Tuesday night I finished carving foam on my diorama. The next step is to make rock castings using rubber molds and then paint the foam and rocks. Another project is to paint and weather tracks and ballast. Joe
The scenery around the track near the replacement bridge has been patched up and blended in with the rest of the nearby scenery and I have started to add some things on the top of the ridge to represent the outskirts of Winnemucca. I had a couple of those Model Power houses and cut the larger section of one of them in half to use as a shallow relief structure to represent the back of a house. Also added some sections of the old Micro-Engineering board fence along with some I scratch built to match. The space under the bridge is wide enough to allow for the maintenance road. I went ahead and painted the bridge but still need to get some railings for the back side. On the other end of the ridge were I-80 disappears behind the sky board I want to try to hide the edge of the sky board and may try to have a casino there. Found this Miller Engineering sign on ebay that would be used either on the roof or on a wall. Years ago at a National Train Show Bachmann was giving away structure kits and this was one that I got. I have not known what to use it for so I may try to turn it into the casino. Again I would have it being the back side of the casino with the sign facing the freeway.
Here are the casinos in Winnemucca for your info to help you with your designs Winnemucca Inn Winners Model T Sundance And one attached to the holiday inn express
That's great Kevin, Thanks. I think I have actually stopped at a couple of those. Been looking at the buildings on Googlemaps to get some ideas of how it should look.
This part of the layout I have been working on will have the other end of the layout just above it entering an upper helix. First the layout has to get all the way around the room and it's less than half way now so it will be awhile before I actually build this part. I wanted to get an idea of how things are going to look and work so today I spent some time mocking up this east end. This first photo is an overall view. I clamped a piece of plywood between the bare bench work of the Carlin section above the staging yard and the helix risers. Then used some plastic sheet to simulate where the fascia / sky board would be. I temporarily clamped a couple of my LED panels under this upper section to illuminate the Winnemucca area. In the actual installation the light will be more even and there will be a shallow lighting valance. This part above the area I am now working on will represent the Carlin tunnels that are just east of Carlin, Nevada. I laid a pair of tracks and locomotives to represent this. Looking at things from inside the helix, I clamped a section of helix above the tracks to represent what would be the next turn up on the helix. This last photo is again from inside the helix looking out from where I-80 goes behind the sky board. The highway lifts out if access to the Southern Pacific track under it is needed. Eventually this opening will be closed off with a removable sky board of some type. With this bit of experimentation today I am satisfied that this will all work the way I intend it to.
Will you be adding the Carlin siding and Yard as well? The siding comes off the WP (main 2) and the yard is on the SP (main 1). I remember several years ago there was an old RPO sitting in the yard that eventually got cut off from the rest of the yard as they removed tracks and then one day it was gone completely.
My plan for Carlin will be looking from the north to south, so the SP line is in the foreground. I do plan to have the cross overs from the WP line to the SP line and then back. There will be a small yard, maybe 2 sidings and maybe a couple of those small truck transfer industries that are on the east side of town before you get to the tunnels. I want to have a few businesses along Main Street behind the yard. The WP track will just pass through town behind those businesses. I will have 20 inches of depth to work with a length of about 11 feet between the Palisade tunnels and the Carlin tunnels. That sounds like a lot of space but of course I will have to compress everything.
Sounds good. I just don’t remember a crossover at Carlin. There is one from track 1 to 2 at Barth that is hand throw and Whirlwind which is ctc. There used to be one just east of Beowawe before whirlwind was built. Was ripped out just after whirlwind was built. Also there was a hand crossover main 2 to main 1 just west of Elko that was ripped out as well.
An idea I’m playing with. A scenic tourist RR being operated by the logging railroad. Here is a possible platform in place at the logging camp and one placed in Uintah Junction. Today the train is being pulled by Uintah #59. A 2-6-7-2t, usually the trains are pulled by shays and Heisler.
Early last week, I tried to make some progress on writing the job descriptions for operators running the I. Bork & Sons Scrap Yard Jobs (AM and PM shifts). IBS Scrap has significant rail traffic: each day, IBS Scrap receives 32 inbound gons of large or mixed scrap metal from 3 different trains, and sends out 32 gons of small or sorted scrap metal with those same 3 trains. IBS Scrap is located next to PPU's Kickapoo Yard, a 7-track satellite yard between Peoria and Bartonville. Four of those 7 tracks are dedicated to IBS Scrap, and the remaining 3 tracks are used for blocking the PPU Bartonville AM and PM Locals. In addition to the 4 tracks in the Kickapoo Yard, IBS Scrap has spurs into 6 different scrap metal processing areas immediately next to the Kickapoo Yard. The Kickapoo Yard and the IBS Scrap processing areas are connected by 2 tracks: the IBS Scrap scale house track, and the PPU's Lead to two industries just beyond the IBS spurs. These two tracks form a convenient run-around for IBS spurs, but when the PPU Local switches the industries at Kickapoo, all IBS switching must stop for the entire time the Local is in the Kickapoo Yard. Although the amount of rail traffic, number of spurs, and extra responsibility for changing loads make the scrap yard job a little more demanding for operators, in Thursday's test run-through of my most recent version of the IBS Scrap Yard Job description, it became evident that poor track configuration in the Kickapoo Yard and IBS scrap processing areas was magnifying the complexity of both the PPU Bartonville Local and IBS Scrap Yard operators' tasks. So, starting on Friday and finishing Monday PM, I: 1. reconfigured Kickapoo Yard so the PPU Bartonville Local operator could make run-arounds in another part of the Kickapoo Yard, and will only briefly interrupt IBS Scrap Job movements as his loco passes through to and from the two industries without stopping; 2. moved the scale off of the IBS run-around (which will reduce the number of moves needed to weigh inbound cars before spotting them in the appropriate scrap processing area), and made it a little longer (to accommodate 4 cars instead of just 3, which will make the operator's job go a little more quickly); 3. found a way to get all outbound cars on a single track instead of on 2 tracks [and, thus, freed up a track solely for PPU run-around movements]; 4. re-soldered feeders to the reconfigured tracks; 5. re-installed all the ground throws where turnouts had been re-positioned; 6. bullet-proofed the reconfigured tracks; 7. put thin ties under any new rail joiners; 8. moved the scale house; 9. touched up the scenery and roads around the repositioned scale house. Sunday, I had been scheduled to set up our NMRA Division's HO modules at a Train Fair in Peoria, but we cancelled late Saturday due to forecast snow and dangerous road conditions. This coming Saturday, I'm scheduled to present my clinic on making trees and tree flats for model railroads, again, this time for Division members in the southern half of our division. (Feb 9's clinic 3-hour long clinic was held in my own home for the northern members, so I didn't have any driving; this Saturday, I'll have about a 2 hour drive down and 2 hours back.) I need to make some changes in my PowerPoint slides, so I cover a little more about making tree flats, and a little less about the various materials we use (which will be covered this time by my co-presenter, instead of me). As far as the Layout Party, this week, after I tweak my clinic slides, I'll get back to revising the IBS Scrap Yard Job (and PPU Scrap Transfer Job and PPU Bartonville Local Job description and TPW Keokuk Local Turn job description) to match the new track configuration.
These Boy Scouts on a camping trip are having bear problems. The mischievous bears are back. And my mountain now has all of its trees on it.
Yep, one of those little nuances that I put in here and there. Kinda like a bear sitting at the picnic table in another scene.
Finished the little casino this afternoon. Used the rear 2/3 of the lower level of the Bachmann mansion kit. Did not want so many windows so blocked a couple of them with billboards. Could not get the stainless steel sign frame to work with the angled roof so made my own from Styrene strip. The sign has 2 modes, one is all parts lighted (shown) and the other alternates between the woman and the text being lit. It takes 3 AAA batteries to power the circuit.
Nice, makes me think of the small casino bar up by the Walmart in Winnemucca or the Sundance casino owned and located by winners.
Did a little more tweaking of the scrap yard track configuration to make it easier for the Bartonville Local to pass through the scrap yard to switch two industries beyond the scrap yard. Spent more time this week than I had expected, revising and adding new slides to my PowerPoint presentation on making 3D trees and 2D background tree flats. This afternoon, a co-presenter and I gave our 2nd 3-hour clinic of the month for our NMRA division. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
