Time to get this railroad back on track

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

Impressive progress the quality and quantity of your work is genuinely remarkable. The photos of work in progress is informative, instructive and of the highest quality. I really appreciate the posting of your work on the forum. Thanks.

Lee Gustafson

[Don Pacetti]

Thanks My friends! Isn’t that picture with my dog Dexter sleeping under the layout a hoot? I use an artist’s sponge and a spray bottle to remove 90 percent of the black tempera powder I use for shadowing.  Dexter thinks the sponge is a squeaky toy and he’s always trying to steal it out of my wash bucket =D

[Don Pacetti]

I’ll apologize, up front, for the brag shots, but I am just blown away by the results and by how easy this Bragdon Geodesic Foam Scenery is to accomplish. The other thing I love is how fast and light it is. This entire scene on my layout was done in less than a week and probably weighs less than 100 lbs. I also did it with just two of Bragdon’s molds and a large mining complex casting I bought a few years ago.  I know I’m retired now and this is my second layout, but I still believe this scenery system is one of the best available systems out there. I also used a few lightweight hydrocal castings and over 6 lbs. of Sculptamold to tie it all together...Next are the Apex mine scene; the pump house near the bridge / pond, southwest of Como; and the river below the trestle. Thanks so much for all the help with research, and the kind comments, ya’ll. More to follow...

[Don Gustavson II]

You are allowed to brag all you want. It looks great. I also am going to be doing the palisades. Hope it turns out half as good as yours. I am a little nervous. I may need to come up with some other rock molds and or figure out how to hand carve some rock.

[Don Pacetti]

Thanks!

Why don’t you consider the Geodesic System I used?  I did that entire Palisade, in about a month, with only two of Joel’s larger molds and two or three small Woodland Scenics molds. The total cost for the molds and the resin was about $300 and I have quite a bit of resin left over.  As a matter of fact, the cliff face on the left near the big trestle is the same mold flipped upside down. All of that loose rip rap you see on my cliff face, shown below, is included in the larger molds. If you go with the epoxy resin system, it’s faster, and lighter and I can give you a hand with the experience I just garnered on this project.

Here is an update of the Apex Mine scene, based on Malcom Furlow’s Saratoga Mine.  I still have a lot of ground cover to add and some work required to blend the mine cliff face into the backdrop, but you get the general idea.  I plan to use small trees to assist in that  endeavor by using forced perspective - the higher up a tree or building is and the farther it is from the front of the layout the smaller it must be.

[Don Pacetti]

A little lame, but not too much =D

[Don Pacetti]

Here is a short video of the finished rock work near the mining district:
https://youtu.be/0tITLJ8aluY

[Jeff Young]

Awesome!  You've even got the crack in the big rock.

[Fred H.]

Love it! Great progress. Fun video.

[Don Pacetti]

Thanks Fred. I finished detailing the high trestle this morning and took a shot from below track level. One of the things I factored into the original design was to build scenes I could use for photo shoots, like the one I posted previously of Split Rock.

[Don Pacetti]

Oct.17, 2019: https://youtu.be/A2lUij8WCVU

Dec. 29, 2019: https://youtu.be/k_ix3JsMApk

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

You just keep getting better and better. It runs as well as it looks. Very impressive. Thanks for sharing I always appreciate and respect your work

Lee Gustafson

[Don Pacetti]

Thanks Lee. Most important thing I learned with my first layout is reliability is key. That layout was built with Malcom Furlow’s San Juan Central plan, which looked awesome and photographed well, but it had #4 switches, grades that approached 4.5 percent, short curvef sections that were 16 inch radius and had way too much hidden trackage. After years of poor performance I realized it wasn’t ever going to work, so I salvaged what I could and the rest went to the dump.

When I created the plan for this layout I adopted the following rules:
- 22 inch minimum radius
- No turnouts below a 6
- No grades over 2 percent, with the illusion of height change achieved by building bench work that supports cliff faces below track level.
- No hidden trackage, as derailments always seem to happen there and cleaning track in these areas is a royal pain.

All are aimed at maximizing reliability. You would be amazed at how poor many layouts are in that department. As a case in point, HGTV had a weekly train show with two model railroaders operating their layout holding long dowels that they used to coax stuttering locomotives through turnouts! I did not want that to be me.
Here is another video showing the Como yard area, too.
https://youtu.be/RixUAX_KUYE

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

Thanks for the information on your layout design parameters. My current layout uses the same design parameters as yours for the same reasons. I might add the lack of grades puts less strain on locomotive mechanisms. Your model building, layout design and photography qualify you as the narrow gauge John Allen. As always thank you for your contributions. Take care and best wishes.

Lee Gustafson

[Don Pacetti]

Dear Lee, thanks for the kind words. It’s funny that you mentioned John Allen. When I first started in model railroads I bought a coffee table book about John Allen’s railroad and just poured over every photo in that book. I did exactly the same with Malcom Furlow’s work and Harry Brunk’s. As a matter of fact,  I own every article and book Harry ever wrote...so “I follow in the footsteps of giants”.  I’m back to wiring now, so I’ll post some shots of the rest of the layout as I work my way towards Boreas and the branch to Jefferson and Kenosha =D