Tonight's quick snip-it. Had a few moments after dinner, went out to the layout and added the rest of the landforms along the Cedar River. Here is a look at that with the abutments staged for reference. There's obviously a lot left to do here, but every bit of progress helps.
Completed some contouring with spackle and the sanding sponge along the Boeing Cedar River Bridge crossing. Then with no lights, just the ambient light from the solatube, here are two shots: Finally, started building the bridge on the mainline. Here's a test fit: Thanks for checking in. M
Spent time tonight literally cannibalizing parts off old bridge remnants to create the cross bracing for the mainline bridge over the Cedar River. It was a bit more than I expected since I had to splice several pieces to make one long side, but hey, the reward.... Now back out to add the lateral braces and hopefully I'll get to putting the halves together.
Last night's work session was a lot of gab and some bummer news. Our buddy Bob announced he was putting his home up for sale and moving to Portland to be closer to family. That put a pall on the entire evening. He is a great friend and an exceptional modeler, he'll be sorely missed. As for progress, I spent the evening working on the landforms and abutments on the mainline bridge crossing in Renton. Here are two shots of where that got to by evening's end. Reynold was busy detailing a boxcar, how he works in such a small space is beyond me. Doug kept up with our tree mods, using different spray paints to vary the colors. Wain is again traveling, must be nice to be newly retired, but before he left he added ground cover at the turntable. Scott spent some time last night adding to that and painting any visible white areas our earth brown color. The painters tape is covering future roadbed. All-in-all a good evening, even if the news was a bummer. Thanks for checking in. M
Good night on the RGW last evening. We decided to have an operating session in late July and have the layout open for visitors on August 27. Much to do before either of those, but fun looking forward. Before we can operate, all the bridges must be in place. As such, it falls on me to get my butt in gear and get them done. It starts with the riverbed, we made the decision to extend the shelf out to the edge of the fascia. That required cutting out the plywood and then backfilling the exposed area. Here is the Cedar River Bridge crossing: The other Cedar River crossing: The edge was cut using a rotozip cutter and a straight edge. I really like the clean, straight edge. The backfilling material is spackle. This will take two coats and much intermediate sanding/shaping. One of our discussions last night was which turnouts to automate and which not. So as Ed kept working on the tortoise installs, Scott and Doug began adding Caboose Hobbies ground throws in the areas we will need to switch. Bob put the finishing touches on the storage shed in the lumber mill. Gluing the upright in place. Here's a pic of the shed and Bob taking a shot of his handiwork. In addition to completing a CNW boxcar, Reynold helped me by adding shoes to my bridge. I also did a little more detail work around the Cedar River mirror area. We're excited to get this layout running again.
Spent a little time on the Renton Cedar River Bridge. I'm modeling it after a BNSF bridge here locally that has a walkway on one side with steel supports under the deck. It is also a blasted bridge, but the side frames are lower than the tie height. It's a fascinating structure. Today I built the deck out of styrene, then cut and fit the steel supports. I used my micromark gluing/squaring jig to anchor the bridge upside down. The key element of the "fit" was making sure the support was flush with with the jig's horizontal surface. I used a variety of means to assure the support was square to the bridge and flush to the floor. Here's how it looks after all the pieces were put in place. And with the deck sitting in place: Now for some sanding and painting.
Hi Mike, That sure does look nice. I love the shoe details. It reminds me of a CSX repair report I got awhile back. I'll see if I can dig it out and post it. It makes some interesting reading. Thanks for posting the pictures, Dale
In my absence the boys decided to have a work session. About 6pm I get this from Wain: Uh guys, that's not a "work" session, but a "bull" session. Now that's more like it.... Later in the evening Wain sent over these shots. Doug, Bob and Scott finally cracked open the Noch Grassmaster and laid down some static grass. They put some down on a piece of foam board before the above as a test and frankly that's a cool effect. Can't wait to see more on the RGW. Wain started adding a gravel road around the turntable. He also did some prep for the trackage. Later in the evening Scott helped me out by sanding the riverbeds level and repainting the fascia. I'm proud to know these guys and call them friends. Thanks for checking in. M
Over the holiday weekend spent a little time out in the train room. I need to have all three bridges back in place before we can operate, so that was the focus. The Cedar River Bridge crossing riverbed was repainted, then I added more rock and twigs for debris. As for the Renton and Boeing Cedar River crossings, I started by painting the basic ground color. Later I painted the riverbed and mounted the abutments. Once the abutments hardened, I took some shots of the progress. Later I came back and added the beginnings of the debris in the riverbed. Note the Chooch Industries stone retaining wall additions along the Renton crossing. Pretty decent progress all things considered. More soon. M
Ok, when you're home on holiday and have nothing better to do, you make HO scale salmon that will be returning to spawn in the Cedar River. Later a little black to accent certain spots. No pun intended. M
I can safely say making HO scale fish has never crossed my mind! It is always good to see constant updates on a layout and in such detail
I'm sure the steelhead are doing quite well and frankly, making 33" HO fish wasn't at the top of my list either. Here's the salmon taking shelter behind a rock.
Short staff, but good progress last night. I have been working on the bridge scenes and the Boeing access bridge took center stage last night. I am building an approach deck, fashioned after the prototype. In the end, both sides will have these approach decks. Here's how the west end looks with the bridge in place. Bob kept at the static grass around the lumber mill. It's a real cool effect. I just placed an order with Scenic Express for much more grass. Wain continued working on the turntable area, adding to the gravel/dirt road. Scott added grout to the brick retention wall. Meanwhile, the fish kept a vigil. More to follow, thanks for checking in. M
