I’d like to kitbash a diner for my small 4 x 8 layout. This is a 70-foot passenger car that has been split in half and the cut sections set at right angles to one another. I would need to create or scratch-build the vestibule and kitchen areas. The car halves are at right angles to one another so that the diner can sit on a corner lot.
I’m not entirely sure whether or not I’d actually build this concept. Even so, I thought it would be fun just to draw it and see what it would look like.
Tom, I could see your diner almost as art-deco sytle the way you show it. I like it, but I am also intrigued by your mastery of whichever programme you have used to create the image. Nicely done! I do like the concept, apart from your creativity.
I was pleased with the positive response to my J1 emerging from the natural tunnel portal, so I have continued that theme this week. I hope you don’t mind my lack of creativity. [:I]
Thanks, Crandell. [:)] Yes, an art-deco flavor is sorta what I had in mind with this.
The program I used to create the drawing is called SolidWorks. It’s primarily used for 3D designing and checking proof of concepts, as well as creating working drawings. It’s quite a powerful program and about 1/4 the cost of Pro E(ngineering).
I really like that you can make parts in “degrees of transparency”, so that you can see hidden details inside. The vestibule is 75% transparent, while the dining area is only 25% transparent. I’m not entirely sure if a regular passenger car will be wide enough. I’ll have to play around with it a little more to determine that.
Crandell, the Niagara emerging from the portal is very picturesque. [:)][tup] The line pole to the left only makes it more so. Suggestion: You should think about adding a telltale, just before the portal entrance.
Cool isometric drawing. And a good start towards a name: “The Concept Diner—Where Your Next Meal is Still On the Drawing Board”. Or perhaps steal from an old Don Henly song: “Down at the Sunset Grille”.
Terry, nice video and sound. Who made the E-7 and what kind of sound decodor are you using?
Perry, I see that dinosaur is still waiting for her eggs to hatch. [:)]
Mr. B., very nice night shots. What did we do in the days before constant lighting?
Mike in SL, that is one impressive steel mill layout. How long did it take to build? I like the garage door being digitally added. I’m ony good enough to add cement block walls. [:D]
Jerry, that is some view - looks like Google Earth. Everything fits together nice. Your roads really look good.
Tom, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an RR diner cut 90 degrees but what the heck, I’ll bet it would look sweet. Who was that with all the rail cars…on, yeah Victoria Station. You can start another chain with all their discards.
No digital enhancement there, sir, but the correct scale for the Amber Bach in the 1:1 frig is 12 oz.= a full bottle.
Bob’s N scale layout takes up his whole two car garage. An operating session takes about two and a half to three hours, with six operators. Much fun is had by all and the liquids flow in moderation, but they do flow.
Here’s my contribution to this week’s WPF. First, we have Officer Mike keeping an eye on the voters during the county elections. I decaled the PD unit this week and added spotlights, which are devilishly difficult in 1/87 scale. The decals and spotlights came from policecarmodels.com if there’s anyone else foolish enough to be working on these little things:
Here’s the GM&O local pulling into Hillside station for some interchange work with the P&N:
After cleaning up the interchange track, the local heads out of town. The GM&O GP38-2 is an Athearn RTR that I detailed. It runs really well and doesn’t look bad with the extra details:
A view of the GM&O caboose crossing First Avenue. There will be crossing signals there soon if I can get the signal department off their butts. You can see the boys are still at work on that pipe break. The locals are starting to get mad now.
Is Amber Bock a fine Anheiser Busch product? If not, you may be in violation of the St. Louis Regional Brewed Beverage Act of 1927 which states that all model railroad activities shall be lubricated with locally produced liquid sustinance.
Otherwise, sounds like fun. Rule G only applies in 1:1 scale, not 12 oz. to the beer belly.
Jim, it took us about six months, start to finish, on the module. Most of that time was taken up by scratch building most of the structures. There are only four kit structures on the module. The blast furnace, two brick buildings and the casting house made from two Walther’s rolling mill buildings. Everything else is from scratch. The star of the module is the coke oven. Bob took over a month to complete it. There are thirty doors on each side of the coke oven. Each door has two latches and each latch is three separate pieces. I learned some colorful new words and phrases while Bob was building it.
One side is in the back ground of one of the pictures in my first post this weekend. Here’s the other side and a few other views of the module.
The Walther’s blast furnace has no way of getting to the top of the structure, even the HO version is missing this feature. I spent eight hours building these stairs from Evergreen and Plastruc parts.
Here you can see coal off loading in the dump building.
LOL, alfadawg, digital concrete block is one my few specialties. After 25 years on the street as as a cop, you get an idea of how things should look…or not look. [:)]
Mike, I take it back. Installing spotlights on a police car is a piece of cake compared to the work you’ve done. It only took you eight hours to fabricate those stairs? I would have been at that for six months alone. That must be some layout to see in person. I wish I lived closer to St. Louis.
There’s alot going on that layout, the steel mill is just one of the more prominent items. Bob has a paper mill, a small intermodal yard, a flour mill, metal cabinet fabricator, saw mill, grain elevator and a modular furniture company.
The real draw for me to N scale was that you could get so much in a given space without it seeming to be crowded.
I’ll try to get some pictures to share in next weeks WPF.
Yeah, there should at least be a statue of a Confederate soldier somewhere. I just didn’t have room for that and the benches and decided the people lounging around on benches at the courthouse was at least as southern as the statue. Maybe I’ll try rearranging the courthouse landscaping and see if I can fit one in.
I’ve been looking with envy at the BLI E-7 and that QSI decoder sounds awful good. I’ll have to keep checking with Trains Direct and see if they ever come out with a Southern or GM&O unit
Click picture to enlarge
