Idaho Belt Freelanced plan

[Kevin C]

There is no rush, take your time and enjoy the process. The end result will be awesome...

[Cajonpassfan]

That is turning into one awesome scene.  I love the way the industry dwarfs the trains.

This!
Otto

[jpec]

Yo, Peter...you're one of the posts of the week on the MRH  website!

Jeff

[basementcalling]

Yo, Peter...you're one of the posts of the week on the MRH  website!

Jeff

Cool. Thanks for the alert, Jeff. Never knew they did that. Where do they announce those?

3 more posts and I can build a deck.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

If you're a "subscriber" you should receive a weekly email from MRH (usually Monday mornings at 6am PDT).
Here's a browser version: http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=571743ad1254f1d0593e8f68d&id=f71d2c98a4&e=3157ded715

There are links to the current issue, ads, some thematically-paired highlighted threads, and then at the bottom Joe F has links to some "Super MRH Reader Posts" and "Great Layout Journals, with Photos!".
Your Paper Mill thread got into the former.

Not sure if the "super" modifies the "reader" or the "posts", but I think in your case it's both 

It's a bit random what Joe chooses.
For example, this week's theme is "trees" and Joe chose a thread & video I made about making my oak trees about 3 years ago & haven't visited since.



The links at the bottom to "sooper threads" are usually about current projects/layouts.

Gotta say, I'm really digging your scene with the paper mill.
When clients say they want to include a large industry / paper mill, I send them to this thread of yours to they can get an idea of the size & quality of modeling possible.
He-Man: "By the power of N scale!"
Really enjoying how this scene is coming together.
Rock on!

[basementcalling]

If you're a "subscriber" you should receive a weekly email from MRH (usually Monday mornings at 6am PDT).
Here's a browser version: http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=571743ad1254f1d0593e8f68d&id=f71d2c98a4&e=3157ded715

There are links to the current issue, ads, some thematically-paired highlighted threads, and then at the bottom Joe F has links to some "Super MRH Reader Posts" and "Great Layout Journals, with Photos!".
Your Paper Mill thread got into the former.

Not sure if the "super" modifies the "reader" or the "posts", but I think in your case it's both 

It's a bit random what Joe chooses.
For example, this week's theme is "trees" and Joe chose a thread & video I made about making my oak trees about 3 years ago & haven't visited since.



The links at the bottom to "sooper threads" are usually about current projects/layouts.

Gotta say, I'm really digging your scene with the paper mill.
When clients say they want to include a large industry / paper mill, I send them to this thread of yours to they can get an idea of the size & quality of modeling possible.
He-Man: "By the power of N scale!"
Really enjoying how this scene is coming together.
Rock on!

Never scrolled down that far in my MRH emails. Damn.

M. C. call it even for all the ideas I get off your threads and videos.  That scene is going to be a cautionary tale in too much scenery, not enough trains. I really need to get some rolling stock moving soon or I may just start telling people I'm a paper mill modeler. Just the mill, please.

But I get two weeks off, including 3 weekends, starting Friday, so if I get 520 choice board assignments (Each kid picked 3 or 4 chosen ways to shown knowledge of the 3 branches of national government.) graded by Friday, my vacation is all mine. All mine. Course that assumes I don't get three or more T-Rexes dressed up as the President or a judge. One choice was to make a "Branchiosaurus" to show what powers that branch has. When that guy vetoes a bill, it's dead.

Hoping to get a lot done down stairs sammiched around a holiday visit to the folks place.

Not much happened tonight. Not enough sleep last night.

[basementcalling]

Let's hope this works and the stars and pictures align.

After a good night's sleep last night I was able to be productive tonight in the basement.  Judge for yourself.  As always feedback is welcome. I hustled down to the mill,  but there was no crew on duty. I think they were at lunch. I did catch a load of logs waiting to be spotted, sitting in front of the chip silos and new company green conveyor upgrade.

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A tanker awaits spotting on the by products spur. It will only hold two cars. I actually kind of like this shot, other than the border of the backdrop photo being easy to pick out. I'm not sure the tanks and piping on it are large enough, as the pulp tank in the background photo is noticeably smaller than the modeled one, even though I want to create the impression that they are quite near each other in reality.

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The lime hopper string awaits the insatiable appetite of the rotary kiln. A DOWX tank car sits awaiting loading with some substance,  probably hazardous. There will be a tank car unloading spot here somewhere, but I'm still working out the exact geometry. I may bite the bullet and use a Peco 9 inch radius turnout to get the alignment I want.

Guess I should have learned to roll my own as Robert3985 said. 

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I climbed a light pole to shoot over the string of center flows. From this vantage point,  the industrial sprawl seems endless, even on a beautiful afternoon.  My focus is slightly off with the camera phone, but I plead being more interested in not sliding down the pole. The track is temporary, and not prototypical, as I have not found any overhead shots of any proto mill where cars of any type are unloaded on tracks parallel to the rotary kilns, which are usually buried in the midst of a maize of pipes and tanks.


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Here's a zoomed out shot of the set up.  I need to weather a few of the cars,  and fix the too rusted look of the track weathering on the spurs, but a quick trip to Wal Mart yielded two cheap 11x14 enlargements I simple slipped behind the buildings to provide a bit of a change from the white haze the EPA is ready to fine Inland Empire over. I still can't edit pictures in a computer program worth a damn, but I can crop.

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I'm a big believer in the effectiveness of photo backdrops,  when done right. This one is a bit under scale,  not the height differences in the pulp tanks.  The plan is for the backdrop to appear as more of the mill complex immediately behind the modeled portion,  not off in the distance. I needed to test a few sight lines before permanently placing buildings to finish composing the scene.  A few of those 225 shots from my kayak back in July may just prove useful,  though I will not probably stitch the best of them into one continuous backdrop.  The mill buildings would block too much of what I paid for,  though the idea of a beautiful sky behind the four drinker building and boilers is tempting.

[Erik aka Ngineer]

I love the depth of the scenes there! There's so much to look at, a really amazing scene!

[basementcalling]

In a tricky spot. Rough weekend in the Idaho Belt shops. Bondene  spill forced HAZMAT clean up of workbench and melted beam braces and  welded together  2 towers for chip conveyors. Not happy.


The ! continued into non solvent issues. Tried to install micro switch turnout controls, but lack of proper brass wire and  electrical feeder wire stalled that. Who knew .032 brass was so rare? .032 music wire is nasty stuff! Not being able to operate is getting to me.

Did manage to get most of the by products refining and cracking facility completed. But it's slightly larger than anticipated, which is destroying planned location. Not sure it's plausible to have a spur right next to it anyway. So for now, it's buried here.

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At least the cracking tower  hides the joint between buildings and backdrop nicely.

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In other good news, Santa's elves in brown delivered a box of Shapeways good news!

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Wanting more specific feedback on what to do next. Thinking of switching to another scene, or refocusing on wiring and turnouts so something can run? Midlife mid layout crisis I guess. And again the world is tilted on its axis.

[chuck geiger]

The real deal +100

[GaryHinshaw]

I highly recommend getting some wiring in place soon so you can see how things run.  You may find aspects of the mill plan don't work as you expected and you might want to rejigger it.  Much easier to do now... and it's fun to run trains.

[basementcalling]

The real deal +100

Thanks, Chuck. Your trees and undergrowth look phenomenal in your thread. Wanna weed up a hillside for me?

[basementcalling]

I highly recommend getting some wiring in place soon so you can see how things run.  You may find aspects of the mill plan don't work as you expected and you might want to rejigger it.  Much easier to do now... and it's fun to run trains.

Gary, temporary power was connected last week thanks to a transformer and the uni track in the  loop. Problem is, until the Atlas turnouts have a method of control, operations are not really possible.  Always used Pecos before this layout, so installing under table motors or controls is new.

Really liking the looks of RC servos and touch toggles. The servos are small enough not to impact the deck below at all.

[basementcalling]

Once I started fooling around with a downloaded image from PaintShop.Railfan.net I couldn't stop.

Too Christmasish? I am not happy with the shade of green, but I am not going back to click in every gap in MS Paint to recolor the damn thing. There has to be an easier way to plan a paint scheme.

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I'll try some different combinations on a more modern engine. I want to keep it simple, like a short line would, but avoid looking too copied from anything real, yet realistic enough to be plausible.

I'm thinking black on the trucks, and perhaps handrails as well. Those would also be easier to deal with in N scale, as most undec engines come with black trucks and handrails.

[Scottl]

I'm terrible with color schemes...

Does the Idaho Belt have some history?  Maybe a parent railroad or another that they bought locomotives from?  That might give some possible paint schemes to work from.  Just a thought.