Boston & Maine Eastern Route Progress

[jbvb]

Granite block wall with mortar applied. The rest of the scenery is pretty washed out; my camera's exposure compensation was still set to show detail in the "painted black" view.



I brushed Wood Putty powder on, rubbed it in with my fingers, scrubbed it off the flat surfaces with a coarse brush until it looked like the adjoining pieces done by my kid.  Then I misted plain water on to activate the glue. It dried quickly in the heated space. I'll tweak some areas a bit over the weekend, but it's a pretty good match.

Wood Putty was a "fish glue & wood flour" product made by the Massachusetts firm Savogran. I learned to use it at Tech Model RR Club, and bought a case when I heard it was being discontinued. I've wondered if Durham's Water Putty could be used the same way, though its MSDS says it's Plaster of Paris and Dextrin derived from corn starch.  If you try it, let me know how it goes?

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looks good, James.

I tried Selleys spakfilla rapid on my first challenge structure.  I first sealed the acrylic paint with Tamiya flat clear.  I then watered down the spackle to the consistency of milk, painted it on and wiped it off with a damp cloth which I wrung out in a bucket of water periodically.  It worked well.  Photos will be coming soon to the challenge thread.

Cheers, Mark.

[deemery]

Isn't spackle water soluble?  Wood Putty would not be, once it's cured.

James, the wall looks good!

dave

[Mark Dalrymple]

Isn't spackle water soluble?  Wood Putty would not be, once it's cured.

James, the wall looks good!

dave

From AI
No, conventional spackle is not water-soluble once fully cured. While it is water-soluble during application (allowing for easy cleanup with water), the binder (often polyvinyl alcohol or latex) undergoes a chemical change as it dries, turning the paste into a hard, solid, and water-resistant compound.

[friscomike]

Howdy James,

The stone wall looks terrific.  I plan to follow your technique on a foam wall that I am building.  Thank you for the description of your process.

Have fun,
mike

[jbvb]

Thanks, Mark, Dave, Mike.  I first discovered meat-tray foam masonry from Ralph DiBlasi's (LVRalph) posts about it on RR-Line. He'd shifted his focus to FB long before RR-Line vanished, so I doubt he saved any of his content. But I did show Ralph's posts to my stepson before he started on his walls. I asked about meat tray foam on Ralph's FB group a week ago but no response yet.

[jbvb]

My wife Nid has made a lot of progress on 114 High St., which was the Newburyport American Legion Post 150. And I've started turning the hardboard Route 1 roadway into a steel & concrete bridge.

Challenge: Rt. 1 Overpass, Br. 36.06

[jbvb]

When I moved to this house in 1988, the attic was unfinished, we had a babe in arms and I had a long commute to a demanding job. But I had  B&M equipment (mostly passenger) I wanted to run.  So when Win Nowell introduced me to Larry Madson, I joined the NMRA HUB Division and got involved in their NMRA-standard 2' x 4' HO modular layout.  Straight double track was required, so I chose Rowley, MA. I'd have to scratchbuild the signature depot, which had burned in 1969.  But Jan. 1974 Model Railroader had a construction article with plans.



This late 1950s photo shows the depot after it ceased to be a train order station, but before the line was single-tracked in 1959. The Rowley River girder bridge is visible in the distance.  Several signature structures could still be photographed:



My second module was Rowley River. I only had room for a flat of Perley's Marina.  But the Rowley River bridge had to be complete.





There was room for one of the Ocean Ave. houses:

[deemery]

James, how far up did the tide go?  Did it routinely cover the 'shelf' of ground with the walkway on it?

dave

[jbvb]

Dave, the tangle of dead marsh grass where the ground starts to rise steeply marks roughly the "spring tide" line. Neap tides don't reach it, so marsh grass won't grow on the "beach" just below it. The high water mark is hard to see when there's no color difference. The low edge of the marsh grass is where the current erodes soil faster than roots can accumulate it.

I haven't scanned all my slides from the years I was building Rowley and Rowley River. I was still working on structures when the HUB layout went to Den Bosch in the Netherlands in 2000.  But the modules were 1st place individual modules at Detroit in 2007.



On my second try, after adding advertising and an interior, the Rowley Depot earned a Merit Award at a regional convention.



This angle emphasizes how much deeper than the prototype the Micro Engineering girders are.



I didn't notice either the dust under Perley's dock or the separating roof shingles when I shot this in 2015.  Easy to reshoot better with my sandbag camera support.



Marsh grass put through a blender gets the color right but looks coarse in closeup shots.  The beach is actual beach sand from Rye NH and also a good color.  If I had nothing else to do, I'd replace the factory green fake fur here with light brown tinted green as at Little River.

[jbvb]

My layout only models three blasted rock surfaces. All are in Rowley, next to my Route 1A overpass. I was working on an article about the bridge, and didn't post a lot about the scenery, lest I compromise my chances of getting it published. I was patterning my rocks after a RR cut near the Red Gate Rd. grade crossing 1/2 mile from Rt. 1A. I believe the rock is schist. The exposed surface varies a lot over a couple hundred feet:



Part of the west side. in shade, shot in summer.



West side, closer to the RR West end of the cut.



I shot the East side the next winter, but all turned out blurred.



This is the only surface I modeled that visitors can see, before coloring.



This model rock shows up in some photos, but is hidden from the human eye.
 

[jbvb]

Base of wood putty tinted with black dry color, damp-brushed (kind of like dry brushing but wastes less paint) with white, raw umber & burnt umber artist's acrylics. White streak near the right end represents a quartz intrusion.



This hidden rock was done with the same process but not as thoroughly.  And there's spider web visible.  I'll re-shoot if I decide I want to see what the 3rd rock surface would look like to LPs at the Clam Box.

[Deem]

My layout only models three blasted rock surfaces. All are in Rowley, next to my Route 1A overpass. I was working on an article about the bridge, and didn't post a lot about the scenery, lest I compromise my chances of getting it published. I was patterning my rocks after a RR cut near the Red Gate Rd. grade crossing 1/2 mile from Rt. 1A. I believe the rock is schist. The exposed surface varies a lot over a couple hundred feet:



Part of the west side. in shade, shot in summer.



West side, closer to the RR West end of the cut.



I shot the East side the next winter, but all turned out blurred.



This is the only surface I modeled that visitors can see, before coloring.



This model rock shows up in some photos, but is hidden from the human eye.
 

Looking real good James. I too find photos do not do details justice at times.

[deemery]

My "Rockd" app says "Newbury Volcanic Complex"  That's a combination of volcanic andesite, basalt, tuff, and sedimentary siltstones, sandstones and mudstones.  A bit further south, there's "Topsfield Granodiorite".  There's a fault that runs just south of the Red Gate Road crossing over the tracks, separating the "Newbury" from the "Topsfield" 

So quite an interesting mix of volcanic flows, sedimentary rock, and intrusive (buried) volcanic rocks that were later exposed. 

No schist, though, according to my app.  If you saw something with obvious bedding/strata, that would probably be the sedimentary rocks.  Geologically, it seems this was a volcanically active area at some point about 400m years ago, with volcanic flows over shallow marine deposits.   And of course, everything got a bit folded and crumbled when continents collided to form modern North America.

dave

[jbvb]

Thanks, Deem.  Hmmm, Dave.  Scott J. (Boston Docks & Rocks layout in Ipswich) used to have a poster he'd made for HS students in his layout's coat area. It explained how the meeting point of three ancient continental plates lies under the Ipswich River not far from the Town Docks.  One of those continental faults extends NNW behind the Newburyport moraine. It's why the Little River enters the Parker River via a 100 yard, nearly dead straight cut with solid rock on both sides.  IIRC another of the faults is underneath the valley of the Ipswich River. The third might be the Annisquam River in Gloucester. Does your app say anything about that?

I wish I'd photographed Scott's poster...