Layout Odds and Ends

Greetings All,

A bunch of recent layout projects to report today.

The first is "Ray's Midnight Auto Sales" that advertises Hot Cars. This is named for my uncle Ray who had a new car about every two years and was the first in the family to have A/C in a car and a home. What can you say he's a cool guy!

The "Midnight Auto" moniker was well known to many a Brooklynite in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Uncle Ray had a neighbor who was a reputed mobster and car dealer. His business model was to sell you a car and about a year or so later have it stolen so he could sell you another car. The stolen car would be either chopped up for parts or have it's numbers changed, be painted and then sold to an unsuspecting buyer. Midnight Auto Sales and Parts...

Next up this displaced three story building has replaced the fire scene building that formerly occupied this spot. The EBRR signal maintainer can now watch the kids play football instead of breathing in all the fake smoke.

The signal maintainer now can also conveniently park his truck.  

The old fire scene has been relocated to the eastern lower level edge of the layout. The Matchbox emergency trucks still have an emergency to respond to and when my grandchildren get older they can drive them around like their parents did on my old layout.

With the recent addition of the Gulf tank car to our virtual ops I cobbled together an unloading area for three tank cars at the end of Terminal Yard track #7.

Some sprues, straws and a fenced in pump house give the impression that three tank cars can be unloaded here.

Ralph's Kings Port Gulf Oil Facility will also be shipping 55 gallon drums of lube oil to the Terminal Yard engine shop. I may unload them here. 

And truck it the short distance to the shop.

Unloading outside the shop also makes sense. We'll see. Ralph and I both made and painted 55 gallon drums for these Gulf shipments.

The next project was to add this spill wall around the fuel tanks.

The wall is constructed with card stock from a cereal box. It was sprayed with rattle can grey and attached to small dowels which were inserted into holes drilled into the wood base. 

A yellow walkway over the wall provides access to the tanks.

The inside and outside of the area have been ballasted.

With everything dry I removed the other tanks and vents from the area for this photo. It looks nice but I like the top photo better.

Next on my project list was to replace these garden rocks called pea gravel that I added when I first built this section.

I used some of the larger rocks that were sifted out of a bag of Paver Base that I use for ballast.

Much better! Now I need to remove the rest of the larger rocks. 

I've started scraping out the larger rocks and this portal will be going bye bye as well. 

A new tunnel portal and support made from foam core and hobby sticks. The structure is both rattle can and brush painted.

GP35s blast out of the new portal with a TV train in tow while a pair of SD35s slowly roll to a stop on track 3 as the TV train has priority clearance to enter Terminal Yard first. 
PC /PRR Tidbit: The 119 GP35s bought by the PRR were their last four axle road engines. Their 40 SD35s were the first six axle engines bought for road service by the PRR.

Here's another layout project that recently popped up. The siding at Drywell Inks was extended after I realized that the new bumping post did not allow a 40' boxcar to be spotted at the door. 

 That's better!

A whimsical addition are these porta potties being delivered to RA Tower on the back of a matchbox truck. I was previously informed that the tower needed an outhouse so here we go. BTW patents were issued for this type of portable toilet in the 1950s and 1960s.

Lastly a pump house and air tank being installed in Terminal Yard to supply yard air to the yard tracks. Yard air is basically used to  keep the brake systems of cars charged when they are not connected to a locomotive. 

Not all yards have this but a class 1 yard like Terminal Yard probably would. I'll need to find scrounge up some thin wire or something similar to lay on the ground at the beginning of the yard tracks to simulate the air hoses. 

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya Friday when P.C.C.M. 66 resumes!!