2011 UPDATE 4, THE TOWN (PT1)

The next several posts will be about the changes I've made to the town itself...

This is an early view of Hillsdale. Notice the lack of a backdrop on the bare cinderblock walls! Also, the blue foamboard the city is built on shows quite nicely.

Hillsdale today. While the front buildings haven't changed much, the ones in back sure have! Speaking of which, notice the two new buildings on the right, behind the furniture store. In the middle is an AP&W caboose, painted in the 'Engineering Blue' scheme, and complete with blanked out windows, rooftop a/c units, and a grim warning about grade-crossing safety!

The hotel now has one room with curtains! The rest have black paper behind them, eliminating the 'empty building' look (see the ground floor).

Another view of downtown. More on both the alleyway behind The Pub and the buildings behind the furniture store to come...

2011 UPDATE 3, THE CELL PHONE TOWER

I recently replaced the cell phone tower on the layout with a more American one...

This shot shows the old cell phone tower behind the warehouse on the left. Made by Busch, it replicates a European-style tower -not surprising since Busch is a German company!

This is the base of the new tower, along with the electronics shed for it.

The electronics shed is shown in better detail here. This shed is actually a European electronic interlocking transmitter station, and came with the transmission antenna shown in the previous post. However, it is close to the electronics/electrical stations often found near cell phone towers, and most North American railroads don't use this style of electronic interlocking. (Interlocking refers to the remote activating of track switches, usually on the mainline [passing sidings, interchange tracks, etc.].)

An overall view of the new tower. This one is from BLMA, and is a lot closer to the ones found in the U.S.

A close-up of the antennas. I replaced the kit's pole with one made from an entire length of Evergreen tubing and painted the whole thing silver. The kit's height went from about 5 1/2" to 14 1/2"! The old tower was about 10" tall.

2011 UPDATE PT2, THE MOW LOT

Continuing on with the updates...

Here is the MOW lot soon after I got the layout up and running. The cork road on the left was the main road across the front of the layout when it was in the shop; I decided to dead-end it rather than put in a curved grade crossing. At the bottom right is the styrofoam insert material that I used to make the access road along the yard. While the board is painted, the plastercloth along the edge is not!

This is the lot as it appeared in 2009, after I added the storage container for a shop along with a gravel ramp to the road, now paved with painted cardstock pieces.

Here is the MOW lot today, with real dirt on the ground and a gravel shoulder along the edge of the road. Also, the yard now has a new communications tower!

Here's a closer (early) view of the base of the tower and its accompanying electrical cabinet.

And here's the new view of the area, after more dirt has been added to cover up the bare cork. Also seen is the relocated shack, the new dumpster, and Bill's 'Junkyard Dog' pickup truck!

2011 UPDATE

I've been busy this past year on the layout, and especially the past several months, as I have finally had some time-off from the job!

This is what the layout looked like when I first photographed it back in fall of 2008. The layout had been in my basement for about a year, and several additions had already been made, including the church and bank as well as the access road alongside the yard.

This is the layout as it looked two months ago. The most noticable change is the backdrop, but more buildings and trees are present as well. Already more changes have been made!

Here is the new cell phone tower, along with a close-up of the backdrop and scenery along the wall. More on the cell phone tower in a future posting...

Now even more scenery has been added along the wall! Now it extends almost into the corner.

Another (darker, sorry) view of the extended scenery. I plan to add more trees and shrubbery to this area to help hide the open space in the corner -necessary to provide access in the event of derailments!