CN Yellowhead Division

[Scottl]

Not much progress with travel and the outdoors beckoning, but I finished the river at Park Gate, extended ballasting and cleaned up some scenery flaws.  This section of the river is slower so I gave it less texture and white caps than the previously posted river at Windy Point, but a few were included to give a sense of motion.  I also started to populate the scene with some trees to see what it would look like.  These are the Ebay wire armature specials I kept from my last layout, painted conifer green. In some ways, they give a better texture to my eye than the more time-consuming bottlebrush homemade variety.  This is especially the case for the narrow, scraggly black and white spruce that predominate in my modeling area.  I'm still uncommitted to this but I have 1500 of these beauties that I can use should I go this route.  It is tempting- a forest in a few bags!



I've put off printing and putting up the final backdrop for two reasons:  1) I was busy, and 2) I had some trepidation about mounting the large prints with the sky and not getting any wrinkles.  OK, I'll admit 1) is a bit of a stretch, but 2) was weighing on my actions.  I used photo backdrops on an eariler layout in 2009 and had reasonably good success, but found it was hard to keep the paper level, and once you start attaching the print with the cement, you are committed.

To move my impass ahead I decided to experiment with trimming out the skies and using my current painted backdrop board (or a new color variant if necessary).  There are some great examples here by @shark_jj and @Dave V on their layouts so I figured it was a worth a test with my current rough prints.  I trimmed the backdrop above Jasper yard and I am pleased with the effect.  Note that in the final version, the mountain will be stretched down to the level of the track- the current top is the final "height" of the mountains I am aiming for.



While I was in the process of messing with the test backdrops, I wanted to try something that was bothering me a bit.  At Park Gate, the prominent dipping bedrock is prototypical and the mountain in the backdrop is the natural visual extension of that structure (even if it is not contiguous in reality).  In my initial backdrop placement, I had the mountain offset from this structure for no particular reason, so I decided to move the backdrop to align with the plaster rock.  In the revised positioning, I found two of the more distant mountains too dominating for the scene, so I offset these down with some sissors.  I debating which location of the backdrop I am going to use, but I like this new placement quite a lot.

Initial placement:


Alternate placement:

[Missaberoad]

Looking at those pictures feels like driving alongside Abraham Lake! You have really accomplished that central Canadian Rockies look!

[craigolio1]

Holy cow that looks good. I honestly thought that drone looking shot was real.

Craig

[Scottl]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!  @Missaberoad, I drove past Abraham Lake last week and the ressemblance to the Athabasca valley is remarkable- just the look I was aiming for.

Now that I am cutting backdrops, I did some more and filled in a missing spot with my (poor quality) printer.  I'm trying to see how it will look with the final prints cut out and a painted sky. 

Here is the Devona area with Roche Ronde as the backdrop.  Again, this backdrop will be stretched down to the track level.  I'm pretty happy about how it looks, even with the jagged tree line I had to cut out.  The perspective that was captured in the photos really seems to work here.  I'm not happy with the resolution on the right side of this image, I'm not sure how I will deal with that as I am clearly running up to the limit of resolution of my phone.



I filled in the printout gap between Devona and Park Gate and there are some registration issues and gaps near the 3D scenery here, but this is a compelling view that seems about right.  It will look much better with consistent printing and cleaned up.



Here is the overall view of the two scenes and how the backdrops come together.  The mountain on the right side could benefit from some lowering but the differences in height of the various mountains give a nice forced perspective.  Everything here is prototypical of the scene, including that crazy cliff in the center-right side of the image.

I also think it looks great with the sky cut out- consider me a convert.  I could go with this sky color and perhaps feather the transition with the paper edge with some white spray in the sky blue.

[lock4244]

This is such an excellent scene... just needs a miniature TDS standing on his work truck taking photos 

[Scottl]

Lol, I have a siding at Devona just for this purpose.

[lock4244]

Siding is a good idea since the work truck is a hirail.

[shark_jj]

Truly impressive work Scott, I definitely need to up my game.

[Scottl]

Truly impressive work Scott, I definitely need to up my game.

I don't think so @shark_jj, your layout is fantastic.

[Scottl]

Terrible news that a raging wildfire moved through the Jasper townsite overnight.  Many buildings are destroyed and the degree of damage is not yet clear.  Awful for everyone who lives and works there as well as the many visitors.  Hoping some of the town survived but most videos show entire blocks of buildings burnt to the ground.

I've made progress on the layout to try and finish the sceniced areas before the end of summer so that I can bring the trains out agaian.  I've ordered the backdrop for Park Gate Devona and repainted the backdrop a more suitable sky blue color that matches the photos.  I'm happy with cutting out the mountains and a painted sky.

I've completed ballasting and basic scenery from Park Gate to Henry House.  I've started to make trees from Super Trees material and using homemade bottle brush style conifers, as well as many small bushes using scrap Super Trees material.  I finished both rivers and have started to detail the shores with driftwood and other material.  Super Tree stems are near perfect scale driftwood trunks and just need a bit of painting to get the right look.

I've also started to work on the Jasper East approach bridge.  The prototype is composed of two deck truss bridges.  I'm going to use two Kato models, with the molded railings removed and etched walkways/railings for the middle and outside sides.  This is a fun diversion and makes use of many leftover walkways and parts I have on hand from my Cisco bridge that I built for my last layout.

So for now, things are starting to look finished.  The backdrop and trees will really transform the look.

[Scottl]

For the section at Windy Point where the second track was removed by CN during the Harrison years, I needed to have a gravel road with some tire ruts in the sanded grout.  An N scale vehicle would have done the trick but none in my collection had movable wheels, and they just gouged the grout. 

I came up with a little rut 'sled' out of some styrene scraps.  It works great and moves smoothly through the grout.  It seems to work best when the grout has been wetted.

[Scottl]

The news from Jasper is not a catastrophe, but the damage is severe.  About 30% of the buildings in town were lost to fire, including many businesses and homes. Our favorite pizza place for a post-backpacking meal (with appropriate outdoor seating!) was lost along with many other iconic businesses.  Firefighters managed to protect community buildings like the schools and the water treatment plan, and no one was hurt due to a proactive evacuation of town a few days prior to the fire reaching town.  CN seems to have lost no buildings and traffic resumed on the line quite quickly. 

On my layout, I've finished as much ballasting as I can do and advanced other projects while I wait for the backdrops to be printed.  Today I did a test fit of the Jasper East overhead.  It is composed of foam abutments, Kato bridges, Microengineering bridge track ties, GMM and custom etched walkways and some styrene strips.  Yes, that is really the color of the prototype- faded CN bridge green.  I'll come back and put the distinctive red CN logo on it when I have some decal paper to print one.

[Scottl]

While everything sets up for the Jasper East bridge, I've turned my attention to the pair of bridges that cross the Snake Indian River located midway through the Devona siding.  There are some challenges here and I'm looking for feedback.

Here is the scene, I have left 150 scale feet for the river opening.  Nothing is written in stone here:



Topography here is not  an issue, but the like the prototype, the shallow river bed mean the bridges have to be through plate and truss style.  The prototype bridges are about 265' based on Google Earth measurments.  CN crossed this originally with a pair of through truss bridges, each about 130' long.  Later, during double tracking, they put in what appears to be a single span through plate girder bridge.  The details of this latter bridge are sketchy and the only good info I really have comes from a train hopping video I posted on page 18 of this thread.  265' seems like a lot for a single span, but it is possible there are two spans there.  The location is unfortunately beyond reach so a field trip is not an option.

But back to the through truss bridges.  How do I effectively shorten the span to match my 150' space?  Widening the river is possible but would dominate the scene.  I'm not sure I want a 20" wide river in this part of the layout.  But assuming I keep the river now at 150', I have some choices as illustrated here:
 


With option A, I get the two bridge spans, but are 75' through truss bridges realistic?  They seem a bit short for that kind of structure.  Option B solves the problem with a single span, but I'm not sure I want to lose the look of the double spans.  Either way, the Central Valley bridge kits give me the parts I need and I have two kits in my stash.

Or, do I go somewhere in between and widen the river to ~200' and build two 100' through truss spans (option C).    I would have to widen the river about ~3' to make that work.

Thoughts?

[wazzou]

“C” seems to the best balance between what you want it look like and fidelity to the prototype.

[Scottl]

I agree.  It is funny, I couldn't see that until I went to the trouble of drawing it and posting something.  Widening the river is not too big of a deal and gets me bridges that will look pretty close to the prototype.