Topic: Construction
The way I am going about building the MK&P layout may appear a bit unusual even disorderly. Partially completed structures sit amidst nearly complete scenery. Somewhere else, hardshell already may be in place, but there is no track laid on the right of way. What's going on here? Is this any way to build a railroad?Typically, we fill our basements in a more or less orderly fashion starting first with bench work, then track, structures, and finally with scenery. Our vision of the finished layout will carry us, hopefully, through those earlier steps when the layout gives little clue as to the final appearance. But Augusta Station is open six days a week, eleven months a year for visitors who have a little or no prior experience of layout building.
A visitor from the general public most often isn't much interested in looking at track and bench work. They want to see trains and scenes they can understand. Therefore, my priority has been to give them as many things to look at as soon as I can. The construction process is a little like creating a pencil sketch and then going back to add the color and detail to create the final painting.
Bench work, of necessity, must come first. I next set out the route of the mainline with Woodland Scenics risers. The order of development after that does not follow in any established progression. What comes next is whatever will most likely give the visitor recognizable clues as what that portion of the layout is going to be about. A key structure or two can show what type of manufacturing activity will occur in an area. Scenery, more than structures, will disclose where the trains will be in the mountains. Tracks can say this spot is going to be the site of railroad yard.
The time required to develop particular features may influence which receive attention earlier. Osage Ridge was the earliest focus of construction because making scenery goes more quickly than assembling kits and it wouldn't require building a large number of structures. Also, Osage Ridge includes a loop of track which allows continuous running independent of the rest of the layout. Therefore, it offered the earliest opportunity to have trains running for the public.
Osage Ridge is now the most nearly complete portion of the MK&P layout and visitors easily recognize it as representative of the river bluffs and scenery like that around Augusta. The lead smelter, is an industry largely unique to Missouri and the J. Prott Generating Station calls to mind the power plant visible across the Missouri River from Augusta. Neither of these facilities, however, is fully complete and still require several details but clearly display what is being modeled. The finishing details will be added as time permits.
Mound City was largely bypassed during the first two years of construction. As an urban-industrial area it required the time consuming building of numerous structures. Since the first of this year, the city has received considerable attention . Now nearly all of the more than 100 structures to ultimately comprise the city are in place. But those structures exhibit varying levels of completion. Almost nothing has received weathering.
Mound City has that crowded urban look, but there are still details to be added and blank spots to be filled.
This past week I've been filling in some of the blanks at the cement manufacturing plant located west of Jefferson. The basic assembly of most plant buildings was done a year ago. With those structures defining the location, work on other parts of the layout became a higher priority. But now there are no longer vacant areas on the existing bench work and attention can can return to filling in the blanks like those still at the cement plant.
The materials warehouse and the kiln furnace building are being built from scratch. They are the two white styrene structures standing among the painted structures. I'm freelancing these buildings and don't have any prototype plans from which to work. Some modelers will begin a scratch building project by constructing a cardboard or foam core mock-up. I am a little too impatient for this approach. I start with a quick pencil sketch and go directly to cutting styrene. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this method to others, but it works for me.
Using masking tape I do test fit walls as I go along. In this way I avoid a lot of wasted styrene components which won't work together. Masking tape also gets used in this way for my kitbashing. I come in for some kidding about the masking tape buildings on the layout. I am actually designing as I work and putting the parts together with masking tape is how I move from the picture in my mind to a three dimensional object.
There is still one blank left to be filled here at the cement plant. A silo for storing the not clinker while it cools after leaving the kiln will be built with PVC pipe. Other blanks remain to be filled elsewhere on the layout but there are fewer all the time. Of course, the day is coming when additional bench work will be built creating a lot more blanks to be filled.
