Room for the Rural Church

Since the Clever Bros Rural Church was a bit larger than I had anticipated, a little extra "earth" was needed to make room.

Used pink foam insulation to get some earth going:

Just glued it down with white glue and tried to contour a bit mostly with a welding wire brush.

Found some Sculptamold in Charleston while visiting with The Wife for a granddaughter's ballet and stopped into an art store.  Everybody seems to rave about it.  Tried to used same dark brown paint as used with "ground goop" but color turned out a bit lighter.

No problem; needs to be covered with ground foam and/or static grass, anyway.  Added some "local" boulders just because I could. . . .

More room for church, now, but still looks a bit large!

Have not added the Clever Bros foundation, yet.  With the cardstock foundation or maybe one of "local" boulders, the church will be leveled up somewhat.  Will have to call that progress!

Fauna of Blacktop Crossing

Well, not only do we get suggestions from the grandchildren, but even the children, too!

Recently, the trail camera caught a new resident of our "prototype" neighborhood:

So, now the child (who is the mother of three) decides that the Blacktop Crossing should also have a new arrival.  Sorry about the size of the spots; they seemed a bit large so a few more small spots were added using a straight pin for application of white paint.

Scenery still needs some work on the forest floor, but the fawn will be available when completed.

"Little" Church

Well, the granddaughters suggested any small, Southern town needed a little, wooden church -- a church of some sort, anyway.  So, Clever Bros just came out with a Rural Church that would seem to fit the bill.

Took the weekend visit to in-laws in Lakeland to put the cardstock kit together.  I must admit two things:
1.  The church is a bit larger than anticipated
2.  The construction leaves a bit to be desired!  Couldn't seem to keep everything square. . . .

From a distance and with the preacher carrying on in front, it looks like what's needed.  Still wondering about windows on the front of the church -- maybe a small one on each side, somewhat high on the wall, like maybe there are steps going up to balcony seating.

Some scenery work will be needed to fit the church into the mill village.  The blacktop road can be seen in the background.  With it somewhat permanently installed, it allows some encroachment that might give the church a little better foundation.  Some work will be required.

Blacktop Highway

So, if it's a Blacktop Crossing, it must have a blacktop highway.  The asphalt shingles have been cut for quite some time, but just recently some "weathering" and "elevating" has been completed.

Tried diluting medium gray paint to produce a wash to age the roadway.  That didn't look too good, so just used full strength with some dry brushing to distribute over the road but leave a darker center on each lane.  That was a bit better:

Wash on right, full strength with dry brushing on left.

Then used a Sharpee to add some tar strips and white paint to add center line.  A 1948 federal traffic signage brochure suggested 15 feed of white stripe with 25 feet between stripes.

Sort of free-handed the railroad crossing warning.  Not the best, but cheap!

Added two layers of cork to give the roadway some elevation and maybe allow for a ditch along the road.  Glued it all to layout.  Used handy nut and bolt containers to weight down overnight.

Will probably connect dashes on curve to make a solid line there.  Will need to do a little more work where the pieces join together -- after glue dries a bit.

Growing Congregation

Yep, a few more folks have shown up to hear the preacher (possibly Pastor Jeff for Young Sheldon's preacher as well as our current minister at church) rave on.  If the deacon passing the plate has any luck, maybe a church building will not be too long in coming.  Current plans are for construction during visit with in-laws over Mother's Day!!?

In the meantime, I knocked the F3 loco on the floor and broke out the headlight.  While repairing that, also replaced the larger rectangular speaker with a "sugar cube" speaker -- same size speaker as in the switcher.  Not very loud, but now it will not drown out the switcher. . . .  And, it seems the body is fitting over the chassis better -- the purpose of replacing the speaker.

Two More Vehicles and Small Progress

With a visit to Columbia to have ice cream with a granddaughter, a stop at New Brookland Model Train and Hobby Shop was a must. 

Since the granddaughters are lobbying for a small church and I've purchased the Clever Bros Small Rural Church kit, I need to make some progress on that front.  How's a purchase of some Woodland Scenics figures?  Found a preacher in the graveside funeral set and a couple of folks dressed for church in the people on the move set.  Might be hard to find a spot for the church; running out of room.

But, there's always room for a couple of vehicles.  The cops and robber set from Woodland Scenics donated a sheriff's car at Ebenezer Grill and a green 1940-ish coupe for the Cotton Factory parking lot:

Layout Improvements

Well, the mechanical remote turnout controls installed in 2015 were working pretty well for the siding but not for the mainline to branch turnouts.  The two, far turnouts were connected so they could be operated together.  That seemed to create too much resistance when the control rod was pushed in.  Instead of activating the turnout, the outer tube bent and took up the "slack".  I had tried using "eye screws" to hold the tube straighter, but that didn't help.  So, now a ~1/2" PVC tube has been installed to keep the outer tube from bending.

Of course, the eye screws were just a bit too small for the PVC, so each one was removed and the eye spread a bit.  The first length cut of the PVC was too long, of course -- but thankfully it was not too short!  A quick removal, cut, and replacement solved that issue and the whole gizmo seems to have done the trick.  We'll see how long it lasts before something else comes up.  If it works, it will make operating the layout a lot easier.  The backdrop has made reaching the turnouts more difficult.

Photo may not show what's up but this is the installed solution from an under-the-layout view:

Another problem had been that the layout was collecting dust in the workshop.  So, I chose a sheet of plastic that had wrapped a new mattress and then been used as a drop-clothe for painting.  With a couple of ~18" supports at two corners and the backdrop, the sheet could be stretched over the layout and thumb-tacked in place.  That kept the dust from continuing to collect, but I was noticing little black flecks on the layout in somewhat random locations.  It finally occurred to me that the bottom side of the plastic (drop-clothe) sheet had black paint sprayed on it.  This paint was coming off in little flakes!

Memory of another plastic sheet came into focus, so this piece was retrieved from the lean-to and rinsed off to remove some of the dirt and dust collected from almost being outside for several years.  As I was spreading it over the pick-em-up truck to dry, it became evident that this piece of plastic might cover the whole chassis of the Olds 442!  And, it did. . . .

Plan B:  turn the drop-clothe plastic over with the over-spray on top.  We'll see how that works.  Note the square area that shows where the black paint is NOT!