A Tree Grows in Johnstown

Wow, four months since my last entry. But it's summer and you know how that goes. Honestly, today was the first day I ran the trains since March. Now, on to what I actually did.

This project took all of about five minutes. In involved me going to Hobby Lobby, buying a 14-pack of Woodland Scenics prefab trees and scattering them about the Johnstown part of the layout. Now, I tried my best to situate the trees in odd-numbered groups. I read on Spookshow's site that trees tend to look better this way and I tend to agree.

 

Another project I'm in the midst of is making high-voltage transmission towers. They'll run from the Model Power susbstation back to the wall. When I needed transmission lines in Gallitzin, I opted to use HO telephone poles. But, I decided not to half ass things this time.

I bought some basswood dowels and square sticks at Walmart. These looked about the right size in the store. The next step was staining them with Minwax "Special Walnut." While the stain was drying, I built a jig to speed assembly. I fastened everything together Gorilla wood glue.

The wire supports and insulators came from my Model Power substation kit. They're held in place with some Testor's model glue.  

Here's the prototype:

In other news, I'm planing a trip to Pennsy country at the end of the month. I'll be staying in Altoona and visiting many of the places I've modeled. The last time my dad and I made the trip was 2010. So yeah, long overdue.

My dad and I basically came to the realization that it was now or never for making this trip. He's not getting any younger and my list of responsibilities isn't exactly getting shorter. With that in mind, this will most likely be our last father and son trip to Altoona for quite some time. So this is bitter sweet.

At any rate, I plan on shooting tons of photos and video while I'm there and I'll be making a full report when get back to the Palmetto state.