I am sad to announce that my best friend, and model railroad mentor Sid Deitch, AKA Wounded Bear,Left the earth this morning after a battle with a long term illness. I miss him dearly, and am struggling with his passing.  He was a master model builder, his work was second to none. We spent hours on the phone, and i made an 8 hour trip last summer to spend  few days with him. His friendship and kindness meant the world to me, friends like him only come around once in a lifetime.

God bless you Sid, i hope your pain is gone.

Sheldon.

Thank you for the kind words. My good friend and mentor WoundedBear from this site, has been guiding me along. I guess i am a good student. I drove 8 hours last summer to spend a few days with him at his place. We have been car buddies, drag race buddies for 20 years. Then he got me into model railroading, and i really enjoy it. Sid has a beautiful layout which he has been working on for the past 10 years. His attention to detail is incredible.

I love doing it, it makes me feel good, and i forget about life for awhile when i am in the basement.

Good Morning guys. Thank you for the positive replies. Yes i am going to be taking a lot of time to consider lot sizes, parking and fences. As well as wooden walkways. I bought Some different fencing kits, as well as 300 wooden match sticks and a roll of florist wire for making fences. At this time i am just trying to get a feel for the space i have. Thank you for the picture of the company row houses Len.

Back to the houses. I am stuck right now, so i put everything back on the layout to see what the overall look is, need to continue with the landscaping. Still working from the middle out. But i am placing my company houses in my residential are to get some ideas on how to move forward.

I added an extra board to fill in the gaps, Wounded bear and myself split a whole bunch of scale lumber, it has come in handy.

I love the look of the steam locomotives, thats a cool project.

ok thank you will give that a try.

I have not had good luck with real dirt persay. I have fine dirt/ silt now. but i need to figure out how to get it soaked > i didnt try soaking it with Alcohol before i soak it with a water glue mix?

i am going to make my own power poles etc. I am going to try spandex thread, as it is stretchy and should give if bumped into.

Wonderful work Ken. I am really enjoying your progress, what is your secret to such realistic looking dirt roads. I am just starting to do gravel roads etc ,

Thank you Jonathan, i have been doing more landscaping and things are starting to take shape.

Graywolf, that is a Walthers kit.

Been a bit busy, life gets in the way. here is what i have gotten done.