Tehachapi, BC

[GaryHinshaw]

Small nit pic - darker ties?

Point well taken.  FWIW, my touch up painting includes a complete re-stain of the ties as part of the process.  Also, there seems to be a bit of an optical illusion, because the ties appear much darker viewed from above, especially in person.

[ednadolski]

Ed, I'd appreciate hearing about any solvent tests you try.

I went over the paint with some 91% alcohol.   It didn't have much trouble removing the paint after a few passes, but it didn't just dissolve it right away either.  One approach might be to do the ballasting first, and then paint the clips after the ballast is all set and glued.

That crossover is looking really nice!  Just curious, what track spacing are you using?

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks for the feedback Ed, I'll keep an eye out for those pens.  I did finally manage to glue the ballast down that I had already spread, and happily the Polly Scale-painted clips survived just fine (as expected).

In other news, I have test fit the first turnouts in place an have pulled some trains through them without incident so far, so track-laying is resuming again.  Here's a shot of the south turnout of Walong siding (far left of the Loop shelf) and the crossover (far right of the Loop shelf - this is the south end of the line just before sneaking around behind the Loop into south staging):



(BTW, the track spacing at the crossover is 1 3/16", but after testing auto-rack clarances on the 18" curves, I decided to go with 1 1/4" most everywhere else.)   With the turnout at Walong in place, I proceeded with track-laying railroad south of here towards tunnels 14-17 and summit:



With track in on this shelf, I couldn't resist getting a feeling for what the 4 tunnels will look like in this scene, so I put the scenery in as well:



.  A slightly closer view exiting Tunnel 16, from a cool angle:



Sure it's cheesy, but it gets my juices going.  I'm really glad this shelf is at eye level.

Thanks for looking,
-gfh

[Coxy]

I'm seeing it. Good to be able to watch trains through tunnels 14-17 without worrying about dodging bigrigs on the freeway. Cant wait to see what you do with the portals in this stretch.

Nice progress.

[JSL]

Man that is going to nice. Track work looks flawless.

[GaryHinshaw]

I'm seeing it. Good to be able to watch trains through tunnels 14-17 without worrying about dodging bigrigs on the freeway.

You mean like this?   



RE the portals, I'm eternally grateful to Ed for loaning me his masters for casting these.  When the time comes, I'll be referring frequently to references like this Jim Kelly article.

[Ian MacMillan]

...references like this Jim Kelly article....

Ugh ... and to think that I spent money buying that book years ago...and its online now.


Re: Penn/Ohio ballast. I am out so I had to buy more from SE...I bought the blended and light gray to see which is the replacement for their old Penn/Ohio version. Waiting for it to arrive in a few days to let you know.

[GaryHinshaw]

Re: Penn/Ohio ballast. I am out so I had to buy more from SE...I bought the blended and light gray to see which is the replacement for their old Penn/Ohio version. Waiting for it to arrive in a few days to let you know.

Great!  Thanks Ian.

[svedblen]

When the time comes, I'll be referring frequently to references like this Jim Kelly article.

That is a great article. It was the inspiration for my, now dismantled, shelf layout http://blog.lsvedberg.se/#post130.

/Lennart

EDIT 2022-09-22: The above blog is also gone, since some time back. But the below picture is still around, here on TRW.

[GaryHinshaw]

Wow - cool scene there Lennart!  I especially love this shot:

http://lsvedberg.se/blog/images/2011-10-24/IMG_2919_trimmed_more.jpg

I dimly recall seeing a video of a similar scene on the Model Railroader site a while ago.  Was that yours?  What happens beyond the tunnels in your setup?

Thanks for sharing!
-Gary

P.S. Welcome to Railwire.

[svedblen]

Thanks Gary,

Nothing happened beyond the tunnels. It was a simple roundy-round with three staging tracks behind the hill. Once built, which was great fun, and after having rail-fanned it for a while I soon tired.

I did shoot a video (see below) but I do not know of it ever appearing on the MR site (excuse the quality - shot with a HTC smart-phone). Was probably some other video.

https://vimeo.com/752273750

/Lennart

[w neal]

N scale done right. LOVE it!!!!!!!

[GaryHinshaw]

Ok, I have seen that video before - maybe while scanning YouTube....  It's very nice! 

While I'm not a fan of live sound,  I'm a big fan of dubbed sound on videos.  It really adds a lot to the mix IMHO.  Thanks for posting it.

-gfh

[svedblen]

Thanks both of you. Enough of this diversion though 
Keep on amazing us Gary.

/Lennart

[ednadolski]

Say Lennart that is some really nice work, thanks for  sharing! 

Ugh ... and to think that I spent money buying that book years ago...and its online now.

Take heart, the link is for a limited preview.   


Ed