Do you have a plan?

Rob

Rob if this works out as well as your last project there will be a great many of us following your every post just as we did the last time. I really enjoy your detail oriented posts as well as your excellent photography and modeling. Thanks for sharing your work with the rest of us. I suspect there are many more readers and lurkers than posters, maybe they are too shy to post? But I'll go out on a limb here and say they will be following closely as well.

Flowing trackwork

C&A Plan

Larry - you can find the plan here…..

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/cornhill-atherton-the-blob-12194962

Thanks to Daniel Fisher.

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Here we go again

I loved following your "wedding cake" Matrimony hill blog and am looking forward to seeing this scene take shape.

Do you have any ideas on what buildings you want an where they will be, or are you still mulling that over?

I to, love the flow of the track work.

Mulling

What buildings to add? , yes - I’m mulling……

After the main station I think I can squeeze in 2 more buildings – it’s a rural scene and I want vegetation to dominate.

A section house would logically fit here and I also have a neat little Dyna Model Products; “Mrs O’Malley’s Place” kit. This is a convenient coincidence because there happens to be a Mrs O’Malley living out back of Mortimer station

One thing I want to try here is “embedding” a building in the back scene. The world isn’t straight (or level) and buildings don’t usually fall in straight lines. I think a cut off angled building adds more interest to the scene and also gives the impression of greater depth because you “know” the building extends further back than the back drop tree line.

If I do it carefully I can salvage another ½ building to use elsewhere; an idea that satisfies my life long thrift ethic (thanks to a long departed Ma and Pa).

Thanks for positive comments about the flow of the track work – I hate straight lines and some considerable time was spent on this flow (the more sinuous the better).

Actually, you would be hard pressed to find a piece of straight track anywhere on the C&A. In the real world the railroad generally flows with the landscape (gets expensive otherwise). I think curves on track work are the cheapest way to visually extend the distance between points and offer lots of opportunity to place scenic vignettes.  

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Rob

I just went back and looked at your track plan again with the example of your mostly completed version to this point. That is an excellent plan for the space and it looks like it will produce a great deal of enjoyment. Really outstanding work with the scenery.

@ Rob

Rural Station

Hi Den – very timely advice because I’m close to painting the station walls - see below:

I often I see what I consider to be over weathering – a trap I have fallen into myself a few times.

I think you have to make a conscious (and continuous) effort to remember that even though you are modeling the  1930s things may have just been built a few years ago (not 75 years!). The station is the pride and joy of Fess and his crew and should indeed look spiffy. It’s also small  - like you say, shouldn’t overwhelm the scene.

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Neatness

That's going to be a really nice scene. I like the basic "neatness" of your unfinished railroad.

Looks good!

Rob Clark

After reading your goals with regard to your station scene and looking at your terrain forms around it I was thinking about a photo back drop section. I'm sure you remember Rick's posts about his photo back drop. I was just thinking how a photo section could be slipped in between the two hills behind the station and trees on your hills could act as a break between the photo and the painted back drop at either end. That would be if you were able to find a suitable scene to put in back of your station. Like mirrors 2 d scenery can add much depth in a small space if one has the skill to pull it off. From what I have seen of your work on here you definitely do.

curves

Rob,

It's already a gorgeous scene, every additional detail will be icing on the cake. 

They are hypnotic, especially gracefully eased curve like yours. When well done, railroad curves through uneven country have a sense of the nobility of human presence. You've captured that. 

When most of the line is curved, I find that sections of tangent have a more striking effect too. Win win. 

Nice. 

Jeff A.

New Skills

Rob (in Texas) - great idea on the backdrop. I recently purchased an A3 inkjet printer and I am about to order some matt archival paper to try out some backdrop ideas. On our recent vacation I took  a lot of tree/scenery pictures with a reasonably decent DSLR camera and I hope I can raid these (+ some previous vacation stuff). I'm also working on getting my Photoshop knowledge up to scratch.

One of the great things about this hobby is the extra skills and associated hobbies that you get into to support model construction.

As per Jeff's comment on curves and tangents - "Win win".

Mr Bridger - your Rural station post is very timely and inspirational - lovely building, hope I get close

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton

First Steps

A few techniques I have settled on in action here.

The infill is aluminum mesh fastened down with a glue gun – extremely fast, easy to form into natural shapes and a strong base for plaster cloth. I have used this on large and small areas and along with stacked foam board I can’t see me using any other methods for the rest of the railroad scenery.

The foam hill has been cut off along the back edge so that it falls away towards the back scene.
This helps promote  a sense of distance. Not easy to see in this picture but also cut out along the track edge to provide a ditch.

There are also large cut-outs into the foam providing interesting contrast to plaster rock outcroppings.

The station components are all painted now (An experimental “C&A” green with white trim) so hopefully some basic construction will be complete by the end of the weekend.

All in all, reasonable progress....

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Building Number 1

Mortimer station is born - just needs another 60 rafters fitted and I can start adding a roof.

I guess curved track means a curved platform so a few calculations and thinking needed before I can build it.
Nevertheless , good progress for this weekend - I'm happy (for now)

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Looks good

Pictures of a small station in an area with some curved track are on page 4 of my Blog. Here is one that might give you some ideas. We do have some others I could photograph as well if you think the ideas would be of any use to you. A base was built for the station and the center platform between the tracks. A large portion was covered with brick paper and a border was put in with wood. I believe the remaining area may get filled in with ballast. 

The curve is slight in front of the station but to either side it transitions to our minimum radius.

It looks like you are planning some details for the interior of your station with the partitions placed the way you have them. Really like the way you have designed the roof supports.

Station Ideas

Thanks for the picture Rob – it has made me think about signaling (a topic I have completely ignored up to now) and also relative placement of station and town buildings. For the Mortimer scene it's really rural, so I am going to attempt to “hint” at buildings behind the station, but for the towns of Atherton and Cornhill (future projects) your scene is pretty much a copy book example of what I want to achieve.

So, 1930s Short Line signaling – some research required ............

Thanks again…

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Signaling

Your welcome Rob Clark.

The signal at the station is a non operating train order signal. Just to the left one can barely see our signals for the CTC system in place. The train order signal would be a left over from the time table and train order days and is not used right now. One other thing that you may wish to consider is the hills in your area as the town could be just on the other side of the hill behind the station and reached by a short road trip. The other side of the hill was not my idea but was proposed in one of the print mags years ago, I no longer know which one it was.

Place, think, cut, move (and repeat)

This is how I think my way through the "lay of the land".....

Rough in some hills and things, temporary backdrop vegetation, place some buildings - then wait patiently  for inspiration or confirmation.
Takes lots of time but time is basically free.

I can see the road to town tucking in between the shed and the depot: 

View block on the curve (thanks Mr Spangler!) and I think a tall outcrop at the end of the corner hill section to break up the symmetry:

Keep looking at the overall view - "Holistic Thinking": 

Off to start work on the Section House - too much to do (heaven)

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Hey!

Glad to be of inspiration!  That view-block thingy might be just what you needed.

Very Nice Composition

Rob C.,

Like the composition!  This is developing into a very believable and classic scene.  I think you have just the right elements here - not too busy, keep it simple.  Looking forward to the progress.

This Week End's Progress

The next time you see the depot it will have its roof on. I need the roof completed to confirm overhang passenger car clearance. Being on a curve this needs care.  The freight room doors have been fitted and some packing cases added while I can still get inside – this is about as much detail as I plan to go to on internals:

A rapid scratch build of a Section house/speeder shed. Needs quite a few bits and pieces to complete, but its enough for positioning and scene balancing:

The most recent holistic view – quite a bit of mesh and plaster cloth work but not much to see yet.
Like Mr Rice says - I need to keep this simple. It isn't  a "big" scene and it will be easy to clutter it:

These shots have been taken using my new Nikon D5100. I'm using RAW images and Photoshop to post process. Early days but so far I'm happy with quality.

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

My time has mostly been spent

My time has mostly been spent on things you can't see - Photoshop self teach and lots of experiments working towards creating my own backdrop. Its a steep learning curve but vey enjoyable. Whether it produces satisfactory results or not remains to be seen and it may be some time....

The roof is on the station and tiling is underway - slow and steady!
The Speeder shed has its storage track built.

This may look a little odd ( I seem to say this quite often) - rock castings and Sculptamold in place. I don't like symmetry, hence the outcrop nearest the camera - I,m confident it will look natural when all of the trees and stuff are in.

The overall view as it stands - "sans" any attempt at backdrop.

Finally a deep focus shot - just for fun......

 That's it for this week and since Jean is getting a full knee replacement tomorrow morning I may be away some time

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR