Green Mountain Railroad Layout Build

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I've used this for several projects. You may find it easier than trying to carve. It's available in 3 sizes, random or cut stone.

www.walthers.com

Flexible Cut Stone Wall with Self-Adhesive Backing -- Small Stones - 1

Fully detailed and painted, these flexible stone walls are easy to cut, curve and form. The interconnecting design and peel-&-stick backing makes installation easy so you'll have a realistic wall in no time. Walls are available in several stone sizes to fit your layout. Random Stones Small...
www.walthers.com www.walthers.com
 
Marlin39 said:
I've used this for several projects. You may find it easier than trying to carve. It's available in 3 sizes, random or cut stone.

www.walthers.com

Flexible Cut Stone Wall with Self-Adhesive Backing -- Small Stones - 1

Fully detailed and painted, these flexible stone walls are easy to cut, curve and form. The interconnecting design and peel-&-stick backing makes installation easy so you'll have a realistic wall in no time. Walls are available in several stone sizes to fit your layout. Random Stones Small...
www.walthers.com www.walthers.com
Click to expand...
I thought about using a product like this but I’m not sure if I want to go that route or not. I’m also not sure if something like this would work for the patterns I need to replicate. I’ll have to play around more with the idea. Thanks for sharing!
 
Life has certainly been busy! I didn’t have time to get an update in the following weekend after my last post. Finally have the time for a quick update.

I haven’t made any additional progress on the stone arch bridge but I have begun detailing and painting the track.

A few weeks ago I purchased some scale joint bars from Keyser Valley Models.

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I had seen these on a YouTube channel I follow. I really liked the look of them so I decided to purchase some. I got 6-bolt joint bars for the mainline and 4-bolt for the yard and spur tracks. It’s definitely tedious to cut these out and glue each one to the tracks but I’ve completed one module of the mainline so far over the last week.

I’ve also begun painting the track using Woodland Scenics Tidy Track paint pens.

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I’ve used these before on my n scale micro layout and liked them quite a bit. Again, it’s definitely tedious to paint each rail and tie but after a couple coats, things look pretty great!

Here’s what the track looks like between the Bellows Falls and Chester modules with both the joint bars installed and track work painted.

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I plan to weather the ties more using dry brushing. I also plan to use weathering powders for both the rails and ties to blend everything together.

That’s all for this week! More to come in the near future:)
 


As mentioned previously in my coffee shop post, things have been slow on the GMRC build during the last month or so.

I’ve slowly been tackling the painting and weathering of the track. The process is definitely tedious but certainly worth the results. I’ve spent the last 6 weeks or so testing different methods for detailing the track. Here’s what the results look like:

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Might be hard to see in the pictures but the steps I took to achieve this look were to apply a base layer of paint using the Woodland Scenics tidy track pens. I then used a mixture of brown and orange acrylic paint to create a rust color that I dry brushed over the rails to cover the rails entirely. (The paint pens often leave exposed areas). I then dry brushed brown and white over the ties to create variations in color. Finally, I applied brown and gray weathering powders to the ties and rails to blend everything together. I have not applied clear coat yet but I plan to do so soon.

On a different note, for those who did not see the quick update in the coffee shop on my new locomotives, here are the pictures again so you can see what I scored on eBay.

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These need a little TLC and need to be converted to DCC but they run great!

My plan moving forward is to continue with track work and repeating what I’ve done so far. The joint bar installation is definitely the most tedious part but I love the way they look. I am also planning on beginning the rock work below the truss bridge so that I can finally do a permanent install of the bridge and run trains again:)
 
With the colder months now here, work on the layout has been able to continue on a more regular basis. I’ve continued with track detailing, painting, and weathering.

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The base coat of acrylic paint has been applied to the Bellows Falls module. Once it dries, I’ll apply another coat using the paint pens and finish this section off with some gray/white acrylic paint on the ties as I did for the previous modules.

I also completed the weathering of the truss bridge.

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I need to touch up a few spots but it’s turned out better than I expected.

I’ve also continued with the rocks along the canal in Bellows Falls. I decided to add more along the bank on each side.

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I started painting the rock faces using a dark gray base coat followed by a lighter gray wash.

In addition to that, I’ve begun applying a base coat of the AK Terrains concrete mixture onto the area where the bridge sits.

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Plenty more work to do on the riverbed and rock work but it’s coming along:)
 
Guilford Railman said:
With the colder months now here, work on the layout has been able to continue on a more regular basis. I’ve continued with track detailing, painting, and weathering.

View attachment 248629

The base coat of acrylic paint has been applied to the Bellows Falls module. Once it dries, I’ll apply another coat using the paint pens and finish this section off with some gray/white acrylic paint on the ties as I did for the previous modules.

I also completed the weathering of the truss bridge.

View attachment 248630

I need to touch up a few spots but it’s turned out better than I expected.

I’ve also continued with the rocks along the canal in Bellows Falls. I decided to add more along the bank on each side.

View attachment 248631

I started painting the rock faces using a dark gray base coat followed by a lighter gray wash.

In addition to that, I’ve begun applying a base coat of the AK Terrains concrete mixture onto the area where the bridge sits.

View attachment 248632

View attachment 248633

Plenty more work to do on the riverbed and rock work but it’s coming along:)
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Looks great! I've used both the AK concrete and asphalt products with excellent results.
 


Little more progress on the layout this week.

I’ve continued with painting the tracks at Bellows Falls. Still need to do the ties.

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I’ve also continued on the canal scene.

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Still need to apply the AK concrete along the canal edges. It’s a little hard to tell from the photo but there won’t be a complete bottleneck of the water flow. The water will also flow between the two rocks on the right side.

Before pouring the water, I’ll need to apply some additional rocks, plants, and other details to the river bed.

More to come next week hopefully!
 
Layout update time!

I’ve been hard at work over the last week or so getting the track glued down, as well as completing a few other tasks.

I went to Home Depot and bought two colors of paint, a light brown for the scenery base coat and green for the fascia. Here’s the results of that:

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I also began work on the second bridge over the river between N. Walpole and Bellows Falls. This will be a concrete bridge. In addition to the bridge, I began carving the river bed using plaster.

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I also glued down layers of foam to build up the base of the mountains and some additional hills. These will get scultamold and various rock faces added to finalize the shape.

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Lastly, I used some scrap hardboard to create a protective barrier on the lift gate so trains won’t take a tumble if they derail. I still need to add a section next to the spur track.

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More to come in the near future:)
 
So....some slight changes to the layout build. In short, I didn't do a good job at laying the track between Bellows Falls and Chester. The curves were too tight and I couldn't use 20% of my rolling stock because of that. I decided to turn the layout into a switching layout and build a better version of the GMRC layout in the future when I have more space. Here's a video explaining the issues that led to this decision:


I've started working on turning the layout into a point-to-point switching layout.

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The station spur is now a longer spur that wraps around the layout to an industry. The old main line has been removed and instead will be a lead for the runaround.

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The truss bridge has been removed and partially disassembled. I’d like to repaint it at some point. I am working on creating another stone arch bridge and will fill the gaps from the truss bridge with plaster and carve more rock faces into that area.

I did a test operation tonight and I am liking the setup I have. I think this will certainly be fun to operate despite the change in plans.

I’m trying to decide if I should start a new thread to reflect the changes in design or just edit this thread. Thoughts?
 
I’ve been listening to many episodes of Ray Arnott’s wonderful podcast ‘Around the Layout’. He’s interviewed Lance Mindheim a couple of times and it got me thinking about how I approach model railroading.

I’ve been working on a 9 ft x 9 ft around the walls layout. I changed it to a point-to-point style layout after the loop didn’t work out due to sharp curves. I’m still not happy with the point-to-point version and i’ve been thinking about why.

I’ve determined that I enjoy operations the most but the current layout does not provide realistic OPs due to sharp curves and too many turnouts in a small space. The OPs cannot be completed realistically. There are 14 turnouts total and it definitely doesn’t work for the space. The total length of track from one end to the other is 31 ft and is approximately a 1/2 mile of track in the real world. Definitely too much going on in a small space!

I have decided to design a new layout with minimal turnout count and higher operational potential using a couple industries with multiple car spots. This is what Lance Mindheim does and it looks fantastic! Not to mention, I want to achieve more realism on the layout and step up my modeling game. It’ll be easier to achieve on a smaller layout. More to come in the near future:)
 


Guilford Railman said:
I’ve been listening to many episodes of Ray Arnott’s wonderful podcast ‘Around the Layout’. He’s interviewed Lance Mindheim a couple of times and it got me thinking about how I approach model railroading.

I’ve been working on a 9 ft x 9 ft around the walls layout. I changed it to a point-to-point style layout after the loop didn’t work out due to sharp curves. I’m still not happy with the point-to-point version and i’ve been thinking about why.

I’ve determined that I enjoy operations the most but the current layout does not provide realistic OPs due to sharp curves and too many turnouts in a small space. The OPs cannot be completed realistically. There are 14 turnouts total and it definitely doesn’t work for the space. The total length of track from one end to the other is 31 ft and is approximately a 1/2 mile of track in the real world. Definitely too much going on in a small space!

I have decided to design a new layout with minimal turnout count and higher operational potential using a couple industries with multiple car spots. This is what Lance Mindheim does and it looks fantastic! Not to mention, I want to achieve more realism on the layout and step up my modeling game. It’ll be easier to achieve on a smaller layout. More to come in the near future:)
Click to expand...
I like Ray
And the Second Section Podcast as well.

ATL just did a "Rewind" episode with Bernard from MiniPrints. I listened (again) and was reminded that's why I have a 3D resin printer: to make all the great figures and details to make the layout looked lived in.

Good luck with the new layout.
 
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