Construction Update #43 - Water Tank at Ridgway, Temporary Depots, The Telluride Spur, Scenery, A new Combine and More

 

Deviate Behavior 

"Departing from an established course"

Anyone who has been following my RGS 1st District blog for any length of time is aware of my willingness to deviate from the prototype.   Simply put, the changes are made due to space constraints or more importantly to enhance operations; and, some changes are temporary. While my Placerville, Vanadium, Vance Junction, Bridge 45A and Ophir scenes are reasonably accurate, given the available space, Ridgway, Dallas, Wilson and Matterhorn are not.

The Water Tank at Ridgway

March 22, 2025

I guess the water tank, shown below, is a good example of "temporary" and "available space".  It's in the wrong location and it should be painted oxide red.  At some point I will build a replacement and paint it oxide red.  When it comes to the location, it will have to stay where it is.  There isn't any room for a water tank on the turntable lead.

A Temporary Depot for Ridgway

The depot shown below was scratch built for Arroyo Lobo on the short lived D&RGW Sn3 Arroyo Lobo branch layout.  It is based upon the D&RGW depot at Cumbres.  Its a place holder for the Building & Structure Co. Ridgway Depot kit being built... painfully slow.

A Temporary Depot for Vance Junction

Here's another structure that has found a temporary home on the layout.  It was built for McCall on the Arroyo Lobo layout.  At some point it will be replaced with the correct depot/section house and out buildings.  

 

The Telluride Spur?

Often things that look good on paper don't pan out.  Such was the case when it came to the Telluride Branch.  The branch was supposed branch off from Vance Junction and loop down grade, around the end of peninsula, to a small stub end staging yard hidden below and behind the Bridge 45A scene.   Unfortunately there was no way to retain the branch without negatively impacting the Bridge 45A scene.  Ultimately, the bridge scene won out and the branch was eliminated.  Unfortunately, from an operational point of view, the Telluride Branch was a big take away.  The mines and mills at the end of the branch added significantly to the RGS's meager traffic base.

After due consideration and in keeping with my ongoing willingness to bend reality in order to enhance operations the Telluride Branch became the "Telluride Spur" at Vance Junction.  Here, up to 4 cars can be dropped off for or picked up from Telluride.

The Cut Between Placerville & Wilson

 March 26, 2025

I was never happy with the hillside to the left of the rock work shown on the right side of the photo.  As a result, the only thing I ever did, scenery wise, in this area was to paint the riverbed and apply a coat of earth colored house paint to the hillside.  The rock face to the right was carved from layered pink foam.

The old hillside was cut away and replaced by layered pink foam.  .

 

The rock face was carved with a utility knife and a wire brush was used to clean up the carving and add a little texture.  Lightweight spackling compound was then used to fill in the cracks between the individual pieces of foam.  A stiff bristled paint brush was used to add texture to the spackling compound.  The creation of the original cliff and prototype photos are in updates #14, #21, #22 and #23.

March 28, 2025

Sculptamold was used to fill in the gaps between the rock face and the old hillside.  Given the weather conditions, its going to take a few days for the Sculptamold to dry.

D&RGW Combine #212

During the Spring of last year I purchased a PFM coach and combine set.  While the cars were pretty good for their pre-1980 build date, Precision Scale and P-B-L have since produced nicer versions.  The Precision Scale versions typically go for $3-400 and the P-B-L versions go for around $600 both of which are out of my price range.  So, when the PSC version showed up on ebay for $233 or best offer, I made an offer for $200 and it was accepted.  I covered the cost of the PSC combine by selling the PFM set with a few dollars left over.  

#212 went through a lot of changes over the years but for my time period, mid 1940's, I think it is correct.  Probably never saw service on the RGS but I will use it in "mixed service".  By 1949 it was painted gold and silver for the Silverton train.

The inaugural Trip

Southbound through the cut between Ophir siding and Matterhorn

Matterhorn

Northbound across Bridge 45A

At Wilson

 And Placerville

 As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

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Construction Update #42 - Bridge 45A

Brige 45A Placed in Service

RGS #42 tiptoes across Bridge 45A for the first time with a stock extra!

 

 

As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome.

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #41 - Bridge 45A, Dallas Milling, the Ridgway Depot and a Change of Plans

 

Bridge 45A

March 14, 2025

All the basic ground cover is now in place around Bridge 45A.  My original plan was to install all of the scenery behind the bridge before installing the rail.  Now I think I want to get trains running again and put off doing the scenery until over the summer.

One of the issues I am facing in March is the amount of time it is taking the matte medium mix to set up.  Due to the cold weather, it is taking about 3 days.  As a result, I am working on three other projects at the same time.

 

The House at the End of the Trestle

 

Just to the south of Bridge 45A (to the right in the above photo) was a small house.  This is another neat little structure I got from Bruce Hanley.

 

 

 

After comparing the model to pictures of the prototype, the model should really have a shingled roof and a lean-to addition on the back side.  It also appears, in most pictures, to be relatively well maintained during the period I model.

 

I made a minor repair to eliminate some warping and then sealed the roof with a clear coat.  Delta Ceramcoat Light Ivory was used to repaint the walls with a very"dry brush".  This allowed some of the existing weathering to bleed through the new paint.  The roof was also redone with a wet blend of Folk Art Coffee and Apple Barrel Pavement.  While I'm not going to redo the roof with shingles, I am going to add the lean-to addition on the back side

 

Dallas Mill Works

March 15, 2024

The Dallas Mill Works was introduced in Construction Update #36.  Originally, the structure was a canned and frozen fish company on Paul Scholes Pelican Bay Railway and Navigation.  Later, as shown below, it found a home on my now dismantled Sn3 Alaska Pacific.  Turns out that the fish company, a coastal freighter, the fishing boat and the jib cranes are the only structures I kept off the old layout.

Last August I installed the backdrop mural and planned out the scene.

 

The structure is made up from the three sub-assemblies shown below on my desk getting a few minor repairs including a fresh coat of paint on two of the roofs.

The platform was made from individual boards glued to a piece of Woodland Scenics sheet foam.  It was glued in place before the application of basic ground cover.  That hole in the backdrop leads to Old Placerville which is about 6" away.

 

The ground cover is paving sand spread over a 60/40 mix a earth colored exterior latex paint  and white glue followed by a misting of "wet" water and diluted matte medium.   The Dallas depot/section house, seen on left, was eventually moved a few inches further to the left.

The hole in the backdrop will partially be hid by the milling company.  The trees shown below will do the rest.

 March 16, 2025

Here is a up to date photo of the Dallas mill.  It still needs some shrubs, static grass and some additional details.  The lighting also has to be adjusted due to the shadow being cast on the backdrop.  LED strip lighting was added which helped but did not eliminate the problem

 

 

And here is a close up of the little Dallas depot/section house.

Ridgway Depot

March 16, 2025 

I started on the Ridgway Depot kit last June (Construction Update #30).  Its back on my desk for some additional work.  Basically, the structure is built around a plywood core.  The laser cut siding is then applied over the core.  Since the siding material (basswood) is prone to warping, I use close pins to hold it in place until the Aleen's tacky glue sets up.  At the current pace, I should be able to get the depot finished in a year or two.

Plan Update

The original plan had the tracks looping around Trout Lake south of Matterhorn, crossing the entry door with Lizard Head and Rico located on a shelf above Ridgway.  A reverse loop  was planned for the dispatcher's office.  Not wanting to block the doorway during construction, a temporary return loop was and is installed, shown in red, at Trout Lake.  The Trout Lake reverse loop, was covered in Construction Update #16.

 

The updated plan eliminates Trout Lake, the Trout Lake reverse loop, the lift out across the entry door, the shelf above Ridgway and the reverse loop inside the dispatcher's offic.  The Lizard Head wye will now occupy the Trout Lake scene and the hidden Rico staging is tucked in between Ophir and Vance Junction.  Rico staging has three tracks; they are at least 10 feet long.  This works out to a maximum train length of about 12-13 cars plus a locomotive and caboose.

While the reverse loop is nice for just "running trains", I think eliminating it in favor of the wye at Lizard Head adds more to operations.  The wye can be used to realistically turn helpers for their return to Ridgway and the stock pens, that were located on the tail of the wye, will add another switching opportunity.  

 

 

As always, your comments, questions a suggestions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

Construction Update #40 - The Dallas Depot/Section House, Jib Cranes & The Elephant

I'm Back!

After nearly 5 months of working on the HO-Scale Visalia shelf layout in my office/work room, https://visaliaelectric.blogspot.com ) I am back to working on the RGS 1st District.  Rather than work on the elephant in the room, bridge 45A and the surrounding scenery, I decided to start with a couple of smaller projects.

 

The Dallas Depot/Section House

March 9, 2025

 

Back in July of last year, I introduced the addition of "Dallas" to the layout using a bit of modeler's license.  The thought process that went into adding Dallas was covered in Update #34.  The scene includes a large milling company that was once a fish processing operation on the late Paul Scholes Pelican Bay Railway & Navigation Company and a small depot or section house from Bruce Hanley's old layout.  The fish processing plant was scratch built, the depot/section house was a built from a Wild West Models Track Side Warehouse kit.

 

Here is the depot as received.

 

 

When I got the depot, the removable roof was just starting to show some signs of warping.  Over the winter, the warping got worse.  It turned out that while the roof was sealed on one side, it wasn't on the other (inside).  When building with wood, I normally add extra bracing and seal both sides of all the sheet material (basswood) before assembly.  This probably wasn't a problem for Bruce since his layout was located inside the house but it was for me.  The 1st District is located in a converted 3-car garage and is subject to a wide range of temperatures and some changes in humidity.

 

 

My first thought was to disassemble the roof and add some bracing.  Once I had the roof apart, as shown below, I gave up on that idea.  Instead, I decided to replace the laser-cut basswood with styrene using the old parts as patterns.

 

Here is the depot with it's new roof.  The main roof was made from .060" styrene.  Cutting the two panels was easy.  The roof over what I assume is a mud room was made using .040" styrene.  Getting it to match up with the main roof was more of a challenge.  I tried cutting the mud room roof panels to match the old parts that were designed to fit around and under the main roof but gave up after three attempts.  Instead, I decided to cut a notch in the main roof and use two 1" square panels for the mud room roof.  It took about 5 minutes.   Not sure why it took me so long to come up with such a simple solution.

 

The offset door leading into the mud room addition is an interesting arrangement.  I checked out the Wild West website and it appears Bruce made the addition using parts from the small boiler house included with the kit.

 

And here is the depot/section house ready to go on the layout.  Peel & stick shingles were used on the roof instead of corrugated metal.  The platform was built using "left overs" from a previous project.

 

 

 A Couple of Jib Cranes

March 11, 2025

While looking for some detail parts, I came across a couple of jib cranes.  Both were carefully wrapped in bubble wrap; both were in pieces and parts were missing.  Rather than leaving them as they were, I decided to fix them and mount them on styrene for future use.  The one on the left has a movable crane.  The one of the right does not. 

The Elephant - Bridge 45A

March 12, 2025

 

Getting Bridge 45A in place seemed like the logical place to start when getting back to work on the layout.  Without it, operations were restricted south of Vance Junction.  A considerable amount of time was spent carving and cutting away excess Sculptamold from around the bent supports.  Eventually, the bridge settled back into proper alignment.

The next step is to get a coat of earth colored paint over the Sculptamold and apply some basic ground cover.

 As always your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

 

 

 

Construction Update #39 - Rubber Rocks, Ground Cover, trees and more

 

Rubber Rocks?

September 4, 2024

On my previous layout, the Arroyo Lobo Branch, I tried using some rubber rock castings sold by Cripplebush Valley Models. https://www.cripplebushvalleymodels.com/.  The nice  stonework shown here, behind the turntable on the old Arroyo Lobo Branch, was made using the Cripplebush "Sante Fe 3" casting.  The rubber castings are light, flexible, and easily cut with a good pair of scissors. The original was 26" by 6".  I cut it in half horizontally to create a cut about 50" long by about 3" tall.

For the Bridge 45A scene, I bought two rubber castings, Santa Fe castings #1 and #3.  Santa Fe 1 is 28' by 10" and costs $70.00.  Santa Fe 3 is 26" by 6" and cost $40.00.  They come painted a gray/brown with some highlighting and can be used effectively without any additional work if your lighting creates shadows.  The ones shown on the Arroyo Lobo Branch in the lead photo were used right out of the packaging.  Additional painting/weathering/highlighting can be done with acrylic paints.  Solvent type paints should not be used on these casting.

Following the instructions on the Cripple Brush web site, I made templates, using plain copy paper, and used them to cut out the required pieces from the robber rocks.  Here they are pinned in place.  During this process, I did make some changes to the hard shell (pink profiles).

September 7, 2024

The rubber rocks were hot glued in place and blended into the existing scenery base with Sculptamold.

After cutting out the rocks, the small left over pieces were added to the scene.  After these pictures were taken, the excess Sculptamold was removed off all the castings with a wet toothbrush.

Basic Ground Cover

September 25, 2024

Back after taking a couple of weeks away from the layout

Not a lot of detail here as I have covered my "basic" ground cover in previous posts.  The rocks were lightened up dry brushing (my basic earth color) followed by a misting of diluted raw sienna, burnt sienna, raw umber and black.  The basic earth color was then applied around the rocks.

Basic ground cover, paving sand, was then applied starting with a generous application of a earth color house paint and white glue mix.  The paving sand was then spread on to the mix.  This was followed by diluted matte medium sprayed over the initial layer of ground cover followed by second application of paving sand.   This process was repeated with a third application of paving sand along with several colors of fine ground foam.  The wet paint white glue mix is shown on the right side of the photo with the ground cover on the left. 

Here is an overall photo of the hillside.  The rubber rock shown in the above photo is in the upper right corner of this photo.  Working about a square foot at a time, the hillside took about an hour and a half to get to this point.  Applying the ground cover, over Scultamold, in several layers insures good coverage and all important texture.  Eventually this basic ground cover, that looks pretty good now, will be covered with grasses, shrubs and trees.  Oh, and I think those rubber rocks look pretty good!

September 26, 2924

The Bridge 45A has a river/creek that runs through the scene and cascades down a canyon and under the bridge.  Before applying the ground cover around the river I decided to paint the riverbed.  Woodland Scenics "Water Undercoat" was used; Hunter Green, Olive Drab and Yellow Silt.  All three colors were blended together when they were applied.  The track was then sprayed painted with a combination of Rustoleum camouflage Flat Earth Brown and Sand.

Upstream from Bridge 45A there is another river crossing.  Originally I was going to cross on a low pile trestle.  That is until I came across these cut stone culverts in a drawer.  One had some damage but it didn't really matter since one side of the culvert would be difficult to see from the normal viewing angle.  Craft paints were used on the stonework.

Here are the culverts installed with ground cover and a few extra details.

Trees & Other Vegetation

When comparing early photographs to ones taken near or after the end of operations, it's readily apparent that over the years, trees and vegetation grew up and around Bridge 45A. Based upon the following photograph (1952) and others taken near the end of operations, it looks like about 70% of the trees are deciduous. 

Bruce Hanley came through again when he gave me about 200 trees off his layout.  A few will probably need a little "freshening up", but the majority of them are ready to plant.  These combined with the tress I have off the old layout should be more than enough to finish off the Bridge 45A scene.  Since I can't install the bridge until most of scenery is finished behind it, the availability of all the trees off Bruce's layout should speed up the process.

Due to cold weather during the months November-February, I won't be working on the Sn3 RGS 1st District Layout.  Instead, I will be working on a HO shelf layout in my office based upon the SP/Visalia Electric.  visaliaelectric.blogspot.com

 

As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com