It's been an interesting year and I realized this is my first post in quite some time. With Karen's mom passing away very unexpectedly in February most of my railroad time was used in trips to AZ with family business.
But I have managed to get some work done on the layout this year all be it time consuming on building a swing gate for access into the train room without having to duck under the section of track in front of the door.
This first photo sows the gate in the closed position. I used the same general construction that Charlie Comstock used in his model railroad Bear Creek & South Jackson. I have one bridge in place with the start of scenery underneath the bridges.
When the gate is in the closed position it's held in place with the brass road in the back just to the right of the bridge end. The small micro switch will be used for cutting the power to the tracks when the gate is opened. Wouldn't want a nice brass locomotive or any loco crashing to the floor when the gate is open.
I have removed the second bridge for now to allow for easier access to complete the scenery for the river bottom. The black paint will be where the rive water will be after I finish painting some more detail before adding the resin which will give it the final look of water flowing down the river.
With the gate fully open it allows easy access into the train room with out having to duck under a rather low bench work. It's been fun getting to this point as I have spent most all of my time working on this gate and building a second through truss bridge. The one on the left is just sitting in place for the photo and is the second one I have built. Once this section is completed and operational I will get back to working on the helix.
I am going for a rusted metal look for the fascia. So I have the bottom coat of orange on and I will put some dark brown to give it a rust color when I am done.
With the base coat on I will let it dry then add the dark brown in layers to give it a rust color. This are was where the helix was going to be but with it removed I have a small yard for switching cars.
This first photo sows the gate in the closed position. I used the same general construction that Charlie Comstock used in his model railroad Bear Creek & South Jackson. I have one bridge in place with the start of scenery underneath the bridges.
When the gate is in the closed position it's held in place with the brass road in the back just to the right of the bridge end. The small micro switch will be used for cutting the power to the tracks when the gate is opened. Wouldn't want a nice brass locomotive or any loco crashing to the floor when the gate is open.
I have removed the second bridge for now to allow for easier access to complete the scenery for the river bottom. The black paint will be where the rive water will be after I finish painting some more detail before adding the resin which will give it the final look of water flowing down the river.
With the gate fully open it allows easy access into the train room with out having to duck under a rather low bench work. It's been fun getting to this point as I have spent most all of my time working on this gate and building a second through truss bridge. The one on the left is just sitting in place for the photo and is the second one I have built. Once this section is completed and operational I will get back to working on the helix.
This is a shot of the mining area just to your left as you walk in the layout room. The rock cliffs are made using the geodesic foam and cast satin reasons that I have been using on my layout. Bryan is modeling the Colorado scenery where the Unita railroad operated in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
This steal truss bridge that Bob built spans a large canyon that has two tunnel portals where the main line will run next to a river that will flow in the foreground. The section to the right is what I worked on that will be the river cascading down to the bottom under the truss's that support the bridge.
This is an areal view of the mining area with most of the scenery done. About the only thing left is to get the ballast around the railroad ties.
