Model Railroaders are still cheap

Waste not, want not.

Scenery? On my railroad? It's happening!

I wanted a bridge scene to give the railroad a more realistic feel than last time - the area of Virginia that the RF&P runs through is full of creeks, rivers and small elevation changes so I wanted to capture this.

I picked the bridge over the Chickahominy River as the target of my modeling since it is a plate girder bridge and good model kits exist for that style of bridge.

I bought a Micro Engineering concrete deck bridge kit and used it for a test. It looked good, so I attempted to source more of them and ended up having to turn to eBay. Also got the bridge abutments the same way.

As a FYI, the abutments are Walthers Cornerstone series and their heights do NOT match. I had to spent a fair amount of time cutting and sanding.

Hours later:

Actual model structures!

After some initial paint to prepare for the river scene.

Backdrops in progress, again

Looks shiny - paint was still wet when I snapped this.

The backdrops being painted status has reached the inside area of the peninsulas - I went hammer down about 2 weeks ago.

If you spy actual scenery, you have a keen eye.

Lower Level Benchwork Snapshots

A couple of shots from the recent construction progress to whet appetites for the next visit.

Putting in some additional structure

It can be rare to get a inside structure shot so figured I should share.

Note the pocket screws used to eliminate screwing into end grain

Lots more shots at the main gallery site.

New Tool

Work crew members know that mounting Tortoises can be a challenge due to the size of the case and smaller, #1 Philips screwdriver needed to put in the #4 x 1/2" screws.

I've been on a search for a longer shaft #1 for what feels like years.

A recent perusal of Wiha found the solution to my problem.

The middle of that plat is about 11" or so wide.

Lower Level Benchwork Teaser

Additional work cycles have been dedicated to the benchwork requirement remaining for the lower level during the previous weekends' great weather.

Here is a teaser shot showing the beginning of the northern end of Acca yard. Expect a further update soon.

Hamilton Industrial Park Expansion

Operators may recall that there are three industrial spots at Hamilton, two on the south end and one at the end of the switchback lead north of the south spots.

During the ongoing clean up of the basement area, pieces of lumber were evaluated for reuse elsewhere.

It happened that with a bit of trimming, the original plywood subroadbed used to skirt the helix area was a great fit to fill in the area between the industrial spots and the backdrop.

Expect the Vic Smelly treatment of this area in the future.