The JACALAR RR

Thanks Shades, Rick, Ken. It has felt so good to finally be able to run trains out there again. I love doing the modules, but they took up all the open floor space in the shed, and under the benches. Having been able to make room for them in the storage locker has revived the JACALAR.

 

It has been MUCH TOO LONG since I have done any work on the JACALAR. Getting totally sidetracked with the SV FreeMoN group, and building those modules, didn't leave me with the time or energy (or space) needed to work on the home layout. When I finally go back to it (see above), life managed to interrupt, primarily back and neck, again.

Well, feeling better, and wanted to start getting back to the layout, and accomplishing stuff. So, knowing I would have a visitor this coming week, I decided to start with something easy -- finishing the roads and sidewalks for the town of Cherylton. This area had been rather rough, with just craft paper taped down for the roads, and not too neatly. Also, the Downtown Deco buildings are multipurposed between the JACALAR and my SV Station modules.

Here we can see the new work for this week. The "U" of the road, stretching along the two rows of buildings, and crossing both tracks. I also decided that even though the town doesn't spend too much on its infrastructure, it did decide to spend the money to have a brick driveway and parking lot for City Hall



Wider overview, and you can see how this connects in with the established part of town


Lots of details still to be added -- have the street lights, people, grab some cars, etc. Weeds, fix up the driveways. Even finally get around to detailing up some more of those DPM buildings.

Here are a couple of street level views of the new area




Nothing is permanently down, yet.

 

After a number of years of having my Donner Lake photo as a backdrop for the exit from the High Sierra tunnel, my unhappiness with the seams (from being a pieced together large photo, printed on my HP Deskjet 970) and the fact that it was fading, I took the Photoshop file to Staples, and had them print it as a single 20x26 inch print (and the Sunol yard backdrop - 8 x 84 inches) on a very high end printer.

What my home printed looked like when first put up, years ago:


Here is the old one and new photo side by side. Still have to mount the new one, and then put behind the mountains

 

Side by side, that seam really stands out.

 

Those shadow lines are the other seams - they would show up more, if I had shot the photo from the other side of the prints

 

What does it cost today, for having these one of a kind or specialty type prints made?

 

The 20x26 cost $25. The 8x84 was $35. Very reasonable with all things considered. (And, they kept screwing up, until their "expert" came in, so probably wasted their entire charge on the multiple bad prints).

 

Hmmm. Might be time to start grabbing photos of interesting scenes, with specific potential backdrop use in mind. I know a few folks do, but somehow I never look at it that way, when out and about.

 

Here you can see just how faded and peeling the yard backdrop had become. While the old inkjet printer was always a bit lighter in its colors, this set of prints really got raggedy looking. The single piece will do much better. Unfortunately, you can see where different photos were stitched together in Photoshop, since I didn't know quite how to control white and color balance in those days

 

Wow. What a difference. The lower version is really washed out.

 

I finished trimming the top of the new photo, and am letting it flatten. Will install sometime in the next few days. Might call for some new pictures, with trains.

 

Please do post some views!

BTW- How are you attaching it to the backdrop? What sort of adhesive?

 

For the large photo of Donner Lake, I mounted on standard photo board using 3M Photo Mount Spray. Then attached to the wall with double sided foam tape (3M Ventshade, it has more sticking power)

For the yard backdrop, I just slathered some Modge Podge onto the backdrop, which is vinyl flashing, and smooth out the bubbles carefully. Once dry, the excess wipes off the painted vinyl without hurting the paint.

 

Actually, the problem was (is) the window. I rarely have the lights in the shed on. I have to get some film for the window that is next to the Donner Lake print, but opposite the yard wall. The wall doesn't get direct sunlight, but I attribute the fading primarily to it. I actually see the fading in other places, too, such as the Stop signs I made on my printer. The red/magenta clearly fades first.

The new prints were printed on a HP DesignJet with pigment inks. I am planning on getting a new color printer sometime in the next year, and type of ink and photo capability will be of higher importance than when I bought the HP-970cse oh so many years ago.

 

My wife corrected me last night. I didn't use Modge Podge on the first prints for the yard - I used an Elmer's Glue Stick. Using it does not warp the paper. I might use it for the "mass" of the long photo, but then use a thin bead of Modge Podge along the edge, to get a better seal to eliminate peeling. I used Modge Podge on the smaller backdrop strips behind the town.