Since the last post I now have the two main loops running on the layout. I installed foam roadbed under the Atlas track that I am using which really cuts down on the noise. I sealed the plywood base by painting it with a brown flat paint. Both loops are powered by my ZW, and both are controlled via DCS and Legacy. In an upcoming post I will show some pictures of my electrical setup. The outside corners are a lot closer than I would like them to be, but I was forced to cut them close in order to make a more scale downtown Joliet city layout.
This first picture shows my new MTH premier EJ&E transfer diesels. I am very happy with these engines. The 903 is a powered unit and the 912 is a dummy. In the future I will post a review of these engines and try to compare them to the real units that they are modeled after.
My other big train purchase of the year was the Atlas double sheathed EJ&E boxcars. I will also review these cars in the future. The detail on these cars is incredible.
Since November I have been steadily moving forward on the Union Station project, and am nearing the completion of the exterior of the building. I spent dozens of hours hand scribing the brick platform. After looking at my options for purchasing plastic brick, I decided that the result was much more realistic when carved by hand. It took a long time but it also saved a lot of money.
I scribed the brick into the 1/8" hardboard. I believe that this is what the Union Station platform looked like for a majority of its life.
Here is a shot of my new 1:43 scale Joliet police car. The car lights up with blinking LEDs. Currently it is controlled with a 9 volt battery. Eventually I will connect this car to a switch on the layout so visitors will be able to turn it on and off. The car size, even though it is slightly larger than O scale, works perfectly, even with the O scale police figures standing right next to the car. I ordered the car from 01BlueBusa, you can search that name on youtube to see his work.
The trees in the picture are right now temporarily standing just for this shot. I will need to make them shorter. The sidewalk is the 1/4" MDF which is painted with a textured sandstone paint. Sidewalk lines are just scribed in, and eventually I will ad a dark colored wash to bring out the details. The street is Durhams water putty with a touch of black acrylic paint. This was my first attempt on the street and I will need to reconstruct it in the future, but for now it is acceptable.
Here is a platform shot on the train level.
I decided that I needed to finish portions of the inside of the station because of how large and up front the windows will be for the layout viewers. I decided that if I did not finish portions of the interior that the station would be lacking. Now that I have it started, I think that it will be a much more impressive finished product. The shot below shows the interior tile. The tile is scale plastic which I painted. I matched the interior of the station floor and the tile lines up perfectly with the windows, so I guess I did a good job measuring. Eventually I will add LED lighting to the interior.
Here is a closer shot looking through the window from the outside. Next I need to add some interior walls and ticked counter, and construct the interior staircase.
For the most part that brings you up to date. I am trying to finish the complete exterior of the station project as soon as possible. Also I have started construction on phase 2 of the layout, which I will share with you next.
