Thanks, Mark. I got my abutments built, installed, backfilled and ballasted. While the glue was drying, I trimmed, painted and reinstalled the fascia. Now the site is looking a little barren. Time to plant some trees. Sometimes I wonder if I'm modeling a railroad in the woods or a forest containing a railroad. Honestly, the forest is the easy part and it dramatically transforms the layout. Next on the agenda: weather the bridge and the new track build the road under the bridge plant more trees and undergrowth
Burt road realignment Thanks, Mike. Did a little experimenting in MS Paint and here's a plan for the realigned road through Burt. Got some other options to consider before I pull the trigger on this one.
"Forest with a RR" gets my vote!! LOL Outstanding job, Todd. :thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up: In the options you are considering: will there be a ditch or creek between the road and track? In such a hilly landscape with the rock escarpment overlooking the mine and village, I wonder if the railroad civil engineers would have made their track follow a grade of less than 2% along a ditch or waterway through a ravine or valley, while the county gravel highway civil engineers would have been comfortable using much steeper and more frequent changes in elevation where their road passed between the same valley hillsides. Perhaps there would be more visual and " terrain-textural" interest (and maybe some lessening of The Forest's impact) if you have the tracks pass off of the layout at a different level than the track--and the ditch between would be at a third/lowest level.
Awesome work Todd - you are a real arborist. Over the last couple of days I managed to complete the ballasting. No matter how straight your trackwork is- it always ends up looking like crap through the close-up eye of a digital camera. Here's an ariel view of what's happening so far.
Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Train1. Glad to know the trees are effective. Yes, indeed I'm considering a noticeable ditch between the road and the track. To do it right, I'll need to restrict the road to one lane under the bridge. There were plenty of those narrow openings around well into the 1970's.
Hi Fellas! Update #3. Got the sidings and spurs laid, wired everything and ran my most sensitive engine and cars around to find any track concerns.Fixed a couple of things and painted up the track. Painted the base color and started laying out the streets and buildings : Todd, you're hard to keep up with!! Looks great so far! Terry
Last night I got some time to work on the railroad! Yay! The rock molds I poured were glued with hot melt glue to the Tunnel 25-26 area mountain, and a batch of Sculptamold was whipped up, and applied in between to blend the rocks into the scenery. I then painted it a cheapo latex gray bown color for basic scenic base. Those tiny artist's palette knives are great for these detail jobs. I got a pack of several style blades for a few bucks. So what if they're plastic! Also, the track was painted. Pics later!
I can't seem to light a fire under my butt.. but I did manage to color the new pile of concrete and add some weeds to the back section of the layout.
I have not posted progress because I am stymied by the limits of the Unitrak geometry. I've started a thread about it. Maybe someone will find the solution.
Update -- Some Progress and New Goal My initial goal for the WLP was to get my small N-scale layout moved from the garage to my indoor office/hobby room. After lots of work to clear a space, the layout is finally inside. Now that I can work on the layout without freezing my ... umm ... fingers off, the next goal is to get the kitbashed bridge in the background installed across the gap in the foreground. Installing the bridge will allow me to run trains across the entire main line for the first time, a major psychological victory. The bridge needs to be installed so as to be fairly easy to remove, since a lot of detailing and scenery work will need to be done under and around it. Here's the bridge itself. It's comprised of four Walthers Through Plate-Girder spans and has a slight curve on the right end. The track is ME Code 55 Bridge Track. The supports (not pictured) are made from Evergreen I-beam and H-beam stock. I originally thought the bridge would be a simple project. All I wanted was a way to span the several tracks shown in the photos. I soon realized that the geometry was tricky, and I ended up scrapping the first attempt before building this one. The overall look and feel is loosely based on prototype photos I found on the Historic Bridges web site. While the site shows nothing exactly like what I've constructed, I came away feeling that my bridge is at least plausible. Now to bridge that gap! - Jeff
Layout Party Progress Report Jan 3rd-4th Put in some trees earlier in the week. I'll fine tune the background bluffs after I settle on heights and positioning of all the buildings. The auto dealer's lot still needs a lot more work: I want to have a low chain link fence and lots of triangular flags. Title Cash bought an out of business pizza/rootbeer stand. This is a mock-up to see how tall and wide the square building could be, while allowing room for trees behind and yet not crowding the road too much. The blue building will be a blues bar. A pic of the mock-ups for Hubcap House and the white apartment building. There is also a small auto repair garage behind the apartment.
I had to reposition Adams Street to fit in some trees behind the buildings...and that changed where the road will disappear into/through the backdrop. I'll use spackling compound or drywall mud to hold the foamboard in place and make a gradual slope down to the level of side streets and business parking lots.
CSI Soldering Station New CSI soldering station. I have to get this assembled and calibrated. Then to assemble the arc welding simulator and install that on my layout in time for the January 30-31 Open House.
I cant wait to see how you tackle that hub cap house Dave! That looks to be incredibly tedious yet fun at the same time. I spent the entire afternoon yesterday getting one single handrail in place on my 4-4-0. First I had it slightly improved over the stock variation by bending some new rod to follow the shape of the boiler (the stock rail runs straight from cab to nose). It looked better, but I still wanted to get away from the ends bending into the body. I spent several hours trying to figure out how to attach a support rod to the hand rail, and tried everything from soldering to ca glue. Nothing wanted to stick and anything that did stuck in the wrong position. Finally it hit me, dont try to attach the support post to the hand rail, make something the hand rail can be threaded through. A couple minutes later using a tiny drill bit and a fine file, I had the tiniest little eye hook. Here's two pictures for show. The first one you can see the 3 support hooks pretty clearly. The second shows the handrail following the shape of the boiler. Not exactly prototypical on the 4-4-0, but looks better I think.
Update First off - I've enjoyed looking through everyone's progress. There's some outstanding work being done! I'm a bit reluctant to try to follow a lot of great acts. I cut out my bridge abutments and piers, and fitted them with the bridge: They will be finished in a smooth (weathered) concrete. The first step is to skim coat them with plaster. After it dries, I will sand them smooth and then paint: The plaster should cover over the Styrofoam patterns and accept acrylic washes. Anyone have a favorite color recipe for concrete you'd recommend? I'm also ready to put in my order for ME code 70 bridge track and tunnel portals.
Some great progress is being made at the start of 2010 everyone! As always, I feel blessed to be part of this great community of model railraoders at TrainBoard. Here are some progress photos for my week #2 update: I-75 underpass framed and mocked up: Cardboard web continues northward around Emerson Curve: Overview of layout progress so far (this was all bare bones two weeks ago!): Jamie
Great work everyone. I really enjoy following along with everyones progress. While I do not have a layout to work on, everyones work has inspired me to get off my duff and continue the daunting task of preparing my future layouts home in the attic. We bought our home almost one year ago and it has need much TLC, our home was built in 1900. I am almost done with cleaning out the filth from the attic (old blown insulation, and just plain junk). I still have to run new electrical, replace some floor boards, replace the roof, finish the walls and ceiling (maybe drywall) install lighting and some other remodeling. My goal is to have the attic space done by winter 2010. In the meantime - I will have enough space cleaned up in the attic for a temporary setup using some ez-track to at least tinker with my rolling stock. So, does layout room preparation count towards layout progress?
Update #2 for me. I've been a bit quiet recently... just been TOO darn busy to post! Plus been away on holiday, managed to get some railfanning in... Progress on the raiway has been excellent. Recycling the old layout is progressing well with all lifted track cleaned of ballast and gleamed ready for laying. A base of 5mm (~1/4") foam board has been laid for all the track and this gives a great firm base for pinning the track to. Recycled track and points have been laid for half the bottom loop and clearances checked. Here is an overview: Ballast has been ground up using a home made ballast grinder (the Grind-o-matic), consisting of a cordless drill and pepper grinder I'm using a very soft rock, most likely some kind of mud stone, and the pepper grinder takes only seconds to produce an excellent finely textured ballast for zero cost. I've ballasted the first section of track and it seems to have worked well. I've also made up a storage unit to sit under the railway. It has a cupboard and room for 6 plastic sandwich trays that slide in and form little shelves. One tray for each project, which keeps my tiny work bench clutter free. Benchwork, with rear of storage cabinet visible at lower center-left. As if that wasn't enough, I've been casting rocks like mad and building up the tunnel entrances for the large tunnel that will hide the lower curves of left hand side of the railway. I'm using expanded polystyrene foam as the formers, and filling the hollows with the foam packing pellets woo woo woo woo woo woo ship everything in. Rock moldings are then placed in appropriate positions and held in place with tooth picks, pins and glue which I mix up my special plaster compound. The plaster mix is a new invention of mine, consisting of blended cardboard boxes and plaster of paris, with water added until it is gray and sticky. This seems to bulk up the plaster nicely, and makes it much easier to work with. It is easy to push into gaps and stays put even on vertical surfaces. It dries with a nice rocky texture which helps blend together the castings. Around the back of the railway the old formation has been widened and tin foil rocks produced, as well as a retaining wall near the second tunnel. Track in the upper level single-track tunnel has been lowered in preparation for double-stack trains (just like in real life!) Here is the first tunnel entrance with unpainted rocks in position: What's next? Complete mountain over left hand tunnel Complete lower loop of track and add points for Y connection to rest of railway Stain rocks and add talus and other debris Complete upper loop track and check clearances Once all of this is done I can push the railway back flush against the wall and start assembling the rest of the bench work. Exciting stuff!
