North
Umpqua River Bridge
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 Building this scene took nearly a year of spare time. Most of that year was spent building the two span truss bridge by kitbashing a couple of Central Valley bridge kits. Don't underestimate how long it takes to build bridges!
Once the bridgework was done, then I had to build and detail the river. I used masonite hardboard for the riverbottom, which I painted and sealed with a couple coats of housepaint primer. Next, I painted the river a deep green, with the shallow spots going from a lighter green to a yellowish tan. Finally I gave the river a couple coats of acrylic gloss medium (to see the river from a view that clearly shows the gloss medium's ability to make modeled water look wet, click here).
To build the walls of the river canyon from the backdrop to the front fascia, I used cardboard strips hot glued together, which I then covered with masking tape and plaster. Finally I painted the white plaster a medium brown and began to cover the scene with vegetation. You need lots of greenery to accurately portray southern Oregon. There are over 100 tress in this entire scene, and it's still not done (to see the entire scene, click here). However, I must say the scene is living up to all my expectations and I am pleased with how it is starting to look.
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Duplicating prototype locomotives, down to the peeling paint |
 This well-weathered helper set typical of the SP pushes an eastbound train up over Oregon's coast range into Roseburg. The lead unit is particularly weathered, with its paint pealing off to reveal spots of yellow primer beneath.
I get a lot of enjoyment out of trying to duplicate prototype locomotives that actually ran in Oregon. Not only is time spent detailing the locomotives, but even the weathering is done following a photo of the actual prototype unit. These locomotives were detailed and weathered by Mark Brown. Mark's attention to detail is superb.
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An intermodal special on the Coos Bay branch
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 This is an intermodal shipper's special we ran recently down the Coos Bay branch. Coos Bay is not an intermodal port, but the Japanese have shown interest in setting up an intermodal operation for shipments from the US to Japan. Coos Bay is a logical choice as the largest deep-water ocean port on the west coast between San Francisco and Portland.
Actually, this was a real possibility during the 1980s on the Coos Bay branch, so we decided to have some fun and run this special down the branch on my layout. I am intrigued with this idea, and as I detail Coos Bay, I may just add that fledling intermodal operation on the port, and give myself an excuse to run a "single stack train" down the branch (double stacks won't fit -- on the prototype or the model -- because the clearances are too tight).
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GP40R and TEBU on the Coos Bay branch
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 Pushing a heavy train of lumber toward Roseburg, mid-train helpers TEBU 1605 and TEBU mother 7965 (a GP40R) rumble across the tall steel trestle over the middle fork of the Coquille River just east of Myrtle Point on the Coos Bay branch. At this location the track is on a 2.5% grade, climbing along the length of the room (some 40 feet).
This extensive helper grade means that only a two turn helix is needed to get to the upper deck of the mushroom at Roseburg.
This scene was the first area of the layout that has (somewhat finished) scenery. Near this location on the layout is also where layout construction started. I started here because I knew the scene would look good and I was eager to build it so I could see what it would look like. This particular location on the layout is probably the most photographed spot to date.
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