Union Pacific's N Scale Canyon Division....

GREAT picture!!!

Those are exactly the kinds of mountains/mesas I want on my layout.

I'm familiar with them after dozens of road trips between DFW & SLC, visiting family. The Bookcliff mountains running along the north side of I-70 from CO to US191N look a lot like that too, though maybe not as reddish (they face south, baked by the sun all day long, so the colors are more muted). The cliffs opposite Arches NP along 191 north of Moab are more red like yours appear.

The landscape along US 191 between Moab and I-70 also shows a lot of copper oxide (green) color too.

I'm planning on stacking layers of half-inch extruded foam insulation board for the N scale terrain (scaled by WS incline starters for the track), and the broken edges will make for the rock strata in similar scenes on my layout (not near scale though). I think I can use a woodworking marking gauge to scribe additional strata boundaries in the edges of the foam board.

Of coarse the vertical scale will be severely compressed on my HCD layout, but I've also noticed the same physical look on much lower "mesas" in other parts of the country, scaled to height.

Your picture also captures the earth and rock debris accumulated at the foot of the cliffs. It seems like the debris typically accumulates to from a quarter to a half of the height of the cliff (unless a water source was there to keep more of it swept away).

The color saturation varies a lot with cloud cover, time of day, and especially whether it is raining/snowing (or just stopped). The drive north into Moab is prettier than the same highway headed south out of Moab. Just the angle of the views...

I think you just about nailed the practice piece. One thing I have noticed is that the strata are very level (it was a shallow seafloor originally, so the layers were evenly deposited), so the boundaries between layers don't slope much, but from a given point of view they might appear to in a photograph. In some areas, subsequent geologic folding can create slopes in the layers, but I have not noticed it in that area of the country. Big Bend NP? Yep, there's been some major geologic folding there. And of course the Rockies. The RM terrain was created by geologic up-thrusts, folding, etc., not erosion of an ancient, dry and stable seabed as in southern Utah.

 

Made that trip a few times myself. From Blanding north to Moab and further north to SLC and points beyond and through DFW going to Florida where the sailboat was. Love this area, best place I've ever lived. Spent years in Wyoming then thought I was retired and moved to Moab, built a house, found out I really didn't have enough put away to retire on. Sold there, was getting to popular for me, moved 70 miles south built the trading post and been here ever since.

You probably have been missing us in your trips to SLC unless you have detoured to Monument Valley or Natural Bridges. Probably going from Farmington to Cortez to Monticello to Moab and on to SLC. We are on a mesa top 20 miles south of Monticello on 191 and 70 miles south of Moab. It looks flat here but canyons only a mile or so ease and west of us that run north/south. I'm trying to model some of the local canyons and also some of the area by the Book Cliffs as those formations have the coal seams in them. The justification for my coal mine complex.

Stop by if you get in the area and the next post might be of some interest,

Sumner

 

Christmas Day Dottie and I made some sandwiches and drove 40 miles south to Valley of the God which is on the north side of the San Juan River in Utah. Monument Valley is on the south side of the river and they have similar rock formations, mainly the vertical Wingate red sandstone with the sloping Chinle sandstone talus slopes below. I was interest ….



…. in seeing if the paint that I came up with for the rock work I was trying to make out of foam was similar to the real thing. I'm pretty happy with it at this point and will tweak it a little when I start putting it in place on the layout. The gray layer in the model is a limestone layer that forms a cap rock in the area but the real thing is very thin so way out of proportion on the model.



I'd like to have the lower level tracks go through a ridge similar to Comb Ridge about 10 miles west of our house and shown above. Of course it is going to be scaled down considerably as trying to duplicate the 700 foot high ridge above would end up with it being about 54 inches high on the layout so I'll have to compress it.

You do find much smaller ridges like this, often call Hogbacks, along the front range north and south of Denver and some by Gallup, New Mexico and other places in the country where there has also been an uplift usually along a fault line.



To see if I thought this was going to be possible I spent an hour or so just mocking in what I hope will work out. If I can do this I think I'm going to like it as it will act like a mini-divider and setup a scene on this side where I can have the edge of a small town by the tracks and...



….. on the other side will be the tracks going to and from the coal mine complex and the main line going further west. Also the coal mines in eastern Utah area are in the Blackhawk formation that is younger and above the Navajo sandstone and other formations that make up Comb Ridge. Since the Navajo is dipping down it is somewhat realistic that the coal mine can be a ways away in the higher Blackhawk formation that contains coal in the area to the north (actually about 150 miles in real life). Lots of work ahead. I'll pull the mock-up off the layout and continue with getting roadbed and track down but glad I did this as it changes the track plan somewhat in this area.

If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

That fault line sticks out like a sore thumb in Google maps terrain view south and west of Blanding, being a relatively straight or gently curving, linear ridge, in an area otherwise carved by erosion into the former sea floor (characterized by relatively flat plateaus eaten away at their edges by water erosion.)

If you cut cross-wise (E-W) through that ridge, you would see the fold and break in the strata following the uplift. But from either side of it, it reveals the level-edge views of the sedimentary layers laid down at the bottom of the inland sea before the uplift occurred (just pushed up where we can see them).

Yep, that's the most common route we take to SLC from DFW, through Cortez, Monticello and Moab.

 

I've read that it is the largest single geological feature in the area. Wraps around the east side of Monument Valley and ends up at Kayenta, AZ. The most prominent part of it though is west of town down to the San Juan River and a little beyond it.

It is only a few miles longer to detour south of Cortez and head to Aneth, Montezuma Creek and on to Blanding and then north. Pretty drive. Lots of unbelievable scenery to the west of us and even to the east of us.

Sumner

 

Thanks; my wife and I have thought about a detour through that area before. We've also considered staying in Moab for a day or two to tour the surrounding area more extensively.

In the past, we've always been in a hurry due to my limited vacation time, and lots of in-laws to visit. But now that I'm retired...

 

Fascia Pt. 1:

I glued the foam down on the ….



…. south side of the layout and ….



….. clamped it down one day then …........



…............ the next day I pulled up all the plywood/screw clamps from the south side (above) and ...



…... glued, clamped and then removed the clamps from the last north side section that needed to be glued down. That completes gluing the hard foam on the lower level. Finished the day by making a batch of PCB ties for more code 70 turnouts I need for the hidden staging area. The following day I started and …..



…............. finished putting up about 2/3's of the fascia. I wanted it up before laying any track since I'll have the 5 volt buss for LEDs, servos and maybe other items along with the DCC buss on the face of it at the bottom. I'm trying to avoid going under the layout now and in the future and liked how it worked out on my test track. With the buss in place I can power track and see how it seems to be, especially the hand-laid turnouts as I lay it.



The top of the fascia is angled so I can put control panels on it if I want.



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Hopefully another day will see the fascia up and then I can stain and clear coat it.

If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Fascia Pt 2:

Well got half the 60 feet of fascia done in one day and thought I could finish up in a second day but....



…. after about 3 hours and only 3 pieces up stopped for the day. I wasn't sick but no energy.



Worked on some other stuff and a couple days later went back to it and found my energy was up again and ....





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….. finished up the woodworking part of the fascia.



So far I've been happy with the material selection and the construction side of this. For anyone looking at building a layout I would strongly recommend raising the the layout 3 inches above the main benchwork with risers as explained ( HERE ). They make changes to anything that needs to be done now or later very easy. For example putting a switch machine in and having part of the benchwork in the way is not going to be a problem now or ever.



I've used MinWax stains and urethane's a lot on the two sailboats and for furniture and storage units around the house and have good luck with them so used them again for the fascia.





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Finally time to lay cork and track but also need to get wiring in so I can test the track as I lay it.

If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Watching you work on this layout makes me wonder if you really are doing it yourself. WOW!!

 

Hidden Coal & Staging Tracks Pt. 4 & Lever Frame

Not too long ago some one mentioned 'Lever Frames' and I didn't really know much about them but after looking at the good Wiki article ( HERE ) I got hooked and wanted to see if I could come up with something similar. Not N scale size to be placed somewhere on the layout but a version that could go on the side of the layout next to a 'Yard Control Panel'. A number of them would be ganged together similar to what you would see in a control tower and each would activate throwing a turnout that is shown on the control panel.

There would be LEDs on the control panel and/or on the lever frame itself that would indicate which route the turnout was set for. I had recently developed what I call the 'Spring Switcher' switch machine that goes under the turnout similar to a servo and throws it with a simple fishing line running from it to the side of the layout. It doesn't need much throw on the control line so thought I could connect the 'Lever Frame' to the 'Spring Switcher' for turnout control. There is a video ( HERE ) showing the combination together throwing a turnout. These are parts that can all be 3D printed cheaply.

I also thought it would be great if the 'Lever Frame' could control LEDs on it and/or on a nearby control panel as mentioned above. I modified what I had designed to do that also. Now a version can be printed with two SPDT switches and a momentary push button switch along with hopefully a SPDT slide switch. This will allow it to operate a servo under the turnout vs. the 'Spring Switcher'. I'm thinking it might allow it to operate a number of servo operated switch machines that are commercially available but don't have any to test that idea.

So on with a few pictures of the 'Lever Frame' and then also I got back to laying cork on the layout. I'll print what I hope is the final version of the 'Lever Frame' controller today and soon try and get those print files up on my thingiverse.com account ( HERE ).



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I probably have over 30 hours of design time into this at this point and have generated close to 700 files on my computer associated with it.



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I read a number of posts on laying track and watched a number of videos and if you are starting I'd suggest doing the same. I kept going back to Joe's videos on track laying on his Sayrehurst Secondary layout. You can find one of his videos that I used ( HERE ) along with links to others.

I also have watched a number of his other videos and always enjoy his quick and practical approach to the ways he tackles things. At 79 I'm not sure how long I'll be doing this so I've looked for ideas that are practical and give fairly quick results. He puts down track pretty fast and that was high on my wants as I'd like to put down quite a bit as fast as is practical having a 6 foot by 24 foot area that I can work with. The following pretty much follows his procedures. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail myself as you can find that watching his fine videos.

I'm using Micro Engineering code 55 track and so is Joe so that was another reason I'm using his videos as a guide. He uses ME turnouts where I'll be using turnouts I've built myself. If you are using ME rail you might also find the video ( HERE ) helpful. The tool used in that video and what Joe uses is very hard to find the last time I looked. I found one in someone's old stock in Canada and bought it but since have designed basically the same item that you can 3D print and you can find the print files ( HERE ).

I also have more on laying the cork and track on my site ( HERE ) from when I build my test track.

If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Now, that's cool old school switch control!

I don't know much about fishing line, but are different kinds (braided vs monofilament, etc.) less susceptible to stretching, etc. over time under tension?

 

I'm using a solid Fluorocarbon Line (12#) that I use for fishing here (Trout, Bass and Blue Gill). Don't really know much about line myself but had it on hand so used it to this point. From what I've seen with my test controllers (Used the 'Gravity Switcher' for maybe 1 1/2 years at this point) it hasn't been a problem but if it was it probably wouldn't show up using the 'Gravity Switch'. I guess time will tell with the 'Lever Frame'. I've made it so that it is quick and easy to install and adjust the control line.


Tie it to the side of the main lever as shown by the yellow lines above. Run it straight to the 'Lever Frame' (or via eye hooks if needed). Then...



.... wrap it around the screw on the back lever where that little window is for the control line. Take the slack out and tighten the screw down. Simple as that and if it ever needed adjustment loosen the screw and pull the slack out and tighten if back down. The flexible piano wire from the switch machine up to the turnout's throwbar makes line adjustment not real critical. Close is usually close enough.

Sumner

 

Hidden Coal & Staging Tracks Pt. 5:

Finishing up laying the cork and moving on to sanding it down to get rid the of the flashing on the shoulders and any other imperfections.



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In the past on the test track I used the top two tools and the sandpaper to take care of the rough cork shoulders, especially the one on the one side of the cork after you separate them. I use a sharp utility knife at an angle on a flat piece of plywood I use as a temporary work surface. to separate1 the cork into two pieces. I got out a rasp I've had forever and gave it a try and...



….. I found it much faster and easier to use.



After doing the small area one night I did all the rest of the staging and the hidden tracks to the coal mine in probably 30 minutes the next day. I found that I could also use it on the top of the cork to level it out also. I probably could of moved on without using the sandpaper but went over the area very quickly with it.



When using the rasp and sandpaper check for any high spots where the cork pieces meet, especially the but joint on the ends and where you have added cork for the turnouts. This is very similar to doing body work on a car where you feel for imperfections. Lay you palm flat on the surface and run your finger tips along the cork surface (no across it) feeling for imperfections. I showed my bare hand above but you can actually feel the surface better with a light pair of gloves like in the next picture. The hand can feel imperfections of a few thousands of an inch doing this.



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I vacuumed once after using the rasp and then again after using the sandpaper.



As I mention in the image above prepping the staging and hidden coal yard tracks followed by spackling it went much faster than I thought it would. I did it all in under 3 hours but was beat at the end of it. I'll cover the spackling on the next page.

If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Hidden Coal & Staging Tracks Pt. 6:

Prepping the cork for spackling and applying it.





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If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Two Tunnel Portals to Staging Pt. 1...

Before laying more cork past the staging yard I needed to finalize the tracks coming out off the hidden staging on the south side of the layout. There are three tracks there that go in or out of two tunnels there. One tunnel has the mainline tracks to the staging and the other is a single track that comes off the mainline at an angle and also goes to the hidden staging.



I used Fusion 360 to design the two portals along with some retaining walls. The portals were then printed on the Ender 3 Pro filament printer.



I designed the portals loosely based on portals I seen on UP's line that goes from Denver to Salt Lake City via Grand Junction, Co. There are a number of tunnels along the Price River as the railroad ascends to Soldier Summit. I'm not sure if there are any double track tunnels there are not.



I probably won't put these print files up unless someone wants them as the left portal is at an angle to the double track portal due to the track coming from a #6 turnout just out of the picture. I will put up print files for a single portal and double track portal that look like the ones above.

I also started cutting a rock face from the foam board as shown above. Still a lot more work to do on that but I think I have a start that I can work with down the road.



To do the rock work and after watching Dave at Thunder Mesa Studios doing rock work in foam I bought the Woodland Scenic how wire foam cutter above. I have mixed thoughts on it. The yellow slide switch on mine can be inconsistent but works most of the time I push it. Can't remember why but I had to take it apart and don't like the way it is constructed and would be hard to change the slide switch out for a different one (I was going to try doing that).

It does cut well and I like the deeper throat on it compared to the next one so if it works it probably is a good deal for someone especially if you don't see the need to cut a lot of foam. I'm going to have to cut a lot of it considering there is scenery that has to be made down both sides of the 24 foot long layout. It was $40.



Venturing on I decided to invest $30 into the 3 in 1 kit from Gochange on Amazon and bought the tools above. I haven't used the right one much since I had the Woodland Scenics with the deeper throat. Mainly have used the tool on the left with the shorter hot knife. You can use any of the three on the handle to the left. The straight tool is nice for cutting into the foam to create features once you have it cut to a rough shape using the first knife. It works well.



The combination of the two above would probably have been fine if my layout was smaller but it isn't.



Researching tools I came across the Hot Wire Foam Factory sculpting tool shown above. It is unique in that the cutting wire is much heavier than on the two preceding tools where you stretch the wire taught between the two arms. You can shape the wire on this tool into about any shape you want and it will stay there and cut that profile in the foam.

So far I leave mine most of the time shaped as shown above. A gentle curve on the left side of the wire and more of a right angle on the right side. Using one side or the other and the angle of the tool you can sculpture a lot of different features into the foam. I love this cutter. It as right at $100 with the power supply. The power supply puts out a lot more current than the other cutters so heats fast and cuts fast. Needs the current in order to heat up the thicker wire also. The tool by itself is under $40 but you need a an adequate power supply to operated it. They have the kit with the items above with the fixed power supply that I've been more than happy with. You can pay more and get a kit that has their variable power supply if needed for your situation.

Since I now have the power supply I went ahead and ordered (don't have it as I write this) a tool that looks like the one above but has the thinner wire and a throat depth that I think is close to the WoodLand Scenics knife but also other features that I like. It was about $25. I also ordered a 3 inch straight knife like the one I've been using from Gochange. From what I can see it will cut faster with the more powerful power supply. It was $30. In hindsight I would of ordered these items from Hot Wire Foam Factory to begin with if I had know what I do now. If you are going to do a lot of foam work I'd look into them. They have different packages to choose from.



I'll go into more detail on the next page about using these tools.



If you are going to do rock work check out Dave's YouTube Channel ( HERE ) he has a lot of good tips. One was to use a wire brush like above to create smaller striations in rock faces and you can use it to shape the ground and other features.



Another tip from his is to purchase an inexpensive heat gun like above. On the high heat it will melt the foam back if left in one spot long enough. Use it to round off sharp edges if needed. I will blow the foam away and soften the features you want to soften. Great tool to use.

I have a lot of rock work to create since I'm modeling the canyon and mountain terrain from where I live and I'm sure at some point I'll not want to see another piece of foam board but so far I'm enjoying this and the tools above are a good part of that.

If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

You are right about that. I'm in pretty good shape since the shop is 27' x 40'. A lot of air volume. I think I will start running a small fan near me to move the air. In the hotter months I run a swamp cooler a lot and that is bringing in fresh air and pushing out stale air but not using it now for sure.

Thanks for the thoughts,

Sumner