Once again the town of Thunder Mesa is getting a makeover. As other structure projects have gotten underway, I've been eyeing the town and seeing how everything works now that all mainline track has been completed. Turns out, I didn't really like where the depot had been located and one change lead to another until the entire town had been reconfigured.
As the layout has grown from it's original 3'x6' configuration, the little Town of Thunder Mesa has been moved and reshuffled again and again; most recently at about this time last year. As my overall vision for the TMMC has evolved, this very central piece of the puzzle has necessarily evolved right along with it.
On the original 3'x6' layout, the town was situated high up behind the mill
With the first layout expansion, the town was moved even higher up behind the new turntable. The road up to town was almost impossibly steep and I was never crazy about the sight lines this configuration offered.
In November of last year I began work on a new town module that could be built at the workbench and then installed on the layout. Once again I tried to keep the general look and feel of the town's inspiration, Disneyland's Rainbow Ridge, with the building stacked in rows facing the track. In the end I felt that, while this works fine for a theme park, it stretches credibility a little too much for what's supposed to be a real town.
Meanwhile, Thunder Mesa Depot and the Rainbow Desert Freight Lines still resided alongside the short spur where they were originally planted back in April. With a new passing siding added as part of the latest expansion, this location began to make less and less sense. Surely, the depot would have been built in the heart of town right along the mainline tracks, just as was done in countless frontier boomtowns throughout the West. Deciding at last to move the depot to a more logical spot is what lead to the latest redesign of Thunder Mesa town.
And here we are today with the depot rotated 180ยบ and placed trackside in the heart of town. A low retaining wall will separate the depot area from the main street where the commercial building of Thunder Mesa will now curve around on a slight rise. Gone is the idea of building the entire town as one removable module. Now, each structure will be its own unit, just I had started to do with Big Thunder Saloon.
It makes so much more sense now for trains arriving in town to stop here in front of the depot instead of having to back into a siding.
Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has moved to a more logical location too, between the former depot spur and the main road into town.
The new location of Rainbow Desert Freight creates improved sight lines flowing into the main street of town.
As for the old depot spur, this will now be home to some stock pens and perhaps a livery stable.
With this new town configuration firmly established, I feel more comfortable diving into the scenery here and finishing up some of those other structures. I'm really looking forward to replacing all of those paper mock-ups once and for all. They've done their job in the planning stage but now it's time to move on. Breaking up the old depot scene was a little tough, but the lesson here is to never be so enamored with a scene that you are afraid to change it when a better idea comes along.
Thanks for checking in, amigos. I'm juggling a lot of projects right now and there should be much more fun stuff to come in the weeks and months ahead. Adios for now!
Work often continues until after sunset at the busy mines of Big Thunder Camp. Old Jim takes a moment to admire the view as supplies are being hoisted up from Saguaro Siding below.
Backdrop and smoke added in Photoshop, all else as modeled.
The Daily Mixed blasts across Big Thunder Creek behind engine #4, Earl Vilmer. The crew's on time for a change and looking forward to a hot lunch up at Cordelia's Cafe before the return trip to San Lorenzo.
Backdrop and smoke effects added in Photoshop, all else as modeled.
The scenery at Hanging Rock might only be half finished but that's not going to stop me from having a little fun with Photoshop! Creating images like this helps me to envision the story behind a scene.
Ready or not, here comes an end of the month update from Thunder Mesa! I haven't had much time for updates this month but scenery work has been progressing on the Hanging Rock section of the layout, and I'm nearly finished with the structure build for Olson & Furlow's Saloon. Even with several things half done, I wanted to share an update and video log on how things are coming along.
Hanging Rockwork
Rockwork and coloring has been completed in the little canyon nook where Olson & Furlow's will find its home. It still needs ground cover, vegetation and other details but here's a quick rundown on how the scene has come together so far.
The canyon walls and rocky ledges of Hanging Rock were built up with layers of 1" thick polystyrene foam insulation - the pink stuff from your local home center. Here the foam has been painted with my scenery base color to better help envision the final scene. There's also a view of the original paper mock-up of Olson & Furlow's, a structure that has evolved a lot from this plan during construction.
Once I was satisfied with the basic shapes, the foam was skinned with a layer of Sculptamold to further texture and define the rocky canyon walls. Sculptamold is a mixture of plaster and cellulose available from American Art Clay Co. at better stocked hobby and craft stores.
After the Sculptamold dries it's time for a coat of my scenery base color: Glidden "French Mustard" flat interior latex paint.
Then I darken the rocks with a spray of diluted black, letting it flow down into all of the cracks and crevices.
The final paint job is completed using artists' acrylics. The main colors used are Raw Sienna and Unbleached Titanium, with just a little Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber here and there for variety. The colors are lightly dry-brushed on right out of the tube, catching the rough texture of the rocks and letting the under-color and darkened shadows show through. The wooden retaining wall is a hydrocal casting from Woodland Scenics.
Olson & Furlow's
The main structure in Hanging Rock is Olson & Furlow's Saloon and Store, an appropriately character filled establishment built as a tribute to two of may favorite model railroad authors of the past. I'll be writing much more about this scratch-built model for an upcoming column in Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine so I don't want to give away too much here. Suffice to say that I wanted something with a lot of texture, charm and visual appeal to act as a focal point for the scene.
To show a long and storied history, I chose to design the structure with a Victorian wooden upper story built atop an older adobe base. Both the wooden walls and the adobe are modeled with illustration board. The base of the structure is 1/4" thick MDF, carved with a Dremel tool to simulate flagstone.
The colorful vintage signs and posters are a hint at the final super-detailing to come.
The old tarpaper roof on the store section has seen better days. The tarpaper was modeled using strips of 220 grit sandpaper painted flat black. The nail heads are tiny dabs of gray acrylic paint.
There's More on Facebook
I'm so humbled and flattered by those who choose to follow my efforts here on this site and also on social media. Thunder Mesa's Facebook page recently surpassed 500 likes and that's not bad for a quirky little hobby like this. If you like this site I hope you'll also come over and join the conversation on Facebook. There's a lot of new stuff posted there first, mostly about this model railroad, but also interesting stuff about the larger worlds of railroading, model building, themed design and Disney. Thank you.
That's all for this time, amigos. Thanks for checking in. Adios for now!
