July 5 - Progress Report

Progress on the hay barn at Griffiths Farm. I might add a farmhouse "up the road aways…." But I finally got the lower level windows, doors, and trim in place. And planted the wire tree. 

Considering this was a holiday weekend (Happy Independence Day!) I didn't get a LOT done on the layout. Besides, I have a small group of guest operators coming by on July 18 for an operating session so I really don't want to dive into any major messy projects until that session has concluded. Once that session is done the plan is to finish the areas that I plan to have judged for the NMRA AP Program scenery certificate. (I run hot and cold with the whole MMR/AP Program thing. But I figure I'm pretty close to knocking out three certificates - Electrical, Civil, and Scenery - so I might as well. At that point I'll reassess whether I want to pursue what would be for me the last two certificates.) 
Even without the MMR certificates I'm so close to getting some sections of this layout "finished" that I'm determined to do just that. 
The barn scene I've shown several times was one of those "90%" done projects - the doors and lower windows weren't installed, and the tree adjacent to the barn was simply plopped into place. 
Friday morning was spent finishing up the structure itself - I even "dug" a hole and planted the tree.
The Williams Creek area has progressed with a creamery building (a Branchline kit with a scratch built boiler house addition). But the scene needs something else. 
I can't think of anything more New England than a country store. I'd had the sub walls for a BEST Trains country store (The Trussel Store) on the layout for more than a year. Finally this weekend between other obligations I got the clapboard walls painted and painted and glazed the windows. 
Progress!

Walls with windows for the country store. The mullions on one of the large laser-cut large store front windows simply wasn't there when I removed the pieces from the wood sheet. Need to repair it. 

Not entirely sure if it will be placed in front of the mainline in Wiliams Creek or between the track and the backdrop - either position will require "adjusting" the scenery a little but I think it will be a nice addition to the scene. I'm going to hold off selecting exactly where to place it until it's assembled. See the photo below for the two possible locations. 

As far as color, I toyed with painting it plain white - but the creamery is white. I also toyed with ochre yellow, which was a very common color on older rural New England frame buildings (see the BEST web site for a photo of the store in that scheme). In the end I settled on barn red with white trim. Should really pop. 
I plan on adding a simple interior and some lighting to this structure - partially for the MMR thing (you get extra scenery points for "lighting") but mostly because I think it will be neat to have a chance to do a "nighttime" shot or two. 

A light construction project for this week. I've stripped most of the structures from Waterbury in preparation for a short work session Tuesday evening. We're going to re-do the fascia around the lobe end of the peninsula (above) to make it a smooth curve and straighten out of a reverse curve in the fascia to add a few inches to the scene at Waterbury (below). 

A little bit of major construction is also on the agenda for this week - luckily it won't impact the upcoming op session (actually should be finished well before then). I've never been pleased with the fascia on the lobe end of the peninsula. Frankly it looked awful. John Paganoni is coming by Tuesday evening to help resolve the issue with the curved portion of the peninsula. At the same time I'm going to straighten out a weird "reverse" curve in the present fascia - essentially making the fascia straight and adding 6" or so to the front of the layout. I'll save what I'm planning to use that additional depth until another post.