I've been a bit busy with everyday things, but I did take the small step of moving the EVRR to a central location in the workshop so I can work all around it when I start mountain building.
That scan from E. L. Moore's Let's Build a Mountain in the January '62 issue of Model Trains is the clearest photo in existence of the EVRR's mountain. You can see all the major landmarks: tunnel organization and portals used, bridge locations, and the switch-back path to the mountain-top cabin. But first, some breakfast, and hopefully a little time this weekend for mountain building :-)
I usually start with a molehill, but that approach tends not to get very far, at least in actual practice. Catching up on posts after a brief absence. Glad to see this layout still progressing!
ReplyDeleteGalen
Glad that you're back!
DeleteI'm thinking of roughing in the basic shapes with small blocks cut from foam - maybe a little bigger than large Lego blocks - stacked and glued.
I wouldn't mind seeing the innermost turnaround track without its tunnel. Let the back tracks be covered, but let us see one against a hilly tree background. It depends; you still may wish to stay truer to ELM's work. Just too many mouseholes, if you ask me. I think that tunnel would have been daylighted.
ReplyDeleteYes, that might be how I progress. The track spacing on my layout is completely representative of the prototype, so I may need to depart a little from ELM's.
DeleteThere is indeed an over abundance of tunnels - I think one even has a switch inside. That aspect makes it a '50s layout on steroids :-) Although, I do like that switch-back to the mountain top cabin. My sense is that he really wanted a cabin in the mountains, but this was his only way of getting one.
The whack-a-mole tunnel phenomenon is one of my earliest childhood memories of model trains. There's something about seeing a train go in one tunnel and pop out a different one than you expect, not knowing the track plan, that is strangely exciting to me.
ReplyDeleteBut here's a thought - how often was the layout (ELM's) photographed in a way that showed all the tunnel bores in one shot? I often wonder if these early spaghetti bowl modelers were trying their best to live with the limitations of their space and still have an abundance of track by photographing, very selectively, only limited scenes from their layouts.
I seem to remember reading comments to the effect of the reader being surprised to learn just how small a given layout was in total, since the photos made it seem so much larger. Unless the real world intrudes in the form of a backdrop edge or foreground fascia, we are left to wonder what's just out of the frame, while we assume the world there goes on and on just like the prototype.
You're right, ELM didn't set up his photos with lots of tunnel portals showing - it was usually just one or two, at least in the published ones. The ones here,
ReplyDeletehttps://30squaresofontario.blogspot.ca/2016/10/in-mountains-surrounding-elizabeth.html
of the 'other' mountain and its portals are an exception, but I don't think these were published.
I'm thinking that - as you point out - even though there was one published photo that appeared in HO Primer that gave an overall shot of the EVRR, the layout was thought to be much bigger than it was because of selective photography and the overall level of completion and detail. I'm also thinking that the photos he took to illustrate his construction articles strengthened that view. It turns out some were staged on the EVRR and others in separate dioramas that were later torn down.
Shouldn't there be some bridges and tunnel portals built before plaster is mixed? Maybe I've been out of the "doing" side of the hobby for a while, but it seems like it's not yet time for mountain tops.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was thinking of installing the portals and abutments and then placing the top of the mountain where the cabin is located with some strategically glued down foam blocks. Then use some thin styrene sheet cut to match the switch-back path and, again, glue it in place with help of foam blocks to get it positioned. The mountain itself I'll build up around those things, trying to mimic the shape of ELM's mountain. I'll cut and sand then blocks and fill with wood filter as necessary. Once it's shaped, it'll be finished with gesso prior to final painting. I'm not a plaster fan and try to avoid it. Hopefully I can avoid it here too.
DeleteI was going to leave bridges until later. There may need to be a little Dremel grinding and filling latter during installation. I must admit though I looking forward to building that main bridge that cuts across the centre of the layout.