Tyson Rayles Micro Challenge

O.K. this is my story and I'm sticking to it! In doing my track planning I first made up a list of mainwants and don't wants.

WANTS:1- A loop for making laps2- Point to point operation3- Interchange track, 2 industry spots to switch and a place for engine storage4- Everything set-up so no runaround moves are needed5- Scenery above and below track to hide the fact that because of the loop the track has no grades

DON'T WANTS1- Loop to be visible2- More than 2 turnouts as they require alot of space

Side thought- Being as I'm working with a 5 inch radius the spurs will have to go inward from theloop

Laid out as a point to point operation it would look like this:

Here is my crude attempt at art work to give an idea of what it would actually look like.

My thought process on operation: From the time the engine picks the cars up from the interchange to when it spots cars back on it,the cars would always be in front of the Loco. Being as in reality the train would most likely begoing upgrade into the mountains to get to the mine it was common practice to keep a Loco on thedownhill side to prevent runaways so this would be prototypical. While a loop can be used forrunaround moves it kinda kills the realism. With this plan the problem is solved because norunarounds are needed. I include the loop because sometimes I like to kickback and just watch thetrain run.Now to take a scrap piece of foam and tack down a piece of flextrack in a 5 inch radius and see if Ihave any equipment that can handle it!

The track looks egg shaped but it's just from compressing the pic. This was used flextrack and whenI first bent it one area went out of gauge. After several minutes of using the track gauge andreadjusting I was ready to try it! I used a 5 and 1/4 inch radius and it just about has to be perfect!However my Life-Like SW9/1200, a 33 ft. hopper and a 40 ft. boxcar will handle it! So far so good!Now to round up some more used flextrack and a couple of switches and some white glue and somesolder and................................................

We have track, switches and wiring!

Getting and keeping track bent this sharply in gauge is a real pain in the a** I have gotten it prettygood though cause I've run her at about 60 quadzillion MPH forward and backwards and no derails!I've pushed em' and pulled em' and ran em' both ways thru the switches with no problems. Yeahright, after about an hour's worth of filing and tweaking and re-adjusting and filing and......................well, you get the idea. I still have a few spots that need some minor tweaking, ought to keep meoccupied till the weekend. Then maybe I can start on building the ridges and if I can fit it, a smallgorge for a crick or waterfall.

Yardsticks from the local Ace Hardware store

I used Peco code 55 flextrack and medium (#6) switches.

We got mountains!!! Still have to add the spackling compound to the mtn.'s and plaster to the crick.The first pic is where the town will be. When finished the engine and hopper would be inside theengine house in this shot. The spur into the tunnel that has the green boxcar is the interchange track.The tunnel at far right leads to the second viewing area.

The second viewing area is the gorge.Yeah, yeah I know it ain't much of ariver or gorge, but hey all rivers andgorges had to get a start some where.Imight possibly be building the world'sshortest R.R. bridge here!

This third shot is of the mining area, the hopper sits where it will be filled at and the mainline will(hopefully) look like a dead end siding at a supply building where you can drop off a flatcar withmore timbers for the mine or a boxcar with tools, machinery or dynamite.

The fourth side will have a removable backdrop so I can access the hidden trackage between theengine house and mine supply building for cleaning, derails or whatever. It's funny how muchbigger the layout seems with all the view blocks.

Well I sprayed the track flat black and started the spackling. However 2/3 the way thru I ran out. Ohwell, I needed to go back to town tomorrow anyway. Here is a pic of the side that is pretty wellspackled, if you squint real hard you can just make out the lush tree covered mountains of southernAppalacia............................then again maybe not.

Got the rest of the spackling done and painted everything a med. dark flat green to get rid of thepink and blue foam and white spackle. Couldn't resist sticking a few buildings here and there and acouple of trees on it just for grins. None of these buildings will likely end up being on the layout,leastways not in their present shapes or colors. This first pic is of the town side.

The gorge area

The mine area

Well I decided to start with the scenery in thegorge area. This first pic shows the base color onthe rocky areas and some brown and blue in thecreek bottom.

In this pic I have been coloring the rocks with chalks, adding a ballast/ground cover of 50/50 nativedirt/clay and a fine gray ballast. The creek has had some rocks glued in place and white poly fiberfill worked along the creek bottom and around the rocks (due to the steep terrain here our creeks aremore foamy than calm water), over that I'm appling gloss medium. There is only a couple of coatsof the GM so far, at least 6 more coats to go.

A closer shot of the creek with a couple morecoats of GM.

The bridge and every structure on the layout willhave to be scratched or heavily bashed. I'mguessing at least 100 trees. Speaking of which,I've always wanted to do an autumn layout. Withonly 100 or so trees (compared to the 1,000 pluson my other layout) it won't be that hard toconvert back to summer if I screw it up so I'mgoing to give it a shot. Besides layouts like theseare tailor made for doing those type ofexperiments.

Got most of the left side of the gorge done, can't work on the right side till I finish the GlossMedium on the crick. I made a cheezy facia board out of some poster board to dress it up a little.

Here we catch the hopper being pushed up the mountain to the mine.

The river looks great, what did you use?I used gloss medium, the brand is Liquidtex. I get mine at Wallyworld, but I think most craft andoffice supply places would have it. I like it better than Enviro-Tex, or varnish or other things. It'sdoesn't smell and it cleans up with water. Does take awhile to dry (overnight) if you put in onthicker than 1/8 inch at a time, BUT if you put in on too thick it will stay a milky white. The trick ismany (6-8 on average) thin coats, rather than a couple of fat ones. The more coats the wetter it willlook.

The bridge is in! At a whopping 15/16" wide by 1 and 7/8" long quite tiny but a bridge never theless.

Well the scenery is pretty much done in the gorge. Photoing it turns out to be tricky as the flashmakes all the fall foliage "glow". Had to set up some lights. Being is there is only about 40 inchesfrom where the engine house will be to the mine tipple (slightly more than 1/10th scale mile) Iwanted no structures or anything else man-made except the track and bridge, in the gorge area tohopefully increase the illusion of distance (remains to be seen as how effective it will be).

And from a eye level view as the train comes by

Just because a layout is small it shouldn't limit our ideas on it's history, roster and operations. Evena tiny R.R. usually owned at least 1 loco (or leased it and still painted it's name on it). Sometimesthey also had a few other pieces of rolling stock as well and our micro layouts should be noexception. We can also have fun developing a history for our tiny slices of the R.R. world as well.I'll tackle the history first:Some of us will name places on our layout for friends and I'm going to also, but that doesn't meanthey can't be incorporated into the history of our R.R.'s. I have decided this R.R. will interchangewith my regular layout the Nantahala Midland so therefore I will name it the Nantahala Mining &Transportation Co., why such a big name? Actually it was fairly common practice among tiny R.R.'sto have a big name to make up for the shortage of mainline trackage. We will assume it is asubsdiary of the parent NM. In real life there was a goldmine about 3 or 4 miles from my home onthe other side of the lake in what is now the Great Smoky Mtn. Nat. Park. It played out quickly andthe only gold was hauled out by horseback, it was never serviced by rail or truck. In my worldhowever it WILL be serviced by rail. Now on to some naming, keep in mind it's one thing to name abusiness after somebody, but tunnels, bridges, cricks etc. are usually named after people who are nolonger with us, deceased, gone, dead as a doornail! So let me say in advance to all those friends ofmine that I will be killing off, it's nothing personal! As I complete something I will name it, thatbeing said.........................Back in 1878 a Danish immigrant heard of gold in these here N.C. mountains and decided to try tofind some for himself! Unfortunately a late season snow storm caught Mr. J.P. Knudsen by surprise!Lost, out of supplies and suffering from hypothermia he fell into a yet unnamed crick and drowned!Later in the spring his body was found several miles downstream washed up on the crick bank withsome other debris. The locals felt like the least they could do was name the crick after the poorfeller. So that is how it came to be known as Kundsen's crick! The tunnel leading into the gorge wasblasted out by one Col. J. Marksbery (retired Conferate Army) in 1872. However while going intothe tunnel to check on the dynamite for the final blast he neglected to let anyone know he was goingin. The workers thinking he had gone to lunch blasted away! Soooooooo, it is now know asMarksbery's tunnel. An early explorer remarked upon entering the gorge, this place is screwy, I'venever seen so many squirrels in my life! Yes, you guessed it! Welcome to Screwy Squirrel gorge!Couldn't figure out a way to kill off David, don't guess he will complain. As progress on the layoutcontinues others that I will kill off or slander will include Charlie, Rory, Paul and Mike C. to name afew. Got to thinking I hadn't named the bridge or the "Gap" yet. Well it turns out that early explorer thatmade the "squirrel" remark was a gentleman by the name of Fred Miller. Now Col. Marksberyhadn't yet blasted that tunnel so ol' Fred found his way into the Gorge by way of a natural pass orgap in the mountain ridge (to the right of the bridge) and went on to build hisself a homesteadfurther on down in the gorge where he made a good living growing tobacco and hunting. After hepassed away at the ripe ol' age of 97 the county named that natural passageway Miller's Gap. Nowabout that bridge. After the good Col. Marksbery got hisself blowed up in that tunnel the railroadhad to hire a new engineer. They found one right off the boat from England by the name of ErrolKettlestack. Things went well until the day they finished that bridge. Just as they got done aCherokee raiding party showed up. The workers put up a fierce fight and drove the Indians away,but went the dust settled ol' Errol had been done in by about a half dozen arrows . Of course theleast the railroad could do was to name that bridge after him.

Moving on to operations and equipment!

Here is how I think I can run 3 trains a day without using the loop or "0-5-0" helper and with norunarounds. The diagram shows how the cars would be at the start of the day. Due to the steepnessof the grades and sharp curves the R.R. has a safety policy that you don't haul freight and passengersat the same time. So the crew would pull out of the engine house hook to the crew car and take themine workers up the mountain to the mine. After returning they spot the crew car on the interchangeto get it out of the way park the loco and freight cars in front of the depot while they pick-up thepaperwork and go for beans. After lunch they run the freight up to the mine, do the switching andreturn to town. After spotting the freight on the interchange and pulling the crew car out they makethe final run of the day back to the mine to pick-up the workers and return to town.

If you see something I missed that would cause this plan not to work please let me know! :11

On to equipment:Russ over at the logging/mining forum posted some pics of his SW's with Dynamic brakes andtorpedo type air reservoirs, other things that can be added are an external oil reservior/cooler andbecause my tunnel is a blasted rock cut with no liner or portals a rock guard over the top radiator. Ican't cram all those things on there, but adding 2 or 3 will give the loco a little "personality". Ofcourse it will also need a lousy rusted out paint job also! Now about those passengers. A reg.passenger car is way to long for 5.5 inch radius curves. You could go with the old time 35 ft woodcars but my time frame is late 1960's so it wouldn't work. Then I got to thinking I had an old Dimi-trains crew car lettered for my first n-scale layout sitting in the weeds less trucks and couplers beingused for tool storage.

A new "old" paint job some KD's and she can ride the rails again!

Years ago I bought a Pola engine house because it was the only one stall engine house that isn'tmodern that I have ever seen. The fact the it was on the clearance table for $1 had nothing to dowith it. The roof is way to Euro for this side of the pond so it will be replaced. For the time being asI hack off walls and test fit this thing to the layout a temp roof of poster board is being used.

This shows how short the other wall is because of the curve radius.

Being as I could see from outside how short this wall is I added a piece of balsa wood to lengthen it.I had to wet the balsa wood and "warp" it to match the curve radius. Then I painted everything flatblack, also blackened the back side of the window glazing to obstruct the view as well. The buildingis "painted" with chalks, the windows and doors with paint.

Another test fit after extending the inner wall. The longest cars that will be run are the 40 ft. boxcarsand the 40 ft. Crew car. The engine house has to be placed perfectly. The box/crew car ends willclear the left door by 1/16th inch while the center of the cars will clear the right door by 1/16 inch!

I had left a rather large hole in the mountain to make sure there would be room for the engine houseso now time to close up the excess. I cut a piece of poster board and pinned it in place with some n-scale track spikes (see they are useful for something) , then blended in with some spacklingcompound. As soon as it dries, I'll paint it and any foam board I exposed flat green and I'll be readyto scenic that area!

Haven't really got that much done. I ballasted all the track on the town side and made the roof panelsfor the engine house using the poster board temp for a template. I'm now waiting for the glue to dryon them so I can add the tar paper and vent. I also put the base coat of gray on the areas of themountain that I might want to keep exposed as rock. In the meantime I had the company helicopterfly over and take this shot. I put a few things right inside the door before putting the roof on.Hopefully this will give the impression that they actually work on the engine in there!

Hmmmmm, wonder what Bubba is jawing with the fuzz about?

Now that the scenery is done here (except for adding some details) I will be doing the right side ofthe town where the depot will go as the depot and the engine house are critical to the operations.Whatever space is then left over will be used to try and give a hint that a small town is around heresomewhere.

I had this cast resin depot from "Depots by John" that I neverput together and it's barely gonna fit, but squeezing things in is amountain tradition!

Then I made this odd shaped platform for it.

Add a few trees and bushes, some odds and ends (will add more later).

And that space between the depot and the engine house is where the town will go!

O.K this is where I think I'm gonna go with "Main Street" As you can see 2 of these buildings had"another life" and one I hadn't gotten around to building yet. I had considered just using "flats" but itjust didn't look very good. While I chopped off 2/3 thirds of the side wall there is still enough depthfor windows and to (I hope) give the look of a regular Building.

Here is how it would fit on the layout

Well buildable land is at a premium here in the mountains! I probably will shave a little off thebottom of the slope of the ridge so I can slide the buildings back another 1/2 inch or so.

This is the name and history behind the name of the town:

Back in the early 1800's one of the first white men in these here parts was one Charlie Allison, that'sright folks, our own Drew Allison's Great, Great, Great, Great Grandpappy! Well he set-up a tradingpost and soon a small town started to grow up around it. Charlie finally petitioned the governmentto become a postmaster but was told the place would have to have a name. Well he declared theplace Allison, N.C. and the locals were so happy to get a post office it was fine with them. Thingswent fine for years in Allison, then one day the Sheriff decided to surprise his wife and have lunch(and a little afternoon delight) at home. Yep, you guessed it! As the Sheriff was coming in the frontdoor ol' Charlie was a heading out the back door! Knowing what a good shot the Sheriff wasCharlie's feet didn't stop till he was in Kentucky!!! The Sheriff tried his best to get the name of the town changed to anything other than Allison, but thepeople in these parts like their scalawags so to this day it's still Allison N.C.!

Here is the "hole" in themountain to let me "cheatthe buildings back someso I'll have more room fora street and sidewalk.Also I've done a littlepaving.

I've done some paint and roof work to the buildings, still got a lot to do yet. This pic is just a test fitto see how I'm doing space wise. I think I'll be O.K.

Here is a overview of the town of Allison, N.C.

And a closer view of main street, yes there are still some minor details and odds and ends to takecare of (aren't there always), but it's pretty much done. Still have the mining side of the layout to go!

BTW main street houses Templar's Musical Instruments, specializing in Harmonica sales andinstruction! Robin's Craft's, specializing in cardboard creations and Catt's Cat House, specializingin.................. well you know Catt's is upstairs above Juengst's (sumpter250) Bar and Grill. Still gotthe signs to make.

The TreesThe trees are very simple and fast and cheap. The trunks are toothpicks spray painted a dark flatgray (I use whatever the hardware or auto supply has on sale, usually around $2 a can which isenough for about a zillion toothpicks). I take Woodland Scenics poly dark green fiberfill (the smallbag which costs about $5 will be good for around 75 - 100 trees) and fluff up a small amount, thenball it up and pull it out some till it is kinda tree shaped. I poured 3 different shades of WS coarsegreen turf into a small paper bag. Spray the poly fiberfill "tree" (hold with tweasers while doing this)with flat black spray paint (whatever is on sale) and stick into bag. Close bag around your hand andshake very, very hard. Remove tree, hit it with some cheap hair spray (the cheapest stuff actuallyworks the best) and stick it on toothpick and you are done if you want a green tree. You can skipspraying with the flat black if you want but the trees won't have that shadowy look between theleaves, The black really makes em' "pop"! To have some of them to be Autumn colored I justsprayed them the colors I wanted right over the green. I think they would look even better if youused colored coarse turf rather then spraying them but I didn't have any and there are no stores inthis area at that time that carried any.

Moving on to the mining side, hereI'm hacking up a Walther's GlacierGravel kit into something smaller (alot smaller). This is supposed to bea small but profitable (althoughbarely profitable) gold mine. Itwon't come out all that prototypicalI reckon cause for one thing I knowsquat about gold mines, besides Idon't guess there is enough room forone anyhow! As long is it looks"miney" it'll work for me.

Here I've started cutting into the mountain side totry fitting what I've got so far. Sorry about the picbeing a little fuzzy.

A test fit. Yeah Iknow, pretty roughso far, but I gottastart somewhere!

Still hacking and bashing!

Here's a front side view.

and a rear view of what I'vegot so far.

Here are some shots of the finished mine

Still some details to add of course

The mine's footprint is only 4" x 5". It looks bigger then it is I think for two reasons. One is I stillwent vertical, it's 7" tall. The other is when placed on such a small layout, the layout makes it lookbigger than it is.

I've converted a oldboxcar into awatchman'sshanty/office.

This was a attached garage to something or another, I replaced the garage door with a steel door,removed the window on the side and saved it for a future project. It will be buried into the mountainside so it could be used as a safe place to store explosives.

Here are a few shots of the finished mine area with the garage and the shanty in place.

I think this pretty much gets me off the hook for getting the challenge done on time. Having saidthat there is still a lot of things I can do. I still need to make another switch stand from the partsmanufactured at P-K Enterprises for the switch at the mine. There are no shorty hoppers or ore carsin these parts so most likely the ones I'm using would have been bought by NM&T to avoid perdiem charges for ever, so they would need to be painted and re lettered as well as the loco. Some ofthe trees I'm not real happy with and need to change out. Then there's the fascia board and the skyboard for the one end and............................. well you get the idea, even a micro layout isn't everdone!

Just for chuckles here is a helicopter shot

and a pan shot