JSRR : Juwair Sajour Rail Road

This afternoon/evening I have been cutting and shaping the insulation foam as a start to the scenery building....

You will also notice some second hand track laid down but not fixed, which will be the wood chip siding at the top of the incline. The bridge girder with the twisted wires is the line to the wood chip sidings. The line will climb a grad of 1 in 35 (2.86%) over 70" of track, rising up 2".







The foam will be properly fixed down after work tomorrow. The coming weekend will see more carving of rock faces and such.

Cheers, Gary.

 

On Thursday afternoon I started on the grade to the wood chip sidings. As I mentioned in the earlier post the grade (incline) is 1 in 35 (2.86%). To the eye it looks abnormally steep, but with a loco on the grade, it doesn't look too bad...

I tried to cut into the foam with a hot knife, which was unacceptable and inefficient. I decided to ditch that idea and just cut a length of MDF, slightly wider than the track to allow proper alignment. The incline is on a curve which may make it look steeper as it appears to be on a visually shorter length. A few blocks of 19 x 42mm pine were cut, 12, 16, 20, 24mm etc up to 42mm. Each of these were set approximately 7" (175 - 180mm) apart, giving a gentle slope.



Where the brick on the left sits, will be a left hand curved point. This is on the grade and off the right hand side of the point a right hand curved point will be positioned.

Below a closer view of the grade.



The RS3 sitting on the grade with the wood chip hoppers up where the siding will be located. The SOO LINE wagon is sitting upon the right hand point. Where the bricks are positioned will be where the wood chip loader will be located.



Next job is to infill with the cut away foam and sculpt to shape. The MDF road bed will also be cut to the right of the block labelled 33 above to allow the layout to be separated. That will be today's job...

Cheers, Gary.

 

The insulation foam does not ball up like polystyrene does. It is actually reasonably clean. Most the cutting is done with either a serrated kitchen knife or the larger sections outside using a jigsaw. Gormo did give me his Mk1 hot wire cutter but for these larger sections it is harder to cut with. A hot wire cutter set up like a band saw would be ideal for larger sheets of foam and cleaner too.

For shaving or profiling shallow areas, I have a Surshape Shaver : https://www.bunnings.com.au/trojan-65mm-surshape-shaver_p5764394 This files like a bastard file, but quite gently. It wouldn't be much good for polystyrene but the high density insulation foam, it is ideal.

Cheers, Gary.

 

So I managed to fill in the blanks with foam and started on the sculpturing of the rock faces...



Above, a clean sheet to get stuck into with the scalpel... Note that the smooth edge facing the rail was cut with a jig saw.

Below, individual chunks have been cut out to form the rock face in the cutting. So far I have sculpt out almost 8' of foam...



All the small pieces of foam will come in handy along the river bank and also to form some rough ground atop of the gradient.



Below, the start of the terrain begins across the bridge...



Below, a cleaned up section of the rock face cutting.



Oh yes, this is the messy part of the job. I don't think I could have done this type of rock face any easier...



Loots of off cuts and filings on the floor...



Cheers, Gary.

 

Not wrong about the vacuum cleaner ! It has been put into overtime today and even more chipping away and filing tomorrow. The larger pieces I have kept aside for future use.

Once all complete I'm considering a light lick of plaster over the top, just a smidgen as to not fill the little hollows in the carvings.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Pete.

Today's task is to build the bridge supports for the two deck girder bridges. I need to get these complete before I run the scenery to the river edge... Better get out the styrene then !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Toto.

I'm hoping it will be a piece of cake, then I can eat it too... Nah, it wouldn't taste that great !

Cheers, Gary.

 

I knocked up some bridge abutments in the last few hours (with lunch in between). Once I settled on a design, which happened to be the simplest, it was to measure the two bridges up as they sit at different heights and take measurements. The bridge that leads up to the wood chip siding is on an incline, so two different heights are required for that bridges abutment.

Rather than using styrene, I opted for 3mm foam core. This made the job quite easy.

This is the majority of one bridge abutment drawn onto foam core.



The individual pieces cut up, minus the lower front facia of the 'step' and it's supports.



Simple assembly. I used Tarzan Grip for the foam core as I found that it works the best from previous scratch builds.



One complete abutment.



All four abutments completely put together...



Next up will be adding some concrete form work lines across the face and the filling of the gaps between each panel. I'll probably use automotive spray putty for this as I'll be able to give the smooth surfaces some texture.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Phil. I have made quite a few models from 3mm foam core. It is the perfect thickness for double brick walls in OO gauge. Great if you tend to build Scalescenes kits or kit bash.

Cheers, Gary.

 

The bridge abutments have had primer/filler applied and test fitted. A little adjustment to the bottom of these were required for a good fit.



Some of the existing foam had to be cut awat to allow the abutments to sit properly. To make the scene look natural, I used a lot of the off cuts from the previous work I done with the cuttings and dropped these into place with the aid of PVA. It makes for a good rocky, boulder like infill between the two bridges. Again, these will be treated the same as the cuttings, or I'll spray them with water and dust over with plaster powder to form a crust on top.



Still a lot more of this to do as well as paint the abutments and the bridges too.

Cheers, Gary.