Plaster and plastic

I took my first step into hardshell scenery yesterday with the application of some Woodland Scenics plaster cloth. I'd picked up two rolls of the Woodland Scenics cloth this last week while traveling and wanted to experiment with it. I thought work in this area using the plaster cloth went very quick and smooth for my first attempt but at $8 per roll, I don't think I'll used the WS cloth again. In checking around, I had several people recommend plaster cloth from Jerry's Artorama that's 1/4 the price of the WS. I placed an order for some yesterday and will post results.

After getting the plaster done, I returned to working on my grain bins. I'd gotten an order in the mail from the hobby shop that included needed paint and styrene strips. So, I got the basic roof done and the first coat of paint on. Many have asked how I made the large grain bin. I started with a piece of green 8" PVP pipe and have been coating it with layers of Rix grain bin panels. The Rix panels are a different radius than the PVC pipe so I first soaked the Rix parts in boiling water to soften them up. Then quickly super glued them to the pipe. So far, I like how my first real scratch build is going. Next up is detailing and weathering.

Lay of the land

I'm still waiting on the mail to bring the latest batch of supplies. I'm needing about six pieces of Micro Engineering Code 70 flex track and about four pieces of ME Code 55 flex to finish up track work. The code 70 is on the way but ME is still behind on getting the new batch of Code 55 out. Once I get the track, it should only be about a days work to finish laying track. After that, I've got some feeder wires to police up and a few center over springs to add to some switches and that should me mechanically complete!!!!!

In the mean time, I've started on laying in the scenery base. In these two photos, I've gotten the foam in and carved to the basic form. Today, I'm going to try to get some plaster cloth laid over and get the hard shell ready. After the plaster cloth, I plan to use Joe Fugate's cement/plaster/vermiculite recipe to fine tune the contour of the land.

Waiting on the mail!!!!!!!!!

Progress continues, at a slow pace. I'm hung up on completing the Crawford grain I've been working on as I didn't have the parts needed to finish. I'm now waiting on UPS and the Postman to deliver what I need to move forward. I sure hate not having a local, well stocked hobby shop. The closest one to me is a four hour drive and the next one worth going to is a five hour drive. So, for those of you that have one close by, support it!!! Otherwise, you'll be in a mail order hobby like I am.

In the mean time, I started working on the scenery base around my HWY 45 underpass at Crawford. The foam is in and the wood base for the road is glued in and drying. The next step is to get more foam on the back side of the tracks and carved out. Then I have to decide what I'm going to cover the foam with. The two things I'm looking at are plaster cloth from Woodland Scenics or Scenic Express or going with Joe Fugate's ground goop made from fine vermiculite, portland cement and patching plaster. Both form a hard shell scenery. I'm actually thinking of using BOTH. First, a light layer of the cloth to cover the foam and tie everything together then the goop to fine tune the land. Plus, I figure this will add extra strength to my scenery base. I've got three kids from age 4 to 9 and need extra strength on everything in the house.
I've also started working on my TXI cement plant at Artesia. As you can see, the base model of this plant is the Walthers Valley Cement kit. I'm going to add onto this kit and bash it some to better represent the TXI plant I'm modeling. I'm about as far as I can go on this project too as I'm waiting on needed parts to continue.
On the bright side, we'll be making a family trip to Atlanta soon and I have Kennesaw Trains on the top of my list. I plan on leaving there with a good bit of scratch building materials to further these two and other projects.

Three steps forward, one step back......

I'm still making slow, but steady progress on the layout. I didn't make my Christmas deadline for finishing all track work but I got close. Since I didn't make my goal, I thought I'd take a break from track and work on some bridges and structures.

Here is the new and improved Tibbe "T" girder span. The other span broke while putting it in. The crack was small but I knew it was there so it had to go. I now just need to get the track back down on the bridge and I can start scenery on this part of the layout.

 

 

 

This bridge is on the NS just before the KCS crossing at Meridian. I plan on there being a low, wet, swampy area here.

Work has also begun on Crawford grain from the post below. So far, there are two Walther's Big Grain Bins and a Walthers Surge bin in place. Also note the progress on the scratch build of a 60' diameter grain bin from a Rix kit and an 8" PVC pipe. I ran out of Rix parts today. Hope to have more by the end of the week.

And finally, the step back. Back in October, I had a track laying blitz with help coming in for the week. Well, I now have to go back and make some major repairs over all the track we laid in October. We didn't cut in any expansion joints when we laid it so this cold weather seems to have made the track buckle. I'm going to have to go back, make quite a few cuts, re-glue track and add in some feeder wire. Not fun!!!

Planning ahead.....

I'm almost done with laying track so I'm starting to plan for the next stage; scenery and structures. One of the first structures I want to tackle is Crawford Grain pictured here. I've been trying to find some large grain bins that match these but not had much luck. The Walther's bins are about as close as I can find but aren't anywhere near big enough. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Lots of progress since my last update!!

I've made a good bit of progress since my last update. Here's a few shots. 

This is a view of the "Louisville" yard on the upper deck. That right hand turnout will lead to one more yard track that will have the Georgia Pacific lead off of it. This is the only track left to install on the upper deck. My goal was to have ALL track in by Christmas. Not sure that I'll make that but I do plan on having all the upper deck done. 

This is a shot of the East end of the Meridian yard on the lower deck. The yard is KCS while the double track on the right is the NS. This yard is complete. The only track left here is a four track hidden staging yard behind the backdrop. The switch for this yard is on the other end of the yard and will go though the backdrop via an industry roll up door. 

This is a shot of the KCS main from Artesia as it approaches the NS crossing at the East end of the Meridian yard. I'm starting to get more bridges in. This is another Scale Segmental Bridge Co. kit that was a joy to build. The double track in the background is the NS, I've got another concrete bridge that I hope to get in next week. 

This is a shot of the Crawford siding and the Crawford Grain spur. This was the last siding that I had to get in on the lower deck. There is very little track left to install. On the lower deck, I've got that hidden staging behind the Meridian yard, another four track hidden staging behind Artesia yard, the Wye track at the North end of Artesia and finally the TXI Cement plant South of Artesia. On the upper deck is that one yard track and the Georgia Pacific track. Once I get all that in, I'll be done with track and ready to move to structures and scenery. I'm ready for that.

Getting more track down!!!!

Even though the blitz is over, I'm still hard at work getting track down. I've still got the three yards and a few industries left to lay. This week, I've been focusing on the yard at Artesia.  

Here's a prototype view. Notice the four tracks in the upper left of the photo that curve off the the left side of the photo. These are the arrival/departure tracks. Since I'm building on a narrow shelf, I'm having trouble working these into the layout. If you look at the track plan for the lower deck in my first post, you'll notice that I've got one track going through the backdrop as a wye and the other three tracks ending at the back drop. I'm toying with the idea of taking all four tracks through the backdrop to use as staging. I'm looking for any suggestions on this. 

Here's a shot of the North end of the yard on the layout. I've still got the Wye track to lay where the brick at the left edge of the photo is. Also, working on the engine service area where the two bricks are in the background. 

Here's a view from the South end of the yard along the yard lead. In the center of the photo you can see the switches for those arrival/departure tracks. I'd like for them to be fully usable. 

I've also been working on getting the Tibbee bridge in and in service.  Here's a shot of the first train to cross Tibbee. This has been a fun project and it's getting closer to being done. I've got to replace the concrete T-girder section as I broke it during the install. For now, it's superglued together and the track on the bridge is just laying in place held by rail joiners. I'll just have to live with a slow order for a while. The T-girder section and both truss piers are all products from Scale Segmental Bridge Co. Keith at Scalebridge.com has been a HUGE help on this bridge. Both truss piers were custom made for this bridge but are now in his product line. I like having the first production run supporting my bridge. ; ) 

And here's a fun video of the second train to cross. I don't think Tibbee has actually ever had a double stack cross it but in my world it will.