I hear on the rainy spring. Looks like summer might start out the same. Good to see your progress. Hopefully mother nature holds out for ya.
Kevin,
I re-read your whole article. That’s really impressive and I like how you worked passed the problems and documented the progress. Thanks for sharing.
Yea, Shawn, more rain is forecasted for us this week and into the foreseeable future. Usually it’s just enough to be a nuisance and get everything too wet to work. It rains so frequently that I’ve had to start a “rainy day” bobber caboose project (on another thread) just to keep busy.
Thanks Ric. Its been a whole lot of fun- except for the dirt moving part (where’s my good friend Randy L and his bulldozer been?). The amount of ecouragement and knowledge from this community is awesome. I’ve learned a lot and hopefully some of this will help someone else.
-Kevin.
NEWS FLASH
There have been some major recent developments in the mountainous region of the Iron Island Railroad.
It seems that Mount Cheektovegas is starting to see some seismic activity. It appears that the mountain has started to sprout a new peak. While there are no immediate dangers, it does seem possible that we could see more volatile activity very soon. Residents are being warned to use caution in this area.
In further news, I found a new use for my broken pump up sprayer.
A closer look at the situation…
Stay tuned to this station for more details.
…and now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
-Kevin.
NEWS UPDATE
The situation on Mt. Cheektovegas continues to developed. The mountain peak has advanced further and is now beginning to show tell tale signs of volcanic activity. While there is no immediate threat (at least while the cement cures), authorities are recommending all residents and visitors to use extreme caution in this area.
In further news, two cannibals were eating a clown. One said to the other, “Does he taste funny to you?”
-Kevin.
I just read this thread from beginning to end! Quite an entertaining (yet still informative!) read! Oh, and please don’t steal our volcano. We live and die on tourism out here!
Woha! Looks like this thread may end with a bang. I get it now, the tunnel was just practice for the main attraction. Looking forward to see how you make Cheektovages come to life. Very cool!
Sorry, but my old girl probably woldn’t be much help to you at the moment. I had to unload my equipment with her only having one operational track clutch, So, she now has the left clutch out and being refurbished. First thing when I get the clutch back in, is to clean out the barn! But I don’t think anyone would want that bucket full for their RR unless the wanted their scale corn field to smell correct! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
While the situation (and the cement) continue to settle on Mt. Cheektovegas, I started to do some work on Mt. Keverest.
The back side of the mountain comes awfully close to the tracks that exit the tunnel. Since the only luck I have is bad luck, i was thinking that rain, snow and erosion were gonna make a mudslide out of those tracks. As luck would have it (good luck, this time), I stopped at a garage sale and they were getting rid of this phony rock structure. It’s made of some kind of crusty foam or something and was originally meant for a turtle pond. The front side of it looks pretty hideous…
But the backside does show some promise…
So, I figured, what the heck. And then I dug it into the back of Mt. Keverest…
Holds back the dirt and makes a pretty convincing cliff.
Best ten bucks I spent so far.
Now, I just need to do some “rock” work on top of the tunnel and in the front for the waterfall. Hopefully before Mt. Cheektovegas blows her top.
-Kevin.
The solar eclipse passed through today.
I think it may have awoken the volcano…
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
No. Later, there was an apocalyptic event that would even eclipse a fire breathing mountain.
An event so terrifying, so devastating…
Something that we thought could never occur again.
But then it happened… the unthinkable. An event that could only be unleashed by a total eclipse…
Save yourselves…
-Kevin.
Awww, gh. The acoustics were terrible.
BEHOLD: The Majestic Steel Mountains of the Iron Island Railroad
The Mighty Mount Keverest has begun to take shape. The dirt has finally compacted enough on my mega mountain of mud and the time has come to finish one last large project for the season.
It was paramount that we got this into shape before the weather gets ugly. So, once again, I used my trusty mountain building method and got to work.
The metal lath was shaped using a couple of different methods. The larger shapes were simply cut out of lath and stitched together with some heavy wire. Afterwords, they were further shaped with a hammer and/or by hand bending (lots of sharp edges and blood. My kinda fun). The top of the mountain was done this way.
Some of the other areas, like the sides of the waterfall and the backside tunnel, were shaped by hammering the lath around a rock. Like this…
Here are some of the shapes I used…
Pretty rockin’ isn’t it?
This next shot is the backside tunnel. It’s pretty tough to tell from the picture, but rock shapes were hammered into the metal lath using this method. Once I coat the lath with concrete it will make all kinda sense. 'Til then, it’s just one more large scale metal eyesore in the landscape.
This concrete and lath rock formation will somehow have to tie in to the garage sale foam turtle pond rock cliff that I buried into the back of the mountain earlier in this thread. Remember this?..
Yeah. Somehow it all comes together. Somehow.
Rock on.
-Kevin.
Don’t forget an access hatch to get to the tunnel !
You could put one of these 
there … with doors to simulate an abandoned tunnel ,
Sean McGillicuddy said:
Don’t forget an access hatch to get to the tunnel !
You could put one of these
there … with doors to simulate an abandoned tunnel ,
Oh come on. What could possibly happen at the dead center of a seven foot tunnel? -Kevin.
I remember reading about a hot rod guy that didnt carry a tool box or any tools under the assumption that if you do not have it with you it will not be needed, AND if it is built properly it shouldn’t be a worry. We all know that trackwork is the most stable, most reliable part of a garden RR so why tempt fate and the gremlins by having a door for the gremlins to sneak in and cause problems. Besides the worst that could happen would be some grinding and delicate parts removal, maybe a unexplained fissure opening up on the back side of the mountains. Charge on Diesel Dude, waiting for more.
Pete Lassen said:
Charge on Diesel Dude, waiting for more.
The wait is over, Pete. The charges are pending.
Made a bit of progress this week on both mountains. That’s right- it’s one of those twofer deals. Or is it buy one get one. In any event, it is still definitely BYOB.
Okay, so on volcanic Mount Cheektovegas, I finished tunnel construction and tunnel backfilling. The tunnel is now nine feet long. My arms are not. I looked in to some access hatches (for gremlins, of course), but could not find anything in my price range (really cheap or free). I’ve seen many people use plastic boxes meant for automatic lawn sprinklers and such, but those cost money. Instead, I wandered into my neighbors yard, where she has an abundant supply of small (8" x 16") paver blocks that she needs to dispose of. A couple of cuts with a masonry blade, a few Tapcon screws and… POOF! Instant access…
The long view…
They don’t look real pretty right now, but I will eventually “decorate” the top opening with some scenery (plants, rocks, pink flamingoes, etc.). Mt. Cheektovegas is behind and between the two access ports. The tunnel portals are outside the view of the picture (far left and right).
Work has also continued on Mount Keverest. Since I wasn’t sure how I was going to join the garage sale foam turtle pond rock formation to the cement/lath rocks, I figured, why not start there? After a bit of trial and error (more like kicking and screaming), I came up with this…
It’s a slow start, but a start none the less.
I did my best to blend the new rock formation with the existing rock formation. If you look closely you can kinda see the corrugated tunnel opening.
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the garage sale foam turtle pond rock formation (to the right) is definitely more of a blue grey/grey mixture of colors. The new cement/lath rocks are white-ish grey. I really wanted to add some tint to the cement mixture to get a better base color, but there are a few issues preventing me. First off, the foam rock formation will need to be painted in order to blend it into the cement rocks. Cement tint will not work on foam. Also, the cement rocks will take several session to complete. One full 50 pound bag of cement takes a couple of hours to apply and shape. I doubt that I could get the same color every time over the course of this project. So, when all the sculpting is done, I’ll have to wait it out for the cement to cure before coloring. Hopefully, I won’t run out of good weather.
-Kevin.
Nice decorative access hatches … have you actually stuck your arm down and off to one side? Tried to grab a long car and extract it?
You don’t have to ask, my arm didn’t bend … the opening grew, but I was only sawing out 2 1/2" thick planks. Oh I tried to rerail, but too much ham fist and too little room …
Don’t let the little ones know about them, my little bast… er nephews, dropped rocks on the tracks hoping for more derailments … just fair warning! They knocked the wheels off of a loco! I blew my safety! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif)
John
John Caughey said:
Nice decorative access hatches … have you actually stuck your arm down and off to one side? Tried to grab a long car and extract it?
John
Yep. -Kevin.
After days of barbed wire and blood, I had a pretty concrete idea of what I needed to do next. Unfortunately, I was out of bullets.
Previously, I tried my best to blend the garage sale turtle pond foam rock structure to the existing concrete/lath mountain.
I hated it.
So, I moved on (temporarily), to bigger and hopefully better things.
My next focus was the top of the mountain. With trusty trowel in hand, I mixed up some cement and got to work. Here’s the start of something big…
It took a couple of days to apply and sculpt the cement. During which time I couldn’t help but think about how Dearth Vader must have felt while waiting for the death star to be completed.
Speaking of completing things. The garage sale foam turtle pond rock structure (thats a lot to type each time. It needs an acronym or something… GSTPFRS. Not any better, is it?) still wasn’t looking any better next to the cement/lath rocks. Something had to be done. Something stupid. And I know just the right guy for the job. You guessed it. I decided to dig it out and move it to the other side of the mountain where it would not be in direct contact with the cement/lath rocks. In its place. I did this…
This mountain cliff blends a whole lot better than the GSTPFRS did. In the process I also made some changes to the back side tunnel entrance. Hopefully, everything looks a bit better. Hey, fake it 'til you make it.
The nice fall weather continued here in the north, so I decided to head east. The east side of the mountain, that is. Once again, with trowel in one hand and bag of cement in the other, I left my brains in a shoe box under the bed and went to work.
I knew that my good friend Sean was losing sleep at night for fear of a tragic train derailment in the middle of the tunnel. Sure, Pete was reassuring me that nothing could ever happen as long as I didn’t prepare for it, but still, I just couldn’t let poor Sean suffer those sleepless nights. He really does need his beauty sleep. Really. What to do? How about this…
Now you see it…
Now you don’t…
Okay, so you can still kinda see it. But, once the concrete cures completely, I will try to hide the plug a bit better with some color and scenery.
And now for something completely different-
I bring you the front of the mountain…
That ugly black box in front is where the waterfall begins. And, yes, your right- It looks like somebody made it out of an old plastic garbage can and a plastic dust pan. Have you seen the prices of a legit one at the pond stores? In any event, I’m going to hide it anyway. My plan is to make a cement “rock” cover for it. I’ve got one started, but it still needs some serious work. It’s visible in this view from the blimp. Looks more like a giant mushroom or something. I’ll be working on that later.
As a precaution (what could possible go wrong, Pete?), I did place some heavy plastic and then a piece of pond liner behind the waterfall before I cemented it. In the event of a waterfall leak (that would never happen, right?), the water would be directed into the pond.
That’s my story and I’m stick’n to it.
-Kevin.
Dude
I’m touched …( more than you know ) !
(http://largescalecentral.com/FileSharing/user_2381/-Kevin%20Pics/IMG_6029.JPG)
I can see this or something like this
…off to the side , for the speeder or track crew… this will draw the eyes away from the rocks…