Sunday, March 11, 2012

Photo Archive

I have created a photo archive of the railroad.  This will be where I put all of my railroad pictures. Even the boring ones :)

Feel free to browse: http://s1163.photobucket.com/albums/q542/PHRMRR/

Progress and seeing a light at the end of the tunnel

Been awhile since I updated on the status of the railroad.  This is par for my writing style.  I sort of produce in spurts.

So, as of early March the railroad looks like this:

The Farm


Rivermont

The back area

Pine Hollow

Putting all of the buildings and some people on the layout sure brought it to life and showed what I have in store for me.  I also took some time and painted the roads a nice "blacktop" color to a) get rid of the blue adn b) sort of show me what was going to be what.  Just that one step did wonders!

We are continuing to make little tweaks here and there as I go along.  For example, I needed a concrete "pad" for my Fire Department.  My attempt at spackle to make a large "concrete" area didn't work so well so I went out and got some SmoothIT to try. This product is touted as the easiest way to make roads so I figured what better way to do concrete areas.  And it lives up to its name, but it's pricey at nearly $10 for a quart which makes about a 15' x 3" swath.  Using it to make all of the roads and parking lot, sidewalk areas would get HUGELY costly.  But after using it, it seems to be just a plaster formulation so I'm going to do my next attempt using the plaster of paris I have on hand.  At about $10 or so for a 25 pound bag that is MUCH less expensive.

So anyway, here is the Fire Department pad (rats I don't have an updated picture of it sanded and colored. Have to add that in another post). So here I have a raised concrete pad under the building.  To the left that area will get another poured section to be painted black for a parking area.  I also took a moment to test scenik a small section of track in front of the building.  I think it turned out fairly well.  It is a section of sculpting plaster that dries looking like granular rock.  Over that is the base layer of "turn" and some coarser area to look like brush just growing wild along the section.


And here is the other major concrete area I put down. This one didn't come out as well as I would have liked and I'll have to touch it up.


And one of the reasons that it is exciting to me to get the buildings and items on the layout.  When you get the camera down to their level it looks real :) That is so neat.  Been a long time coming.







Till next time I'm still working.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A view to a Railroad

So, the Board of Directors met and have decided that its not so easy planning on just plain blue.  So by unanimous resolution they have opted to build the towns and farm and other material - just to provide some backdrop to the planning that is ongoing.

Also resolved was to remove the mountain in front of the Saw Mill - dump truck by dump truck if necessary.  Mr. Johnson provided a very clear case why his visibility should not be cut off (mostly consisted of a lot of "Well, just because" arguments).

So in order to get an idea of where the Railroads progress was the Board commissioned a series of sureys to document progress of the building.







The series provided the Board with sufficient information to move forward with construction.  Of course the Chief Engineer had to remind the board that there was still the issue of power and track cleanliness, and until that had been resolved there would not be a lot of "railroad work" taking place on the lines.  So, while grumbling, the Board approved the plan to continue track work until such time as they could be guaranteed a full reliable circuite around the track at will by the engines.  Until that time any true "fun" work would have to wait.

Meeting adjourned with everyone admiring the plans.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

My Parking Lot

While attempting to fix some of the saw mill "problems" I came across an idea to build parking lots from spackle.  There are products out there to actually "create" parking lots and roads from material that dries into a hard plaster like surface, I can't afford to buy the multiple containers of it to meet the needs of all my roads and parking lots.  So I decided to see what the spackle would do.

On the sawmill scene I used the spackle to act as a surface from the saw exit down to the drying shed and then up and around where loading would take place.  Frankly given the state of my landscape I just coulnd't seem them moving a forklife over the ground.  Thus my "concrete."

So in the picture here we see the material placed outside the exit from the saw area.  This is where the lumber would be moved to stack it in preparation for the forklift to move it down to the drying shed.  I scored in some lines and added some fine "earth" to try to have it look like there are weeds growing in it.  Once it dries completely and I take a fine sandpaper to it and get some concreate color to it, hopefully it will look like that.


This is a picture of the full concreate application.  Around the saw mill itself to the door of the drying shed and up to the car loading area.  Have to see how this turns out.




In the meantime I also tried to create a much larger parking lot.  This time I took an entire block where the gas station and 7-11 will be sitting and did a similar treatment.  This time I laid out some popsicle sticks to provide a uniform depth and simulate a curb.  I placed the buildings in the goop to get a placement and then removed them.  Removing the spackle where the buildings will sit allows me to run wires and place lights into the buildings.  Once I had an idea of where the buildings would go (and the driveways) I put in some styrne sheet sidewalk.  However, as I was drafting this I realized I didn't leave enough space for the frontage of the 7-11 to have two entrances :(  Oh well.  I will get it fixed.


And this gives an idea of the finished product, or the promise of a finished product.  I'm pretty sure it won't be pink.





Been Awhile

Posting has been sparse due to work and a labor strike.  Apparently the engineers decided that it was too much trouble to work on a railroad that permitted dirty tracks and dirty locomotive wheels.  So they decided to go on strike and simply stop working under those arduous conditions.

Despite attempts to appease them, the strike continued.  Therefore management felt no option but to deal with those issues in true Ronald Regan fashion, we fired the engineers and found some who would be willing to work and not try to break the railroads bank.  Unfortunately the new workers immediately joined the union and the same pressure came on.  So we had to figure out how to resolve the probelms.

After quite some effort, we believe we have found the solution.  Of course the challenge is now being able to get enough gang laborers scrubbing track and engine wheels to meet our desired deadlines.  So far its not looking very good.

In the meantime, we have a pair of pictures that show the state of the RR progress to date.  Excuse the mess - we are actually still very much under construction.




So labor issues resolved (at least in terms of recognizing the problem and working toward a solution) work picked up again.  We are pleased to announce that the corner where the sawmill will be has been (for the most part) senicked and actually looks like real land.  While there is a bit more landscaping and some track ballasting that must be done before the next stage, for the most part it is complete.


Of course the challenge is that it will be "lost" in the corner once the tunnel and mountain are installed in front of it.  This is a conceptual photograph of how it will look.


As you can see it sort of "disappears" into the corner.  Train operations to pick up the sawn lumber will have to be observed by looking up the line.


Until next time.

Cheers!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Current Inventory (in progress)

Here is a listing of my railroad locomotives and rolling stock.

Donald Munson's freelance

New Year - New Plan

It is nearly a week into the new year and, as I'm guessing you figured from the title, I changed my mind over the holidays.  As I sat there looking at my layout I realized that I really didn't like the small yard I was confronted with.  Operations notwithstanding, the yard needed more room for my limited rolling stock.

So I went back to the drawing board, talked it over with the Head of Domestic Operations and did some land surveying - the railroad will be breaking ground on a southern yard shortly after operations commence in the near future.  In the meantime the land that was going to be used has been turned back over to the county for improvement and the decisions on what to build there have not been concluded.

Once that decision was made the Road Department begain laying track based on the new format.  So far nearly 75% of the rail has been laid.  Operations are ongoing to surecure the sub-roadbed and build up the mainline to meet standards.  Additionally terraforming operations have taken place and the lake has been fully excavated as well as beginnings of the upper land elevations.

On that note, the company has agreed to extend the upper level to the sourtheast in hopes of a future expansion into the unexplored reagions of the external areas.

Photos will be provided soon

Here is an overview of the new layout.