Thanks guys. Hehheh well all my research and wanderings (begining over two decades ago) I'd never come across that specifically. After years of contour maps, plans and in-situ photos I'd noticed several trends among naming major aspeects, one being 'religious' style names, so I eventually chose a name I'd not seen in print or history for my 'proto-lance' all encompassing, homogenous depiction of a mid century D&RGW- Samson Division. After all I conceived, one could not use the name 'Atlas' in the area called the 'Rockies', nor for other tangible reasons. all the best dave
The unveiling! There didn't used to be a wall here. I added it and a door to keep cats and litter box dust out. The slumber of multiple years of disuse has uncovered plenty of minor repair and maintenance required.
Whoo-hoo! Any time I’ve been away from my layout for a length of time, the first thing I do on returning is rush to power up the layout and try to run a train. I must be a slow learner, because 90% of the time, I end up having to attend to 101 tweaks, repairs, and adjustments, or spend hours searching for materials, parts, equipment, or tools before I can actually get a loco to smoothly cover any significant distance. Lol, I’d probably save a bunch of time and avoid dozens of minor delays and aggravations, if I’d develop a checklist for starting up the layout...and (the hardest part!!) discipline myself to not turn on the track power until I’ve worked through every step on the checklist. What’s first on YOUR to-do list? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I mainly need to vacuum the track, repair snow, re-affix trees, and apply artist gesso over yellowed snow areas. Some of the "snow" isn't the same material, and yellowed with age. Gesso will fix that in a jiffy.
Very nice layout. Mine us roughly the same size, on an HCD. It's moved twice with very, very minimal damage -- but lots of worrying.
OlyPen, Mine has been shipped in a custom crate from Montana to Germany to North Dakota. It's really weathered that kind of abuse well.
OK, so I'll admit it, I have been burned out on modeling for several years. Either no time, or no space, or no funds, usually a combination of these. I have been on a business trip, and with several more to come, I brought some modeling tools, kits and materials along and did some hotel room work. I have been on the hunt for operating signals, and signals that looked accurate/correct. I think I finally found what I was looking for. The layout itself is small, so there's more reason to pay attention to details. I spent hours scouring the 'net for period (1963-1983) photos for my modeled areas (Tunnels 18, 19, 25 and 26, plus Crescent Siding. Specifically, detail photos of the signals, signage, and photos that showed the subjects clearly and not several hundred feet away were hard to come by. I have obtained enough info to determine details on each signal, and will illustrate each as they are assembled. I will note in the intervening years since I last modeled actively, my eyesight has changed considerably... You'll note not only a head-worn magnifier but reading glasses as well... I wish I had my own photos of each signal to show the prototype, but I don't have any images of the searchlight signals at Crescent before UP installed 'vaders. So here goes, and we'll start with my modeling bench, the hotel kitchen table: The kits I selected are made by Showcase Miniatures. This is a great kit, and the kit can be made operable with available tri-color LEDs. That's a future project... The kit features nicely etched ladder, guarding, footboards, signal targets, snow shields, sign blanks and other signal signage. The mind-blowing detail here is noteworthy--you need a 10X loupe to read it, but the end and begin CTC signs are legible! The signal heads & bases are molded plastic, signal head mounting arms and electrical conduit boxes are all white metal castings. The signal mast is hollow brass tube, sufficiently large to feed all the LED wires down the tube. It's a 3/64" outside diameter tube, I think. Let's start with West Crescent. There's a dual-headed mast west of the west switch for eastbound mainline movements. Here's a proto photo from Jim Bobel: Westbound on the main at west Crescent is a single head, centered on the mast in the high position. This signal needs a new base, and I 3D printed several signal parts many months ago, thinking I would build them from 3D parts, but they were just too chunky and out of scale. Some parts will be useful, such as signal instrument boxes and bases. The blank plate once held a "P" designation, as I believe this would have been a positive stop indicated signal. Here's a prototype photo by George Werkema, circa 1966 (I modeled it in a later version without the doll arm, and the second signal heads), but shows both the siding and main signals at west Crescent: Similarly, the westbound siding at west Crescent had a dwarf mounted at ground level, and had a flat-bottom target, a "P" plate and milepost plate.
Moving east, I found the eastbound main at east Crescent had a high-mounted single, offset head. It is clocked significantly for eastbound trains to obtain the signal indication earlier around the curve, something I attempted to replicate. If it had a "P" plate, I cannot verify, so I applied a bit of modeler's licence. Kevin Morgan image: The westbound main at east Crescent was built very similarly to that of west Crescent. The siding signal was also a low-mounted target, but was mounted on a signal cabinet. I have no images of this, so once I get some 3D printed parts cobbled up, I can build this signal with a heavy dose of modeler's license. Kevin Morgan image: Oddly, there were enough images available to accurately build the westbound main signal at east Crescent: Since the creative juices were flowing, I found the standard plans for D&RGW engineering, and built some signage for the crossing (whistle post), and tunnels (flanger warning) as well as milepost markers. The D&RGW has very specific milepost markers, something I wanted to get as right as I could. The Dotsero Cutoff is where this relic was found in 2008: Proto photos I found helped illustrate how flanger and tunnel signs were co-located, and all but Tunnel 18 will get that treatment. T18 had the tunnel sign mounted on the portal itself. The image is blurry, because of operator error, but also because these are really TINY. The posts are only 5/8" long in total, and the boards are about 1/16" wide.
The most tricky part is getting the ladder mounted. You either install it on the top footboard, and apply glue, then hold it until it cures (a third hand tool would be optimal), or prop it up on the footboard, wiggle the upper safety cage loop over the mast and mount the ladder top prongs inside the loop, and apply glue. Either way, I don't have a third hand tool, and need one badly! Everything else is pretty easy. I have the LEDs, but need resistors and testing before I install.
I had no idea that any signal items remained in N Scale. I just hit https://www.showcaseminiatures.net and am amazed at what's there. More to look forward to when my layout is ready for such details.
Great! Now I am drooling waiting to see what kind of photography you get on the layout.Signals lit up and trains lit up.....
They are friendly people. I had some questions about how to feed the 8 wires used in 2 LEDs on the dual-headed signals into the mast, and they calmly and professionally addressed my concerns. "PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA", as their site boldly announces. That alone is great! They have several styles of classic signals, and they are reasonably-priced. Other modern signals are out there, but classic searchlights, color-position, tri-lights, etc are hard to come by for classic era modelers. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer...
I used styrofoam of various densities and thicknesses glued together in layers with either TiteBond or window caulk. You can stack the foam layers and just scrub it with your fingers to create the variations and textures. This can create the "Red Rocks" layer structures really easily. It is very strong, and you only need enough foam to make the shape, not the full solid volume. Then, a bit of paint and Woodland Scenics stuff, and voila. Also, if you need to repair, or you find holes, just fill with caulk and let it set. When I need to repair some track, I just take a hack saw blade (wrap one end with duct tape) and cut the mountain apart, repair, then stick it back together with caulk, and touch up the cut lines.
Stay tuned for an update, got all the signals built, mostly painted, and ready for LED testing/installation. Decals last. All signs painted, ready for decals, and assembled and painted all the signal instrument houses and relay cabinets.
Wow! Thats some small modeling there and they look spot on, seen it many times. BTW, if your climbing west just before you get to Cresent, there is a house uphill a bit, you better Highball him with a couple pulls on the whistle. There was an outside light, he would flash to confirm the highball. On a slow drag, it was not a bad deal to get stopped at Cresent for a bit to let your power cool down. Cause after that, you are in some longer tunnels where units will overheat, shut down, or de-rate themselves to a switch engine. You have sure packed a lot of detail into this model RR, I like it.
