progress so far

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tankist

tankist

Active Member
presenting my first attempt at this layout building thing. :D
EDIT: it looks like my image hosting is flaking out here and there :(

Upper yard. track is just laying there for now.

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ground is taking shape. still a lot of foam gluing and cutting to do

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rocky climb.

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almost made it to the yard

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Overpasses simulated with plywood inserts

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another angle

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Looks like some nice terrain features shaping up. The grade looks a lot better than when we were first talking also. What kind of bridges do you have planned?
 


thank you.

i had slight temptation to just paint over everything on sunday but resisted as i think i could do better. i think i'm getting the hang of working foam into very close of what i want. so ill be gluing and cutting bit more
grade is still somewhere between 4 and 5% on the climb, bit more on descent but now it is very even all the way up and down. there is still room for fine tuning thoguh. had diamond tipped hack saw blade for tile cutting (see below) laying around, gave it a shot and it worked out above every expectation. used it not as a saw but more like a file (gave it bit side to side motion) being flat but still flexible it leveled the bumps while bending around curves. very dusty process however, finally had a chance to use that portable vacuum we had laying around for ages.

bridges will have to be scratch built. i have couple of ideas but hings probably going to change as i try and fail so i'll post what worked after its done. not sure if i manage to stay true to very prototypical but i might have a better bridge then piece of plywood when done.



not model rr related, so skip if to much of a read.
quick word on "diamond" hack saws and tile cutting
i was laying marble tiles in our bathroom , needed to cut several tiles to size and cut hole for toilet bowl. i figured i have small bath and not a lot of cutting needed so i got both saw blade and wire blade and let me tell you - that was wasted money. the pictures in home depot "do it yourself" books are sure optimistic. i was cutting for an hour or so and then looking how much i accomplished, how much i had left and horrible quality of the cut, i just went back into the tile shop and had them cut all the tiles to size. later it took 3 hours to cut the round hole with diamond thingie and dremel (wife was sprinkling water). and that wasnt even granite tile!
so if you need to cut tile save yourself time and dont fall for those hack saw time wasters. works for foam thoguh :lol:
 
tankist said:
thank you.
not model rr related, so skip if to much of a read.
quick word on "diamond" hack saws and tile cutting
i was laying marble tiles in our bathroom , needed to cut several tiles to size and cut hole for toilet bowl. i figured i have small bath and not a lot of cutting needed so i got both saw blade and wire blade and let me tell you - that was wasted money. the pictures in home depot "do it yourself" books are sure optimistic. i was cutting for an hour or so and then looking how much i accomplished, how much i had left and horrible quality of the cut, i just went back into the tile shop and had them cut all the tiles to size. later it took 3 hours to cut the round hole with diamond thingie and dremel (wife was sprinkling water). and that wasnt even granite tile!
so if you need to cut tile save yourself time and dont fall for those hack saw time wasters. works for foam thoguh :lol:
Click to expand...

A few years back, I had several tiling jobs to do. Remembering the first tile job I did using hand saws, files and dremel, (not to mention blood, sweat and tears!) I bought a tile saw from Harbor Freight. BEST INVESTMENT I'VE MADE! The tiles I cut to fit around the toilets were perfect!

If I get into any situation where a power tool will save me that much time and effort, I'll not hesitate to make the investment! LOL

BTW, nice work on the layout. 5% grade is too much for my liking, but if you can live with it, so can I! LOL Really like the look of some of your foam carving. Wish I could carve like that!

Darrell, quiet...for now
 
some more earth shaping happened.



industry X area (not sure what kind just yet)

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lookin back on descending line

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the climb route

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the granary valley

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very modest progress as we were busy celebrating B day of our now 1 year old and VERY busy preparing the entire thing. but i managed to squeeze in couple hours, mainly from my most personal time pool - sleep :D


several coats of joint compound to smooth things out. sanded in between coats.

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my first try at casting rock faces with plaster of paris. actually this is the third face that i made but you get the point. when people said this plaster dries hard i thought "well, how hard can it be". its very hard allright. and it does set VERY quick. i coldnt believe it. love working with that thing :D

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The rock casting look good to me. They do take some getting used to in terms of how little time you have to get them positioned. You can add a couple of drops of vinegar to slow down the plaster setting time, which does help. Now, the fun part is painting and staining those rock faces. That does making installing the castings look easy. :)
 
couple things that i learned is to use a nice and thick layer of plaster and not just dirty up the foam. first piece was to watery and bubbly, second one was to thin so it didn't stick good so i spread some plaster with fingers and tried my best to sculpture something that will look ok (will be redone). the third one (pictured) looks IMO better then the other, got the mix just right . for the future i will use much heavier foil - going to use one of those takeout aluminum trays from the party yesterday.

yeah, i will need to read up on painting and staining.
 
seems like this plastering is going to take some time.
fragment of northern rock wall. pulled the foil to soon on the second go. will need to work on that patience part.

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here i completley ran out of patience, and this is what i got. tried to fix it somehow while it was still workable but just looks like pile of crap :(
huuuh... i guess i cannot cheat out of waiting the proper amount of time...

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i actually dont think whats in the last pic looks bad, instead of rocks it could be part of a hill thats say had a mud slide of some sorts.

keep up the good work, this makes me wanna get to goin on my layout, to bad the room its ment to be in is in shambles.
 
perhaps it does look better then bare foam but i don't think the mudslide thing is going to work here. i mean they probably wouldn't have left such surface after cutting a way for the rail line without reinforcement of somekind. i'll just plaster another section on top of it. on the bright side it should have much better surface to adhere to and doesn't need to be very thick.
this plaster however does have a look of concrete to me. i'll try using that for casting the bridge end supports.

i can't wait to start laying rails already but with my pace i don't think it will happen this week either...
 
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I agree with Stang. Railroads have to deal with unstable cuts all the time. Build a retaining wall at track level and use some left over plaster, smashed up into rocks, to line the area between the retaining wall and the hill. I think it would look good.
 
UP2CSX said:
I agree with Stang. Railroads have to deal with unstable cuts all the time. Build a retaining wall at track level and use some left over plaster, smashed up into rocks, to line the area between the retaining wall and the hill. I think it would look good.
Click to expand...

no doubt. there will be planty of retaining walls for me
how high would you say a retaining wall out of old ties can be? probably not higher then car, so in this case at least some of the surface will need to be redone. although i might skip that and try to carve something



started the evening with somewhat of left foot. the moral of the story is to make nice flowing mix as it will be sour-creamy fast enough. to fast in this case. by the time it was time to adhere the foil to foam it was to late. i guess i culd try and glue this wall sowhere or breakup into small stones, or combination of both.

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but then i had some nice progress nevertheless:

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couldn't help but put some rail in for the picture

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54 foot covered hopper cleared the path without a scratch every time but with no room to spare. will need to adjust placement.

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and another picture of this path ,
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EDIT : this is sooooo late. sleep. zzzzz
 
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for those who still following - some more plaster today
i am not completely satisfied with how those rocks look for now. i completely failed to distinguish between natural rocks and rock faces that were formed when the path for RR was "cut through". i'm really thinking if to get some 2 of those scenic forms for rock casting. perhaps after i glue and blend in some precast ones it will look better. i also have to figure out how i'm going to paint and stain those.
boy , do i want to be done with casting and paint the terrain dirt already...

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i was quite happy with progress and then it bit me, decided to try an "pour" concrete retaining walls at couple places and before i know it its 1AM again :eek:
really enjoyed making these. tonight i'm going to make retaining wall for that "valley" section of the climb. i want it to be bit higher then rails to create sort of barrier so i'll probably reinforce it with wire hanger or "rebar" so the top portion doesn't break off.

to bad that plaster will not stay in this color, looks like perfect concrete while it is still moist.

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cant wait to get at it tonight. if i don't crash sleeping that is.
 
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Anton, you can use those concrete retaining walls for cuts or timber retaining walls. There's really no limit to the height of a timber retaining wall. It's just a matter of degree of slope and hydrostatic pressure. You could have a 12-14 foor timber retaining wall on one level and then cut back the slope like stairs and have retaining walls for each addtional cut. You can also use foam for concrete retaining walls. Just embed them in the plaster as you pour. They will look fine painted and it wil save you a little time.
 
did couple more faces here and there last night, only few smaller areas left. getting real close to base paint part, can't wait to hide the pink.

Jim, that will work. got couple boxes of matches the other day so i have plenty "timber" for those retaining walls.
 
Looking good, im liking the rock work going on there. That looks like a pretty close clearance with that hopper though... lol
 
thanks Josh.
i'm not very happy with rocks, in my mind i was seeing something else, but it is not the worst scenario either, i can definitely live with these. some places i actualy do like.

not pictured yet but i mostly worked on bridges last night (while the brown was drying). cast end support for the climb bridge. angle the rail comes up to it is very shallow so the support overhangs a bit. used hanger wire as "rebar" so i think it shoud withstand me handling it less then gently by mistake and not breaking off. really enjoyed making foam form to hold the "concrete" as it dries. tried different options and decided to stay with plywood bridge to minimize vertical space taken from under passing train. the nice thing it is exactly the same thikness as cork roadbed so transition to bridge will be smooth . cut a slot in the middle so bridges are see through. the longer bridge is actually couple of slots so not to completely separate the plywood into two strips. later on i plan on detailing the bridge a bit with matchstick "handrails" and perhaps maintenance walkway near the track. later on when things are runnin planning on making mini pipe bending device to pre-curve some leftover piece of flexi to serve as inner bridge safety rails (correct term?).

started getting a bit frustrated with track placement on and right after departing bridge but i think i got it working - took that same diamond saw to the cast rocks and widened enough path for 54 foot test hopper to pass (i guess i'll have some abatement walls there instead of rock faces, not to bad). now that i think about it i probably will need to widen it quite more for the 8-44 to pass. it is less then perfect curve as i just couldn't do a proper flex, so for now it will be a R22 section for easement, R18 section and only then flexi as the curve is somewhere between 22 and 18 values. i understand r18 will make some cringe, oh well, i think i avoided it as much as i can.

after several passes of joint compound+sanding decided to paint areas i think i'm done shaping. IMO looking better already :D

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found some "old fashioned peach" (who on earth came up with this name for a color???) paint i used last year for the bathrooms. mixed it with grey flat and i think i got good result for fresher concrete.

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another retaining wall. got carried away carving it, will need to rethink how to give it proper shape.

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i'm not sure anymore how to color those rocks. tried grey on test piece and it is not looking very good. will try to use that peach again and dirting it up just a ted grey. i have some yellow to will try that.
 
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I think its coming along very nicely. Makes me wanna start on my layout so bad but cant, might just have to do a lil 18" x 48" shelf scene just to do some sorta work.

as far as the colors on your hills, are they gonna be dirt, with some vegitation or the evemtually gonna have grass, trees, ect??
 
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