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When I make my tunnel portals, I add black marks with a charcoal stick to represent the locomotive smoke. This looks OK, and I have seen commercially available portals with the same black marks.

 

However, I looked at many tunnel portal images (Google) and none of the ones I saw had any black marks. I have seen videos of real trains and some have had the black tell-tale of the locomotive smoke, but not all.

 

I would like your opinion on whether to add the black before I finish the new portals I am making now. What do you think?

 

Here are some pictures of real world tunnel entrances without black smoke marks (click on pictures to enlarge): 

 

Cascade tunnel

 

Gallitzin Tunnel PA 3725938409_89e983cfb5_z

 

Harpers Ferry Tunnel 296-1252293189uj4C

 

Hoosac_Tunnel

 

PennsylvaniaRailroadAlleghenyTunnelGallitzin

 

TT06_Tunnel

 

Thx!

 

Alex

Attachments

Images (6)
  • Cascade tunnel
  • Gallitzin Tunnel PA 3725938409_89e983cfb5_z
  • Harpers Ferry Tunnel 296-1252293189uj4C
  • Hoosac_Tunnel
  • PennsylvaniaRailroadAlleghenyTunnelGallitzin
  • TT06_Tunnel
Last edited by Ingeniero No1
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The smoke marks are definitely correct for a steam-era layout.  But, I have always been ambivalent about adding them.  I'm not sure why, but somehow it always strikes me as kind of a cliché. It is really no different from a lot of other details, so I can't really defend my position.  But that's how I feel.   Maybe people just overdo it.  Dunno.

I have to say, I agree w/ Avanti/Pete about the ambivalence and not being sure why. I never got too fired-up over that feature, though I've accepted such a detail if it were present on a portal I bought commercially. I just don't add the feature, for some reason.

Frank

P.S. Doesn't that girder-bridge, visible toward the bottom of the Harper's Ferry portal  photo, look great in its real-life weathering!

I watched another video last night and even though it was from the end of the steam era, the tunnels shown did not have the smoke finger prints.

 

I cannot figure out how some of the old portals don't show the smoke tell-tale. As David said: "I know darn well that one at Harpers Ferry had black on it at one time." Maybe they were washed; other than rain, that is?

 

I am going to finish the two that I am making now and place them on the layout without the smoke marks, and see how they look. I can always add the smoke later on rather easily.

 

The problem is that these two are in close vicinity to several others that already have the smoke added, and the new ones may look out of place.

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

Alex

Harpers Ferry is covered in smoke during the steam era. What you don't or might not know is that there is a 1100 foot cliff rock face directly above this portal. A great deal of water comes down when the rains move west to east.

 

The engines running westbound would be pulling hard before a series of grades.

 

There was a time the other Portal was flooded almost completely through back in the 70's? Anges if memory serves. They played a Canoe either in a picture or TV on the water near the top of the portal... something like 25 feet up.

 

In my days of trucking the only time I saw black smoke was two situations, running a natural air breathing engine without a computer in sight working hard or a failed intercooler clamp on a computer controlled engine. The result would be smoke that has to stick to everything with oily substances.

 

There were entire strips of hard coal/coke country where green was replaced by grey/black of the fires.

 

The word Telltales show me a post with a series of ropes to warn brakemen riding atop of cars that there is a tunnel coming and not far away.

 

I hope that this contributes in some way.

Chris,

 

Thank you for the pictures; they certainly helped me decide: add some smoke! My portals look somewhat like a couple of the pictures as they have a ledge at the top and are mostly cement; simulated, that is.

 

Lee,

Thanks for the information; and yes, it helps!

 

I have finished the portals and the mountain (hill?) side, and now I am working on tying or bridging the two ends of the mountain together. I'll be able to post a few pictures in a day or two.

 

THX!

 

Alex

Alex,
What I meant to say was I remember it being black when I was a kid. My brother worked for an outfit during the summer that traveled up and down the eastern seaboard  cleaning tunnels by using steam or sandblasting when he was in college.
They clean the tunnels periodically to so they can inspect them but in the early 60's that portal was as black as the ace of spades. I guess with clean burning diesels and lighter rail traffic these days it stays clean from the rain.


If you want to know what the outside looked like, look at your pic and look at the ceiling on the inside. That's what it used to look like.

Hope this works Alex this is a pic of the Columbian coming thru the tunnel in 1949

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Columbian_[B%26O%29_train.jpg



David

Last edited by Former Member
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