Highway Overpass Part 3

So back to the overpass project now after a few days away from it.  I shortened up the pier heights by about 3/4" so that, at least to my eyes, the whole thing doesn't look quite so spindly or fragile now.

I don't have any double stack container cars, but I have a few old containers, so I stacked two of them together in a gondola to double check the clearance height, because you never know.  Luc thinks I should have an auto rack train. A nice idea, but it's not likely to happen any time soon.

Lots of room between the top of the container and the bottom of the overpass girders.

I also began re-doing the small area underneath the overpass, with an eye to moving the vehicle entrance to the trans-load property over a few inches, but I haven't gotten to that part yet.

Here's a few looks at the way things sit right now:

Since the layout in general is somewhat modern I've added graffiti to the support piers.  Some of it is hand scribbled, and some is done with decals.

Not much greenery seems to grow beneath an overpass, so I'll be removing that which we see here, and replacing it with gravel.

A view of the new overpass from the other side, and what do you know, there's JSSX 813 about to rumble underneath it.

I also still have to put gravel/ballast at the bottom of the piers to fill in the small gaps

As part of 813's train, there's that new 60 foot Greenbrier boxcar.

And by the way, one of those stupid plastic couplers on that brand new $65 (plus shipping, plus tax) model boxcar, from Aurora Miniatures broke almost right away, 'cuz those couplers suck.  I've since replaced both couplers on that car with Kadee #158's.  THEY won't break.

A look at some of the vehicular traffic on the overpass

It's a pretty busy area of the city, so I should probably try to get a couple more vehicles to use here.  I don't have any passenger vehicles, so maybe I'll try to pick up two or three of those.

Have a good week everyone.

Another Exterior Post SP Boxcar

I've added the "Search This Blog" feature at the top of the blog's sidebar.  So if you wanted to find some previous posting about something here, you can just type a few key words into the box and it should come up.  I tried it out as I was writing this, and it worked.  I got the idea while reading George Dutka's White River Division blog this past Monday, so, Thanks George.

I got away from the overpass project a bit this week, and finished up another 86 foot boxcar that I'd started quite a long time ago.  It's another of the exterior post SP boxcars like I've posted in the past, making a total of four of them that I've done.  I had put this one away, basically forgotten about it for what turned out to be many months, and just got it back out of the cupboard to try to finish it up.

Here's a few looks at this newest effort, SP 615202.

As I've noted on the previous cars, I was guided by an article in an old RailModel Journal magazine for this build and paint project.  The grey strip decals are the most difficult as they have to lie down over vertical and horizontal raised details on the doors.  I do them in small pieces at a time.

Had to buy 2 sets of the Microscale decals in order to have enough of the door stencils.  Also, the word "Hydra" is not on the decal sheet, so some cutting and trimming is required for that, including the letter "D" which I made from a "C" and an "I".

Here's a view of all four of the boxcars coupled together:

That's the newest car on the right.

I think they look really sharp all coupled together.

In the 1:1 scale world, this covered hopper had been hanging around the Sarnia's C-Yard for at least a week before I finally took these pictures of it.

Interesting that the artists worked around all of the markings on the car

That's it for now.  Thanks for looking, and have a good week everybody.

Highway Overpass Part 2

Picking up sort of where I left off last week, the overpass has been coming along quite nicely so far.  Here, I've masked most of the roadway and the concrete guardrails, leaving scale 6 gaps only where the roadway's lines will be.

The lines at the right side of each lane are sprayed yellow using the airbrush, and the double solid line down the centre is white. Each of the lines are about 6 inches wide.

Tape removed, and the lines look pretty good.  I then brush painted about a dozen or so spots to look to represent potholes that have been filled with asphalt. Rather than use a true black colour for this, I instead used SP Dark Gray to try to give an older appearance to the "asphalt".

I've weathered the overpass support piers, so here's a look at one of those

I used Brown Panel Line, plus Burnt Umber and Ivory Black to grime things up a bit. I have to say though that the support assemblies seem a bit spindly to me.

And here's the overpass bridge set roughly into place on the layout.  Remember, I said roughly.

I think that as it sits at the moment, the overpass is quite a bit too tall.  I don't actually have any double stack cars, but I put two containers on a flatcar just to see how things might look.  The bottom of the bridge girders are about an actual inch and a half above the top of the containers.

About the same view as the one above.  I have another set of columns to add to the middle area.  But I really think it's too tall, so I'll have to shorten down 12 columns, probably by about an inch or so. 

One more look for now.

This view from the other side of the overpass, shows a bit of the surrounding area as well.

And in other news, I had recently ordered and just this week have received a new piece of rolling stock. It's an Aurora Models 60 foot high cube Greenbrier boxcar.  And boy, is it nice! Here it is, right out of the box, sitting on the spur that leads into the Tri-State Paper facility on my Grand Trunk.

Note that the reporting marks are high up on the sides of the car.  I guess this is to try to prevent taggers from painting over the reporting marks.  Makes me wonder though if taggers wouldn't just climb on those horizontal ribs to do their work.

There are a couple of little details that Chuck has pointed out to me, such as none of the door closer handles are vertical, nor do they have the white paint at the tips. He also points out that the coupler bars are yellow on the prototype cars, with white paint where the worker would place their hand, as well as that new freight cars have a light coloured non-slip coatings on the stirrup steps. Those should all be quick and simple fixes to the model.