Latta Sub

[JohnE]

It has been a few years, so I thought it was time to post some progress on my Soo Line Latta Sub layout. Although I live in Michigan, it is set in the early 1990s in southern Indiana. Yes, the Soo line actually operated down there hauling coal and some manifest on old Milwaukee lines. This is a cross post from "Indiana Railroads Bull Session," but I figure there is a different audience. Since my last update, I have added the town of Jasonville and put up some photo backdrops.

The biggest landmark in Jasonville is the water tower. So, here is my scratch built version. The main tank is a rapid prototype and the rest of it are styrene tubes and I-beams as well a brass wires and ladders.



Here is a view of the main street of Jasonville. I tried to recreate the four buildings on each corner of the crossing: the IGA, convenince mart, repair shop, and the abandoned brick building. I have the buildings to an acceptable level, but I hope to add details like gutters, chimneys, weeds, power lines, and more trees sometime. The front of the IGA is made from a photo of the store while the "Shakamak" on the store is a rapid prototype. (It is nice to have access to a friend's machine.) The sign in the parking lot has pictures of the sign glued to a scrath built styrene model.


This is the overall view of main street. Sometime this summer I have to get down there and take pictures to use as a photo backdrop in this area. I still have to purchase flashers for the crossing. If anyone has had good experience with a certain brand, let me know. One thing I try to practice is to keep a prototypical, or at least a reasonable space between structures. Others call it "less is more," which sums it up. That also cuts down on the number of buildings I have to build.


A few weeks ago a couple of Athearn Genesis GP38-2s appeared on our doorstep. Here is a shout-out to Athearn for doing a great job. The beacons even flash. Here they are approaching the north side of Jasonville. I still have to work up the will power to date them to the 1990s and weather them.



And here they are entering the north end of Latta yard.


This is a view of the Latta engine house. It is amazing what a line of trees, photo backdrop, and a sky can do for a scene to make it look better. This area of the layout has just the trees as a photo backdrop while the sky is painted. Two pictures up the sky was also part of the photo. However, that much of a picture costs a lot of money and it is hard to get a 20 foot long sky to look right in "photomerge" in Photoshop elements.

[AARR]

Nicely done, JohnE. Will you weather those nice bright white SOO engines

In May's Train Mag there's an article about INRD's intermodal traffic and I recognize a Jasonville from the article.

[Old Hogger]

Great job John, looks awesome. I love the shot down the street between the houses and trees.

[JohnE]

Thanks for the comments Old Hogger and Don. Yes, when I get the courage up, I will weather those Soo units. I am weathering a bunch of hoppers right now to try to perfect my craft. Old Hogger, they weren't in the photos, but I purchased a few things from you when you had your "going out of HO" sale.