ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Here's a little bit of the story of how my layout came to be. I've been into model trains since I was a little kid, Lionel sets and Thomas the Tank Engine got that ball rolling, but I didn't have any place to set anything up and kind of walked away from it for a little while. Eventually, I discovered that HO scale was the best fit for me, (in more ways than one) and I've been modeling it ever since. For a number of years, I had a temp. layout on our dining room table until we moved to our current home in Wyoming two years ago, which gave me the layout space I always wanted. So, once we got settled in and some upgrades/repairs to the house and train room to be were completed, I started layout construction. First I painted the backdrop, then I started the benchwork. The layout is about 90% functional, so I can run trains, which is always a good thing. Most of what I need to do is scenery. So, for this post, I'm showing the old and the new. First photo is the dining room table setup, next two are the beginnings of the "real" layout, with the Old Colorado City roundhouse and turntable (upside down) in the approximate positions I wanted them in before permanent installation.
Here's some photos I took after I started to lay track. I also was just starting the wiring at this point, as can be seen by my penciled in control panel.
Here's some more photos of the layout as construction progressed. The layout had just become operable at this point. The first two photos show the Colorado Springs Old Colorado City yards progressing, including my newly completed (at the time) water storage tank, and the office building and machine shop. Both the office and shop still aren't finished at the time I'm writing this, I've got to get my but moving on them. The other two show the yards at the Cripple Creek end well under construction. Something I neglected to mention in my first entry is the track plan. The track plan is based on plan 48, Virginia & Truckee RR. from Linn Westcott's 101 Track Plans. I reversed it, and put in a few other modifications. The footprint is about 9'x12', with a 3'x6" extension going to the Golden Cycle gold refining mill. You can see the smoke stack for it behind the roundhouse and to the left of the backdrop in the first photo. The line runs from the Colorado Springs OCC roundhouse on the Colorado Midland up a 4% ruling grade thru Ute Pass to Divide, where it transitions to the Midland Terminal. The MT section runs from Divide to Cripple Creek and Victor, then transitions to the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway, AKA, The Short Line. The Short Line section then returns trains to the Manitou Springs area, where, (due to layout footprint restrictions) they back into the Old Colorado City depot. They layout runs primarily on DC, but can run DCC via DPDT center off toggles. The layout can be run either point to point, or continuous running.
Thank you both! The mountain behind the roundhouse is called Cheyenne Mountain, and for anyone not familiar with that area, the real mountain has a TV and radio antenna farm on it that can be seen a good distance away that I painted into the backdrop.
For this post, I thought I'd show some of my mountain and tunnel construction techniques. The first two show Waters Tunnel on the MT section, and the others show the Manitou Springs and Ute Pass tunnels. Most of the tunnel portals are made of scrap styrofoam that I cut to shape, the mountains, including those that the tunnels go thru, are made of styrofoam ribs with fiberglass window screen hot glued to the portals and ribs. Waters Tunnel is the exception, as the portal is made from wood craft sticks glued in place one piece at a time to give the appearance of wood cribbing, and the mountain it passes thru is built entirely of styrofoam. I had a lot of scrap styrofoam, so I figured I'd make good use of it. All were then coated with a layer of Homax Roll-On wall texture, as can be seen on the partially painted tunnels.
That beaded styrofoam can sure make a mess tho, eh!
First time I worked with it was like someone threw a handgrenade in a beanbag chair.
Looks like you’ve gotten good results!
That beaded styrofoam can sure make a mess tho, eh!
First time I worked with it was like someone threw a handgrenade in a beanbag chair.
Looks like you’ve gotten good results!
I definitely experienced that first hand! The shop vac got quite a workout during that stage of construction. But, the end result was/is well worth it.
For this series, I have my hand drawn track plan, benchwork plan, the parking lot behind the CM roundhouse with two cabooses on display (since replaced with a non functional EMD F7Aand CM Rotary A in the background, the beginnings of State highway 67 (including bridge) into the town of Victor, some of the partially completed mountains as viewed from the Victor area, including another part of highway 67 and the top of Watters Tunnel with trees on it, (I'll cover how I made the trees in another post) and last, but not least, the beginnings of my scenic work on the removable access hatch with the framework for another tunnel in the background. The access hatch is the large square in the upper left of the track plan drawing.
For this post, I thought I'd talk about how I've been making my evergreen trees as the layout progresses. The photos are in order. The first two show the mostly completed Ute Pass tunnels and the now "forested" mountains they pass thru, along with the beginnings of the Fountain Creek creek bed. The next three show the completed Waters Tunnel on the MT section with trees on top, and the last photo shows the completed and forested tunnel and foothills near and on the access hatch on the Short Line section. Now, for the trees. My family had an old Christmas tree that was starting to show its age and wasn't safe for my dog or my father, who is on blood thinner, to be around due to exposed pointy metal tips on the ends of the branches where protective bud type things had come off. So, the tree was replaced, and I was given permission to take it apart and use it if I could, and I'm pleased to say that I have been able to make good use of it and the results are quite good in my opinion. First, I cut the entire branches off of the trunk, and then cut the smaller branches off of the main branches. I then cut those apart until I have pieces I can shape into trees. Once the pieces are the right length, I trim them into the typical shapes of spruce, pine, and fir trees, leaving a bare lower "trunk" that I could plant into the hard shell. I drill small holes where I want the trees to be, usually one or two at a time so I don't lose tabs on where they're supposed to go, and glue them in place, usually with plain old Elmer's white glue, but sometimes hot glue if it's a steep slope.
The other two show the yards at the Cripple Creek end well under construction. Something I neglected to mention in my first entry is the track plan. The track plan is based on plan 48, Virginia & Truckee RR. from Linn Westcott's 101 Track Plans. I reversed it, and put in a few other modifications. The footprint is about 9'x12', with a 3'x6" extension going to the Golden Cycle gold refining mill. You can see the smoke stack for it behind the roundhouse and to the left of the backdrop in the first photo. The line runs from the Colorado Springs OCC roundhouse on the Colorado Midland up a 4% ruling grade thru Ute Pass to Divide, where it transitions to the Midland Terminal. The MT section runs from Divide to Cripple Creek and Victor, then transitions to the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway, AKA, The Short Line. The Short Line section then returns trains to the Manitou Springs area, where, (due to layout footprint restrictions) they back into the Old Colorado City depot. They layout runs primarily on DC, but can run DCC via DPDT center off toggles. The layout can be run either point to point, or continuous running.
