Tag Archives: scenery

Quarter 1 2009

We have really sped up our modelling since the new year, mainly as a result of a number of all day sessions. It feels as though we have nearly completed the buildings now and have moved on to weathering rolling stock (initially coal hoppers). There is now a definite plan to take Mauch Chunk to our exhibition in the fall (end October 2010) so we have a deadline – help!

So firstly Chris has pretty much finished the Freight house – which is now my favorite building on the layout. Here it is under construction and in its finished form on the layout.

Secondly, Paul has finished the Central Hotel with only the Hotel Switzerland’s back and sides to do now. In the picture he is making an RS3 work again (how? haven’t a clue!). He also fixes the trackwork and wheels when stock doesn’t run smoothly (i.e. falls off) – also a mystery

Steve Rogers, from the Leigh Model Railway Club, has been joining us for modelling sessions and painted the roof of Chris’s Station Building. He has also finished off another cliff face, most of which will sadly be hidden by the buildings on Susquehanna Street. Chris has also been working on Paul and Steve’s Hotel and Iron Works respectively to get a consistent brick finish (below).

Dave has worked manfully on with the gas station and associated buildings on Susquehanna Street, which should be finished soon now. Steve (Hales) has painted and weathered the buildings on Susquehanna Street. Still work to do with blinds and interiors, but it’s coming along.

Steve has also had a go at weathering the coal hoppers on the layout using weathering powders (mostly Carr’s).

All the remaining photos below (nearly all) were taken at the Spring Open Day in mid April. Some have a temporary backscene put up during the Open Day, which gives a much different feel. The old-style cabooses were built for us by Bill (Rails2) after a contact through eBay – beautiful.

Quarter 2 2005

Once again in the second quarter we are making good progress – once again it is mostly invisible! Paul with the help of Chris has continued to wire the switches and switch motors on the front of the layout – a tedious but essential job that has caused much debate!

However, more has been going on – Steve has now built the fifth building on Susquehanna Street and Chris has started on the Hooven Mercantile building. Steve has continued with the rock face above the road on the RH side and has finished carving and painting and weathering it.

Photos include: Steve’s fifth buiding; Paul and Chris have been wiring up the switches; Chris has been building the Hooven Mercantile building like a true Architect (he is one); And the rock face – it will look better with vines and bushes, I expect.

Quarter 4 2004

We have speeded up this quarter – Chris has moved on to building the bridge over the railroad (and over the river in the prototype). Paul has continued with the wiring, and has now finished all of the boards – a high quality piece of work. Steve has inserted pairs of ceramic magnets from Radio Shack under the trackwork at the front to act as uncouplers, and is working on the 4th and 5th buildings on Susquehanna Street. The photo extravaganza below was mainly taken on the open day at the start of December. Other bridge photos have been added in a special bridge page under the Projects heading.

Quarter 3 2004

We have plodded on this quarter – Chris has continued to focus on building replacement lighting gantries for taking club layouts to exhibitions and finished them for the exhibition at the end of October. Paul has continued with the wiring, and has now finished most of the boards on the front of the layout as well. Steve has continued scenic modelling on the “Lehigh River” at the front of the layout and has made good progress. The photos show some of this: The river stones starting out – a mixture of Woodland scenics cork and other light modelling stones laid into dilute PVA and, after some painting. First spray-painting with tan, then darker grey, and finally dry-brushing with light grey. The river finish is temporary – finalising it more at this stage would result in damage as areas behind are modelled. There will also be a lot of greenery added later.

Quarter 2 2004

Progress has slowed a little this quarter – mainly as Chris has been focusing on building replacement lighting gantries for taking club layouts to exhibitions. However, Paul has plodded on with the wiring, and has now finished his sixth board (all in the storage yard) – the wiring really is beautiful if you like that sort of thing. As I write he has started on the front boards. Steve has been doing some scenic modelling on the front wall and making a lot of noise carving stones out of plaster with his mini-drill. The photos show all this:

Photos include: Firstly Paul and the rewiring – by early June, all the four rear baseboards and the end boards had been wired and tests have ensured that trains will run. In early June, all the baseboards were re-assembled and the layout looked quite good. Paul started on the wiring of the front boards later in June. Steve worked on the wall along the Lehigh river – more details can be found on a project page – the river wall.

Quarter 4 2003

Progress over the autumn has continued slow, mainly as a result of spending time on society business. However, the pace has now picked up and progress is more obvious.

This is what we have been up to:
To start with here are some general shots taken on our Open Day in early November. Paul has continued to build switches (pointwork) for the front of the layout and he has been joined by Chris in this. Chris has started on the pilings that hold back the track after the wall has collapsed. Steve has finally started on the next (third) building on Susquehanna Street and, finally, we have acquired an RS3 and S1 to add to our F3 and SW9 – with some dull-coat and weathering these will fit in well when we model the early fifties.

June 2003

Here’s the progress in May and June together, as May was rather slow. Paul carried on cutting holes for switch motors and wiring the switches in the storage yard, and has now completed it. Steve carried on laying sidewalk and Ian carved a tunnel mouth, required to get the track off the LH end. Chris and Steve cut away some of the riverside wall as in the prototype and Chris planned out the bridge and built the buttresses. Chris (with Paul’s help) spent most of May and June building lighting gantries for the club layouts. Steve has been building the first store on Susquehanna St. from plasticard on a perspex frame. This will be the subject of a separate article shortly (it looks better in the pictures than in real life!).

April 2003

Chris has been reshaping Mount Pisgah as it abuts onto route 209, introducing more polystyrene shavings! Steve has started to lay sidewalk from 3mm MDF in Susquehanna Street. Ian and Chris have used brick plasticard on the river wall and Ian has added the capping stones to the wall at the side of route 209. Finally Paul has started to permanently lay and wire the staging-yard track.

Photos include Ian cutting capping stones from plastistrip and glueing them along the top of the retaining wall

March 2003

Chris has been smoothing off Mount Pisgah and it looks pretty good. Paul has repositioned the trackwork at the end of the staging yard to allow for stock on the westbound track to cross to the eastbound. Steve has started tracing photos of other buildings on his computer – Hooven Mercantile and the Navigation building – and card mock-ups of these have appeared. We have recently acquired a large number of freight stock items from a neighouring club (Chester) at a knock-down price. Finally, Ian has started work on building out a couple of the walls preparatory to adding the stone facing and has cut the culvert through the river wall. The photos below were taken on February 15th and the open night on April 4th.

Photos include a smooth Mount Pisgah, new track layout, new building mock-ups, new retaining walls and New rolling stock on the open night,

February 2003

Chris, Ian and Steve have been working on a permanent version of Mount Pisgah and have made a wonderful mess sawing up polystyrene sheets. Paul has been finishing Flagstaff Mountain and playing with the trackwork. Steve has continued tracing photos of Susquehanna Street on his computer and some new pages have been added to the website to provide access to them. We have all had a go at weathering our rolling stock and some of this can be seen in the photos. The photos below were taken on February 28th and the open night on March 7th.