Oregon Joint Line N Scale

[Jbub]

Any more pictures of the scenery and aisle adjustment to fossil?

[coldriver]

Any more pictures of the scenery and aisle adjustment to fossil?

Have been trying to show some more photos, but I seem to be having extreme difficulty adding to my gallery.  My internet service is slow but not that slow and there's never any indication of what went wrong (the bar goes across, then there's just a big ole X on the photo indicating it didn't load).  Can't seem to attach photos to posts or add to galleries. Think I'll stick to my Facebook group for now. 

[Jbub]

Have been trying to show some more photos, but I seem to be having extreme difficulty adding to my gallery.  My internet service is slow but not that slow and there's never any indication of what went wrong (the bar goes across, then there's just a big ole X on the photo indicating it didn't load).  Can't seem to attach photos to posts or add to galleries. Think I'll stick to my Facebook group for now.

The file size might be too big for TRW. What's your Facebook group?

[coldriver]

Recently I've been frustrated by some of the scenes on the OJL which seemed like they could be a lot better if the shelves weren't so narrow.  The area between the south end of Fossil and O&NE crossing is at the end of a dead end aisle and I've noted that there's rarely a "people congestion" issue in this area at op sessions and theorized that a fair amount of aisle space could be sacrificed without affecting operator comfort.  In particular this seemed like a good area for layout expansion because you have the mainlines of the OJL and the O&NE squeezed into a 12 inch shelf with the river between them.  Here's the before picture with some mockup's of where I thought the aisle edges might be extended to.  Ultimately I went a lot farther than what this mockup shows. 



I removed the fascia and began extending the benchwork out into the aisle.  This shot gives a good idea of how much was added at South Fossil.  It was a bit of a challenge matching the colors and profile of the existing scenery, but I plunged ahead.  You can also see some mockups of various backdrop photos I was testing in this shot. 



And here's the results of that effort with the scenery mostly finished.  I'll be doing some more tree placement adjustments before it'll be finalized.


Here's a shot showing the mainlines of the Oregon Joint Line on the left with the Oregon & Northeastern logging line on the right, and the South Fork of the John Day River in between.  Yep, I need to clean the riverbed.


Here's a shot approaching O&NE Crossing.  The wide open mountain/desert/forest scenery of Eastern Oregon seems like a perfect prototype to me - there's not so much vegetation that's it blocks views of the tracks, but there's enough vegetation so that it's not a completely stark landscape, and of course there are always dramatic mountain backgrounds.  I'll probably add some more trees to this scene but with the additional layout space the scene begins to look huge!

[GaryHinshaw]

Very nice!  (Glad you sorted out the photo posting too.)  The backdrop blending in that last shot is excellent.

[coldriver]

I've been asked a few times about the ground cover I use.  From left to right, top to bottom, it's sage coarse turf, yellow grass coarse turf, burnt grass coarse turf, then burnt grass fine turf, yellow grass fine turf, and earth fine turf.  At the bottom is a static grass mixture of various shades of 2mm dead or dying grass, with a little 4mm mixed in for variety.  All this makes for some very ugly landscape, in keeping with the actual harsh environment of the area I'm modeling (no bright or cheery colors allowed!).  The process is to spread a diluted white glue mix over about a 9" x 9" area, then before it begins to dry it's a race to apply the three coarse turfs, then the static grass (using my homebuilt static grass applicator), then the three fine turfs. 

[LIRR]

great backdrops..

[nkalanaga]

The NP/WP combination looks familiar.  In the early 70s WP units were common in Pasco, both in silver and the newer dark green.  Trains would come up the Inside Gateway from California, then head up the Columbia to Pasco, with some very colorful consists.  NP, CB&Q, SP&S, two GN, BN, and the two WP schemes could be seen in every possible combination.

For a while, we also saw a few SP units, up from Portland, but I never heard the reason for those.

[coldriver]

Here's a new photo angle made possible by my scenery expansion project at Picture Gorge (in the distance).  This is the Oregon & Northeastern "Logger" leaving Canyon Reload with a train of logs for the mill complex at Scanlon. 

[GaryHinshaw]

You have such a knack for modelling the essence of a scene.

[Cajonpassfan]

This!
+1
Otto

[CRL]

Love the debris on the ground from the logging.

[LIRR]

That’s a nice pic...well done

[MK]

Oh my!      

[coldriver]

You have such a knack for modelling the essence of a scene.

thanks Gary and others.  My artistic talents are certainly limited but I've spent enough of my life within view of railroad tracks that I have a pretty good sense of how things are supposed to look.