Update #53 - Siloan Scenic Buffer, Car Cards & Jenkins Feed Supply

Westmoreland - Siloan Scenic Buffer

June 14, 2023

About two feet separate the south end of Westmoreland, to the left in this picture, and Siloan.  I decided a tree covered hill designed to blend in with the back drop should work.  I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about the appearance of the "bare" hill.

But the the end result actually turned out just about the way I envisioned it..  I would have liked to have had the room to add a few trees to the near side of the tracks but the bench work is only14" wide here and the aisle here is only about 30" wide.  I still need to add ballast.

June 16, 2023

 

Southern GP38 #2743 shoving a couple of covered hoppers past the newly forested right-of-way between Westmoreland and Siloan with loaded grain cars for Jenkin's Feed.  The old tunnel portal that lead to the helix was located just behind the Farmland covered hopper.

Layover Spur, Team Track & Grain Bins

June 19, 2023

 

 

Progress has slowed a bit around Siloan for a couple of reasons.  Most notable is the fact work is also being done simultaneously on the upper level (Sn3) in preparation for a narrow gauge get together in July.  In addition, the car cards and waybills are also being updated. 

 

I like to move structures around, leaving them in location for a couple of days, and then change things around again until a final arrangement is decided upon.  The original plan was to have the large grain bins back in the corner where the small bin is temporarily located.  It will be replaced by a group of small vertical tanks for storing fertilizer.  The red building is a temporary "place holder" for the Blair line Farm Supply kit, in the cue, sitting on my work desk.

 

Time was also found to paint the fascia and install a new car card storage box.  The boxes are made specifically for each location.  In this case (Siloan) it has 3 car card slots; from left to right, one for on spots, one for off spots, and one for out bounds.  The boxes are made from styrene.  The card shown is a out bound car headed for the Illinois Central (orange) at Madisonville.  The orange banner across the top of the waybill allows the operator to quickly identify where a car is headed.  The on/off switch is for locomotive/caboose track.  The railroad is also set up with a computer program to manage car forwarding but I still prefer the car cards for my own one man casual operating sessions that can range from a few minutes to maybe an hour or more.

 

Car Cards & Waybills

June 20, 2023

 

Among other projects, is the job of replacing the old car cards and waybills to reflect the elimination of the upper level.  I make my own car cards and waybills using a Excel spreadsheet.  Here is a sample.  65lb paper is used on a HP all in one printer.  The individual car card and waybills are then cut to size with a straight edge and X-acto knife.  I used to print the waybills on both sides but now I just print up two single sided four destination waybills for each car. 

 

 

With the elimination of the upper level, operations had to change.  Cars bound for Chattanooga are now left on the siding at Westmoreland just before the end of the day (operating session).  Theoretically, an overnight turn from Chattanooga will pick up the out bound cars and drop off the in bound cars for the next day (operating session).  I guess this would be considered "visible" staging.

 

The layout is set up to operate with 8-10 people using 2 man crews, a yardmaster and a dispatcher (optional).  Each job has a set of instructions along with the associated track diagram(s).  Here are the instructions and diagrams for the South Local.  Track diagrams show each industry and capacity.  Generally, each town or industry has room for off spots.

 

 Blair Line "Farmers Fertilizer Supply"

June 24, 2023

 

I am disappointed with this kit.  This relatively recent kit, while inexpensive, is not up to current laser cut wood standards.  First off, the provided roofing material is a peel and stick photograph.  In my opinion, since we view our models mostly from above, just about anything that provided some relief would be a major improvement.  I have ordered American Model Builders 3-tab shingles at a cost of $18.00 to replace the photograph(s).  Next up, the peel and stick corner trim is not wide enough to cover the alignment tabs in the siding material and overlap the adjoining corner trim board for a nice clean corner.  I replaced one of the corner boards with some 6" scale lumber to get a better looking corner.  If I had it to do over again, I'd use milled wood or styrene "L" stock for the corner trim.  And finally, the elevator is made from laser cut wood components and in my mind is a bit crude; wood, without a lot of work, does a poor job a representing metal.  I will probably replace the kit provided elevator with a cut down (height) version made by Rix or Walthers; another $23.00.  I should have bought the elevator and shingles and scratch built the rest  using Tichy and/or Grandt Line doors and windows.  I think the end result would have been better.

 

Here Here is a photo of my Fertilizer Supply waiting for the replacement shingles, signs and other small details.

 

 

Up next is this new kit for handling liquid fertilizers from Walthers.  It will be painted to match the Blair Line kit and finish off the structures required for Siloan.

 

As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.

sdepolo@outlook.com

 

Update #52 - Work Resumes

The Lower Staging Yard

June 7,2023

 

After several months of only working on the upper level (Sn3) I got back to working on the Madisonville Sub.  First up was cleaning up the dispatchers office and ballasting the staging yard.  The white curtains cover the window and protect the room from the afternoon sun.  I still need to paint and install the phone system.

 

 

I don"t normally ballast my staging yards but this one is very visible in the dispatchers office.  Nothing fancy here, just basic paving sound from Home Depot.  The small shack and tie stacks were added at the same time.  The track in the foreground represents the L&N connection at Memphis Junction, TN.  The four tracks in the rear represent IC at Madisonville, KY and the PC at Evansville, IN.

Siloan

June 8, 2023

 
Now that the line over the mountains to Chattanooga has been abandoned, the Madisonville Sub is more of a branch line.  The "end of the line" is now the small village of Siloan.  Siloan, just south of Westmoreland occupies the space that used to contain a helix.  There is currently only one active shipper,  Jenkins Feed.  

The day started with sanding and painting the new back drop.

 

By early afternoon it was time to install the background mural. Two background murals were used from Trackside Scenery.  The sky was cut off both backgrounds and the one with the feed mill was hung first.  The second mural was cut to match both ends of the feed mill background and a adjoining background.   They are held in place with 3M Supper 77 spray adhesive. 

 

Here is the new backdrop for Siloan.  I took the picture before the LED lighting was installed which really confused the camera.

 

The instructions call for butting adjoining backdrop scenes.  I have found over time, for reasons I'm not sure, I end up with tiny but noticeable gaps.  For Siloan, I overlapped  slightly with the butt of the seam facing away from the primary light source.  Right now, the new sections with the overlapping seams look better than the butt joined sections that were put up several year ago.  

 

Here is a section with a overlapping joint, to the left of center but is nearly invisible.

 

 

Finally, if you are thinking about the commercial background from Trackside Scenery or any other vendor for that matter, I suggest you buy them all at one time.  When my new backdrops arrived, contrary to what I was told to expect, the colors were slightly different.  I solved this problem by using a leftover section of  the new backdrop, trimmed it to follow a tree line and applied it over a portion of the existing backdrop.  

 

In this picture you can see where the two backdrops come together.  To the right is the new backdrop and to the left is the old.  The old one was lighter with less contrast.  The overlay is to the left of the seam.  It starts at the seam, near the top of the backdrop, and tapers down to the ground on the left.

 

By around 9:00 pm the track and most of the wiring was done. 

 

Jenkins Feed

 

Work has also started on Jenkins Feed by building 4 Walthers storage silos.  Here is the first one that included several miss steps in the construction process. Luckily this one will be sitting behind several others and the backside won't be seen!

 

 

I also ordered this Farmers Fertilizer Supply kit from Blair Line.  I've never built a Blair Line kit so we'll see how it goes.  Several other kits are also in the pipeline to fill out what I hope will be a cluttered "backside" of town kind of scene.

 

Lighting

 

June 8, 2023

While working on the upper level (Sn3) all the LED lighting on the lower level was removed.  This morning it all got reinstalled including replacing some of the original LED with newer versions with more natural light.  I also fixed some wiring on the original part of the layout.  When I went to knock a few cars around on the new track, I found that all the tracks in and around Westmoreland were dead.  It took about an hour to track down and fix the problem but after it was fixed I spent some time switching the future Jenkins Feed.

 

The locomotive layover spur was a last minute addition.  Considerable thought was given to operations and it was concluded that the South Local should originate here at Siloan in order to spread out the crews at the beginning of an operating session and relieve some of the congestion that occurred around Preston Miller Yard during a couple of informal operating sessions (No dispatcher).  At one point, all the operators were clustered around the yard and nothing was moving anywhere else on the layout.

Lower Level Repairs

 

June 9 , 2023

 

Unfortunately some damage was done to the lower level when I was rebuilding the upper level.  Most of is minor but it looks like I may have to replace a couple things.  I started with the ground cover and ballast where the rural grade crossing south of Westmoreland got destroyed during the rebuild.  Originally the track entered a tunnel leading to the helix about where the chunk of pink foam is filling a hole in the bench work.

 

Here is the scene following the repairs.  The matte mediun is still wet so the repaired areas show up darker.

GM Assembly becomes Chrysler Airtemp

June 11, 2023

 

The Airtemp brand is the result of the air conditioning system designed by Chrysler engineers for Walter P. Chrysler's Art Deco style Chrysler building in New York City. When completed in 1930, the skyscraper was the world's tallest building. Four years later, with their acquired climate conditioning expertise, Airtemp Corporation was born.  About forty years later, the Bowling Green factory was built around 1970.  In 1976 Chrysler Corporation sold Airtemp and in 1982 the Bowling Green plant was sold to General Motors and converted into the Bowling Green Chevrolet Corvette Assembly Plant.

 

So...  For me, that meant a General Motors plant on the Madisonville Sub circa 1980 wasn't correct.  While I've known this for several years, I never quite got around to changing the name until today.  Why today?  I'm not really sure.  I just walked by that portion of the layout, while actually working on something else, and pulled out the GM sign and made a new one.  While I was at it, I added a few trees around the sign and some hedges in front of the office building portion of the plant.  The spur in the foreground leads into the plant.

As always, you comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com