Twin Pines RailRoad

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

That gives the impression of being larger than 24’x12’ John. It looks vast.

Trick photography.

Laid in more Scenic Express Ballast. I was surprised by the color variation between sizes. Also shown is chicken grit for comparison. 

Which are you leaning towards Jeff? To my eye the chicken grit is too light but the #16 looks more natural.

Finished the Plastruct storage towers and placed them in the fuel depot.  Still have to decide which decals should be on the depot. The asphalt is the mix of fine cinders and white glue described by Ericstrains - I think it came out well - thanks Eric !

Yes I know we do not put petroleum products into carbon dioxide or liquid nitrogen tanks. 

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Which are you leaning towards Jeff? To my eye the chicken grit is too light but the #16 looks more natural.

Jay, I am not a fan of light ballast, but its is used all over the Midwest by the railroads - limestone is pretty cheap.  This layout will likely be coming down in a year or so (due to a planned move), so I wanted to try a few ideas for the next layout.  The grit is decomposed granite so it has all kinds of colors so its not bad. I think I would tumble it for a while to knock off the sharp edges if I were to use it again, but I think buying commercial ballast is probably a better idea. (But - grit is super inexpensive) 

The #20 is supposed to be O scale size. I ended up with the #16 because it was super cheap from Trainz and I needed more ballast to finish the tracks. I think I like the #20 better color wise. The photo angle is giving a slight change to the Ross track above and below - ignoring the brown ties of the Gargraves flex top right. The #16 is more uniform in color, with the #20 having the lighter grey pieces sprinkled in.

TPRR took official possession of a delayed delivery of its second Illinois Central Gulf diesel. The GP40 and GP38 are waiting assignment on a spur track. Looks like we are in for some rain. So much for a new pristine paint job!

I hope the shop did an inspection before assigning them. You have been very busy Jeff and that’s a lot of detail for a layout that will be dismantled . But it looks great.

Working on the detail is therapy in these days of Covid.  Anyway just building up skills so I know about what I can do when planning the next layout.

Saw a layout plan where there was no lift-ups or lift-outs, but used helixes to turn around (and up). Pretty interesting but it was an HO layout.   by mpeterll  I will run a couple of ideas on Scarm to see how much room that would need for O and 72 and 88 curves (double mainline).

That sounds intriguing and challenging Jeff. So when you are house hunting, your reaction may be, the house is nice but LOOK at that room.

I think you all may be getting the idea I cannot leave things alone. Picked up a couple of MTH corner buildings and the MTH station and started figuring out where to put them on my layout. The station did not look that good in its intended spot as a station, so reconfigured the town a bit.

The station is now the Twin Pines Inn - signage since added.

The bar and new corner buildings are on the extended area of the town.

I pulled all the incandescent lights from the MTH buildings and replaced them with 12v led strip lighting. 1st and 2nd floors are independently controlled and on dimmers.

The rest of the photos show how this area can come apart. All the lighting has M/F disconnects which makes pulling sections completely off without unscrewing wire terminals simple. 

The hole in the center shows how "c" sections were used to support the upper structures but also allow just enough room to stand up in this area. Now if only the entire layout was only 12 inches higher it would be much easier to get up through the hole.  I made it at 32 inches to make it easier for the grand kids. Good thing they are now much taller, next layout will be at least 42 off the floor.

Even the landscaping on the right is removable - its just cotton batting over pink foam.

Ingenious Jeff!

Excellent planning and execution!

Here is a link to trains running on Twin Pines RR. Should give you a better idea of what the layout now looks like.  The yellowish tone is due to a halogen lamp adding needed light to the bridge area. The background has 2 10,000 lumen LED garage lamps adding needed video lighting - they are quite bright.

Hope you enjoy ... Jeff

TPRR May 2021 Trains Running

Here is a cab view of the Twin Pines Rail Road. Sure looks different running down the rails.

I may try putting the camera at the very front of the car to see if it catches the turns any better. Otherwise I can set a wider camera angle.  The 40,000 lumens of 6000K LED garage lighting does make a difference in the video capture. Far less grainy and better color.

I can think of a couple of things I would do different next time. Like leaving the station slower and sounding the bell.  I did miss a switch which caused the camera car to derail. Did it again but it re-railed itself on the next turnout.

Total video is about 5 minutes - its probably a bit long but it covers all my interconnecting track. Running about 25 scale mph.

Hope you enjoy.  Twin Pines Cab View May 2021

Very nice, Jeff!

Very cool!

George

Ongoing Saga - finished redoing my backdrop behind the town of Twin Pines. I like it much better than the undersized "mountain" previously in the background. Stitched together 2 layers of 1/2 inch pink foam, carved it a bit and glued down a layer of cotton batting. Painted a brown dirt color and added ground foam and leaves to add texture. Repositioned the mountain where I think it makes more sense.

Rough foam placement - I hardly ever throw anything away - never know when you can use pieces of this and that. This is a one piece section nearly 8 feet long.

Finished section

A before photo - mountain barely visible behind the corner building and the Twin Pines Inn on the left foreground.

That's all for now. 

Jeff, the new background hills look much better than before!

Thanks Mark,  didn't take all that much time. I started too tall and kept trimming to get a reasonable height. Time for glue to dry and paint to dry was 90% of the time. Next time I'll have to get some better lighting.  I have so little space to maneuver its difficult to get certain camera angles.

Still thinking about re-doing the town. I think I'll move the Inn back where I originally had it and put in a couple of woodland scenic buildings I am working on in its place.

How is the back surgery recovery going?

Jeff, I agree with Mark; very well done.