Turntable Control
The Ridgway turntable was built from a Kittridge Hill Models kit. I built the kit per the instructions and installed the recommended gear reduction motor that is sold on ebay ($15.00). The motor works fine but there is some slack in the drive that takes some getting used to. And, there is no provision for indexing. On the old layout I used a constant 6 volt power supply with a simple on/off switch that added to the difficulty in getting the turntable to align properly with the lead tracks.
At some point I would like to power the turntable with a NYRS PT4C turntable indexing system but that will have to wait until I can budget the cost ($525). In the meantime, I decided to try using a Digitrax mobile decoder left over from an old sound conversion project; in this case a DH126. The variable speed control slows the turntable rotation to the point where you can barely see it moving and make "eyeball" alignment much easier. It will do for now.
I cut off the extra wires (lights etc.), gave the decoder an address of "99" and wired the red and black wires directly into my power bus. The gray and orange wires (speed control) were hooked up to the turntable motor. The decoder was left to hang freely from the power bus beneath the layout.
The project was finished off with a temporary DCC address label on the fascia. Eventually, I'll run the control bus out to this location and permanently assign one of my old non-radio tethered throttles to control the turntable.
The Mill at Dallas
Accessing the mill required an additional spur. In order to add the spur, the Ridgway yard track closest to the aisle was cut back a couple of feet and a turnout was installed. .
Since I couldn't find any cork roadbed for sale at anything close to a reasonable price, I decided to use some old Homosote roadbed I had on hand. It was glued in place with carpenter's glue.
During the process of installing the roadbed, I did manage to knock a flatcar and gondola off the layout and onto the floor. The gondola received some minor damage. The flatcar is going to need some work.
Here's how things looked with all the roadbed in place.The mill is going to add a significant amount of traffic since all of the inbound and most of the outbound traffic will be routed south over the 1st District.
July 30, 2024
The track was glued in place with Polyseamseal and painted with a combination Rust-oleum camouflage sand and dark earth brown spray paint.
The Dallas Mill Loading Dock/Platform
The base for the loading dock/platform was made from a piece of Woodland Scenics sheet foam. The Northeastern Scale Lumber strip wood was purchased in bulk from Walthers and stained with Builder-In-Scale Silverwood. The Northeastern scale lumber is not as nice as the material I get from Mount Albert but for a rough sawn platform this is an advantage. Craft paint was used to paint the base.
The lumber was cut in 8 and 16 foot lengths and glued in place with tacky cement. This is a tedious process. Here, I'm into the process about 3 hours and I am about 1/3 of the way finished. The boards will not be placed in areas the structure(s) will cover
The Dallas Backdrop
I finally had to break down and put up the backdrop behind Dallas. It turned out to be a pretty simple job. I'm not entirely happy with the result but it was the only way I could come up with a way to separate Dallas from Old Placerville. The archway was cut into the valance to keep me from smacking my head during an earlier phase of construction. At the time, the module Dallas is sitting on could be easily removed... Not so much anymore. The 23 miles between Dallas and Old Placerville has now been reduced to about 6".
Back to The Mill at Dallas
The roof of the mill was a little rough so I decided to make a few repairs and give it a fresh coat of paint. It still needs to be weathered.
The loading dock/platform is also finished. It took over 60 linear feet of scale lumber, cut into bout 275 individual pieces, and 5-6 hours spread over a couple of days to complete the project. The roof still needs to be weathered and a couple of smoke stacks need to be replaced. The LED light strip also needs to be added above the scene to eliminate the shadow cast by the valence.
The Photo Mural for Ridgway/Dallas
As mentioned in a previous post, the phtoto mural for Ridgway/Dallas was created by Dale Krutzer and printed by Dave Wike. Although the mural includes the sky, I prefer to cut it away in favor of a painted sky. A sharp Exacto knife, extra blades, care and patience are required for this process. I leave a tab about 1" by 4" every 6-8 inches in order to tape the mural to the back drop for a test fit before permanently gluing it in place. A little blue showing through the trees at the top of mural is OK. You won't see it once the mural is on the blue wall. Using this method, installing the mural is easily a one man operation.
Here is the mill with 26 feet of photo mural temporarily taped to the backdrop. Test hanging insures the mural is level and closely aligned with the bench work. Any minor gaps between the mural and the bench work will eventually be covered by ground cover, shrubs and a few trees.
At this point it should be noted that while I prefer spray adhesive (3M Super 77), wall paper paste can also be used to attache the mural.
Starting from the far left, the photo mural was rolled back up towards the center of the backdrop. The tape and the tabs were removed during this process. I stopped near the mid point leaving half the mural, tabs and tape in place to maintain the alignment.
Here is a series of photos starting at the Ridgway engine servicing area and ending in Dallas.
The Ridgway Yard looking railroad south.
The Ridgway Yard looking railroad north.
The Dallas mill. Hopefully I can ge my artistic friend Kurt Boyd to come over and add some subtle clouds near the horizon.
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