Taking The Scenic Route: Part 5

As I mentioned last entry I dropped the arch method of mountain building and went with a different idea.

One of the cooler things I learned modeling for train simulators is that you can use real world data to create your digital world. Geo-spatial data can be imported directly into the program. The software uses the information to draw the landscape the trains will operate in. The result is close, within three meters in most cases. There is no selective compression. For all intents and purposes the mountains and valleys in the sim are the same size as the reality.

While the digital world in my computer may have enough room to model Horseshoe Curve full size, the Allegheny Eastern does not. As in most model railroads selective compression is the order of the day. Horseshoe Curve is about four feet across. The mountains around it are reduced in proportion to that measurement. I had hoped I could create a scaled down printout I could trace but that proved beyond the memory limits of my PC. I can consult topographical maps but I can't use the information directly...

USGS Map

So I had to approximate the lay of the land. The first thing I did was measure the scene. These dimensions were marked out on a sheet of blue foam. I also made a tracing of the roadbed on craft paper...

Roadbed Tracing

I used a tailors tracing wheel to transfer the roadbed shape to the foam. Using the information from the map and the layout dimensions I sketched contour lines, waterways and the reservoir around the roadbed...

Sketching Contours

The next step is to cut the foam along the contour lines. Each piece of foam from the cuts becomes a level on the mountain. On the USGS map the major lines indicate a hundred feet, in N scale it's about twenty five. I separate the "levels" with the same 2" high strips that I used for the roadbed. The parts are fastened together with tacky glue and pinned in place by drywall screws. I built the rough shape in the family room...

Kittanning Point

I installed the "mountain" on the layout. The thing is mounted on foam risers to bring it up to the same height as the track. I set one of the freight sharks on The Curve for reference...

Horseshoe Curve

I still need to add some height and the craft paper "slopes" to "The Point" as well as the adjacent slopes and the landscape below the tracks. It's not as high as I had thought it needed to be, but it does dwarf the locomotive. Hopefully I'm going in the right direction.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Allegheny Eastern Railroad