Large Scale Central

My new gondola load

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

Heres a few pictures I took today of one of my scratch built gondolas. I lightly weathered it and added a load . The load is supposted to resemble a scrap metal load. I had a greenhouse model from I think it was POLA that my dog stepped on while chasing a squirl in our yard and he destroyed it to the point that it was scrap so that is what was the base for this project. Then I added some parts off some 1/24th autos I had laying around and a bunch of stuff I had in my parts box. After I was satisfied with how it looked I airbrushed the load with a grimmy reddish brown paint to unify the load color. After it dried I used washes of rust colors and scraped dry chalk over the load. I didn’t glue the load together cuz I will be using some of this “scrap” in future projects. I now have a rolling scrap box that I can enjoy! http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/IMGA0230.JPG/ http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/IMGA0229.JPG/ http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/IMGA0228.JPG/ http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/IMGA0227.JPG/ http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/IMGA0226.JPG/

#2

Good looking gondola and load. I also like the ground cover and the background scenes, especially in the last shot.

#3

Fine job Mike. Got any more shots of the layout ?

#4
Jon Radder said:
Good looking gondola and load. I also like the ground cover and the background scenes, especially in the last shot.
Ditto! :)
#5

Love the rusted metal. Looks great.

#6

Double ditto- show us more!!!

-Kevin.

#7

Looks great - but I fear you are holding out on us. :wink: There’s that whole parking lot full of vehicles…a nice looking road…a building, or two…a fence…and what is that ground cover? Man, everything looks nice.

#8
Bruce Chandler said:
Looks great - but I fear you are holding out on us. ;) There's that whole parking lot full of vehicles...a nice looking road...a building, or two...a fence...and what is that ground cover? Man, everything looks nice.
Really nice and neat ! I'd like to know what you used to make the road and parking lot. Ballast looks interesting too. Ralph
#9

Thanks guys for the kind comments ! We planted most of the ground covers in 2004 / 2005. Lots of wooley thyme , elfin thyme and some sedums. Most of the 400 trees are dwarf alberta spruces but there are @ 20 or so boxwood plants. Pruning the trees is a constant endevor but it keeps me out of trouble . I have a bunch of videos on you tube under todus2. Check em out. Here are a couple of pictures of my wife Connies farm . Hope you like them and thanks again for the comments!!

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0235.JPG)

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(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0236.JPG)

#10

The roads are made with mortar mix and then painted with driveway sealer. The ballast is chicken grit that I got at Farm and Fleet . I make the path for the roads where I want them to go and then cut strips of wire mesh and place them under the road surface and then pour a 1" layer of mortar on top . I live near Chicago and the roads have held up pritty well even with our four seasons we get here. The parking lot was made the same way. I used a white out tape to mark the lines and they have held up pritty well too.

#11

Beautiful. I love my shady railroad, but wish I could grow beautiful thyme ground cover like that. I’m having some luck with mosses, but they fade in the mid-summer heat. Some trees came down last October in an early season snow storm here. That has given one section of the RR lots more light in the afternoon than before, so I might try some in that area.

#12

The videos are pretty impressive too. The main-line guys here (I’m a closet main-liner) are gonna love this one…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rfCNJPwlew[/youtube]

#13
Jon Radder said:
The videos are pretty impressive too. The main-line guys here (I'm a closet main-liner) are gonna love this one...
nice share. worth watching. keep posting.
#14

I love the graffiti :slight_smile:
Sometimes I’m a little slow…you’re the one Nick told us about building those beautiful Railgons :wink:
Ralph

http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=16337

#15

The gon looks good. 400 trees! Wow that is a lot of trees. I hope you have a drip irrigation system to water all of them. I have a fraction of the trees you have and I can water everything in 1 hour. Makes watering a pleasure.
Ron

#16

Ralph I did build the gon’s for Nick. I don’t use a drip system to water , just a hose and water every other day in the evening .

#17

Great looking video of awesome models! I love the flat wheels, looks and sounds just like doing a ‘roll by’ inspection on the real thing!

#18

Heres a few more pics of the RR that I shot last evening . The first one is of Romeoville station. It used to be a bustling station but with the downturn of the economy passenger service has been suspended and now serves as a RR office and crew change facility. The second shot is the downtown Romeoville area. A great spot for watching trains and getting a good burger at AJ’s . Lastly is a photo along the right of way. A Texaco gas station and a couple of other businesses parallel the tracks .

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0232.JPG)

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(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0231.JPG)

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(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0233.JPG)

#19

Mike, When you post your pictures, put the “code” for each picture on their own line. This way they won’t all blend together. Ralph

mike dorsch said:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0232.JPG)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0231.JPG)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/todus2/_forumfiles/IMGA0233.JPG)

#20

Thanks Ralph for the tip. I tried to edit my earlier pics here and put the code on their own line but it didn’t seem to change anything. I will in future posts keep that in mind.