I should've mentioned I'm on tapatalk, so maybe it is a tapatlk issue. Do people see the picture or the code in my quote? That will help narrow it down. Sent from the magical mystery box
OK. So it is a tapatalk thing. Ken or someone, please delete these posts so John can have his thread back, thanks. Sent from the magical mystery box
Spent a few hours today working on the layout adding foliage at the side backdrop areas. Also expanded the smoke plume in the corner and still not satisfied. So below is the right side. 100_4609-1 by John Moore posted Aug 8, 2015 at 6:58 PM Also added to the left side lower portion. 100_4610-2 by John Moore posted Aug 8, 2015 at 6:58 PM And I backed up and got an overall shot now that all three backdrops are on. 100_4611-3 by John Moore posted Aug 8, 2015 at 6:58 PM Still have to get up to the meadow and fix the fence, still need a station sign, camera picked up where the paint brush missed a few spots in the tunnel interior that need addressing, and the left back drop has the same earlier problem of color shade blending with back due to age issues, so there I will mist and fog that in some also. Also there are a few trees and shrubs up around the incline levels that are just too bright and toy like so they will get ripped out to be replaced by more of the fine foliage or some small pine trees. I have come to the conclusion that the clump foliage trees that come in a pack are just too toy like in their colors, so most of them will end up in circular file 13. Tried to run my S-2 Northern on the lower main today just to see if it would. Did fine until the tunnel portals were encountered. Since those portals are both on a curve I should have used a double portal there. Tempted to go back and install same at both. So maybe I will chisel then out at a later point and simply overlay the wider portals on both.
John, I think Bubba's newest production facility does quite an adequate job of blending the rear and right back drops. Not sure it's still broke, so consider not fixing it just yet.
I will keep you in mind if that is the direction I go. I may just toss them in a bucket of hot water and strip the foliage off them and then have the armatures to go back and apply fine foliage which looks so much better.
I love the smoke plumes. Maybe adding one more on either side that's not in a corner would help disguise the fact that they're there to hide the corners?
I think that I may just need to flare out the right plume some and that will hide the corner better than my seeing a straight line still on one side to the right. The right side backdrop has distant smoke and steam plumes off the far distant stamp mill. So tomorrow I may try flaring out that plume more with some tweezers rather than add more smoke.
I think it looks great. The cotton steam plumes are most effective and the layout looks much larger with the backdrops in place. Doug
Today after my Sunday nap with the Big Guy guarding my back, I arose and went at the layout scenery again. Ripped out those loud colored clump foliage trees and replaced them with fine foliage versions plus some more pines. I have lost count of the trees but somewhere over 300 now. Reinstalled the repaired highway bridge and some track signals. 100_4612-1 by John Moore posted Aug 9, 2015 at 5:05 PM Still have yet to fog and mist in the left backdrop. And I repaired the upper meadow horse corral and replace a previously chewed telephone/power pole. At the station area I again replaced some clump foliage trees with better ones above the station on the incline. Still have one that is left there screaming at me to be removed and replaced. I decided that there was too much clutter at the station area so I removed some stuff at the M of W facility and some vehicles from around the station and the station masters quarters. Also installed signals there and replaced both repaired and repainted water columns. 100_4613-2 by John Moore posted Aug 9, 2015 at 5:06 PM More signals at the right side with one controlling the yard lead to the main and another back by the tunnel controlling the incline's access to the main coming off the incline. I flared out the smoke column in the corner some and added just a touch more smoke. The photo doesn't show it but some of the mountain is now partially visible through the smoke. Added crossing gates at the road crossing of the main and signals. Nothing in the yard, yer on yer own there. Still need to touch up the black around and in the tunnels. 100_4614-3 by John Moore posted Aug 9, 2015 at 5:06 PM Tomorrow its back to the dentist to see if the bone graft actually did anything at all beside cost me a lot of money. I expect this trip will finance his Fall trip to Maine and the one after this will finance his Winter Bermuda vacation so I don't expect I will feel like doing much.
Looking better all the time! Am glad the felines have generally ceded the territory to the rails! That is a major victory! The light grey ballast is neat. Any plans to weather it down the middle where the oily stuff always ends up?
At some point I will probably go down the rails with a finer point brush and India Ink. Since all the equipment is either oil fired steam or diesel a spot or two and the area in the yards will get the heaviest application. The ballast is either NP or GN fine ballast from Arizona Stone. The reddish ballast is iron ore which is my stand in for Scoria which is a slag that is mined from burnt out ancient coal veins. Saw a lot of use of that when I lived in Montana for road surfacing on the secondary roads but never saw it used as ballast.
I had never heard of Scoria, so Googled it. Thank you for today's lesson. My day is not wasted, even if I learn nothing more.
The stuff in Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota was generally referred to by that name although it was originally stated to be from the result of long burning Lignite coal veins most likely touched off by lightning or prairie fires. I have never seen much evidence of volcanic activity in that area but that doesn't mean there wasn't and long since hidden by thousands of years of weathering and erosion. The stuff made decent road cover though for secondary roads since it did not hold water and turn into a quagmire like a dirt road in rain. Since it shed water so well I am surprised that I never saw it used as rail ballast. Of course that name may have been pinned on it by earlier folks and it just stuck although it isn't volcanic in origin. Of course like other regional areas there were a fair share of names for things not found elsewhere like Bearpit or Barpit which was the term in general use for the drainage ditches along the sides of the road.
Aha, THAT scoria is "clinker" to me, the leftover stuff from coal fires in general, including those from (ta da!) steam locos. Another quality wanted but not always achieved is for the ballast to be able to lock up for stability when piled up and tamped; granite and limestone of a certain size fills the bill there. That just might be the problem with using scoria/clinker for RR ballast. The stuff looks (to me) gloriously and consistently inconsistent, with pieces of various colors, sizes and hardness in the same paving run. As an aside, there were a few side streets near downtown Concord CA in the 1980s still being done in granite pea gravel, but that size wouldn't stay put and required replacement every couple of years. Cheaper than asphalt paving. But if someone told me some narrow gauge RR used scoria/clinker for cheap or easily available ballast, I wouldn't be surprised.
Scoria is right plentiful out here. There are small quarries for it everywhere, most ranches used to use it for roads. It is a bright orange/red color and when first put down on roads, is sharp as a knife! It will finish off your worn down tires in a rush! It eventually crumbles into the extremely fine sand/dirt it seems to be made of, and it gets to pack down really hard then. Well, till it gets wet, then it is a mucky mess! Have never seen it as ballast, or any evidence of it under the current ballast, as it breaks down so very quickly. So, for a shortline with no budget, it would make a good 'temporary til we have more money' kinda rock.
I finally found an article that describes the material referred to as Scoria that I have modeled in various small modules and scenes. https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn13_h.htm As I suspected it was a local descriptive term and not actual Scoria. The stuff is very prevalent in both Western ND and Eastern Montana and saw a lot of mixed uses. So in my modeling I have gone back and pulled out visual memories of things I saw as a young whipper snapper in my use of the material in places like the area in the ranch modules I did earlier. Ranch complex. by John Moore posted Jun 30, 2014 at 11:16 AM I think we as modelers tend to strongly be affected by what we experienced earlier in life and those scenes tend to show up in our modeling. So for me a somewhat oriental flavor will get imparted to my port area when and if I ever get to modeling that and that comes from my years spent in the Orient with Uncle Sam and what I saw, liked, and made a lasting impression on me. So don't be surprised when I finally get to that module of the layout that a Shinto shrine doesn't appear somewhere since part of my fishing fleet has a Japanese flavor along with a few of the buildings.
