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.