The Scenery Masters

I’ve gotten over my mental block on doing scenery, mostly as the result of doing a couple of dioramas in support of my clinics (BTW this is an excellent way of trying out new techniques and, if you don’t like the result, you can just chuck it away). In addition, I’ve had the opportunity to hone my skills by working on other people’s layouts (and act all altruistic in the process!).

However, I’ve had exposure to two scenery virtuosos which have made me feel totally inadequate. But first let me expand on my thoughts about scenery. My first exposures to scenery, in my pre-high school days, were parakeet gravel for ballast and dyed sawdust for everything else (yes, and painted plywood – see below). The most commonly available commercial products of the day were the Like-Like grass, earth, coal and ballast in the familiar boxes; which to this day are essentially unchanged after 50 years. And maybe you know the joke that circulates in the O scale community – “What’s an unsceniced layout? Bare plywood. What’s a sceniced layout? The plywood’s painted green.”

Today there’s a bewildering array of excellent scenery products, that can be intimidating in itself. I particularly favor the various ground cover blends as far superior to the mono-colored, uniform textured products. Following the directions on any of the excellent scenery products that we have today will get you passable scenery; often in a single step.

You can get good scenery by copycatting what you see in the real world. I remember reading somewhere (maybe one of Armstrong’s books?) that the allure of southwestern (US) railroading was the scenery, it’s easy to duplicate – few trees and sparse vegetation. I don’t know. If you study photos of Pelle Soeburg’s or Eric Brooman’s southwestern themed layouts, you’ll see that there’s a lot more to it than that. Here in the eastern US, look at any field in nature. Unless it’s a manicured lawn or a planted field, the color and texture of the field will vary from place to place across it. Bare ground will show through in spots; there will be scrub and weeds in others; dried grass will appear brown even at the height of summer; colorful wildflowers may dot it here and there.

This is the stage of scenery design that I’m at. To duplicate this effect, I use a layered approach. Starting with a tinted or painted scenery base (not on the bare, pool-table-flat plywood; whether it’s painted green or not!) I lay it on in irregular thicknesses, intentionally building in mounds and undulations, because fields are not perfectly flat. On top of this I apply something that simulates the texture and color of the earth. Any one of the commercial “earth” products will work (in fact you should use a few in different spots for variation) and, believe it or not, good old Life-Like earth works well in this application. On top of that I use at least two of the blended ground covers – one finer and one more coarse – to simulate the look of an unkempt field. And I don’t use the same two blends everywhere. As the next layer I’ll sprinkle “burnt” grass, yellow straw or other lighter contrasting colors in irregular patches. The final layer is larger ground foam, polly balls, or other products that add the stand-alone bushes. None of these color layers is applied as a solid opaque layer. It’s applied thinly enough that a hint of the “earth” layer comes through.

This procedure produces “journeyman” level scenery; superb scenery requires some artistic talent. This brings me back to the two scenery masters that I am acquainted with. Each of these model railroaders has a different scenery style. Each produces breathtaking scenery. And each uses predominantly common and/or natural materials in addition to model railroading specific products.

Chris Smith is a member of our local O scale group and an N&W modeler. Chris’ layout is in a modest sized basement (by O scale standards). As a result, the track is pushed out right to the walls in an effort to get in the largest radius and the longest run. There is little room for scenery between the track and the unyielding basement walls. But Chris has mastered the situation; of course he has an advantage, he’s a professional artist!

Sometimes in as little as 3-4” between track and wall Chris has reproduced eastern mountains in a manner that your brain sees a large mountain. Not just mountain forms covered with puff-ball “trees”; Chris has provided every clue that you would see in reality – bare patches, slide areas, trees clinging to and growing out of cracks in rocks. The density of his vegetation is far less than the typical “puff ball” mountain; yet your brain perceives a real, densely wooded eastern hill. On a scale between “impressionistic” and “photo realistic”, Chris’ work is a tick or two on the impressionistic side. I don’t have nearly enough pictures of Chris’ layout, but take a look at what I do have and judge for yourself (Clicking on any photo will blow it up. Use your back button to return).

In his work Chris has used dirt from his backyard and ground up leaves for, what else, leaf litter. Scenic Express tree armatures, ground foam and cast plaster rocks round out his palette of materials. Chris did an article on his mountains: "Vertical Scenery", O Scale Trains, Mar/Apr 2014, if you can find a copy somewhere you can read about his technique.

One of the first scenic features that Chris finished (and one that I am jealous of and really makes me feel inadequate) is his river crossing scene. The river, the rocks, the shoreline, the grass, the bridge –everything is in proportion, balanced and PERFECT! And what did he make his water with? Plain old Minwax varnish, poured on and built up in layers. The natural amber color of the varnish adds to the effect of a lazy, somewhat algae-choked stream.

A couple of years ago at my second layout open house, Jay Beckham and Warren Hart visited. Jay is building an O scale layout in Berkley Springs, WV. Warren had, at that time, just recently returned to model railroading after a very long hiatus. Before he left my layout, Warren shared with me some photos from his long gone HO Western Maryland layout and, even though they were low-res web photos, they were impressive. See for yourself.

A few weeks ago, Jay opened his layout for the MER NMRA convention and I made the trip to West Virginia to take a look.  I was blown away. Warren’s scenery was incomparable, especially when paired with somewhat subdued lighting (a technique that I’ve seen used very effectively recently).

The photos do not do the scenery justice inasmuch as the camera tries to compensate for the low level lighting. The scenery is more impressive in person.

Since this was my first trip to see Warren’s work “in the flesh”, I could not ply him with enough questions to glean any significant insight into his scenery techniques. Some highlights – his rocks are hand carved (although I prefer castings); water is made with successive pours of gloss Mod Podge; coloring is done with craft store acrylics and some of the hanging vegetation is poly fiber teased out and covered with ground foam. On the scale between “impressionistic” and “photo realistic”, Warren’s work is either dead center or a tick towards photo realism.

The most impressive scenic feature so far (and the layout is not nearly finished scenically) is this concrete retaining wall. These walls are common along the WM, which hugs the Potomac River and its tributaries along its climb into the mountains. Although Warren explained how he did it, I still find it mind boggling.

If I can arrange for my schedule and Warren’s to line up, I’d like to understudy him at a future working session.

When I planned my own layout, I took John Armstrong’s advice and planned for more lighting rather than less. My 5000 K overhead fluorescents reproduce high noon on a bright day. But there’s something to be said for planned subdued lighting. Maybe this is something in my future?

Recent Escapades

It seems that so far this year I have worked as much as, if not more, on other people’s layouts as much as my own. So, in no particular chronological order, here are some of my recent antics.

During the month of June and the first part of July, I was on extended business travel to Indianapolis. Dave Vaughn (more on Dave later) hooked me up with his friend and fellow NKP modeler, Jim Canter. Jim belongs to a jolly bunch of O scale/P48 aficionados who have an informal rotating club that meets at and works on the member’s layouts. So I got to do things as varied as installing a transfer table on a 3-rail layout and doing general DCC, electrical and urban construction duties on a portable P48 layout that Jim is building.

I also learned something amazing – Lionel invented P48! Here’s a video to prove it (you may have to view the video in full screen mode, on the playbar, to see the video in the proper aspect ratio).





All kidding aside, I enjoyed my time among the P48’ers; but, no, I’m not changing gauge!

The highlight of my time in Indianapolis was the time spent working on Jim’s portable P48 layout. This layout is 8’ x 16’ (4’ x 8’ equivalent in HO) and disassembles into 4 sections for transport. The track plan is one of the best that I have seen for this space incorporating a continuous run, a runaround/passing track, several industries that can be switched without interfering with the continuous running, a short stretch of 2-track “mainline” where big locos can shuttle back and forth plus a cosmetic junction with the mainline featuring dual sets of diamonds. It is possible to keep 3 trains in motion on the layout, although two of them are shuttling back and forth. All track on this layout is hand laid with tie plates and four spikes per tie, code 125 rail.

I helped Jim lay out his urban scene at one end of the layout, built foundations for the Woodland Scenics/Menard’s buildings; did the DCC system and decoder setup and generally made myself useful.

The last week that I was there was the week before the NMRA National Train Show, which Jim had committed to attend with the layout. There was a lot of work yet to do and I worked every night that week to help out. On the Sunday before the show a whole gaggle of people, including Dave Vaughn who was in town for business on Monday, were ballasting and putting down ground cover.

The stars aligned for me the next weekend (July 19-20) and I was able to make a blitz trip to Cleveland and attend the NMRA National Train Show. On Saturday I handled the duty of keeping all of the trains moving, which was not as boring as it sounds. Interest in the layout was very high, not necessarily from the general public, but from other modelers who had not considered O scale as a viable option before. From talking with a lot of modelers in every scale from N to G the layout struck a cord because of: modest trains running at realistic speeds; accommodation of both continuous running and switching; a plausible mix of urban and industrial/rural scenes; beautifully done track work including #10 and # 8 switches exclusively and a modest size that can fit into a single car garage space. Many NMRA officials spent time at the layout and want to have it at the 2016 NMRA National which will be held in the layout’s hometown of Indianapolis. All of this and the layout is not even near complete yet!

Here’s some video that I shot of the layout to give you a feel for it.







I guess that I’ve been adopted by the Indianapolis group and, since I expect to be making periodic business trips to Indy, that is a good thing!

Going back to the last week of March, the week before I started my new job, I helped Dave Vaughn prepare his layout for a photo shoot by Great Model Railroads. I worked on John Armstrong’s “Photographer’s Bend” scene and the extension of it that Dave had built. The extension, mated with Armstrong’s original work, makes it into a long, lazy “S” curve. Dave had molds made of Armstrong’s rocks and castings matching the original rocks which were used in the new scene.

The new work had no ground cover to hide the plywood baseboard, so that’s where I started to work. Woodland Scenics/Scenic Express ground covers were used. The only thing unusual that I did was use natural rock that I had collected, cleaned and screened. ‘Ya gotta love O scale, since it large enough that natural scenery materials are easy to use, because nothing offered commercially today beats natural materials where you can use them.

Here are some pictures of that work:

When I moved on to the section done by Armstrong it presented a quandary. What is the proper technique to use? Do you curate John’s work and maybe only stabilize it? Do you “freshen it up” or do you bring it up to modern standards? Obviously the layout’s owner, Dave Vaughn, had the final say and his decision was to freshen it up. Here are some photos:

Armstrong's original section extends to the bridge in the foreground.

One thing I did do was add some talus to the base of Armstrong's cliffs.

I did not have the privilege of knowing John Armstrong like some of the other guys in our group did, but I have been honored to work on his layout.

Finally between business trips I’ve been trying to finish the backdrops on my own layout and I’m almost there. They’re more than 75% done now and I going to halt here and clean up the layout for my twice-postponed open house. With most of the backdrops done, scenery can begin even though the mainline is not finished; and I’m looking forward to it.

Woah! It's Been a While.

2013 was not a good year for my model railroad.  The job that I had during the year put tremendous demands on my time, especially travel demands, and my railroad suffered for it.  The job suffered too and did not end well.  However for last couple of weeks I've started a new job and I'm very hopeful that this one work out better and I'll have more time for the railroad.

Essentially not much has been done on the railroad since my last posting execpt for last couple of weeks I've started to put up backdrops; more on that later.  Also during the year, and contributing to my lack of layout building, was the fact that in July I injured my knee and I wasn't able to get it repaired, again due to work requirements, until November. It's very, very difficult to build a railroad when you're on crutches.

That is not to say that I didn't do anything in model railroading during the year. I gave my clinic on the LaunchPad for Model Railroading at 3 NMRA conventions: one in April in Mississauga, Canada; another in July in Atlanta at the NMRA a national and the final one in October in Rockville, Maryland while I was on crutches.

In September, one of my daughters, who was going to an overseas teaching assignment, left her cat in our care. Because I did not know how the cat would react to the layout, I decided, reluctantly, to take most of the rolling stock off of the layout. The prospect of a cat getting on top of the layout and knocking rolling stock to the floor, at 60 bucks a pop for the average O scale car, was a prospect too horrible to contemplate. It was very emotional to take everything off of the layout thereby rendering it useless until such time as I could get the rolling stock back on.

Enough for the retrospective.   I've been stockpiling lumber in an attempt to get everything ready for completion of the main line.  I've taken the opportunity of most models being off of the layout to begin to put up the backdrops that I didn't put up when the bench work was built.  I've used 1/8 inch Masonite for the backdrop held up with 1x2 lumber, self tapping concrete screws and construction adhesive.  The corners are coved at about one and a half foot radius.  As of today about 1/2 of the layout is done.  Along one long wall of the basement; around the water heater (which involved several reverse curves in the Masonite) and along one of the short walls.  The new work was joined to the backdrop on the Cheat River grade, so now that part of the layout has a continuous backdrop.  See the photos which follow.

At M&K Jct. - The Cheat River photo backdrop will be replaced by a fresh print.

The first coved corner.  Here's where I learned that, contrary to what's on Masonite's website, Masonite will not bend down to 1 foot radius.

Approaching the water heater along the Cheat River grade.

Further along, the supports for the backdrop are ready.

The Masonite begins to curve with the Cheat River grade.

The water heater is behind the "S" curve in the Masonite in the center of this pix.

The new backdrop is joined to the already painted backdrop at the top of the Cheat River Grade.

Here are some shots of the joints taped. That's a job that I hate, but it's necessary.

Today, the first coat of paint went on and, I must say, that the painted backdrops change the entire look of the basement.  It's been a PITA, but I see that it's worth it.  Here are some shots looking down and then looking up the Cranberry grade.  

The second coat of paint will be finished by the end of the week.

During this work I've learned that the essential tool for putting up a backdrop of this kind is a air brad nailer.  With it properly adjusted I can nail the Masonite to the 1x2 supports (1x3 at the joints between sheets) and have the nail heads flush with the surface of the hardboard - no setting and filling of nail holes required.  The work went much faster with this tool.

Now that the backdrops are going up, I can begin scenery.  There was no point putting up scenery if a backdrop would have to be lifted into place over it.  I've gotten over my apprehension of doing scenery and I'm anxious to get started.

Report From India

Well, I can't say that my new job is not taking me to some interesting places.  I write this from Bangalore, India, where I am this week for a business trip.  Why is this relevant to Model Railroading?   India holds the #4 position for page views on this blog.  Now it may be that the readers from India are accessing one of the many pages on this blog about electronics. On the other hand is there a thriving model railroading community here?  Could they even be O Scale?

This trip to India was rather chaotic.  The date kept moving around and it was only finalized last Thursday (3/21); so I could not post it here and attempt to make contact with any Indian modelers.   However, if this trip is successful, I expect that I will be back at least once a calendar quarter, if not more often. So, if you are a modeler in India and would like to get together, let me know.

I also did not bring a camera this trip as I will be in the facilities of the Ministry of Defense and I certainly don't want to bring a camera in there.  However, as I get my bearings on travel to India, I intend to bring a camera on subsequent trips and, in the very least, get some railfan pictures.  I've seen videos of some incredible railroad-related situations here that I'd like to see for myself.

Turnouts, Turnouts, Everywhere

Turnouts, turnouts, everywhere.  And curved turnouts at that.  I haven't posted in a while because I have been spending every available hour (which aren't many) either working on the layout, or building projects for the LaunchPad for Model Railroading blog.

In my haste to get ready for my last open house (I can't believe that it's coming up on a year now) I made a couple of stupid moves.  One of which I documented on this blog. I built a double crossover for the entrance to the helix, without measuring first whether it would fit (See The Scissors Crossover and Setback!).  To make up for this mistake, I put a single curved turnout into one track on the helix as a placeholder for a curved crossover to take the place of the abortive scissors crossover and I proceeded to build the helix on top of the location of the future curved crossover in order to have some progress to show for my April 2012 open house.  I knew this was not a smart move and that I'd have to pay for it later; well, now is later.

During 2012 I built a couple of more curved turnouts to finish the crossover as well as the entrance and exit from hidden staging (soon to be renamed lower staging).  Since January I've put those into place.

You'd think that my first run-in with a misfitted turnout would have taught me to "measure twice".  Unfortunately, no.  After finishing the curved crossover, which was fixed in place when I put the first switch down in April of 2012.  I found that the curved turnout that would lead off into hidden staging would not fit where I had intended for it to go.  It wasn't a question of rebuilding the turnout; no turnout (of any acceptable diverging radius) could avoid an unacceptably sharp reverse curve at that location.

So I had to move the turnout further up the helix to the location where I wanted to put another turnout leading from hidden staging. As a result the turnout for the track coming out of hidden staging is further up the helix and closer to the lead-in track so that an unacceptable grade and a fairly bad reverse curve results.  I now have a beautiful sweeping track leading into hidden staging and a short, steep, contorted track leading out of hidden staging where it connects to the helix.  Has anyone ever heard of someone who built staging that needed helpers to get trains out of it?

I kick myself because I should know better; and I knew at the time that I was potentially making mistakes.  Not the least of which I now have to build a fairly complex switch plant between the turns of the helix.  Which, among other things, required that I relocate some of the helix supports which were now standing where track had to pass.

Enough of the kevtching already!  Let's look at some photos.  The connection of the track leading into hidden staging, shown in the last blog post has been completed.  Here are a series of shots of the passenger car, now able to run all the way to the inner track on the lower level of the helix.

This last shot is how my 1/48 scale track gang sees the car merging into the lower level of the helix.

The switch plant that I've built in between the level of the helix looks like this:

Here we're at the beginning of the curved crossover looking uphill on the helix from the inside.  Across the aisle is M&K junction and some standing trains.  The crossover goes between the outer and the inner track on the helix; it's facing point.

About mid-way through the curved crossover here.

The completion of the crossover plus the track into hidden staging is visible on the left.  Beyond the foreground, on the opposite wall of the basement, is Cranberry grade.

Here are a couple of views looking downhill somewhat earlier during construction and the track to staging is clamped and weighted waiting for the glue to dry. 

Finally a couple of track-gang level views.

All of these turnouts are hand-built and, no, they don't have four spikes per tie.  Most of the non-PC board ties are glued on because these will be hidden under scenery to the viewer in the aisle.  Guard and wing rails are extra long to capture the wheels long before and after they pass the frog.

Over on the other side of the helix, the approach track from hidden staging was mocked up in foam core (as was this track) because I could not use my beam compass to lay out the curves (too many obstructions).  Here are some pictures of how that looks.

In the very busy shot above, the lower turn of the helix is shown with one track in place.  The current end of track on the helix is right where you can see the base of a cordless drill.  The support structure for the second turn of the helix does not extend beyond this point.  In the middle ground you can see the foam-core mock-up of the track out of hidden staging.  It will join the lower turn of the helix off camera to the right and behind the photographer.  Follow it left and you can get a sense for how fast it has to drop.  The grade will face approaching trains.

The grade can be seen in this somewhat more sideways view.

Although it's somewhat exaggerated by the wide angle setting on the camera's lens, the drop really is steep. Although I have not adjusted the foam core to final grade, it calculates out to something near 4% between where it will join the helix and where it ducks under the helix.

Adding insult to injury, the current alignment has a reverse curve with no room for a straight section between the curves - a no-no according to John Armstrong.

As you can see in this shot.  Where the two pieces of foam core are disconnected, one curve butts against the other with about an inch between them.  I think that I can realign this section to get some tangent between them, but will it be enough?