Modeling Morrison

[Don Gustavson II]

In one of the corners of the train room is a reverse loop. An end destination for my Railroad.

To get there you would leave Como up to Kenosha Pass. From there it would go towards Denver. I do not want to model Denver.
So for a long time I was just going to make something up. Call it Donville or something. It was a good spot for a Mill of some kind.

But recently I made myself go back and try and figure out someway to fit this area into the C&S world.
Shawnee, Webster and some other spots where possibilities.

Jeff has done a great job modeling Platte Canon and Silica. So I passed those up.
Thanks to all the wonderful info you all post here. I have been able to pick a place.

Morrison. ( I reserve the right to change)

This will work nice because I can leave Como. Go up to Kenosha pass, Then over to Morrison and back.

After studding all the pictures in the "Pictorial Supplement to Train Time in Morrison" thread, I believe I can make this work out fairly well with what I currently have. I will have room for the depot, buildings on Bear Creek Ave, (A few still exist today it looks like) the  Kiln, and I may put a mine at the east end of town (I have some mines built I need to use somewhere). A water tank next to Bear Creek , and maybe a Conoco dealer near the depot. I was going to make a stamp mill here. It may now become a Lime Stone rock query. (If I can fit the Mill in between Romely and St Elmo).
Possibility of some archaeologist digging up some Dinosaur bones would be fun.

I should be able to have the tracks cross Bear Creek. However most of the Creek will be 100 feet down a cliff behind the Depot. (May end up with a Bear Creek water fall.) I am reusing a real tall wood bridge from the original layout in this area. This makes for a deep canon.

Not sure when I will be able to start working on this part of the layout. So this post may be a little premature. However I post it now as to try and keep me motivated. And so you all know that this forum has brought me to this. I am just happy I have picked a real historical place.

Warning. The following pictures are not pretty. Its my ugly duckling section of the layout.
All the cardboard silliness is me trying to figure out how to make a hidden access hole work, along with everything else.
And to keep locos from hitting the floor during this stage.
The blue is the bottom of the cannon. There will be a standard gauge spur there.

My first ideas of Donville.

The reverse loop works well. (I know there was not one at Morrison)
I used some stand in buildings to see if Morrison could work.
The two bridges will remain as I originally planed.  I will need to add one for Bear Creek.

And some playing with Photo Shop. I think this could work out well.

To the left there are two spurs. Far side of the reverse loop. May put in an engine house.
P.S The Church in the pictures I scratch built when I was 16ish. The funny thing is that there is one in Morrison now that looks similar. So I will try and work it in.

[Jeff Young]

Hi Don,

I think it’s an excellent plan.  The kiln and Conoco depot will be particular fun and interesting.  (And the stamp mill would make more sense up Chalk Creek somewhere.)

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Don Gustavson II]

A Layout update.
We spent most of the winter converting most of the standard gauge layout to DCC.
We have an open house coming up on Fathers day. So now a push to get something more visible done.

I wanted to get some shape to the area of Morrison. It has been such an ugly part of the layout.
Keep in mind I have a high bridge salvaged from the old layout. And I am working it in to this area. So I ended up with some tall cliffs.

It will still be a good representation of Morrison.

I am posting pictures of the project unfinished.
Not pretty, but I am doing it just to show how I am building it out. Maybe it will give someone an idea.

Some wood structure. This defines my hidden access hole that will be behind the mountain. This access is forcing me into some tall cliffs.
Cardboard strips attached to the wood to support paper.  Warning. Hot glue guns are Hot.
The lower  standard gauge track is just going to be a spur. May go into a collapsed tunnel. After going across a dilapidated bridge.


Ahh!
So if you empty out a trash can on to the layout, It would look about like this.
It is going to look great when it is done.. Trust me.
Paper wadded up and added / stuffed into the cardboard web. This gives some randomness to things.  And it will support the next step.


Looking better already. (No rock work has been done at this point.)
Paper strips dipped in Hydrocal and laid out. Layered up in some of the steeper locations in order to support rock molds.
Painted my temporary stand in  bridge flat black. It just looks better.


I photo shopped in a few things here. Blue for Bear Creek. A fence. A foot and or vehicle bridge in the foreground, and a vehicle bridge in the background.
I know I may be modeling multiple years at once. But I can do that.
I have decided it would be fun to model the turntable after it was mostly filled in. And I want to have the fence in place.
The creek may not run under a bridge of the main line on the right side of the picture. I just don't want to cut into that part of the wood.
And I really have no where for it to go. So it may just be a culvert.
The buildings are a stand in. But they may be there for a long time. My scratch build building list is growing.
Still some track work to do in Morrison. I don't always do stuff in the "Right" order. I just made sure it can still be access easily later.  


Another angle. Morrison in the background.
Stand in bridge at the bottom also. Not sure how the supports for the upper steal viaduct bridge are going to work with the bridge bellow it. Going to take some creative engineering. (There is a part of me that plans. And a part that "Makes it up as I go")
There will be a nice cut in the mountain for the narrow gauge on the upper left of the picture.


The old wood bridge that took me years to figure out how to work it into the layout. Love it or hate it.. Here it is going to stay.


On the left of this picture is a small bit form the old layout. Going to make some kind of engine facility/ single stall engine house/ work shop.
This has a second cut in the mountain for the narrow gauge to pass through. This just made it flow better.
In the background on the left is the corner of the wall. This will be a little more mountain. Maybe a Mine. This to the left of the access hole.


And one last picture  of the wood bridge.
Was going to have a river flow under this, around and back under the longer bridge.
Now each bridge is just going to go over its own start of a canyon.
 

[Jeff Young]

Looking good, Don.  (And FWIW, I love the wood bridge.)

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

An excellent example of a scene in progress. The progression from wood and cardboard strips to paper to plaster form with a combination of photo shopped elements and real structures bring the scene to life. The captions along with the photos allow us to follow your planning as well as the spur of the moment inspiration. Please keep the pictures coming as the finished scene will be a work of art. Thanks for sharing.

Lee Gustafson