Cisco Bridges: a new layout concept

[Scottl]

A lot of the color work is automatic on my SLR, and I can tweak in Lightroom with the RAW images.  It makes a huge difference, I see a lot of variation between photos as the lighting varies.  I see effects like you show quite a bit.

I've been having fun with "photo shoots", putting together a portfolio of shots to document the layout.  This weekend has been focused on the east bank of the river, trying to figure out how to hide the lack of backdrop. The approach pillars are usually out of sight in the long view shot up river.  I've also pulled out some equipment or flipped around consists.  This 9-44CWL is one of my favorite locomotives, probably not much longer in action on the prototype.

[davefoxx]

Excellent!

[LIRR]

outstanding work, great photos....

[Scottl]

Thanks guys.  I've been having fun running and taking photos.

[Philip H]

@Scottl that last shot has "Trackside Photos" written all over it.

[craigolio1]

That is a great shot. Is that a Kaslo can in the front loco?

[Scottl]

Thanks both.  Yes, it is a Kaslo cab on the Kato body, one of my favorites.  The BC Rail 8-40CM is nearly ready to operate too.

[craigolio1]

Oh cool. I can't wait to see that.

[GaryHinshaw]

@Scottl that last shot has "Trackside Photos" written all over it.

Indeed.  Even better would be a cover article about building the bridge.  It would be interesting to see if MR would bite, but I'm sure they would be tempted.  RMC probably for sure.

I never get tired of seeing these shots.

[davidgray1974]

It is pretty hard to move from a good situation, especially taking on a mortgage, hassle...    I think the risk has passed.

I have been interested in simulating a night shot.  A lot of attempts in the dark did not work out, but this kind of seems like a good simulation of moonlight, I think.  The lights would probably be brighter.

At first glance i thought this was a 1:1 scale photo then I took a second look.  This photo looks amazing!  You really captured the essence of a moon lit night.  Great job!

[Scottl]

I've made little progress on the layout, but I have had time to contemplate my next moves.  Occasionally I get the urge to radically change my direction, but here are some ideas I have come up with for the next phase of layout construction.

I did up a drawing of the layout and have some roughly scaled space to work out ideas.   Here is what I have at this point:



I am envisioning the mainline through the canyon will be located up front with a five-track staging yard hidden behind the canyon wall.   I contemplated including Black Canyon based on some discussion earlier in this thread, but in the end I could not reconcile that scene with the rest of the Thompson River Canyon, so I am thinking of just trying to do the latter.  Less is more when it comes to scenery in my mind, so with that in mind, I am trying to capture several key parts of the Thompson Canyon around the locale of Skoonka. 

The first feature is the dual rock sheds located at "A" in the diagram above.  This is a really interesting scene, with a suspension bridge over the river for maintenance access.  It looks like this:



At location "B", I'm aiming for the more open rockshed/tunnel section immediately to the east (upstream):



One aspect of this canyon I am not sure I can actually pull off is the placement of the CP line on the opposite bank.  It gets pretty close to the river in places, and does not have the same kind of canyon walls.  I've sketched this in at location "C", and I may expand the foreground at this location to give more scenery.  It will depend on reach for the turnouts associated with the staging yard.  Like in the Cisco scene, I see this as cosmetic trackage for photos rather than operational.

The staging yard will have five tracks and should be able to hold trains up to 80", longer than my current yard.  Since it will all be hidden, I plan to use Tortoise motors mounted on the surface with exposed linkage and wiring for ease of construction and maintenance.  This way I can install them later when I get a chance to buy the motors and DCC control board.  This will ultimately allow me to set out routing to conveniently select trains to run on the mainline.

I plan to rip out my yard very soon (maybe this holiday weekend) and re-lay the main.  I'll then mock up the canyon wall and see how high I can make that.  I suspect I will be able to put in a removable scenic cover over some parts of the staging but I am having a hard time envisioning what will be practical. I was thinking it could be supported by shelf brackets and would be easily removed when necessary or to work on it.  It does give some interesting opportunities for some scenery behind the canyon wall, including more distant mountains.  I am also planning to raise the backdrop for this section of the layout from the window to the duck under, so that the entire wall is backdrop.

So, a bit of rambling, but a sense of a plan is emerging.  Most of what I need to do needs to be refined and will no doubt evolve as I build it.

[GaryHinshaw]

I think that's going to be a great scene, and I think you have plenty of space to work with.  I suspect you'll find that you want to build the scenery over the staging yard when you start mocking it up.  You might consider leaving enough space in the lower left corner (behind staging) for access in case a train stalls or derails in there.  In some cases that would give quicker/easier access than removable scenery.

Really looking forward to seeing this!

[Scottl]

Some mock-ups this afternoon took the wind from my sails.  It is not going to work as well as I imagined.  I guess I'll go back to the drawing board, but I'm not sure what else I can do.  I feel like I've painted myself into a bit of a corner with this.

[James Costello]

Can you change the closet or furnace doors to sliders?

[GaryHinshaw]

Did you snap any photos?