Starting to flesh out scenery in the Logging Area.
Author Archives: Bob Emmott
Adirondack short line Railroad
Visiting in Vermont and Adirondack area of New York and came across this beautifully painted 60 some year old ElectroMotive BL2.
Painted for the Saratoga and North Creek Railway in a scheme reminiscent of the D&H.
That’s the Hudson River behind the engine above
Adding TCS wow sound decoder to Bachmann Heavy Mtn
After receiving my package from Tonys Train exchange, with my DCC system and sound decoder etc, I started the installation in the Vanderbilt tender which has limited room in width to install a round speaker. So here are some shots following Erik from Tonys Train Exchange advice , using 2 new mini speakers.
Amazingly small TCS Wow sound decoder to install in tender
This decoder has many choices of bells, whistles, engine types, all manner of mechanical injectors, pumps, generators, brake squeal, air release as well as light control and great control of the running engine including very slow speed right out of the box.
Drilling sound holes on drill press
Holes need to be drilled through the tender bottom to allow the sound exit.
Holes drilled for sound and test fitting speaker enclosures
Checking the fit of the mini speaker enclosures.
Engine and Vandy tender, showing TCS sound decoder installed, before mounting speakers.
Showing the decoder installed in top of tender with strong double stick (Scotch exterior mounting tape)
2 Supersonic Mini speakers installed in Bachmann C&O Vandy tender bottom
The 2 mini speakers and their enclosures mounted and wired in the tender bottom.
Bachmann Heavy Mountain engine with Sound decoder installed, and the sound and control are really terrific.
Engine after install and really pleased with the result, the sound and control.
Finally starting DCC
Excited to get started hooking up and installing DCC and sound decoder etc after receiving my package from Tony’s Train Exchange, with great help and guidance from Erik at Tony’s, and thank you KEVAN and ERIN.
Start (finally) of converting to DCC. with a box of goodies
New batch of rocks
Rocks cast in Hydrocal, from many different molds from several manufacturers, and from my own mold shown in last post from a previous casting. Most will be used in the mountain area around the logging branch.
Batch of cast rocks and the molds on the right
Large casting from one of the molds
Large cast Rock
Hydrocal rock casting
I use a lot of different rock molds from various manufacturers, including Woodland Scenics, but I just came across a rock mold I made a while ago from a fine grained piece of rock found in the garden.
Latex rock mold
Nice detail in the rock and think the cast from it is going to make a nice outcropping in the river valley. Just needs some coloring and weathering plus some small evidence of vegetation.
Hydrocal Plaster cast made from latex rock mold
A new forest
Started creation of the forest for the logging area of my layout. The Scenic Express trees look pretty realistic, but I’m going to try some various methods for enlarging the trunk diameter on some trees, which I’ll show in a future post.
Scenic express trees for start of forest in logging area
Ready to start forest
Here are Scenic Express trees after soaking in matte medium, then they will get sprayed grey/tan, then more matte medium, followed by Noch leaf flake flock in varied greens.
Scenic Express trees
A Paul Strand Frog Angle
Went to see the work of the photographer Paul Strand at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the shows last day in Philadelphia today.
The show is massive, but I thought it interesting that the lead photo in the show is of train yards in New York, showing Frog angles (although there is no reference to that term).
NY Yards
Logging Area Continued
Ongoing building out the mountain in the logging area
Logging Mountain area