Building the RK&M III: The Mountain

[TomPM]

The next area that I need to work on is what I call the Mountain. I need to do this now because it is in the background and I don’t want to complete too much of the Hillside and then have to reach across the hillside area to work on the Mountain. The mountain will also serve as scenic separator for the layout.

Here is the area before.

 

[TomPM]

I now have some of the foam down for the base of the mountain and for the tunnel portal.

 

[TruckLover]

Looking Good Tom

Glad to see some updates:thumb: :thumb:

 

[jr switch]

Tom, --I'm going to enjoy watching the progression of the mountain and associated landscaping. Looking forward to using the foam sheets for the depth I'll need so that cuts can be made for bridges and hills built up in the background. You guys are all so good about posting pics of the progress on your layouts and the exchange of ideas is extremely helpful---Keep posting the photos---Thanks, John R

 

[TomPM]

Thanks guys!

Now here are the tunnel portals. They are from Woodland Scenics. I painted them with Folk Art Clay Bisque. I then dry brushed spots and streaks with Folk Art Huckleberry, Amish Blue, and Dark Gray. Next I painted over them with Folk Art Linen thinned 1:1 with blue windshield washer fluid.

Next is weathering.

 

[TomPM]

Here is the almost all of the foam base done for the mountain.

The next photos show the area where there will be a road that crosses the tunnel area.

 

[TomPM]

I painted the inside walls of the tunnel black. I also tacked down the road bed.

Next is to finish painting the bottom of the tunnel black and attach the tack.

 

[wickman]

HiTom All of your projects are coming out fantastic. I don't know how many I've started following from beginning to upto the point of ballast being laid and then all of a sudden I notice the rails and ties have been weathered. Am I missing something or have you never given a description of how you do the rails ? I sure would like to know your steps you follow to get the rails finished the way they look .

 

[TomPM]

The track is down and the portals are weathered, sealed and in place.

 

[TomPM]

I had a request to show some of how I weather my track. Since I need to do the piece through the tunnel before putting the top on I thought I could show how I weather the track.

My tools: A paint brush and Folk Art Asphaltum:

The track before I begin.

I paint the “far” side of the track and the ties with the Asphaltum straight out of the bottle; no thinning.

 

[TomPM]

Next I paint the “near” side of the rail and ties, and the ties between the rails.

Now I clean off the rails.

Now let everything dry. I will have to do a second coat.

 

[TruckLover]

That looks great and looks very easy to do.:thumb: :thumb:

 

[wickman]

Thanks Tom Here I thought it was some magical method of painting.
I had tried some painting on my tracks today using boxcar red with a number 0 brush but unless your flash makes yours look more brite and rusty compared to a box car red I would have to say your paint choice is better. The pic is hard to tell and although the color of your previously painted tracks look perfect is the color comparable to box car red?
I had actually thought the ties may have been a brownish color, thinking of which the other day I crossed some tracks outside of the city limits here and to my amazement there was a rust color going down the middle of the ties.
Will you be ballasting in this section or dah probably not seeing as it'll be in the tunnel ops:

 

[TomPM]

Will you be ballasting in this section or dah probably not seeing as it'll be in the tunnel ops:

Yes I will. I thought about it and figured that for photos I will need to ballast a good portion of the track.

 

[TomPM]

Thanks folks for the compliments!

I completed the second coat of paint and the track weathering is done.

 

[CCT70]

Allright, updates! Cool!

I picked up a nifty little track weathering trick once (for after the rails have been painted though): After ballasting and the glue is all dry, I take an old toothbrush and scrub between the rails. That really weathered it nicely, since it took pigment from the ballast and distributed it across the ties. Gave it an oily, sooty color that looks pretty nice.

At any rate, that's how *I* weather track after the ballasting is done and the track has been painted.

Tom

 

[Old_Bob]

Slightly off topic perhaps, but are tunnels ever made for a dual line main line? The layout I'm building in my mind will have a double main line with normal spacing between the tracks. This will be the transition from one room to the next in my perimeter shelf layout in the basement.

 

[LongIslandTom]

Yea, some tunnels are big enough to accomodate two tracks.. Those are more expensive to build though because of the larger bore, and consequently those tend to be shorter.

For long tunnels, the more modern trend is to build multiple single track tubes... Like the Chunnel. It has separate eastbound and westbound tubes, each with just one track. That also has a built-in safety margin-- In case of accident in one tube, the other one can be used by the responders to get to the accident site. In a long single-tube tunnel that would be very hard to do.

 

[Old_Bob]

Thanks for the input!

 

[TomPM]

I have placed the paper towels with plaster. I have then gone back over the towels and “painted” a layer of plaster of Paris.

Next is using Sculpta-mold to fill in the gaps around the tunnel portals and to make rock faces.