Hello everybody I just updated the 'current' section of my train webpage and realized it has been awhile since I've posted a progess post here. So for anyone who's interested, here's basically what I have on my current section of the website: Well it's almost Christmas, and I've made good progress this past week. I think I have or am getting ready to cross the point where my layout looks more like a layout than a bunch of foam with tracks on it. This is my first grade crossing. I paved the road with sculptamold, then sanded it flat. I flattened it out signifigantly while it was still wet with a wet putty knife. I used wood pieces between the rails when pouring the 'concrete' between the tracks. Then I removed the wood, and the gap was a little larger than I intended. I cut some pieces of styrene to attach to the 'concrete', and it helped make the gaps smaller, and it also helped give the 'concrete' a nice finished edge. I painted the lane markings and white stripes with a small paintbrush, just by freehand. I like the way it looks, so I think I will continue the stripe all the way down the road using the same technique. Here's my little corner hill and the canyon area. The little hill has been given a treatment of dirt colored foam, and I have applied small rocks to the slopes. The canyon area is not as far along. I have yet to weather the rocks that will be showing, add grass to the areas that won't, paint the stream bed dark blue/green/brown, apply bushes and what not, and pour some water compound in the stream. Here's my double track underpass and tunnel areas. The underpass is coming along the way I expected, but the tunnel is a little tricky. It's going to be awhile before I get it looking like a real tunnel, and I'm not too sure that's going to be easy with the way I've applied the scupltamold so far. We'll see though. Well that's it until after Christmas. Maybe Santa will bring new things to add to my layout. But if not, the couple days off of work will be very nice. Merry Christmas everyone
It's coming along nice Dave. I have problems getting my road crossings to look as good as yours. I did learn a new trick from a train meet a couple weeks ago... They used a Gel Pen and a straight edge for the highway markings. I bought a white one a couple days ago and it works fantastic. Keep up the great work, and keep posting it to your site!
Hi Dave. Nice work. Your layout is coming along. it looks very good what your doing. Yep grade crossings can be the most fun When i did mine, i used wire up against the inside rail (20 ga) and after a few hours pulled the wire up and the gap was just right. i used an exacto blade to finish off. Looking forward to more pics Hi Pray59 , yeah those gel pens work well. U can also get them in different widths. [ 24. December 2002, 02:50: Message edited by: railery ]
you're making good progress dave. good photos. I think im also going to have dificulty making my tunel look real, ive been thinking and worrying about it a bit i really liked the road crossing. the gel pens is a good idea for when i finally make my roads
Looking very well done Dave! Your tunnel portal's "looks" might depend upon what kind of entrance portal you have in your mind to "see". At this point, you could choose to round the top as if it were simply blasted out of solid rock, install one of the "store bought" tunnel castings (stone, or concrete), or make one fancy like the Moffett Tunnel (type). Some of this "type" also have "wings" extending out into the lead-in to hold back loose rock and earth from falling onto the rails. I have a couple of photos of real tunnels, and many are available in books to pick from. I have one photo looking into a tunnel from the engineer's seat that looks almost exactly the shape you have at present, although the trees and shrubs pretty well hide any "detail" of the actual portal work. Email me if you want a copy.
We used to crumple up some heavy Kraft paper, like a grocery bag to make a rock tunnel opening. We would saw out the entrance on a suitable piece of 1x6 (or plywood now days) cut the outside to fit the tunnel position centered over the rails at the right height. Then we took the crumpled Kraft paper, and stapled it to the board out around the edges leaving it loose across the face so the wrinkles show well. Then we would gently pull the paper through the tunnel bore opening just enough to form the shape, and staple it to the back of the board. We would paint it an earth color to match the surrounding rocks, and sometimes give it a light wash with thinned india ink to highlight the "cracks" and let it dry. When set in place, it would look surprisingly like a blasted rock tunnel looks in real life.
