Coke ovens

I decided to take a break from working on trackage and wiring to build the Walthers coke oven kit.  Since Walthers doesn't give you any advice on how to paint these buildings, I just go as close as I can to the picture on the box.  I've found that using Rustoleum flat spray paints is a good way to cover a lot of plastic for not a lot of money.  Combined with the aged concrete paint I've been using, I like how it looks so far.  I bought this figuring that a steel mill complex probably needs a coke oven if possible, I wasn't sure where or how it would fit but I'll fit in what I can how I can.  I should be able to spot a few hoppers next to it but it's not meant to be one of the signature pieces. 

I figure at this point if I made it through the Walthers blast furnace kit, and two of those bascule bridge kits, most anything else is probably a breeze.

Steel mill trackage complete

I've found a lot of time the past week to work on the layout, and thus I was able to complete laying and wiring the steel mill trackage.  When you're on a roll mentally and the plan is working, you forge forward.  My wiring plan worked (as in, the track is powered and the train runs like it's supposed to).  Some of the curves are a bit tight but well, it's supposed to be industrial trackage and it's not like you would fit a 6-axle diesel in there.  Given the fact that I knew nothing about wiring before this, or working with flex track, getting to this point is pretty satisfying.

Lessons learned:

1. Building your layout high enough that you can sit upright underneath is a tremendous benefit to the process.
2. Always give yourself a little extra slack when you're cutting a piece of wire to the length you need.

I haven't figured out the trackage that connects in here to a grain elevator yet.  On the opposite side, I need to place some trackage to a printing company and a brewery (which I have to buy and build first, to know exactly where to put the tracks).  But the steel mill tracks were the tricky ones.  Any wiring project that is successful is truly cause for celebration.

Next steps: buying and building the brewery; plan the fascia side panels; start planning to paint the rails; look into photo backdrops.

Slow summer progress

Between the summer weather outside and my hectic schedule, I haven't been able to make much progress in the past couple months.  The layout gets built in spurts - it takes a while to plan for how and what you want to do, then you get the materials, and then in many cases you're painting and gluing.  And painting and gluing involves a lot of waiting - doing one part, then waiting for it to dry before you do the next.  I realized I didn't have room for the two-track trestle that Walthers gives you for behind the blast furnace, but I wanted to have something there, so I took a piece of foam, built some styrene around it, and found Scalecoat Aged Concrete colored paint for it.  I really like how it came out.  I used more foam to build up the approach to it.  It's a bit too steep for my taste but it's what I can fit in there.  In front of that I started laying the tracks for the blast furnace.

Lessons learned:
1. Wait for each layer to glue properly.  Otherwise too many things are shifting at the same time.
2. A bread knife cuts foam really well.
3. That foam is going to get messy pretty fast.
4. Old spaghetti boxes are useful for cutting up into little cardboard shims to level out track.

Another topic - hobby shops.  I'm hardly the first person to ruminate on this lately.  We used to have a couple great ones around here, but they've withered away.  One has closed and the owner died, another is a sad shell of its former self.  There's a vicious death spiral at work.  A store sees less customer traffic, so it takes the fatal decision to cut back on how much it stocks.  Customers now see less there to buy, or have a harder time finding what they're looking for, and either buy less or stop coming.  So there's fewer customers, and the store stocks even less.  The store complains that they can't compete with online competitors and proclaims they're trying while looking and acting defeated.  The customers complain that they would rather buy things locally at their hobby store but can't find what they're looking for, so they stop going there.  I've stopped at the big regional one a few times and it's just sad, they hardly carry anything anymore.  I go in with a list of stuff I'm ready to buy right then and there and they don't have any of it.  I mean some stuff you'd think would be simple, like plaster cloth or Peco track.  And I always say I'll splurge on a new car if one catches my eye.  Why bother going across town if they consistently don't have what I need, and have even less next time?  You'd think you'd count on service and expertise - one time I was there looking for concrete-colored paint.  None of them were able to recommend anything, I eventually found what I was looking for a year later online.  I work in an industry that's being disrupted by new technology, and the same rules apply: you have to try.  You have to find out what your customers want and provide it, with added knowledge and expertise.  You have to have an online component - few businesses in 2017 can do without that.  You have to specialize - you can't have a little bit of everything, you have to choose a few things and be really good at those.  You do not have a choice of whether you want to adapt or not, if you don't you're done.  I see these places that wanted to just keep doing what they always did and they're dying that way.   I want to shop locally in person, I see the benefit of having places like this, but I'm not going to keep going if you don't have what I need and you're not trying.  Oh, and why are the people who own/work at these places so cranky?  You get to play with trains all day!  No it was probably never going to be very lucrative but you get to play with trains all day.