The Los Pinos and Toltec Smelter

[Peter S]

I did forget to name my railroad in the last post. Since my HOn3 railroad is really a collection of scenes based loosely around the rich lowland country of the DRGW and the RGS I choose two names that sounded right. Los Pinos and Toltec. My smelter is at Los Pinos, my main yard is at Toltec. Has a reverse loop and passing siding of hidden track where the trains go to load coal or ore or whatever. I built the Smelter and area around 4 years ago or more. The Smelter has killed all vegetation but as you move around the greens return. Green we have for such a brief period in Southern Australia. I'll upload a couple more photos as I work out explanations. The Warehouse is loosely based on Warehouses on the RGS line. I made it a little larger toi act as a scenic blocker as much as anything else. Siding is corregated card.This photo looks to the other end of the Smelter moving into a greener area. Since I had about 12 feet or more I was able to extend the scene nicely.

[John]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] Wow!!!

[Peter S]

Sometimes when I do a scene I am happy with I never get tired of looking at it. I completed the Smelter scene around 2012 and haven't modified it since. The rock work at the front was from a Scenic express foam mold. Most of the rockwork on the layout is from my own molds. I just use acrylic paints which, once the base coat is on, I dry brush repeatedly to get the right colors. I still have half a layout to finish. It's a big room for a slow guy like me. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wow!!!

What he said!

[Dave V]

Dayum!!!   

[pdx1955]

I like the hazy look to the photo backdrop. It really adds to the depth of the scene but doen't take anything away from the great modeling in the foreground.

[Peter S]

I work consistently on the railroad, its a working railroad and happily operates well with 4 people. The Los Pinos Smelter complex was divided into two parts the Smelter area (comnpleted 2012) and the lead into (completed 2014. The backdrops were from backdrop warehouse, and weren't easy to apply from memory. I had to employ an "octopus" approach. I love the age I live in where there are so many wonderful and new scenic materials available. I seem to have a life cycle where I work on my railroad, create a big mess, clean it up and then run trains and work on schedules for another week. Usually this brings up a heap of electrical and other problems that takes that one running week out to three. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Dave V]

I hope my RGS will look half as good as that.

[Peter S]

The Smelter at Los Pinos works nicely as a drop off and pick up point on my working railroad. Three trains service the facility, four if you include the daily train which drops off boxcars for Black's Freight. I recently bought a Concor Goose, which also has a scheduled stop.But it is just 1/5 of the railroad. I tend to work very slowly and sometimes if something goes wrong (which it does during, before or after) an operating session I might spend two weeks nutting out an electrical issue. There is a large 40 inch curve around an island bench and two trestle bridges leading into the Smelter. As I have a limited area I tend to use a photo of a real scene and work out what I can do. I am including this time a scene based on the Rock Tunnel on the Cumbres and Toltec. The rock molds here are from Scenic express, so is the retaining wall from their flexible range. The bridge is scratchbuilt. It does the job.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[GaryHinshaw]

Just gorgeous. 

[Ron McF]

... its a working railroad and happily operates well with 4 people.

Even more happily (for me), I have been one of those people ...


Regards,
Ron

[nscalbitz]

Beautiful terrain and modelling Peter.
Great to see diligence and state of the art to scenery for a change [thumbs UP!].
regards dave

[Santa Fe Guy]

If you would like to see more of Peters HOn3 layout go to my blog to see some videos I took a few yeas back.
It sure is something to see.
santafesd40.blogspot.com.
Rod.

[Cajonpassfan]

Just beautiful, wow!
The one thing that grabs me more than anything, is how much the scene is enhanced by dropping the scenery along the front edge in the first photo. This is not modeled nearly often enough as we tend to maximize our real estate by putting the tracks too close to the edge; I know I'm guilty...
Nice work, looking forward to seeing more!
Otto K.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Just beautiful, wow!
The one thing that grabs me more than anything, is how much the scene is enhanced by dropping the scenery along the front edge in the first photo. This is not modeled nearly often enough as we tend to maximize our real estate by putting the tracks too close to the edge; I know I'm guilty...
Nice work, looking forward to seeing more!
Otto K.

Yep. One of the things I've thought about a lot lately is that if you're doing a narrow shelf, it's best to put the track toward the back since you can always add photo backdrops, but you can't add photo foregrounds.