The new set mated perfectly with the old one. As I moved toward the end of the yard where the tracks enter from Chappellton I hoped I’d be able to do something so the opening in the backdrop would look ok. It almost worked out perfectly. A building ended about 4 inches before the opening, then there was a street that I could easily cut out for the opening. But the building on the next sheet started over the opening. Bummer!

I moved things around trying to figure out how I could get the two buildings to be on each side of the opening. I decided to scan the first sheet and made two copies of it in the hopes that I could extend the first building enough to get it to end at the track opening. It’s not a perfect match, but it worked out quite well. It’s hard to see the extension in these photos. It is the white building at the far right of the top photo. The 4th, 5th, and 6th windows from the left are the scanned/printed section.  I’ve cropped and enlarged it, below.

The next step is to start adding some 3D details to the backdrop like loading docks, bushes, and grass.

There were a few sheets of backdrop left over so I trimmed the buildings and trees from the sky and placed them around Dickie Clothing in Stevenville. They certainly enhance the area!

Later!

Scott

(I wish I could crop – @#$#$% Photoshop!)

In case you were looking for something new, it’s the MobilGas billboard in front of the red (soon to be) tanks.  Although the parts were very tiny and breakable it was a very simple kit to assemble.  Now my generic “fuel service” business has an official name!

Scott

Shelly’s wondering why Derwin is taking so long to change the tire. He’s waiting for a train to watch!

The excursion train is sitting on the passenger siding.
A crew shortage has resulted in reduced operation of this train.

The view across the tracks.

Scott

There is a population in Stevenville now. I hadn’t bothered placing figures in the town until I was almost done of the major scenery work. I figured the time was right to start bringing the town to life. Here are some scenes that are developing…

A couple ladies take a break from shopping. It looks like
there are a lot of folks “just hangin’ around”.

Same scene, different angle.

Some old friends take an opportunity to have a chat in the
station parking lot, no doubt talking about the late train.

George is looking for some help with his new tub!

Bill’s doing some work on the apartment building. The
back entrance comes in real handy, but it can be messy
on a rainy day!

So, that’s the latest from Stevenville.

The next few days are going to be fairly busy so I don’t think I’ll be making a post until next week. We’re operating on the BS&T on Sunday so I’ll have a operations report early next week.

Later!

Scott

March 2006

This is the very first photo of the Stevenville area. I’m not even sure if I had named the town at this point. I certainly had no idea what it would eventually look like!

April 2006

A little more than a month later. We’ve had our first operating session on the layout, only two months since starting work tearing down the old layout. I unpacked all the structures from the old layout and have them distributed around the room, but it’s a pretty meager assortment. The old layout was only about 1/3 the size of this one so it’ll take a whole lot more buildings to satisfy the local real estate market.

May 2006

A month since the last photos. G-Mac Transfer (the blue building near the center of each photo) has been movd from Chappellton to try to balance out operations. Other than moving structures around there hasn’t been much done with scenery. I need to make sure the buildings are where I want them to be before I do too much else.

January 2007

There wasn’t a whole lot of new developments over the summer or fall of 2006. We still operated during that time, but there are usually other activities over the summer and fall that take time away from the layout. The guys were bugging me during op sessions about getting some scenery work done, to get rid of the “ocean” look of the blue foam. So after Christmas we postponed operating for a few weeks and went to town (almost literally) doing scenery work. You can see Derwin and Clayton in the photos above working in Stevenville.

February 2007

A month later and a lot has changed! Scenes are really starting to take shape. It’s amazing how quickly a layout changes when paint and ground covers start to go down. I made some foam block buildings ( in the background) to try to fill in some empty spaces. They don’t look too bad in pictures but not so great in person.

March, 2007

A little more than a month later. I’ve been working on other areas of the layout, so there haven’t been too many changes in Stevenville. I’ve done a little work around the Tenement and put together a fueling service kit, but not much else.

April 2007

In the previous month I’ve been working on other areas of the layout, but pop in to Stevenville every once in a while to do some work. These photos are some of the small scenes starting to develop in the town. You can see that the former Picard Packers factory has been moved into the downtown area to make way for a new factory.

May 2007

The big news during this month is that Picard Packers gets a new factory. The original building was moved into the downtown area a while ago and will serve as corporate headquarters.

November 2007

Again, during the summer and most of the fall work on the layout almost comes to a standstill. I’ve only recently started some new scenery on the layout. You’ve seen these pictures in my post on the latest operating session. I have done some work here recently.

Scott

Anyway, I started by trying to find a wall wart to power the neon “Cafe” sign I have. I couldn’t find one that put out 3 volts. I figured a fascia mounted switch on the battery pack would be almost as good. I did that and put the cafe back into place. Flicked on the switch and NOTHING. I tried it and the @#@# sign didn’t work. I mucked around with it for a while and determined I must have done something to the EL panel while try to get the wires and building into position. Crap! I will eventually get another one from Miller Engineering. BTW – They have some amazing lighting products!

So, the next thing I decided to tackle was finishing the ballast through Stevenville. I figured that would be less frustrating. I was right. Months ago I had ballasted about 1/2 the main line through town and after about an hour I had the rest of the mainline ballasted and a bit of grass along the tracks beside the tenement and down to the service shed (from the tan truck along the tracks back). While I was working in the area I put some more secure end of track devices (railway ties sunk in the ground) at G-Mac – the blue building at the left. That was it for a busy Friday evening. Sorry about the bottles and tools in the pictures.

After spending the whole day cutting stuff for Kim to tole paint I got back to work on Stevenville in the evening. The picture above shows the passenger siding ballasted, but I didn’t do that until Saturday evening. I started some scenery around the buildings on Front Street.

This will probably be one of those times when I am temporarily obsessed with this project and will work at it every available moment until it’s done, or I get sidetracked with something else. I’ll likely have more Stevenville updates soon.

Scott

So, here’s the Stevenville side of the layout. Almost all of the white plaster and blue foam has been hidden under a coat of paint. This sure looks a whole lot better than it did before!

As you can see I managed to get some more work done on the tenement building. Platforms have been added at each door and a metal roof added over them. Some basic weathering has also been done. You’d think the owner would want to replace the broken siding. You can also see one of my other scratchbuilt cardstock buildings in the background – Picard Packers.

Front Street is now basic black. I need to tone it down some to get it to look more like aged asphalt, then add center lines, parking space lines, manhole covers, cracks, repairs, …. There’s still lots to do here!

Here are some shots of Dickie Clothing Company and GM Metals. More details will be added over time.

I may have mentioned the little diorama (64 sq. in.) that I did a year or two ago. Well, here are some close ups of it. I call it “Still Life”. Can you figure out why?

So, that’s it for this week. I think I’ll be spending the weekend making changes to the track arrangement in Chappellton to incorporate a rail barge/ferry. This is the result of a layout visit this past week – thanks Alan!!!!

Until next week,

Scott