New Looks for the N.Y.C.T.L.

 Greetings All,

Much rain and cold temps in February gave me a good amount of time to work on and complete a variety of scenic improvements for the layout.

Below is the Empire Belt Railroad's North Side Yard located in the heart of Empire City. The lush shrubbery between the rails has been bothering me for awhile and it was time to go.

The weed sprayer has some work to do! 

 

That's better! New ballast is in place and the yard looks ready to reopen in this view from the west side.

Here is a look from the east side. I will need to address the cork between the tracks to the left.

A week or so later this area is now complete.

Next project was this location which is the first area of the layout you see when walking into the train room. It's not bad but I wanted to add some trees for visual interest.

The hallway leading to the train room can be see over the yellow trimmed building. The US Flag is in front of a window into another basement room that leads to the basement walkout and Patti O Paint Shop. Some tall trees should work here as view blocks.

The last remnants of my garden sedum plants will be used for trees. They've been sprayed with a rattle can green. These are not model railroad academy trees. B.T.W. this is the room behind the US Flag.

The new trees are in place.

I like the look and think the new trees make the scene much better.

Layout project bleed brings me to Bedford NY to enhance this scene at Schaefer Brewery which is directly behind the Bedford Station and in the line of sight when entering the train room.

That looks better!

That looks much better!

Next I turned my attention to Empire City Station where I've wanted to lengthen the west end of the passenger platforms for some time and get rid of the rocks and greenery.

The platforms have been extended using "Skinny Sticks" from a big box store and white glue. The job was tedious as there was a lot of cutting and trimming but it was well worth the time and effort.

A view from the west side. The passengers are pleased.

The extension adds an additional full passenger car length.

The west end is now similar to the east end which was extended a long time ago.

 

Engineers and Fireman like it as well! In one of the Green Frog PC videos I recently watched I saw the trainmen taking cups of coffee back to the engines during a station stop. I'm giving the east and west NYCTL crews the same option! 

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya soon!!!