CSX Cumberland Division

[Bob]

THanks John!  Our daughter visited home recently and remarked that I hadn't gotten anything done, meaning that the scenicked portion of the layout has been the same for about two years, though I do have a bunch of HF buildings!  When you walk into the layout room the first thing you see if the North Mountain to Cherry Run section, so if I get this done (it is mostly forest and fields) I think the whole room will look better and I will feel more energized.  As you said, sometimes you just have to make progress!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I've had a similar situation on my new NCR. It's why I took a break from York to work on my temporary return section. It's just nice to make obvious progress on something!

[Bob]

You are so right Ed and John - sometimes you just need to tackle something that gives you obvious progress!

[Bob]

Progress on the CSX Cumberland Division has been slow - we have a new second home in Mays Landing NJ that we like very much and are often there on weekends, which means little modeling gets done.  But, we might retire there, and I've engaged Lance Mindheim to see how the layout might fit in the new (and very nice) but differently shaped basement.  I hope the mainline run can be lengthened, and I certainly need more staging tracks.  I've read for years that you can never have enough staging tracks - you would think I would have paid attention.

In any event, I have grown tired of making buildings so it is back to scenery.  After the CSX leaves Martinsburg WV it heads north and wraps around North Mountain before reaching Cherry Run, WV.  On the layout that is an area where the mainline is very close to the backdrop, so I could use a nice rock-face at this location.  Fortunately, there is a decent sized rock-cut shortly before Cherry Run (well, a a few miles I suppose), so I am going to model this.  I have not done much rock modeling, but if I am ever going to tackle Maryland Heights I better get some practice.  So, I've been making some plastic rocks and I have bag full of rock chips and small pebbles from the actual site in WV - this will help with color-matching and I will see if I can work in some of the real rocks. 

I've always been impressed with how Ed Kapuscinski has created great looking winter forest scenes.  I am not that brave so am modeling summer and so have the advantage of leaf-cover, but I am giving some of his techniques a try - thanks to Ed for posting various 'how-to' posts and for answering my direct questions.

Step 1 is just roughing the styrofoam.  I used a little reciprocal cutter that was recommended by Gary Hinshaw to shape the wedding cake, then a Sure-Form tool to smooth things out, thought this leaves a rough surface. The panel on the left is taken from the vantage point of Person Yard, which is north of Martinsburg.  The turnout leads to the Low Line at CUMBO.  North Mountain rises on the left. The image on the right is simply from the other side, looking back towards CUMBO.

Ed then puts on light weight spackle.  Hey Ed - how do you get this smooth?  I had all kinds of putty knife lines so I took it outside and sanded it a bit. In the right image, you can see where the tracks are really close to the back drop - this is where the rock cut will be.

[Bob]

In the next step, you just paint everything brown.  That was easy enough!

Ed then puts on a layer of un-sanded grout.  Following his advice, I mixed together some brown and charcoal colored grout.  This positively looks better than just the painted surface so I think I will doing this from now on.

Next up is a layer of leaf-litter and ground foam and the like.  Now, this is going to be a heavily forested area so much of this will be covered.  But, this gave me good practice - I will make some slight adjustments next time I do this and will have a thicker layer, but with all the trees I will be adding I simply don't have to be as detail-oriented as Ed since his winter scenes lack leaf cover - my imperfections will be hidden, but this was a great opportunity to practice.  Next up will be planting trees, brush and grasses, and then after that I will try to do some rocks.  I also messed up the styrofoam on the other side of the tracks - for some reason I have this narrow ribbon of higher styrofoam along the tracks that looks ridiculous.  So, I need to fix this!

[Bob]

Spent some time planting trees - just when you think you have made a good number of trees, you re-discover that they don't cover nearly as much ground as you think they will! Since the layout may be moving to a new house I am not doing to really attach the styrofoam scenery blocks - when I do, that is when I will do alot of work at the edge of the track to blend things in.

[mdltrn]

This scene is coming together nicely. How tall are those trees? They look great.

[Bob]

Thanks!  The trees in the back or 5 to 6 inches tall, so 67 to 80 feet tall.  I plant shorter ones closer to the tracks and the progressively higher ones as they get closer to the backdrop.  I'll need to plant a bunch of brush and weeds and add gravel and what-not close to the tracks,, but that last step won't happen for a while.  I now need to sit down and make many more trees!

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice to see your progress!  Great colour and texture variation on that stand of trees, especially the inclusion of a few dead ones.

[Bob]

Thanks Gary!  I am happily using your technique to shape the styrofoam.  Bob

[wm3798]

Cherry Run is about a half hour from my house, and the Cacapon River is right down at the end of my driveway (same bat-water, same bat-mud shale!)  Let me know if you need another pound of rocks! (or reference photos!)

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ed then puts on light weight spackle.  Hey Ed - how do you get this smooth?  I had all kinds of putty knife lines so I took it outside and sanded it a bit.

The exact same way you did. Although I often use a drywall sanding screen: https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-4-3-16-in-x-11-1-4-in-120-Grit-Medium-Drywall-Sanding-Screens-2-Pack-9090P-CC/100125277

And I don't take it outside. I just vacuum up the dust and wipe it down with a damp paper towel.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Also, the finished product is looking great!

[Bob]

I've completed the forest on the first Styrofoam section prepared using the Ed Kapuscinski ground cover technique and have put ground cover on a second section that is now ready for tree and bush planting.  The second attempt at Ed's ground cover technique went better than the first, though in the second photo you can see a 'seam' between two pieces of Styrofoam.  This will be covered by trees, so I am not going to worry about it, but boy do I need a lot of trees!  Since the layout may migrate in the next few years to our new home Mays Landing, I am not going to meld the Styrofoam blocks to the roadbed or seal seams between sections - I need to easily remove the scenery sections to transport them.  Before much longer I will post a floor plan of the new basement and a possible layout configuration to get some feedback.
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[Ed Kapuscinski]

That basic terrain looks great!

You need taller bigger trees though. The upside to this, though is that you need fewer of em.