My Alaska Railroad

Look fantastic!  Looking forward to seeing more pics. Thanks. 

Great start. Looking good............Paul

Really looking forward to seeing the progress on your Alaskan railroad.

Need to smooth out the photos a bit and secure the edges.  Landscape (trees and brush) should help soften the rough transitions.

Curious if you are obtaining your trains and supplies via mail order or you have a local shop to go to.

A mix.  There is a local shop that carries O, and it does specialize in carrying anything Alaska.  I purchased my MTH passenger cars from them, but they did not have an SD-70 or GP 40 in stock, so I mail ordered those.  Also, they did not have the DCS control system, so that was mail ordered.  Coal cars from Menards was too good a deal to pass up, so mail order on that.  I was able to get almost all of my track from the local shop, but I did mail order some switches.  I try to do what I can with the local shop.  Shipping costs fro O scale equipment can get expensive fast, but the occasional free shipping specials can even that out.  Even my photo developing was mail order since I wanted 24x36 prints (I can get 20x30 local no problem at Costco). 

I still have a fair number of Alaska locomotives and rolling stock items that I am planning to sell, so get in touch if there's something you might be looking for. Most are MTH PS2. Still very much like the Alaska RR, but have had to pare-down my inventory to something a bit more manageable and am pretty much sticking with U.S. Army Transportation Corps as a theme.

Bubbles and wrinkles are messaged out of the first two panels--still need to work on the corner photo some.   Also started to spray in foam for the mountains.  I will keep building them up, then they get shaped, plaster cloth, plaster (joint compound), colored, and of course miscellaneous brush, trees

Following this post...watch the show all the time as well

Work has been a bit slow the past month or so--new pump in the septic lift station, demolition and rebuild of the tile surround in the secondary bath, and the whole end of summer/start of winter changeover chores kept me busy.  I have been working on my mountain range--lots of spray expandable foam and lightweight spackle serve to build up a large area with not a lot of weight.

That should really good with the backdrop. Glad to hear the chores are clearing out and you can spend some time with the trains again.

I've had a hard time getting back in sync with this forum since our road trip to Nova Scotia in August, too many other things to do, So, I've only been reading threads I've been subscribed to and completely missed that you moved to the Scenery forum. The layout is really looking good and I'm looking forward to following your progress and seeing more photos.

Work continues, slowly.  The highway needs more cars, and the mountain needs more vegetation along with some water streaming down in areas.  Supposed to be sub zero for the next week so I will likely get more work done.

Looking Good !!  i like it, going to be a nice layout...can,t wait to see it done, keep showing photos

That is coming along quite nicely. I agree with the need for more vegetation and some blue water would be a welcome splash of color. I don't envy you the sub-zero temps though.

DoubleDAZ posted:

That is coming along quite nicely. I agree with the need for more vegetation and some blue water would be a welcome splash of color. I don't envy you the sub-zero temps though.

or the lack of sunlight in the winter.

      Looking really good Orind.  Capturing the look and feel of Turnagain Arm.

      I've been along that stretch a few times. I live in Wasilla myself.

      You'll need a few sheep on the mountains and Orcas along the waters edge.

                                                                                                       Dan

If you know of a good place to pick up the sheep let me know---I have not had any luck finding appropriately scaled sheep or moose--I have some bears.

Oman posted:

 

or the lack of sunlight in the winter.

That is so true, Keith. I do not do well when the sun doesn't shine for more than 2 days in a row.

Found some sheep--wildlifegifts.com--they look a little too well fed and groomed, but proper placement around vegetation should keep them looking good enough

Untitled from Orin Dym on Vimeo.

My sheep arrived.  On the plus side, they look better than the picture--not "shiny" and they appear to be about scale--except, given that the mountain is supposed to be large and tall, they simply look out of place--I am thinking some HO scale sheep will give a better effect and sense of "scale".

Yeah, you need to match the scale of the sheep to that of those trees, not to the trains -- forced perspective.

Excellent scene!

I've ridden the White pass twice but never the ARR (but took a good look at their facility at Seward several years ago). I really like what you have done so far!

I really like the way that you captured the "grayness" of everything. When I first started to research Alaska, I noticed that there wasn't a lot of brown. The streams and rivers even have a gray mixed in with the beautiful blue from the glacial silt (there's a cool scientific name for it).

Are the trees spruce? I have been trying to identify the most prodigious trees. They seem to have that thin look.

The layout is only going to look better as you continue. Nice work! Your vision is coming to life.

Black spruce trees is our main spruce--that and Birch trees.  The back spruce tends to be really tall and thin because of the density of trees, but if you thin it out and give them room, they can develop nicely.   I placed one of the sheep next to a passenger figure I have--yep, sheep are just way to large (and too well fed).  Interestingly, the moose I also ordered (same scale) are correctly sized.  I guess I could go with a "chemical spill" type scene and have mutant sheep--Nah/baah.

Moonman posted:

I really like the way that you captured the "grayness" of everything. When I first started to research Alaska, I noticed that there wasn't a lot of brown. The streams and rivers even have a gray mixed in with the beautiful blue from the glacial silt (there's a cool scientific name for it).

Funny you'd mention that, as I was in AK last year and on a White Pass train, a passenger from back East noticed how grey/subdued the ground really was in color:

Orin,

This is the first I have seen your topic on construction.  The mountainside looks great with the passenger train running through the scene.  I went back to find your layout design topic, and now I remember seeing that.  It is looking good!

A discarded railroad tie makes a great place to watch whales or trains.

A few waterfalls added.

This picture was taken from the top floor of a two level car--sorry for the window reflections, but it should give a general idea of the real thing

I would say you are nailing it!  Beautiful work!

Thanks Mark.  I am waiting on cars for the highway--ordered from Menards--they are due in tomorrow--that should help fill up the highway a bit.  I was thinking of a moose or bear in the roadway to have a reason for traffic to be "stopped".

Really good job. We plan to take the land/cruise in 2018, but I don't know where we'll catch the train to Fairbanks.

Dave,

You catch the train right in Orin's train room!  

Orind,

Yes!  The traffic stopped for a bear or moose would be great!

Very funny, Mark. Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you Dave.  I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too!

Cars came in so the highway has some traffic now.  Went ahead and added people to the cars (and one or two in the trunks).

Time to start working on the marsh--here is a picture of the actual marsh:

https://www.google.com/maps/co...237119618333!3m1!1e1

And here is the area I am starting with:

That marsh is ambitious.