"A picture is worth a thousand words" is a wholly inadequate understatement! Thank you for posting your work in such detail! I will also be stacking and carving terrain for my own layout (after we move, and a million honey-do's are done!) But I will use 1/2" foam layers to manage inclines using 3% WS incline starter strips for tracks on grades. But above the highest tracks will use 2" foam layers (as will the base layer above the HCD.)
How many words is a video worth ? My inspiration and how to do it came from Dave Meek and his Thunder Mesa Mining Co. videos here.... https://www.youtube.com/@ThunderMesaStudio/videos https://thundermesa.studio/ Must see's if one wants to work with foam, at least for me. Sumner
Work on Canyon #2 continues..... When I get a little further to the right and left of where the cliff Face is now I'll be able to change the appearance of it more as the track will be a little further from it. . . To be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Coal Mine Complex Paint & Assembly... I'm getting closer to needing to put the coal mine complex on the layout so that scenery can be built around it. It has all been in individual prints to this point. Here I started using CA to glue it together. I only glued the parts of the complex where I would still be able to easily paint what had been glued together. Didn't want to end up having to paint parts of the mine where it would be hard to get into with a brush or air brush. Below the main building and the part with the sloping roof at the back of it are all glued together. The area with the chutes going down and also the other areas that are above the two tracks are not glued to anything at this point. The maintenance building (near building in next image) is also not glued to the rest of the complex. I'll come back to this page (instead of creating additional ones) and document the painting and assembly of the coal mine. With that in mind if interested you might want to 'bookmark' this page and check back every so often to check progress. . . . . . For a video of the coal mine at this stage click the image above or ( HERE ). To be continued, so check back to this page for painting/assembly updates ..... To go to the beginning of this build go ( HERE ). Sumner
Coal Mine Glue & Paint Pt. 2.... I got out the Iwata air brush I bought a couple years ago and the paint booth I had built and only experimented with to this point. Decide to try painting a section of the coal mine that was a duplicate of the section that will be used so no harm if I messed it up. I ran the output of the paint booth into the shop about 10 feet from where I was and experimented with the air brush some. Since the shop is large and the air brush doesn't put out much paint this seemed to be working well. The paint booth was taking the fumes away from where I was. I then realized that if I wanted to first spray a coat of primer on this print and then the whole coal mine complex that was going to take a long time and use up a lot of expensive paint as there are a lot of buildings that need to be primed and painted. I got out a rattle can that had grey primer and used it to spray the print and also some of the roofs. The paint booth worked well in pulling the paint fumes from me but dumping them in the shop produced a lot of odor and I'm sure not good air to be breathing. Needed to make a change so …............... ….... moved everything over near the garage door and went about making a filler piece with a hole in it for the exhaust tubing. The filler.... Goes under the raised garage door. It was made from some left over 3/8” CDX plywood I had and a couple pieces of 2X4 that I ripped for top and bottom stringers. It was a simple build and ready to try out after about an hour of work. For details on building the paint booth click ( HERE ). The filler is easy to use. Lift the door.... slice it into place and lower the door. Since the door goes up the track for it and curves there is now a small opening across the top where the curve is. Not bad and today was really windy and our first cold day in the low 30's. This is going to work well I believe. Quick to put into place and to remove and effective. Once I work with the air brush a little more …. .. I think I'm really going to like it. Trying to get a little practice with it before painting the DDA35 shell. Happy with how things were going I …. . .… went and found another piece of plywood I'd saved from something I built and cut and set it up for the paint workstation as I need the plywood I had been using back for one of my work platforms. Tried out the new space by spraying on a little lighter grey on the bottom level and tried mixing up some rust. I'm loving the gun and at this point would buy it again if I was looking. To be continued, so check back to this page for painting/assembly updates ..... To go to the beginning of this build go ( HERE ). Sumner
Work on Canyon #2 continues..... When I get a little further to the right and left of where the cliff Face is now I'll be able to change the appearance of it more as the track will be a little further from it. . . to be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Bachmann DDA40X and Tunnel Portal - Pt. 1... Scenery work paused for a couple hours as I worked on a Bachmann DCC DDA40X that I'd gotten off of eBay. I had one that I gotten for the DDA35 build and another to keep as a DDA40X. Bought were bought pre-COVID at good prices but now it is hard to find one under $200 (the latter DCC ones). I have a DD35 shell (non-cab DD35) and a non motorized chassis for it I can use. I'd kind of like to make it powered like the DDA35 but needed another DDA40X chassis to build it and wasn't going to spend over $200 on one. I've had a search on for some time for one at a lower cost without any luck until recently when one came up for bidding that might go for less. It was listed as 'For parts or not working'. They said it ran a touch and then spun the wheels. I decided to chance it and got it with a $75 bid at the last second of the auction. Got it in and tried running it on DCC as #3 and as it's road number. No luck. Tried reading the decoder info and again no luck. Not too worried if the decoder is fried as I have the one from the DDA35 build and plan on putting a sound decoder in the loco one way or the other (if it stays a DDA40X or becomes a DD35). Decided to try in on DC and the lights came on and it tried to run. Found out that yes it is spinning the wheels and not moving. Reason being no power to one truck and the other spun its wheels trying to push the the truck where the wheels weren't turning. Pulled the shell and found out that a motor wire to one of the two motors had come loose from the decoder so that motor wasn't turning. Tried again and still no luck. Separated the frame halves and found one driveshaft not installed properly so the reason one truck still wasn't working. I had to pull the decoder to separated the frame so decided to not even mess with it anymore to see if it was working as I didn't need it. Put a solder tab on each frame half and wired the motor leads for both motors to the tabs picking up current through the frame halves. Put the loco on the test track and it ran perfectly on DC. The bottom part of the image above shows the DC connections. The LokSound 5 Nano will go in the loco and I'm going to try the 9X25 mm speaker and see how it sounds compared to the 9X16 mm ones I've been using as there is room in the center top of the frame for it and an enclosure. I'll lengthen a 9X16 enclosure with Fusion 360 and print it for the speaker. Leaving the DDA40X for another day I returned to the scenery on UP's Canyon Division. I needed a tunnel portal at the end of the upper level shown above and hoped to make it going into a ridge that would be somewhat similar to a large ridge just west of town, Comb Ridge. Comb Ridge doesn't have a train tunnel through it but I'd like to have that look. It is caused by a 90 mile long fault where the strata broke in half and dropped on one side of the fault and rose on the other side. I was going to try a represent that at first but I also wanted to get the geology for the rock strata for the coal mine close to it (on the layout) kind of right. In southeast Utah the red rock scenery I'm trying to depict is in rock strata that are down under the strata that coal is found in. If I modeled a fault then that wouldn't help depict the relation of the two different strata I'm trying to show. I decided that if I modeled strata that had been folded I could get closer even though this isn't technically correct for this area. Hopefully the images that follow will explain what I'm trying to do better than if I went on here. . . . . . . . to be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Tunnel Portal – Pt. 2... I've been periodically testing the track elevator with the winch and it has worked well and consistently. I still had the water in the bucket that gets raised up and down but no need for the water now using the winch to move it vs. pumping between the two buckets. I removed the pumps from both buckets and cleaned them and put them into storage. I replace the 40#'s of water weight with 40#'s of gravel that I had in a pile out front so need to check water levels any longer. It is a cleaner install now and hopefully in a not too distant time I'll be able to try it with a running train. Towards that end... I glued down the foamboard that goes around the elevator. All the foamboard upper level is now glued down along with all the foam board on the lower level. Only foamboard that needs to be glued is the upper level over the hidden storage when that is put back into place. Also got most of the cork roadbed down for the upper level on this side. Will finish the roadbed to the track elevator and around it when the glue has set up for the foamboard that I glued down above. I wanted the roadbed down in this area so I could make sure I had clearance to it when I put the scenery in that will go mainly behind it but some will go in front of it also. To be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Been jumping around and working on different things .... . . . To be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Moved back to laying the cork on the upper level... …. by and to the track elevator and down the other side of the upper level. Need to get the roadbed down before adding the scenery to the upper level. Won't lay the track until that is done. Above the track elevator is in the upper position so that I can align the roadbed to it. Really like how it can now be raised or lowered in 5 seconds. To be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
I always enjoy watching your construction. Especially the elevator. But, looking at the resent pictures I'm wondering about the ceiling. Shouldn't you have painted it first?
I guess you are talking about the shop ceiling. I had to tape it to get the final building inspection approved almost 20 years ago now. Never did paint it and won't now either. I'm so use to it I don't even notice anymore . The ceiling in that area is 10 feet high and 12 feet right next to it where the car lift is so not as noticeable unless I shoot a picture from a lower level. The top of the backdrop is 8 foot. Maybe now that you have brought this up it might start bugging me and at some point might paint it . Thanks for following the build Richard, Sumner
I love how much vertical scenery you have available. I'm envious! Lots of work yet to go, but sure is taking shape now.
