And then there were more mountains to go tell it on

 

Last night was certainly productive. I was in the zone and managed to get a lot of mountains built. First I extended the ridge dividing the east and westbound tracks in the Gallitzin industrial area. Next I filled in the gap between Vulcan and the tracks except for a small area that will be occupied by a passenger depot. Lastly, I plastered up some mountains between Route 53 and the beginning of Cassandra.  I also covered up the risers in this area on the opposite side of the tracks. 

In between Route 53 and Cassandra, will be a small farm. I have an American Model Builder farm house and barn as well as a Cornerstone windmill to complete the scene. 

once I was done building mountains, I decided to go ahead and paint the ones I told you about in my last entry. I feel like raw umber gives the best earth color for my money. The next step will be to cover it over with Lichen. I also have yet another roll of paving tape on order. Once it arrives, I should be able to finish most of the roads in Gallitzin.

While I was working last night, I realized that once Gallitzin is finished and I move on to the section between Cassandra and the Conemaugh River, most of the layout will have scenery. It's kind of mind boggling to realize I've done so much in only three years time.

Another realization I came to is this whole confining myself to one area at a time approach may not be the best fit for me. If I hit a roadblock under that approach, work on the layout stopped. But if I can do something somewhere else on the layout, why not do it? Rather than getting frustrated, just move on and come back later.

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Last night's project entailed plastering up the rest of the mountain range dividing the center peninsula between Horseshoe Curve and Gallitzin. The next step is yo get it painted brown and covered with lichen. The houses on the right side of the residential street also need driveways and some telephone polls. Once that's complete, the next step will be to fill in the area between the road and Vulcan Manufacturing.

One constant annoyance with working on the peninsula is the fact that the middle of it is so damn hard to access. This requires all projects be done in an exact order. Mess up the order and you've got a nightmare on your hands. The good news is I have  pretty good idea of what needs to be done in what order to finish Gallitzin. And it's a good thing because I'm certainly ready to move on.

A River Runs Through It

One problem I run into with confining myself to working on one section of the layout at a time is my interest in working on said area tends to peter out. Gallitzin has been no exception. Also, I rather annoyingly ran out of needed materials to finish that area. So with that in mind, I decided to tackle a project I've been wanting to sink my teeth into for a while, the Conemaugh River.

Most of the river was actually dug out almost a year ago and the bridge carrying the Southfork Branch has been in place since. It consists of a pair of Atlas warren truss bridges sitting on a Chooch Enterpirses pier.

The main line crossed the river on a stone viaduct. For this, I used a single Monroe Models stone bridge kit. Normally, this kit is meant for a single track, but I took both sides of the bridge kit and glued them end to end. The underside of the bridge is mealy a pair of PVC pipe couplings cu in half and painted black. The backside of the bridge isn't visible to layout viewers so there's really no point in finishing it.

The river bed was also a bit of a departure for me. Normally I paint the bed in a series of darker colors to simulate depth. This time, I covered the river bed with various grades of Woodland Scenics Talus to simulate a rocky river. Next I lined both sides of the river with tufts of Woodland Scenics Field Grass to simulate reeds and bulrushes. I placed a few pieces of WS Dead Fall to simulate falen trees and suncken logs.

For the water itself, I've been following the advice of expert scenery maker Dave Frarry and used Mod Podge Gloss Medium for the water. It works just as well as Woodland Scenics' Realistic Water but costs about half as much. And it's readily available at Wal Mart.

The scene is still very much a work in progress, but I like how it's coming together.

Back in the Saddle!

 

My summer hiatus is over a bit early. School is over for a while and I finally feel motivated to work on the layout again. First things first, I've added a new industry. The building is Model Power's "Old Coal Mine" kit. I went with Floquil "Roof Brown" for the woodwork and Grimy Black for the roof. Next, I cut a new turnout into the main line just before the bridge across the Conemaugh River.  With two long sidings, I should be able to move an entire hopper train off the layout. I've situated it in the space between Casandra and Johnstown in an area I'm dubbing East Conemaugh.

 

 Turning my attention back towards Gallitzin, I got LEDs installed and wired up in the remaining houses on the hill. Also, I plastered up the road leading from the business district through the residential area up to the top of the hill as well as the road leading down towards Horseshoe Curve. The latter road, visible in the top center of the above photo, simply runs into the ridge, tapers and dead ends. The dead end will not be visible an the tapering will give the illusion of greater distance.

 

Meanwhile, the real estate market is heating up in downtown Gallitizin.  Origionally I planned to include only the Model Power Railroad Hotel kit, Cornerstone's Jim's Repair Shop and DPM's Otto's Auto Parts and prebuilt Fill 'er and Fix'er up. Well, After I plotted out the roads and sidewalks, I realized I had room for more buildings. So I threw in a few more DPM building (Bruce's Bakery
 and Corener Apothcary), my Branchline Trains Tower House kit and an old AHM corner turret building. All of these building except the house and gas station were savaged from my last layout. 

I drilled holes and installed LEDs in each building as well as street lights. They will be wired up once I'm ready to install this section on the layout.

I'm Still Standing

Wow, a month and a half since my last post. Well, during that time I've been studying for the Cisco CCNA and Comptia A+ certification exams. Today I'm happy to report I passed them both. Boy am I ever grateful to have those two big, stressful millstones removed from around my neck.

I did manage to find time for a few little detailing projects (if you want to call them that) on the layout. Firstly, I added a pair of Tichy Train Group signs to the Vulcan siding grade crossing. All I did was paint the bottom part of the post Grimy Black and plunk em on the layout.

The second thing I did was order up some cars. These came from eBay seller chucktheprinter. He has a wide selection of N Scale vehicles and detail parts. The vehicles are fairly generic and look like they came from the 1940s. I know the time period is 1956 but I'm sure there were still planty of cars from the 40s still on the road, especially in a rural area.

At any rate, with school slowing down, I'm looking forward to getting back to work on the railroad.

The Wait is Over

Okay normally a new locomotive wouldn't warrant it's own post, but this particular locomotive is the Broadway Limited Imports M1a. That's right, it's finally here! I preordered mine two years ago and I know others have waited even longer. But was it ever worth the wait. The locomotive is superbly detailed, runs like a Swiss watch and has phenomenal sound. I'm hoping this opens the door for even more Pennsy steam.

Started using JMRI

As you recall, about a year ago, I took the plunge and switched from analog DC cab control to DCC. I haven't looked back. The switch to DCC opened up a myriad of operational possibilities. During the past few days I've taken things even farther by interfacing the DCC system with a computer and using Java Model Railroad Interface or JMRI software to do a number of things.

 

The gizmo that makes this all possible is the Digitrax PR3Extra decoder programmer. It can be used a stand-alone decoder programmer or to allow your PC and DCC system to do the Vulcan mind meld. The latter is exactly what use it for.

 

What exactly does JMRI do? A whole lot things. It allows you to program decoders from your PC, allows you to use your PC or smart phone as a throttle, manage car routing during operating sessions, operate signals and manage your locomotive roster.  It can also display block occupancy provided the right hardware is hooked up to your command system. The possibilities are endless. However the system does have a bit of a steep learning curve and I'm still getting the hang of parts of it.

 

The feature I'm most excited about is Withrottle. This app, coupled with the JMRI software allows an tablet or smartphone to function as a DCC throttle. All that's required is a wireless router and PC, which everyone has anyway.  This means I don't have to spend a fortune on throttles in order to operate and thereby puts the goal of hosting my first operating session within reach.