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