Building the Pinnacle Creek Mining & Timber Co. RR


Enough of the pond and stream for awhile. If you have a layout, or are building, or planning one there is one thing you MUST include. It is so common in real life that if you include it in your track plan you made great strides in model railroad scenery. What is it? You will never guess and neither will your friends. Okay it is a road cut. You see them on every highway, back roads etc. If you will put in two if have a good size plan you will be the leader of the pack. Maybe 1%, or maybe 0%, of model railroads I have seen photos of have railroad cuts. Try it you will like it. I always find a problem with layouts that have a good sized hill stopping conveniently at the edge of a railroad track. My little layout has one, but it would look funny with more. Large/medium layouts
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have NO excuse for not having this every day item. Tank car is checking for clearance. Road cuts in #Two in my list of musts as stated in post 5061.
 
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Enough of the pond and stream for awhile. If you have a layout, or are building, or planning one there is one thing you MUST include. It is so common in real life that if you include it in your track plan you made great strides in model railroad scenery. What is it? You will never guess and neither will your friends. Okay it is a road cut. You see them on every highway, back roads etc. If you will put in two if have a good size plan you will be the leader of the pack. Maybe 1%, or maybe 0%, of model railroads I have seen photos of have railroad cuts. Try it you will like it. I always find a problem with layouts that have a good sized hill stopping conveniently at the edge of a railroad track. My little layout has one, but it would look funny with more. Large/medium layoutsView attachment 149546 have NO excuse for not having this every day item.
Duly Noted. 😃
 
Enough of the pond and stream for awhile. If you have a layout, or are building, or planning one there is one thing you MUST include. It is so common in real life that if you include it in your track plan you made great strides in model railroad scenery. What is it? You will never guess and neither will your friends. Okay it is a road cut. You see them on every highway, back roads etc. If you will put in two if have a good size plan you will be the leader of the pack. Maybe 1%, or maybe 0%, of model railroads I have seen photos of have railroad cuts. Try it you will like it. I always find a problem with layouts that have a good sized hill stopping conveniently at the edge of a railroad track. My little layout has one, but it would look funny with more. Large/medium layoutsView attachment 149546 have NO excuse for not having this every day item.
I totally agree. Cuts ( both hiway and RR ) are easy to design in. In fact most layouts that I have seen do not allow scenery to go below track level for the most part. Sure maybe one or two bridges forced into view, but no previous thought.
Build your railroad like the geographical stuff was there for a gazillion years before you stumbled along! It ain't that hard and yes, you can cheat if necessary.
 
I totally agree. Cuts ( both hiway and RR ) are easy to design in. In fact most layouts that I have seen do not allow scenery to go below track level for the most part. Sure maybe one or two bridges forced into view, but no previous thought.
Build your railroad like the geographical stuff was there for a gazillion years before you stumbled along! It ain't that hard and yes, you can cheat if necessary.
Welcome, I don't recall you name so you must be new??? Anyway, you are right on in you comments. I always encourage visitors to make comments. If you looked through this thread you will notice I do much of my work under the track bed. Most folks don't realize that 95% of all track is above the surrounding ground! Cheers.
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Another beautiful pic ! Please keep up with all the build tips as I am trying to soak it all up. I even bought some craft sticks today to start my wharf…..outside deck is a higher priority my Commanding Officer has stated.
 
Another beautiful pic ! Please keep up with all the build tips as I am trying to soak it all up. I even bought some craft sticks today to start my wharf…..outside deck is a higher priority my Commanding Officer has stated.

Use the sticks for old buildings or houses if you want. Go to the forest and get this kind of wood for a wharf if you want the old look.
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The Rocky Road. For some folks rocks on a layout must be perfect. Simply they must look like rocks they know or think they know. To make a perfect rock some make them from molds. These molds can be from Woodland Scenics or some molding companies that charge BIG dollars. I've used WS molds back in the day. I was new at model railroading so why not. I had absolutely no knowledge of this game and I was 64, years old. So I read every book from wiring to scenery, to ultimately DCC. Check out the rocks in the photo above, the wharf photo. Note too bad I think, of course. How many times have you seen on layout photos the same WS rocks using their molds. If you've noticed you may see more of them than you want to believe. As a scenery guy I notice things like that. You may be a 'yard' guy, or a city builder, and would maybe never see such nuances in sceneries. It bugged me and then I discover a product call Sculptamold. I had a bad habit of building model railroads in a year, then photography them for a month the tearing them down only to begin the cycle over again. With such a bad habit Sculptamold allowed me to get rid of molds and become the rock master of my dreams. It is cheap, comes in convenient sizes, mixes with water, and dries quickly. If you want to sculpt the get your knife and sculpt. This HO photo below shows some rocks I make these days. I'm not affiliated to Sculptamold or any other company by the way.
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The Rocky Road. For some folks rocks on a layout must be perfect. Simply they must look like rocks they know or think they know. To make a perfect rock some make them from molds. These molds can be from Woodland Scenics or some molding companies that charge BIG dollars. I've used WS molds back in the day. I was new at model railroading so why not. I had absolutely no knowledge of this game and I was 64, years old. So I read every book from wiring to scenery, to ultimately DCC. Check out the rocks in the photo above, the wharf photo. Note too bad I think, of course. How many times have you seen on layout photos the same WS rocks using their molds. If you've noticed you may see more of them than you want to believe. As a scenery guy I notice things like that. You may be a 'yard' guy, or a city builder, and would maybe never see such nuances in sceneries. It bugged me and then I discover a product call Sculptamold. I had a bad habit of building model railroads in a year, then photography them for a month the tearing them down only to begin the cycle over again. With such a bad habit Sculptamold allowed me to get rid of molds and become the rock master of my dreams. It is cheap, comes in convenient sizes, mixes with water, and dries quickly. If you want to sculpt the get your knife and sculpt. This HO photo below shows some rocks I make these days. I'm not affiliated to Sculptamod or any other company by the way.View attachment 149623
Before you tear this one down and rebuild, just drop me a line…..lol, it’s easier for you to just clear the area, load the old into my truck and start fresh…..lol.
 
Before you tear this one down and rebuild, just drop me a line…..lol, it’s easier for you to just clear the area, load the old into my truck and start fresh…..lol.
Ha, there will not be another. As for clearing the area, first come first served, or the garbage. I'm only building this one cause no one wants my trains, this being an HO thread and all. I've done Z thru On30 and I like On30 the best. Good for old folks.
 
Ha, there will not be another. As for clearing the area, first come first served, or the garbage. I'm only building this one cause no one wants my trains, this being an HO thread and all. I've done Z thru On30 and I like On30 the best. Good for old folks.

Sure it will be... You have said that too many times for us to believe that🚃
 
A thought or two. This thread has over one million hits and nearly 6000 comments. One thing I hope is that none of you folks, new here or old timers, think that my way of building a model railroad is the ONLY way. Far from it. What you read or see here are my thoughts and suggestions on how to get as much out of model railroading as you can. You notice I'm not teaching city building or rail yards. Not my 'thing', but scenery is. I do scenery as cheap as possible with just basic easy to buy or easy acquired items. If you want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on your layout go for it. I like tens of hundreds my self. No private, hard to find, non-advertised model railroading site has more hits than this site. If I didn't have it on my favorites bar on my computer I probably couldn't find it! SO, there is a reason folks come here: to learn and have some fun. Last thought, I'm not in the greatest shape. Years of sailing, sports (I still play senior softball), mountain climbing all over the world, have simply worn me out before my time. I will be 78, soon and while I seem to disease free, I'm pooped. Each one of these layouts I say is my last one, yet here I am again; ever the teacher. This is it however. No more to follow. Enjoy.
 
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JIM -- Each day I look at the roughly 1 foot by 2 foot diorama and marvel at the detail you placed in it! Every month or so I will place a different locomotive and maybe a car or two on the rails to give it variety and purpose.I cannot thank you enough for the gift!

Talk about health - The medical guys have found another aneurysm, my sixth one, that they say should be repaired. I don't seem to be able to get away from them!
Most of us are getting to the age where things start to break or wear out - a shame!
I will hit the big 80 in another month ... I cannot do much of anything physical anymore, but I have sooo many memories and dreams of yesteryear.

Take care my friend - and may God Bless!

You are a treasure to model railroading and this forum - I pray that you never quit! :cool:
 
I'm making every tree on this little layout. Tree making is one of the most rewarding aspects of this hobby. Plus, one way or another, I make all the bushes. Bushes are very important if you model cities, towns, logging camps, whatever. Here is a look at the trees today.
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Trees. With a little acrylic paint and some Micro Mart Super Trees made into branches, and some hairspray, and colorful shake you have the tree. It is not necessarily a tree found in the outback, but remember this is my layout. You are always free to do as you wish decorating wise. I took off the orange leaves with some tweezers, I didn't like the look.
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