The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[deemery]

I remember the Bridge to Nowhere and the Bridge Leaps....  That's now the bridge you take from the city over to the North Side baseball/football stadiums.


dave

[ACL1504]

Looks good!  It'll be interesting to see with the abutments and rough scenery in place.


dave

Dave,

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. I'll be starting the abutments and the roughed in scenery next week.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I love the bridge Tom.

Dustin,

Thank you very much. It was a fun project and I hope to get the roughed in scenery started next week.

Thanks also for following along.


Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
That really looks like it'll be a "signature scene"...with the desk gone, I have to ask...why go with such narrow benchwork? I might have missed that post - you move pretty fast! 


John

John,

Hopefully this will be one of many signature scenes. I wanted more of the negative scenery and it won't be possible on the third level. The narrow space is to give me room for a reverse loop on the end of the second level.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom, you got that done in a hurry, looks great.

Andy,

Thanks very much. I tend to get something done faster when I'm excited about it. I've had this scene in my mind for several months.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
That really looks like it'll be a "signature scene"...with the desk gone, I have to ask...why go with such narrow benchwork? I might have missed that post - you move pretty fast! 


John

I think that's because the rest of us in the SBG are a bit wider than you and are going to need the extra room to maneuver.   

Bob,

Hmm, you may have a point here.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Neat Bridge 

Jim

Jim,

Thanks Butty. It was an exciting project and only took a full day.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
Neat trestle bridge. I like the road next to the bridge as well. It reminds me of a bridge in Pittsburgh. Back many years ago, the old original bridges at the confluence of the rivers were torn down. One of the new bridges was not completed and had a barrier to prevent anyone from driving off the end. Well, that being said, some fool did just that, landing on the edge of the river upside down. He was fortunate to climb out of the car and hail a police car. Well, this event was the hottest time since sliced bread. The information was transmitted over the scanner wires and then by the disk jockey on KDKA who had a great sense  of humor . He immediately put up a contest over the airwaves for a "Bridge Leaping"event the following weekend. Hundreds of people showed up to participate or to watch some idiot drive his car off the bridge. Great idea. Just thought you might want to a bit of humor on the bridge! The police were less than amused.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

As I mentioned before, this area has been on my to do list for several months. The roadway section was from the old layout and will need to be extended.

As one would expect, the police don't get amused over stunts like that.

I appreciate you stopping by.

Tom

[ACL1504]

All the track on the second level is now painted. The rails were painted with Floquil Rail Brown and the ties were painted with Floquil Railroad Tie Brown. I follow Greoge Sellios' way of weatheing the track. When the railroad tie brown is still wet, I paint a few ties at random to simulate older weathered ties. You can see this in the photo below.

In the past I used Woodland Scenics ballast. WS ballast is some sort of crushed walnut shells or something like that.

For this layout I'm using Arizona Rock & Mineral Co. ballast. It's crush granite, rock or something better than walnuts shells. The ballast is about 50 complete finished. I'm using #138-2 ballast which is the CSX, SP and Wabash ballast. I also have several bags for the HO scale #105-2 Pennsylvania ballast. To be honest, I can't tell the difference between the two.

I pour the ballast into a small Dixie Cup, pinch one side to form a small pouring spout. I use the spout to help control the flow of the ballast to the track. Once on the track I use a 1/4" soft bristle brush to move or spread the ballast.



When the ballast is in place, I use "wet" water and mist it on the ballast. My wet water is one pint of regular tap water and 5 drops of Kodak Photo-Flo 200. I then use a plastic pipette to glue the ballast in place. For the glue I use the  Ready Mix Matte Medium from Scenic Express.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is a section on the layout with the ballast in place and glued.






After the matte medium in dry, you'll notice little pieces of ballast on the ties as shown in the photo below.



I use my forefinger and lightly rub the inside of the rails and the tops of the ties to remove the pieces of ballast. The photo below shows the track after I rubbed the ties.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Again following George's method of track weathering, I apply rust to the outside of the rails and A&I to the inside of the rails.

For the rust, I use Floquil Rust in a 10-1 mixture of rust paint and thinner. Ten parts thinner to one part of rust.
For the insides, I use Hunterline's Weathering Mix. The mix I use is Creosote Black.



The next photo is just an extra one with the ballast and without the weathering.

[PennsyJ1]

Looking good MR. Tom. you only have a few more feet to go.

[ACL1504]

Looking good MR. Tom. you only have a few more feet to go.

Bill,

Thanks butty, much appreciated. I'll be happy to finish this project and move on to another. Appreciate you checking in and following along.

Tom

[Erieman]

Good Morning Tom,

The tie and ballast work looks great. The material from Arizona Rock is very finely crushed and "sits" well. I used this material on my neighbors layout and have been using on mine. I have tried the other materials including the crushed walnut shells, and nothing works as good as the Arizona Rock. And you did the right thing by getting all the material at the same time. As we all should know, rock colors change from batch to batch and the probability grows if you by it by the bag over a period of time. Looks Great. Keep up the great work. How about a pic of a train on the ballasted track?

Frank / Erieman

[Zephyrus52246]

Maybe a ballast train?    Looks good.  When you're finished there I have a few hundred feet you can ballast here.

Jeff