I've finished painting all the track for my layout. As it's only small I could hand paint it all and add a rust effect that would take forever on a larger layout. That's one of the things with a small project, you can add these little details.

The last 2 item's painted. Hopefully I've left the power connections clean. Fingers crossed.

The finished track.

Ok, I have just shuffled the industries about so they make more sense, it looked odd with the port up on Module A with the Rockies in the background, so the Port is down below and the Coal mine is where it should be. The open space on the right of the coal unloader at the port will be a container yard/Inter modal area. 

I'm happy with the Industry and scenic spread, so off to the printer and out to the Track room to lay the plans out on the modules, I will build Modules A,B,C first closely followed by D. the rest will come in time and as Finances permit.

I know I said final on the last one but I doubt it will be final till track is laid, if ever :)

V4 - A few variations and I'm not sure if I will use this or not but it places a Port at Module A and a Refinery and coal unloader and maybe a small container terminal, the town is a lot simpler, I could also add streets and shops and its a lot more scenic on the RHS of the layout with just the grain silo surrounded by farms, coal mine and engine facility have moved to the lower deck. I will post that up tomorrow.

Thoughts? preferences?

As my current layout nears completion, I'm thinking of my next project. Tne Northern Pacific Project (NPP) has been my first serious attempt at a scale model railroad and I've really enjoyed it. There have been the usual miscues and false starts, but the accumulated knowledge in magazines and online has been tremendously helpful. Coming up on three years active in the hobby and building the layout, I've found that I prefer prototype modeling and on the hobby side operations and scratch-building are what I look forward to. 

After years and years of collecting models and books. Watching YouTube videos I've finally start my own layout. I say layout but it's going to be very small. Only 4' x 8", just enough to fit on my work desk. I'm doing HO scale and I'm going to be adding lots of details and trying new techniques out for scenic work.

I've started by hand painting the track as there isn't a lot of it. The track is a mix of Hornby, Bachmann and Peco set track.

I painted it with a mix of Acrylic model paint and some Acrylic artist paint.

When my wife and I bought our current home, it was to be our "forever home".  Already in my 50s with a great job in a great company, this is where we would live out our years until we no longer could keep up a home.  With that in mind, and the bizarre geometry of the room, I didn't even think about building modular when I built the MEC and B&M Scenic Railroad - later renamed the Northern New England Scenic Model Railroad.

Hey everybody here is my progress on the Mascoutin Valley Railroad for May!  Looking back I got a quite a few odds and ends done!  We even have hats!!! Hope you enjoy the video!

Till next time, keep 'er in Notch 8.

I found a stem armature that looked like a tree. But was a wee bit too big to be anything other than a willow tree.

A week later I am working on the honey do list and find that hot chilly pepper roots look just like branches of a tree.

Some paint, craft glue, and various ground cover junk. And I do mean junk, a tree is born.