Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928

[Bill Nelson]

Very slow going on the railroad recently. The wife found a great deal on a cabin on Kentucky Lake, and over the last several months we have been busy making a real estate deal, and moving some furniture in. We have moved furniture there, about an hour west of us, on two of three of the last weekends, and had an unofficial reunion of college college friends the other weekend. moved a bunch of furniture in on Saturday, and had time for some epic relaxation. Am carving rocks in plaster at the club, and hope to be doing some of that tomorrow night, at the club; want to do a lot of it at home as well, so I can install a bridge over some mostly done scenery; and not ruin the bridge with plaster and paint as I build scenery around it. Once I get that bridge in, then I can install track down a 15 foot long 9 inch shelf. there will be a long passing siding, which I can use for staging, until the tracks get farther down the lowest level, to the iron works, the log camp, and the return loop, at the far end of the layout, on the lowest level of the helix nook.

 

[Bill Nelson]

We got evicted at the club, have a deal working for a new place, but have been crazy busy tearing out our old layout. Made lots of trips out to KY. Lake, and have been toting buildings to build, rebuild, paint, repaint rehab, or other wise work on. I have built some of the industrial buildings that I will use to expand my old Iron furnaces at the old Montgomery Furnace into a larger Montgomery Iron Works for the new Larger Montgomery Furnace, that will be on the lowest level of my central peninsula.









On the lowest level of my RR, in the southeast corner I have been carving some rocks. I want to get the scenery done in this corner, so I can install the bridge. once the bridge is in, it will be quick to extend the main line some 18 feet down the east wall's narrow shelf, and then curve around to enter the lowest level of the center peninsula. the east wall will have a long passing siding, and a long siding on it, so I can use it for staging for operating in Harlow and Crooked Creek.

 

[Bill Nelson]

[ Have made the massive hydrocal retaining wall for the new Harlow, am trying to replicate the stairs from the station to the street level on the court house square, from the scene in old Harlow, and have started carving. Progress on the RR is slow, in spite of me being off for the summer; now being a school employee. My Wife has purchased a place on KY. lake, a little more than an hour from here, and I'm spending a lot of weekends out there. learning to pick, and pack some small projects.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Went to the lake as soon as the wife got out of the office on friday night. I took the flats made out of the City Classics East Ohio Street kits, and one that came from Lund studios, that will partially disguise the edge of the helix, and soften the break between the un sceniced track in the helix, and the Southern end Of Harlow. The first photo is of the helix, with the buildings removed for paint work . At the level of the city of Harlow, the track entering the helix space to the right is my DG, CC, & W RR main line going SouthEast up to the upper level, where I will try to squeeze the small water powered sawmill that used to live in the Gizzard. the track at the top of the helix has the beginning of a passing siding, as well as a single track siding diverging for the water powered sawmill. The track entering the Helix space to the left is the Track down to the Southern staging. the switch at the edge of the helix space makes a return loop for the southern main in Harlow, so a train can come out of the Southern staging, just below Harlow, and be depending on which way that switch is thrown, a Southbound, or Northbound train. In the far left bottom of the frame on the first photo, you can see the roadbed for the return loop, with a passing siding for the lowest level. which will bee to low, down below the knees.


The second photos show the mostly painted building fronts that will mark the end of the scenery. I did not want to put a back drop to totally hide the helix; my experience from the club indicates that strange things happen in helixes. also that is a long portion of my run. The Helix gives me 18 and one third inches rise. Shay #8, which is geared very slow (The prototype had a top speed of 12 mph) , takes five and a half minutes to traverse the helix. these buildings help mark the end of proper scenery; but still allow me to see what is going on in the helix nook. The Panoramic photo above the helix nook was taken from my front yard in December of 1997. The safety tape on the front of the layout is a head clearance warning. there is a removable section of layout on the lower level allowing entry to the helix for cleaning and maintenance. the sign on the top of the helix is a piece of suggestive psychology. it reads IT IS EASY AND FUN TO GO INTO THE HELIX NOOK; ONCE THERE YOU WILL NOT FEEL CLAUSTROPHOBIC.

Dr. Tom likes the eye level photography, so for him, I am including a photo of #3 (?) waiting at the South Tower for a Northbound Southern Passenger train to clear the diamond; (return loops can make things tricky; that is why I have the tower marked on the side of the layout. I can never remember which tower is which). At the club we had a section of track that was both eastbound and westbound in each direction. There was a tower there, which Tyler named Befuddlement tower.


Nelson

 

[silveroxide]

Wonderful work. While I would love to start a railroad village, and who knows, maybe in the future, I learn a lot about diorama building watching railroaders construct their masterpieces. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Silveroxide, what does your Airborne unit patch represent?. I live in Clarksville TN, Next to FT. Cambell Ky. and the 101st Screaming Eagles.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I have been pouring hydrocal to create the retaining wall in Harlow, trying to get the feel of the old Harlow, even though this retaining wall is twice the size of the old one. the steps from the gazebo to the train station came out well, lots of stones to carve into this 6 foot long retaining wall. I have rock formations sticking out of the wall in places. I started off painting the rocks black, to get deep shadows in any of the nooks, few things worse than having bright white unpainted plaster peek out form what should be a dark crevasse.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I got more stones carved, the beginning of a roof on the gazebo (still meeds shingles), and a first coat of paint on the retaining wall. Lots more stones to carve, since this new retaining wall is six feet longer than the old one. I have the stones carved all the way to the highway overpass now. And at the Lake last weekend, besides building the roof for the gazebo, I trimmed the highway overpass, so the outside of it will be angled properly flush with the edge of the layout.

 

[Bill Nelson]

MY plan was to be working on the cliffs at the western crossing if Crooked Creek, so I could install the bridge, and extend my mainline down the lower level of the eastern wall, and gain another 18 feet of running space, a long passing siding, and a long siding that could be used for staging... As I am prone to do, I got distracted. I had a gob of wet hydrocal, and I thought I'd experiment with carving stones on the Harlow retaining wall. This is important, it is one of the first things you see as you enter the RR room. the old harlow retaining wall was approximately four feet long. the new one is maybe eleven and a half feet long. I got carried away, and I have all but about the last two and a half feet dode. the last two and a half feet will go faster, as the retaining wall tapers down on the west side, just as it tapers up on the west side. I have begun to paint the retaining wall around the gazebo, which finally got a start on it's roof; it still needs shingles. I will have to do a lot of work coloring individual stones . Old Harlow, which I'm trying to get the feel of is shown in the bottom photo. the lighting is beter in old Harlow. Like new harlow will eventually get; there is a level of RR over old harlow, and I have flouresent tubes mounted on the bottom of the upper deck to provide adequate lighting. New harlow will get that later, but I will have to build the benchwork for the upper deck before I can hang the lights. As a first step toward painting the retaining wall , I covered it with a wash of acrylic paints, a mix of black, and pewter gray. to seep into the cracks so I can dry brush other colors on top of the stones, and not have to worry about getting paint down in the cracks.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I got enough acrylic washes on the retaining wall, they are starting to look solid. I may as some more subtle variations to the color of the stones, but in the mean time, I have vacuumed up most of the paster debris, and repainted the areas that ware stained white in the plastering, and plaster carving process . I'm really wanting to do some ballast and ground cover here to get a more finished look, but I should really get back to the west crossing of Crooked Creek, so I can get that bridge in,m and extend my mainline west another eighteen feet or so, with a long passing siding, and a long siding I could use for staging. If I do that I could store four trains on the lower level, which would be enough to keep the mill switcher in Crooked Creek busy for some time.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I have been experimenting with ballasting in the Harlow area

 

[Bill Nelson]

I am testing the western river crossing over crooked creek. I got over my diversion to Harlow's retaining wall , and got around to carving and painting these cliffs, once the bridge is all the way in, I can extend the eastern mainline another 18 feet down the eastern wall of the RR room. I'll have a humongous passing siding , and a long siding there, which I can use as a staging area, until I build the lowest level of the central peninsual, which will have the iron furnaces, and a massive logging camp on it. Smaug likes the new cliffs!

s

 

[zathros]

You'll have to squeeze Silveroxide harder than that!!

Fantastic work going on here!!

 

[Bill Nelson]

with Smaug's approval of the cliffs, I have been applying acrylic gloss medium to the river, and starting to paint the backdrop. I broke the rules and started with the foreground. I should have started with the sky and clouds, and distant mountains. I did not, and there will be hell to pay, but I like my woods anyway. I'll put foreground trees salvaged from my old mountain in front of the back drop, and have an awesome primordial forrest. I did the tree shapes with three different shades of acrylic green, and a piece of sea sponge. I'll have to come in and add some variation to the colors of the tree trunks, as well as painting some logs, limbs and other organic trash on the ground on the backdrop to match the stuff I'll litter the forest floor. the river is a little lighter color in real life. folks who think that color is just wrong, well white Oak Creek, which we pass on the way to Kentucky lake is often a shade of green that is totally inexplicable.

 

[zathros]

This will be one Train enthusiast will be talking about for years. Truly the buildings, each, on their own are works of art.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I got a little more backdrop painted; this is a lot of fun. with my rebuild, and more of my RR on shelves to narrow for much scenery, and too close to each other vertically to allow much below the grade scenery on any but the lower deck, I'm relying on backdrops to establish that this railroad is in the mountains. I'm test fitting the Southside tannery, which will get loads of peeled bark from the logging camp in Flea Creek, which will be boiled to make tannic acid. Raw hides will also be shipped in, and finished leather will be shipped out.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Have worked in the extra full length truss, ansd a short span to the left. it's going to look sweeT!

 

[Bill Nelson]

On friday I roughed in a pier for the Western end of the bride out of styrofoam, and carefully trimmed it to match the angle of the cliff. I also carved a block of foam to make a foundation for the Tannery near the east side of the bridge. This weekend while at the lake, I carved stone work into them. I test fit them a little ago, and they fit just right, so It;s time to paint them, and install them.

I need a coaling trestle at the Tannery, and at the lake I remembered I have the old wide bridge deck that crossed the log pond at the club, leading to the Patterson #1. I'm going to trim it so it extends only a few ties past the foundation to the smoke stack, cut a hole between the ties , to lead to coal bins under the bridge deck, and I'm going to loosten the spikes, remove the code 100 rail, and slide some cone 83 rail in there so it will match the rail in the area.

soon the river is going to be at the point I can start installing trees along the top of the cliff.


Nelson

the rest of the rail in the scene.

 

[zathros]

Your "Summer House" is beautiful. I also own a Subaru, three actually, two identical 1998 Subaru Legacy Wagons (the color looks like British Racing Green), and a 2002 Subaru Forester, same Green, but with that two tone Gold lower trim. I gets an amazing amount of use out of these cars. I have a 2004 Honda Accord, V-6 V-Tec engine, but once you go to all wheel drive, front wheel drive seems like it's missing something. I prefer rear wheel drive anyways. I have a 1973 M.G. Midget I am restoring, and a 1973 Mercedes 450SL that's next. I'm the second owner on the Mercedes.

I tried making one of those circular track helix's you made, that's not easy to pull off, it has to be exact of the trains derail, or just fall off. Great job.

 

[Bill Nelson]

The helix is tricky, I benefitted from knowledge of two helixes on our old club layout. the first rule is to use the largest radius possible. It helps to use thick plywood, as any vertical curves (changes in the grade) on the helix will cause problems, and the thicker pieces of plywood are stiffer; and thus it is easier to keep the grade even. I'm not a math whiz, and figuring the grade , rise over run, or to be more precise, change in elevation divided my the length of the elevated track. To be sure, the english measuring system is going to put you into fraction land, so I figure my grades using centimeters. I have a measuring tape with metric on one side, and english on the other, so I can switch gears.

A problem that often gets missed is keeping the roadbed's cross section level. I have a several little levels, designed to be a line levels. as I'm building the helix (or any roadbed for that mater), I check the level, ninety degrees off the center line of the track. It should be dead level. some lean to the sub road bed you can get away with, but it is more problematic in a curve or on a grade, doubly so on a helix. a slight elevation of the outside rail in a curve is a prototype practice called super elevation. This makes the car lean inward some. the goal is to balance the force of gravity tipping the car inward, and centrifugal force, pulling the car outward. Super elevation helps a little on the model; but not as much as it does in real life. it is only worthwhile where you can see it, as it is a cool effect, but it is best achieved with tiny shims under the outside rail of flex track; we want to stay away from anything but a dead level .


The Lake house "Eagle's Nest", is awesome. It is on a steep hill in the deep woods, going down to the shallow end of a Bay on Kentucky lake (formed by by a TVA dam on the Tennessee River) The Bay be are on is where White Oak Creek comes in. I'm going to have to get a license and some fishing gear, the fishermen I know say that area is awesome fishing. We have a nesting pair of Bald eagles nearby, and we are seldom there without seeing or hearing them. If you get out on the water, you are very likely to see them, as they are fishing all the time, and ignore people in boats.

When my wife was commuting to Nashville to work on the pediatric Cardiology floor ant Vanderbilt, before she became a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, she needed something weather capable to drive that could keep up with the 6:00am Nashville traffic, and our 86 Toyota 4 runner was imported when the speed limit was 65, and it did not like running 80 mph. I was working at a chevy dealer then, and they would sell cars to employes at $300.00 over cost. I had her come in and drive whatever the Chevy AWD station wagon was, but she didn't like it. They had an 03 6 cly Subaru Outback wagon, with the LL bean package, and she liked that, and bought it. The Subaru AWD tends to spoil you. Later she saw a Baja, and liked it. She asked me if She could get one for me, and I said she could if she got a yellow one. We are Nashville Predator Hockey fans, and I wanted a truck that would match my team colors. Ir took her a year hunting on the internet, but she found me one. My back up road vehicle is a 98 GMC Suburban, and My Wife has an 06 Red Miata for her back up. My farm truck is a 81 Toyota 4x4 truck, but it is not licensed , or insured for the road.

I painted the foam bridge pier, and put the first protective coat of polyurathane varnish on the river. the gloss acrylic medium looks beter, but has a fragile surface . when the varnish on the river dries, I can start installing foreground trees along the cliff, and making the primordial forest floor back to this corner. that is going to make this area my most most scenic spot, until I get to my upper deck. I have also shortened the bridge deck stolen from the club, and removed the code 100 rail (leaving the spikes in place, so it should be super easy to get the new code 83 rail installed); I need to cut out some holes between the ties to dump coal for the tannery. I should be able to start extending the track onto the Sander's switch block soon.