Building the Cascade Branch

[oregon shay]

Mike,

Very impressive concept for your addition.  Your thorough research adds another dimension.  I am looking forward to your progress reports.  Thanks for sharing.

Wilton.

[Motley]

Awesome Mike, thats really cool what you've done on this expansion. Oh we like holes in the wall. If you remember, thats where my expansion room goes through. Hehehe

That must have cost you some from your finance minister to get that approved.

[BATMAN]

I often wonder how many members of the "hole in the wall" gang there are out there.  If I ever get to the point of expansion on my layout I may choose to join the group rather than the "remove the wall altogether" gang.

Thanks for the tour Mike and keep posting updates. I will be following with interest.

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Great work there Mike, I shall be following your progress as well.

But count me in too.  I have a hole in the wall in the right back corner of my layout. It goes to a four track staging yard that all tracks are about 14 feet long in a storage area.  It connects in that corner to my Mainline..

Long live Holes-in the-Walls.

Johnboy out......................

[mlehman]

Thanks for the enthusiasm, guys . This project is scratching a long-held itch to go logging, plus address some needs for more operating space. Having staging is OK, but it's a lot more fun to send a car somewhere, then just to a generic track

Lots of the materials so far are recycled or leftover. My stock of track and components is laid out here at the location of Purgatory. This town started as the end of track in the early days of logging on the branch, but is now a local supply point for more diverse occupations.

As the branch continues, there's a good spot for that ME bridge that has been sitting in a box partially complete for over 20 years. I'm going to cut the supporting tower down to 2 bays, which should give a deep enough canyon to look impressive.

As the RR continues to climb, it reaches the site of Camp 10, the first still active logging camp along the branch. I'm not quite sure what I have planned here yet, most like just a spur or siding.

Our party next views the site of Potato Hill, where Mears' Logging RR operations are centered. There's a wye, and there will be sidings to store excess rolling stock MTs before it heads back uphill and a enginehouse, along with supply warehouses.

You can see my minimalist backdrop in the overview of Potato Hill. It is made of 14" wide aluminum flashing, primered and spray painted with a can.

The railroad get twistier as it heads uphill. Potato Hill is at 62" above the floor, so most of the layout is close to or above eye level as the summit is reached and we head downhill again to Camp 13.

Camp 13 is no longer actively loading logs, but it's location in a flat spot on the branch is located to take advantage of a place where the junction with the branch that runs up to the loading deck at Camp 18, along with cars from further up the line are consolidated for the trip down to Potato Hill.

The end of the line -- I'm pretty sure -- will be Crater Lake. A wye is a good thing to have at the end of a long branch. There will be a quarry, a stone mill, and a crusher located here. Like with Camp 10 and some others, I still haven't finalized anything yet.

It's hard to see, but there is a pop-up way back there. I have the wye subroadbedjust laid in place for now, then will take it back out, lay track, etc, test, then reinstall.

[mlehman]

I got most of the track I had available laid over the weekend, then worked on the fascia and a drop down section to hold the canyon the Lime Creek bridge crosses leaving Purgatory. Still a lot of raw plywood and pink foam, but it's coming along.

I've also decided to locate the mill for the stone quarry that is at the end of the line at Crater Lake in Purgatory. It's a lot easier to keep help at lower elevations and helps add a quarry run to the branch to add some more interesting traffic to the logging traffic that dominates the Cascade Branch. The mill will sit on this siding, where the pink foam places the site ideally level with the top of the deck of the HOn3 cars serving the facility.

[mlehman]

OK, let's head for the mountains!

This edition of the Cascade Branch story involves building the scenery base. I like good solid benchwork, so I still stick to standard L-girder construction for the supporting structure. But I use foam for my scenery base for its ease of working, strength, ability to hold trees, powerlines, fenceposts, etc. The result is some additional costs, but a very versatile system that is robust and easy to alter.

Another advantage of foam over L-girder construction is the way it makes pop-ups and lift-outs so easy. In fact, I had to go back just now and count how many I made-- seven! This also allows scenery to go forward if you're waiting on track to make it's way through the Purchasing Dept on your railroad. The long term advantages for maintenance are obvious.

Here's a peek at a couple of the lift-outs. First of all, using foam provides a neat way to have pieces of the scenery appear to meet, but also remain removable, as the layers it falls into form a ready way to accomplish this. The foam also provides the structure needed to stand up to being removed and even scenicked away from the layout. Here's the base for the big mountain that looms over Purgatory, fitted in place so it's supported by the girders underneath.

Then you start building the mountain on top. I use foam-safe adhesive and bamboo skewers to attach everything together.

The longest popup is 6'. Here's a pic showing the cut and fitted base propped up, then a pic of the partially built up backdrop mountain range.

One thing to keep in mind when building mountains on your lift-outs is you do have to lift them, just over 2"  in this case, in order to get them out. Check your ceiling height against the lifted height to be sure as you go along. Keep in mind that adding trees and other vertical items will reduce the over distance you can lift.

Also, depending on your plans for a painted or photo backdrop, keep in mind the alignment between that and your lift-outs in front of them.

It doesn't take much effort to have scenery with a vertical difference of 3 feet or more with this system. The sky really is the limit here, though.

This shot shows the site of Camp 10, a siding where long logs are loaded and sent to the creosote plant to produce poles.

The last three pics show how I solved another problem. I didn't want an obvious tunnel, which are actually more rare on the Colorado NG than usually depicted on layouts. Obviously, it takes a tunnel to get from one room to the next. Both sides are hidden by mountains. Here on the new side, I used a cut to hide the visible emergence, which actually turns into a "tunnel" where it's out of sight.

That's all for now. I have some more pics of the finished lift-out scenery bases at this weeks WPF (http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/219432.aspx). Next time we'll look at designing the high bridge over Lime Creek leaving Purgatory.

[mlehman]

This installment cover the bridge and canyon area, plus slapping on the Sculptamold to blend everything and add a good scenery base. Finally, the first buildings are already going up! This is boomtown railroading at its best.

My canyon isn't very wide, although once I work a little forced perspective magic on it that will not be so apparent. The first piece of the puzzle is getting the tower for the bridge spans to help us some. In this pic, you can see the standard build of the ME viaduct tower. It's meant to have an entire 30' truss section to span the top. Having two 15' end trusses would look even weirder. So I hacked the second tower I built so that it tapers.

Looks pretty good.

And once you have a bridge in, there are places to go, as the train ducks around the mountain/lift-out covered with early winter snows....err, Sculptamold.

The train has just emerged from the cut that leads to the hidden tunnel to the rest of the layoput and stopped at a spot on the hill i made for a water tank. The pink area on the other/right side of the tracks will probably be the location of the Purgatory station.

Now that almost all the Sculptamold is on, here's a pic showing the stone mill and a look at most of the Purgatory trackage. The water tank/station area from the previous pic is off to the right.

All for now. Putting in the overhead crane and mill tramway, so may have more pics later.

["JaBear"]

Gidday Mike, you certainly appear to have captured the small train in BIG COUNTRY look.

 In WPF you make the comment,   " With the new bridge in place, the canyon looks a little small, but it's a matter of perspective, forced that is, so I think it'll be OK once I get things painted and scenicked behind it".  Now there is the saying "Only fools and children comment on jobs half done" and as I'm far too old to be a child, I guess I must fit into the first category, so my initial thoughts were that a Truss Bridge would look more appropriate over that span. On reflection, however, I think that the current contrast between the black bridge and the surrounding snow exacerbates the perspective problem, so as I concur with  Chads sentiments  "You are doing incredibly nice work, quickly!!!" I am looking forward to next weeks WPF to see how your finished scenery ties the scene together. .

Thanks for sharing. 

Cheers, the Bear.

[mlehman]

Bear,

Thanks for commenting. Yeah, the white wipes out any detail. Once I shoot it with some stains, it'll start popping out. Didn't quite get that far today.

Here's some more pics, starting with a trick I'll be using to represent distant mountains. I don't apply Sculptamold to them, they're just silhouettes that will be paint in dark grays to represent distant ridges. You don't want texture on them, although I may shape them a little more around the edges. The first is where the track goes after leaving the bridge to disappear around the mountain. About as far as you can see I have thinner and thinner scenery, except for some embankment next to the track.

This one is looking back at Camp 10. Some of this is fixed here, some on the back of one end of the long liftout.

Here's a shot of the main use of this technique on the back of the long liftout.

Next up is one of the Xmas tree light clips I used this time to hang and direct my line voltage LED string. It's got a gentle pressure that allows a grip on the light strip to hold it in place. Here I used it like an array of tiny floodlights.

I'll close with some more shots of the mill site.

[ChadLRyan]

Really Mega Awesome work! Mike!!!!!

[mlehman]

Thanks, Chad! My occasional insomnia is giving me extra time to work on things, but I'm not sure it's getting anymore accomplished.

Serving up some more right now. Basically, here I've taken Woodland Scenics Earth and Ochre Yellow scenery color base stain and sprayed it judiciously around. I did do some oversprays of gray and tan tints on the rocks in the canyon and a few other places. Then I went over everything with the WS stains, trying to make the color distribution about right.

This is just the first pass, but the canyon looks better already.

The mill complex at Purgatory is shaping up nicely, too.

[middleman]

Mike:

I think if I were your neighbor,I'd be checking my basement to make sure you haven't tunneled over and started laying track!

Mike

[mlehman]

Mike,

That would give me ideas, except I've been in that basement and wouldn't gain much, although if the tunnel  was big enough to let people walk through, then I could run tracks down either side and put a big loop in the neighbor's basement...hmmm, hmmm.

Let me think on that one.

Thanks for your comments!

[mlehman]

I can't believe this thread hasn't made it to Page 2. Well, that's gonna change...

Had some great compliments, thanks Chad, et al. Here's some more pics showing how I did the scenery base around the Crater Lake Quarry. It's the end of the line, stacked in above the throat of my staging yard. There will be a wye, a warehouse for bagged lime, a loader for bulk lime in gons, and the track to the quarry hole.

I'm going to throw up some pics of how the sections of the quarry wall behind the hole nest together. The whole thing then sits in a C-shape, with the quarry hole spur on the fourth side where the plywood is. I've got three derricks (from the walthers 933-3073 kit) to build, so something will be there soon to give a better idea of scale.

More pics soon of the profile backdrop boards.

[mlehman]

These are the profile backdrop boards I've been making for the Cascade Branch. I've done similar things in Sculptamold and on Masonite for elbow board/backdrops on the loop around Durango. These are in plain old pink board. Virtually every section of scenery is a liftout. I'll be able to go ahead with scenery while I work on the track later, still with full access. I'm gonna put the pics up and will come back later and add more text.

The first shot shows the roadbed curving down to Crater Lake wye in the distance, with the town site beyond it. To the left is the track directly to the quarry for handling cut stone. There will be facilities located around the wye to load boxcars and gons, as well as handle general freight.

The next two general views show the area without the backdrop silhouette boards, then with . The backdrop itself is 12" wide aluminum primed, then free-hand painted with Krylon Satin Island Splash (yep, that's a blue). I rolled it into place, the tacked the ends in as far as I could reach with a staple gun. The natural springiness helps it roll through the corner where it hides support post. The wye itself isn't fastened down yet. I'll have to lay the track, test it, then drop it into place. It'll be dicey, but removeable to service. I build them good enough elsewhere, it'll work here.

In the next four with the profile board itself, I plan to just paint it, while the terrain in front will receive some treatment, with Scupltamold forming a shell in many places.

This is another angle on the area behind the town site.

A couple of overhead views of the backdrop silhouette. I use lots of bamboo skewers and PL 300 to hold it together. The trick is to get a nice square joint between the base and the silhouette section. I use 3/4" pink for this, but if you were very careful with the skewers, 1/2" might work. Once the glue is dry, it's very strong. The angle area in front of the silhouette board covered the slight visual gap at that intersection, so you can be a little sloppy, provides a visual depth transition, and strengthens it.

This area will be the Crater Lake Yard. Tucked under a duct, there's about 10" of height to work with, but the backdrop silhouette mountains work well here. I thought they looked rather "busy" in this shot, so I ended up cutting them down a little

This is another way of hiding the joint between horizontal and vertical forms. The backdrop silhouette slides in behind the next liftout piece.

One thing to be cautious of in building these is to keep fitting things as you go. This includes taking out the liftout to test as you build it up. If you're careful, you can build to maximum height, but still get it out. In this case, the whole thing has to rotate about 45 degrees to get the clearance needed.

The next two pics show this liftout from the front and end, again showing how it's pieced together.

Here's where it starts to come together. This is the first part of the layout that's been covered in Sculptamold and painted. I left the backdrop silhouette bare, then just gave it a wash of acrylic dark gray. That and the angling of the cut with the knife does a credible job of representing the more distant mountains that "peak" up behind the more detailed and colorful near mountains.

This shot looks down the roadbed at the location of Camp 10. This is where many of the long poles sent to the creosote plant originate from.

Finally, the track disappears above the bridge crossing Lime Creek by circling around the mountain behind Purgatory, where there's enough room to hide a train behind the mountain before it arrives at Camp 10 in the prior pic. I made a few mountains to tuck in there and disguise the wall.

If there are any questions about building these liftouts, I'd be glad to answer them.

[Cameron]

Mike,

It's Rabbi from NarrowGaugeChat.  Looking really good, like the mountain idea using pink foam.  2 questions:

1.  What are lighting plans especially on the low ceiling area?

2.  On one shot it looked like sky was almost backlite behind Mtns, have you ever tried that?  I wonder what it would look like.

Thanks and keep posting.

Cameron (aka Rabbi) DGCCRR.Blogspot.com

[mlehman]

Hey Rabbi,

Good to see one of the hard-core outlaw HOn3ers visiting! Proud to show you around here in my little hall of narrowgauge proselytization.

1. On the first page toward the bottom are pics taken with the line voltage LED strip lights I now have up that give a better idea about how things look with them than the pics here on this page. Facing in from the entry, the deeper area with the big mountain behind the stone mill will likely get another strip further back in the scene. I also need to get some of the clips supplied with the strip lights up and adjust them exactly right. Basically, the plastic casing of the lights will hold a position if gently clamped. The funny shaped Xmas light clips do this well, but I can't find any yet, although stores are stocking that stuff right now. The J clips just hold up, they won't hold position.

The low area under the duct, which just last night got renamed Crater Lake Junction, is actually well lit by the strip lights. I need to get more pics up to illustrate that better.

2. I think you're talking about where I'm sliding the lift-out at Crater Lake Junction and tilting it for clearance. Naw, not intentionally there, it's the lighting from the quarry area showing through. I have thought about it for the silhouette backdrops, since some do have space between them and the wall. That would be a good use of color-variable LED light strips.

I'll have some more shots of the area behind what I know call Black Cat Junction (named after the local Wobblie tracklayers and our recently deceased black cat, Kuro) later this evening.

I'll also send my best wishes for your continuing recovery, too.  Gotta go see my cardiologist for a check up next week, and there's just been too much of this wrong kind of "operations" stuff going around this bunch of RRers, so I'm a little nervous.

[mlehman]

Rabbi and other Readers,

Here are some things I worked on this evening. First, my new roadbed for the Crater Lake wye.

The old stuff was pieced together from too many pieces. This makes everything neat and smoother for the track. The light here is from a fluorescent that used to light the staging area below. Most of the light in the rest of the pics is from the strip lights only.

A nice shot of the derricks on the edge of the quarry pit now that I've built up the side they sit on.

This next two are an example for Cam of the light in the narrowest, lowest spot on the layout at Crater Lake Junction from my LED strip lights.

Here's an overall shot of the main part of the Cascade Branch lit only by the strip lights. You can see some of tonight's super easy finished mountains in the background

This is the Black Cat Junction  townsite, with some more silhouette mountains i made still in the pink.

Here you can see the pine tree stickers I added.

Construction is super easy. Paint the styrofoam with a good water-based primer. This protects the styrofoam against spray paint eating the foam so long as you go light on it. One piece is glued to the other and pinned together with skewers. I oversprayed with matter finished.

A view of almost all of the Cascade Branch.

Finally, my one ugly area. I think I'm going to make a thin fascia out of masonite and put the strip light inside it where the lights have to dip down to under the duct to continue.

[HO-Velo]

Mike,  

Wow!  Think Pink!  Enjoy seeing your skillful progress, if only there were more hours in a day.

Regards,  Peter

[narrow gauge nuclear]

Wow mike!  My head's still spinnin'.....  You are a man on the move.  Stand back, the railroads a' comin'!

Makes my HOn3 slow, snail's pace efforts with its fits and starts seem like effectively zero activity.  I will follow with great interest.  Again, Wow!

Richard

[mlehman]

Peter and Richard,

Thanks for you comments! I try to use techniques that speed things up and often fit into the "good enough" category.

My lighting is one example. I'm sold on the effectiveness and ease of using the LED strip lighting. I comes in different forms, but the plug-n-play stuff I use is quick and very easy.. I did solve my problem of a transition for the light strip past the old doorway and ducking under a duct. I used a piece of 1/2" plywood, because it fit a handy pres-to-fit gap around the door frame. Sky paint and a couple of screws to hold it to the ceiling with a cleat, then add a couple of J-hooks to keep the light strip from sagging and it's good.

Then I primed a bunch of styrofoam mountains and painted them. The key to this work is using a good primer that is compatible with foam. I used Zinsser Bulls-eye 1-2-3. You have to coat every nook a cranny of what you'll spray paint or the solvent will start eating at the foam. Nothing's ever perfect and it's not like the whole thing will melt. Prime your styrofoam twice for good coverage. Use a puff of air to pop any bubble-ups you get, don't touch them.

Mountains past Crater Lake

Mountains behind Crater lake Junction

Mountains behind Camp 13

Mountains behind BlackCat Junction townsite, plus peek around corner shows I'm still thinking about how to develop this area.

The mostly silhouette mountains came out well again. Styrofoam painted like rocks came out better than that painted like vegetation. There's lots of textures and details to add, but for now they concentrate attention on the layout, while helping you think you're breathing fresh mountain air.

[Cameron]

Mike,

Thanks for pointing out the lighting, looks good.  What are you using for light color (temperature)?

Your Pink foam is giving me some good ideas going forward.  Black Hawk is next on list and I'm thinking now of doing what you did with the foam.  I also need to add a 4' lift out section in front of door.  Needed to extend Black Hawk for 50 Gold Mine Mill and connect to north Black Hawk and Gilpin tram.

On the Derrick, is that a kit?  Need one for Silver Plume and that looks good.

Thanks Cameron / AKA Rabbi

[mlehman]

Cameron,

These are list as Daylight, but not sure of exact color temp. They do look very good to my eye and I'm kind of picky about that. The terrain colors are pretty garish right now, before they get worked over with several passes of scenicking, so don't let that throw you.

I've got lot more scenery primed and drying right now. Should have some new variations in pics tonight. It's not quite perfect -- except for those wonderful silhouette mountains -- to seal and paint the styrofoam, but  that gets fixed as you move forward. Procrastinating on scenery is something that I think scares some folks off of starting, when you really just need to jump in and give it a try. I know you know that, because I've seen your nice work. What I like is finding even quicker, easier results, although they're often mash-ups of old techniques. Nothing wrong with mixing it up. Most of my foreground will still be mostly Sculptamold over the pink, because it's tougher and has better textures in most cases, but the pink does make some nice rocks it you hack at it just right.

The derricks are included in the Walthers Midstate Marble Products kit (933-9073), but you get just one per kit and I don't think it was available separately. It's OOP, but shows up on that auction site regularly. I've actually got one more I may or may not use, but will keep you in mind first if I do decide it's surplus.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Mike .... Amazing work! Thanks for sharing. 

[mlehman]

Garry,

Thanks! I try to keep 'em coming back by thinking in terms of bang for the buck. Hard to beat styrfoam and spray paint. But I'll also layer on these as I add textures and colors to them, so they just get better with age.

I promised Cameron some new pics. I would have had them up earlier, but I forgot to pull the pit parts, so still had a pink pit. I know that sounds alluring, but it was made in total innocence...that's exactly what happened. I could have constrained the camera angle and hid my shame but I decided just to be upfront about it. And we do get to stare down into a proper white pit. The whole quarry needs some weathering, but it and a lot of "dirt" laid down with the spray can really has things looking good.

Here's a shot of Crater lake Junction with all the backdrop mountains now painted.

Dropping down to Crater Lake proper and its quarry provides this view.

Now we're looking down into the quarry pit. Needs some broken stone and a little standing water, plus some stone cutters at work.

That's it for now. Two bundles of hard to find ME code 70 HOn3 track showed up today (Thanks, LocoDoc!) so I've got to get the track crew back to work, despite a shortage of hardware expected in another shipment.

[mlehman]

Got the scenery base mostly finished after picking up 6 more pounds of Sculptamold. Good number to know in relation to all the pink it covered in these shots.

All the liftouts are marked to show what protrudes above the subroadbed by a line drawn there on each. The first layer of foam put down is usually the critical one for fit, so you don't want to add Sculptamold below the line except when it's needed to fill a gap above it. It'd just be wasted.

The narrow places at the beginning of where spurs diverge  can be dealt with by gluing down a small plug of foam to fill the gap between it and the beginning of the liftout. One is in the foreground and another at the far right on the end of the liftout shown.

In places where you still have a small gap to fill between the liftout and the subroadbed, I use plastic wrap underneath the liftout. The free end is draped across the roadbed, then Sculptamold is used to fill the gap. by sticking it to the liftout. Sometimes you can get plastic all the way across and do both sides at once.

The result looks like the next pic. It's important to lift the liftouts at each stage to verify fit again before the Sculptamold gets too hard. Here you can see the added edge is "sharp" looking. It's prone to later chipping off, unless you take a sponge and smooth it down to remove the sharp edge.

I embedded a cast rock face at one spot. I used to do more, but have since decided less is more in many cases.

Then I threw on a quick base coat of color.

I used the liftout in one corner to get this shot of most of the Cascade Branch.

This also gave me an angle showing the tunnel/cut brings the line in from the next room. The usual view shows no tunnel at all, just the train appearing as if from a deep cut. What looks like kinked track is an artifact of the camera angle and my tolerance for sloppy looking hidden track.

And I used the last of my spikes to get some more track laid, bringing the first train into Black Cat Junction.

[mlehman]

Here's another pic I promised Cameron earlier when he was asking about my line voltage LED light strips. I had them slopped up just to get some illumination, but needed to go back and tune how the "cable" sits in the clips.

Basically, I treat the LEDs in the cable as if it's a long row of tiny spotlights. It's designed for use in installations where the light will go 180 degrees away from the mounting surface. But you can use the supplied clips and various Xmas tree light holders to twist the cable so it points where you want it to go, within reason. Any clips and pressure applied to the cable must treat it with care. You don't want to damage it

It's a little hard to describe, but I showed how I do this in some pics on the second page on my Night Scene thread. Along with lots more info, this is at:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx

[Cameron]

Making good progress, looking good.

Thanks Cameron

[mlehman]

Things have been moving right along with the Cascade Branch, although I'm behind on web updates. Let me rectify that.

As usual, I take advantage of opportunities to force perspective. Here are two shots that show how adding some of the evergreen tree stickers helps provide an angle on what will be the dozer trail into the woods in this scene.

I also added some distant mountain stickers in between my 3-D peaks.

The next pic isn't even on the cascade Branch, but it is related. It's the sawmill where logs off the branch are cut. I badly needed some more operational flexibility than the siding with two spurs provided to accommodate the growth in traffic. Fortunately, I had almost enough room to drop another siding in between the main and existing siding. I softened up the matte medium binding the ballast on the main and slid it over about 1/4" so cars will clear each other on adjacent tracks. Now I have a storage track so MT cars and outgoing loads have a place while maintaining use of the passing siding for traffic off the main.

I reached the end of track at the Crater Lake quarry, too. I decided to lay the main all the way through, then will come back and lay sidings, etc as I can afford the track components. Laying and wiring track later is easy to do with all the lift-outs I built in.

Testing motive power on the branch was interesting. It's 20" min radius, with a little bit of 18" on a couple of wyes.

My HOn3-converted Kato diesels do just fine. My big DL-535E? It struggled with those 3-axle trucks, so this may be the only time it travels the branch. The long RPO also had issues, so my short RPO's will handle those duties.The train sure looks good up there.

The K-27 works fine, as I used it in testing the track as it went in.

But I have a Sunset K-36 that struggles. Some loco and track adjustments helped, but it may just be too honking big.

[trwroute]

Mike - really enjoying following along with this. It's hard to believe that you've been working on the extension for only a few months. If you ever run out of things to do, you can always build that Precision Scale kit that's on your shelf!

Looking forward to more!

[mlehman]

I appreciate your comments. Thanks! That stack is my ready line-up, which means it'll probably get built sooner rather than later. As you've noted, I've been busy on the layout. I tend to go back and forth in what's interesting me to build. There's that other DL535 kit, which would make an interesting pair with its built twin. I actually need the tank cars more right now and they're a pretty easy build IIRC.

One of the neat features of the branch is the way it forces me to use Silverton as the base for operations on the branch. In real life, there's the Cascade wye. In my case, the track is forced to do without that amenity and the turnout faces Silverton. There's no way to have a loco lead all the way from Durango onto the branch. It must either swap the locos and caboose at Tefft -- OK for diesels, not so much for steam -- or proceed to Silverton and use the wye there to orient the locos properly before heading up the branch.

I'm thinking that log trains to the mill and pole trains to the creosote plant will likely shuffle at Tefft and avid Silverton. Passengers will run through from Red Mountain to Silverton to Crater Lake, with a stop at Tefft. Freight will be handled by the Rio Grande between Silverton and Crater Lake. Going to be fun.

[mlehman]

It's been awhile since I updated. I've been working on some other projects, but also have been doing some work on the Cascade Branch, so we'll catch up now.

The end of the line is just the end of the line for now. Hoping to fund the turnouts and switch machines still needed (about 2 dozen). Meanwhile, the fact that most of the scenery is composed of liftouts makes it easy to start detailing it. In the meantime it is the world's best scenicked staging track.

The bulldozer has been working on the roadbed for the track up to Camp 13 from Crater Lake. I also tried out some bumpy chenille trees that worked very effectively. I can see hundreds more of those in my future.

I did have some unseemly gaps at several points along the roadbed.

A very easy solution is to take ground foam and glue it to one side of the gap. or the other. That's leaves everything free to liftout.

Finally, run some locos through just to verify clearances.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[mlehman]

If you've been following along so far, you'll probably remember the 6'+ long liftout. Here's a pick of it "burping."

This is where all the liftouts  really earn their keep. It would have been difficult to lean over Purgatory to reach some place my back would've said was H*** after planting 100s of trees.

Fortunately, I lifted it out -- duh -- and set it where I could reach it easily.

Here's after I added 150 trees.

Fortunately, the trees cost about 2 cents a piece. They're made from bumpy chenille, a pipecleaner-type product. Nothing really original, just Google "bumpy chenille trees," but it's a great trick to have up your sleeve when you need a lot of forced perspective. And your budget is tight.

The mountains grow more convincing:

[Motley]

Mike,

I didn't even know those huge mountains were removable. Thats amazing! Very cool idea what you did here.

[mlehman]

Michael,

Yeah, about 85% of the layout surface area is removable. This makes it easy to go ahead and do scenery. I can easily come back later and doing tracklaying, wiring and ballasting then just be disassembling the part of the RR that needs attention.

All it is is styrofoam over L-girder. I try to make the base of each out of 2" styrofoam, but sometimes use thinner. I cut it so it fits well the area it's covering and is well supported and level. Then it's all skewers and adhesive as I build it up. I use Sculptamold over the foam. The result is light and strong. That big, long liftout is maybe 20 pounds or just a little more.

[mlehman]

Some 1200+ trees later, I've got some more pics. Here's the mountain behind Purgatory before I added trees.

Here it is after trees.

Again, easier to add trees by being a liftout.

What's behind the curtain?

Some of the liftouts are keyed together for ease of construction and to hide seams. Here's a long skinny one that must come out before the previous mountain can be lifted out.

And a train runs through it.

[mlehman]

The theme this time is testing and tuning track on grades. In a certain sense, I want to say, "Don't try this at home..." unless you're building a layout like this one that incorporates lots of liftouts. Most people with a layout at this stage with all the scenery also have it firmly locked in place. If that's the case with your methods, then imagine what you are about to see as stripped back down to the wooden L-girder framework...

Plans for the Cascade Branch were minimal, but did include choosing curvature and grades that reflect the mountain prototype (although this is a fictional line, it's part of the Silverton area terrain) as well as the limitations of scaling down models. The locos I designed the branch around were the Blackstone HOn3 C-19 and (in the future) Shays. I could have gone tighter in radius and sharper on grades if it were a Shay-only enterprise, but it's basically a 20" radius/2.5% maximum gradient in terms of my givens and druthers.

I knew trains would be short, so planned on having 3 freight cars and a caboose as one goal.

For passenger trains, I wanted the C-19 to be able to heft 2 cars uphill, a RPO/Baggage/Express and a coach.

While building sub-roadbed and laying and wiring track, I also tested my work with a K-27 and passenger car, because I wanted to be certain of clearances and the ability to also handle bigger locos. I also used an electronic level able to show grade to within 0.1%. Everything checked out in general. I proceeded to building my scenery, which in my case meant building lots of liftouts.

So hold it right there...

If you build scenery with conventional methods that leave it fixed firmly in place, before you start you should do what I did AFTER building my scenery, you should test with the exact configuration of train (motive power, cars of rolling stock, etc) you will be using to verify your designed and built track is suitable. This can be nerve-wracking and potentially expensive without scenery in place -- be ready to play catch if things go wrong!

So that's another advantage of my methods. With the scenery in place, there's little concern over flying hobby dollars smashing into the floor.

Testing with the nominal-length trains and the C-19s verified most of the track was A-OK as built. But there was trouble brewing on Lime Creek Hill, where the branch leaves Purgatory and crosses Lime Creek on a tall bridge, on a curve, on a grade -- just the sort of situation where you're hoping good planning and construction doesn't leave you stuck with a dicey situation. While the C-19 had no problem hefting the chief engineer's car around in preliminary testing, 2 passenger cars were a problem. Even worse was the freight train, 3 Blackstone 6000 series flats and a PSC short caboose. That poor little C-19 would take off up the hill, but would soon be bucking and spinning, forced to shamefully back down to try it again.

Close inspection revealed the problem. While the grade was within specs, the subroadbed was just uneven enough to cause vertical curve issues in several spots. The C-19 2-8-0 has a very short driver wheelbase, lots shorter than my 9" long electronic level. So something that seemed to measure OK with the level turned out to be bridging over track imperfections that the C-19 didn't like at full design tonnage. You could look closely and see the drivers at both ends on the railhead, but also see the two pairs of inner drivers completely off the rail, leaving a tiny gap underneath each wheel.

The Blackstone C-19 has blind center drivers, just like the prototype. On the model, your loss of the side friction on the flanges does cut into performance a little on curves, because those drivers are getting nothing but air when they hit a low spot on a curve.

Fortunately, for much of the track it was easy enough to take the liftouts out simply tweak the grade a little by adjusting the riser height.

I also left myself some slack in the design. Where the curve previously reached the crest of the grade and leveled out, there was a long level section that I could drop  to give a longer run.

That solved the issues on the upper 2/3 of the grade, along with a fine tooth comb in getting the track curved smooth since I'd cobbled together about 5 piece of track to come up with the 6 foot I needed to get through here. Just above the bridge were a couple of spots needed styrene shims. Those were easy.

The big problem area turned out to be the downhill side approach to the bridge.

Here I was a little stuck, because the dip that accommodated the bridge and gulch also made the simple solution difficult without tearing up one of the few pieces of immoveable scenery. I needed shims, lots of shims....

Of course, when I started shimming, I didn't think it would take that much, so might have considered tearing out the bridge and reconfiguring the subroadbed grade on the bridge approach. Basically, it was two vertical curve problem ares connected by short section of track. There were 2 turnouts involved also. So I kept shimming. Eventually your spikes are too short, so you get out those big ME Large, 1/2" long spikes.

In any case, it wasn't pretty, but I made it so once I got the track adjusted so the planned trains could make it up the hill. In fact, it's now a rather impressive show of motive power attacking the hill, just like what I designed for. I used Sculptamold to shape a new surface and things were looking much better.

Once painted and ballasted, it's really looking good

And the stack talk is great!

But there's also a lesson here about testing and testing again before permanent scenery becomes a problem.

[mlehman]

For those wondering about the limestone blocks, they are balsa, sawn to size and painted flat white.

What size? Checking the internet gave my 163 pounds per cubic foot for limestone. So a block that is 4x4x16 gives just over 20 tons, the rated capacity of these flatcars. I just thought thought I'd make the first batch as 4x4x8 so they can go one over each truck. These are a good size for cutting dimensional stone from. The next batch will be the 4x4x16, plus some 3x3 ones as they should work well as raw material for turning columns from.

[mlehman]

Time for another update as construction continues on the Cascade Branch. With various changes made in anticipated traffic, I decided I needed a way to turn locos at Purgatory. Although Crater Lake has some housing and other services, the quarry workers generally prefer spending as much time as possible at lower altitudes.  So many take the mixed that handles empties up to Crater Lake in the morning.

The loco will be able to turn at Crater Lake on the wye, along with the combine. When it comes down hill to  Purgatory, it needs to be turned, too. No room for a wye. I considered a few options, but got inspired to try building one design that many have found useful after being inspired by seeing MC Fujiwara's well-executed version seen here:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/221437.aspx

Here is mine roughed in. The bridge and base/pit are both made of 1/8" masonite and1/4" luaun glued together. I had limited clearance underneath or would've used a thicker base. I think it'll be fine, as it's not large so little opportunity to sag.

The approache footings are made with stained wood I had on hand. I laid an overrun track opposite to the approach long enough to hold the combine. That way the loco can push the combine onto the TT, be turned then pushed back to sit on the overrun track, then the loco can be turned. That way both are quickly and easily readied to return up hill.

Next to the approach track is a pocket just big enough for a loco. Opposite it is a long finger track that can hold MOW or wrecking rolling stock, or a snowplow.

Reversing for the TT is handled by a switch recessed in the fascia, that was already wired since it was recycled. The fixture that holds iit is made of nesting a pudding cup with another plastic cup, drilling a hole for the switch, then epoxying the whole deal to the back of the fascia behind a hole done with a hole saw.

The TT bridge is about 65', so it can handle K-27 locos.

The TT bridge's plug is a new "fat boy" style they have at Radio Shack. I figured this would be more stable. It's just barely small enough in diameter for HOn3.

Here's the pit with the outer ring rail in place. It's made of NS rail I bent myself, that stuff is crazy flexible...

Because I ended up bending it even more tightly to make the inner ring rail.

Some ballast and weeds and it's looking good.

I'm exploring my options on finishing the TT bridge. I may do it as a steel bridge If I can find some suitable donor material. I may still do it all wooden, which will require building the superstructure or "gallows" to support it. For now, it works well and reliably.

[Motley]

Wow! Mike building a scratch built turntable, very nice!

That looks really good, nice touch with the weeds in there too.

[mlehman]

A brief update on a few things happening up on the Cascade Branch...

I got the fascia painted Hunter Green. Kinda dark in this pic, but you get the idea.

I've since installed turnout controls as illustrated in the Novermber 2013 MR. Here the thread where I wrote that up, along with a way to easily make the control work with either direction of turnout throw as the Normal position:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/224956.aspx

Although Camp 10 doesn't have a siding yet, I have roughed it in by building the high line that lifts the long poles out of the canyon beyond. I even split a (HO scale) cord of wood for theboiler of the donkey.

And I'm still planting trees, now over 5,000, with maybe another couple of thousand to go.

 

[mlehman]

An experimental bump to see how posting comments is working this morning...

[mlehman]

I did a post discussing the bumpy chenille trees I use in more detail at this link:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/225143.aspx

[mlehman]

After much fussing, I threw in the towel and installed a guardrail on the grade on the curve leading down to the Lime Creek Gulch bridge.

I had no problems operating short equipment over this section of the line. It was quite reliable for that. The issues came with the less common longer cars, such as the long RPOs and, most importantly, the 40' flats converted to pole cars, which are a major commodity on this line. I couldn't get consistent operation due to the curve and grade being superimposed. It's wasn't even consistent, more a matter of train dynamics that was hard to deal with even for the engineer with the most experience on the line, me

If I had it to do over, I take just a little more slack in designing things, a bit wider curve, less grade, and move the approachs to the bridge a little for a more favorable crossing. Live and learn.

But the solution is prototypical -- and I probably should've just gone for it, as I was thinking of doing it several times, just thought I could beat the rap.

Now it functions flawlessly.

[mlehman]

Wow, it's been awhile since an update on the Cascade Branch. Interesting that I did this last year. This wet summer led to some additional issues. This section of the layout is hung between two basement walls, one outside  and one inside wall, and things seem to have further shifted. I was having difficulties running a full tonnage train with the C-19s. They can be a little lightfooted, but oif you weighed less than 1/2 pound, you would, too. I started a thread about adding weight to the C-19 that some may find useful: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/242485.aspx

Figuring that would fix things when I got around to it, plus plenty of other projects and still saving for more track, well, the Cascadde Branch became somewhat weed-grown. Given it's just a single long spur past Purgatory, site of the stone mill that serves the quarry at the end of the line, the minimal service levels didn't evince much complaint from shippers.

When I finally got back to looking over the branch carefully for the next project, it was with the goal of locating a place for another spur to serve a second customer in Purgatory a week ago. I have one more BK wye turnout kit, but where to use it wasn't obvious. I was doing more experimental way freight to get a better handle on what was needed when I discovered my assigned loco there  could no longer handle its tonnage rating consistently. Blackstone cars are very consistent because of the trucks, but I have quite a number of lesser pieces of rolling stock whose rolling resistance varies considerably. I wanted to consistently handle  at least three cars, tow revenue, plus caboose or combine. That's when I got interested in adding weight to my C-19s and the thread I cited above. But even that has limitations, the extra oz or so helped a lot, but not always overcoming the somewhat questionable hi-drag cars with trucks from an earlier era. After doing that and observing darn good results, tgoo much chance and operator iinput was required. The jumps and bumps leading to a slightly too steep bridge needed to be smoothed out. I described these in more detail in the trhead I cited above.

I decided to do it right with a permanet fix of one long grade. An earlier attempt foundered when I tried to leave the switch to the turntable in place. This created a low spot in the middle of the grade, which didn't help.

And I was still figuring where to put a new industrial spur. What a mess....then it struck me. I realized I had the correct lefthand turnout. I could move move the entrance to the service facilities from the uphill to the downhill end of Purgatory! This actually made a lot more sense in terms of facilitating  getting a helper on the downhill end of the train, was more compact based on its relationship to other facilities.

I basically built it backwards and needed a do-over, which I did.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. By running the new spur across the TT bridge, I even could gain the extra spur without adding another turnout by simply repurposing the existing TT lead. Brilliant!

Here's the first pic, showing the built up roadbed that gained roughly 3/8" to ease the grade across it at about underneath where the loco and boxcar are coupled at the bridge abutement. I use basswood for the main part of the build-up. For fine adjustments I used styrene sheet in various thicknesses. As little as .010" gap under the drivers on one side can cause a heavily loaded C-19 locomotive to stumble and stall on grades like mine (~2%).

A closer look at the finished "adjustments" -- kids, don't try this at home. I couldn't really draw it as involved finding the sweet spot between three differeent curves.

I tacked the turnout parts directly to a piece of sheet basswood. Once everything was adjusted with shims, I replace them with the right sized wood or plastic "fake ties." Once ballasted, it works visually and is far more stable as a platform tyhatn ties are with all the grade changes.

In this pic with the new siding connected to the main, you can see another reason why moving the TT lead 180 degrees worked well.with the main and siding raised to the optimal grade. It would've been a crazy steepgrade out of the siding if I'd tried reconnecting the grade to the old location.

More shortly...

 

[mlehman]

More pics, less words...

A very dry batch of Sculptamold applied and shaped to blend in the track. It starts looking better.

Paint and ballast applied.

Here's how things looked from overhead with Purgatory's new  track arrangement. The new TT lead is towards the bottom. You can see how it contimues across the TT to serve the old TT lead, which will be at least one, maybe two industries.

A more ground level view...

 

Best of all is the improved performance getting up those daunting grades.

[NP2626]

Mike, it appears to me that you can build faster than I can think and plan my layout.  When did you start on this branch?  Your first post about it was in July of 2013.  How much before this did you actually start building and what direction would this branch be headed from Silverton. 

[mlehman]

Mark,

I started on it early summer 2013, so not long before that. I tend to bear down to get projects done to a certain point once I start. The Sculptamold over pink foam goes quickly, which also helps.

If it wasn't for budget shortfalls, I'd be farther along. But I think Micro Engineering is still not back in production with HOn3 code 70 flex (broken mold) so actually no hurry as long as that's unobtanium. I did find three stick of it under the stairs stashed away, so got a little bit to work with. I may use that last wye turnout to add a spur somewhere now that it's not needed in Purgatory.

The next planned construction is the wye and surrounding track at Crater Lake. I have to take that section of benchwork back out, I think, in order to install the last of the track in it. Then I'll do the middle part betwen Camp 10 and Black Cat Junction.

[-E-C-Mills]

Love the quarry and stone dressing shop.  Its like your branch incorporated Marble Co.  The forced perspective on the trees and mountains turned out great.  Thanks, for sharing.

[mlehman]

Thanks, comments much appreciated.

Yeah, Marble had a little influence, more as in "they quarry in Colorado, too." Monarch Branch, definitely. Being a Hoosier from the stone-cutting part of the state was an even bigger influence, plus limestone has uses beyond sculpture and building materials. All of it photogenic.

I origiinally planned the branch as a lumber operation. but then thought it needed another source of traffic so came up with limestone.

I'm pretty happy with things so far. And after a year's work (nah, more like 5 or 6 hours) the line up to Camp 13 was finally laid with rails tonight up  to its access point for more prime lumber land. Pics soon...

[NP2626]

Mike,

I also asked what direction from Silverton would your Purgatory Branch have head?  Or is this branch imaginary?  The reason I ask, is because while we were in the Durango area, we stayed two nights at a ski area called Purgatory Lodge by Durango Mountain.  The ski area is actually closer to Silverton than Durango. 

 

[mlehman]

Mark,

Oops, sorry missed that (sleep deprivation at work again...).

I did kind of like Purgatory as a station name, but...

It's an imaginary branch, which let's me imagine it doing other things than the rest of the layout, where at least the locations on the RR existed. However, it does fit the topography, more or less. It takes off from Tefft on the D&S, just north of the Cascade Wye. Yes, really close to the Purgatory Resort, but the next conyon complex to the north of it, running roughly northwest. I have Lime Creek thrown in, moving it a bit south, simply because it's Lime-related

I didn't have room for a wye at Tefft, so instead I presume trains that need turning proceed to Silverton to turn there. It works well on the layout, because Silverton is just a couple of curves away. Wouldn't have worked so well in 1:1, but the real thing had room for a wye, so...

[NP2626]

Thanks Mike!

[mlehman]

Been trying to catch up all day after reaching the highest point on the layout finally -- @ Camp 13.

After figuring out I could add a new industry spot or two using one of the reconstructed turntable leads, I had one BK #4 wye switch kit to work with, along with 3 sticks of currently unobtanium ME code 70 flex recycled from a temp connection on the Durango loop that came out some years back. I'd forgotten about the ME track, but finding it meant I had enough to lay the logging brnach up to Camp 13. Some of the heavy equipment from the roadbed gang rests pending arrival of flats to remove it to the next project.

Once a few more cars of rail and ties arrives, the last bit of the spur to the end-of-track was laid. A switch and second spur  will come along eventually.

A cut of logs bunks used to test the track was loaded for the first revenue trip out.

The loaded log train arrives at Crater Lake Junction, headed for the sawmill at Rockwood.

[mlehman]

Testing with the diesels.

Logs loaded at Camp 13

Picking up orders at BlackCat Junction

[Southgate]

I'm just seeing this series for the first time. Beautiful work, from bottom to top. I like the way you worked the heavy equipment into the story. It must feel good to be making such progress. Dan

[NP2626]

What have you used for log, Mike?  Are those old MDC Roundhouse log cars?  I ended up getting a dozen of those MDC Log Cars just at the time MDC & Athearn where merged into Horizon Hobbies.  I don't know if they have been offered since the merger?  I miss those and the MDC Ore Cars, although I probably have all I need.

[mlehman]

Dan,

Thanks for the comments. The off-track machinery looked pretty good up there for the last year, "hard at work." Now I get to move them somewhere else -- via railroad

NP2626

What have you used for log, Mike? Are those old MDC Roundhouse log cars?

Mark,

The logs in the pics are the ones that came with the Micro-Trains HOn3 log cars. Although they had a short production life, unfortunately, they are great cars. Most of the ones in these pics are M-T cars. There's also a pair of Keystone cars among them. I don't recall the MDC logging cars being offered since the Athearn acquisition. IIRC, I believe they have run the ore cars several times as RTR.

[mlehman]

Time for another update now that more track has been ordered and further plans made. Budget is tight, so I took a minimalist approach for now. I'll be adding two sidings to permit runaround moves, one at Camp 10 and another up at Crater Lake Junction, along with installing the wye at the end of track in Crater Lake. The 8 turnouts and most misc track materials like rail joiners are already here.

For now things involve preparatory work only, because ME is still working to get the mold for HOn3 code 70 flex track back into production. They announced last Sept that they have managed to obtain the services of a tool and die maker to handle this fix and several other projects after it's done. I heard one reference recently that it still could be as much as 6 months away. Meanwhile, I have two bundles of  weathered code 70 backordered and really hope to see them sooner than mid-summer.

Anyway, maybe you can visualize where the missing track will go. First the siding at Camp 10. One switch is in the foreground, the other down just past the passenger shelter.

 

Here's a pic of the other switch by the Camp 10 shelter.

 

Anither siding will go in at Crater Lake Junction to provide a runaround to serve spur up to Camp 13, as well as the nearby quarry and the rest of nearby area.

Crater Lake itself will be able to use the wye there for some switching as well as turning equipment. I added a short extension to one tail track this evening to make working trains there easier. Here's a pic of the turnout to nowhere at the wye in CLJ.

[wickman]

Wow Mike  talk about some amazing mountains and fits in perfect  with the Steam.

[mlehman]

Lynn,

Thanks!

I really try to make those mountains taller than they appear and it mostly works. I would love to have a train room with 16' ceilings, where you have to belay to work around the peaks

Since I had to settle for 6'6" ceilings, I do the best I can.

Here's couple more. A view of the Crater Lake Stone mill at Purgatory...

And one that shows a view of Crater Lake, where a wye is being constructed at the end of the line. The papers, etc in the foreground really contrast with the distant mountains...which are only 3' away at most.

[mlehman]

The Camp 10 siding depicted above will change slightly now that I've looked at it and measured things. Will wait until I have the track to set things out.

Next is Crater Lake Junction, where 3 turnouts will provide a passing siding and access into Crater Lake. Just a fuzzy pic for now. The 3rd turnout is off in the distance and will connect to the turnout in the left foreground.

In Crater Lake proper, I moved the wye out far enough so the tail track will hold 3 passenger cars to enbale a whole train to be turned, although the motive power would have to be turned separately from the rolling stock. You can sorta see where the things have been moved out of the corner about 6" to 8". This also makes the track somewhat accessible for routine maintenance.

At the far end, I added a subroadbed extension that allowed even more room on the other tailtrack. There's also more room for the siding that will serve the tie cutting operation.

Finally, the long view shows where the tracvk was shifted out to move the tail track turnouts out for more room.

Now all I need is for Micro-Engineering to start spitting out code 70 HOn3 flextrack...

[mlehman]

Since it looks like ME is still a ways off with code 70 HOn3 flex, I went ahead forth ME code 55. The code 70 to code 55 transition rail joiners are a bit  wonky, but they work. So with the arrival of supplies, the track laying began.

I widened Crater Lake about 2" to get a little extra elbow room by scabbing on some more wood like this.

The Big Test. Would a K-27 go around the 17" radius wye leg? Yes!

Finally reached the end of the line...

 

[mlehman]

Things leveled up pretty well, except for the tail track. Once I got everything else level, it's end was blocked from rising by the AL sheeting of the backdrop. I was able to reach in with tin snips from the bottom, made slices on ither side of the subroadbed, and lifted. I'll disguise things better when I get a chance, but it's really only visible from one direction.

The end of the track really

is the end...

The tail track limits what can be turned to just three passenger cars, so the loco has to drop it and runaround the wye to finish turning them.

[mlehman]

Crater Lake Junction got a passing track, also. There will be at least one more through track here eventually, as well as a couple more spurs.

Camp 10 also got a passing  track/siding

Now I can do exciting things like meets

This ends the tour for now, but I'd be glad to answer any questions.

Thanks for looking!

[mlehman]

Been tuning track and correcting some minor issues, but had some time for some more scenic pics.

345 is "close to the edge" of a 5.5' drop to the floor, but I've since filled the gap next to the fascia to make things safer. You can see the tie mill on the right, next to my low relief mountains.

A good clear pic of the track arrangement at Crater Lake

A look down into the unfinished quarry scene.

The track at Crater Lake Junction. The uphill track on the right is the logging branch up to Camp 13. In the other direction is the lead to the Crater Lake quarry track. The tracks on the left lead into Crater Lake proper.

 

 

[mlehman]

Camp 13 is a pretty lonely place right now, but will be the site of some serious logging action and another spur.

The lower track is the Cascade Branch as it nears Summit.

Between Crater Lake Junction and Summit is the site of the Outlaw Mine.

Just south (RR east) of Black Cat Junction is Camp 10, where they've been busy loading raw poles to send to the treatment plant in Alamosa.

At Purgatory, the Mountaineer stops for water and any passengers at the stone station there. Stone stations are unusual on the Rio Grande, but with stone being a major commodity on the Cascade Branch, it was worth the extra expense. A stone station is planned for Crater Lake.

[mlehman]

Having troubles with pictures these days, but it's not consistent. Let's if these appear...

The B&B gang has been busy in Crater Lake. They've finished the station and stockyards. On the other side of the track, they built a water tank and coaling platform.

Everything is mostly from scratch. I used some Grandt windows and doors on the station and the pens are leftover parts from Walthers stockyard kits.

[mlehman]

I even made my own spout for the water tank, after reading a post or article  about someone using shrink tubing to make windsocks. Using 1/8" Plastruct tubing and an elbow fitting, I made the end of the spout.

Slide and glue some 3/16" OD  and 1/4" OD tubing on after tapering around the spout end of each piece. You could also use some putty to help smooth further.

Here is the shrink on the armature that was just made. The trick is not to much heat, as you want to lessen the bump  at each section of tubing, not exaggerate it.

My arrangements for handling the spout are rather crude but look right at the minimum 2' viewing distance.

[riogrande5761]

When I think "Cascade", I think the mountain range that runs from northern California up through Washington States.  So it's a strong association when I read the title of this thread!  I'll have to work hard to break it!

[mlehman]

Jim,

I've not had the pleasure of visiting those areas more commonly associated with Cascade. For me, Cascade is a place I've been by many times on the D&S, but have never been off the train near there, save for the 1996 Nat'l Narrow Gauge Convention special. Milepost 477 on the Silverton Branch, to be more exact. Since my branch is imaginary, maybe it just sticks better than reality for me?

That does bring up the subject of freelancing, which can range from the implausible to the almost real except for the missing rails. I stuck to real places on the line with the majority of the layout, but got the itch to do something a little different. In part, it's that old "keep on building" thing many of us get enthralled by. But the Cascade Branch also serves an imprtant function of spreading out my operators from the crowded aisle in the main layout room. Additionally, it serves to provide better, more diverse traffic, because it supports a lot of "open load" operations with logging, stone, and aggregates. Once Black Cat Junction becomes more than a wide spot in the road, I'll add oil production to give another place for oil to originate from for the refinery in Durango, as well as a destination for pipe trains.

[mlehman]

Here are some more pics along the Cascade Branch.

Before

After

 

[mlehman]

OK, got that After pic fixed I think. The perils of operating with XP at this point, I suppose.

BTW, the scene at Crater Lake is pretty deep, even for my long arms. The liftout pieces of the quarry takes care of one side, while the long low relief mountains, hill and trees on the adjacent wall is also a long liftout. I designed the whole subroadbed base of Crater Lake to liftout in order to fcailitate trackwork. But's it's hevay and my back is flaky.I manged to shift a couple of things, primarily moving the tailtrack tuirnout close enough to the aisle side to reach in to lay it, so left things in place and proceeded anyway.

The problem is reaching the area around the tail of the wye track that goes all the way back to the corner. That's where the conveyer leads to the crusher in the next pit back (not modeled). The conveyor itself hangs off the back of the bin assembly on a wooden peg. I can leave it hooked up and reach in to place the bins and it attached to them.

But then there was the support tower for the conveyer. It was too long to look right without some support. I could use the grabber to place it back there, but how to accurately measure it? And exactly where would the legs sit, since the tower's location is not visible from the aisle due to falling off terrain back there?

The solution turned out to be using the camera held high enough to see it to take a picture of the grabber sizing up the "foundation" site. With the measurements, I built a tower, then placed it correctly with the grabber.

[mlehman]

Thought I'd do an overview of where the Cascade Branch is now by throwing up a few pics tonight as the start of a tour of the line, then continue to the end of the line, which has now been extended beyond where the passenger train was shown in the pic toward the top of the page.

First, some pics of Tefft where the Cascade Branch leaves the Durango to Silverton line. The grade behind the stationis the ruling grade for the line, so if you can make that, you're good over the whole line.

The only problem is that there is no place to turn a helper loco except for going to Silverton. I'm going to move the worker's housing up to Black Cat Junction  and build anotherlike the one at Purgatory phone jack turntable so there's a way to turn locos at Tefft. That way they don't need to go to Silverton, another way of spreading out my operators which was one of the original goals of thos project.

After going behind the mountain and through the wall, trains emerge form the "anti-tunnel" for the operator, it looks like the track emerges from a deep cut as it turns to pass in front of the Purgatory station.

[mlehman]

If you were follwing through the thread, you'll have noted that I changed the track around some after I got used to how it would work best by operating Purgatory. I recently added stockyards, a brewery, and a coal and oil dealer. All are being developed and there may be more changes.

One thing I sought to avoid was over-planning. I made sure basic stuff was provided for, but left lots of space to get creative. Another example is Camp 10. I'm still working on it, but it now offers a siding for passes and loading poles to sent to the plant in Durango.

Here's a pic of the siding at Camp10.

Back with more later.

[mlehman]

Once all the track is in place, it will be essentially double track from Camp 10 to Black Cat Junction. This will facilitate loading poles and making up long trains for the mill at Rockwood. The Mears Logging outfit  will have its woods HQ and shops here. At one time I also planned to shoehorn in a pipeline terminal  for a pipeline from nearby oilfields. Too much stuff, too small a space. I solved it, but will leave you in suspense until we arrive at the solution.

Leaving BCJ, the track curves behind the mountains...

Trains have to work their way up a side canyon to reach Summit, which is on the east side of the actual grade crest, but close enough.

[mlehman]

Here's looking ahead at the crest of the actual grade. No ballast on the track yet, but I'll deal with the small gaps along the roadbed edges from where the modules sit when that project is due.

Stepping back to get a good angle, next up is the site of what will be the Outlaw Mine, named in honor of a group of HOn3 buddies who keep the homefires of narrowgauge modeling alive even when I'm too busy to join them

Next is Crater Lake Junction. You can take the logging spur up to Camp 13, the track down into the quarry, or the track into Crater Lake and beyond to Snowden. To the right and up a 2.5% grade is the line to  Camp 13. The lines to the other two are behind the photographer. No ballast here yet, because CLJ will get at least one, maybe two more sidings, plus the spur down to the Outlaw Mine.

[-E-C-Mills]

Nicely Done!

Hey, I like the look of that oil dealer you have at Purgatory.  Is that a kit?  Would not mind seeing some more of that in the future.  What paint recipe did you use?

Thanks,  eric

[mlehman]

Eric,

Thanks for the comments.

My fuel tanks in Purgatory are a kitbash of various parts in the scrap box. The tanks are your standard yellow Rx bottles with the childproof kludge on the mouth cut off with the bandsaw. Not sure about the tops, but they came from a kit. The unloading platform is built from some leftover support frames from the Walthers icing platform. The top brace was from one of their oil refinery piping kits IIRC. The railings on it and the truck loading stand are Grandt leftovers.The valves and pump are Plastruct from thei refinery kit, as are the tank-top vents. The framing supports for the truck rack are from the bulkhead framing that comes with the Walthers 53' GSC flat car. I bent the piping out of Plastruct line. The ladders may be Walthers, not sure. Paint is Rustoleum Aluminum, all on a gray "concrete" balsa slab.

Here's a trackside pic.

And a 3/4 shot with the fuel truck standing by to load.

As you may have noticed, it was at Crater Lake at one time, but I switched it with this one after CL got more crowded, mostly because it fit the space a little better.

Pretty much the same type of parts, just a little different set of them. The "wrapped" tank didn't really come out well, but haven't gotten around to redoing it.

 

[mlehman]

Crater Lake was a lot like building a ship in a bottle. The reach in is actually well past my natural limits. Parts of it lift out so that I can work on things off the layout. Sometimes I use one of my "grabbers" to reach in. I moved the tail track switch for the wye out closer to the edge to make it easier to reach.

This pic is from before the rock bins, showing most everything else.

I also added a tie mill and some rock bins, as well as offices and warehouse for the quarry, a seedy looking downtown made from foldup paper kits, and a small stockyard. It's turned into a pretty busy place for the end of the line.

 

[mlehman]

The rock bins load aggregate for construction and road work, plus flux for smelting, fed by a conveyor from the crusher further back in another quarry pit.

While they look complex, they're much simpler than board by baoard methods. No problem with shortcuts here, really,as the bins are close to 3' away in the scene.

Thus, there's not a NBW in sight up close...

The final big structure at Crater Lake was the office/warehouse/coal bin complex.

But wait, there's more! Yep, a small extra bit of real estate was recently acquired and construction has begun to extend  the line to Snowden, where a pipeline is being built, necessitating pipe trains and tank car trains A few more pics hot off the presses coming very soon.

[mlehman]

As with much of the Cascade Branch, there are usually more pics in the weekly Weekend Photo Fun post here in the forum. There you can find more pics on how I built this extension. These may come in handy if you doing doubledecker or otherwise need a nice thin supporting structure for your layout. Be glad to answer any questions in either WPF or here.

Now I'm moving on to Snowden, which just got its name since WPF. It's destined to be the end of the line. The switchback up to what I think will be a mine (might be logging, but we'll see) now rises behind Snowden itself.

There will be three run-through tracks. The main is in the middle, with  sidings on either side. One will hold an oil rack for loading crude oil brought in by the pipeline, In effect, very similar to the Gramps set-up in Chama. Coincidentally enough, I already have plenty of Gramps cars.

If you look carefully, you can make out the rough track arrangement in this pic.

 

Finally, a pic from the other end. The end of the switchback is about 4" above Snowden itself, putting it at 70" above the floor, the highest point on the layout, beating out Camp 13 by a single inch.

[-E-C-Mills]

Thanks for the info on the tanks and such.  Very creative.  Your making quite a bit of progress on all the models and the layout.  Enjoying the photos.

[mlehman]

Eric,

I've done my fair share of planning over the years. Got many of them stashed away somewhere to prove it. This time I made a basic plan for getting through the wall, looped around and over to above the standard gauge staging. Elevations, locations, and radii. After that, it's mostly what I've been inspired to do in the limited space available.

I knew I wanted certain industries, because one of the overall goals was to  bring as much of it out of staging and onto the layout as I could. What needs done is often a product of operating and improving. That's where the idea for the turntable at Tefft came from. The blue cardboard turnout template shows about where the TT lead will connect.

At groundbreaking

An hour later [and better focused ]

Not sure why I waited so long...but it's not been that long. I only started the whole thing two years ago because I badly needed some daily inspiration. Time has been split between it and various smaller projects in the main layout area.

Some would say poor planning at work here. I have redone some things, but it's been mostly because things changed and the RR needed to adapt, just as the prototype does. Fortunately, using old school 3/4" plywood and 1x supporting structure makes the basis design robust and adapatable.

[mlehman]

It's been slow going because of budget limitations. A few turnouts at a time, plus slowed by ME's lack of code 70 due to the busted mold. Finally got my first shipment of that since I started a couple of weeks ago. There are a few Tortoises in critical areas, but mostly homebrew manual controls. The LED lighting seems like a luxury, but the easy installation and low operating costs make it a bargain.

So I do have a single track into Snowden and the first train in was the afternoon passenger powered by 345

I was surprised at how quiet the new benchwork is.

 

[mlehman]

The pipe train headed upgrade

It eventually arrived at Snowden where it will someday be switched to the siding for unloading by the crawler crane.

[NP2626]

Love the photos Mike, I am amazed at the progress you can make in such a short time!  Keep it up.  This is one of my favorite threads on the forums here!

[mlehman]

Mark,

Thanks for the comments.

It's one of those threads that seems to keep people coming back. Looks like I might break 10,000 views soon, which isn't half bad. I try to mix things up, with little how-tos and lots of pics. While I suppose I've gotten the knack of building mountain scenery, there's really no rocket science involved with most of it. Similar results are within reach of most here, if you have some space to work with. Except for the initial room entry from Purgatory to Summit, it was all pretty much extra space that I managed to utilize, so that's also an important point. Taking a fresh look around the layout might result in new ROW -- provided the land office is kept satisfied

[mlehman]

It's been a couple of months since an update here, although you can follow progress in my WPF postings. I thought a holiday posting to celebrate the 4th of July would be of interest and a charter of Goose #5 provided just the opportunity to grab some pics. It's kept in the enginehouse at Tefft to help protect the mail contracts, as well as serving as an emergency vehicle given the spotty nature of roads in the Animas Canyon around the Silverton Branch.

Climbing the grade out of Tefft, the Goose and its passengers were bathed in magificent morning light.

 

[mlehman]

After several miles of a climbing grade, #5 arrived in Purgatory. A stone mill and the Blackstripe Brewing Company are located here. Less wild than Crater Lake itself and more than a thousand feet lower, many of the workers up at the quarry in Crater Lake and commute to work up there.

While the helper grade ends at Purgatory, it's still a climb most of the rest of the way to Crater Lake. Even before Purgatory is behind us, this is apparent in this series of 3 shots leading up to the bridge over Lime Creek Gulch that leaves "civilization" behind us.

 

[mlehman]

While no Grand Canyon, Lime Creek Gulch is a significant physical obstacle. The sturdy bridge crossing it cost a bundle, but made the rich lands past it accessible and exploitable.

Once across the bridge, the looming mountains can be bone-chilling even with the cabin heat on.

Camp 10, one of several currently active logging operations of Mears Lumber, is shipping mostly poles these days. They are winched up to the RR from a large canyon out of sight beyond the camp.

The Goose soon arrives in Black Cat Junction, where the motorman picks up orders for Crater Lake .

The climb to the high point of the line at Summit continues.

The office at the under-construction Outlaw Mine is located in scenic splendor.

[mlehman]

Crater Lake Junction provide some additional yard trackage outside of crowded Crater Lake. The lines up to Camp 13 and down into the Crater Lake Stone quarry converge here. As with much of the Cascade Branch, additional track is planned to handle the traffic once funding becomes available. The only parts really mostly complete and thus ballasted are Purgatory and right in Crater Lake itself -- and even that can change.

A section crew is also posted to CLJ, as it's known for short. This pic shows the Goose isn't that much bigger than its cousin, the humble section motorcar.

 

[mlehman]

The track enters Crater Lake proper via a sweeping curve that lends itself to seldom-taken breathtaking views back into the valley the line climbed out of.

The track then takes the Goose in front of the station. Built of stone cut from the original area of the quarry like the one at Purgatory, it seems large until you consider, in case of inclement weather, it has to accomodate most of the quarry shift who use the daily commuter to Purgatory.

After a brief stop to confirm clearance to proceed through Merry Widow Junction to Snowden, just a couple of miles further up the canyon, the Goose proceeds through the other side of the Crater Lake wye.

[mlehman]

#1 went ahead of us, but was slated to take the spur up to the Merry Widow Mine. We caught it idling at the bottom of the grade before it climbed up to this AEC-contracted facility with a pair of gons to trade them for the 3 loaded hoppers under the rock bins there.

Sandwiched in around a water heater, the leads to both the Merry Widow and Snowden are not exactly photogenic. But you then enter the scenic upper box canyon that required the pipeline and terminal to load the crude oil onto the RR for transport to the refinery in Durango.

This area will eventually see two more sidings, one to serve the loading racks for the pipeline terminal and another to serve as the team track to unloads pipe from gons. A spur will allow loading/unloading of tracked and wheeled heavy equipment, as well as serve a warehouse to store drilling mud.

Down at the end of track, a crawler crane is shifting some pipe around as a dozer trims the surface around where the pipeline surfaces to bring crude into the terminal. It's also the best view yet of this pristine spot.

 The Merry Widow Mine remains a work in progress, but WPF pics last week pretty much proved it has the world's shortest aerial tramway.

 

[mlehman]

Snowden has no turning facilities, so the Goose backed into Crater Lake to turn on the wye. The first shot shows it on the tail of the wye.

Running past the rock and coal bins.

The Goose is then backed into the station for crew and passengers to get a quick bite to eat and check of other trains on the branch.

 

[hon30critter]

Mike:

I love the lumber piles and loads! I'm guessing you made them yourself. Is that right?

What wood did you use?

What did you use to cut the ends so nice and square?

Thanks

Dave

[mlehman]

Dave,

Aw, that's the tie mill, so they are for a very specific purpose. The loads are ties glued atop a piece of pink foam to fit the cars.

The hobby sticks I got from Hobby Lobby. I used my trusty diecast NWSL Chopper to cut them to length, then used gap filling CA to make neat stacks of ties drying. There's a mix of standard and narrowgauge ties in there.

[mlehman]

We'll chase the Goose's charter run back to Tefft now, where it's patrons can catch a train onward to their next destination.

Having topped its climb from Crater Lake Junction, #5 approaches Summit on the 2.5% downgrade.

Several miles later, the Goose pulls into Black Cat Junction, where much construction is still underway -- or at least planned.

Unlike many of my online towns, this one has plenty of housing for the workers.

A higher angle shot show the whole place is a liftout. There's some forced perspective with N scale structures in the back underway, also.

[mlehman]

Camp 10 is next up, with only the bare minimum passenger shelter and freight platform. This area will also see its track reconfigured once more funds become available.

The whole mountain past the tracks is an ~6' long liftout. I used some of the black foam material I make coal loads out of to fill the gap between the subroadbed and the liftout. A wash of earthy looking paint leaves it looking like gravel. And my Powerwagon won't fall through to the floor!

The Goose heads downgrade around the mountain eastbound toward Purgatory. There we get a good view of the stone station that is the sister to Crater Lake's.

Our final pic from this chase shows #5 dropiing down the 3% grade to the junction at Tefft.

Hope your 4th of July was a roaring success.

[mlehman]

This set of pics catches up with construction over the last few months that made the Cascade Branch nearly operationally complete. We'll follow a tank train from Snowden as it makes its way RR east to Tefft to take these raw materials to market. Since the last installment, 14 more turnouts were added for yards at Snowden and Crater Lake Junction and a set of sidings between Camp 10 and Black Cat Junction.

Here's a string of pipe gons and idlers in the team track at Snowden spotted by Extra 100 West.

The crew went dead on the law, so spotted the motive power in front of the depot to get enough crew rest to be legal.

Rounding the bend back to Crater Lake Junction, a great view of the valley below opens up.

A higher angle shot shows the new yard better.

[mlehman]

Crater Lake Junction now has all three of its feeder lines operational . The track in the right background rises as it climbs to Camp 13. The line in the right foreground leads down to the Crater Lake Stone quarry. in the left background a spur leads off the main down to the Outlaw Mine.

While CLJ's yard is small, it's big enough to relieve the pressure on crowded Crater Lake proper. It will eventually get one more siding along the back. Not bad for a place that's only 10" high.

Headed east, there's a moderate grade that climbs to just before Summit.

Besides crude oil for the Oriental Refinery, there's limestone flux for ASARCO's smelters, both in Durango,  and raw ties for the Koppers treatment plant in Alamosa.

[mlehman]

Passing Summit means it's mostly about braking to get to Durango safely. Grades average 2.5%.

A wider view show how the longer trains can't quite be hidden by the scenery. But all my planning involved a sleepier branch than what it's turned out to be -- a way to get some operators out of my crowded central aisle in the main layout.

Black Cat Junction is the last town still needing track, but the recent install of a long siding with center crossover will ease the dispatcher's job.

Our train fit if a meet was needed, with 3 or 4 more car lengths to spare.

At the east end at Camp 10, a siding now holds MTs to be winched past the loader if no loco is available or simply held there for loading later at Camp 13 or Snowden. There's a lot more logging modeling coming down the line.

[mlehman]

After Camp 10, the grade drops down around Sugar Mountain, so-called because what RRers call it isn't useable in polite company. The grade reaches its max just before the bridge across Lime Creek Gulch. Get off the track here and it's a long ride to the bottom. With most trains, the mountain hides them completely. This one is long enough it's visible at both ends if you stand back far enough. Here the loco is just coming into view as it prepares to cross the gulch.

It was our lucky day, as everything stayed safe on the rail. After crossing, the tracks are in Purgatory, where the Crater Lake Stone Mill is located.

[hon30critter]

Mike:

Thanks for the update. You have a great layout!

Dave

[mlehman]

Dave,

Thanks! Haven't been getting many comments lately, but people seem to enjoy reading and viewing the thread. It pushed over 12,000 hits in the last few days.

[mlehman]

Have been finishing up almost the last of the trackwork on what is now formally know as the Cascade Extension, rather than the Cascade Branch. Why? I had a brainstorm while trying to figure out a way to deal better operationally with the short back track required to get onto the Cascade from Silverton. It started with this:

Which controlled the rail between Tefft and Silverton, along with the turnout leading to the Cascade with these signals (and one more in Silverton.) More on them here: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/253256.aspx

Why not just make the Cascade a continuation of the Silverton, in effect doubling the length of the mainline run? So I did that, still working up all the paperworks, but it further facilitates the original goal of speading out my operators while giving them a longer, more interesting run. This doubling also simplifies, not only the schedule, but the overall operating concept. Add in a little Xmas cash for track and the project began.

I made some adjustments to the track and various rolling stock and soon had my six-axle units running the whole line.

 

[mlehman]

The combination of unfinished business, particularly at Black Cat Junction, and the need for added capacity drove the track gangsforward. There are less than a half dozen turnouts still needed once the ones on order arrive to finish 2 more sidings and a couple more spurs. Let's go on a tour starting at Crater Lake to look at what's done and a few place that are not.  This pic in front of the station there shows the siding used by passenger trains to help turn their consists here near the end of the line. It tends to need to be kept clear, so I'm thinking of adding anouther spur in front of or just past the depot.

[hon30critter]

Hi Mike:

You're like the Energizer Bunny - you never stop! (I think somebody may have said that about you before). Great work.

I have a question which you have no doubt answered before but I'm too lazy to search all your posts:

What LED strips are you using for layout lighting? I'm in the midst of acquiring all the bits for my LED ceiling lighting and I just want to compare what I have chosen with what you are using. I have purchased 10 x 5m 5630 strips that run at 5 amps each, plus three blue strips with the same specs. The layout room will be 10'x'23' with the track using about 60% of that area.

Thanks

Dave

[mlehman]

Dave,

Thanks, wish I could get a new set of batteries some mornings, but I do like to see progress

I'm using a product that is an enclosed version of the LF 3528 strip lights. It's like a light cord sheathed in a clear outer plastic. The power is built into the cord. They come in 13' long segments ($40ish, but on sale for less at times.) I get them from Menard's (don't know if they're in Canada, but are an upper Midwest chain that has expanded outward, so maybe? The current brand is Patriot. Before that, they were Meridian, which I can't recommend due to quality issues. The Patriot ones are holding up much better.

The current draw is something like 19 watts each. Total wattage in the main layout is around 200, so pretty darn efficient. I use the Cool White version, which is actually more like Daylight than the bluish stuff that often comes labeled that way.

There is lots more discussion and pics starting about halfway down this page in my Night Scene thread: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx?page=3

I'll be back to get pics going here a little later. I was up way too late last night

[mlehman]

Let's continue down the track to Crater Lake Junction. It will get another siding at the back of the three tracks visible in the background in this shot. I added a set-out spur that the loco and caboose are sitting on. It's also a bit of a tail track so trains don't have to go down the steep spur into the quarry from the CLJ yard or the spur up to Camp 13.

Next is Summit. Originally, just a station in the middle of nowhere, it's the highest point on the main. I added an 8 car siding to give the dispatcher another passing point. This is the west end...

And this is the east end.

I also laid new track downgrade past this point towards Black Cat Junction, as it was previously cobbled together pieces of flex that gave me trouble several times.

[mlehman]

Black Cat Junction is finally done and really helps op flexibility with a wye, thress through tracks and what will be a two or three track yard (just one track back there pending more turnouts.) The pics go from RR west toward RR east.

First, there's the rough country between Summit and BCJ.

The stockyards and west lead; you can also see the "cut/tunnel" that the line enters from the main layout room below as it curves into Purgatory.

The wye, unforetunately only about 17" radius on the two curved legs, but the Goose is now able to get around them so I think I'm good. I also had to cut a small "tunnel" in the coved corner of the backdrop to get a long enough tail track to turn a 2-car passenger train and loco. Planning to disguise this by building up the hill on the town liftout some more to block the view.

Finally, the east yard throat at BCJ.

 

 

[mlehman]

To give you and idea of relative size and distance, the last group of pics and this one were mostly taken from the same tripod location, with the camera right against the ceiling, rotating to the left as I took pics.

From Black Cat Junction (BCJ) the track continues east in a long siding with a crossover in it's middle, about halfway between BCJ and Camp 10. At Camp 10, a long spur holds car to be loaded with logs.

Obviously, got a lot of ballasting to do, but I like to let the track settle while I run on it awhile so I can get most of the finetuning done before I bury it. Note that these high angle shots tend to show the liftouts a little better. Most of the scenery you see is removable as liftouts. That includes the big mountains behind Camp 10 and the one that is inside the curve that the track curves to the left behind as it descends the canyon back there to reach the Lime Creek Gulch bridge and enter Purgatory.

In Purgatory, observant readers will note that it's been reconstructed again, at least the 3rd time. The TT lead was on the bridge/west end at first, moved to the station/east end, and now I've added a turnout to provide a second lead from the west end again. This also conveniently lets crews access both industrial leads by crossing the TT.

The stockyard was rebuilt after the previous one was carted off and expanded at BCJ.

This pic is looking down on the location of a siding I'm waiting on turnouts for, a third track to provide a house track for passenger trains and quarry-to-mill flats to wait on out of the way.

[hon30critter]

Mike:

Thanks for the referral to the night scene lighting thread. I have to confess that I had totally forgotten the conversation we had in 2014.

FWIW, I have settled on using 5630 natural white strips (4000 - 4500k) and three blue strips with the same specs. They do require power supplies but the overall costs are still way cheaper than any other lighting solution. I will have to wait until they are installed to see if they are bright enough.

Dave

[hon30critter]

Mike:

Do you have a track plan diagram? I would love to see the bird's eye view of the layout. You don't need to go to the bother of drawing one up if you haven't got one already.

Dave

[mlehman]

Dave,

I've got a track diagram, but not a track plan. This is for the Cascade Extension.

And this is the one for the main layout room narrowgauge.

 

 

I did take pics of the track diagrams at each station that show each location in detail and will post soon.

[hon30critter]

WOW Mike!

You have a lot of stuff going on there! That's a good thing IMHO in case you were wondering about my meaning.

You have given me cause to ponder my layout plan. I don't have anywhere near the number of switching opportunities that you have. I'm kinda being pulled back to the drawing board. At the very least, Im going to try to add more sidings.

Can I ask how big your layout room is?

Thanks

Dave

[mlehman]

Yeah, lots going on for sure. Total turnouts, including SG, is around 180. I like having lots of options.

The main room is 28' x 16'. The biggest part is 16' x 16', then it narrows some towards the entrance.

The Cascade Extension fills a 12' x 8' room, then meanders on for another 12' or so.

Total HOn3 main (Durango to Snowden) is about 150', but doesn't included staging to Chama under Durango.

Here are the Cascade track charts in order. The main is in red, and shows the normal position of turnouts on it. Off the main, yellow shows the normal route. Black is the rest of the track. Not to scale, but represents roughly the shape of track at each location. The press-on numbers are the register numbers for each turnout so operators can distinguish the turnout control for each.

Purgatory

Camp 10/Black Cat Junction

Summit

Crater Lake Junction

Crater Lake

Snowden

Hope to upgrade these soon, but gives operators what they need now.

[mlehman]

This one covers needed capacity improvements to take advantage of the opportunities the extension provides. This first pic shows Tefft and the Cascade's line climbing above it.

Here are part of the signals, the ones for the east end of the Elk Park block.

In Silverton, I added the two tracks closest to the fascia to add yard capacity there. The west end signal for Elk Park is visible.

The Elk Park block is roughly what's in this pic in between Tefft amnd Silverton.

[mlehman]

Now for a little Design Philosophy...

The Cascade was intentionally designed to a tighter min R, in this case 20" min R. In a couple of places, like the new wye at Black Cat Junction, I do go under that (17" @ the BCJ wye for instance.) Blackstone generally operates around an 18" min R curve, so there is a little slack in the design because of that.

Slack is a good thing in trackplan design, because it makes a lot of things possible if you need or want to make adjustments later. If you're right up against that wall from the start, your options are generally far fewer.

One example here is the new siding at Summit. Had not planned that, but it turned out to be a good idea. I had enough set-back from the fascia that it wasn't a big deal to add more roadbed for a siding, as I did here.

In the case of the siding, it's also very helpful that the scenery surrounding it, like most on the Cascade, is a removable liftout. I just needed to trim the liftouts to make it fit the new roadbed.

Sometimes, your slack is already there. I was pondering adding a new spur to handle excess cars, MTs, or a laid-over passenger train. Thought I'd have to scab on a little wider subroadbed in front of the fascia, just past the Crater Lake station.

I was pondering that when I realized the roadbed was already there in place, I just needed to move the station out enough to take advantage of it, as the next two pics show.

Before

After

The subroadbed is lurking right underneath, just need to clean up some Sculptamold to get things level and true. The turnout for it will be just past the road crossing and I have room to make it about 4' long.

[mlehman]

After track is laid, even when well-designed and carefully installed, it's important to test. With operating sessions coming up, I ran several trains to verify things, truning up some minor issues that needed some fine tuning. Here's a few pics of a stock train we'll be running as it tests.

A crucial factor in transforming this one-time branch into part of the main was getting everything adjusted so that my "big" C-C diesels could operate up it.

Even before a full test of the new ops scheme, I can say it's much more satisfying to cover most of the layout to get to the destination. This will help clear the crowded aisles as people try to get outta Silverton, where it always seemed to breed a traffic jam with my long, too-narrow aisles. Now I can split crews so that 2 or 3 max are in either of the two layout rooms at one time. 

[mlehman]

Here's a look at adding the house track in Crater Lake. You earlier saw how the station could be moved back to make way for this spur in front of the station. This works out well, because this track was needed in part to get a local passenger train out of the way for a few hours on the fast clock between it arrival at CL and its departure for Silverton in late afternoon.

First, I cleaned up the ROW. Turns out it was in pretty good shape, needing only some limited "earthmoving" at it's end. I didn't need to dig up Sculptamold except for the last 15" or so.

I then cut the existing main to install a ME #6 turnout. For the last foot or so, once the Sculptamold was peeled up, it was pink foam underneath. I needed some thing to spike into. I could have skim-coated it with Sculptamold, but it would have been a day or two before it was hard enough to hold spikes. Instead, I cut a piece of 1/32" aircraft plywood, applied water-based contact cement and bonded it down. The plywood provided a place for the spikes to hold, as well as smoothed out the roughness of the foam. An hour later I was ready to spike track. Here's the plywood coated in cement while it dries.

Because the track would be right at the edge of the fascia, I decided to add a fascia extension, which also provides a place for a few structures. Here's the cut piece of prime 3/4" New Zealand Select pine cut to shape, pockets for the long screwes cut into the edge and 4.5" screws ready to go.

Here the extension is installed. It's screwed into the side of the existing road bed. I've bonded the plywood to the roadbed, so things are nice and flat.

I wired up the turnout and track and spiked them down. Here's a view from one end...

And the other end, where I relocated the coal dealer.

 

[picker6]

Hi Mike, as one who has had the opportunity to see your layout in person,all of these posts are great.I really like your methods for senery it sure covers a lot of ground in a ahort time.

Thanks again  for sharing your great talents. 

Jeff.

 

[mlehman]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your kind comments. Good to hear from you and please feel free to arrange a return visit if it suits. Finally about to get the last of the track down, just 2 or 3 spots where I need a currently out of stock turnout and I'll be done......with laying track, anyway. Still plenty to stay busy with, starting with lots of ballasting.

[mlehman]

A camera can be a very useful thing. This thread wouldn't have been half as informative or interesting without the illustrative pics. But a camera can also be a tool. When working in the retsricted spaces provided by second decks or other places like the 10" of airspace tucked under an air duct that I call Crater Lake Junction, it can be difficult to get a good view from anything but the front. That's forced prospective working for you. But you sometimes need to see things from a different angle to evaluate how things are going. There's few things more basic than track and here the camera can help you.

The camera can overcome the limits of forced perspective in several ways. Most basically, it sit where your head or entire body can't fit so you can see it yourself. The smaller cameras are for this, the better. Don't forget you smartphone as a handy device to do this.

If you have a zoom lens, even better for a particular task, evaluating track location.. That's because the telephoto lens let's you "compress" the view tp show you the errors of your ways -- errr, or at least of your track's location

Here's a pic from the usual viewing angle of CLJ that looks pretty decent despite being unfinished in many ways scenically.

Then, if you can get the angle to do it, this is what you see frfpom the foreshortened end view.

As I spike it down, I'll reference pics like this, adjust accordingly or even go back to look through the zoomed lens to check things.

You can see I moved the Sinclair dealer from Crater Lake over to the end of the  house track here at CLJ

Here's another pic from the same angle, but zoomed out to a more normal view.

 

[mlehman]

I generally apply good design practice and leave plenty of level area around towns and industries so that cars don't roll away. But this is not always possible in every case, especially when you're trying to squeeze stuff into leftover or unexpectedly available real estate. Much of the Cascade Extension is like that, with storage underneath, not always RR-related. So you take what you can get, even if less than ideal.

Until someone comes out with a cheap DCC "hand brake" brake system, you can improvise to solve issues at problem areas for both individual industries and at locations where the train may have to stand on the main. One trick I was reminded of lately is to use a Caboose Industries hand throw to rotate a wire into position to hold cars. Here's one of several I recently made for a few troublesome locations.

The next one is one I've made about a half dozen and used with great success in the main layout room. Here's what on the surface.

The all but invisible "brake pin" sits between the rails, marked by the B posts on each side. This is in Purgatory at the beginning of the grade that goes over Lime Creek Gulch and uphill. Trains coming downhill may have loaded stone flats that need dropped at the mill. They stop, as if to uncouple, preferably so the pin will rise up between the cars. The knob marked "B" controls it. It then holds the rest of the train on the hill.

Here's a pic of the mechanism, basically a RC aircraft control item, but used here as a crank that the link from the knob attaches to. The "brake pin" is attached on the other arm, guided upwards by passing through eyescrews or holes drilled in the benchwork as needed.

                                                                 

 

[mlehman]

After some time railfanning the Cascade Extension this week, I'll be posting some pics of my adventure over the next few days.

First up, a meet at Summit, where a new siding was recently installed

Here's a double-heaed pipe train crossing the Lime Creek Gulch bridge as it leaves Purgatory.

To be continued...

[mlehman]

I try not to recycle my WPF shots here, but this one was too good to leave out of this sequence as our photographer gets a low angle shot or two...

Our train looks fast passing the crude oil train in the siding at Camp 10, but it's just the slow exposure setting.

We'll skip Black Cat Junction for now (will return it later) and caught up with the train again at Crater Lake Junction in the next sequence.

[mlehman]

At CLJ there are a couple of MT Class C boxcars to drop on the Outlaw Mine spur for spotting on the return trip.

The MTs are dropped in the spur for now.

The train is reassembled, but is long enough to almost make it into Crater Lake from CLJ.

Once the trainline comes up to pressure, our train heads for the team track at Snowden...

[mlehman]

The pipe train arrived in Snowden to set out its cars on the team track where a crawler crane will unload them to be trucked up to the oil field.

Pulling forward, the locos dropped the pipe, then will runaround it on the main to escape to return to Crater Lake to turn on the wye.

The caboose is plucked off the end of the train for placment on the rear of the loads outbound from Crater Lake.

 

[mlehman]

Switching gears a bit, let's return to Black Cat Junction, where I built the town as a long flat from printed images attached to a length of black foam core. This is the before shot and I want to preserve and enhance the depth it provides to this view of the layout with my sawtooth foam mountains.

I cut the mountains in order to shift one end a little to the left.

The first attempt came out OK, but the size of the structures on the right side was a bit large.

I reprinted several of those buildings in smaller scale to get the perspective working in my favor and modified the backdrop.

Now the issue was that the Shady Lady was too tall and just looked weird at the angle of the original pic. So I redid that part smaller and from a face-on view.

Now the mountain in the background to the right of The Shady Lady didn't quite fit, so it was trimmed down.

Finally, that looked pretty darn good. It'll serve until I build an actual 3-D flat to take its place. But an entire town for under $10 is something anyone can afford -- and is about as easy as it gets.

[mbinsewi]

Lookin great Mike !  I like following this continuing thread on your work.  That RG #64 is something that I've only seen on your RR.  I love it.  Reminds me a little of the odd looking MILW. SD39's.

I also had to do some bench/facia extensions as I improved operations.  I needed more room on the inside corners.

Mike.

[HO-Velo]

Mike,  Effective use of flat back ground scenery, looks good.  Ah, modeling nowadays with the help of computers and printers sure is nice.

Thanks and regards, Peter

[mlehman]

Mike,

Thanks for your comments. Yes, that resemblance is one reason why I like the DL-535E (a White Pass & Yukon loco in real life.) I do have a standard gauge Kaslo SDL39 done a a Rio Grande loco with dynamic brakes and a Pyle nose light, but it's just too big to credibly narrowgauge (or I would have !) I built my two -535Es from PSC kits. PSC also sold a number of these built-up. Both appear from time to time on Ebay, but kits can be particualrly hard to find. They pull darn well, especially if you fill the fuel tank with weight.

Happy to hear some of this has been of assistance and/or inspiration to solving issues on your layout.

mbinsewi

Lookin great Mike ! I like following this continuing thread on your work. That RG #64 is something that I've only seen on your RR. I love it. Reminds me a little of the odd looking MILW. SD39's. I also had to do some bench/facia extensions as I improved operations. I needed more room on the inside corners.

Peter,

Thanks for your comments, too. Yes, a color laserjet makes things possible we could only dream of years ago. The Shady Lady "affair" is a case in point. Since the first pic I found was on a general search for Silverton buildings, it was easy to narrow that to a search just for pics of the saloon. That quickly yielded results. Problem solved.

This is also a a reminder that some things can be overplanned. I'm not dissing planning, it has its place, but we shouldn't forget good results can be attained within broad general plans by letting inspiration play out. This is a principle I've used numerous times on the Cascade Extension. Better the ocassional easy do-over than the paralysis of over-analysis and planning.

[mlehman]

After fussing around with the driver springs on my Sunset K-36, I finally got smart and just ordered some from NWSL. Here's a pic of the front four nestled in place waiting for me to flop the front drivers back in place.

The big K just couldn't make up the Cascade Extension at all, as much because of the vertical curves as the horizontal ones. I'd eased most of that as I brought track up to shape to run C-C diesels. So sorting out the suspension on 480 led to a test run. A few spots still have issues, but they could be fixed. The proof is in the pic, as things went well enough to make it to Snowden, then back to turn on the wye at Crater Lake, where the crew went for beans before the return trip to Durango.

Whether the big K gets back depends on how the forthcoming Blackstone K-36 does on the Cascade. If that goes OK, fixing the things needed to get the brass version up and back make sense. Otherwise, 480 will handle traffic between Durango and Silverton and leave the heavy hauling on the Cascade to the likes of this...

[wickman]

Always nice to pop in and check out your  works. You are progressing  nicely.

[Graffen]

It's looking really, really good!

[mlehman]

Lynn and Graff,

Thanks to both of you for your kind comments. I'll try to add some more pics soon

[mlehman]

Here's my current project on the Cascade Extension, the Outlaw Mine. It has no prototype, but is a mash-up of features I liked among mines and mills near Silverton. In particular, the covered loading dock at the Silver Ledge Mill in Chattanooga was an inspriration. The site of the Outlaw Mine is right on the edge of the benchwork, so it keeps the cars spotted there from being brushed off accidentally.

Here's a pic og Goose 5 passing the location before construction started. The assay office I bashed from a Grandt No Problem Joe's House was a placeholder for bigger things to come. Notice the blue-painted ductwork above, which I wanted to help disguise.

I tend to work when I get inspired. I also like to build to suut a location, as I often use forced perspective techniques to make things appear to have depth and distance. Having a plan is usually too restrictive, although I sometimes sketch something up. In this case, no plans at all. It's built to fit the location best. First, a foundation is needed, which I built from basswood.

I notched out the Sculptamold-based scenery to hold everything in place.

The basic form of the structure wasmocked up with cardboard templates. They're easy and cheap to work with to help determine the basic form of the structure, for instance, making sure it's high enough to act as a viewblock against the ductwork. Here, the first piece of black foamcore has been cut, with templates still at both ends.

As you can see, I keep a cut of cars handy during the design process to check clearances.

Hacked together, even the foamcore is still cheap enough for a do-over if needed. I assemble the basic structure using Titebond III Ultimate wood glue and let it dry.

[mlehman]

The foamcore needs to be straight and square, but need not be perfect as you can adjust and correct the sheathing as needed. And then the project set, err, percolated for a few months while other projects took priority. I like having the built-up foamcore in place, though, as it helps inspire creativity in the design process while working on other things. Eventually, I returned to the Outlaw Mine project. Here, you can pick out where I've started framing the openings, pillars, etc with stripwood, some purchased and some wood shop leftovers.

I sometimes still use the Titebond III after the basic framework is complete. However, to speed the process I generally switch to a decent thick gel CA and kicker at this point. Make CERTAIN the products are both foam-safe, or you stand the chance of melthing part of your project instead of bonding it together.

Keep checking those clearances. It's also good to bring in the largest loco that will serve the building, as these are sometimes wider than the rolling stock. You can also use a NMRA gauge. Then the fun really begins, sheathing the structure.

I like to use 1/32" and 1/16" thick basswood sheeting. Many of my structures are board and batten, like many structures in the Silverton area. You can buy milled siding to do this, but I'm on a budget and this is a big building. I'm going to apply individual stripwood battens, which also look great.

I cut the door and window openings out when I cut the sheathing pieces to fit. Then after test fitting, I spray the backs of each piece with 3M 77 adhesive and bond everything in place. I also use thick CA to bond things like corners that end up not bonding in harmony, etc. After sheathing is in place on the foamcore, I use a knife to cut the opening behind  each window and door opening using the sheathing as a template. Works quite well as long as you have a sharp blade. And here it's starting to look like a real building.

A couple of more shots of the whole structure.

All for right now, but I have more pic to process and since I'm now rolling I should get this one finished in the next few days. Be back soon.

 

 

[wickman]

Mike am I reading this right that  your building the structure right on the layout?

[mlehman]

Lynn,

No, it lifts out like the foundation does. The posts on the front wall extend downward and lock it into place once it's set all the way down.

It is nice and handy, so when fitting stuff I sometimes work on it right on the layout, but I mostly bring it back in to the shop to work on. As I noted, though, I like to constantly reference it in its surroundings so I get thr proportions and perspective right.

[hon30critter]

Nice project Mike!

Dave

[mlehman]

Thanks, Dave

Here's a few more pics. I'll have more soon, but switched over to a project I've put off for too long -- refacing a bunch of control panels on the main layout. They're been added to and subtracted from so much it's ugly...and they were pretty much just a place to stick controls at first. First six done tonight and the other 5 tomorrow I hope. In the meantime...

I like to leave access when I build to install LEDs later, plus you need light blocks to make it appear there are different spaces inside. Here some floors are friction fit for now to allow later installation of the wiring and LEDs.

Usually, I like to glue in at least one floor to help stiffen the overall structure. Here it's the one above the loading dock, which you are seeing from the top.

This will be the supply loading dock/warehouse. It still needs the dock built and a set of doors installed.

The other two spots inside will have chutes for the ore bins.

I glued in foamcore to finish the structure for the headhouse and sheathed it, cutting windows as needed. Starting to look imposing, plus the edge of the duct is now partially disguised. Once I get the roof on the living quarters, you'll hardly even know the duct is there and the space will seem correspondingly larger.

Looking past where you could normally see standing in front of the layout, the camera looks along behind the Outlaw at the grade going downhill t

o Crater Lake Junction.

As you can see, it's not a flat, that's for sure, but it's tailored to fit the space.

[mlehman]

I couldn't sleep last night, so took a crack at the understructure of the roof. First I fitted foamcore supporting structures.

Next, I cut the underlayment from styrene. I used the cheap "For Sale" signs you can find at the big box. Most are painted only on one side. The price beats the heck out of the packaged hobby shop stuff (not that I don't love my Evergreen for other stuff.) Then I spray the foam core backing with 3M 77 and attach the styrene.

 

[mlehman]

This project had a long gestation period from when I included the siding for it to about 10 days ago when things gelled in my mind about how to proceed. That's when I started making rapid progress. Here's catching up with the build over the last week.

Paint and millwork go on after the many, many battens were glued in place

The roofers came next and set the Paper Creek corrugated sheeting in place, along with some custom variants to give the impression of a roof maintained over time.

Next came the electricians, who wired up the dock lighting first.

Soon, the whole building was wired up.

Then I started some of the work still needed in the covered dock area. First a raised dock next to the bumper that receives supplies.

Then I cobbled together something that looks like the outlets for ore bins. I didn't get too fancy here, but plan on some more detail eventually. I also included an adit to the mine to allow tram cars to bring in supplies from the dock.

I added some concrete docking along the rails in front of the ore bins and loading dock.

A look in showing boxcars in the dock

I'm still on the fence about adding more supporting posts along the open front, which was inspired by a similar covered loading area at the Silver Ledge Mill in Chattanooga north of Silverton. Should be more for structural reasons, but that interferes with reaching into the track in case something goes wrong. They would also make it harder to do the same when detailing. Doesn't need done right away, so will think on it more.

[mlehman]

While I had my LED stuff out, I returned to Black Cat Junction to do some more work there on the station I built last month. Light's on after dark...

There's a secret clue in there about this week's upcoming WPF...

I also added the dock for freight and express.

Finally, an after dark action shot, switchin' at the Outlaw Mine.

[mlehman]

The Outlaw Mine needed a little more elbow room along the front. I'm still working on figuring out a place to put the powerplant/boiler room, probably right out the main building besides the spur entrance so that there's a place to unload coal. In the meantime, I figured I'd work on getting some real estate. First was the frame, made from some shop odds and ends that happened to fit the need.

The frame is screwed to the ends of a couple of crossmembers. Then some foam was glued on top.

Sculptamold was applied to serve as a scenery base, then painted with the first coat. Note that before this was done, the base was unscrewed from the fascia, then some plastic wrap was sandwichedin between so that any messiness was easy to clean up afterwards.

EDIT: Please note that there's more after Dave's comment at the bottom of this page. The forum software only indicates up to a page 5, this one, but there is now a page 6. In the URL, change the 5 at the end to a 6 and hit Enter and it will take you forward.

Or follow this link: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/219241.aspx?page=6

[hon30critter]

Mike!

You should be a Real Estate agent! You can do amazing things with small properties!

Seriously, the addition will make the mine even better.

Dave

[mlehman]

Dave,

Thanks for your kind comments. But I wasn't quite done yet. Now I have a plot hacked out of the hill and extending onto the bumpout. Not really big, but big enough.

[mlehman]

It wasn't a lot of land, but just enough. I dug around in my piles of stuff. Found some windows in the Tichy 200-window assortment. The walls are the driveway from the Walthers 933-3174 LCL Container Terminal, with the curbs forming vertical pillars once stood up. Some stone sheeting on what is supposed to represent the original powerhouse that was updated to the present appearance on top of the coal bunker. Various Plastruct scraps and bits, plus some household waterline PVC tubing for the boilers and a couple of those big phat bubble tea straws for the stacks. LEDs from holiday lights, suspended on bus bars made from brass stock.

Front

Back, note the doors to load the basement coal bunker.

I did have to engorge the bump-out a little, which was simple with Sculptamold. I stuck the short ends of some skewers in, then glopped on some Sculptamold, smoothed and shaped it and let it dry.

[hon30critter]

Very creative!

Dave

[mlehman]

Dave,

Thanks! Finding that 90' section of brick roadway with curbs in the leftovers from the Walthers LCL kit was the key to making this work. It turned out easier than I expected.

That piece of roadway could be turned into a lot of things, so people may want to keep it in mind. I used the traveling crane in the kit at the May Day Mine in Hesperus, but have since had people asking if I'd sell them the crane, so maybe it's hard to find?

One more note on parts...the doors to the coal bin are the sideboards from an old Roundhouse 30' standardgauge flatcar kit.

Some of my best kits are just the castaway leftovers from "fancy" kits -- the kind that come all neat in a box with instructions