The "Green Spike" on the Wilmington...

The "Green Spike" was driven last Sunday on the Wilmington and New York.

wny2007.07b.jpg


No, I don't refer to an environmental cause-- after all, it is 1963 on the Wilmington and we don't know from this "toxic waste" and "global warming" stuff yet.

Actually, what I refer to is the closing of the "bottle brush tree" gap between the finished sections of the layout, along the view block that hides the staging/return track on the layout. I needed to get this done in order to start on the industrial section of the layout in earnest, and so, about an hour and 95 Heki "pine trees" later, I'd closed the gap. The last tree was placed just behind the Walthers signal tower, which incidentally now has a new coat of paint... but perhaps we'll save that for next week.

wny2007.07c.jpg


This is a rather cheesy image of most of the view block, with the track being blocked at the right. That track comes around from the far end of the layout to the staging area and closes a continuous loop of some 60 feet (almost 2 scale miles); running trains on that is about all I can handle on some "operating nights."
 

MCL_RDG

Member
Congrats...

...driving the final(?) green spike! Well. I like the long, lanky view I see. I am very jealous of a 60' run. I'm sure you're havin' fun- so- hats off to ya.

Yeehaw!

Thanks,

Mark
 
Thanks all.

The hill was done in sections. It's mostly just the one inch "pink foam" Styrofoam turned on its end and coated with whatever plaster I had on hand. I mixed gray acrylic paint (the squeeze bottles available at Michaels and other "big box" craft stores) directly into the plaster before coating the sections. I'm not sure I will texture it any farther; other folks have suggested that but it's not my strong suit.

I have posted a new page on the Wilmington called the "Nickel Tour", to give folks a sense of what the entire layout looks like at this point-- warts and all.

Please feel free to visit the website:
Wilmington and New York Railway - The High Peaks Route (c)2003-2007 George J. Irwin
and select "Nickel Tour" from either the pulldown menu in the lower frame or the link in the lower frame.
 
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