Cane River and Winnfield Rock.

[danielb]

Hahaha! I'll be repainting that loco into CSX YN3 eventually, as I've never been a UP fan. But the loco was £38 delivered and had a TCS decoder fitted in it. For that price I couldn't say no!

I've spent this evening working on more structures for the lumber yard - a storage shed for the lumber, and some stacks of planks. The thickness of the planks might be a bit overscale for N but its the thinnest balsa I have.



I've also experimented moving stuff around a little. I could do with some opinions though - which of these positions looks better?

This:


-or-

This:

[Tyson Rayles]

Either look good to me.

[Kev1340]

I prefer the first as it makes the 'business' more complete.

Cheers,

Kev

[danielb]

Only one quick update this weekend as I have been busy with other things. A few pictures showing the progress on the removable module.

Looooong way to go yet.

[danielb]

Managed to get outside in the garden at lunch today and get a progress photo of my removable module. After the advice I received on the real colour of soil and mud in Louisiana I tried to make the mud in the scrap yard look more suitable than the darker brown scatter I used elsewhere. Not sure if it looks too orange - I'm thinking a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud might help tone it down some. If I can get this part looking right I will possibly try and re-visit the rest of the layout and fix the soil colour.

Overall shot:


Extreme close up:


GOJIRA!

[Kev1340]

'Devlan Mud', might well do the trick ... If you can still get hold of it. Otherwise, heavily diluted craft paint might well work as a wash.

Cheers,

Kev

[danielb]

I've been told by a modeler who lives in the southern states that the mud colour is actually pretty spot on, so I think it's pretty much done!

Tonight I had a go at bashing up a drum shredder from my scraps box. Not a bad effort, I'm quite pleased with it!




I've also started a little scratchbuild/kitbash project - I wonder what this could be?



Also, I thought I'd get a quick photo of the current state of Cane River itself - from where the layout draws its name. 3 thin layers of realistic water so far - with more to come.

[Tyson Rayles]

The shredder is coming along nicely, the river looks great.

[danielb]

Cheers Mike!

This morning I moved the layout from out of the computer room and into the layout room, after dismantling my old layout to make space for it. In there I have enough space to put both boards together, and as the lighting is much better in there as well, what more of an excuse did I need to take some photos?

A Santa Fe U25b switches some gondolas into the scrap yard.




With mocked up backscenes in place, I think the trees will hide the entrance to the fiddle yard quite nicely!


BNSF GP50 No.3107 passes Cane River lumber yard with a through freight.

[Tyson Rayles]

[danielb]

I spent this evening dismantling my old layout, to make room to set up Cane River along with Winnfield Rock, linking the two together with a temporary board. I'm thinking of making this board semi permanent by making it up to look like a bayou scene.

Anyway, though I still need to clean the rails at the crossover, and that the switch leading into the fiddle yard is dead as I haven't wired in the fiddle yard power feeds yet (mainly because the fiddle yard doesn't exist at this stage), I thought I'd run a train to see how the layout performs.

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[Kev1340]

Looking good

Cheers,

Kev

[danielb]

Thanks Kev, much appreciated.

[danielb]

Today's update will be a short one. Still waiting to be paid before I can truly progress the layout. Still, I have bits to be getting on with. I've gotten the factory building to a mostly complete stage. Just need to add drain pipes and paint the chimney.



I also finally gave the replacement ties I made for between the rail joints a wash of black ink to get them to match the rest of the trackwork, and then touched up the ballasting in places where it hadn't stuck down properly.

I then added another layer of realistic water to the bayou, it's starting to look really great now. Still lots to do though.

I had to take a photo to put on here. Love this locomotive.

[danielb]

Well, it's payday, so I've spent a bit of money on the layout. Called up a small hobby store I discovered via google and ordered an Atlas SD24 in Southern black, along with 5 flat cars for £50 delivered. The flats should give me plenty of stock to shunt into the lumber yard. No center beams, unfortunately.

Picked up the wood for the backscenes and cassettes today, generously donated by my dad. That allowed me space in my budget for a decoder for the SD24. I'm quite fond of TCS, so that's am AMD4 ordered. Was going to order an ALD4 for my SD60 too, but figured I'd spent enough for one day!

I also had a TCS CN-GP turn up today as a warranty replacement for my damaged K1D4. For some reason I had it in my head that that would fit in my Kato GP50, but I'm beginning to think that it wont. It should go in my U-boat anyway, so it'll get used.

Slow going today on the modeling front; I did some more work on the bayou, as well as put the base coats on some of the little plastic people I got from China, and started putting together some more wood loads for the lumber yard.

See what you think...