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| The Prince William County Model Railroad Club assisted in building a layout at a local train hobby shop, the Rip Track in Woodbridge, Virginia. Unfortunately, the Rip Track was forced to close and the layout was removed. The photos and drawings provide an excellent step-by-step guide to building a medium sized layout. Designed by Brion, club members are providing their talents and expertise to bring the plan to reality. The Rip Track provided the materials for the layout construction. Other than basic lumber, all train related materials are off-the-shelf products. Construction started on September 5, 2002 and we achieved our goal of having trains running by Thanksgiving | ||
Session SixteenRock OnClick on any image to enlarge. |
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This is the track plan as drawn by Brion. The plan calls for a wide variety of scenery and construction methods. Visitors were able to see many different aspects of model railroading. The plan provides for the ability to convert the layout from HO scale to On3 by changing structures and rolling stock |
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| Despite our layout's small size, we tried to represent many different styles of modeling. Since we have both water and hills, we were able to model layered rocks (sedimentary) and rock outcroppings (igneous or metamorphic) on our layout. | ||
| The rocks around this tunnel portal are a good representation of perhaps granite or gneiss. Using a wide variety of carving tools, Brion has carefully carved this hillside. Beginning with a think layer of plaster, he starts carving while the plaster is drying. Moving quickly, Brion chisels crevices and shapes the plaster into a great looking hillside. |
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| The rocks on either side of our large stream are sandstone or limestone, worn by millions of years of flowing water. Jim also used a think layer of plaster, carving quickly while it dried. To represent the sedimentary rocks, the majority of the cuts are parallel to the water, giving the impression of layered rocks. |
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| After the plaster is mostly dry, both Brion and Jim used a variety of water-soluble paints to color the rocks. Thinning the earth tone paints allows them to apply the color as "washes" to the rocks. This gives the rocks the texture and depth of real rocks. They also used different sprayed on colorants to enhance the rocks. "Jim's Magic Elixir" was used extensively to give an overall rock-gray color. |
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| Work Session Seventeen takes a look at our bridges and a glimpse of our town. | ||
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Photos by Jim Connal |
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