T-Trak The N scale Pennsy Juniata Division 2.0 - T-TRAK!

[Dave V]

Working on the Granville Bridge module again.

[Dave V]

Round two for me...moar progress on my PRR Granville Bridge T-TRAK module. Still needs more trees, more detailing along the river banks, ballast, and resin. The bridge and track are not yet glued in place.



The trees on the hill to the left look a little unnatural, so I'll likely extend the underbrush down the hill and blend it better.

[Dave V]

I think I've gotten as much texture in the scenery as I can before it turns into a jungle.  Still need to secure and ballast the track before I pour the river water.







Then there's the layout as a whole:

[OldEastRR]

Hobo camp!! Deer! Sasquatch!! Fisherman!! Canoers!!

[Dave V]

Hobo camp!! Deer! Sasquatch!! Fisherman!! Canoers!!

LOL... If this were a typical T-TRAK module, yes to all of those plus a UFO abducting a cow.

I actually do plan to add a few more fallen logs along the banks and on the upstream side of one of the bridge piers. Beyond that, though, I really want the visual interest to derive from the textures and colors, not cutesy scenes. This is The Standard Railroad of the World, and the scenery is merely a backdrop to the mainline action.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hobo camp!! Deer! Sasquatch!! Fisherman!! Canoers!!

Good luck to the hoboes there. I think track speed on the Middle Division was at least 45. And back in those days you didn't have trainmasters with radar guns hiding in the bushes.

[Dave V]

Good luck to the hoboes there. I think track speed on the Middle Division was at least 45. And back in those days you didn't have trainmasters with radar guns hiding in the bushes.

It was 79 for passenger, 50 for freight. Pennsy didn't mess around. And there would not have been a speed restriction on that bridge...the whole turn-of-the-century infrastructure upgrade program was designed in part to allow for track speed on bridges.

So even an M1 with a long drag would be going highway speed!

I've read the Middle Division described as a "water-level racetrack."

[dem34]

Helped that Pennsy steam didn't have speedos. Lot of "Yeah I think I'm doing 70" as the Mail train blasts the windows off a farmhouse doing 110 to make up for a little refreshment break.

[Dave V]

OK, so...

The plan was to pour Woodland Scenics Realistic Water with some WS "murky" tint.



Well, when it dried, I found a problem. A "hole" or "pit" had developed in the water, with no clear explanation. The entire riverbed had been sealed the same way, with WS Flex Paste and latex paint. So... Not knowing what else to do, I poured another layer hoping to fill the pit.

The second layer didn't level correctly, and the pit remained. So I tried filling the pit with gloss medium (lower left) when I noticed that the Realistic Water had caused my Sharpie marks (for the bridge piers) to bleed through.



At this point I'm wondering if the whole module is a loss. But I'm stubborn. So... I discovered that you can peel this crap up if you're careful. I managed to "rm -fr *.*" the whole river without damaging the bridge (which was glued so as to survive a direct hit by a 60 mm mortar).



Two layers of flex paste to seal the HDF again:



I changed the river to brown from black, but in retrospect, I probably could have gone darker.



Then I decided to go with acrylic gloss medium gel instead. Between layers I airbrushed in some Vallejo "German Feldgrau" which is a greenish-gray to soften the brown and add some greenish-gray depth. This was the progress as of tonight...waiting on the last of the "whitecaps" in the gloss medium to go clear before I consider whether another layer is necessary.



I've given WS Realistic Water a chance on four different layouts and had problems in every application. So, no more...gloss medium from now on!

What's that they say? "fool me once, shame on me. Fool me four times and you must be Woodland Scanics."

[randgust]

I had an episode like that about five years ago with the "Hickory Bridge" T-trak module.   I'd used Castin Craft polyester clear resin (the stuff typically used in clear paperweights) back about 1976 for the Hickory Valley log pond, worked great, held up well.  So now I had a 30" x 7" river to pour 1/4" deep or more for Hickory Bridge, did it again.   Yeah, the smelly stuff that clears out a house.

OMG what a disaster after MONTHS of work on the module.   About three hours in, it started to crack, and break loose from the plaster painted base (over plywood).  It shrank around the piers.  It cracked in half.

Panic set it, it was still not entirely solid.  I peeled all of it apart like hot sticky hard candy, same consistency.  It destroyed the plaster base, had to do that all over.

Then I tried again with Woodland Scenics deep-pour water.   That was a success, well, almost a success.   I've always done it over painted plaster, had no issues with the underlying surface, and I've done multiple water scenes since but this was a BIG one.

So now about six years later, it's yellowed a bit, which really irritated me, because when I first poured it, it absolutely matched the backdrop painted behind it, now it doesn't but  it has never cracked, detached, and is still absolutely glossy and smooth.  I've tried to do some touch up work on the backdrop blend, that's the only glitch.

I don't know if the reason it's worked for me is working over plaster, or if deep-pour water is that much different.   But I did two new pours on Barge Yard and East Hickory, both came out just fine, again over painted plaster.   The stuff is mildly exothermic and I'm thinking the underlying foam may be the issue here for WS resin.

This is when I finished it.   That 'white reflection' behind the bridge is still in the backdrop but has yellowed under the bridge, making the color transistion an issue in my head.  But the non-white reflective area still looks this good.  And you can see the front edge how deep it is on a 34" long module (3 span)