Unfinished Business

As 2015 draws to a close, it's only natural to look back at what was accomplished in the past year and to think about all that still needs to be done. The TMMC has come a long way this year, with the entire mainline now complete through the expansion areas, a more logical layout for the town, and scenic work well underway in Rainbow Caverns and Hanging Rock. Still, there's much yet to be done. So many projects in fact that at times it can be a little overwhelming and I start to wonder if maybe I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. Thunder Mesa isn't really a very big model railroad, but the high level of detail, scratchbuilt structures, animation and lighting effects means that progress can be rather slow at times. Still, my enthusiasm for the project remains high, and there are a number of projects that I'm looking forward to tackling in the new year.

So, without further ado, here's a look ahead at some of the TMMC's "unfinished business" that I'd like to get done in 2016.

Geyser Gulch

This lone, temporary trestle bent has been standing in for a real bridge over Geyser Gulch for longer than I care to admit. I've drawn up plans for the bridge, purchased materials, and even figured out a way to make "Old Unfaithful" geyser erupt in the background. I just need to make time to finally finish this signature scene.

Thunder Mesa Mill

Just to the right of Big Thunder Creek stands this paper mock-up of Thunder Mesa Mill, based loosely on the boarding area structure for Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland. This is where all of the ore from the mines at Calico and Big Thunder Camp gets processed before being shipped out to the wider world. As such, it's pretty important to the economic lifeblood of the railroad. It's also a signature scene that really helps to establish the story of the railroad. Replacing this mock-up with a fully detailed, scratchbuilt structure is high on my list of priorities for the new year.

The Backdrop

Don't be fooled by the pretty photos I post, most of the walls around the TMMC layout are still embarrassingly bare. I've been using temporary backdrops for most photos and Photoshop composites for the really arty ones. But help is on the way. The above image is a low-res version of a digital painting I created that will be printed upon 3oz vinyl scrim and then affixed to the layout room walls. This will give me a seamless sky backdrop that wraps around three sides of the layout. Landscape features like distant buttes and mesas will then be painted on 1/8" hardboard and mounted between the 3-D layout scenery and the sky backdrop. This should make for some dramatic scenes that look like they go on forever.

Thunder Mesa Town

Hoo-boy, there's loads to do here. Other than the depot and Big Thunder Saloon, nearly everything in town is still in the paper model mock-up stage. As usual, I'll have to take it one structure at a time and finish what I can. It's highly doubtful that I'll get all those little building done in the coming year, but I would like to make a good start on the scenery and ground cover and then tackle as many of them as I can. We'll see what happens.

Turntable and Engine House

Well, at least the water tank is finished (but that might be moving to Hanging Rock). The current turntable here is unpowered and a hold-over from an earlier version of the railroad. I'd like to replace it this year with one of the fine A-frame TT's from Kitwood Hill Models. The engine house is planned as a white-plastered stone structure to harmonize with the adobe structures of nearby San Lorenzo. Time will tell if that plan pans out or I decide to go with something else. Obviously, the turntable approach track and engine house tracks are waiting for more permanent structures to be built. All of the track in this area needs paint, ballast and final detailing.

Rainbow Caverns and Big Thunder Camp

These two go together because one sits right on top of the other. I've made some good progress on the interior of Rainbow Caverns this year, but as you can see the exterior scenery is still far from finished. I'd like to finish the rest of the interior scenes this coming year and complete the rockwork cave openings on the exterior. As for Big Thunder Camp, it's planned as a major mining scene with several scratchbuilt structures. Sounds like a good candidate for my 2017 list. In 2016, I'll be happy to get the final track laid up there and all the wiring done for the lighting and animation to come.

Natural Arch Bridge

This is the connecting bit of scenery between Hanging Rock on the left and Rainbow Caverns on the right. It shouldn't take very long to finish up this scene once the branchline track to Big Thunder Camp is laid across the top of the bridge.

Hanging Rock

This scene is still a little less than half finished, mostly because the plans are not yet 100% firm in my mind. Olson & Furlow's place still needs LED lighting installed and a few more outlaw figures. A small depot made from an old combine car is planned for the near side of the tracks, while an ore tipple, shack and water tank will probably be against the cliffs on the other side. There's much more rockwork to be finished and a couple of tunnel portals to detail too. The tunnel interiors will be a project all their own.

Calico

Last but not least is the portable On18 Calico mini-layout that so far exists only in the planning stages. This almost qualifies as a substantial model railroad project all on its own and I could probably spend most of 2016 working on it and nothing else. The latest plan, shown above, is slightly simplified from the earlier figure eight scheme proposed. It hews a little closer to the Knott's Berry Farm inspiration now while promising to be easier to operate. My tests with N scale/On18 mechanisms told me that they didn't much like the 6% grade I had in mind before. This flat, simple loop now gives me room for an underground "Glory Hole" mining scene and some animated blasting on the other end. I have no illusions about finishing Calico in the coming year, but I would very much like to make a good start on it and at least get some On18 equipment running. Once again, time will tell.

To 2016 and Beyond

Once again I would like to give my sincere thanks to everyone who has been following along with my modeling efforts on the TMMC. You guys are the best and I'm just getting started. I wish each of you all the blessings of the season, a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Feliz Navidad, amigos! Adios for now.

Aerial Views and Expansion Progress - May 2, 2014

Changing Plans

The nice thing about plans on paper is that they are easy to change.

Last Friday's post on Knott's Calico Mine Train inspired me to go back and take another look at the expansion plans I have for the TMMC, and especially at the corner Calico section. To be honest, I was never fully satisfied with the plans for that corner and taking a fresh look at Calico had me wanting to incorporate more of the look and feel of the Knott's original in my layout. To that end, I spent a couple of days figuring things out and now have a revised plan for the Thunder Mesa expansion.

The upper lefthand corner has been completely reworked with a much more spectacular presentation of Calico Mountain, its waterfalls and dramatic trestle. Now trains will pass in and out of the mountain on multiple levels, much like the Knott's attraction, and a reverse loop will send them back toward Thunder Mesa. Gone are the engine shed and turntable once planned for this corner, but the long spur up to Big Thunder Mine still remains.

On the left is the old version of Calico with its engine shed and turntable. A functional scene but not one that really captures what I'm going for. On the right is the updated plan for Calico, a scene with much more bang for the buck and the added interest of a reverse loop. I was sorry to loose the engine house but it's easy to pretend those facilities are just over on the other side of the mountain somewhere.

I've had to give up a wee bit of aisle space with this new scheme but the trade off in scenic potential should be more than worth it. A 3% grade still brings trains up to Calico, and the natural bridge, balancing rocks, deep canyon and Indian pueblo are largely unchanged. I did change the size of the Calico section from 3'x4' to 6'x4', and this in turn now makes the canyon section 5'x3' instead of 8'x3'. It just seemed to make more sense to have two medium sized sections.

Construction has officially begun on the Calico section, with the benchwork already completed and the 1/2" plywood sub-roadbed well underway. And that bring us to this month's aerial views.

Last month: April 4, 2014.

Today: May 2, 2014. 

Here you can see the new 6' length of the Calico section and the beginning of the 3% grade.  A cutout in the benchwork marks the future location of Natural Bridge. Calico Mountain will occupy most of the far corner and should make a nice balance with Baxter's Butte.

In the next section of benchwork, the scenery will plunge dramatically as the trains cross Bright Angel Canyon on their way up to Calico. With any luck I'll be able to get that built later this month and can start looking forward to running trains through the new sections. Stay tuned! Thanks for checking in, folks. 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!

A Grand Plan for the Thunder Mesa Mining Co.

At long last, here is the "Grand Plan" for the expanding TMMC. This should give a good idea as to where the layout is headed, and help to make sense of the construction updates I'll be posting. I've been thinking "out loud" about this expansion here on the blog for awhile. Some things I thought might be included, or had planned to include in the past have ended up on the cutting room floor, while other possibilities I hadn't considered found their way into the plan as it was being drawn.

Click the image for a much larger version.  Grid spacing is 12".  Overall size is 11'x8'.

The layout will operate as a simple point to point design, with ore trains coming down from the mines at Calico, headed for the mill and an interchange with the Santa Fe, Denver and Carolwood at Thunder Mesa. A daily mixed train will head up-grade in the opposite direction, carrying freight, supplies, passengers and mail from Thunder Mesa to the far-flung mining camps. An excursion train or two will also be on the schedule, taking wide-eyed tourists for a ride through "Nature's Wonderland." Continuous loop running will still be possible using the hidden cut-off track below Thunder Mesa.

It's funny, but for the longest time I had thought of Thunder Mesa as being way out in the boonies, near the end of the line and far, far from the SFD & C interchange (which was originally to be located in another town called Grizzly Flats. That town still exists in the make-believe world of Thunder Mesa, but it's aways north now and off the layout). While creating this plan I discovered it made a lot more sense to have the interchange be in Thunder Mesa itself, with the ore trains serving the "mines above" much like the real-world Gilpin Tram once did in Colorado. Once this decision was reached, the entire plan and operating scenario fell into place.

Another idea that got rejected was the On18 tram from Calico. As fascinating and fun as I think it might have been to run those tiny trains, there just wasn't enough room for it and the On30 mainline I wanted to build. So now, the On30 line climbs a steady 3% grade up to Calico and on to what had once been planned as an On18 right of way. (I still might build a separate On18 module in the future. Time will tell!)

The layout is being constructed in three separable sections as illustrated below.

The Thunder Mesa section is roughly 4'x8' and is more than half complete at this point.

The 3'x4' Calico section is the future home of an engine facility with a 36' turntable. Down below, open caves will provide views into more of Rainbow Caverns.

The Canyon section is 8' long and drops the base of the layout about 14" to provide adequate depth for the dramatic vertical scenery planned here.

The good news is that nearly all of the scenic elements I wanted to include have made it into this final version of the plan. Heading up-grade from Rainbow Caverns, trains cross Natural Bridge, a breathtaking and precarious sandstone span. That leads into Balancing Rock Canyon, a land of strange hoodoos that seem to teeter and sway as the trains rumble past. Just beyond, Indian Pueblos sit atop a high mesa overlooking the grandeur of Bright Angel Canyon. A pair of spidery bridges span the canyon itself, the longest and highest being a scale 120' and some 94 scale feet above the churning rapids of the Rio Del Barranco far below (On the backdrop, I'll do my best to replicate the views of Disneyland's Grand Canyon Diorama). Then it's on to the Calico mining districts where the line makes a graceful curve below the overhanging alcove of Calico Mt. before winding to its end near Big Thunder Mine.

For those who may be interested, I draw my plans out by hand in pencil on 1/8"x 1/8" blue-line grid paper at a scale of 1/8" = 1". The completed drawing is then scanned to a digital file and colors and graphics are added in Adobe Photoshop.

And there you have it, a Grand Plan for Thunder Mesa that should keep me busy working on the railroad for quite some time to come. Thanks for checking in. Adios for now!