Aerial Views and the Depot Scene - April 4, 2014

First light paints the sky to the east as the station master prepares for another busy day at Thunder Mesa Depot. 

Two Year Anniversary of the Thunder Mesa Blog!

My, how time flies! I started this site back on April 1st, 2012 to document the construction of my On30 Thunder Mesa Mining Company layout and here we are two years later. It's been a great ride so far and I continue to appreciate the great feedback I get from followers and the many friends I've made in the hobby. Thank you all!

Two years ago: April 1, 2012.

Last month: March 1, 2014.

Today: April 4, 2014. 

Nothing has changed in the expansion area so I'm just focusing on the original Thunder Mesa section this month.

For a more complete view of the layout's progress to date, check out the Layout Construction slide show on the Photo Albums page.

Zooming In

I'm trying something a little different with the aerial views this month, zooming in on specific areas that have recently been completed or are currently under construction. Imagine we're drifting along in a Victorian airship, snapping photos of the scenes below...

Zooming in we can see the recently completed scenery around Saguaro Siding. It looks like the Marc F. Davis is getting ready to dump another load of leaverite at the tailings trestle.

Drifting northwest, we pass over Geyser Gulch. There's still a trestle that needs building here.

Maneuvering our imaginary airship around Baxter's Butte reveals new track work underway on the High Line. The previous On18 track has been removed and Peco On30 track is being fitted in place. Soon this area above Rainbow Caverns will be home to the Big Thunder Mine and some stock pens.

The Depot Scene

Checking our map, we can fly over to the depot area to see how this scene is progressing. The recent addition of Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has inspired me to bring this newer corner of the layout closer to completion.

The depot scene extends from the tunnel portal to the end of the depot platform and includes three structures: Thunder Mesa Depot, Rainbow Desert Freight Lines, and a freight house for the Santa Fe, Denver & Carolwood R.R.

From directly above the depot scene we can see that some ground cover and plants have been added, and that the track has been painted and ballasted. The white structure is a card-stock mock-up for the Santa Fe, Denver and Carolwood freight house.

Here's a closer look at the track. The mainline ballast is dyed chick grit and the sidings are red sand from Sedona, AZ. The track itself was painted with Floquil paint pens; Rail Brown, Rust, and Tie Brown, then highlights were added with dry-brushed acrylics.

Two new lamp posts have been installed adjacent to the depot platform. The lamps are 2.5mm yellow flickering LEDs built atop juice box straws. Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has acquired a wagon from Grizzly Mountain Engineering but is still waiting on a team of horses. A small cactus garden has sprouted up next to the depot platform along with an assortment of springtime weeds. The ground cover in this area is Polyblend sanded grout and the mud puddle was made with Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.

Another night shot of the scene with all the lights aglow. The sky was added in Adobe Photoshop but all else is as modeled. It's the magic of scenes like this that keeps me building.

Some good progress has been made on the depot scene but there's still loads to do before I'll call it finished. The tunnel portal needs work, a freight house needs to be built, and the entire scene needs more weeds and junk, figures, lights and so on. Looks like I'll be busy on this one for awhile! We'll check back in with more aerial views next month to see how things have progressed.

As always, questions and comments are most welcome. Thanks for checking in. Adios for now!

The World of Thunder Mesa

Click for a much larger view.

Today we have an illustration of Thunder Mesa Country, the imaginary world of canyons, western towns and scenic wonders served by the TMMC. This is a spread-out and expanded view of just about everything that does or will exist on the layout as it might be seen from a low flying plane. One thing not on the layout is the junction with the Santa Fe, Denver & Carolwood, seen on the far right side of the drawing. Only a short section of track represents this interchange on the model.

I created the drawing to help visualize both the scenic treatment of the expanding layout, and the operation of the railroad between Thunder Mesa and Calico. This is what I see when I look at the layout and what I imagine as each new section is completed. To really see where the layout is headed, compare this drawing to the updated track plan posted last week.

Adios for now!

Aerial View and a New Track Plan - May 1, 2013

A lot has been accomplished on the layout over the last month, new sections of scenery have been completed while other projects remain on hold, waiting for materials to arrive.

May 1, 2013

April 1, 2013

The most obvious changes since last month involve the scenery around Geyser Gulch and a change in track gauge on the Calico High Line. This track now represents an On18 mining tram (O scale trains running on 9mm N gauge track = On18) that will connect to a Calico Mine Train themed section when the layout is expanded. And speaking of expansion, another obvious change is the workshop area behind the layout has now been cleared out to make room for more railroad!

Soon, the layout will expand from its current 3'x6' footprint to something closer to 4'x8'. This small change will greatly expand the TMMC's operating potential while setting the stage for a major expansion that will take the layout around the walls of the studio in the future.

Thunder Mesa is getting bigger!

The addition of a turntable, runaround track and small yard at Thunder Mesa turns this section into the way-out-in-the-boonies, end-of-the-line mining town it was always meant to be. It can still be operated as a caboose chaser, but the addition of a wye switch inside the Caverns will take the true mainline to a small staging area that will serve as "points beyond" in point to point operation until the layout is complete. As a bonus, Rainbow Caverns also gets bigger and the On18 Calico line will have a new mine to serve at Rainbow Ridge. This should be fun. Stay tuned!

Designing a Trestle Bridge for Geyser Gulch

Testing the waters (so to speak) with a temporary trestle bent. This was built to see if a bridge using lighter 8" x 8" posts would be convincing in the scene. 

It's always exciting when trains cross over water and as Geyser Gulch is such a focal point on the layout it will require a very special bridge. Coming up with a pleasing design was a bit of a challenge since I want a wooden bridge but at the same time don't want it to obscure or distract from the scenery in the Gulch. Then there are the purely logistical problems of engineering a trestle for a tight 15" radius curve while trying to make something that might be believable in the real world. I want something light and airy looking, but also sturdy.

I'm no bridge expert, but with the valuable help and advice of fellow modelers at the On30 Railroad Line Forum I was able to narrow many options down to a final design. My first design decision was to use scale 8" x 8" timbers for the posts and sills instead of the more prototypical 12" x 12"s. This reduces the "visual mass" of the bridge right away and gives a nice spindly look to the bents. The next decision was to reduce the angle of the outside posts to just 7º, adding to the tall, narrow look. Next I opted for a rather unusual king post truss arrangement between the bents instead of the usual straight stringers which will allow for a wider spacing of the bents than would otherwise be possible on such a tight curve. This arrangement is modeled after a bridge in Franklin New Hampshire and should make for a beautiful and graceful looking trestle. The final design decision was the toughest to make. The question of whether to use round piles driven into the stream bed or square timbers on footings.

I started out with a pile trestle very firmly in mind; creosoted timbers sitting right in the water, encrusted with travertine and slowly rotting away. Of course, placing wooden timbers directly into water is never a good option and most railroads avoided it whenever possible. It might be cheeper in the short run to use a pile driver and smash the posts into the stream bed, but it would be a temporary solution at best. It really comes down to which construction method was more likely to have been used "back in the day" when the railroad was first constructed. Finally I decided that since the TMMC was once a rather well off little railroad, the brass hats would have spent the money to build the bridge right the first time with stone or concrete footings keeping the bents above water level. But the clincher was a purely aesthetic decision.

I have always been a great admirer of National Park architecture, particularly the native wood and stone buildings of Mary Elizabeth Colter at Grand Canyon and other southwestern parks. Since Nature's Wonderland shares so much in common with our National Parks, it finally occurred to me that what I really wanted was a bridge that looked like it might have been designed by Mary Colter.

Phantom Ranch Canteen, Grand Canyon National Park. Designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter.

So, my solution is to build a bridge that will compliment and reflect its surroundings, rather than detract from them, using local Ponderosa Pine timbers from the top of the Mesa and local sandstone for the footings and abutments.

Mixing light and airy construction with sturdy stone piers, this design will require only three bents to cross the water at Geyser Gulch. It will be supported with a stone abutment on the right and a short stone approach bridge on the left side.

I'm pretty pleased with this design. Hopefully it will make for a beautiful, graceful bridge that really compliments the scene. I'm currently waiting on orders of materials from several suppliers but will detail the construction of the bridge here when they all arrive. Adios for now!

Geyser Gulch: Our Story So Far

This past week I've been up to my elbows with the scenery in Geyser Gulch. This is a major scene with the greatest vertical separation on the railroad; 33 inches or 132 scale feet from the bottom of the Gulch to the top of Baxter's Butte. Here are some in progress shots of the scene so far.

This is the way things looked for quite awhile. Not much to see here but pink styrofoam.

Adding the travertine terraces created by the geysers and hot springs. These are just foam-core and card-stock shapes. The copper tubing is for the erupting geysers.

Rocks sculpted with Sculptamold. A new landmark has been added: "Ambush Rock" carved from Balsa Foam.

Here the travertine terraces have been shaped and detailed with  Liquitex acrylic modeling paste. I let that dry overnight.

Everything painted with artist's acrylics using my usual methods. The blue-green color is meant to be intense. The scene is meant to evoke Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs and Grand Canyon's Havasupai.

Next will come some ground cover, desert plants and other details. I also need to design and build a spindly wooden trestle before pouring the epoxy "water." After that it will be time to make those geysers operational with theatrical fog effects. Stay tuned!

February Update

Emerging from Rainbow Caverns.

February was a short month but I still managed to get a lot done out in Thunder Mesa country. Most of the work this month was on scenery and structures, but I've also started work on some special animation effects and a final "Grand Plan" for an expansion of the layout should time and resources allow.

Geyser Gulch

Just after leaving Thunder Mesa, trains pass beneath majestic McKennon Arch, gateway to the Living Desert, and into an active geo-thermal area known locally as Geyser Gulch. The Gulch is spanned by a rickety old wooden trestle and is home to bubbling pools, multi-hued hot springs and more than a couple erupting geysers - including "Old Unfaithful," most famous of them all.

Hot Springs and erupting Geysers at the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World.

Geyser Gulch under construction on the TMMC.

Old Unfaithful. The terraced hot springs are built up with disks of foamcore, card-stock and paper. The edges will be finished with acrylic modeling paste to give them the look of built-up and eroded travertine.  The rest of the Gulch is Sculptamold over carved foam.

Modeling the physical appearance of the geysers is relatively easy, the tricky part will be making them erupt on demand. 

The plan is to use Theatrical fog forced up through tubing and out the geyser tops when a magnetic reed switch or photocell is tripped by a passing train. Theatrical fog is made by heating glycol until it vaporizes.  A great deal of fog can be made from a very small amount of glycol so the trick will be keeping the amount fog small enough to be convincing as a 1/4" scale geyser. Too much could easily overpower the entire layout.

Copper tubbing has already been installed below the geyser cauldrons,  ready to be connected to the fog system.

I know that a lot of trial and error will be required to get these geysers working effectively and I'm currently looking into building or buying a very small fog maker. Wish me luck!

Mock-Ups 2.0

Anyone who has followed my modeling knows that I am a big believer in using structure mock-ups to work out a scene. They are quick, easy and cheep to build and can really help answer important questions about proportions, spacing and color, especially in a group of buildings like a town. On top of that, a well built and attractive mock-up can "hold the place" for a more elaborate and delicate finished model as scenery, lighting and other details are worked in. My first round of mock-ups on the TMMC were pretty basic, just white foamcore boxes really. But as I create plans for my structures, all of which will be scratch built, I've gotten in the habit of cutting and pasting those plans together into full sized, dimensional paper models. To date, I've replaced all of my earlier plain white mock-ups with these paper models.

The town of Thunder Mesa. All structures are paper model mock-ups that act as both plans and place-holders for  more detailed, scratch built structures yet to be built. Using these mock-ups has allowed me (and you) to see what my completed town will look now, rather than months from now when all of the final structures are built. Note that the scenery in this area is still just painted styrofoam at this point

I design my structures in Adobe Illustrator, a wonderfully versatile vector graphics program,  and use photos from the parks and educated guesses for most of the dimensions. My goal has never been to make exact copies of the Disneyland structures, but rather to capture the look and feel of them in a way that works for my layout. Here is a sampling of the plans I've created for Thunder Mesa, most are based on Disneyland structures that currently exist on the Big Thunder Mt RR, or used to exist in the little mining town of Rainbow Ridge.

El Dorado Hotel and Barber Shop.

Miner's Hardware.

Marshal Bound's Office. This one is from Rainbow Ridge and no longer exists at Disneyland.

Paper model mock-ups on the layout.

Panhandle Hotel.

Thunder Mesa Gazette. This is the Big Thunder Epitaph at Disneyland.

Cordelia's Cafe. This one isn't at Disneyland. It is a freelanced design and my homage to Cordelia Knott's wonderful chicken dinners and Boysenberry pies.

Paper models on the layout.

Gold Nugget Dance Hall.

Assay Office.

Big Thunder Saloon. 

Dance Hall, Assay and Saloon as paper models.

General Mercantile.

The General Mercantile sits trackside on the layout with its own curving platform. It doubles as the town Post Office, and as train station for guests taking scenic rail excursions aboard the Thunder Mesa Line.

Another view of the Mercantile paper model. Colorful posters advertise the amazing scenic wonders along the line in "Nature's Wonderland."

Big Thunder Mill

Those familiar with Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad might wonder why I'm not using the big, iconic ore mill/mine building to load passengers. Well, because in my world, that big building is still used for mining.

Unlike the Disneyland structure, most of the lower portion of my Big Thunder Mill is enclosed. The large freight doors are used for loading bags of ore concentrates into boxcars. The cut-away in the platform is the ore dump where side dump ore cars drop raw ore from the mines into an underground hopper. Were this a real mill, a conveyer would move the ore to the top floor of the mill where it would be fed into the stamps for crushing and sorting.

The ore dump. This is a pretty small mill so only one car at a time can dump its ore. The dump goes straight through to below the layout where loose ore can be collected in a container, then returned to the mines and load the cars all over again.

One of the side dump cars. In operation, music wire will come up through the small tube between the ties and tip the cars. The wire will be attached to a Tortoise switch machine activated from the control panel. It takes a steady hand on the throttle to line up each car at the dump!

Another view of the mill. The open loading dock at right is for incoming supplies, parts, coal, etc.

A Thunder Mesa train prepares to head out after dumping its ore cars at the mill. Another train will bring boxcars to be loaded with ore concentrates bound for the Santa Fe and Carolwood interchange. On the left is old abandoned Shaft #1. Some folks say it's haunted.

 Engine Shed

Mock-up for an open-air engine shed.

Why on Earth would a little town like Thunder Mesa need an engine shed? Why, for the mill switcher of course. But, why would they need a mill switcher? Couldn't the local trains just switch the mill as they came through town? Well, yes, they could, if there was a runaround track. But there isn't, so trains traveling in one direction can switch the mill but trains traveling in the other direction can't. The solution? A mill switcher.

There is a switchback siding in Thunder Mesa and, almost from the beginning, I had though that it would be a good place for a funky old engine shed and service area. Then, for while I thought it would be a lousy place for one and decided to put some stock pens there instead. Turns out it was even a lousier place for stock pens than it was for an engine shed and I was back to square one again.

Then, as I began to think about how my little empire might actually operate I realized that an engine shed and service area would be just the thing for that spot. It also fits into my larger "Grand Plan" for expanding the layout, but I'll go into that in depth in a later update.

The engine service area is right next to McKennon Arch.

The layout as it looks today. I got so tired of looking at pink styrofoam that I went ahead and painted almost everything with my scenery base color. Much better.

That about wraps it up for this month. I've been working on the railroad pretty steadily lately and new updates might be coming down the track a little more frequently in the future. Stay tuned!

Update 9/7/13:
A few things have changed since this original posting. The layout has expanded, the engine shed has been removed from this area, and the Mercantile has moved to the top of the mesa and no longer functions as the depot. Most importantly, all structure plans are now available online as downloadable PDF files. Click the Plans & Graphics tab at the top of the page to download.