PRR Tool House

I was cleaning off my desk from building the cabin cars, putting my tools back on the rack behind the desk and washing all the graphic off the cutting board when I discovered the American Model Builders PRR Tool House laser cut wood kit I had bought at the train show. I had hung it on one of the pegs on the peg board, then hung something in front of it and completely forgot about it. What a pleasant surprise!

Irwin Yard's new tool house, next to the old boxcar that formerly served as the shed.

 This is only my second laser cut wood kit - the outhouses for Vic's being the first kit - but I really like them. Nothing looks more natural for a wood building than wood. The style of the building is board and batton siding. I painted both sides of all the wood parts, with the the main pieces in Depot Buff and the trim in Roof Brown. Once dried, I began assembling the parts. The instructions recommended CA super glue (which I have) and an accelerator (which I do not) but I have always thought white glue was best for assembling wood projects. I tried both and no matter how careful I always get a little glue that dries on the surface. The white glue is clear to milky but the CA was shiny. After the first experiment, I stuck with white glue. This slowed my progress a little as I had to wait for pieces to dry but I did some other activities on the railroad like programming the new RS-3 and gluing some track to the B&O bridge (a story for another day).

Overall, it took me an afternoon of one day and a morning of the next before I placed the kit on the layout. I am very pleased with how it turned out and once I add a couple of figures moving around the scene, some tools and materials near the building, and maybe even a table saw visible in the window, it will look very realistic. I do need to tone down the grass in this area and make it more dirty and stone.

I think I am ready to tackle building a row of identical company houses for the Herminie mining area. I have my eye on the 3 pack kit from City Classics but I am still looking.

Christmas and Cabin Cars

Lisa gave me a Bachmann RS-3 that I have been wanting. I've always liked how the RS series looked and the model from Bachmann is very well detailed, nicely priced and comes ready to run for DCC layouts. I ran it on the track a few times, solo and then pulling a west bound freight train, using the default 03 address. I still need to program it to respond to the engine number, 8604.

Irwin Yard's newest engine, and RS-3, grabs a car from the cabin track for the next outbound train.

I spent the rest of Christmas afternoon finishing the four cabin car (caboose) kits from Bowser. I really like the price and details on these kits but they are tough to build! The ends are thin plastic that have to curve a little. I was getting a bit frustrated, breaking the small pieces but finally figured out that if I mounted them into the roof first, then I could attach the roof and ends to the floor a little easier than the other way around. Of course, I figured this out on the fourth and final car! I now have a cabin car track fully stocked for building trains in the Irwin yard.

Lisa and the kids also gave me some other great gifts for the railroad - a couple of books by Tony Koester, some cinder block walls for scratchbuilding and Model Builder software to print builds and paste them to cardstock. I built Vic's Bait & Tackle from the downloadable sample. Looks like I'll be pretty busy the rest of the Christmas break.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Vic's Bait & Tackle - A Complete Scene

Today, I finished Vic's Bait & Tackle scene. I had built the building some time ago and placed it on the layout. The scene sort of developed from there. Named after my friend and co-worker, Vic W., who lives on the east coast and loves to fish,  I finally finished the supporting scenery adding trees, outhouses, and the fishermen Vic picked up from a hobby shop near his house.

East end of Irwin Yard

In the first photo, taken from the Irwin Yard looking eastward, we see the Irwin switcher pulling a set of hopper cars probably heading under the B&O bridge and taking them to the Westmoreland Coal Company mine in Herminie. One of the through freights, led by GP-7 #8805, is passing LAS Fabrics heading towards East McKeesport and then Pittsburgh. Just past the caboose, and in the shadow of the B&O bridge, you can see Vic's.

 In this view, you can see the details of the scene. The fishermen are swapping stories before they head to Keystone Lake which is down the road behind the yellow sedan. That's Vic on the hillside, practicing his casting with a new fly fishing pole. Gotta be able to tell the customers how it handles! Sitting on the porch, a young lady enjoys a Coca Cola, from the six pack at her feet. Behind Vic's you can see the his and hers (Goose and Gander) out houses. I found this Durango Press wood kit at T & K Hobby back in September and I knew that I HAD to add it to the scene. I finished it this morning, as well as the trees I needed and started putting it all together.

I had planned to add the trees and take a picture but the ground between the tracks was still bare so I added some grass. Well, the area between this scene and LAS Fabrics needs some grass too. And the end of the Irwin yard area looked really bare. You get the idea. I spent about 90 minutes adding grass to various areas for the photo and I could not stop myself. I am very happy that I finally finished this scene!