The following photos show the sum of my efforts this past winter and spring. It shows the town of Bedford Falls, the smaller of the two principal towns on my New York, Binghamton, and Western RR. Except for the distant hill in the first photo, this was all bare foam and track and the beginning of December.
This first view is looking west with NYC mail and express train occupying track 2 while a Mohican Valley RR branch line train awaits departure on track 3. The future branch line bends off to the left.
This is Bedford Falls Station, a kitbash using Walthers modulars and several platforms from Vollmer’s Baden-Baden station which I recycled from a previous layout. The Mohican Valley cars still need to be relettered for that railroad. These are shorty cars from Rivarossi.
The large structure in the right center is The Bedford Inn. This structure is one of several from a South River’s Cambridge Crossing kit.
My first FSM kit, Bruno’s Gas Station, one of several in the Roadside Delight’s kit.
This small hill is one of the new Woodland Scenic land forms. I repainted the rock faces so the color would match the existing hill on the opposite side of the road. I added lots of foliage and also raised it with 1 1/2 inches of foam below it. I ordinarily would not have used such a piece but the hill was almost the perfect size and shape for the hill I needed and only needed a little trimming of it’s base to fit here.
Saaaaay, that’s really something, John! [:D] Nice work. I think you have done the town main street and Railway Avenue really nicely. [tup] I especially like your last image, but the second is darned good, too. It will be a pleasure to see other images as you go along.
Thank you, Crandell. The actually name of this street is Depot St. but you were close. I intend to post a few more pictures of the station and a description of how it came together. Originally, I planned a smaller depot from the same South River Cambridge Crossing kit that I built the Bedford Inn from. The problem was I wanted a multi platform station and couldn’t find compatible platforms and the kit looked like it would take quite a while to do well. I decided to save that depot for the town of Willoughby, the terminus of the branch line I hope to get built in a few years. Fans of the old Twilight Zone series might understand the significance of the name of the town of Willoughby.
Also, I haven’t used the digital camera in quite a while and was a little rusty besides being a total newb when it comes to photography. I couldn’t even figure out how to turn off the flash which I think washed out some of the pictures. I think I have sufficent lighting that I won’t need it.
Well, I finally have somethin to show in the WPF. Work has now commenced and the benchwork is well underway. Not much to comment on, it’s only benchwork after all, but here’s a photo…
The layout (for those that don’t recall) is N scale. The benchwork is 52" high (I am 6’1") and is predominantly 35mmx90mm (a little larger than 1"x3") house framing timber. The room space is 10’8" x 9’8".
This week I added two new cars to my fleet of rolling stock. The first is a rtr Athearn Railbox boxcar and the second is a Bachmann Silver Series gondola. The gon is scheduled for a repaint to KCS black and white.
I also picked up a Digitrax DZ143PS decoder to install in my Proto 2000 GP38-2.
Just released from the shops - a tweaked Proto SD7 representing SP #5308 as it was when it returned from being rebuilt, the locomotive formerly being the EMD Demonstrator. It varied from all other SP SD7’s, having different horns, dual controls and a winterization hatch. The ashcan lights are non-working Details West additions, and a Loksound 3.5 decoder is also installed.
Working on a small logging layout requires some compromises, particularly with a turntable installation. My brother, also a model railroader, designed and built a modification of an Atlas 7 1/2" N Scale turntable for my HO scale railroad. His design minimized the foot print and allows me to have a non-rotating pit floor with a 60’ HO Scale length bridge. The turntable runs flawlessly and I’m really impressed with my brother’s work. The first photo shows his completed design and the second photo shows the beginning of my installationn work.
I’m still working, when life permits, on the area immediately across the tracks from my engine service area, namely the industrial area buildings there.
I’ve printed and mounted on Gator board all I’m going to do for this area, but I’ve got to tone down the hills to the right of ‘town’. They’re a little too bright/vivid for me. Then I’ll be working on the actual ground the prints sit on (they’re just leaning against the backdrop now), then work on fences, bushes etc to disguise the area etc.
The area in the picture above is about 6 to 7 feet in length.
Thank you. The railroad I am working on now I began conceptualizing around 1990 when I was growing dissatisfied with my previous layout, a fictional UP branch. It was around that time I saw It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time and thought Bedford Falls might make a good name for one of my towns. Then I saw Allen Keller’s second video on George Selios’ F&SM and discovered he had named one of his towns Bedford Falls as well. It made me reconsider using the name so I didn’t seem like a copycat. I even considered changing the name to Potterville, creating the alternate history that might have occured without George Bailey. Eventually I decided that just because a famous modeler like George Selios had gotten the same idea I had independently, that was no reason for me to change my plans.
I made no effort to model anything directly from the movie with the exception of Gowers Drug Store, although I don’t think you can make out the sign in any of the photos. I did want to put in Bailey’s Building and Loan but just didn’t have room for all the structures I wanted to include so it didn’t make the final cut.
I believe I did drive by Seneca Falls on I-80 but didn’t really get to see much of the area. I had visited Cooperstown and was on my way to Niagra Falls which were two checkmarks on my bucket list. Now I sort of wish I had stopped by the area. I am planning another trip to the area before I begin building the branch line so maybe I will take a look at that area.
How about some archival stuff from layouts gone by…
Those are from a layout I built in the late 80’s based on a Conrail spin-off called the Laurel Valley. I had to dismantle it when we moved here to the Eastern Shore. I still have my Laurel Valley equipment, though, and even have added a bunch! It now interchanges with my Western Maryland layout.
Archival or not, I always find photos of your remarkable work extremely inspiring!
Well, my contribution is some action taken up on the Middle Yuba at Bullard’s Bar lake. 2-10-2 #1408 just fresh out of the shops with a freight on the lower-gradient Eastbound line. The grade here is about 1.5%, it’ll turn into 2% in about a mile or so. As you can see, the San Juan Ridge is still under ‘geological’ construction, LOL!
A few minutes after the freight passes by, the Royal Gorge comes down over the Bullard’s Bar arch-bridge on the high-grade Westbound line. Grade here is 2.2% descending. Really tests out Rio Grande’s ‘Lavalier’ water-brakes.
My version of Sand Patch on my N scale Allegheny & Cumberland recently & finally acquired its first permanent building. It’s a tool shed / office combo that I’m sure could use some air conditioning,though by the looks of the weeds & foliage around the foundation,the building doesn’t get much office use as it is & won’t be feeling any cool air until winter comes along just the same I bet. Today, we find a auto parts train at a stop testing its air before heading down the " slide ". Usually, trains don’t travel on the helper runaround track, but I heard there’s an issue with # 4 switch & until track maintainers arrive, trains will be kept off the switch.
I’m working with about 24x24’ in HO scale–two-car garage. Obviously, the car hasn’t seen the inside of the garage in at least 8 years, LOL! My minimum radius is 34", max is 36", grades are between 1.5 and 2.4%. Several people have told me that the layout looks HUGE, but it’s actually a folded non-parallel double-track Dogbone style that turns back on itself several times at different elevations (no helixes). Not especialy ‘realistic’ if you happen to be looking at about three different levels of track in several spots, but I try to keep each level as a separate ‘scene’ so that it doesn’t look TOO obvious. Unfortunately when I planned it out for maximum running space, I didn’t take into account much yard or spur trackage, something I hope to cure this summer with some major makeovers.
No problem. I didn’t figure it could be that big, being a garage. But yeah, it looks huge. And for a lot of shots, you don’t notice the higher iron. See, it;s layouts like yours with beautiful artticultaeds roaming abou8t that makes my head hurt in where to set my layout.
SInce I;m taking up the space, I might as well put some pics up. I fully intened to put them on my WIP website, but I can’t get anything to work right. They’re 3 weeks old now, shot of my Sharknose Demonstrators on the Naptown White River Club layout. With help form Selector, I put them into sepia, and am experimenting with frames. My favs are the first and last pics
I gave up trying to get a better image than this one. The angle is tough and I don’t know how to manually focus it. As it is, I set the camera about as far back as I could and tried to get a good depth of field…to no avail. So, it is what it is. I altered the raw image to get it to look a bit overcast.
Nice images up above, guys. Nice to seem some new posters. Lots of talent out there.
Speaking of looking huge–those angled shots of yours give a terrific sense of space–especially as you said, the first and last. I especially like the first shot of the junction–that track to the right seems to curve out for miles. Nice work. And I like the Sepia–very imaginative.
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