Build a Structure- A Bridge for Kaley Yard
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:34 pm
Preamble
I have been working on my Kaley Yard layout since 2011. The layout is on two shelves in an enlarged and modified garage - the top shelf is California themed, the lower shelf will be Florida themed. A helix links the two levels and trackwork is complete so that trains can be operated. Scenic work has been completed on about half of the California themed shelf.
My next step is to create a "scene" in the left hand corner of the top shelf. This scene needs a device to disguise the tight radius curves in this area. The layout has been created to replicate images from my rail focussed visits to the USA and the image that came to mind for this scene is Indio on the Sunset Route in Southern California.
I first visited Indio in the summer of 2005 while exploring the Sunset Route South East from Colton Yard through San Timeteo Canyon, Palm Springs and the Desert Cities.
Indio was originally just barren desert, its development came about when it was determined as the halfway point for the Southern Pacific Railroad between Yuma, Arizona and Los Angeles, California. Steam engines needed to be re-filled with water and the city evolved from this need. The city's first permanent building was a craftsman style Southern Pacific Depot station and hotel used by staff who serviced locomotives and was somewhere for crew to bunk down before their next shift. Southern Pacific tried to make life as comfortable as it could for their workers. They wanted to keep them from leaving such a difficult area to live in! Indio was still a reasonably busy railroad city into the 1970s where helpers were added to west bound trains for the climb of Beaumont Hill. Indio still had helpers in 2005, but during my last visit in 2012 all the trains I saw had DPUs. The area around the tracks is very open and accessible and there are many well established palm trees that give the city's railroad a distinctive atmosphere. A representation of this area was something I wanted to include in the Kaley Yard layout.
This Google Map screen shot shows the Sunset Route through Indio with the wye for turning steam locomotives still visible as well as the remains of a locomotive facility. The distinctive palm trees are just left of centre.
DPU power at the rear of a twin stack heading for Long Beach.
I wanted to use a representation of Indio to link a Palm Springs scene to the industrial area to be modelled in the centre of a turnback loop.
I wanted a bridge to be a scenic element to help disguise the tight radius curves on the approach to the turnback loop.
The bridge will continue over the industrial area in the middle of the turn back loop and will cross a flood channel I want to include in this area.
I thought I should make the bridge a signature structure and having used LED lighting strips on our Roundtrees Sidings Exhibition Layout (http://roundtreessidings.wordpress.com/,) I thought I would include them on Kaley Yard. In addition, I wanted the support piers to be representations of those seen in Chicano Park in San Diego.
On my travels to Las Vegas on I15 I had seen public art on new roads being built and I also noticed the safety cages - something else to include in the scene.
In addition, I wanted the flood channels to be representations of those with the graffiti art that adorn many areas of Los Angeles.
. . . . . . . . not so much this image from the Los Angeles River near Redondo Junction . . . . . .
. . . . more like these from the small feeder channels.
Having spent time researching what I wanted to do and creating an image in my minds eye, I now needed to make my concept a reality.
To determine the size, shape, angle and nature of the bridge forming the centre of the scene, I needed a mock up. The first thing I did was photograph one of my plans and then use a basic paint programme to postition the Los Angeles flood channels I wanted to include in this scene. The positioning of the bridge and its angle in relation to the tracks was determined by the bridge piers and their relative position to the flood channels.
With the flood channels marked on the baseboard I could then mock up the bridge and the piers.
Once I knew the position of the bridge, I could then plan and measure the curved embankment for the road that will fill this corner of the layout and will create an impression of Indio. The bridge abutment will be modelled on a modern concrete casting technique with images, similar to this seen on the approach to Los Angeles Union Station.
I have used this imagery on retaining walls on my old Taft Yard layout.
With the planning done that translated the image in my minds eye to the baseboards, I could then start to develop the scene.
Step one was to draw the road on the layout, using HO road vehicles to judge the road radius. The grey painted road is one of my failed ideas. I wanted a road to cross the tracks here and then form a T Junction with the embankment approach to the bridge. However, the steel rods supporting the shelf pass directly under the road in this location and there is nowhere to secure the operating gates and their tortoise point motors.
I have been working on my Kaley Yard layout since 2011. The layout is on two shelves in an enlarged and modified garage - the top shelf is California themed, the lower shelf will be Florida themed. A helix links the two levels and trackwork is complete so that trains can be operated. Scenic work has been completed on about half of the California themed shelf.
My next step is to create a "scene" in the left hand corner of the top shelf. This scene needs a device to disguise the tight radius curves in this area. The layout has been created to replicate images from my rail focussed visits to the USA and the image that came to mind for this scene is Indio on the Sunset Route in Southern California.
I first visited Indio in the summer of 2005 while exploring the Sunset Route South East from Colton Yard through San Timeteo Canyon, Palm Springs and the Desert Cities.
Indio was originally just barren desert, its development came about when it was determined as the halfway point for the Southern Pacific Railroad between Yuma, Arizona and Los Angeles, California. Steam engines needed to be re-filled with water and the city evolved from this need. The city's first permanent building was a craftsman style Southern Pacific Depot station and hotel used by staff who serviced locomotives and was somewhere for crew to bunk down before their next shift. Southern Pacific tried to make life as comfortable as it could for their workers. They wanted to keep them from leaving such a difficult area to live in! Indio was still a reasonably busy railroad city into the 1970s where helpers were added to west bound trains for the climb of Beaumont Hill. Indio still had helpers in 2005, but during my last visit in 2012 all the trains I saw had DPUs. The area around the tracks is very open and accessible and there are many well established palm trees that give the city's railroad a distinctive atmosphere. A representation of this area was something I wanted to include in the Kaley Yard layout.
This Google Map screen shot shows the Sunset Route through Indio with the wye for turning steam locomotives still visible as well as the remains of a locomotive facility. The distinctive palm trees are just left of centre.
DPU power at the rear of a twin stack heading for Long Beach.
I wanted to use a representation of Indio to link a Palm Springs scene to the industrial area to be modelled in the centre of a turnback loop.
I wanted a bridge to be a scenic element to help disguise the tight radius curves on the approach to the turnback loop.
The bridge will continue over the industrial area in the middle of the turn back loop and will cross a flood channel I want to include in this area.
I thought I should make the bridge a signature structure and having used LED lighting strips on our Roundtrees Sidings Exhibition Layout (http://roundtreessidings.wordpress.com/,) I thought I would include them on Kaley Yard. In addition, I wanted the support piers to be representations of those seen in Chicano Park in San Diego.
On my travels to Las Vegas on I15 I had seen public art on new roads being built and I also noticed the safety cages - something else to include in the scene.
In addition, I wanted the flood channels to be representations of those with the graffiti art that adorn many areas of Los Angeles.
. . . . . . . . not so much this image from the Los Angeles River near Redondo Junction . . . . . .
. . . . more like these from the small feeder channels.
Having spent time researching what I wanted to do and creating an image in my minds eye, I now needed to make my concept a reality.
To determine the size, shape, angle and nature of the bridge forming the centre of the scene, I needed a mock up. The first thing I did was photograph one of my plans and then use a basic paint programme to postition the Los Angeles flood channels I wanted to include in this scene. The positioning of the bridge and its angle in relation to the tracks was determined by the bridge piers and their relative position to the flood channels.
With the flood channels marked on the baseboard I could then mock up the bridge and the piers.
Once I knew the position of the bridge, I could then plan and measure the curved embankment for the road that will fill this corner of the layout and will create an impression of Indio. The bridge abutment will be modelled on a modern concrete casting technique with images, similar to this seen on the approach to Los Angeles Union Station.
I have used this imagery on retaining walls on my old Taft Yard layout.
With the planning done that translated the image in my minds eye to the baseboards, I could then start to develop the scene.
Step one was to draw the road on the layout, using HO road vehicles to judge the road radius. The grey painted road is one of my failed ideas. I wanted a road to cross the tracks here and then form a T Junction with the embankment approach to the bridge. However, the steel rods supporting the shelf pass directly under the road in this location and there is nowhere to secure the operating gates and their tortoise point motors.