Construction Update #24 - Scenery around Placerville & Bridge 45A

Placerville

Scenes from around Placerville 

There are three grade crossing in Placerville.  The first one, south of the depot is shown below.  The crossings are from Tichy, the plank for the crossing were made from scale lumber and the caboose is a P-B-L model.

I built the depot from a Ragg;s kit.  It was painted with Floquil paints and weathered with Bragdon powdered pigments.  This figures are from Fun and Games.  I don't glue the figures in place.  Instead, I pin the figures in place so they can be easily moved or replaced.

There are a number of structures along Front Street behind the depot.  All of these are fronts about 2" deep.  The Placerville Garage was built with parts left over from the Monster Model Works Placerville Store.  Most of the trees here were built from Scenic Express Super Trees.

North of the garage is this little house.  It was scratch built using a photo off the internet.

The post office was right next door.  Again, it was scratch built using photos off the internet.  The flag pole is from Woodland Scenics and the figure from Fun and Games.

The PLacerville store was built from a Monster Model Works kit.  Again is is only about 2' deep.

 Another scratch built house built from photos located north of the store.

The second crossing north of the depot.  The #346 has uncoupled from it's train and pulled forward to clear the grade crossing.

This little material yard is located on the north end of the house track.

None of these little scenes are finished.  I need to add more details, additional ground cover, shrubs and static grass.

 

Bride 45A

April 14, 2023

 

Yes, work continues on Bridge 45A.  All 22 bents are now finished as is the bridge deck.  The prototype had 29 bents.  About 600 individual pieces of strip wood were cut, stained and assembled to make the bents.

North Bents

Center Bents

South Bents 

I cut 325 bridge ties for the bridge deck.  I ordered the wood from Northeastern Scale Models.  The wood from Mt. Albert or Kappler is nicer but the material from Northeastern is much cheaper, when purchased in bulk, and is "good enough" for bridge stock.

 As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

Construction Update #23 - Scenery

Wilson - "Milepost 32.6.  Elevation 7.723 feet - was primarily a passing siding of 27 car capacity."  (Page #305, RGS Story, Volume 1, Sundance Publishing)

April 8, 2023

 

While Wilson is still lacking some detail to include additional ground cover, static grass,  shrubs, figures and water, it now provides an acceptable background for a few photos.  Here RGS #455, a K-27, has stopped for water.  Most if not all of the RGS water tanks were painted oxide red.  But since I have yet to find a actual picture of "Wilson" who is to say that the tank, if one ever existed, escaped the RGS B&B gang and a coat of oxide red paint.  The K-27 is from P-B-L and the water tank was built from a V&T Models kit.

 

Northbound leaving Wilson for Placerville.  The east bank of the San Miguel River is in the foreground.
 

 

The stock car was built from a P-B-L kit and the drop bottom gondola is from a V&T kit.  I don't think I have ever seen a picture of a drop bottom gondola on the RGS but there are a couple running around my version of the railroad.

The box car storage shed attached to the section house.  This kit-bashed model is based upon a similar structure that stood at Pagosa Junction.

 

Leased D&RGW #346 southbound at Wilson.  #346 is a P-B-L brass import equipped with DCC and Tsunami2 sound.  This model has an interesting background as it was originally lettered for Brian Ellerby's Copper River Yukon, then my Alaska Pacific and now the D&RGW.

Initial Scenery around Placerville

I typically start with earth colored paint followed by a layer of basic ground cover (paving sand) around a key scenic element; in this case the depot.

Here, the same thing has been done with the hotel, coal bin and small warehouse to the south of the depot.  The Bar Mills "Idaho Hotel" is a stand in for the original hotel.  A Banta warehouse kit, built by my 11 year old grandson, is another stand in for the Gallaway Stage Stop Building (He still needs to paint the roof). 

And in this case, the "scenic element" is a drainage ditch that was west of the depot.  A partial view of this ditch shows up a picture on page 273, Volume 1, RGS Story, Sundance Publishing.

As always, your comments, questions & suggestions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #22 - Scenery around Wilson, RGS #42

 

Scenery around Wilson

It's been nearly a month since my last post.  April has been a pretty busy month and the amount of time I've had available to work on the layout has been limited so here is a quick update.  Here is where I left off in the last post.

Since color is one of the most important elements when it comes to scenery, I like to start out with a small "test" section based upon a couple of photos I find on the internet.  As can be seen, in the following photograph, there is a lot of variety when it comes to the "right" color.

After several tests, I decided to moderate the intense "reds" shown in the photographs since the resulting rock work just look real to me under the lights I am using (LED 4000).  In fact, some of the actual material I collected from the area, back in 1998, actually took on a violet hue.  Here is what I came up with.  Ace Hardware mixed the paint for the rock work that was then tinted with several different colors of craft paint (thinned or dry brushed).  The ground cover is all natural, which the exception of some ground foam,  The ballast is paving sand from Home Depot and the rest of the ground cover is a blend of paving sand and decomposed granite found on Old Blewett Pass Road here in Washington State.  The tree was made using "Super Trees" from Scenic Express.  

Fudd's Crossing

 

The Fudd's crossing trestle also got installed in the last couple of weeks.

Installing the crossing included the cutting in a a new turnout.

Once the turnout and track were in place, I built up the scenery around the abutments to stabilize the trestle.

And, here is Fudd's at the end of the spur.  This structure was built by Bruce Hanley.

Here is an up-to-date picture of  Wilson as of 3/27. 

RGS #42

I also managed to pick up a P-B-L #42 (Later run with correct cab & cab window) this last month, three additional box cars and a Banta kit for the OPhir Tram House.

The #42 is equipped with DCC and a Tsunami sound system.  It runs and sounds great.  It does have some minor damage to the tender but it can be easily repaired and the price was several hundred dollars less than one of these models typically sell for.

These three cars were picked up off ebay for $60.00 each.  All three came in the original boxes and are nicely weathered.

As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #21 - The Plan, Bridge 45A & Scenery around Placerville

 The Plan

 

Several people have contacted me recently over my current plans for the RGS 1st District.  Some changes have been made to the original plan...

A temporary reverse loop at trout lake has been built in order to delay the need for the duck under/lift out section in front of the entry door.  The space allocated for Old Placerville and the Placerville wye was reduced to make room for the addition of Ridgway and a couple of staging track to represent Montrose.  In the original plan, Ridgway was represented by staging.  And, a spur that crosses the San Miguel River at Wilson was added.

RGS 1st District Phase I

Phase II includes adding the duck under/lift out in front of the entry door, eliminating the Trout Lake return loop and adding Lizard Head to a shallow shelf above Ridgway.  The covered wye will be represented by a return loop in the dispatchers office.  Rico staging will be on a shelf above and behind Old Placerville.

 

RGS 1st District Phase II

 

 

Bridge 45A Bents

February 21, 2024

The center bents for bridge 45A are shown below.  Since I leave the bents in the fixture while the glue dries, I can only build one a day.  The process involves cutting the wood using the fixture, removing the wood for staining and then applying glue to the parts and placing them back in the fixture for the glue to set.  My condensed version of Bridge 45A will require 18 bents.

Here is the drawing of bridge 45A from the RGS Story Vol III, pages 203-204, Sundance Publishing.  I have completed bents 14-18, 23-27 and B.  My bridge doesn't include bents 19-22 due to my space limitations, I will have to shorten the bridge from 466 scale feet to about 280 scale feet or 52.5 inches.  I also reduced the distance between the bents by 2 scale feet to increase the apparent length.

Scenery South of Placerville

February 23, 2024

With the completion of all the track work at Ridgway, I decided to start the scenery around Placerville.  This made sense for two reasons.  First, I felt like doing some scenery, second the backdrop is installed and third all but the restrooms for the depot are now built.

This picture was taken at the south end of town.  The white foam represents the road that led to Telluride.  The profiles were cut from pink foam with a hot wire cutter and fastened in place with hot glue.  The San Miguel River is on the right.

February 24, 2024

The pink foam was filled in with cardboard webbing. Here, the hillside was used to transition from one background to another.  The webbing and pink foam were then covered by painter's paper.  The painter's paper was attached to the webbing with yellow carpenters glue.

February 26, 2024

The painter's paper was then covered with a layer of plaster cloth.  Some modelers, who don't use plaster cloth in the next step, apply a layer of carpenters glue to seal the painter's paper and then fill things in with Sculptamold.  I prefer to cover the painter's paper with a layer of plaster cloth and then follow up with the Sculptamold.

Here is another view of the scene looking from the other direction following the application of Sculptamold.  The pink foam rock was hand carved.  The cracks and seams were filled in with Dap light weight patch and paint.

 

Progress has been a little slow during the month of February.  Next month I will be working on the scenery around Placerville and finishing up Bridge 45A.  I also need to start working on RGS #41.  I purchased the P-B-L locomotive in pieces so it needs to be reassembled, have the headlight replaced, have sound installed, have the paint touched up and be lettered for the RGS.

 

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

Construction Update #20 - The Fascia, The Low Trestle at Fudd's Crossing and Trestle Bents for Bridge 45A

 

1st District Fascia

February 5, 2024

 

It took 5 sheets of Masonite to finish off the fascia.  The widths ranges for 5 to 15 inches.  Luckily my son Andrew has a fully equipped wood shop and it took less than an hour for us to rip nearly 200 linear feet of material.  The fascia along the Placerville scene is shown below.

 

Here is the section that wraps around the peninsula between Vance Junction and Bridge 45A.  Bridge 44A will be located where the fascia drops below the roadbed.  Color has yet to be determined. 

 

Fudd's Crossing

February 8, 2024

 

As mentioned in the last post, I decided to add a spur at Wilson.  The new spur requires a new turnout and a bridge from the mainline on the far side of the San Miguel River to the near side.

 

 

Since the trestle needs to accommodate both rail and vehicle traffic I decided to use 11 foot long bridge ties.  The stringers are 12 x14's.  The Mt. Albert scale lumber was pre-cut and stained with Builders-in-Scale Silverwood.

   

The stringers were glued together and taped to my work surface.  The ties were then glued to the stringers using styrene spacers, a square and tacky cement.

Here is the finished deck.  The guard rails are 4x8's.

 

February 9,\2024

Here is the bridge just about ready for installation.  The bents have been added at a angle to reflect the flow of the river.  The ties were stripped from a piece of flex track and the rail was attached with Pliobond.  I still need to install the planking in order to allow the passage of vehicles.

Here is the bridge temporarily set in place.

 

 

Trestle Bents

February 13, 2024

 

The RGS had lots of trestles so a fixture was made to help with the assembly.  The fixture was built using a set of plans I found in a old Narrow Gauge Gazette and several plans for 1st District trestles in the RGS Story (Volume III).  It should be noted that there were some discrepancies found when comparing the plans both in terms of layout and material sizes.  Since I don't have the room to duplicate most if not all the trestles I will need, I used both plans along with some modelers license to decide on the layout and material sizes to build the fixture from a sheet .080" styrene and some leftovers from previous projects.

 

Here is the fixture being used to cut the bents.  I started from the top and worked my way down.  The posts and the sills are scale 12x12's (The sills should probably be 12x14's).

 

Some of the bents needed some final adjustments.  I made this little fixture for my Northwest Shortline "True Sander" to maintain the proper angle while sanding down the length of the bents.

 Here is a completed bent.

 

Once all the pieces were cut, they were removed from the fixture and stained with Builders-In-Scale Silverwood and set aside to dry.  I made sure to arrange the pieces so that when it came time to assemble the bent, I would know exactly where they fit back into the fixture for gluing.

 

The pieces were put back in the fixture and glued in place with Aleen's Tacky Cement.   The sway braces were added to one side while the bent was still in the fixture.  The remaining sway braces, on the opposite side, were attached after the bent was removed from the fixture.  The sway braces are 2x12's (One set of plans said they should be 3x9's, the other 3x12's).  Based upon a review of the available photographs, it appears that the RGS nailed the sway braces to the bents so nut and bolt detail won't be added.  Here are a couple of finished bents for Trestle 45A.

 

As always, you comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com