James River Branch: News Archive

Website News Archive: February 2010

26 February 2010

The Pine Creek Railroad meets the James River Branch! With work closed again for snow, I was inspired to do a proof-of-concept test of handlaid three-foot narrow-gauge track in advance of a whole layout full of the stuff. The test went well, and in order to give the little micro-diorama I built a more completed look, I posed it on the JRB layout. The result is a stretch of narrow-gauge track running alongside Greene Building Supply, and a track gang converging to work on it.

In other news, considering all of the recently-completed scenery, I thought it was time to take a new overall view of the layout.

16 February 2010

Although layout progress had slowed down somewhat owing to a combination of real life stuff and a bit of burnout, it picked up again as I suddenly realized that the rural access panel was on the verge of being finished! It was one of those realizations that kind of snuck up on me. The sequence of images at right reveal the progression for the hillside behind Landsend Farm, the last area left to scenic on this side of the layout.

One thing that helped accelerate progress was switching one particular scenery-making technique. Up to this point I've eschewed the use of "static grass" owing to the lack of control in its application, and the resulting mess. But one of the beauties of working on an access panel is that it can be removed from the layout and worked on separately. Not to mention that the Silflor tufts I've used everywhere else are seriously expensive, so this was a cost-saving measure as well.

I started with a base of ground cover from the Driftwood Scenery Company, plus some ground tea leaves, sprinkled over brushed-on thinned carpenter's glue. This was followed by Silfor flocking and some Woodland Scenics fine ground foam. After getting as messy as necessary, I simply walked the panel out to the garage and gave it a blast with canned air; the worst was over.

From there it was just a matter of planting, planting, planting. The deliberately wild and woolly nature of the hillside greenery was a consequence of utilizing whatever I had left over in my dwindling supplies. In addition to a small batch of rare birches from Kenny-Trees in Phoenix, I used many modified and mangled SAMtrees, a few chopped-up JJT trees, some deadwood from Bragdon Enterprises, even chunks of torn-up scrubbing pads. I'd wanted to include some evergreens as well, but I was never able to find any commercial ones that were satisfactory, and I wasn't interested in spending the time to make my own (although the darker coloration and narrow shape of the modified JJT trees in a way suggest evergreens).

So, what's next? While this is indeed a major milestone, there are yet many more major milestones to come. Plus, I still have a few finishing touches to add, including such things as utility poles, vehicles and other details. And, of course, there's one last step—one that's always last out of necessity: pouring the water! By the way, wrapping up Tanna Hill has allowed me to capture a long-anticipated Gallery image that illustrates the scenery-to-train ratio afforded by Z scale, which can be impressive even on such a tiny layout as mine.

7 February 2010

I've moved again! No, I haven't changed my mailing address; I've changed where my Z scale doppelgänger is on the layout. Initially I was less than an inch from the edge of the layout, scoping out the relay box near Canal Street. After some unfortunate experiences with Jim Greene repeatedly getting knocked off the layout, I decided it was too risky staying there, so I was transplanted to a safe nook under the deck bridge.

Then, as I was building the stretch of dirt road with the retaining wall, the area that was originally planned as a campground parking lot seemed like an ideal locale for a little scenic overlook. As the surrounding scenery started coming together this week, I felt that the overlook needed someone with a camera. And that was me!

So, now I'm located on the scenic side of the layout, likely to remain there for good. The only thing that's not quite right about my new spot is that I'm just a bit too close to the edge of a serious precipice, and as I have an acute fear of heights in real life, I'd never be found in such a place; but as a 1:220 person, I can pretend that I don't have the phobia.

6 February 2010

Getting snowed in can have its advantages... Landsend Farm has arrived at a point that, if I did no more work, it could be considered finished (barring the pond pour, which out of necessity must come last). However, I could just as easily continue adding details until the cows come home—or the layout is sold, whichever occurs first. If you haven't been back in a while, be sure to check the news for January—layout progress was off to a roaring start in 2010.