Rainier Great Western Const Update

You can find the KCT Helix construction process on Bruce Carpenter's BNSF Chilli Sub website: http://www.bnsfchillisub.com/Local%20Layouts.htm (scroll down his page about 1/3 of way)

 

Here is a pic of the new (old) table section in the SE corner of the train room. I say old because this table section becomes only the 2nd table from the original RGW built in 1996 being reused.

 

Here are two shots of NW corner farm scene that we started to put in Tuesday. Still have fencing, horses and homeowner on riding mower (leaving shed) to go.

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Here is a shot of Black Diamond with first layer of scenery (sand) in place. The sand is over 3/16 inch foam core and brings base up to level of industrial tracks. Next layer is dirt, then grass. Before that tho, need to decide where buildings and roads go.



Thx for checking in. M

 

Following up on Tuesday's work session, spent time Saturday attending to second layer scenery and ballast in Black Diamond. We use dirt as the second layer and it covers the sand. We use Arizona Rock Products as our ballast.



Here Wain has laid down the ballast in the mine and is working on the mainline. Our yard ballast is ARP's Yard Mix.



Our mainline ballast is ARP's GN Basalt. This shot is just after soaking the area with wet water and diluted white glue.



Here we used dirt to create a berm at the edge of the canyon rim. We have also put down some greens, with more to follow.

 

As Wain worked scenery, I spent the morning adding the 2nd new table section, albeit a short one. We will need to construct a pull out table to provide long term access to an electrical panel on the east wall, so this was as far as I wanted to go today.



After the benchwork was in place, I set about placing tape on the floor to give us reference points for future table sections. Note the blown up Cadrail drawing attached to the existing yard fascia in the picture above. Cadrail makes determining reference points easy. One of its benefits is the grid you choose at inception of the drawing. We used 1ft square, so it is simple at any time to find a reference point on the drawing and transfer that to a point in the room. The SE corner of the room, shown above, is our 0,0 point on a standard x,y grid.

With the tape on the floor we have a great chance to test aisle clearances and makes changes if needed.

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More later. M

 

Spent last Tuesday night ripping the 3/8" plywood into 5-1/4" width strips for the helix. This with will accommodate double track. Today, cut the strips into 8-3/16" lengths using 7.2 degree angles to form our helix. Our radius requires 24 pieces to make one revolution. Each revolution will have a sandwich of two layers of plywood, laid in a half lap pattern, with the top glued and screwed to the lower. As you can see here, the test of laying out one layer fits our space to a "T". Thanks for checking in.

 

Tonight's work session took two parts, first was much discussion of the upcoming helix build. Many thoughts and suggestions on the process we will use to build it, how to construct the support table, when/how we will lay cork and track, etc., etc. We came up with some intriguing decisions, but you'll have to wait on that for a future post. We intend to film and photo the build so we'll post all that down the road.

For the balance of the night we built the second table section of the return leg of the layout. We also installed the plywood for the turning loop of the staging yard. You can see our progress in the pic below. I also am including a shot of the Cadrail drawing of the return leg. So at least you can get a sense of what we're constructing. If you look close, you can see the turning loop to the left and the helix to the far right. We modified the drawing tonight (in pencil) to accommodate a better (radius) return loop and the addition of at least 3 more staging tracks.





Any comments or questions, just let me know. Thanks for checking in. Michael

 

Spent Saturday morning adding the carcass of the upper level of the return table. As you can see in the following pics, we used triangle braces that can shoulder loads up to 1000 lbs. to hold up cross braces for future L-girders/risers. A center divider of masonite will divide the table in half. Renton on the door side, Maple Valley on the opposite side.





We also began framing the fascia.



More later.

 

Who painted your backdrops? I am just over the bump from you and would love to find someone locally to paint a backdrop when I start building my layout.

Ryan

 

Ryan, I did all the landforms, Wain did the clouds. It is easier than it might appear. For Rainier, we used a projector to put image on wall, then a light tracing. Then pinned pic on wall and began colors. I started with light gray, then slate, then blues, then whites.

I used various flat brushes, a fan brush and a painter's knife. Just did a few strokes and then stopped, assessed colors, angles, depths until I was ok I was keeping within integrity of photo. Never judge too soon, painting layers gives to time to change things and giving time gives painting chance to develop and improve.

Google or YouTube Bill Alexander or Bob Ross, I use their methods. I had never painted backdrop before doing the Mt Rainier you see on my layout and I am in no way an artist, I just took my time.

I am only 25 min from North Bend if you'd like to schedule visit to discuss in more detail.

Michael

 

Ken, I will look through my collection. Did you check out new photos of John Henry mine on prototype page of rgwrail.com? Just took those two weeks ago.

 

Thank you Paul. M

 

Ryan, one other note about the backdrop, if you look close, and in some shots you don't even have to do that, there is a tinge of purple. I got this color by taking a couple of distant mountain shots to home depot and having the photo scanned. The color spectrum came out purple, albeit very light, in both cases. I subsequently started every landform with that base color and added greens, browns, tans to it. Gave me renewed respect for, "purple mountains majesty". M

 

More progress during tonight's work party. We added another table section to the return table, added another upright and cross member, then put down next plywood section that will form base for our main staging yard:



Looking opposite direction:



We also completed the first phase of the liftout section against the east wall. We need to do this to assure access to the building's electrical panel.



Thanks again for following our project. M

 

Wow Michael, you're really getting toward the home stretch! Looks great.