Seaboard Central 2.0

[davefoxx]

Dave, Any update photos of the new road section? Are you going to use some type of guard rail along the hill side, both were the road comes out of town and at the tee intersection? Does someone make a nice highway guard rail set, or is this scratch build territory?

Thanks for asking, but, nope, no updates.  The only significant time that I spent on the layout in the last week or so was several hours to tear down, Beardenize, and clean a half dozen or so pieces of motive power.   On a positive note, the fleet is just about back to 100% availability.

I definitely plan to add guardrails in those spots around the bridges.  I still want to go back with more lightweight sparkling and further smooth the contours of those road shoulders and embankments.  I chose to modify the embankments to make room for the guardrails and shoulders.  Although it will be more work, it seems more realistic.  I haven't fully researched N scale guardrails yet, but I hope I don't have to scratchbuild them.

DFF

[Missaberoad]

Gold Metal Models makes an etched brass set of steel guardrails.

[coosvalley]

I feel like there should be a good "breakdown" area on the inside of the curve between the bridges, since you can't "pull over" on the bridges....Thoughts? Is this a part of what you mean by "build up the embankments?

[davefoxx]

I feel like there should be a good "breakdown" area on the inside of the curve between the bridges, since you can't "pull over" on the bridges....Thoughts? Is this a part of what you mean by "build up the embankments?

No, this is just a two-lane road in very rural eastern North Carolina.  Many places there do not have wide shoulders.  I wanted to build up the embankment to give room for the guardrails and to avoid the look of a sheer cliff at the edge of the road.  I think I've gotten that look.  Stay tuned.

DFF

[Chris333]

I think for easy guard rails you could just cut 2 or 3 strips of corrugated styrene and glue it to some styrene rod. Osborn Models make a kit, but don't think you need to buy a kit.

[davefoxx]

I finished up building up the embankment to my satisfaction this morning when I sanded the newly-applied lightweight spackling smooth.  I then vacuumed up the dust.  The following three pictures will give you an idea of how I was trying to create a shoulder with room for guardrails at the edge of the road where the hill falls away.  I plan to use Gold Metal Models' N scale stainless steel guardrails.  There's enough room now for the guardrail and a little gravel at the road's edge, but, most importantly, the hillside is not just a complete drop-off at the edge of the road:







Here's one repair I needed to make to the road.  As hard as I tried, I didn't get a perfect fit on the styrene road section between the two bridges.  It needed to be perfect to avoid any gap in the road surface at the bridges.  So, I added a piece of 0.040" strip and sanded it down until the bridge fit back in with minimal gap.  Much better:



I applied my base color paint (a light sandy color) over all of the scenic forms, which always shows in my pictures as white.  It's not.  This picture might show some of the contrast:



Finally, I started applying my base coat of ground cover.  I ran out of white glue, so I'll finish up the other side of the bridges later:





Thanks for following along,
DFF

[davefoxx]

I think for easy guard rails you could just cut 2 or 3 strips of corrugated styrene and glue it to some styrene rod. Osborn Models make a kit, but don't think you need to buy a kit.

I could definitely cobble something together, but I really want the look of those galvanized metal guardrails you see everywhere.  GMM's guardrails seem closest in my search so far without all of the fuss.  If I didn't need hundreds of feet of guardrail, I would try what you suggested.

DFF

[eric220]

Your hillside looks awfully steep between the road and tracks. It seems to be begging for a retaining wall or rocky cut.

[davefoxx]

Your hillside looks awfully steep between the road and tracks. It seems to be begging for a retaining wall or rocky cut.

Yeah, poor planning led to a few inches on the Aberdeen end of that bridge abutment pushing beyond a forty-five degree slope.  I'll disguise it with kudzu and other foliage.  Since this is the sandhills, a rocky cut would be out of place, and I was hoping to avoid a retaining wall.  If it turns out looking bad once complete, I can always cut it out and add the retaining wall . . . covered with kudzu, of course.   

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The thing that sticks out to me, though, is the lack of dirt showing through the greenery.

Sorry to troll..

[C855B]

Blankets of vegetation can be like that in the South. The longer growing season and lack of hard freeze in some areas allows the wild ground cover to get pretty dense by mid- to late-summer... with or without kudzu.

[Dave V]

Blankets of vegetation can be like that in the South. The longer growing season and lack of hard freeze in some areas allows the wild ground cover to get pretty dense by mid- to late-summer... with or without kudzu.

I remember this from the 3 years I lived in North Carolina.  But Ed's right in that somewhere on the layout there should be exposed dirt.  NC has a distinct transition between the sandhills and the red clay cap.  Whichever is appropriate for this layout should drive the coloring for at least some exposed dirt.  A dirt cut might be just the thing as I recall seeing plenty of them on CSX and NS outside of Raleigh.

Dave's biggest challenge, of course, is going to be modeling those ubiquitous southern pines.

[C855B]

True for your steeper cuts. What I'm recalling is some really dense undergrowth on a slope that I had to wade through to find a good spot to shoot the 1218 in north Georgia. Silly me... I was so pumped about getting in position for the shot I completely forgot about chiggers and other indigenous fauna. I was quite reminded that evening. Since I lived in the area I should definitely have known better, but nooooooooo.

[davefoxx]

The thing that sticks out to me, though, is the lack of dirt showing through the greenery.

Sorry to troll..

That's not trolling, and you, Dave V., and Mike raise good points.  Up to now, with the exception of the area of the layout that has kudzu, I've just tried to get down some base foliage to cover up the foam until I figure out where I'm going with the scenery.  I have no qualms with scraping off ground foam, where necessary.  In fact, if you've been following the pictures in this thread, you will see a number of times where I have gone back over areas where there was ground foam without hesitation, e.g., the revised embankment near the highway bridge.  I need to do a lot more research on the foliage in the area, and, until I do that, I have yet to place an order for the appropriate scenery materials from Scenic Express.

Oh, and you can't see it in the pictures, but the sandy soil color I used does peek through the ground foam in spots, especially on that steep hillside.

Dr. V is right.  I have yet to tackle the southern pines, and I fear I will have to build these by hand.  The real problem is that so many of them will be visible, which means I won't be able to get by with a few superdetailed trees and a bunch of low-detailed trees.  Puff balls will not suffice.

DFF

[davefoxx]

NC has a distinct transition between the sandhills and the red clay cap.  Whichever is appropriate for this layout should drive the coloring for at least some exposed dirt.  A dirt cut might be just the thing as I recall seeing plenty of them on CSX and NS outside of Raleigh.

I am using a sandy color as the base (dirt) for the layout.  This gets painted over all of the 2" foam and lightweight spackling.  The exposed soil in this area of North Carolina (sandhills) almost bleaches white under the summer sun.  I'm not opposed to a dirt cut, but I need to do more research for guidance.

Thanks for your suggestions, guys!
DFF