Backdrops
Since I have nearly all the structures done for Placerville, that is where I plan to start doing some scenery. On my previous HO-Scale layout, I used backdrops from Trackside Scenery. While the Trackside Scenery backdrops are nice, they don't have anything that will work for the area around Placerville. I also looked at backdrops from LARC Products. They have a nice selection of scenes off the RGS but nothing for Placerville. As it turns out, because of its location in a valley and the lack of access, it's impossible to take photos in order to create a backdrop.
As a result, I decided to use a scene from Dolores created by friend and local Sn3 modeler Dale Kruetzer (YouTube Link - https://youtu.be/ZhjHa4ptVk4?si=-22VXV9oEt9Xw98E) for Bill Busacca's layout (YouTube Link - https://youtu.be/7vmeJQU2-9U?si=sGK2YSaNgwK-val_). Since the geography is similar, all I did was adjust the color to better reflect the color of the earth/rocks around Placerville.
The upper picture is the original, the lower picture is the color adjusted version. The sky won't be used.
Depending upon the location, weather, season and time of day, the colors around Placerville can change dramatically. Here is the picture I based the colors on. Placerville is in the foreground.
Ridgway Engine Facility
Once I had power running to all the storage tracks along with the turntable lead, I started parking "stuff" on the tracks. All of sudden it got kind of noisy with the sound equipped locomotives. And yes, for those of you who are new to the blog, the lettering on #361 is facing backwards instead of forward. The prototype also made this mistake. A fellow modeler sent me photos of four or five prototype locomotives lettered this way. Eventually, I will get around to fixing it!
In order to solve the noise problem, I made a simple panel to kill the power to each of the tracks
RGS K-27 #455
When I bought the #455, unbeknownst to me, it came with a Tsunami sound decoder and a high base speaker already installed. It ran for about 6 inches before smoke started coming out of the tender. While no one likes to see smoke coming from a decoder, it really didn't matter. I would have replaced the decoder with a Tsunami2 and keep alive anyway. I installed the replacement decoder, added the keep alive along with a coal load and now it runs flawlessly.
Here is the 455 following a test run up to Trout Lake and back.
A Dozen Turnouts
Even though I don't have any code 70 flex to finish up Ridgway and install the Montrose staging tracks I do have Code 70 rail. Since I was going to need turnouts anyway, I decided to go ahead and build the required turnouts plus a couple of extras. It take me about an hour to make one turnout.
The B Hanley Mine at Matterhorn
There were several mines and at least two mills in or around Matterhorn. The largest was the San Bernardo Mill located along the RGS at Matterhorn. Building a model of the prototype mine, mill and supporting structures really wasn't an option; there just isn't enough room. Since there were a number of smaller mines around Matterhorn, I decided to adapt the fine model built by Bruce Hanley to represent one of the smaller mines. Here is a picture of it before Bruce decided to remove the layout.
Placerville Backdrop
Steve, where did you get your backdrop printed? Two of us here in the Denver area have backdrop photos that are ready to be printed, but unsure where and what style paper/media is appropriate.
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