A Meandering Inspection Run

One day we decided we had been stagnant for too long, and what we really needed were some projects to get the old juices flowing again.  Some people may say this is the time to tear down the layout and start over, but I dare say now is the time when a layout gets Truly Exciting!

When we build a layout, the first 80% of the work is a mad rush to get to something half resembling the final finished product.  We make shortcuts, we do the quick and dirty, and things like scenery can be little more than an afterthought.  In short, there's still a TON of work to do on an 80% layout, but it takes going out and FINDING the work!

So here we have the meadow between the mine of Jerome, the station of Sonoita, and the Town of Crown King up on top of the bluff.

See that culvert to the left? Where's it coming from?? And how about those ugly rocks around the tunnels? Hideous! This is all wrong, just...wrong...

Perhaps this was all good and well for a 50% layout, or a 75% layout, or even an 80% layout, but the SASME layout is closer to 85%; this scene is a travesty!

Survey

We send out a surveyor's expedition, where our engineers and geologists go out and render what can be with what is.  We ask them to find a better arrangement...

...and they break out the string and stake out their suggestions.

This little survey by our engineers suggests what would be a more asthetically pleasing arrangement...1, remove the culvert [red], 2, cut a creek [blue], 3, build a ridge [green]...

Excavation

The excavation crew makes quick work interpreting the survey. 

There is No Good Reason to tolerate nonsensical scenery! The culvert is gone first!

The fascia is cut and the old culvert is extracted right quick.  The faux fur field is then pulled up and relaid; it's as if the culvert was never there! 

 We then attend to the new Creek by cutting into the fields.  This creek shall be named Turkey Creek, for the creek that runs near Crown King, AZ. Perhaps we'll use the old culvert on the back track this time around instead of the front track. Notice how we're allowing the fields to naturally taper into the creek.

We'll leave the excavation crew for a moment, as the fabrication crew has arrived.

Structural Foundation

The erection crew arrives to tackle the new ridge.

The ridge begins with an underlying framework.

We create a foundation for the new ridge out of Styrofoam, toothpicks, a moderate amount of hot glue and a little white glue with paper towels to hold it all together.

We cover the earth with a little paper and tape, so we don't make a mess...cause we're about to get dirty...

Masonry

Our masons arrive to being the process of stabilizing our new foundation.

Out comes the plastercloth, and we wrap our foam frame

Here you can see the emergence of the hidden pool, as the creek meanders down the grade.

And here, an old diggings, an old mine...the southwest is full of these holes...

Looking over our new ridge, we see the scene from the other direction, where we can't see the tunnels.  This may be a useful vantage point for photo opportunities down the line. It's coming together.

And with the plastercloth in place, our masons can lift the whole ridge up as a single peice and move it offsite, free and clear from the sidewalk superindentents who'll no doubt come moseying by on meetin' night!!

Engineers and Drillers

We want to get the front fascia replaced as soon as we can, but first we have to address a couple issues in the substructure.

We seem to have a couple homosote splines in our way...we're cutting all the way through the front spline.  This could lead to the spline collapsing between risers, so our engineers brace the section with a couple blocks and a piece of timber.

We can now cut the roadbed. 

We had the right saw on hand, by jove, a coping saw! It's the only saw in the house other than a couple old shallow razor saws...and it's perfect!  It makes short work of the Homosote...

 The rear spline is a bit more obstinate. No problem, we get out the drill and drill it out the hard way, one bore at a time!

With the cutout complete, we may now see our creek.

Onwards to the Fascia... 

Fabrication

Fabricators repair the damage done to the fascia by removing the culvert.

We use the pieces cut from the fascia as a rough template to reduce our masonite into a more manageable section.

We put up the new fascia board, trimming it as necessary until it fits, and then fasten it with drywall screws.  Spackle is used to cover and fill any imperfections.

This end is not over a joist, so we used a butt joint reinforced with a plate on the reverse side, glued and clamped into position.

Since now we have to wait for the glue to dry, it's time for more work on the substructure.

Engineers

Engineering decides this culvert set will be used instead...it's a bit more modern, but it looks good.

Fabrication

We return to our earlier work and install the cardboard lattice work at the skeletal level.

The old foundation is laid to rest over this new framework.

The base for the creek is made with ease.

It's only a matter of time, now... 

Seeder

Not a moment to lose, the faux fur grass is hot-glued into place.  Perhaps it's a bit early, but this really ties the room together...

Lo behold, the glue and spackle on the fascia is dry!

Paint midst Fabrication

A little work with a finishing sander and a coat of primer and we can see real progress towards the refinished fascia.

While we wait for the primer to dry [1 hour!], we bust out the plaster cloth and cover the cardboard lattice work in the creek bed.

A quick coat of paint and it's like we never touched the fascia.

See, it wasn't THAT hard to remove the culvert!

More Masonry

And so we're up to the point of the heaviest lifting, the point at which we make our raggedy ridge become a rock formation.

We use plaster to begin texturing the base of the creekbed

We break out the latex rock molds and cast rocks in-situ onto our cloth covered Styrofoam ridge. Here, you can once again see the little pool hidden behind the ridge

The creek runs right up to Crown King, where it terminates...for now...

There will be much finishing work to get the mainlines trued up, especially on the branchline.  The mine will become more obvious as it is cleaned up as well.

The tunnel-less view is shaping up well...

And there we see our valley as it now appears...I dare say this makes SO much more sense then what was in place, and it's looking good too!

I suppose it's hard to believe I only have three major steps left on this project...three months to get it passed and approved, three weeks to get it built!

Looks like a budding article to me

Lot's of fearless and get it done scenery moving know-how. Should help a lot of overly careful worriers and ditherers like me.

Tunnel Masony

Seems I left out a selection...hmmm...

Well, here's where we start working on the tunnel portals. It begins with cutting the Woodland Scenics portals to width.

We then put them in place using the Dremel with Shop-Vac assist to carve out the rough set bore in the plaster ridge.

A little trimming here and there, and we have the castings in place. The inner tunnel casting isn't doing too well, it will have to be redone...

And seeing as how i had these pieces left over from the retaining walls, I went ahead and used them as retainingwall abutments for my trestle bridge, seeing as how a trestle bent will be the main support right up against the concrete wall.  There will be 4 or 5 bents in all, I believe.

Now we'll get to the next part...after going home for the night, because I feel like I'm not up to working much longer on this Saturday!

Initial Grading

My main focus this Sunday afternoon was finishing up the plasterwork, seeing as how a couple sections were still a bit coarse, and finishing up the tunnel portals.  I used half a 5 gallon bucket of plaster to complete this hill, so there is quite a bit of plaster on the layout here!

Seeing as how I was out of plaster and it was a monsoon outside, I went ahead proceeded to the next work involving a flanger and the roadbed.  I've made the roadbed a bit wider now, but I think it will be fineone the ballast is redone.  I have a pretty good sense that I will probably be tearing up the track here next, so that I can scrap out the old ballast, put in the trestle right, and redo the ballast for the ground up. It's simply easier to tear it all the way out and relay than it is to sit here and pick the nits out.

The plaster is just a bit too bright to show any much detail, but a coat of earth tone and things will start popping out.  I didn't have my earth tone tools [cups, brushes] on me, though, so I held off.

As you can see, the tunnel portals are all in place and now it's a matter of recoloring the dark pieces white and then stain and paint for the whole hill.

I will probably remove the track here shortly, and relay it all the way into the tunnels.  Access is difficult but not impossible.  It truly will simplify the re-ballasting operation as I work towards cleaning that aspect up.

Till next time...

Enjoying this

Benny,

Keep it up, I'm thoroughly enjoying seeing your work.  I particularly like the way you managed to reuse the fur grass and eliminate the culvert.  Those portals are lookikng great as well.

Rock Work

So I went ahead and broke out the stains while playing with a little paint...LONG ways to go yet on the concrete fixtures, but the plaster rocks are coming along Just Fine!

The overall scene...

The rear track...looking towards the transfer...soon, the tracks will be ripped up, the roadbed regraded, and fresh rail laid and ballasted in place.

The creek...concrete work to be refinished soon...and the short trestle will come shortly...

A reminder of what we started with:

And where things are now!

More Rock Staining...

I very generally finished up the rock stain tonight...

The hidden pool is right there behind the ridge...and I dare admit, I get a rather interesting rock formation at the  top of this hill...

Things are moving right along...

Love remodeling

That looks good Benny! Nice work, and it does improve the scene and looks much more realistic. It improves the scenery transition from the town area to the lower tracks. Much better view and does remove the blunt look from before and the change is really a major scenery change giving the look of more distance from town to mine.

Dan

...

So Saturday, I snuck away for a bit from my regular scheduled life and made some progress.

I wasn't feeling much like doing concrete work [there's more that has to be done than meets the eye], but I felt the foreground track was ready for a little finishing work. 

It's now a little greener!

I may pull some of it out, but it's starting to look like this creek may actually have a little water in it!

...

So with all of my thanksgiving holiday family gatherings out of the way, I had some time tonight to put in a couple hours on Turkey Creek.

Somehow my pictures turned out a bit bright, which is unfortunate, but there's one more shoot left on this project so I still have time!

We'll start here.  It's simple enough, new ballast on the rear track and I replaced that pesky crossbuck with a nice new one from Tichy - they resist breakage rather well.  I still need to put in the missing tie on that forward track.

 Scenic Overview:

Obligatory train!

The Trestle as it now appears:

Here we are on the trestle.  This scene is pretty well complete, minus some very minor changes. 

Our Caboose on the trestle...I added a ton of cactus to the hills, but I may need more - one arm and two arm saguaros to compliment the three arm models!

I'll have my hands full pulling back a couple pieces of greenery that got out of hand, and a couple places where more greenery is necessary. I also have to get the rocks patched where the seems still show. All in all, it's almost a wrap!

A mainline freight...

We are Very Close to Curtain Call - I should have this in the bag by the end of the weekend!  Exciting times!

Let the gravy flow! Nice

Let the gravy flow!

Nice work.

Seeking More Tucson & Southwestern

Highly entertaining and motivational rehab project. From the little we can see of the T&SW, I for one hope to see more. Don't recognize the layout from any previous additions of Great Model Railroads, but hope it turns up in the 2014 version!

Seeking More Tucson & Southwestern

or even any previous "editions"...