The Los Pinos and Toltec Smelter

[Santa Fe Guy]

Just tried to upload an image from yesterdays meet at Peters Los Pinos and Toltec RR. that would not upload.
So if you pop over to my blog (address below) and you will see some neat new stuff.
Rod.

[Peter S]

I work slowly on my layout. A lot of perspiration and a little bit of inspiration. The Los Pinos Smelter is reached by a series of trestle bridges. I like the idea of walking your train around with DCC (I use NCE which is perfect for my big paws.) So I like to have the scenery constantly changing. It's nice to see your scenery and thinking of something new as you drive your train around. This scenery features an old Trestle kit  the tall cliff is a large format mold from Bragdon Molds while the side molds are from my collection and that sharp angled mold at the front is again from Scenic Express. The trees are all made by hand using a wire turning tree jig and foams from Scenic Express. This scene begins with a cutting and ends with a tunnel, the train passes through this and comes out on the secondary bridge from the last photo.
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[Peter S]

I like the look of the Smelter and its always enjoyable to switch cars there. In some ways the layout is a monument to things past, which one of my friends has referred to as the "golden age of model railroading."
In this photo of the smelter area down from Raggs to Riches smelter kit, shows Shinohara track (just closed), and the wonderful scenery material by Noch. Thank goodness Scenery express is still around collating scenic materials from around the world. As to the Blackstone Equipment. Well my jury is out on that difficult one! The building behind is a scratchbuilt, freelanced copy of one of the Placerville storehouses.
I am still progressing slowly with a track extension into my workroom. When you start altering one small part, it seems to extend throughout the layout. I'll try to include some messy plasterwork next time I pass by.
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[Santa Fe Guy]

Nice pic Peter.
Rod.

[Peter S]

I seem to work at small sections at a time. Luckily I am able to blend them together. This is one of my favorite pics of the Smelter at "Los Pinos." It gets to be a busy place as most trains seem to stop there. I have been working on opposite sections of the layout and need to taker some more pics. Current tasks are a concrete road, then "planting" more grass with my faithful Grassmaster. They will fit nicely with my two warehouses from narrow Gauge Colorado. I have also made up a couple of buildings from Wild West Models.I swore I was never going to have towns.Now I have ended up with two of them. This pic (from my friend John Faye) is from 2013. How time flies! [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Santa Fe Guy]

2013 wow time is passing by.
Rod.

[Peter S]

On the other side of the Peninsula to Los Pinos is "Warren," a fictional series of scenes with the Ore Transfer Dept at one end and the "Warren Dude Ranch" smack in the middle. Touch wood, the two three way turnouts have been working well for 7 years despite having open heart surgery on more than one occasion. The Transfer Depot was a wonderful kit from the now lost Anvil Mountain Models. Apart from the two towns of Toltec (brick structures) and Porter I am trying to keep just scenery for the trains to pass through. At present I am working on Porter in just under 3 foot squares. Since I stupidly like to paint all my ties individually it takes time. Plus I have had some friends work on a new scenic divide as you enter the room. Now I am painting clouds.
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[Peter S]

Every day I try and get down to the layout. I don't always make it. Aft6er I have a running session there are always the corrections to be made: car cards, electrical, trackwork. But you have to be on your toes. Last week the layout could have burned down. a toggle switch that controls a Tortoise motor melted and smoked. Of course the problem was in the other side of the layout and took 48 hours to track down.A Tortoise motor. Other than than I have redesigned the entry to the laytout and with the very generous help of a friend he rebuilt the entrance and duckunder. So I had a building to go there. Built. Only it doesn't look right. Now I have to scratchbuild something new. I started today. This photo is at the other end of Los Pinos, the wild end with just trees, cows and a cabin. I think it looks good and follows along a friend's principle, More open space, less buildings.
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[Dave V]

Gorgeous work as always!

I'm not using Tortoises on my HOn3 layout for several reasons.  First is cost, second is laziness, and third (which I'll advertise as the only reason) is that I like the very manual experience of reaching in and throwing a turnout (given how manual the narrow gauge was).  That said, I know fingers reaching into scenicked spaces may be a recipe for havoc but I'm gonna give it a go anyway.

[Peter S]

I am lucky with Tortoise switch motors. I have acquired them over many years, plus I have had a number of friends who have retired their layouts, bought too many, or gone to servo motors. With my fat fingers trying to throw a switch would result in a few pieces of broken plastic! But it is slow work, each turnout has  5 wires plus the four going to the Tortoise. The smoking "gun" was a donated motor a few years in the making. Probably 20! I worked out the other day my Blackstone K27's have been running for 10 years in some cases. Some Tortoise motors would be 20 years old. Good luck with the hand throw idea. It's always worth a try.

[Peter S]

Work has been a little slow on the layout, but I am progressing on my next two foot something square of yard at "Porter." I have painted the ties and rail ready for ballasting, but I have been a new smelter to cover where the line from the hidden yard in my workshop joins up in the layout room. For me it was a luck photo in a google "find" sequence and I thought that this would just fit the spot. So over three weeks I scratchbuilt the smelter. It sits there fine, now I have a bit of plasterwork to do to build some mountains, then trees to "scape" the backdrop into the scene. This photo is at the other end of the Los Pinos scene. It's a wild area with just this house and some cows. There is alsoa couple of "beehive" plaster coke ovens in the scene, again sourced from books.
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[Peter S]

I have been fortunate to "acquire" a couple of nice lumps of coal. My favorite one is a "shard" of coal from a working coal mine that would be 12 to 15 inches in length. It has amazing detail and I never get tired of casting from it. I have castings of both ends and the middle and it takes a sandbox, plus 4 pours of plaster to get the mold completed. These shards form the basis of an imaginary butte of rocks in the middle of "Warren" on the opposite side of the middle island. This is a really green section of the layout. This photo shows one of these shards being cast. I used simple kitchen wipes and liquid latex to build up the casting. A lot of layers, a lot of rubber!
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[Peter S]

I really like the variety of scenic materials available and my scenic materials collection is fairly large. I also like tall and somewhat fat trees. Since I have a somewhat stupid idea of lots of trees, planted close together, "fat" trees help. I have a palette of some six to seven foam colours for the trees, 99% of which are "spun" by me, both in coarse and fine variety, Scenic Express gets a bit of business, plus the static grass and bushes from Noch and Heki and foam from Woodland Scenics all take time to apply. Even more time to put away after use.
Does anyone else get in a mess? I do. Easy to drag out, a challenge to put away.
I must admit this long scene (of which this is  far left of a 3 metre scene) is one of my favorite parts of my layout. I enjoy stopping a train here.

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[Jbub]

 
Amazing modeling!!!

[GaryHinshaw]

I enjoy stopping a train here.

I would too.  But I'd have to be careful not to drool on it.  Such beautiful work!