Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928

[Doctor G]

Bill. Gots a ? for you. My PhotoBucket overnight became ransomware and want $500 to post pictures to this nice site. How are you uploading all these great shots which do not disappear like mine did this AM? I am trying IMGUR but they may get money hungry too. Thanks for any suggestions. Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

Ok you hit upload a file from the bottom of the screen, and that puts a thumbnail at the bottom of the post. Then put the little curser doohickey where you want the picture,and then hit the view full size.

 

[Doctor G]

Thanks. Boy have I learned a lot with this photobucket debacle. Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

Ready to carve rocks on the back side of the South Fork of Crooked Creek.



As I carve rocks, some debris fall into the stream area. Any that don't look remotely like rocks, I remove.






I end up with too much rock debris , and scoop up some, and brush the rest to the base of the cliffs it make rocky shores for the stream. ThenI spray the plaster debris, and the creek bed with water, before flooding the debris with soupy hydrocal. This fuses the debris into a solid mass, while still resembling piles of broken rock. The excess soupy hydrocal spreads out on the wet plywood creek bed to make the surface of the creek. Any errant chunks of debris becomes a rock in the stream.

Note the foundations for the steel bents for massive narrow gauge mainline bridge.

 

[zathros]

Looks great!! You can do 10 pictures per post, and as many posts as you need.

 

[Bill Nelson]

After the plaster dried enough I mixed up some of my crevice grey which I mix up from back and white acrylic paint. The outer surfaces will get dry brushed with lighter colors to add highlights, but I lay this stuff on pretty heavy, and spray it with a squirt bottle, so the paint runs down into all the crevasses.

Nothing kills realism like a light color peeking out of what should be dark shadow.

I went ahead and painted the stream bed gray

Next will be time to paint the river, and then just a little more rock work along the cuts on the Wye, and a big area of Cliff near the east abutment of the monster bridge, and I will be ready to install the bridges.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Did some rehabbing on this old kitbashed cabin from the old Gizzard.



Some other kitbashed cabins.

Playing with building placement



And starting with the gloss medium on the creek.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I was painting on the creek in the Gizzard with acrylic gloss medium.

I couldn't do anything else in the area while it dried, as any dust or debris stirred up would be in the river, and impossible to fix.
Three coats down, 17 to go! Since I could not work in the Gizzard, I had to find something to do. My eye caught a sliver of unfinished scenery just downgrade of Tom's bend. The finished scenery near there had some fading, and some chipped plaster, so I taped off the track, and used wet newspaper to mask the existing scenery, I got ahead of the photos, here is the area before it was masked



After removing the trees in the foreground, masking the track, and the near scenery.



With the nearby area safely covered , I carved a rock face between the track and the edge of the layout.

Then I painted it, and did some scenery restoration nearby painting the chipped and faded places. With the new rock face, this will be a good spot for locomotive portraits, as there won't be much foreground to blur, and the background is detailed.



A huge improvement.

 

[Bill Nelson]

This week was my wife's week to see patents on Saturday; and it was our week to do children's chapel at church. As a result, we did not go to the lake, and I had some train time.

In the previous post, you could see how I made massive improvements in the Tom's Bend area, while I was waiting for the creek to dry.

Today the creek was dry enough for me to risk doing some serious scenery work in the south fork of Crooked Creek watershed.




I started with the cliff on the east side of the Gizzard. The milk carton material separates bench work sections, and hopefully will keep plaster from bridging the gap, and fusing the sections together.




Carving rocks by the east abutment of the Gizzard high bridge.







Working on the cut below.




OK, I'm getting there!





Testing the clearance. I cut that pretty close!





The clearance is real tight at the bridge pier as well.


I should be able to paint this tomorrow, And then I will have basic scenery almost clear across the top level of the central peninsula, lacking gust the 1.5 to 3 inches outside of the track on the back side.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Painted the rocks with my basic coat. This is a tad darker than the final results should be. I will dry brush highlights onto the outer surfaces of the rocks , leaving dark shadows in the cracks.

I also need better lighting in this area.




Here are views of the Wye in the Gizzard from both sides.



When you are trying to touch up the paint on a spot you miss repeatedly, because you can only see it from the other side of the layout.

 

[Bill Nelson]

It got mighty dark when I painted those rocks. I had bought some LED shop lights, and I hung two of them over the center peninsula . They are a tad toward the front side, as the layout is five feet wide at the end , and a little over six feet tall, and I did not have the reach to install them on the center line. As a result it is darker on the back side than on the front.

I think so can make that work for me. The front side of the Gizzard I'd Biscuit rock, I'm thinking the back side my be Dark Hollow, another Grateful Dead reference.

 

[Doctor G]

Great Photos. Tremendous progress. Tom

 

[zathros]

I never understood why people resisted using our forum's picture archiving. Seeing what you have posted demonstrates the generous nature of this sites photo archiving. I can only thank Sanjay, the site's owner for this. We need a "Big Shot' of the layout, for perspective of what we are looking at. That covered wagon, and horse pulling the wagon with a load, the whole "Enterprise" seems daunting. Is this in "N" scale, or HO? Not that it matters, either way the detailing boggles the mind.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Speaking of archiving, what happened to the narrow gauge section? went to add something to my HOn3 engine shops thread and the entire subsection is gone!





My layout is all Ho , excepting the Enterprise, which is much smaller. the attic room, which is narrow and long, with the central peninsula down the middle makes a see it all in one photo impossible. as I get it cleaned up, perhaps I can do a video tour.

 

[zathros]

HO, that is impressive. This is one big layout!!

 

[Bill Nelson]

Put some storage drawers under Tom's Bend, and started sorting out a bunch of stuff in boxes in the area that will be the lowest level.

Found the truck filling platform from the WAlther's oil wholesaler kit I have been looking for for three years, and by some miracle, the instructions were with the parts.

Let's see if I can still find them when I uncover the back side of Harlow, where the Harlow Oil Co. is.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Been making a push to get the messy part of the Scenery on the front side of the top level of the central peninsula. Tomorrow this rock will be dry enough to paint, and I will be able to vacuum this area up paint the rocks, and pull up the plastic that covers downtown Harlow up.



The cribbing, the log trestle, and eagle rock.


Below is the cut for the tail tracks for the narrow gauge log dump at the log transfer.


Rocks carved in the cut. The milk carton material is stuffed between two bench work sections to prevent the hydrocal from bonding the two sections, hopefully if this ever has to come apart, this will cut down on the damage to the scenery.


The rocks are carved on the top of eagle rock just have a patch to carve rocks under Eagle rock, and another to the right. Those are both below grade, so I can pull up the newspaper at the log transfer, paint the rocks, and get into the main fun of building the camp.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I have been a rock carving maniac recently, carving all the rocks on the front side of the ridge behind the log transfer, and then cleaning the area, and painting the rocks with the basic color. They will get some lighter highlights later on .





I now have all the rock carving done on the front side of the top level, and will be able to uncover the passenger station, and the front side of the riverfront soon.





Here is Eagle Rock, after which the camp will likely be named.



In this photo Eagle Rock has got some paint on it.





I filled in some extra cribbing under the log loading platform.


Testing the location of the narrow gauge switch Behind the log loading platform. I will need to get this track in and functioning before putting in the log loader, and the camp buildings, which is so much fun,

Below is the last rock to be carved on the front side of the mountain.

 

[Doctor G]

WOW Bill you have been a busy beaver!!! I am pooped from just trolling through all the piccies. Really like how the wye and the overarching bridges are turning out. That area is a real eyecatcher and will be great for photos.

Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

Been trying to get as much done as possible before I have to start work again on the 5th. have some O scale hickory logs for you in the back of my truck!


my Mason Bogie, slowly getting fabulous.




another shot of the Biscuit Rock trestle





Smaug is checking out Eagle Rock, although he usually likes places that are more remote.





another view of the log transfer area @ Eagle Rock




one end of the trestle is hooked up to some track. no power here I'm thinking this spur needs to have it's own block, extending about halfway out on to the trestle. the narrow gauge main goes 16 feet in one direction, and thirty in the other before getting to a passing siding, so a train might need to duck on to the trestle to get out of the way for a meet. If I make the log transfer its own block, I can do that when there are two log trains in the log dump area.