The Los Pinos and Toltec Smelter

[Peter S]

I had a question about the width of the aisles. The aisles sort of developed as the layout progressed, so the width between Los Pinos and Porter is 31 inches and the width between Toltec and Warren is 40 inches. It seems to be ok but you have to be polite if you want to pass at Porter.

[Hawghead]

I had a question about the width of the aisles. The aisles sort of developed as the layout progressed, so the width between Los Pinos and Porter is 31 inches and the width between Toltec and Warren is 40 inches. It seems to be ok but you have to be polite if you want to pass at Porter.

Thanks Peter,

With the perspective of the overhead picture, I was sure it was wider than it looked.

Scott

[Peter S]

I try for a couple of hours a day. But it's usually less. To prove I am indeed working on the railway I've included a sample of current work. Its a six foot piece of rock mold breaking up a scene into several; scenes plus providing a sound baffle. Its taken me a couple of carving. It has a lot to do to finish it off. I can't say it's scene specific but I wanted to compress a mountain into 12 feet. This is half of it. It's about 30 inches plus tall.
Plus I have turnout repair, scenery repair and that's before I can easily run trains.
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[Hawghead]

Holy Crips!  Thats awesome.  Can't wait to see it finished.  That's gotta be some heavy duty benchwork.

[Peter S]

Actually it's not that heavy as most of the castings are hollow. Quite a bit of the form is actually "wet" smaller castings placed on top of a shell of plaster cloth atop bird wire. Its pretty free standing in parts.

[Hawghead]

Peter,

Light weight or not, it is still very impressive and I'm sure it will be even more so once you get it finished.  Bravo!

Scott

[Peter S]

Work progresses slowly. I have been busy doing track repair, electrical repair, turnout repair, but I have completed placing tallus, touched up the backdrop and ballasted and cleaned the track and have tested the track for clearance. I'm doing some soil and then I'll work at grass with the grassmaster. I bought some of the new Woodlands scenic grass, so Ill see how that goes. So little time so much to do.
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[Hawghead]

Looking good Peter.  I'm curious to see how you blend the stone retaining wall into the rock faces.

Scott

[Chris333]

Oh man! Is that all plaster?

[Peter S]

Hey Scott
Yes I am curious too! Ive done it in another part of the layout painting each stone colour by colour. I think ill do the same thing here too. It's a bit time consuming. At the moment I'm making trees, I can do about 16 a day, I've been on nit for three days now and no light at the end of the tunnl, but I like that I am doing.

[Peter S]

For the past two weeks I have been making trees. And living. I tried to make about 16 a day. That was just over 3 hours. So I am updating those last bare photos. I think I made over 160 trees and while the scene is far from prototypical it does what I want. Break up the viewing area and gives the impression in a very short space of rugged remote mountains. Next is grass with my much loved Static grass maker. Then it will be bushes and shrubs and touch up. Then some more trees but of a variety. I have also been making a couple of buildings for the scene.
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[Santa Fe Guy]

Looking forward to seeing your work on Friday.
Rod.

[Peter S]

Work on the trees finally finished after two weeks. In two days I had completed the brush and grass work. I think I used about 18 different forms of scenic material. It was everywhere. Now I am standing back and adding details and working out that a K36 or K37 will just fit..if I scrape that corner. Not matter the measurements there is always a problem for me. It's my favorite thing to do. But apart from that I have been repairing a working layout, broken wires, shorts, wood warping, cleaning track etc. The colour here is not quite accurate, but it gives a general impression.
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[Santa Fe Guy]

Looks super Peter and even better in person.
Rod.

[Dave V]

One of my soapbox speeches is how much more vegetated Colorado really is than most people choose to model.  The ground in the high country is textured with any number of varieties of scrub brush, alpine grasses, lichens, scrub oaks, with very little exposed dirt.  I'm spoiled because I get to see it continually.

You've captured that exceptionally well!  Bravo!