The Corner At 5 Row

Five Row is a named point on the NS Piedmont Division between the old Spencer Shops and the Yadkin River, located at MP 329.7

Near the signal bridge is a favorite place among railfans, also known as Five Row. The stretch offers a clear view of the rise from the Yadkin bridge up to Salisbury. There are 2 houses across from where everyone parks and it's not unusual to see 2 or 3 cars of railfans there at a time.

The first pictures below are taken from just in front of the 2 houses and looks south towards the signal bridge, to the siding into the PCA plant and last looking north (downgrade) near the river.

 

  

The pictures of the model version are from an opposite vantage point. 

On the CCSB, I let my apprentice, Chris, work on Five Row. He first created the grassy/wooded area to the left of the houses. After that, he added in the foam platform for the houses and road, grassed in the yards and added the background trees. Later, I added in the foreground trees.

HPT&D Scenery

Added a small neighborhood to the HPT&D (High Point, Thomasville and Denton) level.Had to take a couple of pictures to see what it looked like up close.

Yadkin River Bridge, Pt. 2

When I first made up my mind to build this layout, I had the winter to work on things before starting construction in May 2007. I realized some of the first items I would need then tracklaying started would be the bridges and trestles.

I had never scratchbuilt anything before and started with a Plastruct single bridge kit. I planned to use it for 1 of the 3 Flat Swamp bridges needed on the WSS. After it was together, I bought the supplies to make the other 2.

The next job was to attempt the Yadkin River trestle and Old Hwy 29 bridges. I took plenty of pictures and from a known measurement, scaled everything from the computer screen. After a couple of weeks, I had the 685' long bridge done and went to work on one of the Hwy 29 bridges. By the time it was done and mounted, I started work on the building.

The Yadkin section was mounted in the benchwork in September 2007 and track connected, but was never finished. Last week, while off work for the New Year I made up my mind to try and finish the section. The first item was to finish the guard rails on the highway bridge. After that, I added in new shoreline and trees.
I built 2 simple bridges for I-85 and created the rock outcroppings at Old Salisbury Road using some plaster castings I had laying around.

Snow Scene On The Winter Side

As a train travels through the CCSB, it travels through time as well as space. All 4 seasons are represented. Winter was the hardest to do as you can't hide things behind trees and ground cover.

Just like Disneyworld, it's all about the illusion.

Here's a couple of picture of a section I did with some snow. Being as we haven't had a really good snowfall in years, I kept it real with just a dusting.

Newspaper Interview

After returning from Hatteras for Thanksgiving, I was asked to do an article for the local newspaper. I arranged an interview with writer Bruce Wehrle and photographer Donnie Roberts. After several anxious days, it finally ran in the Christmas Day edition.

What a Christmas surprise to open the morning edition and see your story, not only front page but continuing for a whole second page as well.

The pictures were very good and showed more of a variety of subjects that I would have every thought about.

The Dispatch article is located here.

The pictures for the article are here.

Scenery Around Linwood Yard

After we returned from Hatteras at Thanksgiving, I spent some time cleaning up for an appointment for a newspaper article.

I had also been working on scenery north of Kannapolis thru Salisbury, but got stopped when I realized I couldn't picture the Innes Street to Salisbury Depot in my mind. I skipped around Salisbury and also bypassed Spencer since I don't have the Roundhouse ready.

So, that put me across the river at the entrance to the Linwood Yard. The side from north of the Yadkin to Lexington is to be a winter scheme. I added some small ground effects (couldn't do much as this is all on plywood, not splines) and added the winter trees. Here, I used the Super Trees bare but sprayed light brown and the twigs from the Cinnamon decorative broom I had saved.

I had toyed with the notion of trying snow, but was really reluctant as I have heard quite a few horror stories. I masked off the track and ballast and sprayed a heavy coat of 4x Hair Spray on all the trees and ground.

I sprinkled on Woodland Scenics Snow very lightly. Here in Central NC, our snows have been rather sparse the last couple of years. I was immediately impressed with the look and took a couple of pictres and then moved along with more snow.

For now, I am keeping it off the track and right of way hoping to keep it out of the engine motors and mechanisms, With the light ballast, it is not as noticeable as I thought.

Kannapolis

Moving north from Speed Rail Industrial are the stations Kannapolis and North Kannapolis. Somewhere in there is Glass, but it's not on the NS track plan I have.

The first picture is from around N. Kannapolis, looking south towards Speed Rail. Just another wooded area to provide the scenic break between locations so as to get a feel of distance. That was a lesson I learned on my first "layout". It was more like a test bench for anything and everything.

I tried creeks, mountains, overpasses, underpasses, buildings, dirt roads, asphalt roads.... whatever to see what I could make and what to stay away from on the one that counted.

The second picture is the same area as the first, but taken from the right side and just as I put down the first layer of groundcover. I use dried basil and oregano. Yep, that's right. Smells good too. I get the plastic shaker bottles 2 for a dollar and this pic is about 75 cents worth.

I am getting fairly happy with the fall colors. I have finally learned to tone them down and mix in a lot of green with a little red and less yellow.

I've set a couple of houses in place, but have got to go back and level and set them into the grass. The bottom picture is looking north with the Kannapolis station sign to the right. You can see how much the houses need to be leveled here.