More Trees and More Frustration

Hi Folks;

Well not much new since the last post. One thing that struck me this week was how quickly landscapping an area can be a "tree swallowing act". This past Saturday, I flocked (with Woodland Scenics Green Blend) about 80 trees and "planted" them as well. Needless to say, the area looks better, but one would never guess that there were several dozen new trees in that area!!

On another note, I have come to an impass on scenicking the mine area - it is like I have become obsessed or something - my wife would totally agree. The problem is ground cover. I dont want to use ground foam and have spent many hours these last two weeks scouring the internet for pictures/ methods of doing this. I have seen many nice layout pics on the net of groundcover for industrial type areas - It seems like using real dirt is common. After reading about George Sellios using ball diamond clay, I even visited the local field - no luck it was just course sand type material. Nothing in Walthers catalogue looks suitable - so here I am frustrated and at a loss!!!!

On a more positive note, I installed several throttle holders around the layout recently. I stole (woops - borrowed) the idea from a modular group at a local train show that I attended a couple of years ago. The great part is that they are cell phone holders with adjustable sides that hold my throttles nicely - and the best thing is that I aquired them at one of those low price dollar store outlets. I have included a photo to show one in place. Till next time....

Model Railroad Season

Hi Folks;

I love this time of year - the weather here in Nova Scotia is often great and scenary is beautiful. I have a view out my window as I type this post of all the great foilage colors that this time of year brings. I guess that is one reason I have decided to model the Maine Central at this time of year. I like the varity of color. Speaking of Fall, some friends and I made the annual trip to what I feel is always the best Train Show of the season - the annual Truro Show. I manuaged to aquire a few things and all within a reasonable cost. It was great to see all the "regulars" and talk about the latest happenings. In particular, I spoke with Scott Jay of Bayside and Tidewater fame about the possiability of joining the UMG modular group - sure sounds like something that I would be intrested in! Progress is still ongoing on the layout - albeit no long marathon modeling seesions, just slow regular progress. I have recently finished the main scenary ( details still needed) on a acouple of tunnel areas . Check out the pics of a local freight (led by Alco Switcher 961) as it emerges from one of the new tunnel areas. The other pic is of freight led by GP-38 #258. I am currently working on the coal mine area and plan on posting a few pics when I have that area further along. Till next time.

Running Trains

Well I finally got the chance to run a few trains - when you are in the middle of scenary work, the layout can get to be quite a mess. I mask over my track work to keep plaster and glue off the rails. That being said, I have some areas of the layout that have been masked over for some time. One large area that has been finished as far as major scenary work (details of course to be added) was recently "unmasked" and so I was able to clean the track and finally get 'em running. See the photo below of two hard at work Atlas Alco CN MLW C424 pulling a long freight up the 2% grade.

Another neat item that I have installed on my layout recently is the new Walthers (actually made by Heljan) 90' turntable. This is the prebulit one with indexing and control module included. Before this I had the old Walthers 90' one ( the one that was a kit). It was difficult to build and never worked well for me. I must say it was neat to simple take the old one out and install the new one in its place. The existing hole in the benchwork was a perfect fit, and i incooperated the control box into the layout fascia. Have a look below as visting Atlas Alco RS36 D&H goes for a ride. Well thats it fo now- train show in Truro next weekend - hopefully there will be some neat items up for grabs. Later.

Tree's and Loco's

Recently I had a little get together with some of the guys one Saturday afternoon and one of them brought over the new Paul Scoles scenery video (has been advertised in the magazines). Paul has absolutely gorgeous scenery on his layout and it was very intresting to see some of his techniques. One idea I picked up on was that he uses alot of natural materials and for his forest floor he just collects allot of twigs and bark and grinds them up. Well I got my wife to pick me up a real cheap food processor ( she won the tug of war for the good one in the kitchen) and tried a few different things (leaves twigs etc). I really didn't like the first couple of tries and then I remembered reading in one of the mags that someone had used pine needles for this very thing. As luck has it, I have a couple of large pines growing at the back area of my property, so I went out and started gathering some up ( I think the neighbours were wondering what the heck I was up to). I added in some very small twigs and turned on the blender. I must say I was really impressed with the results, and I think the key is to not put it down in too thick a layer. Diluted white glue of course is necessary to hold everything in place. I have included a picture to show you- I think it looks good.On another note, I have acquired two of the new Maine Central Atlas RS-11's (see photo) that were released this summer. They sure are impressive and I have one of the older versions that was released in the 80's. The detail is so much better now, that the old one has been retired to the closet!!! I have prepared them for use on the layout by installing TCS MC2P (with short harnesses) decoders and Kadee # 58 couplers. I really like these decoders as they are really small and will fit just about anywhere. Converting each loco with these really is a 5 minute job. Bye for now.