Shadowlands and Tellynott

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

A bit of progress on the Littlejohn & Son.  I found a nice set of rub on letters, spaced out the positioning on low tack tape I added just below the letters and rubbed on.  I then discovered that the letters were shiny.  I held some paper below the lettering and hit with a blast of dullcote.  Unfortunately, when dry, the wall above and below the lettering were two different colours.  The dullcote had darkened the part of the wall above where I held the paper.  I've never had this happen before.  To remedy this I cut out pieces of card to cover all the openings and sprayed the entire concrete parts of the structure with dullcote.  This caused incident number two.  While spraying with dullcote one of the window cards blew off and the window got sprayed.  Of course it had to be the window with the interior detail!  I sprinted upstairs, grabbed a cotton bud, and sprinted back.  I quickly wiped the window.  When dry, it looked like some very grubby windows had been wiped from the inside to clear.

I also made up another interior room.  This one has a man working on a large clock for one of the clock towers that Littlejohn & Son are well known for building.

Photo 1 shows the building ready for spraying and the signage.

Photo 2 shows the new interior detail.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[PRR Modeler]

Looks very good Mark

[vinceg]

Great scene, Mark.

Also, great back story to go with it. It's reassuring to know that stuff happens to others, too.

Vince

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Thanks very much Curt and Vince for following along and commenting.

Well - I got excited over planning again over the last couple of weeks.

Attached is my latest design for Shadowlands.  A few things have happened to change my thinking on the use of the space in the second room of the barn.

*  Reserving space for my 'Fault Lines' layout.  With COVID19 potentially here to stay, large gatherings of people in one space may still be some time away.  I'm also feeling pretty motivated about my T&S layout at present and have been for some time so I have decided that as I move forwards my Fault Lines layout will have to go.

*  Reserving space for access to the loft.  We have lived here for over four years now and the only time I have been in that loft has been to clean out all the nests, crap and dead birds, to install gutter wiskers in order to future bird-proof the loft, and to install insulation to the walls and ceilings where they we part of the division between the loft and my Shadowlands layout room.  I'm sure I can find a way to get up there in case of emergency maintenance, but keeping the area clear for a permanent ladder is no longer necessary.

*  I guess I am now feeling pretty settled here.  This is the first year when this place has felt like a home (sometimes I find that can take a while).  My landscaping plans have now developed ( several areas are well underway, and many plants and trees are getting well established) to the point that enough 'bones' are there to give me visual evidence that my plans will work.  I can see my wife has big dreams in the garden and talks about our son making enough money to be able to afford a full time gardener to maintain this place in our old age (she half jests - but its pretty long term thinking.)  I hopefully see use here for another 25 or more years.

*  I felt my current plan for Tellynott did not achieve the vertical displacement that I wanted to play with when designing.  As you all know, I love changes in height, tight curves, complexity - basically making the impossible seem plausible.  And so with Shadowlands I want to follow on in this vain.  I am alos really excited by the borrowed scenery views I can see through my mock ups when viewing across the Inglletown peninsula to Tellynott in the background.  Taking this idea and trying to apply it in a mountain scene sounds fascinating and exciting.

And so, I have had a go at rethinking Shadowlands.  I tried several different ideas but settled comprehensively on the version attached.  Several influences are obvious and I will make no effort to hide these.  In particular are the influences of John Allen and Malcolm Furlow.  I spent severel evenings in bed pouring over track plans and diagrams of my most dog eared copy of the G&D (I even suggested to my wife if she was ever wondering what to get my for a birthday or Christmas present, a new hard back copy of the G&D would certainly be appreciated.)  In particular, I have designed a curving river with tracks on each side, the one in front lower, and the one behind approximately 5" higher in order to model my own version of Squawbottom river.  The second area where direct influence is readily apparent is in the peninsula area.  The trackage in this area is largely based on the left wing of Malcolm Furlow's Denver and Rio Chama Western.  It is also, however, a somewhat compressed version of New Zealand's Raurimu spiral.

https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/7588

One of the great features of Malcolm's layout is the scene with bridges basically stacked on top of each other (shown on the cover and page 53 of the December 1978 railroad model craftsman), and again I intend to create my own version of this scene.  Bridges will be everywhere, and will make up the main structure building of this part of the layout.  The peninsula gives borrowed viewing in two directions, and I'm especially excited by the long view from the left end alcove across the peninsula and all the way to the logging industry at the far end of Shadowlands, tucked in behind Tellynott.  I have managed to eradicate all spirals with the added length of the mainline (although we are now making a feature out of the stacked loops on the peninsula).  Using John Allen's scale miles (smiles) one loop around Shadowlands is now 42.3 smiles, and one journey from Tellynott, right around the Shadowlands loop, onwards to the reversing loop under Tellynott and then back to Tellynott will take a geared loco approximately 1 hour in real time to complete.  One problem area was getting the track displacement on each side of the curving river right.  I finally worked out a way of doing this by having the track on the far side of the river being a branch line to the logging industry, while the main line will be high above in the background.  I have tried to keep the viewing and operating areas reasonable, and the minimum isle distance is 700mm (28") which is a standard small door size.  In several places the isle is wider, giving breathing space and comfortable passing.  I have drawn a man in the room in the corner by the peninsula for reference.  With this new plan, the track now goes from a low point of around 78cm (30 3/4") to a high point of 155cm (61").  It also dawned on me yesterday that the G&D was built in a space roughly 32' x 24'.  My space - which is now pretty much filled up with this latest plan - is in a space of 32' x 19'.  I guess I better get cracking!

I am hosting a modeling weekend here this weekend for the 2fatpossums modeling group, and my project for the weekend is to make a 3-D model of the new plan.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[S&S RR]

Mark


The design direction sounds fascinating. I will be following along.  Do you have all the John Allen layout photographs that were found after the fire and floated around the internet.  This all took place a few years back. Let me know if you didn't - lots of photographs that didn't make the book.

[Mark Dalrymple]

The design direction sounds fascinating. I will be following along.  Do you have all the John Allen layout photographs that were found after the fire and floated around the internet.  This all took place a few years back. Let me know if you didn't - lots of photographs that didn't make the book.

Thanks, John.

I'm looking forwards to getting a long way through the 3-D mock-up this weekend.  I found with the other one I built, that I could put the model on a table, bend down so that the scenery was at eye level, close one eye and the scale just dropped away.  You really feel like you are 'in' the model and looking at fast distances.  Its a brilliant devise (as you know) for helping with design and suring up ideas.

No - I don't have all the John Allen photos from after the fire.  Only ones that would have been published in MRR magazine.

Cheers, Mark.

[sdrees]

This is some impressive design.  Looks very fascinating!

[S&S RR]

The design direction sounds fascinating. I will be following along.  Do you have all the John Allen layout photographs that were found after the fire and floated around the internet.  This all took place a few years back. Let me know if you didn't - lots of photographs that didn't make the book.

Thanks, John.

I'm looking forwards to getting a long way through the 3-D mock-up this weekend.  I found with the other one I built, that I could put the model on a table, bend down so that the scenery was at eye level, close one eye and the scale just dropped away.  You really feel like you are 'in' the model and looking at fast distances.  Its a brilliant devise (as you know) for helping with design and suring up ideas.

No - I don't have all the John Allen photos from after the fire.  Only ones that would have been published in MRR magazine.

Cheers, Mark.

Mark


I sent you and email to followup on the John Allen Photos - let me know if you get it.  I did a lot of 3D scale modeling with my layout design, as you know - it is a great way to go.

[Mark Dalrymple]

This is some impressive design.  Looks very fascinating!

Thanks very much, Steve.

Attached are two photos of the mock up coming together.  I blew up my plan to twice the size of the original and printed off several copies.  One copy I attached to a piece of foam with glue.  I then collected some different sizes of flat headed nails (I used old gun nails)  I worked out a vertical scale and used a marker to mark the heights out of the foam on the individual nails and then pocked them into the foam plan at the correct places until my mark was flush with the top of the foam.  I then cut out track lines from the other plans, glued these to a cereal card backing, and then glued these to the nail tops.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[tom.boyd.125]

Mark,
That Magnuson / SS Ltd kit bash came out great.
Tommy

[Mark Dalrymple]

Mark,
That Magnuson / SS Ltd kit bash came out great.

Thanks very much, Tommy.

I assume you are referring to Littlejohn & son - the kitbash I did prior to that was also a Magnuson kit.  I still have a few things to do on that one - a couple more rooms with lighting and interior details and then roofs and rooftop detail and some weathering.  I'll be back at it soon - I have some expanding foam on my model of a model to deal with first.  I tried very hard to go easy by it kind of just kept on expanding!  I've had enough experience with the stuff now to know not to touch until it has fully cured.  Hopefully I'll find some time to tackle that 'oops' this week.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Opa George]

Nice track plan, Mark.  I can really see the influence of John Allen and Malcolm Furlow in the peninsulas.  Both are my icons with regard to layout design, albeit in a much smaller space.

When I redesigned my Twin Mountains layout, I deliberately scaled back the overall dimensions in order to get much wider aisles.  Just personal choice in the trade-off.  I couldn't tell from your plan--what are your aisle widths?

Nice job so far!
--Opa George

[Mark Dalrymple]

Nice track plan, Mark.  I can really see the influence of John Allen and Malcolm Furlow in the peninsulas.  Both are my icons with regard to layout design, albeit in a much smaller space.

When I redesigned my Twin Mountains layout, I deliberately scaled back the overall dimensions in order to get much wider aisles.  Just personal choice in the trade-off.  I couldn't tell from your plan--what are your aisle widths?

Nice job so far!

Thanks for following along, George.

I have been a huge fan of John Allan since finding a December 1981 model railroader magazine in the hobby shop at the age of 12. 

I did a little bit of scaling back myself and have made a couple of the sections against the wall thinner than I would have liked in order to keep the isles to a 700mm (27.5") minimum.  This is the size of a standard small door.  I have also tried to open the layout out in a couple of places to give some breathing and passing space.  If you look closely at the plan you can see a rather faded man standing at the right hand corner of the peninsula.  I stood against the wall with a tape measure and measured myself to get the size about right.

Cheers, Mark.

[cuse]

Mark,


Great stuff as always...you had me at "Furlow".


John

[Mark Dalrymple]

Great stuff as always...you had me at "Furlow".

Thanks, John.

Yes, I'm a huge fan of a lot of Furlow's work.  I loved the stories that went with the various layouts as much as the scenery.  Malcolm had a knack of drawing you into his world of make believe as if it were real.  John Allan was the same.  This is something I always try to do myself.

Cheers, Mark.