The Average Eastern

[LIRR]

interesting idea, the foam spline. why did you go this route? ease of construction or lower cost vis-a-vis plywood?

[kelticsylk]

You sure don't let grass grow under your feet...

The advantages of retirement. I can spend 8 hours (or more) a day doing what I like, not what somebody else thinks I should be doing

Pay sucks, but the job sure is fun.

[kelticsylk]

interesting idea, the foam spline. why did you go this route? ease of construction or lower cost vis-a-vis plywood?

I had actually tried a few other ideas, including plywood. I also tried a wood spline, but the styrofoam costs about $15 a sheet and can be cut with a razor blade. A 4' x 8' sheet produces almost 200 linear feet of spline strips, that's about 0.07 cents a foot.

[glakedylan]

actually the cost is .075 dollars/foot or 7.5 cents a foot
just ribbing you!

Gary

[kelticsylk]

More Progress

Didn't want to post until I had some substantial progress to show. I've been working on the cardboard "matrix" that supports the scenery. I've been able to rough in quite a bit of the layouts terrain...

Average

The "hills" at Average are a bit taller than I had envisioned, but the higher elevation was required by the addition of the separate two track loop. One unexpected result; the additional height creates a view block between Average and the rest of the layout. Makes it seem larger without having to resort to the backdrops I want to avoid.

More serendipity. I had to buy a 4' x 8' slab of 2" thick foam for a home project. Part of the leftovers found a home in Owertown...

Owertown

Some of the terrain I've been working on includes creeks and other water courses...

Ower Road Bridge Over Tacannee Creek

Another chunk of that slab went to Alpha where the Average Eastern crosses West Llanerch Creek...

West Llanerch Creek Bridge

East of Alpha the AE follows Iriquois Creek to Lake Elsinore...

Iriquois Creek and Lake Elsinore

The railroad runs along the shore of the lake and crosses East Llanerch Creek on a combination stone arch and steel girder bridge before entering Quotidian...

Girder Bridge Under Constructon

I pasted a new drawing in place on the Quotidian slab. Although I don't currently have the turnouts constructed I still laid track at various industries...

Quotidian

Just east of Quotidian the AE travels over and parallel to the four track tunnel...

Four Track Tunnel

Before reaching East End the little line passes Carbon Point and runs above the two track tunnel...

Carbon Point

Two Track Tunnel

I haven't done much work to East End, but I have been building up the mountain where the two mainlines cross. The empty inside suggested a natural name for it...

Hollow Mountain at Average

In other news...Making the two Class 1 mainlines generic gives me the opportunity to model a variety of railroads. My locomotive roster includes two bare DL109 mechanisms. I was able to buy a set of these ALCo shells off E-Bay...

DL109 Shells

The goal is to paint two of them for the New Haven and run them on the two track...

Future New Haven Units

I would like to use the other shells to create models of a very rare ALCo freight unit. In 1945 the company built an A-B-A set of  demonstrators. Although officially designated DL-202 (A unit) and DL-203 (B unit) the set got nicknamed "Black Maria" because of the rather somber paint scheme...

Black Maria

The locomotive was tested on the D&H, the New Haven and the Bangor & Aroostook. Before the tests were finished, ALCo introduced the FA. The FA went into production in 1946. The three demonstrators were scrapped in 1947.

That's all for now.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[LIRR]

How will you maintain access to the tracks in the tunnels?

[kelticsylk]

The tunnels are open on the aisle side. I plan to have hinged drop down panels that match the fascia. Still working on the details.

On the four track I daylighted the tunnel that comes out of Average because I didn't want to build any "hatches" in the scenery...

Access inside Hollow Mountain is still under consideration. It is accessible from the Carbon Point side. At East End/Average I will probably go with another drop down in the facsia.

[kelticsylk]

Field Modifications

While doing a bit of organic design work on the layout scenery I came across some things I wanted to do another way. It's one thing to look at a scale drawing, it's quite another to work with the actual scenery. Case in point, Owertown. The town is huge, about twelve feet long and three feet across. It needed to be scaled back a bit...

Average Eastern April 28th, 2014

I dropped a block out of the middle and cut out a row of stores near city hall. The OTC trackage no longer runs down Railroad Avenue. That thorofare is gone leaving just Commerce and Market streets. Othir Street is gone and St Aloyisius ended up at the corner of Church and Market.

Wm H. Taylor & Co. has relocated from the east end of Quotidian. The plant is now across the tracks from Excelsior Machine in Owertown. Taylor & Co shares a spur with the OTC carbarn and powerhouse...

"New" Owertown

The two long tunnels on both Class 1 mainlines are now open. I had some sort of tunnels in mind with drop down panels for emergency access. Now I may just leave the trains visible. Spectators seem to like being able to actually see the trains even if it may not make sense from a protoypical point of view. Tunnel access in general is a concern so I daylighted the four track between Average and Quotidian. The scenery also affected the location of the Average depot. I moved it to the east end of town...

Daylighted

The river in that location ended up quite different from the original idea. The AE will now cross a wide "valley" on a bridge built from seven Atlas viaducts...

Split River

You can see the four track passing under the AE in the center of the picture. I plan to build another bridge at that location.

At Average Hollow Mountain is too close at hand and crowds the engine facilities. I wanted some intervening space so I consolidated...

Average "Reimagined"

Of course after all this work I had to play a bit. I staged some equipment at Average...

Average Yard and Engine Facilities

The Busy Pennsy Mainline

Still a great deal of work to do

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

The Bridges At Split River

Another eight hour day and more scenery roughed in. Most of it between Average and Owertown at what is now called Split River. There is an island in the center of the river so two bridges are required. A steel girder carries the AE over the west branch while a stone arch bridge crosses the east branch and the mudflats into Owertown...

Split River

The bridges are built from Atlas kits I've had for years, all of them recycled from the aborted Pennsy project. I'm guessing they could be better but right now they do the job.

The only thing I did that might be considered "special" was to stagger the deck joints on the arch bridge. This interlocks the spans and makes for a sturdier model. It won't be any stronger, just less prone to fall apart when I lift it out to paint and weather...

Staggered Joints

After the glue set on the arch assemblies I put it in place so I could get the proper height for the supports...

"Hanging" Bridge

I cut the supports to the proper height and glued them in place. While the glue set I went to work on the girder bridge. I had envisioned a curved bridge, but decided a straight bridge wold be better. Unfortunately, a big sweeping curve already exists in that area. I would have to realign the roadbed...

Realignment Necessary

With the stryrofoam spline this isn't as hard as it sounds. I just move the spline into it's new alignment. Once the roadbed lined up I used supports and abutments made from arch bridge parts and set the girder in place...

Girder Bridge

I installed the arch bridge back into place before roughing in more scenery...

Stone Arch Bridge

Installing the cardboard matrix for the terrain takes a while. Each strip is placed individually. I try to get the cardbord to lay naturally. I don't use stiff cardboard. I knead it with my hands to make it pliable. Thumbtacks and drywall screws hold it in place until the glue dries. To me the resulting framework looks like actual land forms. Once it's covered in the final shell it's pretty convincing...

Test Shell, Lake Elsinore

I rolled #11 out and staged a short AE freight crossing the Split River...

Crossing the Split River Into Owertown

Of course you have to take one of those low angle pictures...

#11 Pulls A Freight Over the Split River

It's funny, spending a full eight hours on your hobby is just as tiring as a real job. A lot more fun, but tiring.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

Today's progress doesn't look like much. I  reprinted out tiles for all the settled areas and spent more time trimming the edges..I then spent a few hours "re-papering" Average & Owertown...

Average

Owertown

The paper was necessary because the spline and other styrofoam covers the original. I like being able to see where everything is going.

The scenery work continues. Spent time on East End finishing up on that side of Hollow Mountain. Built out the aisle side of the cut that leads into the tunnel (two track). I roughed in the scenery the rest of the way along that aisle. I was swinging west around to Carbon Point when I realized I didn't like how things looked.

At one time in the northeastern US railroads were literally tripping over each other. The anthracite lines in particular crowded into every river valley they could find. As a result you would often find several railroads running parallel in the same valley. I'm not talking "parallel routes" as Conrail os NS or CSX would see it. I mean parallel tracks. The most blatant case I can think of is the Lehigh Valley and CNJ running on the same side of the Lehigh Gorge. What appeared to be a four track mainline was actually two separate railroads...

Penn Haven

In other places the two railroads ran on opposite side of the river while a third line crossed over both on a high bridge. I believe there are several points were this occured. The Lehigh & New England and the Lehigh & Hudson River were constantly crossing the other two. In other places, like Aldeen and Catasauqua, four or more railroads would cross at grade over or under each other. In Philly, where I grew up, the PRR, Reading and B&O ran parallel in many places, including the area around 30th Street station. Then there's that famous shot of the tri-level crossing in Richmond, Va...

Two Over One

My point is that the average eastern railroad was not alone. Competitors were everywhere and many times too close for comfort. So I decided that it would not be too farfetched for my Average Eastern to run side by side with the competition. Hence the abandonement of the tunnels on the Class 1 tracks and this bit of scenic trickery...

Floinge River

I updated the plan after the fact having actually roughed in said waterway between Carbon Point and East End...

Floinge East End Bridge

Floinge Carbon Point Bridge

Not only do I get an excuse to run two railroads parallel, I get to make two more bridges.

I'm getting ready to work on the areas I've passed over so far. Alpha, Carbon Point, and the powerhouse/colliery are prepped and waiting to be roughed in.

I made some small changes to the plan that may add some other scenic interest. In Owertown, Milliard Fillmore Elementary is now a high school. This creates all kinds of possibilities as the youth of America explore their surroundings in small town America. Across the street from Milliard Fillmore High is a corner soda shop where the kids hang after school. Later on the crowd moves to Rockettes for more fun and frivolity. If things go as usual the conversation will turn to cars and eventually the gang will head over to Rt 442 in Quotidian. Mix teenagers with a half mile of dead straight asphalt and anything can happen,,,

Elementary School & Rt 442

High School & Straat Rd (Rt 442)

Those were the days!

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

Another Day, Another Dollar

Not really, I don't get paid for "playing with trains". Oh that I could..

All the remaining "scenes" (or what ever MR calls them) have been styrofoamed and papered. From east to west...

Kern Medical Center

I made the medical center multi-level. For some reason I think hospitals in small cities are usually on a hill and made up of several wings. It seems that individual wings are on a different elevation from the others.

Like the other areas I'm showing the cement plant now has a styrofoam base...

Alpha

The other small buildings in Alpha will probably sit on the plaster shell. Actually they'll be IN the shell. As I did in Train Simulator models I plan to build these structures with foundations. I'll cut a hole in the shell and insert the building so that the foundation looks the proper height above ground.

I repapered the Rt 442 section of Quotidian thus giving the local motorheads some place to blow off steam...

Dragsters Paradise

Hot rods in the 50's were far different than the tuners running today. No drifting, just unadulterated horsepower and a lightweight body. The "coolness quotient" was increaseed by things like flat primer with white walls, baby moons etc. Most were pre-war with flat head V-8's or GM stovebolt inline sixes. Multiple carbs and open exhaust were more a rule than the exception. Every once in a while somebody got a hold of one of those overhead valve Olds engines but they were few and far between.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. The powerhouse, colliery facilities and Carbon Point are all supported by styrofoam platforms. At other locations the platform is glued directly to the deck. These elevated platforms are supported by the the spline itself...

Powerhouse

Colliery and Enginehouse

Carbon Point

Tomorrow these areas will be ready for trimming and look more like they're supposed to.

I also got to start on the scenery shell. I used paper towels soaked in thinned drywall compound. It's a bit messy, but most of it gets on your hands...

Lake Elsinore And Alpha

May The "Great Wreath" Watch Over Us All

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

[kelticsylk]

Experiments

Tried a couple or three ideas on scenery shell. The first was paper towels soaked in drywall compound. This works well enough provided the cardboard matrix is constructed properly. There really shouldn't be a lot of space between the cardboard strips or the towels will sag. The effect is far from realistic...

Saggy Scenery

With the proper support the shell looks pretty good..,.

Tighter Matrix

Which brings us to another experiment. To the right side of the roadbed in the image above I used paper towels. On the left the shell was created using strips of burlap. The paper towels won out for several reasons. First was price. Secondly, cutting burlap results in "fuzzy edges" that have to be covered with additional drywall compound. Third, while the burlap is stronger it makes no difference in the finished shell. Either material works.

Of course I couldn't stop there. My son-in-law is a contractor and suggested that concrete might create a harder shell. I dismissed the idea until I ran low on drywall compund. While procuring more I realized that concrete mix is five times cheaper than the premixed compound. Needless to say the next section of shell was done with the cheap stuff. Unfortunately a shortfall became evident real quick. Concrete doesn't soak into paper towels as readily as drywall mud. I ended up brushing a very thin mixture onto areas where paper towels had already been applied. The result is a rough textured terrain with a lot of character...

Alpha and "Hospital Hill"

I had mixed way too much concrete so I had to cover all the previously created shell. I like the appearance but I'm pretty sure I need to refine the process...

Hospital Hill, Owertown side

Owertown Road over  the Tacannee

Takannee Meets West Lanearch Creek

Llanearch Creek Bridges

Alpha

Iriquois Creek

Lake Elsiniore

Split River Gorge

The last image shows what had been hastily named "Floinge". I really didn't like the name. Then it occured to me that the Average Eastern would follow the Split as far as it could. Suddenly the Split River originated from somewhere east of Carbon Point. It created this gorge on its way west.

I'm now working on the matrix west of the Split towards Hollow Mountain. The mountain actually stretches along the "west" end of the layout ending at Clark Summit above the river...

Clark Summit

During operations it was discovered that it was quite hard to access a train under the mountain. Hence the installation of the "Gateway" arch...

[
Hollow Mountain and the "Gateway" Arch/center]

The other end of the tunnel turned into a set of bridges. I gave into the temptaion of the triple crossing claiming it was because of access concerns...

Triple Crossing

Still not exactly sure how I'm going to pull it off, but it does mean more bridges.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget
The Average Eastern Railroad

[MichaelWinicki]

LOL!

Some of that looks like the surface of the moon.

[Pomperaugrr]

It is going to be a challenge to "plant" trees in that concrete surface.  Although, a masonry bit would work to make the holes.

Eric

[kelticsylk]

LOL!

Some of that looks like the surface of the moon.

Good LOL?

It is going to be a challenge to "plant" trees in that concrete surface.  Although, a masonry bit would work to make the holes.

Eric

Hmmm Didn't occur to me.  I guess the trees need be mounted differently.
Eric