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.

January Update

For January I've put together a short video showing progress on the layout so far. I'm looking forward to getting a lot done on the railroad this year and updates should be rolling out with a little more regularity in the future. In the meantime, enjoy the movie! (I highly recommend watching in full-screen mode.)

November ~ December Update

Why am I posting a November - December update at the end of January? Because I'm behind, that's why! Sure, I could backdate it, but that wouldn't be very honest now would it? Anyhoo, here's what I've been working (or playing) on:

This is a Photoshop render of a tiny little steamer currently in the works.
If all goes according to plan, this will be Thunder Mesa #1, the "El Dorado."
It's a Disney-esque caricature all the way. I'm building it up on an older Bachmann Porter Chasis.

Making Stone Foundations, Bridges and Abutments

I've started detailing the right of way here and there with some stonework carved from Balsa-Foam. Here are a few examples:

First, I cut a chunk of Balsa-Foam to the right shape and size and then
lightly lay out horizontal lines with a straight edge for the rows of stones.
Then I carve around the edges of each stone with a hard lead pencil.

Once the pieces are carved,  the next step is to paint and seal them with artists acrylics.
My favorite color for this is a tannish white called Buff Titanium. Note that this color will serve as
mortar between the stones so if you want a dark mortar, use a darker base coat.

When the base color is dry, I dry-brush the stone colors using a stiff brush,
 taking cae to only get color on the "stones" and not down in the mortar lines.

Lastly, I pick out individual stones with a few contrasting colors for variety.
After a little weathering with powdered chalks the pieces are ready to install on the layout.

This long skinny piece will serve as the stone foundation for the Thunder Mesa Station.

One of the abutments under the truss bridge.

Last but not least, I created this little stone arch bridge for the high-line, using some
medium grit sandpaper wrapped around a small plastic bottle to hollow out the arch.

That's about it for now. With any luck, future updates will be posted in a more timely manner. Thanks for checking in.

September ~ October Update

I've fallen a bit behind in updating the blog but the good news is that a lot has been happening out in Thunder Mesa Country!

Overall view of the layout as it looks today.

Geyser Gulch still needs a lot of work, including its trestle bridge,
but just beyond in Dinosaur Gap the final rock work is starting to take shape.

Building Dinosaur Gap and a base for Baxter's Butte

Much of the work over the last two months has been centered around the left side of the layout where the track makes a sweeping S-curve before plunging into Rainbow Caverns. I'm calling this scene "Dinosaur Gap" because of the T-Rex skeleton that will be exposed just above the track grade, somewhat similar to the scene below at Disneyland.

My dino hasn't been installed yet, but I've laid the groundwork for the scene, while at the same time finishing the tunnel entrance to Rainbow Caverns and adding a solid base for the removable upper section of Baxter's Butte (AKA Big Thunder Mt). Here's a photo progression of the scene as it takes shape.

The first step was to cut and install a piece 1/4" masonite in the exact shape
of the butte's footprint. It was then glued into place and the track for the new
mine spur was laid over the top. The 1/4" masonite is the same height as the
HO scale cork roadbed I am using.

Next, plaster cloth was used to blend the masonite "footprint" with the layers of
pink insulation foam below.

Scultamold was applied over the plaster cloth and pink foam, adding texture,
filling gaps and blending everything together. More rock facets and faces were
carved into the Scultamold at this time.

Additional detail rock carvings were sculpted from Balsa Foam and blended
in with Spackle and Scultamold.

After drying for about 48 hours, the entire area now ready for paint.

I paint everything with a coat of tan latex paint, this seals the foam carvings
and helps blend everything together. I use a foam brush for this, dabbing
paint into all of the nooks and crannies.

After painting.

After the base coat is dry, diluted India ink is applied with a spray bottle to
darken all of the cracks and crevasses.

Here's how it looks after the India ink flows into the texture and dries.

Now it's time for the fun part, painting with acrylics! These are the basic
colors and brushes I use.

This is where things get creative. First I use Raw Sienna, dabbing and dry-brushing
over the surface of the rocks but leaving the India ink shadows to show through.

Next I rub in some Burnt Umber, using it sparingly and only where
I want the darkest shadows.

Now highlights a dry-brushed on with Buff Titanium, keeping in mind
which layers of rock I want to be lighter than the others

Last are the final details, scrubbing and blending the colors together,
adding more highlights where needed and dry-brushing in
some darker streaks where water has stained the rocks.

And here is the finished paint job with a few details added.

Next the track will be painted and ballast and ground cover
added, along with more details to complete the scene.

The area just above the track on the right is where the dinosaur bones will
be located. The flat, pedestal looking rocks on the left are for teetering boulders.

Mock-Up Land

I'm a firm believer in using paper mock-ups to test structure size and placement. It's a lot easier to make changes to a scene at this stage than after detailed structures have been built and placed.

A paper and foamboard mock-up of Big Thunder station.

Station and water tower.

On the left will be an open air engine shed, on the right is a mock-up for an
ore bin.

Designing an Excursion Car

Since my railroad represents a fictional prototype for the Big Thunder attractions it frees me up to design things that look as if they could have inspired Disney Imagineers without being direct copies of what is found at the parks. My goal is to create designs with a strong "family resemblance" to the Disney trains while still looking as if they could actually have existed on a real world railroad somewhere.

In my universe, the Thunder Mesa line was a down-on-its-luck ore carrier that was discovered and saved by railfans and tourists. While it still moves ore from the mines from time to time, its main business has shifted to providing scenic rail excursions through the spectacular natural wonders of the Thunder Mesa area. So, my thinking goes, how would an old mining line shift to carrying tourists? Well, by converting old ore cars to excursion cars of course!

Here's my first pass at designing a 12' ore car converted to excursion service.
Note that this is not an actual model but was created through the magic of Photoshop.

And here is the final design (for now).  I decided a 14' car would be more
practical and also added a canopy version to provide deluxe, first class
service for my 1/4" scale guests. The cars will be built on cut-down
Bachmann flatcar frames.

Next Update:

Well, that's enough for this time. Next update I'll be painting track, adding some line-side details and who knows what else. 'Till then, happy trails!