Wordless Wednesday #3 -- Meet at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvvania

 

East Branch Scenery Updates -- Part 3

Working from the east end

In my last post I ended discussing a patch of trees as a way to disguise the dead-end of the far end of the East Branch Staging.

The first step was to pencil in the location of shadows on the sky from the temporarily placed trees. Then, during a recent Thursday modeling night, I painted in some trees using acrylic craft paints and some brown from the lid of my gallon of latex brown dirt color. Finding the green to be too light compared to the furnace filter trees, I mixed up a slightly darker color and added some darker brush strokes with slightly more detailed branch ends. The next day I drilled holes for the trees and marked them with toothpicks before adding a layer of a Scenics Express "Conifer Floor Blend," a ground foam and static grass mix, to the area.

In addition to gluing down the ground cover, I also applied ballast to the track, here between the tree locations. After the scenic glue had dried I went ahead and fit the five furnace filter trees in place. While no one has been able to explain the the reason for the phenomenon to me, I am a believer in the "odd number groups of trees looking more natural" theory. The five trees are made up of different colors, sizes, and construction techniques. While they actually block the track, the illusion and hidden shadows by the painted trees on the backdrop works well enough for me. 

In my previous post I explained the materials and techniques used for ballasting here on the East Branch staging section. While working here, I went ahead and finished ballasting the main and passing tracks between the clearcut and here at the east end. As seen in the photo, one segment of the ground needs some additional first layer work behind the passing track. My notion is that a path needs to be added, a gravel parking area at the end of the gravel road should be included, and some landscaping needs to be worked out around the yard office (which needs to be finished). 

Working backwards from the patch of trees, a section of the backdrop needed work. If nothing else, the patch between sections of backdrops created with the runaround extension from last September has never been resolved. I decided on showing a clearcut going into the distance. 

Using Google image, I went through a number of photos online until deciding on one from an online report from the University of Cincinnati. I did a screen grab and then saved a portion as a JPEG. My first idea was to do some old school cut and paste before glueing it into the backdrop as an experiment with collaging a photo into the painted backdrop. While trying out various positions of my photo cut outs, I changed my mind. Why not just use the photo as a source and try painting the distant ground and trees instead of trying to blend the photo with the rest of the painted backdrop? So, that is what I did. 

By having a source photo to work from and using my standard latex brown as one of my colors along with a few craft store paints, I think the transition from 2D backdrop to 3D bench-top works. I am not going to give up on ever collaging in a photo into the backdrop, but I will save that technique for buildings. The technique that I think will make that work is applying visual foils on either side of the building, an approach suggested by one of my model railroad inspirations: Paul Dolkos. Paul passed away earlier this month, but I was able to briefly meet him and visit his Baltimore Harbor Railroad several years ago before his railroad was taken down. 

In the last photo, the railroad crossing boards can be seen glued down, and the stumps are loosely positioned, but still need additional weathering. While I am making progress here on the East Branch staging, I still have more to do before I can say, "The first layer of scenery here is complete, let's run some trains and return to Nooksack." First layer of scenery is a doable goal here within a reasonable length of time, and may supply inspiration for additional progress on the railroad as a whole. 

Next Steps:

• Stump weathering
• Yard office completed
• Switch stands
• First layer of ground cover where missing
• Experiment with static grass and static grass mats

East Branch Scenery Updates -- Part 2

For a variety of reasons, some good and some not so great, I have not been working very steadily on the railroad. I have made some progress though with next layers of scenery, ballasting, and finalizing the plans for scenery here on the East Branch section. 

This photo shows the area behind the tracks where I envision extending the clearcut. I continued to work on staining and painting some stumps that I had ordered, but they are not yet where I want them. I got them to a point where I am happy with the color representing just-cut trees, but the stumps need additional weathering to age them for this scene. Also, they are stumps of large trees! I have ordered some more smaller stumps to mix in. Once the additional stumps are ready and the clearcut area is expanded, I will post with details about the process. 

Working outwards from this same area, I started the next layer of scenery, which in this case, consists of ballasting the track and adding ground cover along the track. One of the standards that I have established for the railroad is the use of real rock ballast instead of the ground walnut shell materials from Woodland Scenics. Here, I am using Arizona Rock and Mineral 1152 "Empire Builder" for the mainline and passing track. For the spur track I am using Scenic Express #50 Blended Ballast. In an earlier post, I discussed my ballasting techniques. 

After ballasting a section of track and while the scenic cement was still wet, I sprinkled on some fine ground foam along the ballast edge. I used Earth Blend and Green Blend of Blended Turf from Woodland Scenics. As seen in the photo, I applied the Blended Turf in gaps between the ballast and earlier applied sanded grout. While I plan to later apply additional scenic layers such as static grass tufts and mats as well as static grass fields, shrubs, and bushes, for now my goal consists of applying a first layer obscuring any painted plywood. 

While I am working outward from a clearcut patch, not all of the East Branch staging section is intended to be clearcut. Evergreen trees are part of the identifying atmosphere of the "Evergreen State," so as I mentioned in my last post, I have gotten into my stash of trees. I found one bag of somewhat derelict trees, some from my module days with a layer of "snow" and some half completed furnace filter trees. After picking out the best and poking them into a foam block, I took them outside for a quick blast of dark green camouflage spray paint.  I plan to utilize trees I have on hand here on this sceniced staging section before going into a new phase of tree construction. 

The far end of this section where the track runs into the backdrop has been a bit of a conundrum. One temptation is to apply some mirror trickery. On the other hand this is a "temporary" staging section and that might be considered a bit of overkill. In fussing with some of the trees I have on hand, I think that I have a plan. First of all, in placing some conifers temporarily, I see that painted trees on the backdrop are needed to hide the shadows from the three-dimensional ones. With the tracks running into dark shadows and patch of trees, I am thinking the dead end will be sufficiently visually disguised.

I still have quite a lot to do on the East Branch, but I plan to start by focusing here at this end before working my way back towards the clearcut and the Nooksack section. The first phase of work here at this end will include:

• Backdrop painting
• Track ballasting 
• Gluing the crossing planks
• Applying ground cover
• Applying static grass mat and tufts
• Adding shrubs, bushes, and trees