Thanks. The short line flavor is what I am after. Probably one of the benefits of finally deciding later in life to freelance a mythical short line is that I can run just about any type and manufacture of road power I want and even in the original road name and colors as just a temporary leasing of power. And as for structures I am free to do about anything that works. In this case using stuff I have readily available.
Did some more work on the small stations today. Shown is the small station adjacent to the larger station on the left, and the housing for the small station crew on the right. And that is a metal roof on that station and a concrete pad and platform. Need to level up the roof over the platform a bit, add a chimney and a power and radio pole and mast. 2nd station is going to pretty much be a carbon copy of this one.
While I have been busy at the workbench the water fall casting I di last week have finally cured. The strip running side to side at the bottom is Mod Podge which in my opinion does an excellent job and takes color nicely. I switched to using a non stick baking sheet, with the Wife's permission of course, and with much better results in getting them off the sheet and curing. There are about three built up layers in the clear strips with each layer curing before the next layer applied. And both water falls have finally had the first layer cure after almost two weeks. Left side falls. Right side falls. Now I can finally add the top and final clear layer to both and finish the streams. Went digging for my N scale rats and managed to find them. They are brass castings so sometime this week I will get out the hammer and beat their little tails into Beaver tails. When I apply the top finish to the mill pond they will be installed. To bad someone doesn't make HO scale mice or I could have some baby Beavers for a family scene in the pond.
Finished up the train stations and had a nice four day break from the layout work. Both stations are 15 foot wide while one is 26 foot long while the other is 29 foot long. Two house that are shown will be located close to the stations as housing for the station crews and telegraphers. I have one garage that is close in size to one of the stations and may be incorporated to house company vehicles. NP style coal and supply sheds are already in my collection of structures and each station will get one.
With stations and bunk houses, looks like all you are missing is a beanery. And you could have a greasy fry cook out back, feeding pet deer, or?
Actually it was found buried inside a Woodland Scenics how to article. I also found that Mod Podge works just as well if not just a bit more transparent and shiny. Seems to dry quicker and one can build layers on it also with each layer being dry before the next application.
Today I got around to doing the 2nd layer on both falls using the precast sections, cut to fit, and some more Scenic Effects. And with my normal luck I see the weather forecast for the next week is rain with more rain thus my drying time is going to stretch out. Getting ready to install the mill which will get an elevated water chute running across the tracks from the falls to the water wheel. That will pose another engineering challenge reminding me of the log chutes I had once started. There are two structures sitting in front of the fan which are both hotels/rooming houses. Probably going to use the one that has the grocery and beanery. I don't know yet whether the 2nd mill is going to go in here or whether the 2nd hotel is going in. Meadow is open for either the sheep camp or maybe the 2nd hotel as a seasonal facility. The fan is going to speed up the drying and especially the glazing over of the Water Effects. Once it has a good outer glaze on it I can then start ballasting the remaining part of the incline and install more shrubbery plus install the water trough from the falls without fear of anything getting imbedded in the water. While the Big Guy has chosen to leave the high meadow alone his younger siblings haven't. So I am going to make it a little less inviting by installing a couple of dead trees. I am weathering two Woodland Scenics tree armatures. using a base coat of gray with some dry brushed black and dark browns here and there. Using some of the residual fine branches and debris from the bottom of my fine foliage material box that is a Woodland Scenics product to create a couple of Raptor nests for high in the trees.
The right side lower level terrain has been eating at me for awhile. So after a short senior nap with the Big Guy, he is still napping, I finally did something violent with it. Took a carpet knife and my big mitts to it for a massive earth moving project. Fortunately no permits or environmental impact studies were required or it would still be waiting to be done.
Got the last of the incline rail line ballasted down to the turnout to the main. The mill has been set in and the area around the water wheel pit filled. The white showing is some fine talus that was used to line the outflow area which is still drying. I will get rid of that glaring white later with some weathering. The bend in the stream has had heavy rip rap applied on the mill side from the trestle around the curve. Next up for this area is to either construct the water course for the mill or complete the main line since I need it in place to determine track and turnout placement. And most of that small hill that used to be behind the mill is gone with only a small part remaining. I also applied rip rap to either side of the bridge on the falls side. The rip rap is heavy talus by Woodland Scenics that I applied some color to since it was stark white. It is still drying and tomorrow I might take a bit of acrylic gray and tone it down a bit more. Water has cured quite a bit with only this section still showing heavy white. And of course no project update is complete without a photo of the track gang. Frequent breaks are taken for boidie and bug watching. The one staring at the camera is my motivation to get the dead trees installed in the upper meadow as she likes to take breaks there. So far they are just setting there in a pair of extra hands but the deterrent seems to be working.
Is the mill one of those many structures you built and featured in a past topic? Glad to know the deterrent is helping.
I Dunno John... Lots of falls look white/foamy cascading down rocks like that. If It dried like that I kinda like it
The mill is one of several craftsman level laser cut kits I built long ago and I believe I covered that build here then. The water for the mill wheel was intended to come from a source at a higher level as seen from one of the much earlier build thread photos. At some point while in storage the short section of water chute was broken and a part or two lost so I need to fabricate a new means to get the water to the wheel. It was designed as an overshot wheel so it has to be another chute. The Macie Moly Mine is a totally scratched styrene structure with the interior outfitted with stamp mills, ore slurry pumps, and tables. And so far the temporary obstacle for the high meadow is working and today maybe I will permanently affixed them in their final location.
That lower level of the left hand falls has a 30 N scale foot drop at that point probably not enough to really froth it up, And it is a slanted drop rather than a vertical. The whole falls area is about 80 N scale feet in height in three separate levels. Probably two ways to try to get that frothy effect would be to either paint the rock channel for the falls a very light color or the other is to mix in a white pigment into the Scenic Effects. Scenic Effects can be colored and for my base layers a very light blue food dye tint was used. Not sure how this stuff would work with a white pigment like a water based white acrylic. Worth messing with though because at a much later date the modules that connect to the right side and go to the log camp area, and transition to the upper level track have at least two trestles, or a trestle and bridge, that cross another stream at both levels. Another waterfall is in the background there. And since I have also managed to cast strips of water using Mod Podge I will play with that also.
Other than deciding that I needed to gray down the rip rap some more and doing same I have been messing for part of the day with engineering a water supply to the mill wheel. I have a bag of misc. parts left over from various kits So I went to that to see what I could Rube Goldberg, err engineer. Parts from a icing platform, sawmill, and left over bridge parts, plus styrene tubing are slowly coming together. Still have to deal some more with that fill around the water wheel and I have decided I don't like that culvert section covered by grass that runs from the mill wheel to the mill pond. So a rip and tear will be forthcoming there.
John, I had a manager years ago who said "Don't worry about being correct 51% of the time, worry about being able to correct your mistakes 51% of the time." In your case, my hat's off to your correction philosophy, the result soon will be outstanding.
Probably more of a matter of my esthetics than a mistake. What once looked good no longer did. So the culvert in the mill pond channel is gone and while tearing it out I found where my water leak was. Have already filled it in with Hydrocal and managed to get some under the hard shell to reinforce where the foam had been eaten away leaving no support under the thin hard shell. Used the excess Hydrocal to level off some rough spots where I want to lay some track thus the white patches showing. Where the culvert was will go a small bridge made from some left over parts again. Haven't done anymore of the water pipeway from the falls to the mill wheel, I need to let the supports I have in now have time to set solidly. I am in no hurry to get a final spike in the track work I would rather try to get things right since this is most likely the last layout I will do when I finally get around to doing and completing the remaining five or six sections that will go with this. So the culvert is gone.
