The JACALAR RR

Thanks, Guys. I still continue to look at myself as a "newby", too, only having started the layout a little more than 2 years ago. That is nothing, compared to the time many of the folks here have been in the hobby. I've learned from all of them, and taken different parts and put them together in my own way, and hopefully all the other folks getting started on their layouts can do the same, following this thread and theirs.

One thing, though -- don't ever think you can't do something. Three years ago, I would have said that I never would be able to do what I have accomplished. I may have an artistic eye, but had never been able to translate it into anything physical, previously. I still have trouble cutting a straight line (though it is relatively easy with thin sheet styrene). But, that is one of the reasons I have gone with more rural scenery - it is easy to hide the seams and bad cuts, etc., by placing a bush or tree, and there are few straight lines! And, I've gone with simple building kits.

 

A little rail-fanning along the JACALAR this weekend, no modeling work occurring (started doing some 1:1 scale paint jobs, in the house, as we have just 4 months to go before family descends for our eldest's wedding).

Here are a couple shots of the newly opened River Road between Cherylton and Laurel Gulch. The California Zephyr is passing by on the upper tracks, while the El Capitan, led by Santa Fe #300, is pulling under the highway bridge and into Laurel Gulch.

 

CA Zephyr in High Sierra

Here, WP#801 poses for its closeup! It just came out of the High Sierra tunnel and across the trestle.



a slightly pulled back view



and here's the CA Zephyr, with tunnel in distance, crossing the trestle

 

Anytime! It has been quite a while since you came.

 

How to spend your Birthday

Take a vacation day, and work/play with the trains!

My train related presents were the new Woodland Scenics Municipal Building (City Hall and Police), as well as a Wheels of Time AC Transit (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties Transit... the East Bay) bus. To complete the scene, I placed an SF Muni bus from the same era, also WoT, in the shot.

This area of the JACALAR is still empty, and will be for the foreseeable future. I'm still debating what to do here, it is to the left of Cherylton, at the turn and entrance to the yard.



If you haven't seen the WS building, the detailing is fantastic. Here you can see the roof. Out back is a propane tank, dumpster, hose, and even fallout shelter sign on the building!




This is a rarely photographed section of the layout, since it is still bare foam. Still have to decide what to do in the corner, which will then dictate the rest of this area. But, that is in the future. Plenty to do for now.

 

My plans for the weekend got pre-empted, so didn't get much work done, but a little. Instead, took the time for some railfanning on the layout.

Here's a photo of the new bridge area, almost done -- still some vegetation and signage to add. A 2-6-0 Mogul pulls an excursion train across the RR Overpass, above an SP Overnight Express Freight. The Morning Daylight is seen in the background. Lots of vehicular traffic can be seen on River Road.




And, here are the newest additions to my rolling stock, running in one of the first areas worked on. I may not model the Chesapeake and Ohio, but as my avatar suggests, Chessie the cat has always been one of my favorites. These new MT billboard cars, with 5 of the classic Chessie posters are absolutely stunning

 

These three photos, I was trying for some artistic effects. I envy the folks who have Helicon Focus, as it would certainly have been useful for these shots

 

After getting all the work done on the new highway bridge, I wanted to add some highway signage. I ended up building my own, which I've described here.

Here, we see WP's Zephyrette RDC coming under the bridge heading towards Laurel Gulch. The new signs can be seen on the road



On the other side of the bridge, the highway department had to add a patch in the road, at the same time as installing the signs. The locals believe that it may be years before it finally gets repaved

 

A family of deer were observing the installation of this sign, but looks like they may heading away, now that SP AC-12 #4285 is approaching



Here, we can also see the warning reflectors that the highway folks installed (and, an amazing number of trees, grass and brush that appeared in this area)



A wider view of what is the almost completed scenery for this section

 

Thanks, Mike. I've had a lot of fun putting this together, and yesterday morning, got "creative", with the deer, dead logs, etc.

I had a minor emergency when putting down some of the static grass - the charge pin pulled out of the base, and a clump of grass landed "flat" into the glue. Found a water balloon in my wife's Girl Scout troop supplies, inflated it, rubbed against my shirt, and used it to "lift" as much of the grass that I could. Still looked a bit "flat" compared to the other areas, so... a dead log, which I wanted somewhere over there anyway, got placed there.

And to think, that area used to look like this

 

A different (and dangerous) view

 

Here, we see a close up of the family of deer that are by the tracks



I'm not as pleased with how the Silflor static grass went down in this area, vs the WS grasses. While the color is perfect for California fields, we can see that the grass isn't as upright. I also noticed that on the hills, where it tended to grow "downward" on the hill sides. I am not certain what the cause of this is, but need to experiment before putting anymore on the layout. For this area, it just creates a more "trampled" look, which is fine.

The large log is actually a small dead branch I broke off of a rosemary bush. I cleaned and then coated with a matte varnish. The deer are Woodland Scenic deer

 

I started on the actual lake area today, since the weather turned nice. Prior to that, I worked on a little snack shop to go on the beach there, plus a customized billboard



The snack shop is the Bar Mill's Swanson's Shack, and I purposely built it out of square, and extremely beaten. (The only thing I didn't do on purpose was put the front on upside down: they were very clear the small panel went on the bottom... uh huh... oh well). You can also see a bunch of stop signs I made.

The one thing I got done last weekend was building these walls at the intersection of the highway and the turnoff to go to Lake Jacalar. This is also where I needed a stop sign



I'm actually not certain I like the billboard here, since it is turned away from the road. Yet, it is a nice easy spot, and very clear for viewing. An alternative is



Here, I would need to extend the left leg down, and it will be perpendicular to the road, up the bridge a bit. I would appreciate comments.

 

Forming Lake Jacalar

With the weather nicer, and the young child back off to school in San Diego, I got some work done finally terra forming the lake area. This had been the last unpainted foam. Here is a long shot, showing the area, and some of my scenery protection



Here's a closer view



And here you can see the depression for the lake itself. Once everything dries, I will apply pigments, and color in the lake bottom and the river bed, and prepare for the long process of pouring the "water"