In my last post just over two months ago I stated that I hoped that by my next post I would have North Bend completed and be ready to begin work on New Beau City, the large city area on the MARS. Well, it took me a while to pull it all together, but sure enough, North Bend is in place, and the Mosberger Brewery is open for business.
While all of that was going on, the MARS had a visit by Dennis Brennan, a friend and noted photographer for Classic Toy Trains! Honestly, I wanted to send some photos taken on the MARS to Classic Toy Trains and asked Dennis if he would take some photos for me simply because I knew he would make the MARS look good.
While all of that was going on, the MARS had a visit by Dennis Brennan, a friend and noted photographer for Classic Toy Trains! Honestly, I wanted to send some photos taken on the MARS to Classic Toy Trains and asked Dennis if he would take some photos for me simply because I knew he would make the MARS look good.
Here is a view of North Bend as it appears today on the MARS. The Mosberger Brewery, named after one of my wife's great grandfathers, is a repainted and lightly weathered MTH Brewery. Off to the right is the wooden water supply tank and pump house which was constructed from a kit manufactured by American Model Builders, Inc. To the extreme left you can see the Atlas O Deck Girder Bridge now in place on the high line coming out of West Virginia.
Here are a couple more shots taken at Mosberger's a short while back. The first photo shows New York Central 0-8-0 #7745 making the first delivery of a refrigerator car to the Mosberger Brewery. It just so happens that at the same time Mosberger's was also taking a truck delivery of some new wooden barrels. In the second photo, while barrels are still being unloaded, a B&O EM-1 #7621 is rolling past on the high line with loads of West Virginia coal destined for hungry power facilities.
Not long after finishing North Bend, Dennis Brennan came to the house ready to take some photos. Dennis is a great photographer, and I really enjoyed watching him set up his shots. He has the eye of a photographer and the skills it takes to get the shot he wants. He really took some nice photos. The time with Dennis was a good learning experience for me. Since the photos are being sent to Classic Toy Trains for their consideration, I do not want to post them here. However, here are some photos I took of Dennis photographing the MARS.
Well, besides being a professional photographer, Dennis is also quite the modeler and the author of "Realistic Modeling For Toy Trains - A High-Rail Guide", published by Kalmbach Books. You can bet as I venture into modeling New Beau City I am going to be picking his brain for ideas and techniques. This "urbanscaping" project, as I like to call it, is going to be my greatest modeling challenge to date on the MARS. New Beau City is the first thing that one will see as he/she comes down the steps and enters the train room. I really want the city scene to be something special and don't think I haven't already spoken to Dennis about how best to tackle this project. Dennis used HO kits in modeling his Sandy Harbor Terminal Railway to create a forced perspective effect when modeling his urban background. I am thinking I am going to try to do something very similar.
I'm going to end this post with a photo taken looking across the Moreland River into New Beau City. I am going to start the project off by repainting the wall behind the city sky blue. I tried using a painted mural, but as time has gone on, I've decided that using modeled buildings, combined with low-relief structures and building flats, will help me better create the effect I am trying to achieve with this particular project.
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I'm going to end this post with a photo taken looking across the Moreland River into New Beau City. I am going to start the project off by repainting the wall behind the city sky blue. I tried using a painted mural, but as time has gone on, I've decided that using modeled buildings, combined with low-relief structures and building flats, will help me better create the effect I am trying to achieve with this particular project.
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In the foreground you see the bridges crossing the Moreland River with the span of bridges to the far right taking trains into Grand Central Terminal located in the heart of New Beau City. There is a lot of work to be done, and I'll talk about how I intend proceed in my next post in a couple of weeks. Until then, Happy Railroading! Bo
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