Here's Thunder Mesa's revised track plan showing all the changes that have been made. The town of Calico now plays an important role as one end of the railroad in operations. The addition of a reverse loop and short passing siding there now make it possible to operate the layout in a point-to-point fashion. The former village of San Lorenzo has now been incorporated into Thunder Mesa as the "Old Spanish" section of town. This change freed up the far right corner for a turntable and more accessible engine service area.
The improved track arrangement at Calico forced my plans for an On18 mini-layout to be shelved (again), but the On18 line does make an appearance as a point-to-point mining tram feeder between Big Thunder Mine and the ore bins at Calico. Lastly, the Lone Rock diorama now finds a permanent home on the layout. It's a non-operating scenic feature, but its position against the backdrop offers great sight-lines when looking across the aisle (now called "Coyote Canyon") from the McKennon Arch area.
April 2016 Video Log
Howdy Folks! So much has been happening out here in Thunder Mesa Country that it's hard to know where to begin. The right of way has been changed, towns have been moved, combined or added, and entire areas have been reimagined. On top of all that, a lot of real progress has been made bringing these changes to life with new scenery work and modeling at Horse Thief Canyon and the town of Thunder Mesa well underway. The best way to get caught up on things is with a new video log. After that, I'll delve more deeply into the details below.
Engine #9, the Admiral Fowler
Featured in the new video log is the TMMC's latest locomotive: #9, the Admiral Fowler. Like several of the other Thunder Mesa locomotives, it's an 0-4-2 Porter from Bachmann. I've dressed it up with a fancy cap stack and some custom decals from Stan Cedarleaf.
The "Niner" rounds the bend at Dinosaur Gap. The gold capped stack was made from some HO parts in my scrap box.
Continuing the Thunder Mesa tradition of naming locomotives after Disney Imagineers, animators and others who played a big role in Disneyland's development, the new Porter is named in honor of Admiral Joe Fowler. This was the man Walt Disney put in charge of Disneyland's construction, and who stayed on as general manager of the park for its first decade.
The Admiral Fowler has an unusual crew. The engineer is none other than local legend Chuckwalla Slim, and the fireman is his trusty dog, Sparky. Both figures were painted by my friend, the late Verne Niner, and the locomotive bears the number 9 in his honor. The TMMC has yet to acquire a #8.
Cattle Cars
The new track plan calls for some larger stock pens at Thunder Mesa and that means I'll need some livestock cars. The TMMC doesn't own any itself, but it does interchange with the parent Santa Fe, Denver & Carolwood and that line does run some cattle cars. To represent some of that interchange traffic, I've repainted and weathered a couple of old Bachmann cars for now.
Livestock car #59 belongs to the Mescal Lines Ry. Disney Imagineer and well known model railroad author John Olson built his HOn3 Mescal Lines in the early 1980s, and my TMMC owes a very large creative debt to that landmark model railroad.
Car 201 is lettered for the TMMC's parent road, the Santa Fe, Denver & Carolwood. The SFD&C is roughly based upon the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad so it seemed appropriate that their cattle cars should bear the same numbering as the original Retlaw 2 cars at Disneyland.
Out with the On18 "mini-layout" and in With a Reverse Loop at Calico
The plans for Calico have probably changed more than anything else on the layout. Earlier this year I decided to nix the idea for a mini On18 Calico layout in favor of a reverse loop and a mainline stop at the town of Calico itself. I concluded that the space could be much better used for a second town to act as the far end of the line from Thunder Mesa. This decision also meant that the steep grade up to Big Thunder Mine would have to go, and that the village of San Lorenzo could be incorporated into Thunder Mesa town as Verne Niner had once suggested. But don't despair On18 fans! If you take a close look at the plan above, you'll see that the old Big Thunder high-line will now be an On18 mining tram bringing ore to the bins at Calico.
Quick thumbnail sketch for the grade changes at Calico.
Out with the old...
...And in with the new.
The reverse loop is controlled by an MRC DCC auto reverse module hidden below decks.
San Lorenzo Merges With Thunder Mesa Town
Before his untimely passing late last year, Verne Niner and I discussed several different options for integrating his award winning San Lorenzo diorama into the layout. One thing he had suggested was making San Lorenzo the "Old Spanish" section of town. I immediately liked that idea since it implied a long and rich history for the town. It's something you see a lot in the older towns of the Desert Southwest, where Native American, Spanish, and Anglo cultures all come together and overlap. Still, I was hesitant to alter Verne's beautiful diorama until I came up with the new operating scheme placing Calico at one end of the line and Thunder Mesa at the other. Now there was no reason (or room) for a third town on the layout and I found myself thinking back to our early conversations. The decision made, I carefully disassembled the diorama, cataloging everything in pictures, and managed to save every last detail except for the bead-board foam base. In their new placement, the adobe structures have a somewhat different orientation, but their positions from left to right are the same. Several of the structures also have new foundations at differing heights to better compliment Thunder Mesa's boomtown aesthetic. Adding lighting to the structures was always on my to-do list and this move seemed a logical time to also move forward with that project.
The San Lorenzo structures in their new locations as the Old Spanish section of Thunder Mesa. Disneyphiles may also notice that this arrangement mimics the orientation of Rainbow Ridge to the early California flavored area of Zocalo Park at Disneyland (former location of Mineral Hall and Casa de Fritos). This is no accident and the fountain area here is now called "Zocalo Plaza."
LED lighting has been added to the jail.
The Mercantile has also received LED lighting, along with some new signage and a wooden front porch.
One more thing that remains intact from the original diorama is the Pricom Dreamplayer sound system. The mission bells ring, chickens cluck, horses whinny, and the angry banditos still threaten the pig bathing in the fountain. It's a wonderful scene, and I think fondly of Verne every time I look at it.
New Rockwork, boardwalks and Retaining Walls
With the San Lorenzo structures becoming part of Thunder Mesa, it seemed like a good time to tackle some of the scenery work around town too. The new rockwork that forms a backdrop for the town was built and finished with the same techniques I've been describing in the step-by-step build of Horse Thief Canyon. With the rock and paint work done, I've since moved on to building all of the retaining walls, board sidewalks, and steps through town.
The rockwork behind town was built up with carved layers of extruded polystyrene foam. The layers were then blended together with spackling compound and Sculptamold.
Once the sculpt is complete, the rocks are painted with latex and acrylic paints. Here I'm applying a wash of diluted black to darken the cracks and crevices.
After final paint and with a backdrop in place the scene starts to come together. This new promontory above town is called Castle Rock. Just below that is Injun Joe's Cave, where, as legend has it, lost Spanish gold is still waiting to be discovered.
Here's an overhead view of the new board sidewalks and retaining walls built in town.
And a view from the depot platform. The timber retaining walls help to separate the depot scene from the town beyond. One by one, each of the paper and cardstock mock-ups in town are being replaced by fully detailed models. It would be much more difficult to plan a scene like this without them. The Marshal's Office will likely be my next structure project.
A quiet night in Thunder Mesa Town. Soon, ground cover, weeds, and other details will be added to further enhance this scene.
Engine Service Area
With the San Lorenzo structures moved to the other side of the tracks, that freed up their former location for an expanded engine service area with much improved access. The centerpiece of this scene will be one of the excellent turntables from Kitwood Hill Models. I'll be building the 9" gallows turntable here, and when completed it will allow the layout to operated in a point-to-point scheme between Thunder Mesa and the reverse loop at Calico.
The new engine service area and an inset of the Kitwood Hills Model turntable. Can't wait to get started on this terrific kit!
Horse Thief Canyon
Meanwhile, progress also continues a-pace at Horse Thief Canyon. I'll continue to update the build of this scenic slot canyon in its own step-by-step series.
Horse Thief Canyon - nearly 75' deep below track level. The mainline will cross here on a classic deck-truss bridge.
Effects Control Panel
Each section of the layout will eventually have its own small panel for controlling lights, sound effects, music, and animation. The first such panel is now complete for the Thunder Mesa section.
This small panel was built into the layout fascia on the Thunder Mesa section. The panel face was created in Photoshop, printed on cardstock and laminated with a matte finish clear acrylic. This was then affixed to 1/8" thick masonite. The functions are controlled by simple SPST on/off switches, and a green LED indicates power. All of the effects on Thunder Mesa run on a 9 volt DC system.
Frontierland Music Loop
Every land at a Disney park has its very own soundtrack, usually a one hour music loop that helps to reinforce the land's theme and further immerse guests in the experience. I've always enjoyed the music played in Frontierland and thought it would be a kick to add it to the railroad. I put together my own extended loop that also includes music from the Big Thunder queue and Big Thunder Ranch (now gone!). The music is provided by an inexpensive MP3 player and piped in through speakers hidden under the layout.
What's Next
The first 3 months of 2016 have been a very busy time on the railroad but with each project completed I see three more that still need doing. Coming soon will be new structures for Thunder Mesa Town, ore bins for the On18 line in Calico, a build of my Kitwood Hill Models 9" gallows turntable (can't wait to get started on that one!), some new scenery and effects for Rainbow Caverns, a backdrop to install, and Horse Thief Canyon to finish. All that and more should keep me busy through the end of the year.
A look ahead at the future through the magic of Photoshop. This is the view standing in Coyote Canyon and looking toward Big Thunder Mine and Rainbow Caverns. Horse Thief Canyon is at left and Dinosaur Gap is on the right. The Indian Pueblos will be right about where the thunder storm is on the backdrop. I've also imagined some black drop curtains down below the fascia to give things a more finished look.
Though work on the layout has been steady, I haven't had the time to update this blog as often as in the past. Going forward, look for more long posts like this one to come out every few weeks or so, and for more frequent posts (sometimes several a day!), head on over to Facebook and follow the Thunder Mesa page there. As always, questions and comments are welcome below. Thanks for checking in, amigos. Adios for now!
Rainbow Caverns on the TMMC is being modeled as three major show scenes: A bat cave filled with glowing eyes, colorful Rainbow Falls, and a beautiful grotto of color changing crystals. Major work has been completed on the central Rainbow Falls scene and that's the topic of today's post and video log.
Most scenery and effects work is now complete on the upper section of Rainbow Falls, a major scene within Rainbow Caverns, and I'm excited to share the results today in a new post and video log. Tried and true "illusioneering" and stagecraft was used to bring this scene to life with a major element being the "Pepper's Ghost" rainbow effect in front of the falls. Check out this month's video log for a rundown on how the scene was created, and follow along with the photo's below for a more in-depth explanation.
Thunder Mesa Video Log: August 2015
Some representation of Rainbow Caverns has been part of the plan for Thunder Mesa from the very beginning. In fact, it goes back even further, starting with early plans to model Nature's Wonderland, and then on to my HO and On30 Big Thunder & Western layouts. At long last I'm getting around to the real magic at the heart of this model railroad and having a wonderful time playing with miniature versions of some of those classic Disney effects. The Rainbow Falls scene is achieved with a combination of ultra-violet light effects and the classic Pepper's Ghost illusion.
A Pepper's Ghost Rainbow
The waterfall is made from clear acrylic, painted on the back with transparent blue UV reactive paint. The "floating" rainbow is a Pepper's Ghost illusion - basically, a view-point controlled glass reflection.
The Pepper's Ghost illusion is used to make semi-translucent objects appear to float in mid-air. In reality, it's the exact same effect you see when you look at your own reflection in a window. Here, however, the viewing angle is tightly controlled so that only the illuminated object, in this case a photo of a rainbow, can be seen in the reflection. If you've ever experienced the Haunted Mansion at a Disney park then you have seen expert use of this classic illusion.
Here, a simple black box has been created from cardstock with a blurry rainbow printed against black glued inside. An improvement on this design would be to curve the image around the inside of the box so that no edges will be reflected. My second version (not pictured) does just that.
To illuminate the rainbow, a single white 3mm LED was installed in this faux rock fixture.
The next step in creating the illusion is to position a piece of glass at an angle to reflect the picture or object but not the viewer. Note the the glass should be the full height of the scene. In this case, that's five inches.
Rockwork
All of the rockwork inside the caverns is made from pink polystyrene foam. Some are like set pieces, and are removable for maintenance. Layers of these set pieces are positioned to hide lighting rigs, and to complete the illusion of depth in the caverns when viewed from the proper angles. This is Stair Case Falls under UV light.
Here a piece of polystyrene foam is being shaped with a cone sanding bit in a Dremel tool. This goes fast but you have to be careful not to sand away too much!
Each piece is then painted flat black. Once that dries, varies purples and blues are dry-brushed on for a mottled appearance. Keeping the rocks a dark blueish gray helps to make the UV painted objects pop and makes the caverns seem darker, larger, and more mysterious than they are.
The Waterfall
The waterfall was created in the same basic way as the waterfalls for Big Thunder Creek, by sculpting 1mm thick clear acrylic sheet with a hot soldering iron.
The acrylic waterfall was then painted on the back with blue transparent UV paint before being cemented in place on its own set piece with clear silicone caulk.
A single 5mm UV LED is hidden behind the falls for illumination.
UV Lighting
Several of these 5mm Ultra Violet LEDs were positioned strategically in the scene for added illumination. Outside the waterfall, the creek itself is nothing but acrylic UV paint and gloss medium. Here you cam also see the 12v wiring buss that runs below the caverns from a DC transformer. The red wire is positive and the black is negative - important to know when working with LEDs.
I needed a simple way to mount LEDs to the roof of the scene and still have them be flexible enough to aim the lights. Cheep plastic bendy straws came to the rescue. Painted flat black and attached to the ceiling with a dab of hot glue, they make for quite serviceable miniature lighting rigs. A scrim of rockwork hides rigs like this from view.
What's Next?
Down below Rainbow Falls where the track crosses the creek on a stone bridge, there will be a series of deep pools, each slowly changing color as the magical waters drip down from above. Beyond the falls will be a Crystal Grotto, dancing with light. And let's not forget the Bat Cave with its hundreds of shining eyes. Yes, there's much more to come in Rainbow Caverns! But that will have to do it for this time. Thanks for checking in, Amigos. Adios for now!
Once again, I'm back to work on Rainbow Caverns, bringing the "dark ride" portion of the TMMC to life. I'm currently up to my elbows in wiring, LEDs, and black light paint but plan on publishing a full step-by-step and how-to post in about another week. In the meantime, please enjoy this short video highlighting some of the effects in completed scenes thus far. Adios for now!
*Note: Original Disney soundtrack has been replaced by royalty free music from YouTube.
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 lanterns are lit and work continues into the evening at Saguaro Siding as engine No. 4, the Earl Vilmer heads up-grade with a night train bound for Calico.
In between structure projects, I've been working on bringing a few areas of the layout up to a more finished state. One such area is a scene I call Saguaro Siding. It's the short stub of track that switches back from the Mill Siding in Thunder Mesa. Hanging 6" above Saguaro siding is the end of the High Line, poking out of a short tunnel through Baxter's Butte. Literally up in the air with no real plan, that bit of rail earned the title of "Track to Nowhere."
This interesting meeting of upper and lower tracks has gone through several revisions since the layout began. The lower spur was, at different times, to be the home of a small engine shed, then some stock pens, and still later an ore bin. The upper track was originally conceived as an automated back and forth shunting operation, then it became On18 for a short while until I finalized a plan to join the track with the mainline coming upgrade to Calico. At long last I've settled on a scene that connects the lower and upper tracks in a way that tells a story while providing some visual and operational interest to the railroad.
Saguaro Siding is a small scene sandwiched between Baxter's Butte, McKennon Arch and the Cactus Forest.
The Track to Nowhere
I had a vague idea that the upper track protruding from Baxter's Butte should be a tailings trestle of some kind, a place where the upper level mines could dump their waste rock. Inspiration struck when I realized that the trestle could also support a small loading dock and hoist to bring supplies up to the mines from the siding below.
This lightly built tailings trestle was made from 3/16" dowels and dimensional strip-wood to fit the scene. The bridge deck is scale 8"x8" bridge ties from Kappler.
The loading dock was decked with coffee stir sticks and the hand cranked jib hoist was cobbled together using junk from the scrap box. The hoist line is painted elastic thread.
I wanted to illuminate the trestle scene with warm, flickering lantern light so a kerosene type lantern was built around a 2.5mm flickering yellow LED. The base is a slice from a juice box straw and the top is made from a sequin, pin head and music wire. The diodes extend through holes drilled in the crate to wiring hidden below decks.
A crate was built from scribed siding so the wiring and 510 Ohm resistor for the lantern could be hidden inside. Music wire was bent to shape and hidden beneath the walkway to bring power to the LED. Glue and a few rail spikes hold it in place. The wiring is invisible with the trestle in place on the layout.
Saguaro Siding
With the trestle finished, I turned my attention to the lower track, building a wooden loading dock on one side and a small shack and stone loading dock on the other.
The small supply shack was built from illustration board, strip-wood and Grandt Line doors and windows. The corrugated roofing is painted and weathered paper roofing from an old Classic Miniatures kit. The stone loading dock was carved from Balsa Foam and painted with acrylics. A 5mm yellow LED inside and a 2.5mm flickering yellow LED hidden under the porch awning light the structure.
Across the track is a wagon transfer dock built atop scale 12"x12" beams with a deck of coffee stir sticks. Another lantern was constructed on a drilled out Rusty Stumps barrel with a 2.5mm yellow flickering led, music wire and slices from a juice box straw.
Finishing the Scene
With all of the wires for the lighting hooked up beneath the layout, both the trestle and the shack were blended into the scenery with Sculptamold, paint, real dirt and rocks, and various scenery products.
A thick mixture of Sculptamold, dyed with some Raw Sienna acrylic paint, was worked in around the stone loading dock and beneath the trestle bents. The retaining wall was built in place using stained and distressed Kappler ties.
After the Sculptamold had dried overnight, the area was painted with more Raw Sienna, the primary color for most of the rock work in Thunder Mesa.
Once the paint was dry, full strength matte medium was brushed over everything to be covered with dirt and rocks. This step helps ensure that scenery material will bond to the more vertical surfaces.
Several layers of rocks and dirt were backfilled beneath the trestle bents and behind the retaining wall. Each layer was carefully sprinkled on with a spoon before being saturated with wet-water (water with a few drops of dishwashing liquid to break the surface tension) and then cemented into place with white glue diluted 1:1 with water. For the topmost layer, I chose a darker red, broken sandstone from my collection of Sedona rocks and dirt. This creates a nice contrast with the surrounding rocks and simulates tailings mined from deep within the mountain. While the glue was still wet, weeds, bushes, small cacti and various bits of rusty junk were pressed into the surface.
Last but not least, a ladder was constructed from strip-wood and cemented in place so the O scale mine workers could get from the siding up to the hoist platform. The figure was sculpted from acrylic modeling paste over a wire armature.
The little shack and its stone platform.
Overall view of the completed scene.
The upper trestle deck and loading dock. The jib hoist was inspired by a similar crane at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland.
Though I'll probably add a few more details here and there and junk things up a bit more, I'm happy to get this little corner of the layout to a place where it's more or less finished. Now I can look forward to the added operating potential Saguaro Siding will bring to the railroad as an occasional flat car loaded with supplies for the mines is spotted there.
That'll about do it for this week's update. Thanks to all who checked in, and an extra special thanks to those who take the time to comment. Adios for now!
