Starting to add terrain

I've started to build out the terrain on the Mt. Lowe micro. The lobe shown in the photo's lower right is the location of the fictional stop where the fictional secret backroad from the Angeles Crest Scenic Byway meets the Mt. Lowe trolley. These days I'm spending way too much time working on the grades at the track crossing to make sure my Porsche doesn't scrape bottom when I pull into the parking lot :-)

In the photo's upper right I'm starting to use foam to sketch in the mountain near the circular bridge. I've also added some reinforcement to where the ends of the circular bridge will be mounted.

Over on the photo's upper left, that foam column is being used to help me visualize the relationship between the height at inspiration point to that at the circular bridge area. It's early days, so all this is still pretty 'sketchy'.

Mueller Tunnel, May 2015

After thinking about scenery for awhile I realized I need to establish the size and position of the central tunnel portals so I can get the flow of scenery from one lobe to another as seamless as possible. The Mt. Lowe railway didn't have tunnels, but I did walk through the Mueller Tunnel on my way to a Mt. Lowe hiking trail. My plan is to base my tunnel portals on the Mueller Tunnel. I'll mockup something with foam and sheet styrene. I should have an update on that in a future post.

No, they're actually latex rock molds!

Those aren't what you think they are, they're my first attempt in about 50 years to make latex rock molds. I started with a couple of flat surface molds as I thought they'd be easiest. They'll be used to add texture to some flat foam surfaces. 

The last time I made latex rock molds was around 1975 or so in my parents' backyard. It's like riding a bicycle, one never forgets :-) I'll do a post on making molds sometime in the future.

Well, I've made a lot of forward looking statements in this post. I better go and do some work so I don't have to eat my words.