The Clarksville TN. Model Rail Road Club

[Doctor G]

Hi.

I wanted to showcase the Clarksville Model Rail Road Club on Zealot so you can see our antics as we construct a model of the RJ Corman short line that runs through the city of Clarksville Tennessee.

Here are a few pics of the equipment we use to lay track on our model RR:

Here is our club president Bob overseeing operations:

The first attempt at the Guthrie Ky. engine house.

A dismal wandering far from its home is approaching Bill's fantastic scratched up bridge:

Mainline photo:

Note the double deck trackage we get to play with.

More to come.

Feedback welcome.

Doc Tom

 

[zathros]

Holy Chit Man!! Very nice!!

 

[Doctor G]

Holy Chit Man!! Very nice!!

Thanks Z man. Hopefully we will get the RR up and running soon. Looking forward to telling the story.

Doc Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

This is the Western approach to the Swing bridge on the R. J. Corman Railroad @ the Cumberland River. Downtown Clarksville is on the other side of the river, and the swing bridge is obscured by the trees to the middle right. they would not even think about letting me model this bridge. I planned it out once in N scale, and it would have taken nine feet to do it properly. The railroad is the truncated end of the eastern portion of the L&N's old memphis line. The eastern portion was left in place to service a zinc plant a a bout a mile and a half down the tracks from this bridge. After the R. J. Corman RR took it off the L&N's hands they rebuilt the line out to Cumberland City, where a wall board plant was built to re use gypsum that had been used on the scrubbers. on this end of the little railroad the traffic mainly consists of spine cars filled with Wallboard from Cumberland City, and tank cars filled with sulfuric acid ( a by product of the zinc plant that gets sold to chemical companies). The zinc is shipped by truck. I know this end of the railroad very well (the photo is taken from my front porch). naturally, they are modeling the other end of the RR, using place names to indicate the locations, but little effort to model actual places (with the exception of the engine house Tom is working on ) or traffic patterns. .

 

[Bill Nelson]

I carried my hot glue gun, and a pair of bandage scissors to the club. I used hot glue to glue store brand handi-wipe knockoffs to the cardboard land forms I had made previously. I used to use white glue to fasten the handi-wipes to the cardboard forms but this is a lot faster, as I don't have to wait for the white glue to dry before I can proceed. Along the riverbank I will carve some rocks and mud banks in plaster. everywhere else, the next step will be to paint the handi-wipes with acrylic paint. I'll use a brown color. before adding ground cover on top of that. that way if there is a hole in the ground cover somewhere, brown, and not blue, will show through.


In the bad old days, I'd have used paper towels dipped in plaster to do these land forms, and it would have made a big mess. this is neater, and gets just as good, or beter results. this is a process that I have developed largely o my own, but with consultation, inspiration and commentary from DR TOM. I call this method glue shell, although that is less appropriate
, now that I'm not painting it all with white glue.

 

[Bill Nelson]

A note here on the bridge construction. the bridge deck is one I scratchbuilt for the old layout, and hand laid the rails. I cut it to size for this application. The truss span is an Atlas Warren truss, with the deck removed, and replaced with the scratch built wood deck. the long truss is kitbashed out of a central Valley thru plate girder bridge kit, also with the deck replaced with the wooden bridge deck. the short span is kitbashed from the remnants of a shortened Central Valley Prat truss bridge that was shortened. the bridge abutments and piers are blue insulation foam, which I cut to size, and the carved stone detail into. this takes a lot of time, but the results would have been impossible to get otherwise, and it would be much more expensive , and require more planning, to achieve lesser results. Tom and I are going to do the water with enviorotex resin. The guys in the club insist this is the Red River, sand that we have to make it brown, instead of the happy green Tom and I like. They say the green we like does not happen in nature. it doen, but not on the Red River.


Nelson

 

[Doctor G]

A note here on the bridge construction. the bridge deck is one I scratchbuilt for the old layout, and hand laid the rails. I cut it to size for this application. The truss span is an Atlas Warren truss, with the deck removed, and replaced with the scratch built wood deck. the long truss is kitbashed out of a central Valley thru plate girder bridge kit, also with the deck replaced with the wooden bridge deck. the short span is kitbashed from the remnants of a shortened Central Valley Prat truss bridge that was shortened. the bridge abutments and piers are blue insulation foam, which I cut to size, and the carved stone detail into. this takes a lot of time, but the results would have been impossible to get otherwise, and it would be much more expensive , and require more planning, to achieve lesser results. Tom and I are going to do the water with enviorotex resin. The guys in the club insist this is the Red River, sand that we have to make it brown, instead of the happy green Tom and I like. They say the green we like does not happen in nature. it doen, but not on the Red River.


Nelson

The landforms have turned out very nicely. It brings a much-needed three-dimensional look to the layout.

I also really like the curve in the riverbed.
Dr Tom

 

[zathros]

This is really excellent!! A piece of history and slice of time, and you can play with it too!!

 

[Bill Nelson]

precious little history, or time and place going on here. We have a generic model railroad, likely due to be on the mediocre side, due to decisions made by our self appointed executive commitie. we will however be able to play with it!

 

[zathros]

I have seen many generic train stations and sections in this great country of ours. Those mundane spots are also the usually peaceful places. IMHO.

 

[Bill Nelson]

at the club tonight I started painting the handi-wipes on the glue shell scenery with raw umber artist's acrylic paint from a tube. this stuff is way thicker than what comes in the tubes from the craft store.


this is looking a lot better . the paint won't be as glossy when it dries.


this is what the tube of paint looks like. In the photo below, you can see it is a lot thicker than craft store paint, so you can fill holes with it, and it will contribute to the strength of the scenery. you can also see a profile board, that helps support the hand-wipe surface.



here is the front side of the lift out, ans it currently stands.




and the back side, which would be visible from the tool room. next I can start to build up some fine detail along the water's edge, and start putting in ground cover.



This will be a fun spot on the club layout. the layout is too flat, with most of the layout built flat on plywood with no scenery below the grade. When designing the new layout, They would not listen to Tom and I when it came to building benchwork to support superior scenery. one member got really ugly about it saying "I've seen 200 videos on you tube about building layouts, you don't know what you are talking about. so I have two small removeable sections of RR to do right; and the rest of it is just going to have to be mediocre, because that is what they insisted upon.


Nelson

 

[Doctor G]

Looking good Bill. Like the 3 D topography and depth below the tracks.

Doc Ton

 

[Bill Nelson]

Here are some shots of the RJ Corman Guthrie KY. engine house that tom has been working on. the RJ Corman locomotives belong to other club members. Decals are available commercially, and I have two sets, waiting till I can find a pair of GP9s with dynamic brake blisters available chap enough for me to convert to DCC and sound, or roasonably priced sound GP 9's . The L&N was running GP 9s on this stub end of the old Memphis line before they sold to R. J. Corman. and Corman ran GP 9s for the first few years. now they are running mainly GP 35s, if my diesel locomotive identification skills are correct, which is doubtful.


In this first photo , the locomotive mostly in the shed's paint is a tad too dark, and the one in front is a tad light. but they are both beter than mine that don't exist yet!

 

[gbwdude]

Too bad I can't see any of the new club other than a handful of bridge pics. Bill has told me that it's nowhere near as fun anymore due to the lack of steam and... diseasels roam the model landscape.

 

[zathros]

Post with Photobucket inserts will be deleted as found!!

 

[gbwdude]

View attachment 153349

at the club tonight I started painting the handi-wipes on the glue shell scenery with raw umber artist's acrylic paint from a tube. this stuff is way thicker than what comes in the tubes from the craft store.

View attachment 153350
this is looking a lot better . the paint won't be as glossy when it dries.

View attachment 153351
this is what the tube of paint looks like. In the photo below, you can see it is a lot thicker than craft store paint, so you can fill holes with it, and it will contribute to the strength of the scenery. you can also see a profile board, that helps support the hand-wipe surface.

View attachment 153352

here is the front side of the lift out, ans it currently stands.


View attachment 153353

and the back side, which would be visible from the tool room. next I can start to build up some fine detail along the water's edge, and start putting in ground cover.

View attachment 153354

This will be a fun spot on the club layout. the layout is too flat, with most of the layout built flat on plywood with no scenery below the grade. When designing the new layout, They would not listen to Tom and I when it came to building benchwork to support superior scenery. one member got really ugly about it saying "I've seen 200 videos on you tube about building layouts, you don't know what you are talking about. so I have two small removeable sections of RR to do right; and the rest of it is just going to have to be mediocre, because that is what they insisted upon.


Nelson

Bill,

I like your glue shell theory but being as frugal as I am I have seen another method in which is similar to this but recycles something you would commonly throw away. I can't recall where I saw it, otherwise I'd give credit where its due, but instead of using plaster soaked paper towers this modeler was using used dryer sheets. Now that I've learned your method, combining the dryer sheets with simple white glue may prove to be a great combination. I've been saving my sheets all summer to give this a try.

Tyler