Really like the bridge scene in all respects. Going to be absolutely excellent when you get it finished.
Made some progress on my scenery renovation project this past weekend. I made Hydrocal plaster rock castings and broke/sawed them to fit like puzzle pieces on the mountain cut. Next step is to use some Sculptamold to fill in the gaps, and finish with artist's gesso before coloring and staining.
Where the layout bench work spans across the window there was just a bit more movement than I like to have. So I replaced the standard shelf bracket at the window with a much sturdier one and the bench work is much more stable now. I then removed a few more of the standard shelf brackets near the corner. The bench work is also attached directly to the wall studs. With the wall brackets gone my two 4 foot Ntrak modules which are on wheels can roll right under the layout with room left over for some module legs. The 200 ft BLMA through truss bridge got installed with the track extending all the way to the left side of the window. That will be where the lower line will end for now. This new section of track has been tested and ballasting is in progress. Turning my attention now to the upper line I air brushed the curved steel trestle. I finally ran out of Floquil Old Silver which I would have used but found that Model Master Aluminum is a near perfect match color wise. The black weathering wash I ordered arrived yesterday so this one can be weathered before I install it.
I spent a lot of time this past week fighting a nasty cough, fever, and sore throat, but still managed to get some more work done on the layout. Last week, before getting sick, I had worked on installing the backdrop on the lower level, securing the OSB and Homasote on the back half of the lower deck, cutting the OSB panel and Homasote for the front half of the lower deck, and securing them to the stringers. This week, as I've been feeling better, I stacked and shaped sheets of green expanded foam into (lichen) tree-covered hillsides to hide where the tracks enter/exit the first and second loops of the helix. The hills have to be easily removable, so I can do maintenance where tracks enter/exit the helix. Test fitting the bridge over the lower track. Trees behind the bridge. Lower track in to 1st loop of helix, upper track left to 2nd loop of helix. by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 10:59 AM This is a view of the 2 entries/exits without any of the removable hillsides in place. The retaining walls on both sides of the track are glued in place. All hillsides removed by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM One removable hillside in place. One removable hillside in place. by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM Three hillsides in place by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM Four removable hillsides in place BEFORE I decided to put in the retaining wall. Trees both sides of the track in front of the bridge. by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 10:59 AM Four removable hillsides in place AFTER I put in the retaining wall and ballasted the track. 4 hillsides in place by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM At the top of this pic, you can see the temporary helix fascia I installed. I may need to raise or lower it a little after I replace the upper deck fascia, so I have the best angle between the upper deck fascia, the helix fascia, and the tops of the trees on the 4th hillside to form a view block. The helix fascia is below and behind the upper deck fascia, and will hide the upper helix loops from sight when I try taking pictures from closer to the lower deck, instead of from a higher, angled, bird's eye view. The height of the trees on the 4th hillside prevents people from getting a low enough angle to circumvent the helix fascia and see the upper helix loops. Temporary fascia above, view of retaining wall by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM A view of the lower entry to the helix from a slightly different angle. The track to the lower left of the pic passes along a 6 inch wide shelf between the helix and the aisle. Start of the lower entry to the helix by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM This pic shows a closer view of the bridge, before I cleaned up the track ties and fine-tuned the ballast, access road, and grass. Ballast added to track. by ppuinn posted Feb 22, 2020 at 10:59 AM
I'm done with my side project, but I'm having trouble restarting the work on the layout. Lacking focus, motivation, drive, direction, you name it. Sigh! This weekend the temperatures are mild-ish too (7°C), and it's sunny and clear which makes things only worse...
Missed posting an update last week but did get started on some lighting work and more work on the bridge. Finished up the interior building lights for the main street buildings this weekend and more work on the bridge scene. Need to make some translucent inserts for the buildings so the light will show but not make the buildings look empty.
Only got a couple more steps to go in the brick painting on the depot. Some individual bricks have been painted different colors. Just needs one more stippled coat of dark orange to tie everything together followed by a coat of gray tinted drywall mud, and then we'll see how it looks. Meanwhile, the milling fixture for the platform is done and set up. I was a little disappointed in the flatness (or lack thereof) involved, but with some shimming, was able to get it dialed in within .010" (less than a scale inch) in most places. I got set up to mill the platform tonight, but that probably won't happen until the weather breaks over the weekend. It's supposed to dump a lot of snow here and then get extremely cold for a few days, so new salamander or no, I won't feel like going out in the garage when the low temperature is 10 degrees.
Over the past several days painting and weathering on the curved steel trestle was finished and it got installed in the scene. A section of M/E bridge track was prepared with with standard ties on both ends. The track was attached to the trestle with E6000 adhesive and held with clamps and the ends with the standard ties were held with pins to hold the curve. I had a small bubble level that came with something that had 3 bubbles in it. I never use the 45 degree bubble so I took it out and glued it to a piece of Styrene strip so it would not roll. This I am using to check for track level between the rails. Then I added the guard timbers to the bridge ties. The timbers were cut into shorter sections so they could make the curve of the trestle. For now I am going to defer the guard rails and track painting so I can get going on installing the next bridge which will be the skewed through truss bridge which passes over the lower track.
Making some headway just real slow as life has it's ways of getting in the way. So just a minor update got my N scale cork or after I split it 150 feet of roadbed that arrived today lol. And Monday bought some woof to slowly get my modules to the point I can lay track sometime soon. Till later Chowda
Since my last post on Tuesday I got the skewed thru truss bridge installed. I removed the standard ties from the middle of a section of Micro Engineering track and installed the bridge ties from the Central Valley kit in their place. The bridge itself has been completed for some time and recently received some weathering. The section of track with the combination of standard and bridge ties was painted first then was attached to the bridge structure with E6000 adhesive. Even though I had thought I had really worked hard to have everything fit just right it took quite a bit of fitting and shimming to get the bridge installed. I am holding off on painting the remainder of the track and ballasting until I can run some full length trains through and verify everything is working OK. This is the spot where the long steel viaduct will go. Turns out I was short a few parts so I decided to put in a temporary bridge made of wood and painted black. Notice the transition to Kato track. This is where the reverse loop begins. Working on that now so hopefully will have trains running by the end of the weekend.
The whole scene is really going to be stunning when it's finished. Love the bridges and the way the two tracks cross. Nice feeling of wide open space-one of the great advantages of N scale
OK, so here's my last post of the layout party for this year. First, I picked up the brick sheet for the station platform yesterday so today I went to the garage, started the salamander, and milled the platform. Had to do some reshimming, but it came out alright in most places- needs to be shimmed under the brick in one area and filed down further in another, but largely OK. Also got the last coat of paint on the walls. For anyone interested in the brick painting, I mixed several combinations in the palate (the top row uses an orange-brown color called pueblo while the bottom row uses vivid orange. From left to right, both top and bottom contain black, burnt umber, and berry wine. Some berry wine was also added to the bottom center, which was the color actually used.) It seems to have slightly muted and tied the rest of the layers together. All that's left now is to sand or scrape the gluing surfaces and add the drywall mud "mortar". This is the first time I've really had the opportunity to do this. It's been interesting and a good time. I made some progress on structures for my soon to be started new layout, explored some new techniques and materials, and enjoyed the projects thoroughly. I don't want to lose momentum, so I'll soon be starting a Huron Central thread in the HO scale forum, but hopefully we'll all be back for next year's winter layout party.
Today is the deadline?!! Is there a penalty box I can sit in as I clearly have not accomplished what I had hoped for? Sure, I did finish the benchwork... ...so technically I did what I originally posted to do, but I wanted to at least lay track in staging, or on the main line, or both.
Thanks. I picked up a small can of drywall mud today after church. Hopefully have it done soon, and as stated, I will be starting a Huron Central Railway thread in the HO forum. I'll definitely be posting photos.
Question: When you installed the bridge ties, what did you use to keep the track in gauge? I have a Campbell wood truss (assembled and stained, nice train show find) that I intend to use later on and was wondering how best to address that issue.
Thank you for your question Tom, The Central Valley bridge ties have small nubs every third tie that will hold the rail in position. This is the third one of these I have used and the first one I had this small section in the photo left over because I had shortened the bridge. These nubs can be seen in the photo as well as the tie plates that are on each tie. I have found the some of the wheels bump on these nubs so I removed the inner ones after the adhesive had set overnight. I have checked the gauge with the NMRA track gauge on each of these I have done and it's right on. The oldest one is 3 years old now and has never given me any problems.
Thanks for your reply. Lo Thanks for your timely reply. The ME bridge ties look like a nice product. However, it looks like that's a problem I'll have to solve in some other way on the Campbell bridge.
