More "Trees" at Kittanning Point

I had a coupon for 20% at Michael's, so I picked up two more bags of lichen. The layout did a pretty good job of swallowing them up. I've found Elmer's Craft Bond spray adhesive makes for much faster and easier application.

Happy Anniversary!

Can you believe this blog has been up for a whole year already? The layout has certainly come long way in that time.

Finally Got Around to Staining the Last Batch of Rocks

I don't know why I took so long getting this done. But at least they look like they came out nicely. As you can see I planted some more background trees on the mountain. The next project will be a parking lot for Kittanning Point Station.

In other news, I felt the road's president deserved a private car so I picked up this old Atlas/Rivarossi observation car and used some Woodland Scenics dry transfers to christen it the "Stars Hollow." How'd I come up with that name? Well, one of my wife's favortie TV shows is Gilmore Girls, which is set in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, CT. So yeah, the name would be better suited for a New Haven car. But hey, I've got it running in the NS era, so maybe it found its way here via the Penn Central merger.

A Culvert For Kittanning Run

Kittanning Run is one of two small streams to pass beneath Horseshoe Curve, the other being Glenwhite Run. Kittanning passes under the northern half of the curve through a stone culvert. The Woodland Scenic stone culvert isn't an exact match, but it's a close enough stand in. I painted it Tamiya "Red Brown" and hit it with a coat of weather wash.

For installation, I cut out a portion of the hillside, glued the culvert in with some foam tack glue and filled in around it with some flex paste. Rather than cut an actual tunnel under the four tracks as I did with the Scotch Run bridge, this time I affixed a piece of black foam core board to the back of the culvert. Is far enough away from the edge of the layout that it isn't really noticeable.

I also decided to go ahead and weather this BLMA gondola.

More Ballasting and Work at the Shop Complex

I laid some more ballast around Horseshoe Curve last night. As usual, it was another exercise in hair pulling and teeth gnashing. I did get a helpful e-mail from a gentleman (Hi Bob!) who suggested using 70% isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent and dripping on a 3 parts water to one part white glue mixture with a pipette. I may have to give the pipette a try. I tried simply pouring the Alcohol on along with the adhesive and it cause some of the ballast to move around. So I've got some touch up to do. Please keep the suggestions coming, I need all the help I can get.

In other news, I finished Cornerstone's Sanding Tower and Drying House kit. I sprayed the sanding tower Testors "Metallic Silver" and then brushed the bases Floqiol "Concrete" and the hoses Floquil "Engine Black."  For the sand holder, I went with Floquil "Roof Brown." And for the drying house, I used Floquil "Boxcar Red" for the walls and "Grimy Black" on the roof. I used some cheap grey acrylic paint for the mortar lines on the brick walls. 

Once the paint dried, I hit everything with a coat of weather wash, followed up by some Dulcote. Once that dried I brushed on a ton of black chalk dust to get the soot and cinder covered look I was after. I used some old Woodland Scenics Buff colored ballast for sand.

All told these building came out quite nicely. All I need now is a large water tank and that should round out the shop complex quite nicely.

Worst ballasting experiance ever!

I ballasted the tracking leading up theright sie of Horseshoe Curve about a week ago. In general ballasting track sucks but this paerticular go round was jsut a nightmare. First off, no matter how much I moved it around with a paint brush, I just couldn't get the ballast nice and neat.

Second of all, I don't know what it is about Woodland Scenics ballast, but the stuf just a total pain in the ass to glue! I've tried spraying it with all kinds of wetting agents to make the glue flow all the way into the ballast but none of them help. I've tried water with dish soal added to it and I've tried denatured alcohol. The result is the same, when I go to vacuum up the loose stuff, larg chunks of ballast co up. I swear the stuff is coated with teflon!