At long last, I have begun
adding terrain forms to my railroad. The
scenery base is a task best left until a railroad has “seasoned in.” That is both literal seasoning as in several
seasonal cycles with attendant changes in humidity and “operational seasoning”
wherein enough operation has taken place to identify and have corrected
anything affecting the running characteristics of the railroad. My railroad mainline has been in operation
for about three years now. I have had to
make a few roadbed adjustments as I experienced wood shrinkage or expansion
with the seasons. Similarly, I have held
two dozen formal operating sessions. Although I have a few nagging spots that
accumulate PostIt ™ notes, the bulk of the railroad now performs
well. I can thank at least one member of
my regular operating crew for helping with the fine-tuning of turnouts. I also can thank all of my operating crew
members who have taken the time to write a note that flags a problem. With the railroad performing well, I finally
can tackle the major visual elements.
I did a lot of tunnel
preparation this past Fall and reported those efforts in this blog:
It now was time to enclose
those tunnels within mountain shells.
Surveying various methods of
creating terrain, I chose foam insulation panels (“pink foam”) and Sculptamold ™ for my
basic landforms. Eventually, I will need
to “plant” a lot of Douglas Fir! That
will be a lot easier with a Styrofoam scenery base. Previously, I have used plaster
hard-shell. While great for rock
casting, planting trees requires a drill and often leaves a trail of white
plaster dust. Creating the hard-shell
also leaves a trail of plaster dust as one’s shoes inevitably pick it up. Foam creates its own mess, with electrostatic
cling moving bits of shredded foam around.
So far, the foam mess seems a bit more manageable.
I began filling in the
terrain on my railroad with the summit tunnel, Tunnel Number 3. This terrain area has relatively basic
landforms. On the other hand, all of the
work was done “on high”—usually from a step ladder.
With the track ballasted, the
tunnel portals and initial liners were mounted permanently with adhesive
caulk. Care was taken to ensure proper
clearance for rolling stock was maintained.
I needed to fill in the remaining tunnel liner. The prototype tunnels on the Cascade Line
were lined with timber with a later effort to spray this with concrete. Only the ends of the tunnels were lined with
concrete in the initial construction. I
represented the inner “timbered” liner with foam core panels with
representations of the timber support posts applied on tunnel liner panels that
might be visible from the operating aisles.
The interior of the tunnel liners was sprayed with a dark primer gray
(close to SP dark gray). I assembled the
liners as simple forms of sides and a roof, omitting the angled upper corners
used in the prototype tunnels. The
objective was a complete enclosure of the tunnel but not a full model. The effect in the aisles is quite good. Even camera cars should have an acceptable
view.
Tunnel liner wall with “timber
posts” before paint.
I glued together one wall and
the roof and fixed these assemblies permanently to supports just outside the
roadbed. The other wall was left loose
against stops on both the roadbed and the roof.
This will allow future access to the tunnel inside to reclaim derailed
equipment. The loose wall is the one
toward the backdrop wall.
With the tunnel innards in
place, the next step was to add a fascia terrain profile. I began with cardboard, first drawing the
proposed terrain contour and then cutting it out. For the summit tunnel, I discovered I had
removed too much, so I taped the cut off cardboard back to the panel and cut a
new profile. The next tunnel RR-East
needed a bit more trimmed from the top after the initial attempt. I then used the cardboard forms to define the
contour cut on the final hardboard panels.
Temporary cardboard profile
panels for Tunnel 5 fascia. More
material will be removed from the right-hand panel as seen by the cut line
sketched in on the cardboard.
Final fascia installed and
painted.
I installed a lightweight
hardboard deck above the tunnel liner between the fascia panel and the
wall. This provided support for contour
panels cut from Styrofoam. I then began
fitting pieces of Styrofoam on top of the inner contour panels, spanning the
distance between the fascia and the wall.
Since my Tunnel 3 occupies a corner of the room, I needed to cut a
number of pie-slice shaped pieces to turn the corner. I used both horizontal flat pieces and a few
vertical stringers for added stability of the shell. I used Loctite PL300 caulk for foam as the
primary adhesive.
As I got to the ends of the
tunnel, I shifted from horizontal flat pieces of Styrofoam to a series of
vertical profile panels. The terrain
alongside the track at the RR-West end of the tunnel had twenty of these
contour panels. I used both horizontal
or vertical panels—whatever seemed best for the particular terrain I was trying
to create. Working with Styrofoam is
very much like sculpture. It is a
process of removing material. In
contrast, working with plaster hard-shell, one is adds material, building up
the terrain.
Inner supports for mountain
over Tunnel 3.
Rough terrain defined by Styrofoam
panels. The bridge over Trapper Creek is
in the foreground.
Once the rough terrain
contours were defined by the Styrofoam panels, those panels were shaped further
using a Stanley Surform ™ scraper.
Although I had a small “block plane” form of this tool, the scraper
version with a yellow handle worked best for me. This scraping action smoothed the terrain
contours. For tunnel 3, I found I also
needed to tackle Trapper Creek, which serves as the geographic western edge of
the Cascade Summit scene. That Surform ™ scraper
sure came in handy for forming the stream bed.
Smoothed contour panels for
Tunnel 3.
The final step to form the
basic terrain was to apply Sculptamold ™
to the smoothed Styrofoam rough terrain. I chose to mix a tan house paint into the
Sculptamold ™. This will reduce the impact of the inevitable
scenery dings. Such divots will reveal
tan instead of the basic white Sculptamold
™. Sure, a deep divot will show the underlying pink
of the foam, but those divots need to be repaired anyway.
I found most of
the Sculptamold ™ could be applied with a spatula. The process was much like icing a cake. With the paint mixed in, I saved a step by
not needing to go back over with a coat of paint, though I will do so if I want
to change the base color of the terrain.
For now, I have nicely formed basic terrain the makes my summit tunnel
look like it is needed.
Summit Tunnel
encased within the mountain. The BRLAT emerges
from the RR-West portal on its way to Trapper Creek and Cascade Summit. This has been my test train as it has large
locomotives (Tunnel Motors), auto racks and TOFC—all of which can have
clearance issues.
This was my
first scenery effort in nearly two decades.
It was my first use of foam rather than hard-shell. I judge this one a success. I also relearned the need to tackle scenery
in modest chunks. The 12-15 square feet
of terrain I created for the Summit Tunnel area kept me very busy for a week,
with each day leaving me happy-tired.
All that climbing up and down the ladder contributed to the energy
drain. Now for more terrain…
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