Waterfront dock

I have completed the basic waterfront dock about 1/3 of the way along the waterfront area, and have detailed the hill at the right end of the waterfront.  The dock is all board by board so I could make it look weathered and used.  The hill at the right is a continuation of the hill next to the building supply company.  I placed two figures fishing at the base of the hill where the waterfront has a stone pier.

At the left of the photo is the front of the first waterfront structure I am building.  It will be the Harbor Inn with a small restaurant on the ground floor and rooms on the upper floor.  There will be an outside staircase on the right side of the building.  The restaurant will of course be a seafood restaurant.

This will be the third waterfront scene on my layout.  The other two are on the main layout.

Above is my harbor which as a car float and several boats.

Above is a coal dock with another narrow board water area which has a coal barge on it.  The coal dock is a modified kit with a narrow gauge line that enters from the right with hoppers from a coal mine on the mountain.  Both are at the entrance to the main layout room.

I noticed a notation on my Google blogger account the other day that said I have used about half of my allotted space.  That made me curious about my past postings and I was surprised to see I have been doing this blog for almost 6 years.  My early posts were quite sparse so I guess I can keep this up perhaps for another 4 or 5 years.  I could delete some of my earlier posts to make room and will probably do that some time in the future.

Next project waterfront

My next project will be a waterfront dock scene on the recent layout extension.  I have started this by adding a small water extension along the layout extension.  I added a 4 foot long, 4 inch wide board which I painted a mixture of black, brown and green acrylic paint mixed together while wet.  When dry, I covered it with a coat of Envirotex Lite.  That is still drying with the assistance of a lamp.

You can see the building supply company in the background.  The black strip above the water area will be covered by a wood or stone sea wall.  Above the sea wall will be a dock and a series of structures.  There will probably be a boat or two in the water.  I have been dong some research for inspiration photos and sketches for these structures.  Most will be deteriorated.  This should be fun.

I also built a Jordan Products panel truck lettered for the hat company.  Sadly Jordan products is no longer in business due to the death of the owner/operator.  I once had many of these great kits but sold a lot on eBay.  Still have some left.

The truck will be parked at the loading dock ready for some product for shipment.

Hat factory model complete

I have completed the hat factory.  I have named it the Madd Hat Factory - a little humor.   I have been trying to come up with more details - maybe later.  It is basically two combined structures - one brick and one wood clapboard.

There is a water tower on the roof (scratch built from miscellaneous parts),  a hoist in the open upper floor doorway with a figure standing in the opening, and a loading dock that serves both structures as well as rail and truck service.  There is a figure on the loading dock as well as a pallet loaded with hat boxes and a dolley in the inside corner.  The shingles on the roof are a commercial product by Precision Lazercraft.

There is a side wall vent on the left side.  The inside of the lower floor of the brick structure has some rudimentary details (hard to see) and a figure near the front window.

The rear of the industry is very bland and undetailed since it faces away from the edge of the layout and unviewable.

This industry will be located on an older section of the layout extension in front of the Bolt and Nut company.

The first Troll & Elfin model RR

As I have been doing for a few years, I am posting some photos of my late father's model railroad.  These photos show the first model railroad he built (with some minor help from me as I was a young teen at the time).  This layout was built in our home in Guam, MI in the mid 1950's.  My father was in the Navy and stationed there.  Our home was a quonset hut, a metal building with a curved corrugated roof & walls.  Because the weather there was always hot (and humid) and because we had no air conditioning, the windows had no glass - just screens.  We had a banana tree in our yard.

The layout, seen above, was about 4' x 8" and located in our living room.  You can  see the curved wall behind the layout.  The window lead to an enclosed porch at the end of the quonset hut.

In this photo you can see the general track plan on the control panel.  The power supply was under the panel.  The plan was generally loop to loop with one loop on the upper level.

Here is a better view of the control panel.  The lower station is at the left and was a card stock kit model.

This is the station on the upper level.  My father's scratch built Troll station which he used through the years.  I still have that model.

We had about a two year stay in Guam - somewhat interesting.  My high school classrooms were in large quonset huts called "elephant huts" and it was the only high school on Guam as far as I know.  My father and I joined a model railroad club at another Navy base on the island and that is when I first joined the NMRA - a requirement of the club.  The Navy base where we were located was a small communications station located at one end of the island.  I recall there was an old derelict army tank in the "boondocks" next to the station and the kids used it for play.  The turret turned but most everything else was stripped out.  I remember once finding a grenade in the jungle and brought it home to the horror of my parents.

Interesting times ....  long ago.

Hat Factory start

I have started on the hat factory model.  It has presented some challenges.  I started with the Design Preservation Models Laube's Linen Mill kit - one of the few kits I still have.  It would have been easier to just build it from scratch.  In any event, the brick structure is the kit and the wood part that covers the back area and the rear  part of each side is scratch built.  This is obviously a work in progress.

I modified all of the windows in the kit.  The windows in the wood part are by Tichy.  I have put some rudimentary details inside the lower floor of the brick structure as they may be visible when the structure is complete.  There will be a loading dock between the two structure sections.

Lots more work to be done.

The rear section of the left side will be covered by part of the wood structure so I did not bother changing the windows.