Three Bridges

I have decided to call this corner Three Bridges as there will be three bridges here when all is done.

The Bridge on the left (which will be the center bridge when all is done) is a wooden truss bridge from Campbell, I have about five hours into it so far. The one on the right is one I have built from scratch using the templet from the Campbell's kit. I need to get it painted and then glued in place. This will be a spur to a mine eventually.

Kind of a birds eye view looking down on what will be a river and the mine site. The first layer of water is in the falls area, once I get the bridges all done and installed the rest of the water can be added. I am using clear calk adhesive which will look like fast running water when I'm all done. Thats the plan at least.
All this working on the railroad couldn't be possible in the 100 deg F days we are having if it weren't for this new AC. Thanks Dad & Mom for the early Christmas gift. It's a pleasant 79 deg inside and 100 out side.

Building some scenery.

Because of the difficulty in getting to the wall to paint back ground scenery Karen & I purchased two Woodland Scenes back grounds and mounted them to poster board. I then cut out the sky section because I plan on painting in my own clouds. By mounting it to poster board it gives it some strength to bend around the corner so there is no sharp corner but just one smooth curve of scenery.

After getting the backdrop mounted to the wall with spray adhesive I started adding the scenery to tie it all together. This is the first part of carving the foam to look like the rocks and river bank that will flow out of the backdrop into the scenery.
After carving the foam board it's starting to take shape. Next will come the first layer of paint.

This is two colors of acrylic paint (burnt sienna & golden brown) mixed to give the base color of the rocks and river bottom. I'm hoping to get everything painted and then add the water in such a way that it looks like its flowing out of the backdrop into the for ground. The section of foam board scene here crossing the river will be two of three truss bridges.

Helping Hands

One of the great things I love about model railroading is having the chance to meet new friends. It's even better when those friends lend a helping hand to work on the railroad. Such was the case today when Bryan and Bob came up from Orangevale to help out. It was great fun and they were able to get two sections of roadbed laid out which will be a small freight yard while I worked on some scenery.

This is Bryan laying out what will be the east end of the yard. He is laying one of two turnouts off of the mainline.

Here is Bob working on the center of the same freight yard. Bob is working back to the west end which will have two turnouts as well off of the mainline.
Here is the two sections of roadbed that will make up the freight yard. I'm not sure what this area will be called just yet but when it's all done I'm sure a name will come to me. The track next to the wall is the up hill climb to the spiral helix.
This is some of my handy work at painting a back ground scene. I hope to be able to paint most of the back ground scenes.