Update on the trestle

 Most of the scenery is complete around the trestle.

Old number 1, a narrow gauge, vertical boiler climax, pulls a string of coal cars to the Black Diamond coal triple. 

Cave Junction.

Cave junction was depicted as an old western town, as seen on the title page. The sawmill, blacksmith building, the saloon, the and bank were all removed. New town buildings and 2 new factories were added to the modernized town.

Cougar Mountain rises up

Made a rough cardboard mountain shape.

Rock castings and plaster cloth were added to the cardboard frame, and any gaps were filled in. As you can see drywall compound and Plaster of Paris do not absorb paint the same. As a note you can't use the wet drywall compound in rock molds as it will not cure. I made a slurry of Plaster of Paris and painted over the compound areas.

Here are the results. Note the talus at the bottom of the cliff. After the trestle is permanently installed, more bits of rocks will be added.

Carving or scratching in strata lines help make the various cast rocks, blend together. In the picture below strata lines were even carved around a corner.

In some areas, faint line were enhanced a little, in other places the faint strata lines were over emphasized. The promitory below is an example of this
technique.

None of these cracks and fissure were in the casting.

The Cliff behind the trestle.

Put in a support system, hung under the existing table top. It was made up of scrap wood and spaced the height of my rock castings. It also was made to have crooks and crannies along the cliff face.

Rock castings were added to all the stepped out levels and most of the gaps were filled in. Any remaining ones will get filled in after the plaster dies.

Hard to see with the castings being all white but there is 4 stepped up levels. I may have to do some rework to make the bent steps not look so contrived. On wards and upwards, to the mountain tops.

Rock work under the bents

The new trestle area was prepared for the supporting terrain under the bents.

Then rock molds were added under the bents.

About 25 molded rocks later. Next to cast more rocks to fill in the cliff area.

New trestle.

Oh what should I do during the "Isolation"? A January 1986 issue of Model Railroader somehow keeps landing in my hands, by the way it cost $2.75. Floor to ceiling scenery and the spindly trestle, draws me  over and over to the Snake Head Trestle area on Mike Simon's Silverton & Telluride Ry. Co. layout which was designed by Malcolm Furlow, So I decided to bite the bullet and build my version of it.

Now who wouldn't want this as part of your layout? To set the record straight, I'm not building the scenery from the ceiling to the floor, my trestle is only 11 inches high, not 18 inches high, I left out the short truss bridge and I doubt my scenery will rival theirs.
Below is a picture of the area where the trestle will be installed with a cardboard template of the shape of the trestle. You will also note the scenery has not been removed yet. Yes I'm building the trestle first!

Using this template the stringers were glued and bent between rows of finishing nails. After drying for a day, ties were added between the nails. Once they dried the nails were pulled and ties were added to these areas.
The next step was to use an old code 83 flex track I had on hand. After removing most of the ties, only leaving 1 tie every 2 inches or so, it was taped down to conform to the radius of the trestle deck and the ties left on the track were adjusted in between the deck ties.

Even though the flex track ties keep the rails in gauge, track spiking gauges were also used. Below is a close up to show the gauge and remaining ties.

As can be seen the tracks were spiked down every 2 or 3 ties. The code 70 guard rails were added next. Once everything was checked the flex track ties were removed. As a note the flex track ties are half as thick as the trestle ties, allowing them to be pushed down and slid out from under the rails.
Trestle bents and bracing were built and added to the deck.

Completed trestle sitting on another part of my layout. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Light house

When Dave brought in a lighthouse for the club, I knew I needed 1 for my layout. However I just got the cupola, railing and base and light.

Spar Tree

The spar tree had to have some adjustments made to the cables and supports, to make it work with the new track alignment.

The logging road was painted into the background and the area for the drays to drop logs, was graded. While the dirt was still wet, I added ruts, from the wheels and logs, and hoof marks. Besides the spar tree and it's donkey engine, there is a barn for the dray horses, a tool shed, a canteen and a old log wagon. To the right, the first of the bunk houses can be seen. I still need to add a log rigger and his guide rope to the suspended log.

Custom deck bridge

Needed a 2 track deck bridge for the mainline. Started by cutting down a standard plate bridge.

Then a piece of styrene was cut to span the gap between them. The styrene was marked for I beams.

The plate girders were cut down, and I beams added.

Strips of styrene were added to the cut down plates, and the parts were glued together.

Finished bridge was weathered and installed.

Painting my streams

After establishing the stream bed and banks with ceiling tiles they are mudded in with joint compound. Once all the areas are mudded in, I use an old stiff bristled brush to create the flowing water by dragging it through the wet compound. Try to create ripples and eddies around any rock in the stream.

This is what the stream looks like with a brown base coat.

White rapids added to the stream and the stream has been painted on the background, note a hint of it up on the background, behind the foreground trees.

Logging camp.

I used pieces of ceiling tiles to elevate the bunk houses to different levels. Buttering them with joint compound glues them together and holds them in place immediately. To further the illusion of uneven ground, the tiles were cut down in areas. Logs will be used to level the bunk houses, after the area is mudded in.

Small retaining walls, made of logs, further this illusion. The areas behind the higher rock faces will also be filled in back towards the track. This will guide the placement of the track.

All of the rocks are from 2 castings cut down into 7 rock faces.

The first bunk house all mudded into place. A bridge will be built over the stream.

The next 2 bunk houses with the rock faces mudded in.

The last house is located at the tail end of the spur.

After enlarging 1 of the 2 log retaining walls, the whole rock face area was painted.

Grass, trees and stumps added.

Three bridge creek.

The three bridges in the logging area were made and and installed. As mentioned before the logging spur bridge was made with 2 logs running parallel to the stream banks and 2 logs on top of them, parallel and inline with the rails. This was common practice for even much larger logging line bridges.
The 2 mainline bridges over this stream, are stringers with ties on top of them. The lower mainline bridge has 2 beams for footings. This required lifting the track about a 1/4 of an inch. I used cut down ceiling tiles to support it.

The stream bed was painted a dark brown before adding sand, gravel and water.

A new stream added at the lumber camp

Looking at the lumber camp buildings that I had set in place, they looked unrealistic,  or rather the terrain below them looked like a table. What was needed was elevation. After mocking up the camp there was a space between 2 bunk houses. The background in this space shows a bit of a valley, so there must be a stream there, right!
The trouble with streams is they require bridges for the track above them. A couple of logs will be what you might see in a logging camp, but not on the mainlines below. Plate girder bridge for the double mainline, and a couple of wood bridges will fit the bill for these small stream crossings.

New rock along lumber camp

New rocks added to the extension of the logging spur. The camp buildings will line the back of this extension.

 The space created by moving the camp will make room for a horse barn, back by the spar tree.

The mainline just below the lumber camp also had to be moved to make space for the new logging camp. It now snakes, realistically along the edge of the cliff.

Not to leave the mainline down to Medford untouched, I added some rock outcrops and hollows along the right of way.

The spar tree needs to be reworked, the track needs to be ballasted, the trestle bends need to be gravelled into the scenery, all the camp buildings need to be placed and scenery added. Lots of work in a 5 foot scene.

Logging camp

Decided to move the mainline over and run the logging camp track about 3 feet to the right. This will allow the train to clear the bridge and the log cars will be easy to reach. The logging camp buildings will now run along side for the new track. Scenery on both the logging line and the mainline below it will end up looking better.