HO scale lumber yard

Joesph has been back in touch with his HO scale lumber yard – he’s been busy adding power poles and other stuff to his layout:

“Hi Al; It’s been a while and I don’t remember where I left off but here goes. I know I didn’t send these.

Below is the Power Generating plant for the Saw Mill and Planning facility.

electricity plant ho scale

Saw mill

HO scale lumber yard factory

Overview of “San Juan Creek just past twilight

HO scale town view

Inside detail of the San Juan Creek station.

HO scale interior lights

A lot of action around the saw mill and planning facility.

HO scale lumber yard saw mill

Another look at the planning facility.

HO scale power facility



Looking westward to United Cold Storage, Ochs tank farm, the local church and Ochs Oil office. (Since this picture, power poles have been installed and the office has a light on the platform).

construction plant HO scale

Another “touch’ was tp extend the background beyond the layout so it doesn’t mess up the photos as much. This is the west end.

town scene model railroad

This is the engine yard with lights installed on the coaling tower and looking at the the background extension to the east. (Power poles have been installed since this picture).

coal hopper model railroad HO scale

Another shot of the background to the east. This shot also shows the interior detail of the fire station.

HO scale fire station

“New” forklift at the Grants, NM passenger and freight terminal.

HO scale fork lift

Downtown at night.

main street ho scale

The San Juan Mountains area of NM has its own short line, the San Juan and Central. I needed to have a mainline pass through the area and the closest is the Santa Fe, hence, the depot at Grants, NM. I “re-branded” this Berkshire to Santa Fe 4113 (making all my own number board decals) as Santa Fe did use Berkshire locos for freight.

I also “re-branded” a Pacific loco to pull the Santa Fe passenger consist.

HO scale main street

Another addition is “Sonny’s Texaco service station. Again, power poles and an additional sub-station have been added.

steam engine ho scale

Twilight at the Grants, NM station.

Power poles serving the San Juan Coal Co. mine.

ho scale embankment

This is how I put the power poles together. Rix cross arms on 7/64” dowels.

power poles

Power poles installed at the engine yard

engine yard

More poles installed.

And more.

church ho scale

The owner of “Ma’s Place” has a new, custom Chevy truck. It is larger than HO Scale but in the background, looks ok. And, yes, it IS out of era.

Jospeh”

A huge big thanks to Joseph.

If you’d like to see his first post – the very start of his HO scale, it’s here.

HO scale bench

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get stuck in, the model train Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

PPS HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.




model train answers

32 Responses to HO scale lumber yard

  1. James says:

    Great Pictures of a very high quality layout. Very impressive.

  2. Rich B. says:

    Photos show top notch work. Really like the wireless power distribution with that much detail at hand… must be utilizing Tesla electricity theory conveyance?

  3. Colin Edinburgh says:

    Really great pictures. Design is well thought out and detail is good. I wonder if the power poles are going to have cables added. Looks great but causes problems when dusting the layout. Keep the progress coming

  4. Ellis James English says:

    The layout and scenery is remarkable, it is a microcosm of a point in life and it shows in detail a point in time current and past . Very beautiful .

  5. Raymond Clark says:

    Beautiful detailing and lighting 🙂

  6. Brian Olson says:

    The lighting id impressive. My previous N Scale Layout in Colorado had lighted buildings and cars. All those tiny wires!

    My current layout after retiring alas, is sans all those tiny wires!

  7. chris says:

    your paved and dirt streets are VERY well done, and really add a lot to the street scenes. Well done, sir!!!

  8. Walter from Long Island.... says:

    Yes, black thread between poles would make them more realistic….

  9. Joseph Russo says:

    [maybe the best, layout I,ve seen, the detail as many others have mentioned is remarkable. the lighting is tremendous. great viewing

  10. George Zaky says:

    Joseph
    Great layout. Talented people like you have this great knack of planning & then executing with skill. A video of running trains would be well received and I hope you keep expanding. Much thanks.

  11. Gary M from Long Island says:

    Joseph…… great work. What a beautiful looking layout. Great detatil work on the buildings.

  12. Richard H Chapple Sr says:

    Wow I am awe struck!! A fantastic layout. Wonderful pictures.
    Agree with George Zaky, I’d like to see on board videos of this one.
    Thanks for sharing your work and the updates.

  13. Norman "Pete" McGill says:

    Joseph you certainly have done a beautiful job with your layout. I love the General Store with the 52 Ford Woodie parked in front. My dad had one of those cars when I was just knee high to a grasshopper so that brings back a lot of memories for me. great work.

  14. A. Lites says:

    Beautiful detail but if its realism you want your backdrop should be mountains. Grants backs up to Mt. Taylor which is 11,000 ft. I am living in NM and the San Juan Area is very mountainous. Thus, timber is prevalent.

  15. Larry Schweitzer says:

    Very nice! The dirty it up effect is nice. Except new forklifts come with bare steel forks. Streets need some wear & dirt.

  16. Pat Robertazzi says:

    Great job!

  17. JoeS in ME says:

    A few of you have suggested “wire” for the telephone/electric poles.

    Google a product called EZ Line; it’s made just for that purpose.

    Joseph — great layout and spectacular scenery.

  18. jacin says:

    Oh Oh Oh great pictures makes me try harder on my layout as for your t-poles i use chop-sticks saves money and you get some good meals out of it well done

  19. David Schaffner says:

    Wonderful design and Photography. Nice settings.
    My favorite shot is the two passenger cars with the forklift showing.
    Nice imagination the way you arrange your town and the car tracks in the work yard….
    Beautiful!

  20. David Schaffner says:

    Are your houses and buildings kits or fully assembled???

  21. william janmes palmer says:

    awesome layout love all those lights

  22. Will in NM says:

    Joseph,

    Thank you for the photo update of your San Juan & Central train layout. It looks like you’re having a lot of fun adding all those lights and power poles to your layout. I really enjoy seeing your great photos. Keep them coming please as your progress continues.

    p.s. I still don’t see a Blake’s Lotaburger restaurant on your layout. 🙂

  23. robert dale tiemann says:

    really good lighting setup, nice work.

  24. John Andrews says:

    Many, many years ago (when i was about 12-15: I’m now 86!) I had a HO/OO layout in Brisbane Australia. I had two major bugbears:
    1. It always got very dusty.
    2. My little bit of scenery was made with flour mixed with pulped paper. The cockroaches dined on it every night!
    I see no sign of dust on any layouts pictured. How do you keep them clean?

  25. Don says:

    nice set up

  26. Brian Olson says:

    Echoing the thoughts here about the lighting and detail. Very well done indeed.

  27. TJK says:

    Joseph, awesome layout. Great affect with your lighting plan.
    Holy moly!!!!! Oh no…..your Chevy custom truck is out of era AND out of scale.?!
    Don’t let the hard line critics find out.
    Terrific job Joseph, that custom paneled Chevy looks fine to me.

  28. SantaFeJim says:

    In the past two and a half years I have viewed well over 700 layouts on this site. I can not remember seeing any better than this one”. EVERY scene is beautiful and believable. EXCELLENT!

  29. Daniel says:

    Love it !!!!

  30. Jim AZ says:

    Very nice. The lighting details are amazing. You must have a lighting technique to highlight the lights yet capture the scenes. My pictures come out dark, bright lights and blurry.

    Jim AZ

  31. Steve Ruple says:

    Great pictures

  32. Jeff in Seattlr says:

    NICE WORK!!!!! Thanks for sharing your labor of love with us. It’s an encouragement.

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