Actually, if the bridge had a very slight upward hump, it would be quite prototypical. A positive camber is an aid to load bearing capabilities.
I keep trying to explain to the better half that my positive camber is a good thing, she's not buying it.
Tuesday's work party hit all our recent projects, but here is a pictorial update. Wain and Scott were working on the turntable. They added another layer of plaster to the bowl and painted all the surfaces our dirt brown color. In the lower left of the preceding pic, you can see a sharp edge, which the guys turned into a small retaining wall. Doug continued his tree and scenery mastery along the south wall. The two tracks run parallel, but are different geographic parts of the layout. Running along the steep hillside, we can only realistically scenic about halfway down the slope. So we put lower height material out front to provide a scenery break to that exposed area. Reynold was hard at work putting dcc decoders in two locos. One his, one mine. His work is outstanding and much appreciated, as are all the guys. Bob was hard at work on the lumber mill piping. We continued to upgrade the stanchions, adding a scoop where the pipe rests. He also added rods to the bottom of the concrete base to assure it sits at the correct orientation. Here's how the stanchions look in place: As for me, I carved out the west abutment area for the Cedar River Bridge. A few foam fillers and some spackle did the trick. That's it for this week. Thank you all for checking in. M
Scenery of any kind, between the viewer and tracks, is something a lot of people seem to omit. I enjoy seeing a train wandering in and out of view, amongst some decent foliage.
Great work! I agree with the scenery... I see a lot of layouts where the track is either at the front edge or right next to the backdrop. I know sometimes that is all you have to work with.. but, even my small layout I try to angle the tracks when compared to the backdrop or the edge. JMS
We were short staffed last night and several of the fellas engaged in a turnout routing discussion that literally took up most of the evening. That said, we did make some progress. Bob brought his new scratchbuilt support tower for the piping project. It really adds to the scene. Yours truly hit several small projects, starting with replacing the stumps along the Indian John ridge. Before: After: We all felt the stumps were too large, so thanks to Bob Rorabaugh, my stump guy, he set us up with a much more realistic size. Thanks! Also added scenery to the bridge abutment areas at Cedar River Bridge. Finally I painted our hill brake to give a visual representation equal to the pull knob. When you see red on the knob, you see red on the brake. Seemed logical. More in two weeks, time for some Sun in Cali. M
Hey Michael, If you need any more stump materials, I can send you a bunch. I mowed last night and there is a wealth of raw material!!!!
Not exactly a recap of a work party, but in honor of my crew I wanted them to know it wasn't all Sun, fun and frolic down here in Palm Springs, there was work to be done! Brought an 85ft open deck girder bridge with me that needs to be done to complete the access route to the Boeing plant. I need it to be around 9in long, so kit bashing was in order. Had to cut two sections out of each of the four girder pieces, while at the same time doing my best surgery to add the ends back on. The next step was gluing the four pieces into two girders and adding the lateral bracing. This is tough duty guys, especially given the surroundings.... Tonight I added the cross braces and glued the assembly together. That may be as far as I get today, time for a dip, cya fellas. M
Only four of our crew made it in tonight, but fun times had by all. Bob brought in the finished piping, having painted it during the break. We pieced it together for the first time, actually gluing many of the sections together. From a different angle: We also started piecing together the piping from the wood chip shredder to the gondola chute. One of the key steps was bending the tube to the proper angle. We used an older model hairdryer, the kind the ladies hated because they got too hot. It allowed us to bend the tube at the proper angle. Scott used the break to take a River Point Station F-350 utility truck that started as the city dog catcher's rig and redecal it with 1/64 Verizon NASCAR decals. It arrived at the cell tower fir some timely upgrades. Doug began adding trees to the SW corner, looking good. One final pic is of a cut of cars being held in place by the completed hill brake. This will come in handy for set outs. That's it for tonight. More next week for sure. M
Spent some time working on the Cedar River Bridge abutments. Completed the final touches with some styrene trim and cut stone. Painted them concrete and after quite a bit of cajoling and swearing, they are epoxied in place. West side: East side: Once the epoxy is completely hardened I'll come back and fill in under the exposed areas and add more scenery. Now back to decaling the bridge rivet detail. M
Was able to get one side of the rivet detail completed. Only 5 more sides to go. Fun! Enlarge the photo for best viewing. M
