The Western Maryland in Free-moN Modules

[PiperguyUMD]

Not much to report. Gathering up some materials to get started on the Long Run module.



In the meantime, I ran a test print of an H9 boiler in the photo. This is a revised version of the one I printed through shapeways. Despite the blowout on the fireman's side, I'm pretty optimistic about this one. In fact, I think it holds its own against the 5-6 year old shell from shapeways (last pic)! Got round two cooking today.






Really pleased with the smoke box front, and what was about to happen on the air pumps had the failure not occurred. Even got some free standing piping along the firebox!







Shapeways original:

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not much to report. Gathering up some materials to get started on the Long Run module.

Ooh, I spy my secret weapon.

[Jbub]

Ooh, I spy my secret weapon.

My mind goes to modeling clay for roads and unsanded grout for ballast. I guess it wouldn't be so secret if it was that obvious though.

[PiperguyUMD]

Finally made some progress on Long Run! Basic land forms and fascia. I've been studying up on modeling rivers and am anxious to get started on that part of the project!





Feeling pretty good about the balance of this shot. I wish I could get the house a little further away from the tracks. I have another company house kit, and I may leave the lean-too off the back of the next one so I can move the house further back.



So one of the scenery goodies I ordered way back when was this course soil/stone mix. As it came, it was a little underwhelming



However, after washing, this looks perfect for the river bottom! All of the YouTubes that I've watched have several steps for staining/tinting the river bed, but the color of this stone mixture is exactly what I'm looking for. Hopefully I can figure out a way to maintain the appearance of the river rock under the resin. I think I'll happily be able skip my stash of rock castings on this one!



While the sculptamold was drying, I started plumbing my H9s. I'm gonna need so many Bachmann connies!

[PiperguyUMD]

Big update! Finally some solid progress on Long Run this week! I'm taking a little bit of a different approach on this one because I want to have the river as close to finished as possible before I set the bridge in place and lay the track. This means that much of the scenery will be in place before the track is laid. First up is ground cover. I departed from the grout mixture used on the previous two modules and used some of the soil that came in the last batch of scenery goodies. I'm pretty happy with the color here. It seems pretty close to the grout which is nice for continuity.



Next I turned my attention to the river beds. I had thought about trying to model where the clean and clear Long Run flowed into the red/orange mine polluted Black Fork, but I'm a little gun-shy about pouring resin and trying to achieve said effect on the first try. So in my version of 1952-1954 the Black Fork is still pristine mountain trout water! For the rocky river bed  I used the cleaned course talus mentioned in the last update. I was really happy with the coloration and felt like the intermediate steps of casting/staining plaster rocks were not needed. I also planted the bridge abutments.





While all that was drying, I painted the bridge and set about planting static grass and underbrush using Ed's secret weapon. Trees are still a ways off, as my stash is pretty depleted after finishing Jack's Mountain.



I made a quick mock up of the tool shed to help get a sense of the scene. With that in place, I wasn't happy with its location or the slope down to the creek bank, so quick revisions were made.





With the bridge temporarily set in place, I could really start to get a feel for the scene. Thanks to Lee for posting this pic few pages back, it has been really helpful.

I think I'm starting to capture a lot of that vibe - I could even leave the track out and have a Chessie module 



This morning I channeled my inner Luke Towan and did the first pour on the smaller section of river bed. I'm hoping to have the "water" be flush with the fascia so I covered the fascia and some masonite scraps with packing tape, made a seal with silicone caulk, and clamped a temporary dam in place.





So far so good - no leaks! I'll come back tomorrow and try the matte gloss/airbrush trick to add ripples. I'm really pleased with the stream bed, I hope for the same results on the main channel!



So here's how it sits at the end of the day. If all goes well removing the dam from the first pour, I'll set everything up to do the main channel tomorrow evening.



Hopefully track will follow shortly after. The fourth corner module will be Owing Mills, I'd like to lay the track on these modules at the same time to ensure that my loop lines up. If anyone has any shots of the coal trestle behind the station that would be really helpful.



Feels good to make some progress!

[PiperguyUMD]

Another big week on Long Run!

First I removed the form on the smaller section of the Black Fork River. I turned out ok, but some of the caulk I used to seal the forms bled into the river bed. I think its salvageable.



Next I prepped the fascia for the resin pour where Long Run flows into the Black Fork. I put down a layer of packing tape, then a bead of silicone caulk making sure to keep it well away from the river bed. The dam was made by wrapping two off-cuts from the fascia with packing tape and clamping them to the module. Fortunately one of these had the same angle as the corner of the module, making for a clean line.





While the resin was setting, I used gloss matte and the airbrush to make ripples on the smaller pour.



Fast forward 24 hours, pulled the forms off of Long Run for the surprise of my modeling career - a perfect pour flush with the edge of the fascia!





Same on the upstream side!!



Gave this section the same ripple treatment as before, and once that was dry, I set the bridge in place and laid track on the module. Did some ballasting and applied more static grass. Also cleaned up where the resin creeped up the riverbank. Still need several details before moving on. The company house had a garden in my reference photo from the early 50s, so I'll be including this, but in its late fall form. Also need to figure out the best way to model the wire (I'm assuming barbed??) fence around the house and garden. There were also telephone poles along the right of way, and I'll be including those too, possibly with wire.

Finally, I couldn't resist trying to recreate my reference photo!

[CRL]

With a pour that clear, you should have had some rainbow trout lurking in the riverbed.

[PiperguyUMD]

With a pour that clear, you should have had some rainbow trout lurking in the riverbed.

I thought about it after the fact  I feel really good about this one because I find myself scouting the fishing holes! I think I need add a fisherman to the scene!

[amato1969]

Well played with the water pours!  And I love your late summer/early fall tree colors.

  Frank

[PiperguyUMD]

Another great week in the garage! With the Covid schedule, all of my college teaching is wrapping up this week so I'm looking forward to more progress moving into the holidays. Though the formatting deadline for my dissertation is in February so I need to make sure I don't spend ALL my time working on the railroad.

Per my post in the weekend update, I'm finally able to JFRTM! I did enough work on the Owing Mills module to get track down. I did have to compromise on the track plan here just a bit, as there was a switch just behind the station for the original mainline to continue through town. I want to avoid trying to do too much in the space I have so that turnout was axed. It should have no effect on the photos that I'm trying to recreate, and it will allow me to actually be able to spot hoppers on the coal trestle behind the station. At any rate, here's how Owing Mills sits:



Rough landscaping is done on the front of the module. If anyone has any photos of this spot they would be immensely helpful. We usually spend Christmas in Lancaster County, PA, so I make take a day to sneak off and do some recon.





Space will only allow for part of the coal trestle to be included, and will go in this little notch next to the faceplate. I have an idea to hide the backside of the faceplate with some trees, hopefully that will work. The overall spacing is a little tight, but according to google maps, all of these things were within 50' of the station, which works about to about 3.5" in N scale.



One of the things that I've been putting off for a considerable time now is building some kind of DCC in a box. I would like to get all of this stuff in one place with all the appropriate short protection etc. so that all I have to do is plug in my modules/bench track/laptop/Christmas tree train and go to work. I accidentally caused a momentary short today and feared for my sound decoder's lives! Gonna have to move this one up on the priority list now!



Lots of odds and ends on Long Run. The most noticeable, I think, was getting the fascia painted. I love the way flat black looks with the fall colors, but it is a pain to keep clean! Also painted the PCB ties at the ends of the module and added guard rails to the bridge.



I was able to paint over the caulk the was stuck in the resin, salvaging the Black Fork side of the module.



Two BL2s cancels out the ugly right? 



In my reference photo, the company house has a garden so I started work on that using some sculptamold colored with cheap acrylic paints. Once it sets, I'll go back and add some darker soil here. Since I'm modeling late fall, that's all it will get. It would be cool to have a bushel of dried corn stalks, but that's a detail I can add down the road.



While that was drying, I was able to prune a few more trees out of the leftovers in my last box of SuperTrees. I don't want to add too many trees to Long Run, as I want to try to keep prime photo shots open, but I do want to add enough to get the feel of WV. These will be supplemented with some conifers once I get around to making them.



Finally planted a few trees and managed to catch a freight that had just fought its way up the Black Fork Grade before calling it a day! I can't wait to get my 2-8-0's done and into this scene!

[CRL]

@PiperguyUMD said: Two BL2s cancels out the ugly right?

Not if they’re facing each other... it makes ugly additive, turning it into a two-bagger**




**Two-bagger is where you wear a bag over your head in case the bag falls off your partners head.

[garethashenden]

Looking great! Especially the water. Which product did you use? I may have missed it, but I don't see it mentioned.

[PiperguyUMD]

Looking great! Especially the water. Which product did you use? I may have missed it, but I don't see it mentioned.

I used some stuff I found on amazon. I did not try to color it at all. Time will tell if it actually won't yellow, but even if it does, it would probably look more accurate for the mine runoff.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08233BV5W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[PiperguyUMD]

@CRL Better? 

[wm3798]

Why does anyone model anything other than the Western Maryland?  I just don't get it!
Lee