Some Ideas For Scratchbuilding...

Mostly pictorial stuff garnered over the previous period....

this is from the Accuride plant in east London

Oil storage facility in east London. The manways overhead are used to inspect the tops of trucks-just in case anyone left the hatches open...

Arkona ON is a small  community about an hours drive west of us here. There are a lot of old structures begging to be scratchbuilt here.

Almost mirror image plants near Atwood ON. Both had ye olde chainlink fencing around them...

Pre-Xmas Commentary

Well. It just so happens that my days are starting to get rather busy of late.

all kinds of Xmas parties to be had and all that. Plus the sales going on. Trying to find stuff for relatives one does not see very much through the year can be a bit of a chore. Me? Eh..I've actually had a good piece of news..some relatives are coming down with stuff on Xmas morning that I, supposedly, could use...that we'll see...

Layouts In Restricted Space.

Have a tiny space to set up a layout in?

How about an Industrial Switching Layout?

I am in the process of helping someone up here establish a small 2 foot deep by 6 foot long layout on a shelf unit of said dimension...that is what we are up to now.

Some ideas for industries...small metal fabrication plant, warehouse, furniture factory...can you come up with more?

Some Musical Musings

Sometimes I wonder about how pairings, or groupings, actually come about.

Take Metallica with Lou Reed for example.In my youth I would have thought that it would have been entertaining to come up with some 'imaginative' pairings as well. A few of us went around in downtown London ON thinking of groups and pairings that would have been interesting to see. Some that we thought of..only to discover did happen..were John Lee Hooker with The Groundhogs(T.S.McPhees' band), Ramones with Lemmy,  and now Lou Reed and Metallica.

I am willing to bet that we are going to see some fascinating scenarios fall out of the woodwork because of this. What is next?  Leonard Cohen with Motorhead? Britney Spears with Gorgorath? Justin Beiber with, oh, say Wu Tang? Think genres are getting mixed now..wait until some of those pairings start cropping up.

On to another musing.

What I am also thinking about is how one sets about their songwriting. Me? I'm either working the lyric thing first or my riffing thing...of course, then I get lost in both of these...and nothing comes about.
It is the same with my workflow on my DAW, I'm always coming up with some kind of flummox that leaves me asking myself whether I really know what I am doing...don't answer that! LOL!!

Listening To Some Good Stuff ....

My head has really been into more listening to music lately.

I'm having a feeling that I am starting to get more of an idea of where I am headed in terms of my own music as well. This can be a good thing or a bad thing really. For me, that is...

As for who I am listening to..well..try out some recordings I fell over on the newest music listing...there is a virtual treasure trove to be found herein....:)

Some Odds And Ends

Well...I'm in the process of putting together what will be Sims Jtn together..it is right now on pink foam and is therefor looking a little primitive..but it is coming together..well, sort of...

Note...neither of these photos are album quality ..these are just an indication of what is about to show up on that site.

The first one is of the Rose Tearoom...a middling little cafe that the local constabulary like to meet at. And the second is of the local garage..all scratchbuilt...still needs some work on roof detailing and such...

AAARRGH!! Busy!

So, about those truck weigh scales...

A couple of prototype style photos I took that show their construction and their placing.

 This first picture was taken in Woodstock ON's Purina Mills site...the staging area is rather crowded at this place hence my photgraphing here was a bit tricky to say the least. In this shot notice the weigh scale shed. Seems to be nothing more than a leanto affair

In Beachville ON's Carmeuse site the weigh scales are actually sited right out in the open...and quite white with limestone in this case...At this site there are two of these..one coming in..which weighs the empty trucks coming in and the other on the way out..which, of course, weighs the total weight of the truck..fully loaded.

In my Exceda mill site I will be having two of these, one coming in and one leaving..but in the other order..grain coming in is weighed coming in and when leaving empty.

Truck Weigh Scales...

I'm making up some truck weigh scales for the Exceda Mill site. These are simple details that I find interesting. All that is needed is some stray pieces of scrap styrene and a small piece of either columns..H or I.

Over the next couple of days I'll be putting some pics up showing how this was 'thrown' together to make something of a convincing scene piece of its own....

Prototype Road Stripes...

OK....here we have an example of something I've seen some modelers get into a snark about. The type of patching seen here is supposed to be non-prototypical.

Oh really?

Well, it seems that, in this case, it was done to seal longitudinal cracks running along the road. Mind, this is done on secondary roads around here. It may not be done everywhere.

Have To Add Something Here

I am working on a piece at the current time that is a little complicated as well...going to be interesting here in the old house!!

OK...First Time For Anything.

I've done a few things around trains and music..namely my Emerald, Leemer & Southern Route. An N scale model railroad that is currently being built in a 10' by 16' room in my basement. I have been having a few operating sessions on it with a couple of friends who are pitching in to help this little one as he has a few medical issues that sort of keep me in line, so to speak.

My musical interests also keep me pretty busy..learning a new DAW( digital  audio workstation). I'm finding all kinds of neat things about recording my work in my own room down here as well...such as need more sound treatments and an isolation box for vocals.

What is an isolation box? Funny you should ask. In my case I found that using 4 inch foam 6 feet square makes a perfect cube shape to keep vocals from getting mucked up with extra background noise...it blocks sounds as it were.

Over the next little while, while my health remains with me (mmmm..that doesn't quite work...), I'll be posting about my discoveries and some other curious things I've come across...both..in sound and trains.