There have been a lot of posts on the Yahoo! boards, and rather than clog the boards with my post, I have added a post to my own page with pics of the buildings that I have built. The building with the RC logo on it is Plexiglas as are the other two with strong white vertical stripes. The three tallest ones are photos over FoamCore made with pics downloaded online.

As I progressed on my steel mill, there were a number of things I needed and ingots and the associated buggies that they travel on. I was busy and didn’t have the time to go to Peach Creek Shops (my usual stop for steel related and other detail items) and pick up a few of them, so I built one from scratch. As you see, it is simple styrene with Reboxx semi-scale 36″ wheels.

This is a shot of the buggy:

And this is a shot of beneath the buggy:

It does run pretty straight and I had to create wheel journals with an Xacto blade.

Tonight I finally gathered enough nerve to heavily weather a brand new Walther’s torpedo car. They look so nice out of the box I was hesitant to touch them, but they didn’t look right without grime.

When hot metal is poured out from these cars there is residue on the outer lip of the spout. I have heard this called “skull”. After looking at some actual pictures I decided to use a brush to paint dilute white glue around the opening of the torpedo car and sprinkle on Highball N Scale Cinder ballast. After letting the first coat dry overnight I reapplied more ballast today and let it dry. I heavily flecked chalk onto the cars with a dry brush – first rust color over the car and grey around the spout. I hit the car with Testor’s Dullcoat and applied more chalk. Afterwards and while the car was still wet I misted rubbing alcohol over the car. The created the mottled look that I was hoping for – albeit a happy accident.

Here are some results:

It all started when I purchased a house with a train space in the lower level. For years the space was neglected and no real railroad, but eventually after living here for 11 years my dear wife said that it was time to get the train room started. Sheetrock, paint, ceiling, etc. came along and so did a bedroom set (by accident). I guess the place looked like a bedroom, and I needed to place furniture somewhere for a short time.

After a few months, I booted the furniture and said that it was now or never, so my youngest son assisted me in making modules that were placed together for my railroad. The length is 14’6″ by 16 inches on the steel mill side, and 11×5 for the peninsula. Here is some of it after my son helped me with modules:

I posted this to encourage you to make space available if you have it and work to finish the space off if you intend to spend any time in the room. As a bonus, Nan – my Dad’s friend – parted with a decent and perfect sized piece of carpet, so my room is lit, finished, carpeted, and heated / AC. Don’t be in such a hurry that you forget the creature comforts for your hobby room!

My railroad is not as weathered as I would like it to be. Occasionally I have a home run with weathering – as in the diesel here. It was powdered chalk and very thin acrylic paint. It got the rust perfectly on the hood and sides, and looks as good in person as it does here: