Golden Redesign

Had mentioned how visiting the area you model really helps. I wanted to show the before and after images of Golden to show what I mean.  Click to enlarge.

First cut of Golden about 6 months ago:

Design is frankly, bad! Nothing hardly in the right place or orientation.

Second Cut before visiting Golden:

Design is better, but downtown totally wrong.

Third try after visiting Golden:

Design now has look and feel of Golden. Massive compression but that is expected in models. Coal mine was closed by 1916 but I will leave open for operations sake.

Denver Trolley planned to be a static or DC running point to point if I can figure out someway to program delays for stops. Any ideas?

Visiting the site if possible really brings it alive and helps do a better job modeling.

Thanks Cameron

New thoughts on Canyon Mine.

Well best laid plans to add the mine complex to Clear Creek Canyon look to be going down in flames. The complex is too large to fit the space and still keep Huntsman.

Before:

Here is the image with the Banta Mine (very nice kit was my first kit in years so over did the weathering). Takes up so much space it would overwhelm Huntsman section house.

Proposed solution:

Sorry blurry. This is the GrandtLine Mine (only built to this point for sizing). Looks like it will fit better and I can cut back siding to 2 car lengths. By running tram into mountain and lighting tunnel I think will add some visual interest. Put sound in and detail it should be nice.

Leaves plenty of room for Huntsman after I trim Mountain back some.

Thoughts?

Thanks Cameron

Amazed at the difference.

Amazed at the difference.

Since coming back from Colorado and the Narrow Gauge Convention we have been busy with the High Holy Days. Got a little time to go back to planning some work on the layout and having visited the sites everything is so much easier to visualize.

Beginning redesigning Golden to take into account the correct layout of the downtown and station and adding the Black diamond coal mine west of town.

Looking at the maps makes so much sense now. A little bit of tweaking and I'll post the changes.

Next on the agenda is picking up some rock molds to work on the canyon. Lots more tock work to go. Paul Scoles book recommends dental mold, will look into that.

Picture tomorrow hopefully.

Thanks Cameron

Tie coloring

Paul Scole's book also had a section on painting track. I had sprayed track with flat brown and it helped, but I was not happy with color.

Using info from Paul (saw his layout in Seattle and it was great) I went back and tried a small section of track. Took about 30 minutes per 3 foot. Paul recommends paint pens to randomly color each tie, then once dry go over with a Min-Wax American stain pen (available at Walmart or Home Depot).

Here is the result:


Rail on top is the original color (for most part). Bottom rail is new with colors and Min-Wax stain applied.

Not 100% happy with paint colors I used but the idea of going over with Min-Wax stain pen seemed to help alot. Will work on adding some more greys then retest.

Thanks Cameron

Theres Dirt in them thar hills!

Theres Dirt in them thar hills!

Sorry for going dark for so long.

The travels all done, now in the middle of the High Holy Days so diverting a lot of time away from modeling. On top of that my car alternator failed while we were gone so spent 3 2+ hour sessions repairing it. All went well but made a mistake on the idler arm so had to fix last night. All done now and a 4 mile test drive was successful.

Did get to try 2 new things: using real dirt for scenery and painting ties.

While in Denver went by Caboose Hobbies and picked up a few items and also 2 books: Paul Scoles Scenery book,and a book on scratch building.

Paul's book talks alot about using dirt for scenery and after advice from the HON3Chat group I managed to ship back 2 USPS medium flat rate boxes of dirt and rock.

After baking dirt for 45 minutes at 250 degrees to kill any bugs, I sifted out fine and small rocks leaving 3+ large coffee cans of fine dirt and a huge puff ball container on fins to small rocks.

Began by wetting surface and sprinkling fine dirt on. then added fine to small rock to add texture. Finally some grass shades and fine weeds. Threw in a few ties to add interest.







Next Day

After a day to dry here are the results:

Bend going downgrade to Beaver Brook









All in all very happy with the result and it goes fast. Need to go back and add more detail and maybe some Siliflor grass.  Dirt is a little dark, may need to adjust lighting some or modify dirt mix.

Thanks Cameron

More C&S Photos

Just a quick photo of Elk Creek area of Clear Creek Canyon. Note the dry rock wall still standing after 100 years. This shot is looking downgrade towards Beaver Brook.



Will post more as I edit.

Thanks Cameron

Colorado on my mind!

Colorado on my mind!

Sorry for the song there.

In Colorado, besides being run off the road, trip is all I hoped. First day wife and I shot 1000 photos. 2nd Day 600 photo's & 1 hour video of Harry Brunk's Layout in Cheyenne. Day 3 1150 shots and 1 hour video Going up Clear Creek Canyon to Idaho Springs and Georgetown.

Since the DGCCRR is based on the Clear Creek Branch of the C&S and heavily inspired by Harry It seemed appropriate to post a few shots. Here are a few highlights:



Map of Canyon


Magnificent mountains raise up.


Clear Creek. According to my reference photos in Colorado Central (Sundance Publishing), the wood you see is probably the remains of the Golden water flume.

And the highlight of Day 1 - We found roadbed and Tough Cuss Pass.


Unfortunately the Tough Cuss on the layout is a little too long, so will be doing some surgery on it when I get back.

And finally a teaser - Harry's Layout. Will post a lot more on it in new thread.


Met both Mike and another gentlemen who went out of their way to help me get good shots and even special angles. The folks there are super and they are doing great work. New section to Golden being added and the run to Silver Plume is being lengthened, this will take an iconic layout to an even higher level!

Post more later - Cameron