The past two weeks have been busy getting some color on the rock face of the mountain as well as getting the bridges installed and spending time at Bryan's helping with his layout. Also was sick with a sinus infection but feeling much better now.

All the bridges are installed and working very well. Just need to do some detailing and finish adding some paint to the rocks, ground cover, ballast and some trees.

Started installing a can motor in my 4-6-2 steam loco. I used the rotor of the old motor so I could use the drive gear. I decided to use parts of the old motor frame to hold the shaft and and gear at the correct angle so they would mesh correctly.

I dismantled the windings and just used the front motor mount/bearing assembly to hold the gear at the proper angle.
I then used a wire butt splice that I cut to the correct length and soldered the motor shaft to the old motor shaft/gear. This is the new can motor and gear/shaft mounting assembly clamped waiting for the Gorilla glue to dry. Once it's set up the motor gear assembly will be ready to install into to frame.
Then the Digital Sound Decoder (DSD) will be installed and wired to allow for DCC control of the loco. I have a speaker to install as well which will give this steam locomotive life. This is a Tsunami TSU-1000 medium steam service decoder. So by the end of the week should have an operating steam loco video to post.

Above and Below it's coming together.

One of the things I enjoy most about model railroading is meeting new people who are fellow railroaders. Such is the case this past month. I met Bryan Daniel and his friend Bob at the Model Railroad Expo at Cal Expo last month. Bryan is building his own HO layout and Has allowed me the opportunity to work on it with him and Bob. So I have had a blast helping Bryan and getting to know him and Bob as well as working on my own layout.

This post finds us working on both the bottom and the top of the layout. This is one of the auto reversing controllers that I have installed to allow the DCC control to reverse the signal to the locomotive when it returns from one of the reverse loops.
Much of the time this week has been spent on finishing this 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive model kit from Bowser. I have had this for about seven years and was able to get it finished to this point. Still need to get the detail parts put on and install the DCC decoder as well as paint and weather it. Still lots to do but it runs on DC and it has been a fun project.
The scenery is coming along fine here is my rock face and river bottom almost ready for painting and finishing.
Getting ready for the hard shell which will finish this section of the mountain. Having fun and learning lots.

Starting to learn how to us rock casings

This is the smaller of the two molds I have it's just been painted with white lacker and it's drying so I can cast the mold. About fifteen minutes after the reason is pored it's ready to be hot glued onto the hard shell. Because it's still pliable it can be shaped to what ever contour you want it to be.

This is the larger and more rugged rock molds with a fresh coat of paint drying. It's fun to cast these and then while they are still pliable you can tear them and do just about any thing you want to when you are gluing them to the hard shell.

Here is some castings glued to the hard shell. I will get this section all covered with the rock casings then I will start the painting and detailing portion. The bottom of the river is almost done even have the bridge supports cast and glued into place. I used a mold that looks like bricks have been used to build the supports.
Just a few more castings to add then the painting and detailing will be the next step. The upper track in this photo is going to be a bridge just not sure what type it will be yet. My goal is to have this section all done this weekend.
When I am waiting on the paint to dry I work on my 4-8-4 Northern Steam locomotive kit. Starting to get the boiler details filed and glued on then it's time to put the boiler on the drivers and frame. The tender is done and as soon as I get the boiler mounted it's time to paint. This is a Bowser cast mettle kit that I have had for about eight years have about fifty hours into it all ready. I just started to work on it agin this week it's been about seven years since I have worked on it.

All of the track is down now it's time for scenery

After laying the upper level of track I realized I needed to reverse this cross over so I used a putty knife to pull up the track and installed two right handed turnouts instead of left handed. This will allow for the trains to be turned around at each end of the run. Just had to sand the roadbed and re-glue the track down.
Have all the track down and have started to put the foam board support for the Geodesic foam scenery.
This is going to be a river flowing from a water fall with a bridge over the river on the upper level and three bridges on the lower level. I have started to learn how to use the geodesic foam which is the base of the river bed. It's a two part epoxy that you mix and spread over window screen. It sets in about ten to fifteen minutes to a point where you can still mold it to the shape you want. After about an hour it's set hard and ready for finishing.

It all stared with a table

I had started to lay out the track before I started to use the foam board so I had to redo all the lay out of the curves. I had made measurements for the radius points and transfered them to the 2" foam board. I then used felt markers to mark out the curves. There are 18" and 22" radius curves and two of the curves are a combination of both.

I first put down the lower level roadbed and track and made sure it was good and smooth before adding the grades to the upper level. Both inclines are at about 2.5% and are 4.5" above the lower track. At this point I was planning on using plaster cloth for the scenery and had put some down on the outside incline.

With the upper level subroadbed ruffed in it's ready for roadbed and track. Most of the track is Atlas sectional track and some flex track on most of the curves. I have been given several boxes of model railroad buildings, track, and rolling stock from Monte McKeon a friend who had built a model railroad with his grandfather when he was a boy. Most all of his railroad was in boxes and so I am using some of this track as well. I am using cork roadbed and it's all glued down with Liquid Nails for Projects.

This is a double dog bone laid over it's self so there is one loop on the lower level and one on the upper level.

Planning on having tunnels as well as bridges.