hey guys. Was at a train show last sunday and could have gotten a bunch of WS rock molds for a pretty good deal. I almost did, but decided not to, because i didn't know exactly which i needed.
I'm modeling the D&RGW, kind of generically in Colorado/the Rocky Mountains. I don't have too much room, so I'm not doing any specific area, but more-or-less going to create a generic representation of the Craig Branch/Moffat Route/Tunnel District
stuff kind of like this:
http://www.drgw.net/gallery/CCEastoftheMoffat/3102_CLIFF_1
http://www.drgw.net/gallery/CCEastoftheMoffat/3102_4
i'm just stuck on what rock molds would be best. i've been checking out Bragdon's molds too... they're SICK. I just dont know which i would need. help!
That area of Colorado is extremely varied as far as geology is concerned. I've found that the WS castings for the most part, tend to re-create rocks that you'd be more likely to find in the Eastern U.S or the Southwest--Arizona and Utah. I've been using the Bragdon castings lately for my California Sierra Nevada rockwork, and they're turning out to represent larger western rock formations much better than the WS. Though it's hard to tell without actually SEEING the castings firsthand, I think if you were to contact Joel at Bragdon Enterprises, he could be of a lot of help. Also, check out Cripplebush Rocks, they're actual rock formations (made out of rubber) rather than rock castings. I've used some of their product pretty successfully, and they have some rocks that would work very well in your Colorado setting.
www.bragdonnet.com
www.cripplebush.net
Tom .
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
I've also been using the Bragdon rocks. I've got one 9x12 inch mold. I didn't have a lot of area to cover, and just two castings were enough. I did the whole Bragdon Foam thing, and was very happy with the results. I think it gives a better casting than Hydrocal, which I've also used a lot of on my layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The kind of rock shown in those photos is rotting granite. Notice the edges of the rock are rather round and that it fractures and breaks away in roundish cup shapes. I don't know if there are any molds that call themselves rotted granite or not.
A mold that has sharp edges could be used if one doesn't mind filing on them a bit after placement.
Well this is a subject I can really appreciate.
I too am modelling the D&RGW. I'm doing it in N scale representing the 60's and 70's. I've got some Western Pacific and Southern Pacific locos too. I'm thinking of calling my layout something like Colorado & Western. Grew up in the Bay Area and watched the Southern Pacifc on the long drives across California, Nevada and Utah where my grandparents lived. There, in the 70's, my brother and I used to sit on the inside of the signal bridges in Murray Utah and watch the D&RGW freights barrelling by us only feet away usually headed by what, I now know to be, SD-40T-2 and SD-50s.
Went to school in Boulder Colorado and walked the mainline and short tunnels as it climbed west out of Denver in Eldorado Canyon and I'd watch the Moffat Tunnel curtain rise on occaission as a freight barralled east-bound out of the East Portal. So I gotta say I love D&RGW in a big way. But, I also watched the Western Pacific as that line and the Southern Pacific criss-crossed their tracks across Nevada on those long drives to Salt Lake as a kid. And since I live in Nevada City California, the Feather River Route is familiar and fond.
So I have a little 1'x6' DCC layout (my first ever, even though 35 years ago I was seriously into N Scale D&RGW but quit when my allowance couldn't handle it and I figured out you needed to be an electrician to really do it right). My 1x6 is packed with track on numerous levels and although it functions right now like that, I will be adding 3 loops on the ends for continous running.
As for the rocks, yes granite has been THE focus for me over the last few months as I finish my trackwork. I want to duplicate the Sierra Nevada granite, rotten (grus), jointed, massive faces, conchoidal fracture and exfoliation (ok, I'm a geologist) and I've been looking hard at the rocks along the former Southern Pacific mainline over Donner Summit. Notable outcrops occur near Cisco, and of course there's Mt. Judah and the snowsheds just east at Donner Summit itself (well visible from Interstate 80).
I've been seriously looking for granite molds and noticed that the WS molds just didn't quite do it and, yes, they look more like layered sedimentary rocks found in the eastern US or the Colorado Plateau. I took a bunch of massive granite (uh maybe too big?) pictures when I was in Yosemite Valley in May. I did look at the Bragdon molds but some of their images of granite molds weren't available. l'll go back and check those out. I'm very interested in what anyone might have to say about creating granite rocks, no doubt.
DeadHeadGreg, although most likely in Colorado on the eastern side of Moffat, the first of your photos could easily pass for somewhere in the Sierra along the Donner Summit route (except the trees are too small) - maybe Truckee River Canyon, there's a lot of jointing in that picture. ( BTW, I was at Red Rocks in 1984 - Dear Mr Fantasy at sunset was unforgettable).
Tom from Carmichael, hi neighbor. As mostly a lurker, I've always enjoyed your talk about the Sierra and your layout with all the local placenames (my local swimhole is in the South Yuba).
So I recently got back into the hobby driven by the discovery that DCC could allow you to run more than one engine, you could program their operation (I'm a programmer too) and you could MU them. Cool! My dream has been to MU my big black and orange SD-50, and my two new SD40T-2 (tunnel motors - I always wondered as a kid why you could see clear through the rear structure!) which are on order from Intermountain who's going to put out a new release soon. My Christmas present!
Hope the post wasn't too long,
Eric
I'm kinda likin this stuff
Eric--
Welcome to the forum, BTW. And with your Geology background, you've got some really impressive credentials for the rest of us to come to as far as rock formations. I certainly agree with you about the WS, which can work sometimes out here in the West, but not always. I found some Bragdon molds at the train show in Roseville this November that are going to work really well when I get around to re-facing the rest of the Sierra Buttes this spring.
Since you live in my ex-home town, you might look up Bob Larimer, who is a really good model railroader there. He moved up from Sacramento some years back--he used to work at Bruce's Trains and helped me a lot when he worked there. Nice guy. I don't know his address or phone, but he and his wife Betty attend Trinity Episcopal with my mom every Sunday morning at 8:00.
As to the South Yuba, I grew up swimming just below the old Hwy 49 bridge. It was great swimming, and if the river had been high during the winter, you never quite knew how the holes were going to be come summer. A real adventure, LOL!
Anyway, welcome aboard
Tom