Ghost Town Pictures

I got this link from the Allen NYT on Ghost Towns - a great reference for structures!

http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/

Making the Grade

"Steep grades are a constant, uphill battle."
- Peppy

So I propped my foot up late today and started calculating the grades again. The ruling grade and the average grade for the layout are set at 2%. Basically that means this:

Grade % = Rise/Run

So, for every 1" of grade that I want over 100" of track will give me a 1% grade.
And, for every 1" of grade that I want over 50" of track will give me a 2% grade.

So if you know that you want a 2% grade, use this formula to figure out the run.

Rise / Grade % = Run

The design has afforded me a very long run as it winds around the mountains and makes maximum use of the loops, so keeping at 2% is easy even when one track needs to go over another. So I mapped out each 50" section of track and put in the grade markers.

I've started dressing up the header block a little bit and have added a scale and a legend. Grades are marked in inches from the zero point, which is the top of the open grid benchwork. The layout is actually a three hill layout with each blob being a hill and another hill at the bend. In between there is a canyon where exists the town of Mapimi.


So let's take a ride up the hill. We'll start at the smelter siding in East Mapimi. Heading east at zero elevation we'll go around the bottom loop to Mapimi and pass the town and the enginehouse. Once we pass the town, also at zero elevation we begin the climb. We keep an almost perfect 2% all the way to the station at Agua Caliente. This town is a high plain and grade-wise is perfectly flat. This is so we can leave trains and rolling stock here safely without them rolling to down visit the nice folks in Mapimi.

We then start another 2% climb as we round the Chihuahua Bend which now is 4" off the benchwork and has a nice view of the Chihuahua desert. We continue to climb another inch and then reach the first large bridge going over Mapimi and its valley. This bridge is on a grade.

On the grade to the big bridge it gets just a little bit steeper than 2%, but that is ok. I think I'll call it Durango Grade after the province where the mine is located. By the time we reach the suspension bridge we are eight inches off the benchwork. The suspension bridge is perfectly level at eight inches. We then end our trip at Ojeula which remains at eight inches.

In hind site, I'd like to have a little more clearance between Agua Caliente and the mine, so we may raise the mine to 8.5 inches. Agua is 3.5 inches and the mine will be 8.5 inches, which gives us five inches of clearance. A bit tight, but doable.
I like naming key features of the trackage becuase it makes operations a little easier. Instead of yelling at the dispatcher that you are on the left side of the layout, you can just tell them that you are on the Durango Grade.

I've got a few more track adjustments to make and then I'll input the grades into the CAD system and run a train over the layout. What fun!

Building Adobe House #1

"Hey, what say we go to my new house and get plastered!"
- Pedro

My daughter is quietly sleeping upstairs. My friends from the train club came by to shake hands, pick up 75 trees from our last meeting and and make fun of me staying at home while they head over to Concrete Keith's to discuss the lack of scenery on his layout. With an ice cold Coca-Cola in hand I head to the basement to build Pedro's house.
I printed off two sets of drawings for the house. One will be cut out and fastened to a thin sheet of balsa wood for a cutting pattern. The others are for viewing. When the building is assembled it will be just big enough to fit in your outstretched hand.
I had a sheet of 3/32 balsa laying around so that became the interior wall for the house.

Using a pair of razor sharp scissors that I keep for just this purpose, I cut out one drawing of each elevation of the building.
Grabbing my handle bottle of Ilene's Tacky Glue I tacked the ends of the pattern on to the balsa wood and put a brand new blade in my hobby knife. Sharp is always mandatory when cutting, so don't go stingy on blades.


I cut out the main square of the building side using a straight edge and the hobby knife.
With great care I cut out the door and the window.


Once the four walls are cut out I taped them to a piece of cardboard and sprayed both sides with Testor's Dullcoat. I did this because the plaster we are going to use contains water and I wanted to prevent the balsa wood from soaking in the water and warping.
Using a scrap piece HO scale crosstie (a piece of 3/32 wood will do) I made the window sill and the header beam for the door and window. This will also become the thickness indicator for the adobe coating.

I cut four corner supports out of a piece of scrap wood, approximately 1/4" square and two inches long to be the corner mounts and the roof supports. Why am I using scraps? These will be inside and you won't see them. I don't waste anything and take all my wood scraps and put them in a Glad Zipper bag which I keep close by for just such purposes. Dropped crossties are a frequent visitor to the bag.
Using the corner supports I applied Tacky glue and erected the walls using heavy steel squares to keep it aligned properly. Looking good!
Here you can see the corner supports and a relfection of me and my work light in the glass surface that I use for model building.
Again, using the 3/32 balsa wood I cut out a roof insert and glued it into place using Tacky glue.
Grabbing some more loose crossties (any square wood scrap will do) I reinforced the roof in four places to keep it from sagging.
Using Durham's Water Putty (thanks for the ideas Colin Claxon!) I made a thick mixture of two parts putty with a little less than one part water. I took a pallet knife and spread the compound all over the structure. On hind site it is probably better to do each side flat and then assemble the building and touch it up. This was way harder and messier than it should have been. Once the model dries (overnight) I'll sand down the wood parts and see if I can level out the plaster. If I had done the pieces separately the plaster would have laid down flat. Live and learn.
While the adobe was drying I cut my minature cut off saw and put in a stop block set at 1/4". Then I took a 3/16th dowel and scribed it with a Zona saw blade. Once scribed I began cutting these small pieces of dowel. These will be the vigas, six per side.

Using a brown Sharpie pen and watching Georgia Public Television I colored each of the vigas brown. The white side will be glued to the structure.

Ok, everything is wet, so we'll wait until tomorrow to finish it. So far, a simple model, but it is easy to dress these types of building up. They are very easy to produce in mass quantities.

Time:

• Research: gather picture, surf internet, ask questions on On30 group - 1 hour 10 minutes
• Drawing: CAD drawing of four sides and print - 45 minutes
• Prep for construction: gather materials - 10 minutes
• Cut out walls and roof: - 20 minutes
• Assemble walls - 15 minutes
• Adobe coating - 30 minutes
• Vigas - 20 minutes

Total time so far: 3 hours and 30 minutes
Cost so far: $0 as everything was in my shop. Had I gone to the store $7.15 (enough to build about 4 to 5 structures)

Why do I care about this? Frankly I think scratch building is faster and cheaper than a building a kit. I keep a well stocked shop and buy things either on sale, in bulk or from auctions and just pack them in the work shop. Most times I can walk down there and beging construction. In this case I'm interested in the time and cost because these basic house structures could be mass produced in a fraction of the time a kit can be purchased and assembled. Even faster if I make mold/master castings (which probably would happen if we go into full construction on the layout.)

Hey guys...let me know your thoughts! Write them below in the comments section. We want ideas!

Let's Build an Adobe House

"Senior, this is a REALLY small house you are building for me!"
- Pedro

I'm fired up and can't walk, so let's go down to the basement and build an adobe house. I've drawn the plans and have gotten tips on how to build it from Colin Claxon, so this should be quick. Here are the drawings:





Oops...forgot to put the scale on there. This is o scale, and the grid marks are one foot square.

Update: the font and rear elevations were updated as I dropped the vigas (wood roof supports) down so that they are one foot from the top of the structure.

Ole Adobe!

"Be it every so humble, there's no place like a square box made out of mud bricks in the middle of the hot sun. Wait, is that rain coming?"
- Peppy

I love adobe structures! That's one of the main reasons I wanted to look at modeling the Mexican railroads. While I've never built one I'm thinking they would be fairly simple to construct.

Here are some photos...
The smooth and curving sides...solid wood doors...
Large wooden supports over windows and doors, thick and rugged bricks...
Teh ubiquitous wooden roof supports and the earthen colors...
The broken away stucco and the arches...
Oh...and the bullet holes.

Such character these buildings have! I'm thinking I'll start with a small square house. It can be the jump off place for several structures as the are all cubic in shape for the most part.


Here is a sketch I've made of a simple home using the key features that I find so attractive in adobe buildings. My thought is to cast plaster sides and then assemble and round off the corners by sanding. I'm open for other construction ideas.

Ok, my daughter wanted to draw, so I sat down with her and sketched a few more using her watercolor pens.


I decided that the town of Agua Caliente needed a bar. Why not use Rose's Cantina?Greasy Gonzalez's Oil Depot will need to stand out a bit more than this, but its a start.
The enginehouse needs to be a focal point on the back side, so it may include some interior details. I'm going to use Colin Claxon's fine "garage" model as a design base for this structure.

On30 Group Member Colin Claxon is a fantastic adobe structure builder and I'm learning from his work.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/On30/photos/album/953421824/pic/list

He says...

Scott,

The "barn" is 3/16 foam core with Durham's water putty over it. Some of the structures are 3/16 balsa. The exposed adobe brick are Fimo modeling clay. It was painted with washes of acrylic craft paint.(painted wet on wet) If you build one, the vigas go over the shortest distance not like I did it.

Thanks for the nice words.. Do check out Tom Yorkes models. They are quite good.

Colin Claxon

To learn about adobe architecture go to:
http://www.ihomesmagazine.com/newmexico/architecture.htm

Scenery Science

I'm really been torn about which way to go with scenery media. There are a lot of choices and each has limitations. So I used the power of the internet and got this input.

Bill Uffleman - On30 Group
http://members.westnet.com.au/mjbd/html/foam_rocks_-_frocks.html
I like this! Very nice!

Andrew - On30 Group
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1D4KBB_GC4
Great video!

Stumpy Stone - On30 Group

You have much more ground to cover than I have in a long time, so my methods may not work for your layout. Ho0wever, you could use it in some areas where vertical surfaces might be difficult in other methods.
I carve rock faces from extruded polystyrene (extruded styrofoam). Don't use regular bead board foam, it doesn't work nearly as well. I generally look at a rock face I like and then try to carve something similar, or if I want to do a "cut" through a hill, so I look at a similar area in real life.
I don't use a hot wire cutter, I work with steak knives and X-acto knives and even sometimes just dowels or whatever will make the shape I want. Sometimes it doesn't come out quite the way I envisioned it, but since nature is so random, it usually works out anyway.
As to colors, I tend to use light grays and light browns. (Always use water based paint on foams.) I "seal" the foam with the brown and then add gray in "washes" of paint. Once the colors are right, I use thin washes of black to highlight cracks and shapes in the rock.
Different types of rock break into different shapes and colors, and these colors change as the rock is exposed to weather, so my colors may not work for you. Check out the area you want to model and let nature be your guide.
Stumpy Stone...Micro Layout builder in Appalachia


From Bill Neilson in the FloridaOn30 Group

Hi Scott,

You didn't mention whether this layout is to be portable, in which case weight & durability is a major concern, but even if it is a permanent layout, I think stacked extruded foam is probably the best method yet, as long as you don't have any trouble locating the foam, especially in larger thicknesses. Unfortunately, it's not the cheapest way to go, unless you have some nearby construction sites that will allow you to dive in their dumpster for scraps, and shaping the foam produces messy dust and chips, but a good shop vac takes care of this.

John Allen used to use corrugated cardboard forms overlaid with Kraft paper soaked in glue, which is cheap and can be very lightweight, but can be attractive to roaches and silverfish unless you mix in some form of insecticide or can seal it well on both sides. It is also very easy to re-contour later on, should you desire to. Rock outcroppings are easy to do using Sculptamold or Molding Plaster. This method probably would be my second choice over stacked foam.

Screen wire & plaster requires that you make a "buck" (framework) to support it all, forming the screen to get the proper shape without having to lay on 6" of plaster can be a PITA, and mixing the plaster and applying it is just too messy. Also, in it's powdered form, the plaster has a limited lifespan because it absorbs moisture out of the air (Hydrocal is the most sensitive to this), and after it has cured it develops cracks and chips easily, which leave white white plaster exposed. Carving rock faces into plaster can be very effective, but also produces dust & chips for the shop vac to deal with.

The Bragdon method is strong and light, and seems like it's the highest-tech method, but it's also the most expensive, it's components can be very hard to find, the liquid foam has a limited shelf life and produces potentially hazardous gases, plus it seems to be an overly involved process compared to simply stacking & carving extruded foam.

Just my opinion, the final decision is yours. Please keep us up to date on this project, as well as your swamp...

Regards,
Bill Nielsen

From Don Culbertson in the FloridaOn30 group:

Scott,

I really like your track plan for the new project.

I have made a lot of mountain scenery using extruded styrafoam. One of the most rewarding aspects of working with foam, was discovering how easy it is to make inclined ramps for multi level trackage using the foam. I use hot wire and hot knife tools and produce no foam dust. I made a demo module for a clinic I gave on foam carving. The demo unit was made entirely of foam, (there is no wooden frame) and only a small amount of lightweight patching plaster to hide some of the joints. The module uses two 2x4' pieces of 2" thick form, and one piece of 2x4x2 inch thick form. From the lowest track level to the peak is 16". The foam material removed to create the canyon and hollow out all of the tunnels, was flipped upside down to create the mountain.

To see a video of my Fire Ant Hill module in action check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q47BgtG

or just go to youtube.com and type in Fire Ant Hill.

Regards,

Don Culbertson

From Paul Fischer on the Yahoo Scenery group:

Scott: I, too, favor the idea of Hydrocal soaked paper towels for scenery shaping. In "0" gauge , you can have a lot of vertical depth, (my layout has over 30") and you really would use a lot of Styrofoam to make those mountains. And when you are working in an area of over two feet, vertical, you should probably support the scenery structure with plywood, cut to the contour that you're trying to achieve. Then, fasten down fiberglass screening to support the hydrocal/paper. I find that I need two to three coats to achieve the desired strength. Finally you will probably want to pick up some rubber rock casting molds and make rock outcroppings where it looks right. You can hold these in place with Sculptamold and that will blend the base of the rock in with the scenery you have made with the Hydrocal.

I, personally, like to color my Hydrocal with some brown plaster dye that I found. This way you can evaluate your scenery easier than you can with stark white plaster, and later on, after the scenery is completed, should you bang a tool or something against it and chip out a piece, the color won't jump right out at you. You can also blend in carved foam, with the Hydrocal/paper towels to create varying effects in scenery texture.

For rock strata, outcroppings I have used broken ceiling tiles, roughened and painted , placed in a row with the broken edge out, and have had success with a western looking landscape. Some Styrofoam produces an interesting edge appearance if broken, placed and then painted properly. Looks rather rugged and has a varied texture.

Hope this helps.

Paul Fischer

Guys, thanks so much for the input. While I really like the control and affect of Hydrocal, and the lightweight and easy of Bragdon, I'm thinking the FROCKIN' the layout is the way to go. Let's go do some lab experiments and I'll get back to you.

Ok, Why the Stories?

“What is a railroad without men to make it go?”
- Peppy

Ok, so why the stories? I mean, they are fun to read, but aren’t they just distracting you from modeling? Good question.

My philosophy of model railroading is that a great model railroad is about people, not trains. To make a railroad believable people have to be involved. It makes the lifeless steel breath in air and open its eyes.

The stories paint a picture of the characters that make the railroad what it is. The crazy engineer, the brave miner, the town drunk and the old lady and her chickens on the track make the layout appear to be in the real world. It colors it just like the paint and stains we use on plaster. You become part of their world.

Its one thing to know that a small locomotive has a hard time getting up a steep hill, yet when we ride along with Peppy and Pedro we see the railroad with their eyes. What are they doing? Watching the oil fired boiler, looking for boulders, drinking in thick smoke and sweating in the extreme heat. So what does that tell us about the railroad? Because we sat down and wrote what it would be like to be Peppy we can understand the condition of the railroad, the rocks along the right of way, and the oily soot on the cab. Writing forces us to make notes about the scenery, the conditions of the trackage and the operations of the layout. It FORCES us to focus on realism and to put the plans on paper. When we are done we know that there is an empties load that goes to the mine and they carry guards to ride down with the load.

In fact, the little fact about Jose and German being on the train allowed me to really think about the cargo they are carrying. Silver rich ore. Silver worth steeling. With guards, we need a place for them on the train. We need a guard house. We need guns. It adds a whole dimension to the layout. Just writing this paragraph right now made me realize that we probably need to take the payroll up the mountain once in a while, so we’ll need even more guards!

The last layout we build had a mine. So, behind the church, we added a graveyard with an open burial scene. Morbid? Yup. But what was its purpose? Mining is a deadly business. The reality of that is painted by the open grave and the man’s small children standing beside it. The town is not about the train running around it. It’s about the business of digging coal out of the ground which is the life blood of the people, and what takes their life on occasion. The miners give up part of their life every day to dig coal out of the ground so they can feed their children who grew up to be…miners. I think these types of modeling effects are what made the last layout so visually realistic. It literally drags you in to the lives of the people that live there. It becomes real.

The story paints the picture of the layout and is a very effective tool for making you think. Ask you self…

• Who are the characters on my layout?
• What are they doing?
• Why are they doing it?
• What is their reward?
• What are their fears and concerns?
• Who do they interact with?
• What do they hear, feel, smell, touch and taste?

Can you imagine being Pedro? You are in the 110 degree heat sitting on top of a 200 degree steel boiler. You are surrounded by rock. Buzzards are flying overhead. By putting yourself in the cab of that locomotive you can “see” your layout! Just as real as if you were in Mexico. I’ll guess you are going to put some canteens in the cab!

Just sit down and write a story about your railroad. It only has to be a page or two. You’ll see what you missed!