I did a Google search for "railroad tunnel", there are a lot of images of tunnel bores. Most appear to be lined with stone work. There are a few rock faced tunnels. Those appeared to be in the west. The eastern tunnels were definitely lined with either stone walls or concrete. The ballesting would be the same as the mainline. They all look wet inside.
Haven't found anything I like yet, will keep looking. I must admit to being partial to using the same set-up as our other opening though. Consistency....
The way I did mine was to take heavy duty Aluminum foil spray adhesive fold it over many layers, kinda jumble it up and shape it in the fashion you want. Spray it Primer, then paint flat black towards the top and highlight as you want. Some tunnels have Gunnite (sp) concrete sprayed in time as well. I will try to get out and take a couple pictures to show you what I am talking about. The good thing about doing it this way is if you have clearance issues you can just push it a little and all is well lol.
I will go out to RR barn tomorrow and get a few shots for you. Tunnel concrete liners and concrete portals are based on the stability of the formation being blasted. Sometimes the first 10-20 candidate have concrete as that is where you find the most fractured rock, Then inside it blasted rock kinda jagged. They can be wet or dry. There really is no constancy over this way anyhow. I don't have any proto photos just years of going thru them. But I will get some photos of my model tunnel and liners tomorrow and post them for you.
Here we go. First one here has the concrete portals and blasted rock innards, crumbled foil method. innards below is the opposite end of same tunnel Below is the rock portals, foil method innards foil method Below. This is a tunnel with concrete innards. This one is an attempt to simulate the innards as concrete lined with a slip form to line the tunnel. They set the form pour, let it set, slip it down pour again and so on. Below. Other end of same tunnel. The method I used to simulate the slip form liner was to use heavy card stock, I used a hobby knife to cut about have way thru the card stock on the opposite side, then folded slightly on the cuts to get the effect I wanted. I hope this helps you a bit.
Well, it was back to work on the RGW last night, with specific emphasis on clearance. Scott brought over his hand made clearance car and we got to work finding and fixing any clearance issues. We found that rock outcroppings were one of our biggest problems, so we chiseled away at several: We also found tunnel portals were giving some cars fits. Most were solved with a coarse file, but some had to be removed and relocated. Just to be clear we didn't relocate the tunnel portal to this spot, just waiting for freshly painted tunnel interior to dry. We also found that switchers couldn't traverse the lumber mill tracks. So that definitely had to get fixed. Turns out the sand, even the sifted fine grain kind, built up causing the locos to high center. Ed and Doug started the tortoise switch machine work in Maple Valley: And Rey finally addressed an issue that was bugging him to no end, black brake wheels on yellow cars. Crises averted. Thanks for checking in.
Ken, we actually took it down to rail height, but I think we could have shaved off as little as 1/64th and it would have been ok. Now we'll just add back the stain and leave it and the issue will never rear up again. M
Quick update from last night, Wain brought a stain concoction to begin the process of coloring the plaster in the lumber mill. This will take a couple of coats to get the colors to match. I reinstalled the tunnel liner and the portal near the high bridge. Later in the evening I completed the install with homabed filler around the feet of the portal. We'll get it scenicked next week.
Michael, nice to see you've got the kinks worked out. I'd hate to see Boeing loose anymore fuselages! Good show!
Looking forward to the lumber mill yard coloring. I'm hoping to see contrasts such as those between wet and dry areas, etc.
Tonight's work session saw Ed, Rey and I hit various projects. Rey continued his mastery of car production, simultaneously building 3 Montana Rail Link woodchip hoppers: I completed the scenery on the reinstall of the high bridge tunnel portal: Ed has the tough assignment, installing more tortoise switch machines. After completing the scenery I started in on the other side of the island. We use 1/4 inch plywood bases, double stick tape holds the machine to the plywood while we attach 3 small screws that hold the machine in place. Three other holes are drilled in the plywood as prep to attach the tortoise to the underside of the table: We use 1 screw in the triangle to hold the base in place. This allows small adjustments to the angle of the throw bar. Once we hit both sides of the rail and like the amount of tension on each side, we screw in the other 2 screws. That's it for tonight, thanks for checking in.
After a few weeks of running trains it was full scale back to the grind last evening. First tho, wanted to show a couple of purchases from this weekend's Boeing swap meet. Rey found these all metal center beams and last night changed out the couplers to get them in service. Wain and I jointly purchased this little beauty, final location to be determined: I found these knob-type Lenz throttles, this was a steal. I had 4 that were lent out but not returned years ago. They were $100 each, I got these for $25 for the three. They'll be dedicated yard throttles. Rey completed his 3 car set of Montana Rail Link woodchip hoppers, they're real nice. Doug started adding greenery along the South west wall, a project long overdue. Wain and Scott added sifted dirt to the tracks in the lumber yard then hit it with wet water and glue. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Ed and I kept up with tortoise installs. I had to put the linkage tube in on this one before we could get the tortoise in. Sorry the pic is blurry, didn't notice that until I blew it up for publication. Later we added the linkage and the tortoise. We have only 3 left to install on the upper table, then about 45 more in the lower staging and all our installs will be finished. Really looking forward to this being done. That's it for this week, thanks for checking in.
Great update Michael! When you guys get bored, swing on down to Catoosa, I could probably find some stuff for you all to do!!!!! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us!