Scratchbuilt hoist & other new pics; In-ko-pah RR

[Ray Dunakin]

Where do you get all the ideas for your buildings and equipment?

Mostly, from over 20 years of exploring old ghost towns and mines in Nevada and the Mojave desert. Magazines such as the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette are also a good source of prototype info and modeling inspiration.

[Rex in Pinetop]

Great work!  Where do you get all the ideas for your buildings and equipment?  I've got to build a mine hoist that the kids can operate with hand cranks to load the ore cars that fill the tipple that fill the big ore car.

Rex

[Anonymous]

Great building is all I can say! You might need a "show us how to" step by step.

Toad

[jhsimpson62]

Ray, Great!!!! Each time I look in on your website I am more impressed with what you are accomplishing. Jack

[Ray Dunakin]

Still making progress here... I'm nearly finished with the new curved, five-foot long trestle at the lower east end of the layout. Also working on the two small trestles for the inside track on that curve. And I've started on the big ten-foot long trestle.

Last night I made a two-piece silicone rubber mold so I can cast my own 55 gallon steel drums. Started making resin castings tonight. The drums are open at one end, so they can either be "full" or empty depending on which end is up. I'll also be able to dent and mangle them as needed, to represent old, battered drums.

Also tonight, I'm building some more miniature stone retaining walls.

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks! Most of the rock is cemented together with mortar. I used concrete coloring material to tint the mortar to blend with the rock, and also tried to limit how much mortar actually shows between the rocks.

I made a path for the track while building the mountains. Most of the track is on soil, not rock. Where it does go over rock, it was just a matter of building a narrow "shelf" into the mountain as I made it.

[SNOWSHOE]

Very nice.  I really like the rock work on your layout.  What did you use to hold the rock in place and how did you get the track to lay ontop of all that rock without any bumps?  Great job.

[Ray Dunakin]

I just posted several new photos showing the latest progress on the railroad, beginning with this shot of a scratchbuilt mine hoist:

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=3009006&a=32116967&p=76081058

Or go here to see the entire album:
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=3009006&a=32116967&f=

The hoist was made from styrene and brass, plus a few odd bits. The levers and one large gear came from Ozark Miniatures. The electric motor was made from a brass tube and four fancy buttons.

The next four shots show the hoist house and headframe, also scratchbuilt. You can see the hoist through the doorway of the building. Eventually there will be more equipment inside, and more exterior details. The building has scale lighting.

Next are two night photos of the mine. These were time exposures taken under a full moon. The structure lights don't have a permanent power supply yet so I connected a 9v battery to the interior lighting for these photos.

After the night photos, there are two shots looking towards the mine from other parts of the layout.

Next is a shot showing construction of the canyon at the east end of the layout. I had to tear out a large section of retaining wall blocks in order to enlarge and widen the canyon. The next three shots show the canyon after the rock work has been completed. Eventually there will be a couple trestles crossing this canyon, including one over 9 feet long.

The last remaining rock work to be done was at the lower east corner. This next photo shows it prior to completion, with the original track alignment. I decided to alter the track here in order to widen the curves, eliminating the only section of 2.5' radius on the entire layout. In the following photo you can see the completed rock work and the beginnings of the new track alignment.

The last two photos show how I cast the bridge abutments in place, using a form made from foamcore art board and hot glue.

It is now two years since I started this layout. All major rock work is now finished, with only some minor alterations and fine-tuning needed here and there. The track on the lower level is still unfinished. I'm currently focused on building the trestles needed to complete this section.