Changes to the "Santa Fe Room" layout

[arbomambo]

ello all,
I've been MIA from posts and comments in the last 4 months...precious little modelling time at all; a new job and home projects have taken any spare time....however a little progress has been achieved in the area of the 'Santa Fe room' layout AND layout room itself...along with a tiny bit of progress in modelling the ATSF's "Fast Mail" (I've gathered some more fodder for projects in this build...so much so, that I should be able to represent almost any consist No. 7 and No. 8 would have seen duiring the year 1957, with very few exceptions (a couple of foreigh roan cars and ATSF rebuilt wood side reefers).
 As for the Santa Fe Room and layout- I've made a few changes in the original trackplan and set up....driven by a change in furniture for this spare bedroom turned 'office/train room'.
I acquired a brand new queen size bed, office desk and hutch, and a nice chest of drawers...and, even though these were not the furniture pieces I had planned on putting in this room, I decided, after a little thought, that I could make them 'fit' (I WILL replace the headboard of the queen bed with a more rustic 'southwest style' version, and the desk and hutch will get a 'distressed' turquoise paint finish...
 The chest of drawers actually became the most welcome piece...it will now be the foundation for the layout!...I will have to add framing to the top of the chest (raise it one foot)...the layout will simply lay on top of this raised framing. This will give the layout a very sturdy platform, provide storage underneath, AND will allow the layout to be moved quite easily.
 I will still add the Southwest fabric curtains around the layout, hiding the chest of drawers.
This still gives me a very nice office/train room, AND doubles asa full guest room with a double bed!
One of my train buddies in Austin has already called 'dibs' on this room whenever he and his fiancee visit from time to time (he calls it the 'Turquoise Room'!)
 Along with the change in furniture and layout base came a change in the basic trackplan....
The inspiration for the change goes back to my original idea for this door layout-having a double track plan featuring the Santa Fe in the desert Southwest, but modelling (on the most visible side) a section where the east/west lines seperated from each other to provide the best grade for each respective direction. I certainly had the room to allow this- remember I had added 4-6 inches on three sides of the door to allow more scenery- but this extra room was taken by my representation of route 66 skirting the outside of the track plan. I really wanted to have two trains travelling the same 'route' but on different levels.
 One area, in particular, on the Santa Fe where this feature is showcased well, is Kingman Canyon; my original inspiration.
So, a little foam digging and cutting later, and some careful fitting of Kato Unitrack to 'rough out' the track plan, and Voila!
 The 'lower' track descend from parallel trackage on the far side of the layout, will cross the arroyo on a series of bridges-Truss and plate girder-, then ascend back up around the curve to the far side.
I've set Kato track (minus the bridges) in palace, wired them, and ran trains around these curves to troubleshoot any problems that any of my equipment might have on the inner radius (15 inches with easements everywhere). All of my long passenger equipment, and more importantly, my 'Fast Mail' heavyweight equipment with body mount couplers and brass step ladders (which restrict the 6 axle truck swing).
I like the changes...I still have a double track mainline, but now with a little extra viewing excitement...I'll still model a bit of route 66 on the front end corners, but the truss and plate girder bridges will now feature trains!
Respectfully,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

[chessie system fan]

Well that's an excellent beginning!  I seem to recall in another thread you said you were in Mobile, AL.  If that's so, I'm probably not too far away from you.

[arbomambo]

Aaron, I'm in Daphne, on the Eastern Shore...
Where are you?
Bruce

[chessie system fan]

I'm not far away from the University of South Alabama.

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
because of the shift in locale and theme of my little HCD layout, I have the opportunity to model some really neat scenes on both sides of the layout...in fact, the other side will have as much, if not more scenic interest as the other side does...
I'm going to represent the area around Holy Moses wash in Kingman Canyon on the other side..actually a combination of various scenes...again, the object being to 'represent' the trackage and feel of the area...even with selective compression, I don't feel I could model the area prototypically withing the space I have, so I've determined to model a Kingman Canyon-like scene!

Here is some of the rough landscaping I've done on this side-as you can see, the tracks here are more widely seperated...the upper track will have a couple of deck girder bridges in the area where I've cut a 'gap'....the lower track will have a ballasted deck timber trestle in the area of straight track...a slight wash area will be cut into the foam once the area is more defined, the terrain will be refined with celluclay/sculptamold, along with rock outcroppings built and carved from foam.
Kind of a combination of this





and this....



The lower trestle will be a timber version.
and a large central ridge will still divide the two sides, the geology will just represent this area rather than the previous area I had test built.

Here are some pics of the landscaping in progress...








the other side, the side originally concieved with a route 66-style highway in the foreground is being re-done to better represent more of this area...a couple of small timber trestles will now ford the original wash/depressions; the lower track now crossing the lower valley area on an elevated/'causeway' style roadbed that is prevalent in the canyon...






continued...

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
With the storm approaching..very little time to work on the layout and model...and...knowing I'll get to the layout scenery only here and there...I decided to just give the layout as it sits now a little 'pick-me-up' in the way of color...
even thought he rough contours below the higher level track are in, I decided to go ahead and cover the pink and blue with my diluted generic 'earth' color flat latex paint...too dark for Kingman Canyon, but it gets rid of the unnatural foam color and allows me to visualize better how I want to mold and carve the large central divider to represent the topography in this canyon.
posing my sample 'New Mexico' foam practice carving in the center helps me visiualize what I need to do...
Of course, none of this color will  remain...more carving, sculptamold and celluclay, PLENTY of rocks and boulders will eventually cover all of this, but the improvement in appearance is incredible...I even painted a piece of foam black to represent the deck girder bridges that will be in place.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

Hello all,
with the changes to the layout (changing the area modelled to a 'Kingman Canyon-style area...), comes the realization, that to produce the area on one side that features a deck girder bridges on the upper level and a ballasted deck timber trestle on the lower, I would be modelling a wash area, between ridges...I wouldn't be able to carry a ridge along the entire length of this side of the layout to act as the scenic divider as I had originally intended to do (the other side will still feature a ridge along the entire length).
 So  a backdrop became necessary in order to model the srea between ridges.I decided on an 18" height and 4' length. the ends will be 'hidden', or better decribed as blended, into the rising peaks that form this canyon, only exposing the middle 1-1/2 to 2' of the backdrop on this side. blue sky and distant desert peaks will be the scenery painted onto the backdrop on the 'wash' side, and only blue sky on the other (only an average of an inch or two will be exposed above the rocky scenery on the other side.

something very similar to this background:



I cut two 4' x 18" pieces of masonite then quickly screwed and glued them to a frame contructed with 1 x4 pieces of pine...I want some rigidity and also leave some hollow areas for mounting potable lighting fixtures for photographic purposes...





I'll sand to a better finish after I carve the foam from the srea, on the layout, where the backdrop will be mounted; I'll finish and paint the backdrop down in the garage before mounting it on the layout...

and of course, Casey had to be present while I was busy in the garage!



thanks for looking!
Bruce

[arbomambo]

Making changes in foam is a pretty simple deal...I simply cut a slot where I'm going to install the backdrop/divider....then dropped it in.
Now that I know it all 'fits' I'll take it back down to the garage, fill and clean up the edges, then start the painting process.

Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I really like what you're doing. Keep up the progress!

[Bsklarski]

Thats awesome!. Reminds me of the MR Salt lake route. Deep down I still want to build it!

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
after looking at the new backdrop/divider...I decided to drop the height a little, approximately 3-1/2 inches...
The track height is going to be around 50+ inches, so 'needing' the extra height isn't really a consideration; what colored my decision to drop the height was the height of the rock formations that I want to build...
On this side of the layout, the canyon widens a bit (the viewpoint is from Route 66 across the canyon), so the wash is an area where the formations will start in a pretty steady slope; about 45 degrees will do it here...steeper than the 30 degree slope that I'd really like if I had more length. So I can't build the formations too high right here. I'll have them gain height as they wrap around the ends and maintain a higher elevation on the other side to better model an area where the canyon narrows.
Absolutely true that the 'Salt Lake Route' is an inspiration...the only difference bing that I really didn't want to model 'seperate' scenes on either side of the divider; rather, I wanted to create more of a peninsula style situation where the canyon wraps around in an outside curve.





I use the styofoam piece of 'New Mexico' mesa-butte that I constructed to help me visualize the height of canyon wall that is pleasing to the eye.Since changing the locale of the layout, this photo prop-test piece really looks out of place for Kingman Canyon..the colors being waaay off, as well as the juniper/shrub.



and a look at the other side of the layout (funny that this side was the 'original' 'main' side when I first started this layout....there was a hwy and a hwy truss bridge slated to be in the foreground!)



as always, thanks for looking,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

I'm now going to use a little 'Quentin Tarentino'-style storyboard plot liscence to bring folks, on this forum, up to speed on the evolution of this layout...which started about 7-8 months ago as a 'New Mexico' themed HCD layout...I'm going to let pictures tell the story, with just a little narration as the layout has evolved significantly, both in size and locale...
Originally a standard 36"x80" hollow core door...I quickly added extensions on one long end and one narrow end to allow broader radius curves..then another extension on the other long end...then a change of trackplan and locale (Kingman Canyon being the inspiration...modelling an area where the double track mainline seperates,  in two planes..y and z axes)

so....
















...continued

[arbomambo]

...continued

[arbomambo]

It was at this point...
after viewing all that space in the foreground...with a route 66-style hwy in the foreground instead of another track, that I decided to alter the design and locale...BEFORE I started really defining the scenery forms!

Thanks for looking,
Bruce