Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Here are some of the photos I promised of progress on Glenrock scenery:

This is the stack of 1 1/2" foam that will go between Glenrock trackage and the backdrop before I started shaping it:



Here's the stack after I hust started smoothing the corners of the blocks:



And during the trimming process:



This past weekend was a very productive one for the layout. A friend (Walt) came over and helped me install the first section of benchwork for the upper deck! (this is a major milestone!)

Here's Walt drilling an anchor point for the threaded rod that will support the front of the second deck:



And here's the installed deck. Below it you can see the first sections of foam scenery set in place at Glenrock. The section between track and backdrop, shown above being built and carved, has rough carving completed. I still have to complete the shaping of that section to make the curves of the rolling hills more natural and accurate for the area:



And just to finish off the day's work, we started extending the backdrop past the opposite end of Glenrock and towards Thermopolis:

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Work on building the scenery base for Glenrock continues. The first big section behind the track is stacked and glued up, and last night I started shaping it. Running a surform tool over the surface is a much easier way to shape the foam than cutting it with a knife or even a hot wire foam cutter, so I'm creating mounds of pink foam shavings! I'm a bit more than third done with the basic rounding and blending of the stack, then I'll start shaping the final rolling hilss and adding any basic feature shapes (like a dirt road, maybe).

Photos in a few days.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The radial tracks are all in at Laurel now, powered and ready to go. Here are the completed tracks:



And here the tracks are in use:


Sure is nice to have a spot to park locos besides the Laurel interchange tracks!