In December 2000,
I tunneled through the wall and made two tunnels going into the next room. I
used 4-inch shelves around the room and put a tunnel through to the closet.
Inside the closet is a loop where I will be doing a mountain and a lumber mill
with a small town. The canyon is only Styrofoam right now. There are 6
different bridges in Rock Canyon, 4 are different and two are the same
except one is black and the other is silver. One bridge is scratch-built. Two
bridges are curved. The completion of the expansion gave my layout about 4 (N scale) miles of running track.-
The track going across the window pulls out for the purpose of window cleaning
or maintenance on windows, etc. The loop inside the closet will be mostly
inside a mountain with open access underneath the track. The 2
outside walls are not going to have any background behind them. This is my
wife's room and the guest bedroom. The only detail I will have is Rock Canyon
and the mill in the closet. The track is ballasted and ground detail is in place.
But that is it...
UPDATES
January 30, 2001.
I started plastering and painting part of the canyon... It is starting to look
really good.
March 1, 2001. Enlarged closet -
March 15, 2001. Hung shelves
along the outside walls and board in the closet. - Started laying roadbed and track - The first train to run was on March 24, 2001 - 46 feet of mainline track was laid
not counting Rock Canyon. That is just over a mile in N-scale.
April 20, 2001. Ballast most of the track along the two walls with windows. I also ran my Santa Fe Super Chief
passenger train with no problems for over an hour. But still have some problems
with smaller cars and engines. Bugs are being worked out.
July-August 2001. Redid loop in
closet and made passing siding longer and added a logging mill. I purchased the
logging mill on eBay, only a single building. I will be adding the sawdust
burner, a small engine house, a power plant, a conveyer, and a logging camp in the
near future.
November 2001. Worked on
turn-outs, got the bugs outs, and ran both my passenger train and my 2 new Atlas
engines pulling about 28 cars with no problems... Things are looking up...
March 2002.
Scratch built 2 more bridges. One curve girder bridge and one steel frame
bridge. Added more Styrofoam and a little tunnel in the canyon. Almost ready to
plaster and do some more painting. Painted a little country church and detailed
it for the logging town.
March 2002. Building a sawdust
burner from Master Creations. made a catwalk around the top of it from scratch.
Scratch built two logging trailers and put together two semi-trucks. Purchased
3 flatbeds cars to put lumber loads on from the lumber mill. I built a metal
storage shed, kit-bashed a brick power plant from Kestrel Designs, also kit-bashed/scratch-built a one-stall engine house. Some of the
parts are from a roundhouse kit I got from eBay.
May 2002. Put a white fascia
board on the canyon area. Started plastering more of the canyon area.
October 2003. Plastered most of the mountain in the closet, painted rock, laying dirt and underbrush. Started
making aspen trees. 2 tunnels are done.
August 2004. Bought a crane off eBay
and modified it for my logging yard.
August 2005. I purchased the
background for the canyon. I bought it from BackGround
Warehouse
January 2007. Started back plastering and doing rock and groundwork on Rock
Canyon.
Spring 2008. Did more rock and
plastering for Rock Canyon. I received the background to fit it in place. Redid the track as was having track problems. All works great now.
December
2009. I did a little more work on the canyon. Put more plaster on the mountains, and I finally added my background.
January-February 2010. Most of
the plastering is done. I have been painting the mountains and rocks. I found a
picture I could put on the right side of the canyon so it does not just run
into the wall. I then blended the colors to match the picture. Added a few
small trees on top of the hills. It is starting to look good.
May-July
2011. I pulled up the track from the canyon and started working on the mountains and
hills behind the track/river. I have it all done and detailed with trees. All
of the canyon is plastered and painted. The river will be next.
August-September 2011. The river is
done. I used Woodland Scenics Realistic Water and Water Effects. I put about 4
layers of Realistic Water in the river. My 5th layer I tinted it blue with blue
food coloring. While the top layer was drying I tapped with a hard bristle
brush to make ripples in the river to make it look like it is flowing. I then
took the Water Effect and mixed it with white paint and added white caps around
rocks and curves and at the bottom of the waterfalls. I also made the waterfall out of the Water Effects. I laid the track back down and ran my trains for
the first time in months.
September 2011. The track is all ballast
in the canyon, Planting lots of trees along the river, and the viewing side of
the layout. I have just a little bit more to go and some fine details and the
canyon will be done
January
2012. Finally mounted and installed a Horse Head Oil Pump Jack my friend Tom
bought me a few years ago for Christmas. The Pump Jack actually works. The Pump
Jack is made by Walthers Cornerstone. I
also had to fix a section of track inside my tunnel which was making 3-wheel
trucks on my PA lift off the track. Instead of cutting a hole into my mountain
or messing things up. I trimmed off the foam road base that stuck out from the
ties. I then taped the rails with masking tape. I then spread plaster on both
sides of the track, took a 1/2" piece of plastic, and clamped it down
holding the track in place until the plaster dried making it level. This
actually worked and no problems.
NEWEST Update
October 2022 In September I had to redo a section of track, so since I had to do that, I started working on the mountain and the logging mill. I added lots of trees to the mountain and it is completely finished. I then went on to the logging mill. I put down dirt, put in lights, added detail, and finished up the mill. I will be adding a few more stacks of wood and vehicles and people but otherwise, it is finished. All that is left is the little town in front of the mill. Hopefully, get it finished soon.
Winter 2023/2024. I added lights to the buildings and added the details to the town of Cora (named after my Granddaughter). It is in front of the Sawmill named Sulivan's Mill (Named after my Grandson). The logging mill and Cora town are finished. Just a few minor details to add.