Building the Pinnacle Creek Mining & Timber Co. RR

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RR, I had a mostly French speaking girlfriend from Quebec...I think I will pass on any French Quebec names!

As far as area, I suppose I want it to look like something in the Oregon Coast Range mountains. I'm from Oregon and I have the conifers. I want to have much more deciduous trees this time around. I just can't find the place???????? Jim:eek:
 
I'm sorry to hear you have a case of "The Conifers" Jim. Hope it's not too painful. A dose of "Deciduous" should help with that though.
 


Toot, it only hurts when someone tries to shove a pinecone up our a****! Other than that thought I can't imagine me doing a layout with conifers, but I will lean more toward deciduous this last time. Jim :)
 
Finally the table top for the table top layout. Most of you will notice that I have sawn of the corners. Why? Plenty of reasons. Corners hurt people and the layout themselves when walked into. Corners look nicer. Corner are useless space on a layout that have to be sceniced and simply make your table top layout look wrong. By using the curved corners your scenery and layout will look much more realistic and pleasing to the eye. Jim:)

IMG_8147_zpsmrhllveu.jpg
 
HOexplorer said:
As far as area, I suppose I want it to look like something in the Oregon Coast Range mountains. I'm from Oregon and I have the conifers. I want to have much more deciduous trees this time around. I just can't find the place???????? Jim:eek:
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What about Northeastern US, Jim?
 
KB, Good question. I think I may have a good answers. First, show me the conifers please. Second, don't we have enough Eastern Woodlands layouts about? I've never been keen on tree 'canopy' type layouts. Your from Vermont, can't get prettier than that in the Fall are there conifers there? Jim :)
 
HOexplorer said:
Finally the table top for the table top layout. Most of you will notice that I have sawn of the corners. Why? Plenty of reasons. Corners hurt people and the layout themselves when walked into. Corners look nicer. Corner are useless space on a layout that have to be sceniced and simply make your table top layout look wrong. By using the curved corners your scenery and layout will look much more realistic and pleasing to the eye. Jim:)

IMG_8147_zpsmrhllveu.jpg
Click to expand...

Most excellent! I too am looking at rounding off the edges when I build my top. I'll try to match the closest curve radius for a nice effect! It does make sense that the scenery will blend better, fences, tree lines, roads, etc. I really admire that look on the layouts that I have seen it used on.
 
HOexplorer said:
KB, Good question. I think I may have a good answers. First, show me the conifers please. Second, don't we have enough Eastern Woodlands layouts about? I've never been keen on tree 'canopy' type layouts. Your from Vermont, can't get prettier than that in the Fall are there conifers there? Jim :)
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I've seem people use those thick green buffer pads for trees, cut to shape, add a trunk, and PRESTO! Maybe a little spray glue and some ground cover on em and they look great!

Any kind of tree you want!
 


HOexplorer said:
KB, Good question. I think I may have a good answers. First, show me the conifers please. Second, don't we have enough Eastern Woodlands layouts about? I've never been keen on tree 'canopy' type layouts. Your from Vermont, can't get prettier than that in the Fall are there conifers there? Jim :)
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VT has VERY mixed forests. Plenty of thick pine woods clumped together with the hardwoods. Some section where you can't find a pine others where you can't find deciduous and section where the two are very ell mixed. Just check out our State flag:
nunst074.gif

Wouldn't put the evergreen there if we didn't have 'em.

Just Google Search "Vermont in Winter" and look at the images. You'll see what I mean.
 
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KB, I off to Yahoo to check Vermont out. Lots of narrow gauge there in the olden days. Maybe you've solve my problem? Is there mining in Vermont? Were the moonshiners alive and well in 1930? Jim:D
 
Copper, Gold and Asbestos were the big minerals mined for back in the day (With the clean up of the old copper and asbestos mines causing the EPA a big headache now-a-days). Lots of quarry work, too, for granite and similar stone. In current times, the government has such a ridiculous strange hold on the ground that you can barely dig a hole to plant a tree without 20 permits in hand let alone mine anything.

As for the moon shiners, my Dad tells the story of his Grand father having a still hidden inside the "fire wood stack" of his Sugar house and how the authorities keep coming to look for it but would never find it. :)

Check out this write up on the Elizabeth Copper mine in Vermont. It has some great shots from the late 1800's to the 1950's.

http://accd.vermont.gov/sites/accd/...oric/FinalPopularReport04-30-2014_smaller.pdf
 
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My parents are from Vermont. My dad worked his way through college in the marble works. Many monuments in DC, including grave headstones are Vermont marble. Look up Pittsford and Clarendon RR. Or Rutland RR. Rochester had a big quarry.
 
Thanks guys. Vermont who knew? The jury is still out on this. The one problem I find in narrow gauge is that the popular places, NE, SW mining, and others have been done over and over. Especially the Maine area. I'm doing this modeling to please myself primarily and if others can learn or enjoy my work via this site then good for them. All we have to do is Google Narrow Gauge Model RR and there are fifty great examples on YouTube alone to see. While my work is fairly unique in that folks are familiar with my final product (oh that's Jim's work), I don't think I want to do the NE because so many model it to me it would sort of be copying if that makes sense. My rendition of something that shows up the most times on the internet is more like competition than creativity. So, maybe the jury is in, and Ijust don't know it? Generally I become familiar with different parts of the country, Vermont lately, and somehow mix the best of all these area together. Last layout was Colorado and New Mexico, before that was Alaska, before that was Oregon Cascades, before that SW desert, before that not sure, maybe Oregon/Washington, before that Oregon again. I think I will take a closer look at Northern California be that jury makes its decision. But if any of you creative minds out there want to give me a PCM&T 'Division' name covering all the bases let me know. Jim:eek:
 
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After the top or any 'top of the layout' system I like to draw out my track plan. Sometimes this is just cardboard strips representing the route on top of L-girder benchwork and in this case just a couple of pens will do. This step may seem unimportant, but to me, it gives me an idea if my track plan will work and just how much of my space the track plan will take. In HO and larger this is important if you want to get all that junk in the closet on the layout.

Notice I have a stream. Obviously then this layout will not be built flat on the table top, but simply built above the table top. If you hadn't figured all this out before now you will see it differently perhaps.

The very next thing I do it to figure out where my track will be. I like Woodland Scenic risers for this. I chose 4 inch risers upon which the track will lay. I could have chosen lower or made my risers higher but to me 4" looks like the maximum.

IMG_8150_zpsrfurux4l.jpg


Remember I said simple race track oval? Maybe not so simple I did make a small bend in the track for better photos. These risers are glued down with WS Foam Tack Glue. I use mostly WS products, but Aileen's white glue is close enough and it can be found most everywhere these days. Jim :)
 
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Toot, Only vertically.

RR, Yes, I'm sure fictional will be involved at this point. The hard part is a regular division name for the PCM&T's third and last edition. Jim:eek:
 


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