Quetzalcoatlus Corridor

I've been talking to Galen about operational aspects of this little layout. He mentioned that John Allen had a principle that adding some scenic stops along a route - in this case from Poppyfield Flats to Inspiration Point - could provide some operational variety. Well, there were already some, scenic stops that is, but along the mountain's back face it was rather bland, so I tried to give some thought about what to do there.

Well, one evening, maybe after one too many jars of the water of life, I was reminiscing about my brief career as a junior aerodynamicist in the 1980s. In the 80s I was fascinated by aviation pioneer Paul MacCready's attempt to build and fly a replica of Quetzalcoatlus northrupi, the largest of the pterosaurs, for the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Long story short, those reminisces finally alit on the idea to include a petroglyph gallery along Mt. Lowe's back rock face, which would feature a large petroglyph of a very large Q. northrupi. 

Before you suggest I seek psychological assistance, I regularly deal in anachronisms, so please don't call the white coat brigade just yet.  

Roughing in the gallery stairs with 1/8" thick foam and pink foam scraps for support

In designing the gallery I wanted to communicate an air of fear. I wanted the gallery to be rather scary to get to, hence the steep, narrow, and crumbly stairs down to the gallery's viewing area. I wanted it to remind me of both hiking the Angel's Landing trail in Utah's Zion National Park and the trail to the Agawa Rock pictographs in Lake Superior Provincial Park.

Expanding the gallery floor and adding foam supports. A hot glue gun is used to stick it together.

As far as I know there aren't any petroglyph sites along the Mt. Lowe line, so this is all a fantasy on my part. 

And I think the only site where Q. northrupi fossils have been found is in Big Bend National Park in Texas, not in California's San Gabriel mountains. So, more fantasy.

Fascia is made from strips of 1cm wide foam

Although, there is a California connection, albeit a week one: Paul MacCready's company, AeroVironment, that built Q. northrupi flying model, was located in Monrovia, California, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, near Altadena and Pasadena*, the home of the Mt. Lowe Railway. 

Cell-u-Clay is used to blend everything together

And who's responsible for those petroglyphs? I'm going to place the blame on some early 20th century palaeontologists and cryptozoologists who took Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World a little too seriously, went looking for pterosaurs in the San Gabriels with a hope of supplementing the Mt. Lowe zoo with them, got lost, and ... well, the rest we'll never know.

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*As I write this post Altadena and Pasadena are being consumed by the horrific Eaton wildfire that started in the Eaton Canyon of the San Gabriel Mountains. I’ve visited Pasadena, Altadena, and Monrovia a few times in my life. The people and places are great, and I wish everyone courage and strength in the face of this devastating event.