The Queen City of the Potomac

[wm3798]

Today I crossed Wills Creek, and started working out how I would build Cumberland.  Here's the first stab at it.


Here's some of the angles I'm working on...

Baltimore Avenue in Downtown

Fast food and used cars along US 40.

I need to build the street grid to get the grades I want, then I'll build each block as a module so I can do structure lighting and detailing at the work bench, then drop them into the scene.  This L shaped section has to get done so I can close up the the pop up I've been using to construct the main line through Cumberland, and do the station area...

Lee

[John]

where is the station going?

[wm3798]

The station will be just off the lower right corner of the first shot.  The yellow lines indicated the main line through Cumberland.  Baltimore Ave. will slope down from the back, and be below the main line grade, then turn back up to cross the main just west of the station platform.  Since I'm modeling circa 1970, I won't have to build all the fussy passenger accommodations.  Just a wooden deck covering the subway stairs between the tracks.

Just west of the brewery switch, the main will cross this concrete and steel gem...


And the station will look something like this:

I shot that in 1989, before it became a full blown tourist trap.  It hadn't changed much since its final days of active duty in the mid 70's.  It had housed a freight agent, the division superintendent, and the CTC dispatcher for the Connellsville sub.

Lee

[up1950s]

That coffee creek crossover is so unique and relatively easy to build , weathering aside .

[sirenwerks]

Wow!

[sizemore]

I like it a lot!

The S.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like it too. This is gonna be nice.

[DKS]

Coming together nicely, Lee. I wonder about the tunnel on the Elkins line, the area colored turquoise in the photo. Maybe have the track just disappear within a tight cluster of taller buildings, just to do away with yet another "convenient" tunnel?

Also, that bridge over Baltimore Ave. might be a great spot for a small mirror to extend the road.

[wm3798]

If you're familiar with Cumberland, it sits in a bowl surrounded by mountains.  I agree that a cluster of buildings will do the trick from most viewing angles, but you know how I love dropping the camera all over the place.  I have a portal, so it's good for that one angle that would require it!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

What about, instead of using a portal, use a fake overpass (just some piers and some girders) instead of the ubiquitous tunnel to nowhere.

[Ian MacMillan]

Wheres the trackplan again? I can't seem to visualize this.

[wm3798]

Upper left hand corner.  The helix is enclosed in the skyboard.

The actual street grid is a little different than shown.
Lee

[sirenwerks]

I don't know, I'm kinda siding with Lee on this one. I get the bowl effect of Cumberland he's aiming for. Mind you, I'm not exactly ga-ga over the cut of the turquoise hill. That being said, let's see if I can explain this while whacked out on flu meds... concentrate on the bottom image, the one looking up Baltimore Avenue... that angle gives us the Rte. 40 experience we all know (ok, those of us who live in Maryland) from driving into small cities like Westminster off 70. The other angle's the compact and bustling downtown we all know of Cumberland from driving over it on 68. It very effectively creates two distinctly opposing 'feels' of a Maryland city in a pretty small space.

Look at the shot up Baltimore Ave. again, the tunnel will be pretty well hidden behind and beneath the taller buildings from an aisle viewing angle. If he adds more buildings there, the downtown will encroach on the more bucolic approach and he'll loose that last one. Maybe if he could set the portal into the hillside some, with rock outcropping and overgrowth to conceal it more from the aisle viewing angle, but it still being able to hold its own from the Baltimore Ave. angle.

Does that make sense? Scarily, it does to me.

Now, Lee, I was supportive, now I can be critical  ;D... two things... First, that turqoise hill, while it creates the bowl valley effect, it being just a tree-ed hillside is a cop out. I think you need to try to add some smaller scale compact housing up the hillside to force perspective and maintain the "city grown up the valley-side" C-land is. Maybe just some photo flats.

Second, that Pizza Hut needs toning down a bit. It screams Bachmann-glued-to-a-base-and-complete-with-figures; maybe back-date it to a Shakeys and get rid of that "snow".

That wasn't too harsh, was it?

Bryan B.

[Mark5]

Second, that Pizza Hut needs toning down a bit. It screams Bachmann-glued-to-a-base-and-complete-with-figures; maybe back-date it to a Shakeys and get rid of that "snow".

That wasn't too harsh, was it?

Bryan B.

When was the first Pizza Hut in Cumberland?

Just curious, as supposedly the 1st in MD was 1972 (Westminster).

(I've been punishing myself with these kinds of dumb questions lately. I know Cumberland is more cosmopolitan than Williamson but Williamson didn't see any chain fast food until the end of the 70s. )

Mark

PS: I'm liking the "feel", typical of Lee's gift for capturing it for these locales.

[wm3798]

Bryan, you very succinctly put in words the viewing angles I'm shooting for.  I agree that I need to work in some sort of illusion of development up the hill side.  One objective is the WCMD studio up on the hill overlooking downtown.  My hope is that I can get up there and take some photos of the area that I can manipulate to make the scene really come to life.

Re: Pizza Hut, the "snow" is leftover from a feeble Christmas Garden I whipped up a couple of years ago. It's nothing more than some white acrylic craft paint I slapped on, which can just as easily be slapped off, or over.  I'm sure it is anachronistic for my era, but nothing says US 40 like fast food.  Having the Pizza Hut in stock makes a useful (and affordable) place to start.  Being an early 70's design helps.  I contemplated getting a Kato Denny's, but couldn't justify the expense for what is essentially a background effect.  I'll work on tricking it out a little better, primarily with some roof detail and some landscaping.

I have the portal at about the best place I can put it.  If I push it further back, the track clearance becomes a little dicey, as the track edges slightly back to work with the geometry of the helix.  I can pull the hillside forward, I suppose, or do the tall building as view block trick.

I like the idea of using a mirror to extend the road under the track, but I'm handicapped by the 1/2 plywood subroadbed.  Had I conceived of this idea a little earlier, I could have cut and framed the subroadbed to provide for a true bridge.  As it is, the plywood will be visible, to an extent, as I plan to paint it black to make it disappear a little.  I'd like it to look a little art-deco-y, (I really like the work that Jason is doing on his overpass) .  Here's an example from the East Sub near Baltimore.


Another possibility would be to do a very figurative representation of the B&O City Junction  bridge, but only use one arch to catch the road.


 I'm shying away from this because it might be too much of a feature where I really just want that part of the scenery to make sense without making a scene... if you catch my drift.

Lee