Kicked Off Google Adsense

Looks like I violated the terms of Google Adsense and had my account disabled.  So, as you can see there are no more ads on my blog for now.  After checking the adsense policies, I figure I violated the policies by encouraging followers to click on the ads.  Guess I should have read the policies when I first signed up.  Oh well.  I appealed the decision to disable the account, but it may take a few weeks to get a decision on the appeal.  Hopefully, I will get reinstated.  If I do, only click on the ads if you are interested in the ads, not to help me out.  Thanks!  If I don't get reinstated with Google, I'll probably move to chitika.com which also runs ads on blogs. 

Sorry for this non trains related post.  I still plan to start the giveaway of the atlas engine as planned this weekend.

Sprucing Up a Staging Yard

The east staging yard is located in the unfinished furnace room of our basement.  In addition to the staging yard, the area also contains over 10 feet of mainline and represents Nelson, IL which is about 40 miles west of Rochelle and is this junction point of the Geneva Sub and the Peoria Sub of the Union Pacific Railroad.  Even though this area of the layout is in the unfinished funrace room, I decided not to leave  the area unfinished.  I put up a backdrop, painted the benchwork, applied ground foam, painted the track and added signals.  Eventually I will also ballast the track, add trees and put in a few Nelson structures.  One cool feature will be a photo of the still standing coaling tower in Nelson that will disguise the mainline passage from the furnace room into the train room and the Rock River crossing. 

Its very difficult if not impossible to get your head to the otherside of the signal bridge to see the signal aspects. So, I hung a mirror on the back of the stairs that operators can use to see the west facing signals. 

On a different topic, we will begin the Atlas loco giveaway this weekend, so check back often so that you don't miss out on the fun.

Scenery at Global III

There's really not much scenery at Global III.  It will mostly be concrete, asphalt and gravel when its done, but for now at least the small amount of plastering is done and the area is painted.  I threw some ground foam on the parking lot area for temporary covering.  To be honest, it looks kinda crappy, but its still tons better than plywood and will all be covered up eventually anyway. In any event, you get some idea of how the yard is laid out and how it will eventually look.  Tomorrow I hope to post some pictures of signals Nelson.

Long Stack Train

In order to do some scenery work at Global III, I used a consist to pull all the double stack cars out of the yard.  Before I put the cars back after completing the scenery, I decided to add the rest of the double stack cars I had and run them around the layout a few times.  Turns out out my double stack collection amounts to 73 wells and a prety cool looking train. I was tempted to try a DPU, but decided to leave that for another day.  Tomorrow I hope to post some pictures of the completed scenery and then next week sometime we begin the atlas loco giveaway.

Thanksgivaway!

Okay, that's not a word.  But I'm using it anyway to say thank you to everyone for following the blog and to announce an upcoming loco givaway.  That's right, I am giving away an Atlas loco to a lucky follower of the UPRR Geneva Subdivision.   In a few days I will post pictures of the loco and the rules for entering your name in the drawing.  Mainly though, I do want to thank everyone for following the blog and special thanks to those who have been clicking on the ads.  Your clicking on the ads will help purchase a needed SD70 for the Geneva Sub.  The Union Pacific has thousands of SD70s.  Its rare to see a train go through Rochelle without at least one SD70 in the consist and many times the consist will include nothing but SD70s.  I have only 3 units and need to at least 10.  My plan is to giveaway a loco on the blog everytime there are enough clicks on the ads to generate money for a new SD70.  I will start with a couple of Atlas units, but if all goes well, I will include some Kato units as well.  I will also be posting some pictures of recent progress on the railroad very soon. 

Cheers!!!

Rock River Crossing Nears Completion

 think the only thing left for this area is some serious weathering of the highway.  I have to say I am happy with the way the scene is turning out.  Its pretty much just as I envisioned it.  Down the road, I will be experimenting with static grass, so I will hopefully be adding patches of static grass here and there.  I will now be turning my attention to getting basic landforms and ground cover in place from this area eastward all the way through Rochelle.  From there I will do the same for the Proviso/Clinton/Fulton area.  I would like to have that all completed before school starts up again, but I'm not going to rush it.

Coal Trains Across the Rock River

Here's a video I shot this morning of two coal trains passing each other over the Rock River.  As you can see I've ballasted the track and added some trees.  Still need to line the highway.  I'll post some pictures once that is done.  Maybe tomorrow if the micro tape comes in the mail today. 

Enjoy!

Highway Bridge and Water

Installed the highway bridge across the Rock River and pour the EnviroTex clear resin for the water.   I'm getting pretty close to completing this scene.  Still have lines to put on the highway, trees to install, the highway grade crossing to complete and details to add. 

 

Highway Bridge Piers

Spent the morning constructing two bridge piers for the highway over the Rock River.  I took a couple of pictures before painting them so that you can more easily see how the pier are put together.  I used 3/8" half round styrene from Plastruct for the rounded ends and Evergreen .30 styrene sheets for the sides.  Really needed .60 sheets, but since I did not have any on hand, I doubled up the .30 sheets.  Also used is Evergreen .125 X .250 styrene strips which go inside the half rounds so that the sheets glue easily to the half rounds.  The piers are capped off with .40 styrene sheet.  I glued a square piece on top, cut it close with an xacto knife and sanded it smooth.

Stimulus Funds Provide for Road Construction on Geneva Sub

Wouldn't it be cool if we could get stimulus money for our model railroad construction projects? Just think how many N scale people would be provided jobs and, even though they are just 1/160 normal size, I'm sure Obama would count each one as a full job!

Anyway, I used "smooth it" from Woodland Scenics to pave the hgihway through the Rock River scene.  My first time using smooth it which is basically very fine plaster that is poured between sticky tape that act as forms.  I like the results and it wasn't too hard to use, although quite messy.  Previously I would cut roads out of styrene.  Not as messy, but I think the smooth it looks better.  Next I will be building the highway bridge.  Stay tuned.