Shop Towel Scenery

Terrain is starting to appear, at least it is on the town side of the backdrop. On the previous layout I had used a cardboard lattice covered in paper towels. The towels were soaked in thinned drywall mud. This time around I had a bunch of styrofoam left over from the earlier project. The styrofoam will form the general contour and the towels will be draped over that...

Styrofoam Terrain, Shenaminy Creek

Quotidian Looking West

I have found that the quality of the paper towels I use makes a big difference. The cheap two ply towels come apart in the drywall mix. More expensive towels tend to come with a quilted pattern of some kind. This looks kind of strange when used as a scenery base. I found some paper shop towels while buying a car battery. Perfect!

East Quotidian

A few more realignments were performed. The first eliminated the handbuilt turnout at the "west" end of Quotidian. The track arrangement will be changed a bit and an entirely new set of turnouts will be built. The other change adjusted the grade at The Hump. Locomotives no longer have to struggle to reach the mine. Double heading is still required on long trains (7 cars or so), but there is no stalling.

De Humped

Which brings us to the locomotives themselves. Because of the space required by my version of the Travis drive, the original Hustler shell is too low. A smaller pulley would allow this, but I wasn't concerned. The locomotive the Hustler represents is too "new" for my purposes. The branchline engines are supposed to be first generation boxcabs...

1st Generation Boxcab, 65 Ton Mack

I used sheet styrene to create a freelance model of something that would fit the Hustler frame. The first version looks a little too European to me, like something you might see on the Isle of Sodor...

Boxcab 1st Design

The second design looks a bit more American. Although it still needs a bit of work and lots of rivets, the basic lines are there The radiator is made from styrene blocks and rods....

Boxcab 2nd Design

I had trrouble getting the window openings square. The sanding "sticks" I was using are those flexible foam core kind. I switched to Revlon emory boards. I cut them into scale widths of 1', 1.5' and such. They do a much better job...

Sanding Boards

Regards,
Frank Musick