Millwood, Inc Warehouse Contruction Begins

I have begun work on the Millwood, Inc warehouse with the main walls fabricated and glued together. Two of the walls are made with .030 sheet styrene laminated with JTT 1/125 brick sheets and Evergreen .030 spaced metal siding. The third wall has just the .030 sheet styrene and brick without the metal siding. As you can see from the prototype pictures the lower third of the building is brick while the upper two thirds is metal siding. The sheets have been laminated to simulate this. Its a bit hard to tell from the pictures since everything is white now. It will be more evident once I get it painted. I also placed a Rix Products kit in between the two warehouses to match the shop separating the building on the prototype. Once I finish the two warehouses, I will put in parking lots, a number of trucks and other vehicles, and a chain link fence.

Plexiglas Protection

During operating sessions there's been a hazard of the yard crew's arms (or sleeves) coming in contact with passing trains on the mainline. This, of course, happens when the yard crew is reaching to uncoupling cars in the yard.  Its not a very long reach, but when crews are concentrating on getting the cars uncoupled it easy to forget there may be a train passing through.  We've had a couple of close calls with a few cars being knocked off the track and even one case of an engine hitting the floor Miraculously, the engine was unscathed by the fall with only a few parts needing to be reattached.  Anyway, to prevent future mishaps, I installed a Plexiglas shield in front of the Proviso yard.  It doesn't look too bad, but it will only be in place during op sessions or open houses.  I took the glass down right after I took the pictures below.  I like the open look much better.

Trim and Roof Detail for Proviso Warehouse

Added trim and roof detail to the ODW Logistics warehouse.

Name that Blog voting Begins

Okay. Here's the entries for the "Name that Blog" contest.

• UPRR Geneva Subdivision N Scale Model Railroad 
• Mess-N-about on the Mississippi 
• It's a small world after all
• Good things come in small packages
• UPRRGSN aka The Awesome Blog
• Better than HO 
• Bigger isn't always better 
• Strength and Muscle; N Scale Strengths applied to Union Pacific Muscle
• little trains, big world 
• Geneva Subdivision -- Un Petite chemin de fer 
• Kruse'N' Daryl's Way - UP Geneva Sub: Chicago to Clinton 
• Prairie Diamonds 
• Illinois Diamonds 
• Rochelle Diamonds 
• Diamonds and Corn Fields 
• The Great Miniature Rolling Railroad 
• UP Excellence in Miniature

My five picks are listed in the voting gadget.  Votes will be tallied for two weeks ending Super Bowl Sunday, February 5 at the kick off.  You may vote multiple times but ONLY ONCE PER DAY.  Anyone breaking voting more than once for there own entry or having someone else do so will be disqualified. Since N scalers are honest by nature, I don't expect there will be a problem.

Good luck to the five entries and I encourage everyone to come back everyday to vote for your favorite.  And. of course, don't forget to support our advertisers. Thanks!

Continued Progress on Proviso Warehouse

I airbrushed the warehouse reefer white.  After giving it a full 24 hours to dry I masked it for the brown trim along the top of the wall which I also airbrushed.  I painted the foundation a light grey with a brush and then installed the frieght doors for both the truck docks and the railroad docks.  Still left to do is bringing out the brick grout lines, roof detail and sidewall trim.

Proviso Warehouses

Work has begun on one of the two warehouses that will built in Proviso. The prototype Proviso Yard is pretty much surrounded by multiple warehouses. Two will be modeled on the layout with a parking lot full of trailers in between the structures. The first once seen here is built out of 5 sheets of Evergreen .040 sheet styrene. The walls of the warehouse have been laminated with JTT 1/125 brick sheets. This weekend I will paint the structure reefer white and railroad tie brown. The first photos are of a couple of prototype warehouses just south of the Proviso yard.

Deadline for Name that Blog

The deadline for submitting a name for the blog is this Saturday, January 21 at midnight (central time).

Operating Session Video

Bill Pistello shot this short video during our op session today.  My favorite parts are Charlie Vlk's comment on the BLMA spine cars and the shot of operators with their backs to the trains talking while the double stacks cross the bridge.  For the first part of the video, the camera was set right on the layout.  Gives an interesting view of the op session.