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:
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
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
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.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
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.
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.
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.
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.
Making good progress, looking good.
Thanks Cameron
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mike .... Amazing work! Thanks for sharing.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
Wow! Think Pink! Enjoy seeing your skillful progress, if only there were more hours in a day.
Regards, Peter
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
Really Mega Awesome work! Mike!!!!!
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.
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.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.