Tehachapi, BC

[Angus Shops]

Well, obviously the original machine had a base plate of preformulated amulite  surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurring bearings were in a direct line with a panametric fan. I hope you painted it blue.

[Pomperaugrr]

Are you sure this will hold the weight of that new turboencabulator?

[ednadolski]

But no ballast jokes yet? 

Blue hat dude: "Yes, this brand-new Smith & Sons Ballast-O-Matic can ballast your N-scale track as quickly as one foot per week!"

GFH: "Ooooh!!"

[John]

this is probably the only observatory base whatchamacalit thingamabob that has its own memes

[GaryHinshaw]

It's been forever and a day since I posted anything meaningful here.  After being distracted by 3d printers, work, and such, I'm trying to make some progress out in the Shed.  First, I finally built and installed the final crossover at Kern Jct, so the track work there is now complete (except for ballasting):



All of the relay wiring that completes the auto-reverse circuitry for the 8-track balloon staging that sits behind Kern is also complete, but I'll spare you that photo for now.    The signal bases are also in place, so it should be pretty straightforward to get the signals up and running soon.

I decided this was a good place to start dipping my toes into the world of scenery, since this part of the layout is relatively tucked away, and the scenery is fairly simple.  I'm starting with a base layer of 'goop' (a witches brew of lightweight spackle, acrylic paint, and some sanded & un-sanded grout) and will build up from there.

Here's a comparison of the Kern corner from ~2 years ago, and today:







The additional light strips along the back wall really help brighten the scene, and will make this yardmaster's cubby more inviting.  Before too long, I'll give the Bealville deck above Kern a similar treatment: land-forms, ground cover, painted fascia, coved backdrop, etc, to alleviate some of the clutter. 

Good to be back at it!!

[Scottl]

It looks great @GaryHinshaw.  Always so neat and refined. 

BTW, what are those thin things on the book shelf? 

[GaryHinshaw]

Paper weights.    (As I no longer own a CD player.)

[nickelplate759]

Paper weights.    (As I no longer own a CD player.)

Mostly classical paperweights, judging by the labels (I see Decca, DG, Teldec, Philips, ...)
Mine are all gone too (more than 800), but before I dumped them I ripped every last one to a hard drive.   Now I have more space for trains!

[peteski]

Mostly classical paperweights, judging by the labels (I see Decca, DG, Teldec, Philips, ...)
Mine are all gone too (more than 800), but before I dumped them I ripped every last one to a hard drive.   Now I have more space for trains!

. . . and hopefully the "hard drive" is actually a RAID set, or better yet, have a independent backup copy.  Magnetic storage (or even solid state storage) is not as robust as (pressed, read-only) CD media.  But then again, you will only need them for a finite number of years. 

[ednadolski]

. . . and hopefully the "hard drive" is actually a RAID set, or better yet, have a independent backup copy. 

If you really care about your data (and don't want to invest in hardware RAID) there is always ZFS....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS#Data_integrity
https://zfsonlinux.org/

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

Today's topic is the east slope: the upper deck section from Summit (across the door at upper right) past the future cement plant at Monolith (far corner) and down the east slope into the Mojave desert plateau (middle left - the dashed line will be explained later):



I'm finally starting to put down the base soil layer and finish off the fascias here:



Now it is quickly becoming time to fish or cut bait on the photo backdrops that will support this scene.   Flash back to about 4 years ago when I was thinking I'd use a panorama of the Tehachapi mountains taken from north of Mojave as the main work horse:

Dec. 2018:


I've lived with some version of this quick & dirty print for a long time now and it's clear to me that I don't like this configuration.  Referring to the 1st photo: the intent is to convey the quick change of scenery one experiences on the prototype east slope: from the scrubby rubble of Summit (at right) to the desert floor (at left).  So I have gone back to my panorama collection and have put together two photos sets: one taken from near Summit and one taken from north of Mojave, and I have mocked up the potential composition shown in the first shot.  The very crude transition occurs just to the left of the Digitrax plug in that shot.  The main changes from the previous version are:

- There is a now a plausible Summit backdrop, where there was nothing before:



- The east slop scene now includes much more of the desert floor north of Mojave (I do have a better - slightly greener - photo set for the east slope, from the same vantage point, but I haven't stitched them together yet):





For those familiar with the prototype, the iconic MP 377 signal bridge is (was) at the spot depicted in the background photo.  On TBC, it will control the entrance to south staging.

So I think this composition can work.  The next question is, do I include printed sky with the photos, or cut the sky out and use the blue walls for sky?  I was originally inclined to do the latter, but the more I live with it, the more I'm inclined to include sky to the level of the dashed line in the first shot, which is about 6 feet above the floor, and just a bit over my eye level.  (Of course the photos would be professionally printed so the sky isn't striped!)

Comments welcome.  Thanks for looking. 

[ednadolski]

... do I include printed sky with the photos, or cut the sky out and use the blue walls for sky?

I'd suggest doing a short (say 3'-4') section each way next to each other and see which one you prefer.  Probably best to go with something that calls the least attention to itself. Also could be helpful to have it behind an area of finished scenery, to see how it all works together.

Ed

[Scottl]

I like the composition of the new panorama, it looks convincing and makes an appropriate transition.

I'm always a bit mixed on the cut it out vs integrated sky in the backdrop.  For some scenes, cutting a complex tree line out leaves artefacts that distract.  In your case, the mountains are sufficiently smooth you could probably do it without any issues. 

The walls are quite a different tone of blue from your panorama, not sure which you are going for but that might be a factor too.

[Cajonpassfan]

Gary, I'm a believer in nondescript skies. I've seen some layouts with dramatic cloud formations and such, but as great as they look at first, they get old with the passage of time, imho. So simple skies, especially in SoCal, is the way to go I think. Maybe some haze overspray here and there. That leads to your question: your (and mine) setting lends itself to the cutout technique rather well and allows for affordable taller sky board, which comes handy when photographing the scenes from any distance. A finely "serrated" edge helps with the photo to painted sky transition, attaching pic.
(I also photoshop the photo to screen out detail and make it look more "painterly", but that's another conversation).
My two cents.
Best, Otto

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks for the feedback gents.  I appreciate not having to make these kind of decisions in a vacuum.  A few comments and another iteration of the desert backdrop.

* I've been assuming all along that I would cut the sky out, but a few factors are weighing against that choice now: 1) the blue walls look pretty different against different foreground colours, and they also seem to look (subtly) different in every photo I take with them, 2) there are a number of tall features in the desert floor scene that would be very difficult to cut out and mount convincingly, and I don't want to eliminate those features from the scene (see the examples below).

* I'm definitely a believer in a nondescript sky.   I'm modelling late summer in SoCal, so there should be at most a stray cirrus cloud here and there.  Any printed sky I end up with must reflect that.

So, can I get a decent quality printed sky? and can I make the transition from sky board to bare wall be inoffensive?  To that end, here is the next quick & dirty iteration of the desert backdrop.  I stitched together a set of photos from a 2019 trip (when it was much greener and I had a better camera) and I crudely extended the sky by about 4" in Gimp.  Here is a view from near the entrance door:



and another from near the Loop shelf (pardon all the partially taped paper joints and the bit of exposed hardboard):



It doesn't look too awkward from an oblique angle (though that mound in the foreground needs to be rethought):



Here's a closer look at the transition between the two panoramas:



I have another few feet of the desert image available that I didn't print.  With that material,  I don't think it will be too hard to decently blend these two scenes, especially since the east end of the cement plant and its coal spur will be in front of the backdrop here.

Lastly, here are a few closer shots near the desert floor.  Exiting staging, north of Mojave:



and climbing the grade:



The windmills and the transmission lines are really signatures of this region now, and they'd be virtually impossible to include without the printed sky.

The next steps:

* Add another 4-6" of sky to make the top of the sky board well above eye level and maintain a consistent height around the top deck.

* P'shop out a number of foreground items (phone poles, etc.) and some of the more obvious clouds.

* Mock up some more complete 3-d scenery to see how well it can be made to blend with the backdrop.

* Get a section professionally printed to see how the sky looks.  Hopefully not striated like in my cheap prints...

Thx.