Portola Valley RR

[Noah Lane]

I got the bridge, pier, and abutments all glued down. Of course, I still have to do add some gravel and foliage to make the abutments look more permanent. But it feels good to finally get this monkey off my back. I also started ballasting the track to the right of the truss bridge.

Next stop: rubber rocks and the creek canyon.

[DKS]

Looking really good.

About those rubber rocks... you don't need to feel obligated to use the largest pieces you can. You're off to a good start by cutting out the tunnel portal opening. Now you can trim it down with a scissors to a more appropriate size. I like to follow natural contours of the mold. I just use a scissors and start cutting. I also save every piece I remove; you can glue bits together with cyanoacrylate (Krazy Glue) to make larger chunks, or to replace bits you decided you didn't want to remove. To get the hang of it, start working on a smaller area, such as a bit cut out along the road, rather than attempt the largest and most visually-critical portion around the tunnel portal. I glue the bits in place on the foam with plain, cheap caulk, then blend the surrounding terrain in with Sculptamold. I'll post some pics of what I've done in a bit, after I track them down...

[DKS]

Here's an example of how I'd piece together an area without worrying much about covering it completely. I just glued the chunks in place, filled in around them with tinted Sculptamold, and then added vegetation, talus and other details.







Here's a chunk of rock that I pieced together very carefully to fit around a pair of tunnel portals. Each little part was shaped by cutting with a knife, then grinding with a sanding drum. The rubber rocks can be shaped with remarkable accuracy--which is good, because it was needed for these tight spaces on a Z scale layout. With care, you can even grind the faces of the rock to blend the seams--after painting and weathering, you can't tell.







Sometimes you get lucky and can cover a large area with just a few big pieces. This whole rock face was just three parts, two big ones and a little bit added on. The trick was to purchase several molds, then just keep playing around with the parts until they looked right. (It's not as expensive as it sounds, since they do sell smaller pieces.) You can see that once they're painted, it's hard to tell where they were joined.







This was another challenge because it was a critical part that also fit around two tunnel portals. It was assembled from many little bits and pieces.







Then I got really lucky, and covered an entire hill (save for the tunnel portals) with one big piece--

[Scottl]

Nice work, but that last image has some strange geological structure.  We'll invoke Ed's Law.

[DKS]

Nice work, but that last image has some strange geological structure.  We'll invoke Ed's Law.

Granted, there was some strangeness, but it was mostly hidden behind trees on the finished layout; it's there mostly just for "background texture."

[Noah Lane]

David- I can never thank you enough for the time you spend helping out.  It's been a bit since I thoroughly read your Rubber Rock entries on the JRB page. But the supplementary info you posted above was exactly what I needed.

Now I just gotta get to work on it.

Thanks again!

Noah

[Noah Lane]

I haven't gotten much done these past two weeks. I've ballasted a bit more to the right of the bridge. I have to finish the rock walls of the creek, abutments, etc before I can permanently install the two girder bridges and ballast than corner of the layout. 





And the wife bought me some new equipment for my bday, including this FVM Gevo. Pretty stoked about that 

[Philip H]

Noah,
Shots like this really convey your progress:



Well done!.  Now get a couple of videos at track side of those locos running the bridges and tunnels!

[Noah Lane]

I was hoping to have more done on this scene prior to posting about it, but I've just been busy and not getting much done on the layout.

It was tricky cutting up the rubber rock and reattaching it together with CA. Next I will add sculptamold to contour the top and bottom of the rock face. After that: more detailing, foliage, weathering, etc. The foam at the bottom of the rock face will support an additional rock face that will be 'terraced' out, and transition into the banks of the creek.

[Noah Lane]

Cutting up the pricey rubber rock is a bit nerve racking. I did my best to cut sections out that I thought would work for various sections.

I used CA to attach the sections surrounding the tunnel portal. And eventually the whole face that you see attached became one big piece -including the attached tunnel portal.



I then mixed up some sculptamold with grey pigment, and applied it from the back side of the rock face. This would help to fill in any tiny cracks. Even though I used more sculptamold than was probably necessary, it helped to give a bit more stiffness to the rock face.

[DKS]

I'm glad you found the courage to chop up the rubber rocks, because the results look great! Very nicely done.

[OldEastRR]

Are you planning on building a rock face on the opposite bank matching the one for the portal ? As in, steep and close to the water's edge?

[Noah Lane]

David- thanks! I couldn't have done it nearly as well without your tutorial.

OldEastRR- Yes, to an extent. The opposing hillside has some previously installed cast rocks that are similar in texture (see the older photo below). I hope those existing outcroppings will help transition the landscape out of the rocky little canyon. But toward the girder bridges, I plan to install more rubber rock creating a more geologically accurate creek cut situation. However, I don't expect it to be totally correct -just as visually pleasing as possible.

The layout is freelanced, but I'm roughly trying to model areas seen in the hills between Silicon Valley and Sonoma County. I've been referencing pictures of places like Little Yosemite in Sunol, CA. Seen here: http://openplac.es/trips/sunol-regional-wilderness-in-sunol-ca

This is the first real layout I have ever done -I got back into the hobby exactly one year ago. There are already many things I would have done differently. But I wanted the layout to be a tutorial for learning many different aspects of model railroading. So far I've been pretty successful with that objective (mostly thanks to you very helpful forum members). Although, it's tough to move forward at times because what I visualize for the layout is simply beyond my skill set.

That was my lengthy response 

And yes, I plan to enhance this initial base of ground cover..

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice job around the portal, it really looks like it was built in place.  I probably mentioned this before, but every time I see this pike, I keep thinking of these scenes along the Eel River a bit further north:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=162679&nseq=3
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=361406&nseq=1

[Noah Lane]

Gary- thanks man. I'll take the Eel River...  Really, it could be almost anywhere among the foothills of California.