Structures, Flowers, and End Lights

Most of the structures along the Coast Line are unique and do not always lend themselves to the commercially available models.  Sometimes we get lucky and there is something close that can be a stand-in or maybe kit bashed into a building that resembles something near the tracks.  Most times the buildings need to be scratchbuilt.  At the moment I have not made time to scratchbuild anything.  I did get a friend to scratchbuild one structure.  At one time this was the Coast Wholesale Grocer.  Bob Lyon, proprietor of Elmira Branch Manufacturing, [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elmira-Branch-Manufacturing-Co/109492279756] built the model from photos I supplied him. The structure still exists

I have also put together some oil tanks for one of the Santa Barbara industrial area petroleum distributors.  The facility was originally Union Oil of California.  The tanks are still there but are no longer in use.

I also put together a couple of quonset huts.  I may try to modify them later.  Here are photos of the model structures and the prototypes I will try to imitate.

Beyond Santa Barbara, I have acquired a couple of passenger cars that will be placed at the Miramar Hotel.  The National Embassy was there for years and is now in Fillmore.  Here is some history of the car http://www.scrvrhs.com/embassy/embassy.htm  Here are some photos

I remember eating trackside in the Santa Fe Lunch Counter Diner which has now been relocated to 6801 White Ln, Bakersfield, CA and is called the Burger Depot.  We made a visit there a couple of years ago.  It is still fun but no trains to watch just a parking lot.

A side note about the Miramar Hotel.  About 12 years ago they closed and a new owner was going to restore or rebuild or whatever.  That was about three owners ago and just this last week they finally got around to demolishing the old buildings.  All of them are leveled now.  I do have some photos I took and will probably share them on this blog later when we finally get around to completing this section.

Further east in Summerland, I have started to accumulate structures to model a small refinery.  I also assembled a Walthers Oil Pump.  I have placed a switch on the fascia so you can turn on the pump and add a little animation to the layout.

Still further east on the way to Carpinteria, I have added a billboard sign in the lemon orchard.  The sign is for Pea Soup Anderson's in Buelton.

Temporarily, I have placed a very nice model of a warehouse built by Joe Heumphreus up at White Hills.  It looks very much like the warehouse that was in Guadalupe so if I every build a third level it may relocate to there.

I hope to have some flower fields in Lompoc so I purchased 240 tulips and 600 roses made by Busch.  I have made some but not all of the flowers.  My wife helped me with one batch of 120 tulips.  We accidentally dropped one on the floor of the layout room and I needed the optivisors to find it.  They are very tiny.

Lastly, I have added some end-of-train devices to a few of my cars to be placed at the end of trains.  These are produced by Ring Engineering and are very easy to install.

FRA Track Inspection

In the real world, at least in the United States, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducts periodic track inspections.  Standards are set in the Code of Federal Regulations.  Track is not my strong suite so I asked Gary Siegel to come over and do an inspection.  Armed with an NMRA gauge, some other tools and a roll of red tape, Gary made his way around the first level.  What he left me with was a sea of red tape which I have slowly been working through and making corrections.  Some of the problems involve the rail connection to the ties coming loose and the rails being out of gauge.  Most of the problems are in the turnouts.  Here are a few photos of the red tape around the layout.


Red Tape at West Carpinteria



Red tape at Summerland



Red tape at east Santa Barabara



Red tape at west Santa Barabara



Lompoc Track and Paint

One of the features I really like about the Southern Pacific track into Lompoc is the street running.  Take a look at my earlier March 14, 2011 post on Lompoc http://spsbsub.blogspot.com/2011/03/lompoc-part-i.html

I had hoped to use the Easy Street system from Proto 87 but I tried and found it just was not working for me.  I think I am not a good enough modeler.  I was getting derailments mainly due to the rails being out of gauge and the joints between the pieces of girder rail.  I decided to take it out and put in regular track and "pave over" the ties to make it still seem like street running.



Girder rail in place at west Lompoc. 
Note the brass strip is conductive track power connection



Girder rail and street turnout at west end of Laurel Street.



Side view of the girder rail.



Girder rail removed and slot for the tie strip prepared



Slot for tie strip and turnout



Tie strip in place

Tie strip and turnout strip laid in slot



Gluing tie strip and styrene street - weighted by full size spikes


Lompoc and White Hills are the two sections on the upper deck that are made using Homosote and plywood.  I decided to paint the Homosote.  I taped all the tracks and quickly added a "dirt" paint.  At White Hills, I added white latex paint to the "dirt" paint to lighten it up and make it look more like diatomaceous earth.



Tape on tracks along Laurel Street, Lompoc



Tape on tracks approaching White Hills

Tape on tracks at west White Hills



Tape on tracks at east White Hills

 

Lompoc Yard after paint

 

Lompoc approach after paint. 
The colored squares to the right of the tracks are flowers in the making. More in a later post.



West White Hills after paint. 
Note that this area is covered by white diatomaceous earth thus the color.



East White Hills after paint


While I was painting, I decided I would paint the hardboard behind the future location of the Santa Barbara depot.


Hardboard behind Santa Barbara depot location with primer.



Red Rosin Paper

I had heard about using red rosin paper to rough in the scenery.  My understanding was that Howard Zane was the first to use it, at least he had it published first in the Railroad Model Craftsman in January 2007.   I have a space between the track and the fascia and between the track and the backdrop/wall and thought this might be a way to fill the gap, at least temporarily.  I also saw it being used on John Parker's BNSF Fall River Division - http://home.comcast.net/~jkparker/journal.html  Scroll down to the July 2008 Update.  If you ever get a chance to see or operate on John's railroad, do so.  It is an amazing layout and fun to operate on.

Red Rosin Paper is readily available at hardware and big box building supply stores.  It is inexpensive at about $14 for a roll 3 feet wide and 140 feet long.  The paper is painted with white glue and when it sets is stiff and will take plaster or ground cover.  The hardest part of the process is supporting the paper while it is painted.  I tried doing that using masking tape.  It does not work well as the moisture in the glue counteracts the adheasive on the tape and the paper falls.  I ended up using wadded newspapers and more tape to hold in in place, but I am getting ahead of myself.

I decided this would be a great project for the local club to help me with.  I did a couple small sections to show them what we were doing and then let them at the paper and tape.  All we did was put the paper in place and I would paint the glue on later.  Here are some photos of the fun.


Bob applying tape



Art adding tape to a tight spot




David taping



John taping



Gary triming paper to fit



The entire crew - l to r Art, Bruce, David, John, Joe and Gary





Tape and paper at the end of double track




Paper in place west of Carpinteria

 The next day I slathered on the glue, full strength, using a cheap disposable paint brush.  I had purchased a full gallon of the white glue pouring it out into another container for ease of application.  I also later applied some plaster to the area just west of Carpinteria.


This is the same area as the above photo but now the red rosin paper has had glue applied
and an additional layer of plaster has been applied over the stiff red rosin paper.





Finished red rosin paper at double track. 
This is the same area John was taping and photographed with both tape and some paper in place.



Finished red rosin at Goleta with Coast Starlight



Carpinteria Creek Bridge, Part 1

One of the signature features, for me anyway, in Carpinteria is the 100 foot deck girder bridge across Carpinteria Creek.  It is actually two 50 foot spans with a pier in the middle.  The creek is just east of town and is easily visible from Carpinteria State Beach Park.  Here is a photo of the bridge.

When I first put roadbed on my layout, I knew I wanted the bridge to be the first structure as you approach Carpinteria from the east staging.  I had put a section of laminated roadbed in the place where the bridge was to go.  Now it was time to put the bridge in. 

The bridge is pretty standard, so the MicroEngineering 50 foot deck girder kit was perfect. 

I made two of them to span the creek.  I debated a lot about what to do for the pier.  None of the commercially available piers that I looked at were quite right so I made one out of wood, painted it to look like concrete and put it in place.  I will weather it later. 

The track curves just a little as it comes into town on the layout so I have a slight curve on the bridge spans. 

I have done some initial preparation for the creek and will add water and foliage soon. 

Check back for part 2, hopefully within a couple months.