PMCHY
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The Dragging Equipment Detector at State Line, KY
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Construction Update #21- Westmoreland, TN Part 1 - Commercial Structures
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Construction Update #20 - Working Gates, small details, and roads areound Westmoreland
Working Gates
I tend to work on several projects at a time. While working on the roads around Westmoreland I have also been detailing the propane dealer on the west end of town. I noticed, at my local hobby shop the Electric Train Shop in Burien, WA, that Woodland Scenics has added several fence styles to their extensive line of products. One of them is a pretty nifty set of chain link fencing. I bought several sets to go around complex While not included with fencing, I decided that a working gate was in order to access the spur within the complex. The gates turned out to be a quick and easy way to add interest during an operating session. It took less the 15 minutes to make the gates and about 10 minutes to install them.
I used a section of Woodland Scenics fencing along with two sizes of Evergreen Styrene telescoping tubing and a short section of plastic rod that matched the size of the fencing material (Photo 1). I cut the gate, shown on the bottom right of the first photo from a section of fence shown in the top left of the photo. Then I cut the diagonal brace to length from the styrene rod, painted it silver, and glued it in place with medium viscosity ACC (Photo 2)
I cut the smaller diameter tube to about an inch in length and slid it over the small pin extending from the bottom of the gate. I glued it in place with ACC. The tubing serves two purpose. First, when inserted into the larger piece of tubing, it rotates freely and second, it serves to protect and strengthen the soft metal pin. After the initial application of ACC had cured, I placed an additional bead of glue around pin where it slides into the tube. The larger section of tubing was then cut to size.
Two holes were then drilled in the scenery base and the larger tube was glued in place. I built up the area around the tube with ground cover, sealed it with matte medium and slid the gates in place. The resulting gates move freely with a uncoupling pick but retain enough friction to stay in place once they are opened or closed. Other methods can be used to open and close the gates from beneath the bench work. I that case, the length of the telescoping tubing could be cut longer to reach through the bench work. Finally, if one of the gates gets damaged or broken, it can easily be replaced.
Other Details
Roads around Westmoreland
And here is the street after weathering. The weathering is a little darker than I planned. It looked about right until I sprayed some matte finish over the Bragdon powdered pigments which darkened things up considerably. The joints in the concrete and cracks were done with a pencil, the white lines were masked off and painted with a cosmetic sponge. I still need to work on blending the street color into the backdrop. The warehouse on left is a stand in for a group of storefronts on the workbench. In addition a fence on the left side and some foliage and maybe a tree on the right should help the foreground blend into the backdrop.
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Friday, January 8, 2021
Construction Update #19 - State Line Tunnel & RediGas Westmoreland
Tunnel 1- State Line,KY
Once I had decided the exact location of the portal, I cut out a portion of the fascia and replaced it with a new section cut to the approximate contour of the hillside. The area around the tunnel portal was then built up with pink foam
Two layers of Scenic Express plaster cloth were applied over the pink foam.
The plaster cloth was then painted and the initial ground cover of paving sand from Home Depot was glued down. Eventually, this area will be heavily forested to match the backdrop. In the meantime, since it sometimes takes me awhile to finish a scene, I spread around some fine green foam ground cover to add some color and make the area a bit more presentable.
A couple of other small projects
One of the projects I have been working on is a propane dealer for Westmoreland. I built it using parts from several Walthers kits. Unfortunately, I did a lousy job of assembling the propane storage tanks. The tanks consist of two pieces, split horizontally, and I ended up with grossly visible seems on each side and ends of both tanks. The complex was mounted on a piece of styrene. This allowed me to build the complex in the comfort of my model room before installing it on the layout.
Fortunately for me, my good friend Kurt Boyd is also building a set of these tanks and he bought them along to lunch the other day. Kurt had assembled his tanks, puttied up the seams, and was in the process of smoothing them out with sandpaper... And, they looked really good. After inspecting his, I went home, removed my tanks from the layout, and followed his lead. I puttied the seams up with Tamiya filler, let it dry, and smoothed out with progressively finer sanding film. The end result, while not perfect, is a huge improvement. Here they are back on the layout along with some basic ground cover.
I also had a couple of old Tomar signals on hand so I decided to set them in place, temporarily, while I wait for the long overdue Atlas/BLMA replacements to arrive.
The Westmoreland Turn