Progress Update #9 Continued Scenery

In the midst of constructing the benchwork, I've been continuing with moving along with the scenery. I've done most of all the ground cover for the Columbia River scene. I just need to add trees... A lot of trees. So, because of my need for mass amounts of trees, I've been experimenting with different methods for the best looking tree while staying cheap and quick. Here's some pictures of my progress.

Columbia river scene:
                                                             Before

                                                                 Current:

Here's a few trees I've built with the method using furnace filters for branches and cedar shakes for the trunks.

Progress Update #8 New Benchwork

This summer was extremely busy for me, so unfortunately, I didn't get as much done on the layout as I would of hoped. Despite that, I did get a few projects started. A huge project is building the other half of the layout's benchwork. With a ton help from my dad, we've gotten it to the current stage of building the sub-roadbed. This new benchwork mainly encompasses a large peninsula, jutting out into the middle of the railroad room.

The peninsula will include a large bridge that will represent crossing of the Pend d'Orielle river (marking the boundary between British Columbia and Washington State). PROTOTYPE PICTURES ARE NOT MINE. rrpicturearchives PHOTOS.

Moving down the line from the bridge, there will be a large scene displaying the area known as Waneta. This area is a very scenic area on the prototype railroad where mountains dominate the area.

After Waneta, at the end of the benchwork(peninsula) when the track loops back to the other side, there will a dramatic scene of the Beaver Creek canyon with the amazing Beaver Creek Bridge. In this scene, there will be a river with a curved trestle. Directly under the bridge, there will be a waterfall that will plummet a scale 80 feet. This scene should be super neat. Photos from Waymarking.com.

Moving down the line from Beaver Creek, there will be the town of Fruitvale, which will include a small yard, huge lumber mill, trans-load warehouse, and possibly a interchange track with the Canadian Pacific from Trail, BC. Unfortunately there aren't many photos to share regarding Fruitvale.

Here's the track plan and pictures of the benchwork.

Fruitvale (right)

                                                                       Pend d'Orielle R. (back on wall)

                                                                       Fruitvale (right) Waneta(left side)

                                            Waneta(middle/left) Beaver Creek bridge(right)

Getting an A+ With Modeling!

Happy Father's Day! My dad's taking a nap so I thought I'd put this together with the little bit of time. :)

For an English final at school last week I had to do a presentation to the class on the book Of Mice and Men. I was thinking, how should I display the different physical aspects of the book in my presentation? Hmmm... A diorama! How fun would that be! Unfortunately, because I had other classes I really had to focus on, I didn't start the diorama until the day before my presentation. I hate procrastination even though I'm really good at it and I'm not proud of that trait at all! So, this is the result of a few hours of work. All the structures were scratchbuilt and the field is a result of some experimentation (fake fur and 2mm static grass). Could getting a 100% an English final be any more fun? I don't think so! You never know how modeling can help with things other than on the layout! This is the first time I've shot model photos outside. So, the photos are extremely blurry because of my lack of experience. Here's another excuse... I'm terrible at photography!

Progress Update #7 New Scenery

The next big project that I'm currently tackling is the scenery of the highway 395 crossing, Boise Cascade plywood mill, and the huge scene involving the Columbia River. I'll touch on these scenes in sections.

The first scene I really wanted to get headway on was the RR bridge over Highway 395 just outside of the Kettle Falls yard. I had the rough scenery already in, but I thought it was time to put more "life" into it. I really wanted to use static grass on this scene, so being on a budget, I made my own applicator from an electric fly swatter. This was extremely easy to do and it works fairly well. It seems to be a little weak in power, but it gets the job done, just in a little bit more time. Patience is key. Once I got the grass down, I finished the backdrop, trying to match the color on the backdrop to the 3D grass. I also began adding more vegetation to edges of the scene. I still need to add roadway striping.

BEFORE

AFTER

PROTOTYPE: Photo by Marty Bernard

Moving further down the line, right after the 395 bridge is the Boise Cascade plywood mill. This scene is nestled in a corner of the room and includes a wood chip loading spur and one for loading the plywood onto centerbeam flat cars, box cars, bulkhead, etc. A scratchbuilt mill building and a pile of logs are up against the backdrop to ease the transition into the painted backdrop. I still have to finish up some details, but overall, this scene is mostly complete.

Last of all, is the big scene encompassing the Columbia River. This section of the layout is about 12 feet long. It includes an 80' timber trestle, the highly compressed scene modeling the area known as Marcus, and a dolomite mine branch(the tunnel). The dolomite mine branch is a spur in the mountain, and is depicting a small branch that went up a few miles up another canyon. There is a tunnel on this branch on the protoype, but what is interesting is that the tunnel is too low for the locomotives to fit through. So, because of this, they had to use other cars from the train that weren't necessarily going to be switched at the mine to be "spacers." I thought this was really interesting, so a low tunnel portal is modeled on the layout to warrant this type of operations. On the prototype, the tunnel is further up the branch, but I didn't have the liberty to do that. In order to delete the "cheesiness," I'll try to hide the tunnel with rock and foliage. This hopefully will turn out pretty neat. 

This whole river scene will be very lush, displaying what the Northwest is known for. I'm really excited to see how it will turn out. After weeks of building trees, I might have a realistic result!  :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Here's a few prototype photos. I can't take credit for them. They are just off the internet, but they are shot in places along the line that I'm trying to model in this scene. It shows the photographer's name on the image.

Lastly, here's a shot of the next town down the line on the layout: Northport. 

Progress Update #6... New Room!

Wow! I just noticed how pathetically long it has been since I updated this blog! School and sports have been eating my time like they always have and always will. That's a good thing, but that just means I don't have as much time in the model railroad room as I would like.
One reason for the long delay in visual progress was a huge room renovation project. Over the coarse of two months, my dad, a friend, and I refortified the foundation of the building that the layout is in, put a wall in the middle of our large bonus room to create the train room (man cave) and a multipurpose family room, and  laid new tile for flooring. We also added more lights above the layout, added ventilation fans in the ceiling, and added a new window. This was painstaking work, but was well worth it. The model railroad is now in a much better environment in many ways. Next big project will be adding fascia and a skirting to hide the "ugly" stuff underneath.

BEFORE

AFTER

Next project I did was to a SW1500 I bought. This is an old blue box engine, but with a little bit of work I got it running fairly well. I just need to get a decoder for it. I also weathered and detailed it from prototype photos. Sorry for the blurriness.