Colorado Midland Railway Engineering Report

[Chris333]

Love the mine track 

[MVW]

Great to see you're able to get back at it, Dave. Beautiful work, as always.

Jim

[chuck geiger]

Fastly becoming one of my faves.

[Dave V]

Thanks!

I've been planning out the abbreviated version of the city of Aspen, CO, circa 1905.  The wood floors are from a Wild West kit soon to be built.



At long last the city of Aspen has its eponymous tree.  Supertrees with white stems and orange and yellow Scenic Express leaf material.  The dead leaves below also include some darker oranges and browns.  The rock was all hand carved in this view from a mix of lightweight Hydrocal, Sculptamold, and latex paint.

[Dave V]

A quick look at this afternoon's "State of the Midland"...



Been picking away at scenery here in there in small patches.  I'm not 100% sold on where all my spruce trees are, but I've yet to make more aspen to mix in.  Also, that little orange building is my evening project...  http://www.wildwestmodels.com/products/slims-shoe-shop.html



Trimmed the one aspen grove just a bit and evened out the tree heights a little.  I'm not over the moon about how the Aspen came out but they'll do.

[Chris333]

When you get to the mountain    you can continue the road zig-zaging up it. Yellow trees look fine to me, but what do I know about western trees.

[Dave V]

When you get to the mountain    you can continue the road zig-zaging up it. Yellow trees look fine to me, but what do I know about western trees.

Actually, that's the plan...  Behind the big red stamp mill will be a small headframe and hoist house, accessed by the continuation of that road!

[nkalanaga]

Chris333:  The aspens are usually that color in the fall.  Many other western deciduous trees simply turn brown and drop their leaves.

Other than aspen and cottonwood, many areas of the Rockies have very few deciduous trees, and those only along streams.

[Dave V]

Chris333:  The aspens are usually that color in the fall.  Many other western deciduous trees simply turn brown and drop their leaves.

Other than aspen and cottonwood, many areas of the Rockies have very few deciduous trees, and those only along streams.

Having spent four autumns in Colorado I've observed a few things about aspen trees:

1)  They're in groves because they share a common root system.  In fact, even a giant aspen grove covering a mountainside is actually one single organism.

2)  A grove tends to change all at once, and they turn as bright a yellow as you see in my photo, but not for long.  Peak color lasts less than a week.

3)  There's more orange at peak color than most modelers will use...so I added some orange leaf material.

Around here, anyway, as you note...  There are very few other deciduous trees (but a dozen different types of pines!).  However, one species you see in great abundance that I've tried to model are scrub oak.  Scrub oak grow very, very low to the ground in bushy clumps and when they change color they go straight from a dark, waxy green to a dead brown.  If you look to the left of the smelter in the photo I took of the overall layout you'll see a clump of scrub oak.

[Dave V]

Built my first Wild West Models kit...  Slim's Shoe Shop.  It also came with a sign for the "Last Chance Saloon" which I kind of thought was appropriate given its location on the "outskirts" of my model of Aspen:



Please ignore the wet glue and T-pins...   



Now I need to get working on planking that grade crossing!

[wazzou]

Looks good but now I think you need an outhouse. 

[Dave V]

Looks good but now I think you need an outhouse. 

I've got a whole stash of them, actually!  They'll be deployed soon.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Eh. I'm actually not a fan of that structure.

It's REALLY small. What would the interior look like? How would a bar with three stools stay afloat?

Then again, maybe those banditos need somewhere to get their cervesas.

[MVW]

How would a bar with three stools stay afloat?

Bar bingo. I think bar bingo was very big in that era. 

Jim

[Chris333]

Maybe it's only a 3 horse town.