Model Railroad Blog

Brooklyn Terminal Nov. 2

 

With the warehouses taking shape, I decided to see how things played out with a mini op. session involving moving cars over from the yard and spotting them in the warehouse district.  I didn’t time it but it sure seemed to “take quite awhile”.  A reader recently asked me how many cars were on the layout.  At this point, only thirteen.  The float holds twelve.  That car count can be misleading as it doesn’t take many to keep you pretty busy.  My guess is that anything more than twenty cars on the layout and things are going to start getting too crowded.  Studying the scene composition I decided to move the warehouses down a bit and add a team track at the end of the layout.

View of the warehouses and new team track showing what they look like when they are actually being rail served.
A view of the new team track.
Looking at the warehouses from the bay showing cars spotted at the respective doors.

 

Brooklyn Terminal October 29

Time to start replacing the temporary Peco flex track with the permanent hand laid code 40.  Once you get the hang of it, scratch built turnouts aren’t that hard to do.  They also give you more flexibility in terms of shape, cost less, and are ultimately more reliable.  I started by photo copying some Peco turnouts and the adjoining Unitrak and glued the sheets to a board.  Using that as a guide, I then cut the PC ties to length and glued them to the paper with white glue.  I’ll build the crossover as one piece on my work bench and then transfer it to the layout.  By going with metal frogs, tapped to a Frog Juicer I’ll get some much needed electrical continuity.

 

Brooklyn Terminal Oct. 27

As work progresses on the Brooklyn Terminal Warehouses the overall look of the layout begins to take shape.  For the most part the layout represents the old Bush Terminal’s 1st Avenue corridor in Brooklyn.

 

Standing in the Upper Bay facing the shore with 1st Avenue running down the middle of the bench work.

 

Looking southwesterly down 1st Avenue.

 

The gap between two of the warehouses gives a nice viewing window towards American Can in the distance.

 

I used this warehouse on 1st Avenue as a color guide. I began by using an airbrush to apply a 50/50 mix of Model Master flat white and sand. I then fogged on Model Master camo. gray from their rattle can line.

BT Warehouses October 21, 2018

 

One of the signature features of the Brooklyn warehouses is their prominent exterior elevator shafts.

 

I picked up some 1 x 1 dowels at the Home Depot, made a slight notch in the side of the kit, and glued the wood to the side with CA. I then wrapped the dowel in .060″ styrene.

 

Finally, I trimmed the sides of the shafts with styrene strip and laminated on sheets of brick sheets. Since the sheets are so thin, I didn’t want to use an aggressive, solvent based adhesive. Instead, I sprayed the backs with Super77, added a few specks of thin CA for good measure, and then pressed them in place on top of the .060″ styrene. Since the warehouses themselves will be painted a light gray I wanted to use brick for the shaft sides to add color contrast.

A Good Modeling Subject

My buddy Tolga Erbora sent me this shot he took yesterday in Norfolk.  I thought I’d post it here as it would make a great modeling subject.  Things I picked up on:

  • The pole line in front
  • The tracks on each side of the main sinking into the ground
  • The faded and peeling paint, both the beige face and top crimson band
  • The stand off sign lettering

You can download the original HERE

Thanks Tolga!