and trees on the backdrop behind the hill I recently created at the end of the aisle between Davis and Dougherty. As you can see in this photo, Rod does very nice work:

Rod also did some more work on the backdrop scene that represents the hills behind the Dolese Bros. quarry at Big Canyon.

Thanks Rod. This is greatly appreciated.

Regards to all, and thanks for reading,
Ron

Dougherty update

Hello again.

Over the past few days I've been working on the base scenery around my township of Dougherty. Here's a photo showing how it is coming along:

I've located the depot and the Southern Rock crusher to show how they'll fit into the scene. I still have a lot of work to do on the Southern Rock quarry, and the track has not yet been ballasted.

I envisage that the area between the tracks and the backdrop will be moderately wooded, with relatively short scrubby trees, reflecting the wooded hills to the north-west of Dougherty. I want the area on the aisle side of the tracks to look like overgrown, somewhat neglected pastures. The real town of Dougherty has a small commercial centre and residential area spread out behind the depot. Someday I might get around to trying to represent that area, but for the time being it will have to wait.

Although I didn't know it when I laid out the track for this town, my track arrangement is not too far from reality, as shown in the following image from Google Earth:

The depot was moved many years ago, but its concrete foundations are visible just below the letters "OK".  I have the mainline and three sidings on the river (aisle) side of the depot, and the house track running behind it although mine should be double ended. Also visible in the lower left-hand corner are the remains of what appears to have been a wye that once stood at Dougherty. I have no information on when that was removed.  (I have placed Southern Rock Asphalt in that location, but I don't actually know where it was located relative to the town.)

Ron

Slow start to 2013

With Christmas and New Year celebrations out of the way, I thought that I would have more time to work on the layout. But that was not to be the case, and I got less done in January than I did in December.

This is a photo of what I did get done. It shows the new fascia panel between Davis and Dougherty. The control panel is for the two staging tracks that run parallel to the hidden connection that allows continuous running on the GC&SF. The CCTV monitors are to monitor the activity on those tracks.

The photo also shows that I've started building the scenery in this area, although I only managed to get the basic 'earth' down so far. The siding tracks on the right are for the Southern Rock asphalt quarry.

As always, thanks for looking.

Ron