Static Grass

The next step in the scenery process is to add some grass.  By late Fall most grass has turned golden brown with some grasses still holding on to a bit of green  I chose rather long strands of static grass in yellow and pale green colors to add to the area between the background and the tracks.  I use shorter length (6-8mm) light green grass material and longer strands of yellow (10-12mm).  The effect turned out rater well.  From the above photo you can hardly make out the Chapel Lumber siding.  The grass texture covers the siding track in most places and the ties are barely discernible.

I  built my own static grass applicator from an electronic fly squatter available from Harbor freight tools and an ordinary kitchen strainer.  It's rather easy to do and only costs a few dollars.  Here's a photo of my completed applicator:

I won't go into detail on how to make one, but if you search Youtube for static grass applicators, several instructional videos will show up.  I was overall pleased with the result.  It could be a little more powerful and some folks suggest adding more power than the two D sized batteries that fit the device's handle, but mine worked just fine.  Now time to plant some grass in that foreground field.

Photoback Drops and Scenery

Up until now all the photo backdrops that I've done have been experimental.  After looking over several series of photos that I took back in the Fall, I chose some that would work at the south end of the yard where the wall is very close to the yard ladder.  This is also where the wall juts out around the utility chase.  Because the wall is so close to the foreground, the perspective had to work well.  The above photo shows the finished background and how it blends into the foreground trees and ground cover.  Compare this scene to the one in my previous post.  The Chapel Lumber building is sited in the same location, but looks completely different with the backdrop and surrounding foliage.  

Here's a view looking the other way.  Compare this view with the one from my March 18th post.  It's essentially the same view.  In the above view you can hardly tell where the reverse curve is along the background wall.  The tree cover helps hide the location where the wall juts out.

Here's a close up of the tree cover in front of the backdrop.  All of my trees are made from natural plant materials found locally or in my garden.  From left to right, the first tree is made from a sea lavender armature covered with stretched fiber foliage material.  The bare trees are from a boxwood shrub that had some bad winter damage and lost all its leaves.  The low shrubs are dried sedum that turns a reddish brown color in late Fall.  The yellow trees are from a house plant called dwarf cypress.  The plant is bright green when healthy but turns golden yellow when it dies. My wife was upset when we lost the plant and set it in the garage for me to dispose of.  After a couple of weeks of sitting there (sometimes I'm glad that I procrastinate) I noticed that the foliage turned a golden yellow color and I knew it would make nice material for a Fall tree.  The spiky branches were gathered into a tree shape and wrapped with florist tape at the base.  Some yellow ground foam was sprinkled over it and was held nicely by the spiky branches.  The large tree on the right was also made by gathering sedum plant stalks and taping them again with florist tape into a tree shape.  The tree was then covered with the reddish brown fiber foliage material.  Woodland Scenics green clump foliage material was used to make the short evergreens and low ground cover.  The floor of the forest was covered with ground up oak leaves that were processed in a blender.

This photo shows a close up of the finished weather track.  It clearly shows the variations in the ties that were being painted in the previous post, and the use of powdered weathering material to create the rusty appearance on the rails and tie plates.  This is the process that Mike Confalone uses in his "Scenery Outside the Box" DVD series available from Model Railroad Hobbyist's on-line store: http://store.mrhmag.com/index.html  I highly recommend it.

More Work on the South End

Since my last post I painted the curved backdrop corner, completed the Chapel Lumber Spur and finished the ground contours in this area.  Before I place the ground cover, the next step is to paint the track and weather the ties before spreading the ballast.  This is a time consuming process but well worth the effort.  

My trackwork is a combination of flex-track and hand laid turnouts on pre-stained wood ties.  The turnouts look great as built and could be considered finished, but they join section of flex-track that look like, well "flex-track."  I could have just painted and weathered the flex track, but since I want it to all look homogeneous, I decided to weather it so that it looks like it's all part of the same track structure.

For track weathering I once again turned to the scenery Guru, Mike Confalone, whose process is quite realistic.  Mike spray paints all of his trackwork with a base coat of dark brown paint.  He uses Krylon brown Camouflage paint applied from a spray can.  That makes easy work of covering a lot of track very quickly.  For me, I used the same principle only I use thinned brown acrylic paint that I applied with my airbrush simply to avoid the paint fumes.  Same result, different method.

Next I used Mike's process of weathering individual ties using diluted washes of lighter colored acrylic paints.  This is a very effective means of making plastic ties look like the real deal.  The above photograph shows some of the flex-track ties weathered in this manner.  The results are instantaneous and will look even better once the ballast is applied and the rail is weathered with weathering powders.  

As I mentioned above, the individual ties are painted in a random manner with varying shades of gray and yellow washes of acrylic paint.  There is no right or wrong here as long as you maintain the randomness of painting the ties varying shades of the base colors.  I use a piece of card stock as a pallet and mix shades of colors together and add some water to the brush to make a thin wash.  Occasionally, I'll paint a tie a dark gray color to represent a new tie.  The first 3 tracks in the photo have had their ties weathered and it's starting to look like a yard ladder.

I also started building the structure that makes up Chapel Lumber Yard.  It will be a series of buildings featuring two connected warehouses adjoining an office/showroom building.  My version is more representational than accurate, but should help capture the feel of the original structure.

The South End of Southport Yard

It occurred to me that before I get too far down the line, the area at the south end of the yard needed some attention.  First, I needed to cove the corner where the utility chase juts out into the room.  On this side of the chase the wall sets back about six inches.  On the other side of the chase the setback is nearly a foot. So, at this location I chose to bend the corner material in an "S" curve to soften the corners.  It's easy to see in this view, but once the edges are tapered with drywall mud, and it's shaded and painted, the effect will be much better than two hard edges that previously existed here.

The box car is sitting on a short siding that will eventually be the Chapel Lumber siding and the buildings will further help disguise the corner.  Extending the ceiling lighting in this area will also help.

I used the green florist foam to shape the ground contours in this area.  I really like working with this stuff.  It's easy to carve and this transitions are easy to form.  On the rise is the distance, I planted one of my scratch built trees.  For this particular tree I used dried sedum from my garden.  The dried stalks are easy to arrange into a tree shape, and the brown color is great for late fall.  More on my tree making process in a future post.

Round the Bend and Down the Hill

The benchwork has progressed beyond Seeley Creek and now proceeding around the bend to the other side of the room.  This is the narrowest portion of the layout room so the trackway forms one continuous curve to reach the opposite wall.  To break up the "horseshoe" effect, I'll use some scenic dividers to disguise the 180-degree bend.  In this view you can see the Seeley Creek crossing in the distance and the coved corners on the left and right of the facing wall.  Just to the left of the bridge the track grade starts to descent, and though the grade looks more dramatic, it's actually less than 1%.  This wasn't meant to be the ruling grade (that will come later), but just a mild descent to Columbia Crossroads.

The angled edge of the benchwork in the foreground is where the lift out section will go.  The photo was taken at the entry point of the layout room.  To the right of the opening is where the Town of Columbia Crossroads will go.  There will be some industry sidings to switch and a public delivery track.  Columbia X-Roads, as it was spelled out on the station sign, had a GLF (now Agway) elevator and a feed mill.  A short passing siding will also be there.  It should be easy for the local to switch X-Roads because all of the switches were trailing point southbound.

The curve radius is 48" which is my design minimum for mainline tracks.  I tested all of my equipment on the curve and found no issues including my rigid frame, all-wheels flanged, 2-10-0 with the long tender.  The curve has some slight superelevation built into it and it works well with everything, including coupled 85-ft passenger cars.

Beyond Columbia X-Roads will be Troy with more industries to switch and then the track grade will drop again this time at 2% around the tip of the peninsula as it drops toward Canton and eventually Williamsport.  This is where the coal trains will get those Alco PA helpers added to the cabin car's rear knuckle.

Corner Treatment

There's nothing worse than square corners on a simulated sky backdrop.  I know that there are several schools of thought on how to round out the corners of the layout room, but I was looking for a simple yet effective means of doing so that didn't involve curving drywall.  I saw an article in Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine that used PVC flashing secured with cove base mastic, and I thought that I would give it a try.  The PVC material comes in a roll and is 15-mils thick (0.015") and can be readily found at  most home improvement stores.  The rolls come in varying lengths up to 24-in. and as long as 50-ft.  I purchased a product called Dura-Flash from Home Depot and was able to find it in a 20-in. long roll.  Here's a photo of one of the corner roundings installed:

In this view the 20" width is in the horizontal and the length of the sheet was cut to extend to the ceiling (or at least where the drop ceiling will be located).  The cove base mastic had been applied on the wall where the edge of the PVC was to go and afterward the sheet was placed on the wall. The mastic grabbed instantly but there was still time to tweak the panel if needed.  Any excess mastic can be removed with a wet sponge or damp cloth.

After the panel dried a day or so, I applied drywall compound to the edges and sanded it smooth to make the edge of the panel disappear.  When that was complete the rounded corner could then be painted the same color as the rest of the sky backdrop.

The Model Railroad Hobbyist article can be found on their website at: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com  The download is free.  Just search for the December 2013 issue.

Here's a photo of one of my finished corners:

More work on Seeley Creek

The north bank of Seeley Creek has begun to take shape.  In the distance you can see the green florist foam where trees will be planted.  In the middle is the embankment and abutment for the Seeley Creek Bridge and in the foreground is the transition down to the creek bank.  On the embankment the rectangular structure is the foundation for Kendall Tower which controlled much of Southport Yard, the connection to the Erie RR, and the controlled siding to the south at Nypenn.

Except for the exposed areas of green foam shown, some of the green florist foam and all of pink extruded foam has been covered with a layer of Cell-U-Clay colored with real dirt to form the scenery base for the ground cover.  This will all get covered with a coat of brown latex paint before the ground cover is installed.  The Cell-U-Clay is great to work with but takes a while to completely dry as you can see from the above photo taken the day after the application. It's a good idea to keep the mixture very stiff with low moisture to avoid this issue.