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The south side of the mountain was out of people's view so John never bothered to finish it. Later on, it showed up all too well during filming by the GoPro video train. So John thought he'd try an experiment and use a plastic sheet of Plastruct rock wall. As a base coat, he applied a mixture of two paints which approximated the color of rock. |
For the second pass, John applied various colors to approximate individual stones. Next, he dry brushed the entire area with two different rock paint colors. John plans on adding another pass or two of paints before putting the rock sheet into final position. Lesson learned, buy prepainted rock walls. It costs more money, buy saves a great deal of time. |
Many years ago, Steve Booth owned a hobby store in Soldotna, Alaska. John visited the store and soon thereafter struck up a friendship with Steve. After the store closed, Steve sent a care package of hobby supplies to John. Steve passed away in November, so in honor of his life, John used the Woodland Scenics Road System kit Steve sent him to create the road "Steve Booth Way" through Whittier. |
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| The first step was to mark two lines three inches apart which is the HO scale equivalent of a typical road width. The road length is three feet. Next, John cut white paving tape the appropriate length, removed the adhesive backing and applied it to the outside of the marked lines. |
Next, painters tape was applied to the outside of each paving tape. This would protect the work area from Smooth-It overflow, dust and debris. |
The Smooth-It compound was mixed with water (2:1 ratio) and poured between the paving tape. Included in the kit is a plastic spreader which was used to smooth the mixture flat cross the paving tape. John used the left over compound to fill rubber rock molds. Waste not, want not. |
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The mixture was allowed to set for several days and then lightly sanded. John pulled up the painters tape successfully. However, the paving tape was so old that small parts of it stuck to the board. Terry came to the rescue using Goo Gone, Q-tips and a hobby knife to remove almost all of the residue. Whew! |
Painters tape was put down next to the road to protect the area during painting. |
The included asphalt paint had dried up over the years so John used Apple Barrel Pavement paint. The kit included a foam paint brush which made cleanup a breeze. |
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| The road system looked pretty good. Next step will be to apply sponge paint road weathering, road markings, guardrail and gravel. Note: the system can also be used to make curved or wavy roads. |
During train night, the Eppley Shops returned the gondola to service. The coupler height issue was resolved by installing a washer under the coupler. Rick tested out the gondola as part of a freight train. |
While running the Ultradome cars, Rick found the Tour Alaska car had a drooping coupler. He installed a copper spring in the coupler box which brought it up to NMRA standards. |
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| Video: Rick used two SD70MACs to allow the Ultradome fleet to stretch their legs. They are shown here at the Portage Depot where grandsons left a plethora of passengers waiting for a ride to the Anchorage Depot. Rick checked the coupler heights on all the Ultradome cars and found some of them were slightly off. However, the differences were too small to warrant adjustment. |
John used last year's Christmas and birthday money from Jan to make some purchases. The street lights will be installed at the Whittier Depot. These are compatible with the existing Just Plug system. As an experiment, the Peel 'N' Place Tufts will be used as a transition from foreground scenery to backdrop, in the areas of the Hobo and Boy Scout camps. |
Jan's gift money continued: The Woodland Scenics Junk Cars will be added to the area surrounding the Hobo camp. All Tom Koole's track bumpers were used so John bought four, one of which will be used at the Portage Depot. Woodland Scenics tufts will be used at various spots on the layout. Finally, the Tidy Track Locomotive Wheel Cleaner is an experiment to see how it works on our 24 unit fleet. Here is a good product review of it. |
