Pruitt Just imagine the amount of meat you get from a cow that makes you build a fence that high!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
25 October 2020
Here's a short video of a train on the tracks in front of the new backdrop.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
hon30critterSay what?!? Are you planning on moving again? Please clarify.
W-A-Y back in high school (1970's) I actually more or less finished some scenery on a model railroad.
And that was as far as I ever got with scenery. After that...
In Washington state in the early 1990's I got some hardshell finished and then had to move (no digitized photo of that one).
In Merchantville, on Version 2 of the layout, I was beginning scenery in late 2008 and early 2009. Then I was transferred by my company to South Carolina.
After retiring and moving back to New Jersey and working happily on Version 4 of the layout, in 2019 property and state income taxes were jacked up over $2000 a year in 15 months, so I moved again.
So given this history, I'm expecting to have to move again for some reason. I hope not, but hey...
Hi Mark,
I think the backdrop looks pretty good! I agree with your comment that it makes the mountains seem further away.
PruittAfter that I'll plan to tear it all down again to move (Ever since high school -oh so many years ago! - every time I start scenery I always wind up tearing it all down to move ).
Say what?!? Are you planning on moving again? Please clarify.
I hate moving! I haven't moved in the last 33 years and I don't plan on moving until I absolutely have to. Ideally it will be in a pine box!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks for all the different thoughts, everybody!
Oh come on, Bear! Haven't you ever seen a 30' tall barbed wire fence before? Just imagine the amount of meat you get from a cow that makes you build a fence that high!
Dave, I think your observations were spot-on. It looked even more out of whack in person than it did in the photos.
Rich, Douglas, David, I appreciate your thoughts. But from a standing perspective, the ground rose too much. And those out of scale elements near the bottom just had to go. Paradoxically, reducing the height of the backdrop seems to have the effect of pushing the mountains farther back into the distance. When I'm standing, the track is near my chin level, so the horizon just a few inches above that just feels right.
Scott, I'm glad the panoramic photos on your phone look like they're going to work out. Be sure to share your results with us!
Selector, The track is maybe an inch from the backdrop along the wall over Casper, so there's not much room for anything else in front of the backdrop, except at Hudson and the curved areas of the backdrop. There I'll add some 3-D trees and other shrubbery, and maybe one or two of those giant cows.
24 October 2020
So with the backdrop trimmed to final shape and temporarily installed, I took a few more photos to see how it looked.
Here's a train sitting in Hudson:
Looking along the wall behind Casper:
The train along the wall:
And looking at an angle at the nose of the train:
A couple days ago I picked up some hardboard (Masonite) for the fascia. After I permanently mount the backdrop I may install it, or I may do the scenery along the wall. Scenery shouldn't take too long since there's only 4" wide to scenic (counting the track!). After that I'll plan to tear it all down again to move (Ever since high school -oh so many years ago! - every time I start scenery I always wind up tearing it all down to move ).
Judiciously crop maybe the closest 20 feet of grasses, in scale, but that lower angle is so much better to me. Then, think of a blind, or a sub-backdrop, whether buildings, hedgerow, other vegetation, the odd taller tree, to take the eye away from the backdrop’s base where it joins.
Some good answers by other members.
IMO if you want the skyline to be far away then you need as much land as possible.
Obviously shorten the land area brings the skyline closer.
Which is best? I think only you can choose.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I'm with everyone else about trimming off the bottom to get the foreground scenery closer to scale.
I did try your technique with the panoramic picture on my cell phone and i like what I got. Have to get it printed out yet, but looks really nice. Thanks again for the explanation.
Scott Sonntag
I agree with Rich. I think the backdrop looks fine. To me, the amount of ground venturing "up" from the benchwork is consistent with how much ground you would see "across" the horizon when viewed at the angle you would be viewing the backdrop.
The third dimension of depth...along the plain.... is projected vertically in our two dimensional backdrops. Can't get around that.
Reminds me of when I would drive east on the Chicago Skyway back to Indiana. A high bridge over the (Calumet?) river provides a view to the industrial buildings below as well as Lake Michigan. From the high angle looking down, and with no variation in the color of Lake Michigan and the solid clear blue sky to provide a point of focus, a quick glance made it look like a wall of water many times higher than the buildings was approaching the shore.
Took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking down and across miles of water, not at a tall vertical wall of water. That wall of water shrank as I decended down the bridge until it disappeared when I reached ground level.
Edit: Taking a second look, maybe the backdrop could benefit from a little less ground (field) between the tracks and the mountains....making the backdrop a little shorter....depending upon how high that second deck is and how tall you are.
A quick way to say it: IMO, the horizon line is the point where the field meets the base of the mountains, and the horizon line should be close to eye level, and never higher.
- Douglas
I would leave that backdrop just as you have it. Looks great! The amount of fields in the foreground of the backdrop create the necessary depth to convey the vastness of the prairie. Don't sacrifice ground for sky in this case.
Also, you will be quite pleased that you converted your turnouts to spring loaded turnouts. I have Peco spring loaded turnouts on my new layout, and I love them.
Rich
Alton Junction
Pruitt I'm thinking it might look a bit better if I cut 1 1/2 to two inches off the bottom to lower the horizon a bit.
I agree. When you did the mock up with your home printed backdrop the ratio of sky to scenery was quite pleasing IMHO. Now it looks totally out of whack, again IMHO. The taller scenery doesn't suggest the distance (or depth if you will) that the lower scenery did. I would cut it down to match your original mock up.
Pruitt As is, the lower part of the backdrop looks out of scale if you look close.
Thanks for the compliment, David!
21 October 2020
Several things have been happening this past week.
I got the code 55 track I ordered from Walthers. I haven't done much but set a section next to the mainline in Hudson, to represent the station siding. Here's how that looks:
In another thread I posted about my experiments with a backdrop. Following some of the suggestions "youse guys" made, I found a printer to produce three copies (one backwards so I can put them end-to-end). Here's what one small section looks like. All three are printed on the shame wide sheet of paper. The backdrop is over 12 feet long, so between the three copies I can whip up 34 feet of backdrop! I'll lose a bit from one or two to avoid having obviously duplicated buildings right together.
Here's a comparison of the printed backdrop versus the one I printed at home. Quite a difference in quality!
I trimmed out two of the three backdrops over the last couple of days (my index finger is a bit sore from handling the Exacto knife for several hours each day!). I temporarily mounted two of the backdrops and took a couple of photos:
What do you all think?
The printer-produced version is a bit larger than my home-printed one. I'm not sure why, since they came from the same file. But I'm thinking it might look a bit better if I cut 1 1/2 to two inches off the bottom to lower the horizon a bit. As is, the lower part of the backdrop looks out of scale if you look close.
I've also started converting my turnouts to throw them with fingers pushing the points by fabricating an over-center spring (so they can be thrown like a Peco turnout). Turns out that's not as hard to do as I expected, and it works great! I didn't take any pics of the converted turnouts yet. Maybe in a day or two...
On to number 5. Gosh! I wish I had the space you have. I would still be on number one.
Following with interest. Well done.
Probbly not, Dave. Once the initial "adjustment" is finished, I don't think the seasonal variation will be enough to cause any problems. I don't remember any problems whatsoever when I lived in Cheyenne in the 70's, anyway.
Humidity fluctuates from averages of around 15% in the winter to about 30-35% in the summer. Very dry to dry, then back.
I've barely looked at Casper since starting on the CNW line, but that bowed turnout has been that way for several weeks, at least. Still had summer humidity at that time.
PruittSuddenly I'm getting some benchwork contraction problems in Casper yard. I should have expected this - my benchwork was built in New Jersey, where the basement humidity was about 35%.
Would it be worth considering a humidifier?
PruittSuddenly I'm getting some benchwork contraction problems in Casper yard.
Just a Jersey layout adjusting to Wyoming freedom. You got this.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
14 October 2020
Suddenly I'm getting some benchwork contraction problems in Casper yard.
I should have expected this - my benchwork was built in New Jersey, where the basement humidity was about 35%.
Now that I'm in Casper, where a wet day is 40% and a typical day in the fall is about 20%, The benchwork grid, which is built out of 3/4" Oak Plywood cut into 3" strips, has shrunk a bit in the long direction. A couple of turnouts have bowed up a little bit, and the main turnout into the yard at the west end, which leads right into a curve, has pushed the curve a bit out of alignment.
Harrumph!
It's not major, and I've already fixed the main turnout (took about 30 minutes), but it is an annoyance. I still have to lift two bowing turnouts and trim the ends by about twice a cutoff wheel thickness to lay the turnouts flat.
There's also evidence that one or two body tracks will need to be relieved in a similar way.
What a pain!
Mark Just for reference to see what I'm going for, here's a medium-resolution photo of the real Hudson depot, ca. 1915. There are at least three tracks, but on the layout has only two. The photo is looking west towards the bridge over the Popo Agie river in the far distance. The actual town of Hudson is in the middle distance to the left of the depot.
Just for reference to see what I'm going for, here's a medium-resolution photo of the real Hudson depot, ca. 1915. There are at least three tracks, but on the layout has only two.
The photo is looking west towards the bridge over the Popo Agie river in the far distance. The actual town of Hudson is in the middle distance to the left of the depot.
I don't know if you know this, but in between my attempts to get the Rock Ridge Railroad running, I built a 1950 PRR bench layout set in the town of Indiana, PA where I was living before AZ.
Your picture reminded me.
I based the plan...
On Sanborn maps:
Aerial photos...
And period photos
The hardware store was owned by Jimmy Stewart's dad.
I got as far as the trackwork (I have 14 Fast Tracks Turnouts I salvaged from that,) before my wife put her foot down. It seems the layout was blocking access to her art storage shelfing, making it realy difficult to get her paintings in and out.
Sorry to hijack your thread with my trip down memory lane.
I'm impressed. While I'm struggling to complete my 29 foot mainline loop, you are adding new towns--benchwork to structures--every other week.
That is what I call Gettner Done.
Thanks, Bear!
11 October 2020
I got the subroadbed installed through Hudson:
And roadbed and track into the curve leading to Hudson was installed a few days ago.
Then I installed the cork base for Hudson, and built the ramp down from the mainline profile to the Hudson base. Here the ramp is under construction:
Yesterday I installed the first section of code 70 track past the east turnout at Hudson. Then I backed a train onto it.
The track past the turnout isn't powered yet. I still have to add the buss lines to Hudson, and the track feeders as well.
In a few days I'll get the code 55 track I ordered from Walthers, and I'll be able to start installing the Hudson siding. I'm really looking forward to trying that small rail track!
Thanks, Mike!
3 October 2020
Yesterday I got the new backdrop painted (repainted).
Today I uploaded my latest construction update video:
It's been awhile since I've checked your progress Mark. Looking great!
Mike.
My You Tube
PruittI spent a lot of happy years in New Jersey and elsewhere, but it's great to be back.
Mark, I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your new (old) location.
Chip,
You've got quite a sense of humor. How does your wife put up with you?
Dave,
Thanks!
I lived in Casper two different times, for a total of about seven years when I was a kid. So for the most part I knew what I was getting in to. Mostly it's the same old Casper, just a bit bigger on all sides. Where we live now was just prairie hills a couple miles east of town when I lived here in the late 60's.
Downtown Casper is shockingly the same, for the most part. Some changes of course, but the old Rialto and American movie theaters are still there, as is the underpass beneath the tracks on Center Street. Those are all icons from my youth.
Car registration in Wyoming used to be under 30 bucks, but I paid over 900 on our new Jeep Gladiator! That was rather unexpected!
Having spent so much of my life on the east coast, I'd forgotten how clear and dry the air is here. Being just shy of a mile above sea level, the air is thinner, but paradoxically it's easier to breathe here, too. My reactive airways (from asthma as a young child and a parent that smoked like the Big Boy) have a lot less to react to here than they did in South Carolina and New Jersey. Less pollen, and less pollutants.
I love the sparse population! Ten minutes from the house leaves me six minutes from the nearest human being. And what many who aren't from here (and some that are) see as dry, semi-desolate wasteland has a hidden beauty that's very soothing to my spirit. This part of the America is called "God's country" for good reason (ok, done waxing poetic).
I spent a lot of happy years in New Jersey and elsewhere, but it's great to be back.
Pruitt...moved most of the way across the country.
As always you are making fantastic progress!
Just curious - how are you finding your new home town and surroundings? You made quite a move!
I'd read your post, but I'm waiting for the movie to come out.
1 October 2020
I mounted the backdrop frames for the section from the end of the back wall over Casper through the Hudson area:
And then cut one of the backdrops from the previous layout to the correct height and mounted it. This "new" part of the backdrop is 24 feet long.
Sanding it and repainting it is next. You can't really tell from this picture, but the blue surface is all scratched up from being rolled up and moved most of the way across the country.
26 September 2020
Construction has resumed on the layout. Over the last few days I completed CNW benchwork from the wall behind Casper, around the left end and back along the angled wall, where Hudson will go.
I'll be adding some sort of support to the long free span. At eleven feet, it's too springy in the center of the span to adequately support the area by itself. I'll probably use a threaded rod from the ceiling.
This is as far at the CNW benchwork will go (at least at this end) for some time. Track will be laid into Hudson and scenery completed behind Casper and around to at least the intersection of the angled section to the left-end wall.