I've been working on the Railroad

It's been a week since our first op session of 2011 and I've been working to fix some things that needed fixing. First many of you said you were directionally challenged on the VBR&S, so there are now North-South indicators all around the layout (and some East-West ones in a few locations that require those).
I've got to admit that even I've had trouble with directions on the layout and I know the area well and built the layout. Of course I am dyslexic, but this will help I think.

The other thing I've worked on this week is adjusting the Walthers streamline passenger car's diaphragms. After testing I found that while they are springy, they are not springy enough for some spots on the layout, so I fixed them. I'll be running all of the passenger trains around the entire layout before the next session to make sure I've got'em right.

I'm also continuing to re-enter all of the freight car data into the CarCards program so that I can eventually print new car cards and waybills and do switch lists on the computer.
Til next report,
Bill

The Lower Basin Revisited

At first glance these pictures probably look just like those from last month, but there have been improvements.
The over all area is pictured here. Whats new is a second row of structure flats behind the main buildings but in front of the city backdrop. Also since Commerce Street is several stories above Jefferson Street there's vegetation in areas where the ground would be visible.

Starting on the south end of Jefferson Street we see Craddock Terry Shoe Corp. and the Schewel Furniture Warehouse, the only plastic kits in the Lower Basin scene.

Moving west Strother Drugs appears to the right of Schewel Warehouse.

A bit more west and Barker Jennings is on the right.

Finally N.B.Handy is to the right of Barker Jennings. I like the effect that three layers gives as you move along the street, different areas of the back drop and second row of flats become visible. I think I learned that watching a Disney episode on the making of cartoons as a kid.

Anyway, it's not finished, but it's getting there.

A Snow Day

We had a snow day Tuesday Jan 11th (without the snow it turned out) but I finally got to do a time consuming project on the layout, the back drop for Lynchburg over the Lower Basin Scene.
This is a panoramic view of the entire thing. You can click on it to enlarge it. The backdrop is from three different poster prints I took of the city last spring. A few modern buildings show, but they will be covered when I do the next phase. There will be an intermediate row of buildings behind the Jefferson Street buildings and in front of the city skyline. These, like the buildings will be made from Kingmills's Commerce Street "Radical Flats", which are slightly smaller than HO scale to add depth. Even without them, and taking pictures from strategic points the backdrop makes a big impact on the scene.

The tall building on the backdrop is the Allied Arts building, built back in the 1930's. At 16 stories it was the tallest building in Lynchburg in 1956. I left out the Bank of the James building, built in the 70's which is now the tallest in Lynchburg.

A lot of church steeples show on the Lynchburg skyline, and they are pretty tall themselves. Plus downtown Lynchburg is built up a steep hill.

Looking a bit further east at Piedmont Mills. Those of you familiar with Lynchburg know that the Expressway Bridge (now Business 29)is just beyond here. It wasn't built until 1960 though so it will not show in the scene either.

Another look at the west end of Jefferson Street. I'll have to build up the street just to the right of the N.B. Handy building and place a RR tunnel in the middle of it.

VBR&S Photo Backdrop Installation has begun

Here are a couple of really quick non professional type photos of the first area on the VBR&S to receive photo backdrops.
This is the north end of Monroe Yard. There will eventually be a tree line from track level in front of the photo backdrop, but even this looks better than the blue sky by itself.

From the Monroe Depot looking northwest. The highest mountain visible is High Peak which is actually visible from the real Monroe Yard site.

Photo ops at Ops session

While my operators were running the VBR&S April 18th, I found some interesting photo ops. Here are the shots.
A Trailways bus has pulled up to Kemper Street Station in Lynchburg with a group for the train.

At Monroe Yard an SW is working hard shoving freight cars.

In Piney River, VA we find ole #7 tied onto #2...the lone VBR caboose.

At Main Street Station in Charlottesville a Greyhound bus has a group for the train. It must be a nice spring day to take a tain ride.

Over at the C&O yard in Charlottesville, we catch up to a Geep and a C&O cab.

Railfanning Monroe in 1956

We arrive around noon at Monroe, VA's depot.
The yard is full of cars, and we get permission to take photos.

If the yardmaster knew we were up on the roof of the LCL freight house he'd probably.....not care. After all this was not a time that the railroad worried about being sued by railfans for being careless. We get a good shot of two freights chortling away near the depot. The southbound on the far track has just arrived from Charlottesville, and the nearer one is ready to head north.

From the north side of the depot another look at the northbound,

and a look south along the mainline.

Here's closeup of the lead RS3.

With an op session coming up, I thought this would be a good way to get everyone ready. The trains are where we left them last time, and our intrepid railfans have taken their pictures. Now lets move some trains!

Since the signals are finished, and I have to wait for spring to begin taking the pictures for the photo back drop, I've spent the last month or so giving Monroe Yard some rock treatment. I'm sure with spring coming some weeds are sure to start growing there too.

Charlottesville passengers now have a depot.

Over the past few weeks I've been "adding to" the flat from a previous layout that has served as Main Street Station in Charlottesville.
It's on the layout now, and I was pretty pleased with the results. I'll probably adjust it's actual location a bit more as the area between the Southern & C&O tracks on the layout isn't exactly like the real thing. I had to shorten the depth of the main building some because of space considerations, but all and all I think it looks good there. If I had been building it from scratch I probably wouldn't have detailed the Southern side since it's not really visible, but since I had already built that part, adding onto it means there's detail on that side too.