OK so far

Everything seems to be coming together well.  I like the culvert at the right edge of this scene as it acts as a nice "bookend" in that direction.  Not being an Eastern guy, all that green behind the tracks can get a bit monolithic, although I've been to Appalachia and am familiar with the general look of the region.  Maybe some trunks and/or dead/fallen branches can be mixed in along the base of the hill?  I recall some photos showing the V&O after a few such details were added among the trees and it made a remarkable difference.  That's a minor point though, as the scene does have the appropriate look overall.

Thanks, Rob

Thanks for the comments, Rob. The idea of some trunks and/or dead branches at the base of the hill is a good one, and I remember seeing something like that on the V&O as well. The area between the yard lead and the base of the hill was done some time ago, and I've never been happy with the way it turned out. In addition to trying your idea, I plan to add some more ground cover and bushes in the area.

Tom Patterson

Nice posting Tom

Looks like another great scene coming together! I love the scratch built tower and sheds. Again, as usual on your railroad, they just look "right" and scream coal hauler railroad to me. I do think Rob has a great suggestion as well. I never would have noticed that, but I think some trunks and deadfall here and there at the base of the forest canopy would ad some nice detail and contrast. Great work Tom.

Chicken Wier

Old Idea I had forgot.  Thanks for bring it up.  This works used it many years ago.  Great looking RR.

Comments

Thanks for the kind comments, Kevin. We'll see what I can come up with in terms of some different vegetation and/or branches and stumps around the base of the canopy. And I read your weathering presentation that you posted on your website recently- absolutely fantastic! An incredible amount of great information all in one place, and very well put together. And some really beautiful modeling!

Art- thanks for the comments. The chicken wire was an experiment to see if I could get the forest canopy done more quickly. I took a section of wire into another room, added some puff balls, sprayed them with adhesive and then sprinkled on ground foam. The first bunch, seen in the photo, looked o.k. but subsequent bunches didn't have the depth that I wanted. So I went back to using the toothpicks you see under the screen and individual puff balls. While this method uses a lot more ground foam, I can get much more variation in the shape of the trees.

Tom Patterson

More Progress

More progress has been made at SJ Cabin- some additional detail such as the platform next to the cabin has been added.

The rails from the sheds to the track have been added.

All the buildings, with the exception of the privy, are now semi-permanently attached to the layout.

More detail can been seen at http://cwerailroad.blogspot.com/. Next up is the addition of the final scenery.

Tom Patterson

Looking good

Looking good Tom!

I hope to start adding some trees and scenery soon on the VS.

Outstanding...

And damn you Tom...

I can't get any work done on the JL&T, cause I'm always on the iMac looking at your work at 27" and god does it look awesome this big!

Seriously love that cabin, do you have a Manufacturer & Model?  I can see one of them gracing the JL&T.

Keep up the stellar work, and keep updating that blog too! 

Jas...

Thanks...

for the kind comments, guys.

Randy- I hope to see some shots of your Virginia Southern posted here soon!

Jas- the cabin was scratch-built back in the late 1980's using plans from Railroad Model Craftsman. There were no kits of this structure available at the time. You can now purchase a kit of this structure from the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society at the following link: http://www.chessieshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=41_42&products_id=2053.I believe its made by B.T.S. Structures although it's not listed on their website. If you want to scratch-build it, I made drawings of the various steps to construct the windows and I'd be happy to send you a copy.

Tom

And more progress...

Made some more progress over the last week or so. Before adding the bushes and ground cover, I made a few changes to some of the existing scenery. Based upon some comments from the first post here, I decided to extend the foliage from the edge of the forest canopy toward the track. Also, based upon some good suggestions and comments made when I posted a blog about culverts ( https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/culvert-12187740), I decided to change the area around the culvert. In the picture below you can see that I have painted a portion of the area between the tracks and the canopy with the basic dark green color and I have painted the area around the drainage ditch with same dark green color. This will allow me to add some foliage to soften the break between the dirt and cinders near the track and the forest canopy. I will also have the foliage cover the area right down to the base of the drainage ditch.

In the next photo, the basic ground cover has been added to the areas that were painted in the photo above.

After adding bushes, ground cover and some additional ballast, here's how the scenery between the tracks and the forest canopy looks now.

The dirt dried darker than I wanted, so I rubbed the area with my fingers to lighten it just a bit. I picked up this trick from Tony Koester in his article on constructing the Coal Fork Extension on his Allegheny Midland. I’m not sure I’m completely satisfied with just how this looks yet, and I may go back and redo the dirt area at some point.

More detail can been seen at http://cwerailroad.blogspot.com/. As always, thought, comments and criticisms are welcome.

Tom Patterson

Progress

The scene looks better with every step completed.  I'm staying tuned for more.

water

Tom:

The culvert was a very good idea, appalachia has alot of water.....small little creeks, branches and streams that makes all those hollers......

Looking great. Will you blend in the ballast and everything with some weathering via airbrush ?

Nice scene.

That's really coming together nicely Tom! Really love the structures.

Question about weathering track

Thanks for the kind comments, guys.

Will you blend in the ballast and everything with some weathering via airbrush ?

Randy- I plan to weather the tracks using a combination of Joe Fugate's method of mixing dry tempera paint and plaster, a little additional ballast and artist's acrylics. The photo below shows trackage at the west end of Hollister Yard that's been weathered using these methods.

I have found these methods to be very effective and a lot easier than lugging the compressor and airbrush into the layout room. I did use an airbrush to represent sand along the rails on the 2.5% grade heading toward Cedar Falls Junction, but I ended up going back over the paint with dry powders as I wasn't happy with the look after spray painting the track. The picture below shows a portion of this track weathering.

Tom

Fantastic!

I need to explore the tempora paints too!

Looks great!

New Scenery at SJ Cabin- update.

I finished the scenery at SJ Cabin this past week. The photos below the static grass that's been applied. I'm using a 50/50 mix of 6mm Silfor Spring and Noch Wild Grass light green.

After the static grass dried the rest of the bushed were added.

The next step was to finish the culvert.

The photos below show the finished scenery.

More detail about the steps involved here can be found at  http://cwerailroad.blogspot.com/. The last step in completing this scene will be to put a final coat of paint on the fascia, weather the track and add details such as barrels, switch stands, ties between the track where the motor car rails end, and other assorted odds and ends. As always, thoughts, comments and criticisms are welcome.

Tom Patterson

Pretty cool

I look forward to seeing the final details.

You mentioned not being entirely satisfied with the final shade of the dirt - another trick to lighten it is to rub the surface with a stick, piece of scrap Masonite, or somesuch.  You can also re-wet the area slightly (and apply some more scenery adhesive unless you used white glue or something that will partially dissolve if it gets wet), and apply a small amount of additional dirt, ensuring the top of the new dirt doesn't get completely wet.  Sometimes that works, but can be hard to control.

Your covert is just amazing!

Your covert is just amazing! I absolutely love the colors and contrasts.

Gary

Do railroads in the East spray for weeds along the r.o.w.?

Just wondering if it would be prototypical to see a section of dirt and dead grass that had been sprayed with weed killer to keep weed growth away from the tracks?

New Scenery at SJ Cabin- update.

First class modeling Tom, with the only addition of a "WOW" at the end....

Love Your Work . . . But

Your work is excellent, but it depicts a fantasy railroad, not a model of real railroad.  Let me explain . . . this is a pet peeve of mine and it's a burden I carry alone.

Your railroad is too clean.  Have you ever seen the amounts of trash and debris in an un-staged photograph of a railroad?  The place is littered with junk, trash and whatever.  Whether in the yard, along the right of way, or in the shops, there was trash everywhere.  Railroad workers never picked up anything once they were done with it, and anything replaced or repaired and removed was left where it was fixed.

I know it's hard for most modelers to take this last step towards realism, but if the place isn't trashed up, it's a model of a fantasy railroad, not a real one.  Litter sets the scene.

hohon3

Sounds like a great article

hoho:

Here's your chance to spread the word - build us an article on this topic, complete with some examples of the prototype and the model equivalent and we would be very interested.

This way you can do more than bear a burden - you can start the process of changing the hobby for the better!

Here's hoping we get an article proposal from you ...

Comments

Thanks for the kind comments, guys.

Rob- thanks for the suggestions. I've used both methods in the past with varying degrees of success. In the photo below I've gone back over the original dirt with a different shade of dirt and added additional ground cover. One of the challenges with this is making sure that there's no line where the new and the old meet material meet (which you can see in the background- more to come on this).

Russ- yes, it's prototypical for railroads to spray for weeds along the right-of-way. There are numerous photos of weed spraying trains on the internet. This dirt road is access to a cantilevered signal and relay cabinet that will be installed later. Access to this equipment would have been kept relatively clear by track side forces. Having said that, I didn't like the way dirt road turned out. Once the glue had dried there was something about it that didn't work. Your question got me thinking about it, and I believe it looked too uniform. There wasn't enough variation in the colors or textures, so I went back and re-did this area. See the photo below. Thanks for the input- it made me realize that some more work was needed here.

hohon3- the scene isn't finished yet. There will be more detail including barrels, old ties, an oil tank, switch stands, etc. However, your comments about trash got me thinking. I pulled out my copies of "Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in Color- Volume 1" by Jeremy Plant and William McClure and "The Louisville and Nashville in the Appalachians" by Flanary, Oroszi and McKee. I went page by page looking for trash and debris and there is almost none to be seen. A few notable exceptions are shots of the Ivy City ready track in 1948 (a fair amount of what appears to be white paper on the black cinders), shots of the passenger station and adjacent yard throat at Clifton Forge in 1965 (more white paper on the ground- old switch lists? Cigarette packs? Annulled train orders?) and a shot of the north end of the yard at Ravenna, KY on the L&N (more white paper- perhaps some paper cups?). There is no pattern among the photos. Most of the yard shots show almost no debris at all, and the rural right of way shots don't show any either. Rural versus urban did not seem to matter, nor did time frames from the late 1950's to mid- 1970's. I don't doubt that a lot of trash was thrown along the tracks, but for whatever reason it doesn't appear in the shots I reviewed. Perhaps most of it was too small to be noticed. Also, the areas that I am trying to represent may also have something to do with the lack of trash. I imagine a small yard in urban Philadelphia in the mid- 1970's might have a fair amount of trash around. There was also very little in the way of debris. An occasional piece of rail, a few ties in a pile, but very little in and around the tracks that would cause a worker to stumble and fall. Again, this might just be representative of two of railroads I'm trying to emulate. In any event, I certainly appreciate your comments. I'm always looking for ways to improve the appearance of my layout, and I'm going to try a few small pieces of white paper around the west yard throat at Hollister Yard to see what it looks like. And if you have any references for track side shots and/or methods for representing trash, I'd love to see them.

Here's the photo of the revisions to the dirt road.

Tom Patterson

Gravel roads

I've noticed most people use ballast for gravel roads.  Ballast is rocks about 3 to 6" in size and that would be well near impossible to drive on.  You really need much finer stone for gravel roads, less than half an inch in size.  Stone that small would be powder on an HO layout, so something entirely different is needed.  I have in the past made a smooth surface, using plaster or styrofoam, then glued ground foam to it in a thin layer, and let it dry.  I then sanded it down, sanding more where the wheel ruts were until it was almost smooth.  It was then painted an appropriate gray colour.  It looked quite realistic.  Some of that zip texturing would probably work well to give it its final texture, too.