Construction Udate #30 - Scenery around the Roundhouse, L&N yard office & service at Plum Springs, KY

The roundhouse scene on the east end of the yard is partially tucked in under the upper level.  As a result, I built up the initial land form on 2 pieces of  removable 1" pink foam using a combination of pink foam profiles and cardboard strips.  This was done on my work desk and then set in place on the layout for the photos.

The pink foam profiles and cardboard strips were then covered with 2 layers of plaster cloth.  Again, the plaster work was done at my desk and then the sections were set back on the layout for the photos.

 The plaster cloth was followed up by a coat of gray/brown latex house paint.

Once the paint dried, a base layer of ground cover was applied (pavers sand) along with a bit of Woodland Scenics blended fine turf.  After the ground cover dried, about 15 minutes outside in the sun, additional detail was added.  The following photo shows the progress from right to left.  The retaining was was made from scrap rail and a piece of stripwood mounted on a piece of styren.  The styrene back will protect the wood from the diluted matte medium used to hold additional scenery materials in place.

The overall scene, back on the layout, with ground cover and some details.  I installed a strip of LED's over the scene in an attempt to cut down some of the shadows from the upper level bench work.  Once the scenery is installed on the upper level, the shadows created from the room lights should disappear. 

Trees are next.  I made up about 60 Super Trees to start.  It took about 8 hours to make these trees spread over 3 days.  Here they are on my work desk ready to install.  I suspect I may need a few more.  Most of the trees will be installed on my work desk.  Then the sections will have be installed permanently in order to fill in the scenery between the sections and finish off the "planting" of trees.

                                      

 I made about 60 trees for this scene.  About 40 were "planted" before the two sections were set in place permanently and then another 20 were added.  But, before I am finished in this area, I suspect I will need to make up another batch...  But, it's looking pretty good.
                                                                                                                                                                             

    

The L&N Yard Office and Diesel Fueling Facility at Plum Springs - A bit of a diversion while the matte medium sets up...                                             

 

I needed a little side project while I waited for the matte medium (ballasting) and a fresh batch of trees to dry.  I rummaged through my stash of kits and came up with a Walthers Diesel Fueling Facility and one of the Atlas assembled Modern Yard Office. I purchased 3 of the yard offices when I found out they were discontinued.  It seemed to me that by combining the two, I could create a yard office and small fueling facility for the L&N near the General Motors assembly  plant in Plum Springs.

 

The fueling facility was assembled and painted the per the instructions.  I came accross the tool box and air compressor in my parts box so they were added next to the pump house.  The tool box and air compressor are from JL Innovative.

 

The yard office was a little more work.  While the yard office is sold as "assembled" the windows and doors can be popped out with a little pressure.  Removing the glass, from the doors and windows is a little more difficult but I still managed to pop most of the glass out without damaging it.  Don't try and remove the roof, its just about impossible.  I looked through my L&N reference material and by the mid 1970's, anything the L&N did paint, was painted a very light gray including the siding, doors, and windows.  So, I painted them all grey.  After about a half an hour, I masked off the sides and painted the metal roof green.

Before:

After:

 Here is the final result.  I still need to spend more time going through my details box.  Not bad for a 1 day project.

 

Mid 70's Operations

The Southern didn't join Amtrak until 1779, so... it seems to me... the Madisonville Sub should have a mixed train or two.  To facilitate mixed train service, two Southern FP-7A's have been added to the roster.  Both are recent Proto 2000 models.  The factory sound equipped units came equipped with LokSound so I bought these without sound.  Tsunami2's, KA1 current keepers and TCS speakers and enclosures have been installed.  

Train #4, the northbound "Cumberland" is the daily mixed between Chattanooga, TN and Evansville, IN.  What little overhead traffic the Madisonville Sub receives comes primarily from the Penn Central at Evansville and is handled by #3 southbound and #4 northbound.

 

 More on 1970's operations in a future post...