Happy New Year!
Inspired by the recent photos with the GIMP, I broke out PSP 7 and played around with some layout photos. Enjoy!
This is Pennsy… 1956 style!
Crossing Jack’s Run is my Christmas present… a new Atlas GP9 with DCC! I painted the handrails but haven’t added the Trainphone antennas yet. Thanks, honey!
Another meet on Pennsy’s busy mainline.
An E8 eases into Lewisport station with a passenger train.
Sneak preview of my PRR H10 kitbash… a combination of a Spectrum 2-8-0, a Minitrix K4 4-6-2, and a Minitrix B6 0-6-0. Due to a messed-up motor lead (my fault) it’s not running at the moment.
The new Geep heads down a weedy spur to retrieve an empty hopper from the coal and feed dealer.
Dave, thats a great looking layout I wish I could model something like that.
You can! Don’t let the camera angles and doctored backgrounds fool you; my layout is built on a hollow core door. It’s only 36 inches by 80 inches. I’m sure you can find that kind of space somewhere!
Thanks for the compliment!
Nice pics Dave. By the way when you build your bigger layout are you going to incorporate that layout into the new layout. Happy New years.
Thanks. I don’t know if I’ll keep this layout as part of the “big one,” which is at least 9 years down the road (I can retire from the USAF in early 2016 – boy, that sounds like forever!). By then I probably will have grown bored with it. Every structure, tree, and detail is reusable, though, along with all the trains.
I had thought about doing a Unitrack layout for the “big one,” but after buying some Unitrack for the inside loop in the tunnel, I realized it’s not all that. As bad as the tie spacing is with Peco and Atlas Code 80, Unitrack looks even more toy-like. Yes, it looks much better with paint, ballast, and weathering, but since I like photographing the layout, I’d like to use something better than Code 80. I think I’ve gotten enough tracklaying experience that I could use the Atlas Code 55 with success. I’d use Highball fine ballast, though; WS fine ballast is still too grainly and I’d be worried about it causing derailments in Code 55.
Not exactly the yes or no answer you were probably after!
Thats all right Dave. I use Atlas Code 80 also. My LHS recommended it though I dont know why? He said it was more durable wich he is most likely right. I still think you should put this layout in your big one. It would be cool just put in somewere maybe a pensula off the layout? no idea how your layouts gonna be though lol. What do you do in the air force? Keep up the good work on the trains and in our armed forces.
I’m an Air Force weather officer. Right now they’re sending me to NC State for my PhD in meteorology, but I’m still (if you can believe the deal) on active duty, and get paid to go to school. Then again, I’ve volunteered for a lot of assignments no one else wanted, so maybe they felt they owed me!