Cement Plant

The cement plant with the main large structures in position. I still need to scratch build the kiln, machinery tower for the other end of the kiln, storage building, coal unloading shed and all those conveyors running here and there. The grain elevator is being used for this cement plant since the building architecture is similar for both industries.

Talc Plant Mockup

I have placed the structures I am planning on using for the Talc Plant. However I think they are overpowering the area. It is the height that is bothering me. I was planning on kitbashing/scratchbuilding this industry anyway so a complete build from scratch may be what I have to do.

I would appreciate some observations from those who view the blog.

Bridge Installation Update

Here the deck bridge has been installed and the scenery base has been added around the bridge abutements. I used the scenery base formula that Joe Fugate developed on his Siskiyou layout and explains in his modeling video set. Again this is a first with me. I have used the more traditional hardshell over the years. This technique takes some getting used to, but it does make a good solid base and it covers quickly. The link to the video series site is on my favorites list if you are interested.

Redesign of B&M Junction

I took out the B&M junction that consisted of a switches hidden in the back left corner of the closet, a crossing and inverted wye that I fit in when I laid the track hoping to have a dynamic junction in which a B&M train came out of staging to swap cars in the interchange and then would head back to staging. I have operated trains over the Junction and felt that once scenery was installed and the switches where out of reach, except for ducking under the layout, that it was going to be less than reliable. Although I had only had an isolated derailment in the area, as many of you know once access was limited Mr. Murphy would rear his head. The hidden switches were removed and a simpler junction was put back in close to the original plan it will be used to move cars on and off the layout between sessions. New cars coming onto the layout will be spotted before an operating session and cars headed off will be removed after the session.

The left track is a pulp wood yard, had to add this since I have so many scratch built pulpwood cars I spent time building.

The center track is the mainline heading into Portland staging.

The two tracks on the right are the B&M interchange tracks.

Bridge Installation

I started the installation of the first bridge on the layout. After removing the existing track by cutting the rail to length, I sawed out the section of laminated roadbed where the bridge will go. After making two abutement backs, I installed the deck bridge structure. It is a simple Atlas deck bridge section with a microengineering bridge tie section installed on top ILO the Atlas snap track that comes with it. I then made the gaurd rails from code 70 rail and supper glued them in place. I will work on blending the scenery base into the bridge abutement. I will post again when that is complete. I am waiting on some material to complete the abutments.

Additional Cars

This car was done using my own custom decals created for this scheme. The weathering is from a photo out of the MEC in Color book Volume II.

This is an old MDC car, after researching I determined the car and paint scheme are totally inaccurate for the cars number, still it looks good and after all it is my railroad.

Additional Cars - MEC Cement Hopper