Here is an update on the Limestone Quarry. Most of the limestone is in place except around the tunnel portal. The portal, because it's next to the quarry presented a slight problem. There is not a portal that would fit this shape on the market, so I decided to make my own. I did not want it to look like the actual limestone in the quarry because it's been blasted and is relatively flat looking, so I made up a wood frame with a hole in the center the shape of the portal, and filled it in with hydrocal rocks.

I started this morning making 7 rocks, cut them to the shape I needed and covered the seams with plaster cloth. The whole thing is still very wet but….

I pushed the envelope a bit, and managed to get it out of the wood frame. It's still quite damp and I must be very careful handling it, but as you can see, it came out without much ado. It needs to be fitted at the bottom some, but not until it's totally dried. All in all, I am very happy with it. Can't wait to see it finished and in place.
Wayne

Nice one, Wayne.  Very convincing.  :thumbs

Wayne, will this be a working quarry or one that has been worked out?
If a worked out one, have a hole of water with a lot of junk, old cars, etc dumped into it.

It is going to be worked out. Unfortunately it may take as long for me to get to that point as the real quarry took to get worked out!   :twisted:

I will have all sorts of things down in the bottom and lots of over grown trees, shrubs, etc. on the walls of the quarry also.

Wayne

I spent the day painting the Limestone Quarry, what a job that was. The first picture is the sample I made first. I decided I didn't like the raw umber color being so dark. That is the orange looking color. So I just diluted it down some and started painting.

I wanted the actual quarry to be lighter than the surrounding rock, mainly because that stone is much newer than rock around it.

There is still much to do in the actual quarry itself that will make it look much better than it does here. Who knows, maybe some of that will get done tomorrow.

Wayne

Go on, be a devil & finish ballasting that point !

This 'quarry' is going to look the part.

I think that's terrific, Wayne.
It will really spring to life when you 'vegetate' the ledges and finish the other scenery you describe.

That's really beginning to look the part Wayne. I think you got the rock colour just right, not too dark.

Bob

Ron,
It is amazing how fast I got to where I quit with the ballast. Of course it's always easier to stop at a point!  

Bob,
I'm glad you like the color, as do I. That was probably the hardest part of the whole exercise. I am very happy with how it came out. the quarry came out just a tad bit lighter than the surrounding rock, which is what I wanted.

I gave it a rest today and worked on weathering the Water Tower. That way I don't get tired of working on something.

Maybe I will tackle those weeds on the ledges of the limestone quarry tomorrow! :???:

Wayne

It's been awhile since I posted an update on the layout. The gorge now has all it's rocks in place, though you can't see it in this photo. The edges are married to their surrounding modules, all except the front where it goes under the two tracks. That will have to wait until I can commit to not running trains for awhile. I can not work under the tracks, not enough room. So both bridges will have to be removed. Once I do that I might as well do the two trestles at the same time. Sounds like an entire winter project to me.

Today I did a lot of contouring on the road that runs along side of the Proctor Farm. Even threw on a coat of paint to help see the slopes a bit better.
   The module that contains the two tunnel portals is now married in on three of it's four sides. The only side that is not is where it is adjacent to the farm, and the front corner where it meets the limestone quarry. That corner is ready for the rocks that will end up matching the rest. That should be a challenge to paint it the same as those. I can't remember exactly but there are something like 8-10 coats of paint on those rocks. I hope I can remember the sequence!
Wayne

Good to see the layout again Wayne and Proctor Farm looks great. :thumbs

Have you been "up north" for the "season" ?  If so, I hope you had a good trip - back in time for the orange harvest eh ? :cheers

Gorge ous.

[user=394]ddolfelin[/user] wrote:

Gorge ous.

 How do you come up with these things?  :roll:



I have not gone up north as yet, but will do so this weekend. It's been rather hectic around here, the summer is going by way too fast.

I'll be gone for just over a month so I'll see you all sometime in August.

Wayne

It has been quite awhile since my last post of the model railroad. Most of you know the reason (my Wife passed away) and I have just not been able to sit down and work on it. However things are getting a bit better now and I have begun doing simple things. Nothing that takes a lot of brain power as I am still not that committed as yet.

   Here are a few pictures of the interior walls I have been adding to all the tunnels. I only go in as far as you can see from each tunnel portal, which is probably too far because the actual portals are not even there yet. The portals will restrict the interior view even more.
   
   I did not plan to install these in the beginning so I had several spots where I had to cut out the cardboard walls of the tunnels and widen them, so there was room to put in the Hydrocal walls. They are about 3/8" thick with the bonding layer. Taking 3/4" out of the width proved a bit too much. Oh well, I do like the way they have turned out so it was worth the effort.

Wayne

Wayne, the internal tunnel walls look the part as if they have been carved out of rock !

Gotta agree there Ron… And there's no doubt that it's a deliberate effect you are trying to achive Wayne. I can see that the hydrocal wall slots into the space you've made in the tunnel but how have you made the hydrocal wall?

Is it moulded or scribed?

Marty

Sometime back I did a thread on making a rubber mould. I made two of them and that is what I am using to make the tunnel walls.

I do scrape off the face with a scraper but only enough to get some flat areas. I leave the deeper holes to make it look more natural. So basically I plane off the tips and leave the valleys, once it is at that point, I sand it smooth to remove the scraper marks.

I really am tickled pink with the way they look. Can't wait to see what color I paint them.  :roll:

Wayne

Good to see you working on the layout again Wayne. Gently does it and you'll gradually get your mojo back.

Just a point of interest about rock faces that have been blasted. Generally they will have been blasted away by drilling down on the line of the cut so you can often see the semi-circular remains of the drill holes. It might be something that could be modelled by just making some vertical scrape lines in plaster or perhaps by pushing a hot piece of thin copper rod against polystyrene.

Just a thought in case you find yourself at a loose end some time.

I had done that (the drill lines) on my limestone quarry, and they looked great, but would they have done that inside tunnels? Not sure how you would drill down in a tunnel. It would be very easy to do that at any time, because everything comes off and exposes the tunnel walls wide open, in most cases anyway.

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Tunnelling is something I do know a bit about having worked on several of them, the largest being 10 metres diameter and 7 miles long.

Rock tunneling is done a similar way to open face blasting except the holes are drilled horizontally on the outline shape of the tunnel and also into the central part of the actual face. Time delayed detonation is done so that the central face charges explode a fraction of a second before those on the perimeter. This way the central part of the face is weakened and the explosions on the perimeter break the rock in the direction of least resistance. i.e. towards the centre, leaving a nice clean tunnel arch.

That's the theory anyway, though I have seen a few blasts that didn't quite work out that way.