MAGAZINE

THE
SALT LAKE
ROUTE

www.ModelRailroader.com
The Salt Lake Route part 1
The inspiration
for a small layout

36 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

 Our portable 4 x 9-foot
N scale project layout
starts with two photos
By Dick Christianson
Photos by Jim Forbes and Bill Zuback

M
y wife and I had just re-
turned from a trip to Nor-
way to see the homeland of
my ancestors and renew
the acquaintance of a cou-
ple of Norwegian model railroading
friends. After 28 years of work at Kalm-
bach Publishing Co. as – at various
times – Model Railroader’s copy editor
and managing editor, editor of Classic
Toy Trains, and editor-in-chief of Kalm-
bach Books, the Norway trip was a post-
retirement treat Diana and I had
planned for several years. But now we
were back home and had both slipped
into retirement pretty comfortably.
Then the phone rang.
Model Railroader’s managing editor,
David Popp, and editor, Neil Besougloff,
made a proposal. They wondered if I’d
be interested in building an N scale
project railroad for the magazine. The
parameters were broad, the deadlines
reasonable, and the compensation was
within the guidelines of what one on
Social Security can receive. So after
consulting with Diana, I agreed.
Here was the guidance I got from
MR: The N scale layout needed to fea-
ture modern-era Western railroading,
preferably feature Digital Command
Control (DCC), and use Kato’s new Uni-
track with superelevated curves. It also
had to be portable, roughly 4 x 8 feet,
and be aimed at those in the beginner-
to-intermediate skill level.
Most of these criteria left me little
wiggle room: N scale (standard gauge),
DCC (brand left up to me), Kato’s su-
perelevated curved track (thus main-
line railroading), portable (lightweight
materials), and skill level (I consider
my skills intermediate, at best). There
were two elements that would require
more thought and decision-making.

Modern era in the West

1. The rugged mountain desert I suppose I could have chosen one of
scenery of the Meadow Valley Wash the smaller regional lines, but wanting
provides a picturesque backdrop for
trains on the N scale Union Pacific ▸▸ Union Pacific Salt Lake Route
Salt Lake Route. The 4 x 9-foot
model railroad, built by retired
managing editor Dick Christianson, Coming next month:
features Kato Unitrack with superel- Building the roll-away benchwork
evated curves.

o1/1o • Model Railroader 37

2. Model Railroader associate editor Cody Grivno and graphic designer Drew Halverson operating the Salt Lake Route.

3. A BNSF Ry. detour train passes under the Nevada state highway 317 bridge in Caliente, Nev.

38 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

South Central Third Subdivision

Stine, 4,067 feet

Feet above sea level
District

4,296 feet
Salt

Caliente,
Las Vegas, 2,034 feet
Lake

Cloud, 2,702 feet

of the Union Pacific City

Moapa, 1,671 feet

0 Scale 200 miles UTAH
Lynndyl Superior
NEVADA 1 Furniture Inc.

Caliente Lund
Crestline 6
Meadow Valley Wash
Moapa State
Las Vegas
Boulder Junction highway
Meadow 317
CALIFORNIA Valley Wash
Los 3
Angeles Daggett
Riverside Junction
The Salt Lake Route
Long Whittier Junction N scale (1:160)
Beach Layout size: 4 x 9 feet
Scale of plan: 3⁄4" = 1'-0", 12" grid
Numbered arrows indicate 4
BNSF Ry. trackage rights photo locations
Third Subdivision (Las Vegas – Caliente, Nev.) Meadow
Valley
Wash

▸▸ The layout at a glance Yard office

Name: The Salt Lake Route

Scale: N (1:160)
Caliente
Size: 4 x 9 feet
Prototype: Union Pacific
Locale: Meadow Valley Wash 7
in southern Nevada
Era: present day
Style: island Removed
Mainline run: 15 feet track
Minimum radius: 10"
Minimum turnout: no. 6
Maximum grade: level Sand tower
Benchwork: L-girder Cover
Height: 50" 5
Roadbed: molded styrene on cork
Enginehouse
Track: Kato Unitrack
Scenery: Sculptamold over Intermodal Yard
extruded-foam insulation board Water storage
tank
Backdrop: 1 ⁄8" tempered hardboard
Container crane
Control: Digitrax Digital Command
Control
Illustrations by Rick Johnson
2

to stick with mostly ready-to-run equip- Pacific’s Historic Salt Lake Route. Orig- inception in 1900 as the San Pedro,
ment, that meant BNSF Ry. or Union inally published in 1977, by 2008 it no Los Angeles & Salt Lake RR (soon
Pacific. Burlington Northern took over longer covered the modern era (and dropping the San Pedro and becom-
the Santa Fe (one of my favorite rail- most, if not all, of the photos were black ing the LA&SL) to its publication-date
roads, and I bear a bit of a grudge), so I and white). status as the South Central District of
zeroed in on the UP. During a conversation with Matt the UP (the “Salt Lake Route”).
But where along the UP? Wyoming, VanHattem, senior editor at Trains
though a beautiful state, really doesn’t magazine, he asked if I’d seen Mark Rugged mountain desert scenery
offer a lot of dramatic scenery. North- Hemphill’s well illustrated and com- Salt Lake City is 784 miles (via the
ern Utah and northern California? prehensive book, Union Pacific Salt UP) from Los Angeles, and the layout
Maybe, though the Feather River Can- Lake Route (Boston Mills Press, 1995). MR wanted was to be roughly 4 x 8
yon has certainly been modeled many It was exactly what I needed. Beau- feet. So, which scale half-mile should I
times before. Southern California? tiful color photographs taken along build? For several hours I paged
Mojave Desert, Sullivan’s Curve, Cajon the entire line from Los Angeles to through the book, front to back and
Pass – also pretty well represented by Salt Lake City; a well-written and de- back to front. There was plenty to
layouts in all scales. tailed description of the line; and choose from. I envisioned the layout
In the back of my mind, I recalled maps that include elevations, grades, would in some way be divided into
John Signor’s book, The Los Angeles and mileposts. The text describes in parts, probably by a backdrop down
and Salt Lake Railroad Company: Union detail the history of the line from its the middle, so that meant two scenes.

o1/1o • Model Railroader 39

 Meadow Valley Wash, in the foreground.
The stream leads your eye into the pho-
to where the train crosses silver steel
truss bridges over the stream. To the
left the track disappears between sheer,
rocky canyon walls. Very dramatic. Per-
fect for an N scale layout.
Jamie’s photo also includes the
wash, running parallel to the main
line, which cuts through the base of
two smallish hills. The tunnel portals
aren’t far apart, allowing a long train to
be in two tunnels at one time. And the
scenery appeared to be easy to model:
sand, some rock outcroppings, tunnel
portals, and small shrubs – millions of
small shrubs!
While poring over the photos, I real-
ized that if I carefully rolled the two
facing pages together, the two photos
became one. Amazingly, I’d found the
subject of one side of the layout on fac-
ing pages in a book.

The sheer rock cliffs west of Stine, Nev., provide a dramatic backdrop for a Caliente industrial area
Union Pacific GP30 and two U50Cs climbing the 1.5 percent grade along the I hoped that I could find similar in-
Meadow Valley Wash in October 1972. This photo provided the inspiration for spiration in other photos for the Cali-
half of the Meadow Valley Wash side of the layout. Note the riverbed with gray ente, Nev., side of the layout. No such
rock, bushes and trees, and how the Meadow Valley Creek disappears from luck. Elements of several photos pro-
view behind a rock outcropping. Keith Ardinger photo vided inspiration, but nothing like the
mountain photos. That being the case,
I let available structure kits determine
what would appear on the other side.
One key element would be the intermo-
dal yard; for that, I’d need a Walthers
Mi-Jack Translift intermodal crane kit
(933-3222) and some sort of office for
the yard.
Engine servicing ought to be avail-
able also. The Walthers car shop (933-
3228) is good-sized, has an interesting
roofline, and looked like it would be
easy and fun to build. Most of us have
more locomotives than we have main
line, so this would also be a good spot
to store a couple extra engines. A sand-
ing tower would add interest and be ap-
propriate for mountain railroading.
At the other end on the layout, I
needed an industry or two. The Wal-
Sand, rock, bushes, and tunnel portals were about all the scenery Dick needed thers Hardwood Furniture Factory kit
to complete the Meadow Valley Wash side of the layout. Pretty simple, except (933-3232) has covered loading docks –
there are a lot of bushes! This photo, taken in March 1992, captured Union an interesting feature. Another possible
Pacific freight NPLAF-15 (North Platte, Neb.-Los Angeles), a unit vehicle train, industry to include would be the Wal-
passing through tunnels 7 and 8 east of Stine, Nev. Dick modeled this scene thers Interstate Fuel & Oil (933-3200).
along with the one west of Stine, shown above. Jamie Schmid photo Finally, a small, modern yard office
along the main line wouldn’t look out
One should probably represent either Ardinger, shows a UP extra struggling of place. With that somewhere near the
desert or mountain scenery (maybe up the 1.5-percent grade west of Stine, middle of the layout, the space would
both); the other should be somewhat Nev. The other photo (bottom), by be pretty well filled.
more urban, including an industry or Jamie Schmid, features a pair of big As far as track goes, the mountain
two for switching and a yard of some UP locomotives hauling a long string of side would make use of the Kato Uni-
sort – an intermodal yard would be in- auto racks through tunnels 7 and 8 east track with superelevated curves in an S
teresting and appropriate. of Stine. The scenery is quite different configuration, with a couple straight
At this point two photos on facing even though the two photos were taken sections here and there. On the real
pages of the Salt Lake book caught only a few miles apart. Keith’s picture line through the narrow canyons,
my attention. The first (top), by Keith includes a small stream, known as most of the right-of-way is single-track

40 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

(though many of the tunnels had at one
point been modified to accommodate
two tracks). I suspended disbelief on
the basis of modeler’s license. Besides,
a double-track main line would allow
the MR staff to run trains in circles in
opposite directions for display at train
shows and other events.
Track configuration on the Caliente
side was more problematic, but I’ll get
into that later in this series. Essentially,
though, I needed at least part of an
intermodal yard, an engine-servicing
area, passing sidings, and a few indus-
tries served by rail.
I was given the option of using flex-
track on the yard side to join the ends
of the Kato section from the mountain
side. However, I liked the ease of using
the Kato Unitrack with its attached
roadbed, so I worked with it through-
out. Determining which sections to use
proved to be a challenge, but in the end
all of the track snapped together per-
fectly, and the trains run reliably. I
believe I chose wisely.

Perfect railroad for the hobby

The Third Subdivision of the South
Central District runs from Moapa,
Nev., at milepost 383.1 and an eleva-
tion of 1,663 feet above sea level, to
Crestline, Nev., at milepost 495.7 and 4. As the maintenance-of-way crew gathers its supplies, Union Pacific no. 1989,
5,902 feet [See map on page 39. – Ed.] painted in the Denver & Rio Grande Western heritage scheme, emerges from a
So, in 110 miles the line climbs 4,239 tunnel. Dick modeled the Meadow Valley Wash during its dry season, however
feet. The grade between those two you could add water to the creek with a small amount of clear resin.
points varies between 1.00 and 2.06
percent. Over that same stretch the line
passes through 15 tunnels and weaves
back and forth across Meadow Valley
Creek on a couple dozen steel bridges.
The curves are many, and they’re tight.
It’s a railroad built for modeling!
From Moapa to Caliente, the rail-
road climbs eastbound through the
area known as Meadow Valley Wash.
The rest of the trip to the summit at
Crestline follows Clover Creek Canyon.
Stine, near the locations represented
on the mountain side of the layout, is at
4,049 feet.
Meadow Valley Wash is generally
dry, though occasional heavy rains can
catch the unsuspecting railfan mid-
stream. The line today is several feet
higher in most places than it was in
1910 when a flood wiped out much of
the railroad, carrying ties into the Col-
orado River and burying rails under as
much as nine feet of silt. At consider-
able expense, the Los Angeles & Salt
Lake realigned track, bored new tun-
nels, and raised the line along the sides
of canyon walls to where it is today. In
some places the location of the old Stener Harilstadt, Dick’s friend from Norway, made these concept drawings of
roadbed is still visible – obviously much the N scale Union Pacific Salt Lake Route. Though Dick modeled Meadow
too close to the level of the creek! Valley Wash as drawn, he made some modifications to the Caliente side.

o1/1o • Model Railroader 41

5. The layout is divided down the middle by a 1 ⁄8" hardboard backdrop. The Caliente scene includes a furniture factory,
yard office, enginehouse, and intermodal yard. Here, Union Pacific GP15-1 no. 1660 switches well cars.

Rail traffic through the Wash

Over the years, rail traffic has been
what you’d typically expect: produce
and livestock from California headed
east, strings of tank cars from the Cali-
fornia oil fields, auto racks from the
Midwest bound for the West Coast for
sale or export, and piggyback trains in
both directions. Some of Union Pacif-
ic’s signature name trains, including
City of St. Louis, Challenger, City of Los
Angeles, and Pacific Limited, also plied
these rails.
Today, no passenger trains growl
through the canyons, though you could
certainly make up a story that would
permit Amtrak to run to Los Angeles
via Salt Lake City and Las Vegas and
vice versa. In terms of freight traffic,
though, the first thing you’ll notice is
that it takes a lot of locomotives to
manage these grades. The UP runs long
trains over the mountains, and it takes
an enormous amount of horsepower to
get the freight out of the desert and onto
the gentle grades of the Great Plains.
Rolling along behind those six-axle
Armour Yellow locomotives today are
loads typical of big-time mainline rail-
roading: coil steel cars; a variety of cov-
ered hoppers filled with grain, fertiliz-
er, soda ash, and cement; loads of
coking coal; and lumber from the Pa-
cific Northwest. Unit coal trains for ex-
port to Asia and container trains from
6. With inbound raw material and outbound finished product, Superior Furniture the Port of Los Angeles heading east
Inc. generates plenty of traffic. It looks like the owner of the Impala has some are by far the most common types of
explaining to do after driving through the freshly painted parking stripes. traffic seen on the Salt Lake Route.

42 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

7. A westbound Union Pacific freight passes an eastbound Amtrak passenger train at Caliente. In the background,
UP no. 1660 pushes two cars of raw materials to Superior Furniture Inc.

Layout preview suggest that eastbound trains are work-

This isn’t an especially difficult lay- ing hard by running them slowly.
out to build. It’s small enough that it Trains headed in the opposite direction
won’t take you forever to finish it; the (westbound and downgrade) could run
Caliente side of the track plan could be somewhat faster, suggesting an easier
simplified, though as it is, it’s not too trip, but they’d still be using dynamic
complex; wiring for Digital Command brakes on the downgrade. Because
Control is about as easy as it gets; and of the tight curves, you’d hear flanges
the scenery is simple – sand, some squealing – fun to simulate if your
rockwork, and bushes (did I mention modern diesel locomotive is sound-
that there are lots of bushes?). That’s equipped with that feature.
about it.
Over the years, traffic has varied The railroad step by step
enough that almost any cars or loco- Part of my agreement with Model ▸▸ Meet Dick Christianson
motives would be appropriate. And if Railroader was that I would photograph
you don’t care for the Union Pacific, construction of the layout. In fact, I
freelance it and make it your own fa- shot more than 600 photos. The subse- Dick Christianson’s name may be
vorite railroad. quent articles won’t include all of them, familiar to those of you who read
As for operation, the main line is but there will be plenty of photos so magazine mastheads. He became
simply two loops with a crossover at you can get a clear idea of the process. an employee of Kalmbach Publish-
one end of the yard. You could run If the modern Union Pacific Salt ing Co. in 1978 when he joined the
trains east and west in continuous Lake Route doesn’t inspire you, the lay- MR staff as copy editor. He later
loops while you switch a container out could easily be backdated to the served as managing editor of MR,
train. You could also have a locomotive steam-to-diesel transition era. You could then was the founding editor of
make up a cut of cars leaving the furni- turn the intermodal yard into a set of MR’s sister magazine, Classic Toy
ture factory (or bringing in raw materi- team tracks or add a freight house. Trains. After 7 years in that position,
als). If you wanted to, you could run a Hopefully you’ll follow along and apply Dick next served – for 10 years – as
helper operation out of the engine- some of what you learn to a model rail- the Editor-in-Chief of Kalmbach
servicing tracks, pushing a train up the road of your own choice. MR Books. In 2005 he returned to the
canyon at one end and then cutting off MR staff as managing editor and, in
and returning to the engine tracks Now on ModelRailroader.com the fall of 2007, retired after 28
when the train comes back around years with the company.
from the other end. Read Dick’s log book entries as he Dick has been married to Diana
On the mountain side, because of built the layout over a 10-month pe- for 43 years, has two grown
the steep grades, trains headed east- riod, and watch him give you a tour of daughters, two sons-in-law, and
bound work hard and grind along at The Salt Lake Route on our Web site, three grandchildren. None of them
minimum speeds. Though the model www.ModelRailroader.com. are model railroaders – yet.
railroad as shown here is level, you can

o1/1o • Model Railroader 43

 The Salt Lake Route part 2

Benchwork
with folding legs
Stener Harildstad holds one end of the
N scale Salt Lake Route with the legs
How to make portable L-girder benchwork folded up inside the L girders. This
month, learn how to build easy-to-
transport benchwork with folding legs
By Dick Christianson • Photos by the author for our 4 x 9-foot project layout.

A
s I noted last month, in May our host, chauffeur, and tour guide. We I did a lot of doodling and planning.
2008, my wife, Diana, and I had first met him in 1984 when he at- I used Kato’s track template, but the
took a post-retirement trip to tended Model Railroader’s 50th anniver- scale is small, so the resulting plans
Norway. We’d long wanted sary celebration in Milwaukee; he stayed weren’t particularly accurate. In deal-
to visit the beautiful home of with us then and has visited us on sev- ing with sectional track (Lionel, Atlas,
my ancestors, and the trip gave us the eral other occasions. Stener models the and others), I’ve found that templates
opportunity to renew our acquaintance- Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and Union have their limitations. Nothing beats
ship with some Norwegian model rail- Pacific over Cajon Pass in N scale. having sections of track you can lay
roading friends. Stener Harildstad was Not too long after we returned home, down on plywood. Eventually, though,
I got the call from Model Railroader I came up with a pretty good sense of
▸▸ Union Pacific Salt Lake Route magazine with the N scale layout pro- what the layout would look like.
posal. Soon after that, I mentioned the
project to Stener via e-mail. I noted General shape of the layout
January 2010: Design that if he came to visit in the fall, he’d I started out with a box of Kato’s
Coming next month: Track be welcome to help me build the layout; new N scale superelevated track, set
we set up a visit for early November. V11, on a piece of 4 x 8 plywood on the

40 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

floor. The basic curve diameter of the
outside track (to the outside edge of
the molded ballast) is approximately 3
feet. That left almost a foot of unused
plywood along most of one side. It oc-
curred to me that I might be able to cut
off at least 4 feet of that edge and add
it to the other end, extending the lay-
out to 9 feet in length.
I knew that I wanted a through-
truss bridge at some point, so I laid
down a couple sections of straight
track coming out of the curve at the
left end. At the end of that I put in a
curve heading back toward the right. A
couple more short sections of straight
followed by a left-hand curve brought
the track close to the 4-foot edge and
9-foot length at the other end.
Unable to wait for legs and L girders
and all other preliminary materials, I
took one of Kato’s three-unit articu-
lated well cars out of its box and put it
on the track. In my mind’s eye, I was
beginning to see Meadow Valley Wash
in N scale.
What came next is definitely not a
Model Railroader recommended prac-
tice. Without a detailed track plan, I
took a leap of faith and declared the
impromptu plan “good enough.”
What? Only half the plan is done!
The easy half! Are you crazy?
Maybe, but I figured there had to be
– at least I hoped there would be – a
way to fit an intermodal yard, passing
sidings, industrial spurs, and locomo-
tive service tracks on the other side.
Talk about a leap of faith!

Norski to the rescue

Lest you think I’m a really bad host,
we didn’t work on the layout night and
day. I did show Stener around. We A pair of Union Pacific freights meet on the Meadow Valley Wash side of the lay-
toured Eau Claire, Wis. (my boyhood out. Dick’s impromptu track plan started here. Bill Zuback photo
hometown), visited the twin ports of
Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., and
stopped in Milwaukee to catch up with
the MR staff and see the layouts.
In truth, however, we did spend a
lot of time building benchwork. And
I’m very grateful to have had Stener 12" x 48" section of
plywood added here
helping. Not only were his talents and
ideas helpful, it’s just good to have
companionship while you’re working.
Our first step was to position the
Meadow Valley Wash track on the 3 ⁄8"
plywood, using that to figure out where
to cut the 12" length of plywood – 5'-9" 12"x 69" section of
plywood cut from here
gave us enough room for the final curve.
When we turned that cut-off plywood
90 degrees, placed it at the wide end of
the layout, and cut it off at 4 feet, as
shown in fig. 1, we had 21" of plywood
left over (part of which I used later for
the 7" x 11" control panel drawer). Now Fig. 1 A 4 x 8 no more. Dick cut a strip out of the length of the plywood, turned
it was time to focus on the benchwork. it 90 degrees, and put it at the far end to make a tabletop 9 feet long.

o2/1o • Model Railroader 41

 1 x 4 joist
1 x 4 girder
1 x 2 flange
31⁄4"
hex
bolt

43"
81⁄2"
11"

1 x 2 cross brace
1 x 2 girder brace

3515⁄16"
Hole for
raised
position 2 x 2 legs
Fig. 2 Adding legs. The legs need to
be absolutely perpendicular to the
L girders for the layout to be stable. Fig. 3 Folding benchwork. This illustration shows how Dick incorporated the
Here Stener is using a square to check folding legs into the L-girder benchwork. Having the legs tuck inside the girders
the position of the legs. makes the N scale layout easier to transport. Illustration by Rick Johnson

Fig. 5 Keep that layout rollin’. Manag-

ing editor David Popp encouraged
Fig. 4 Reinforcing the ends. Dick and Stener realized that the layout would be Dick to put the layout on casters. The
lifted at the ends, and that the fascia would extend to the bottom of the girders. wheels make it easier to rotate the
They added 1 x 4s at each end of the layout to serve as gripping points. layout for scenery work or photos.

L-girder benchwork and nailed the two girders, rather than 3-foot end and run parallel the length of
L-girder benchwork is ideal for rail- screwing them together. the layout.
roads with grades. There are no grades Each of the four legs is a 43"-long
on this layout, and only Meadow Valley 2 x 2. I’m really happy with the result- Folding legs
Wash would be below grade. However, ing 50" height of the layout (leg length, The layout needed to be portable and,
one of the other advantages of L-girder plus nominal 4" stringers, plus 3 ⁄8" ply- when completed, it needed to fit through
benchwork is that it provides plenty of wood, and casters). I’m about 5'-10" a roughly 4-foot-wide door and rest in a
strength using a minimum amount tall, and I found it to be a very comfort- 10-foot-long space (the back of the Kalm-
of wood. One of my requirements was able height to work on, wire under, and bach van). Stener, being an architect, is
that the layout needed to be portable, watch trains pass by. very handy with a pencil and rule. To-
and anything I could do to keep the It’s important when you attach the gether we figured out how the legs of the
weight down would be a good thing. legs to the L-girder that they’re square to layout could be made so that they would
Rather than go into nut-and-bolt de- the girder. See fig. 2. We used two 31 ⁄4"- fold up inside the benchwork.
tail about L girders here, I recommend long carriage bolts to attach each of the There are eight bolts on the layout
that you get a copy of Jeff Wilson’s Ba- legs to the girders. Girder braces (1 x 2) attached with wing nuts. We began at
sic Model Railroad Benchwork (Kalm- attached with the leg square to the girder one end, removing the two wing nuts
bach Publishing Co., 2002). help keep the layout from swaying from at the bottoms of the legs and pulling
Step one is to build two L girders. end to end. Cross braces (1 x 2) keep the out the bolts. This allows the length-
We used 10-foot lengths of 1 x 4, with a benchwork from swaying side to side, as wise angle braces to hang down. Then,
10-foot 1 x 2 for the flange. [A 1 x 3 is shown in fig. 3. The girders are inset with the same end supported (a person
even better for a flange. – Ed.] We glued 4" from each side of the plywood at the can hold it), we loosened the wing nuts

42 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

at the tops of both legs and pulled out
the bolts. With this end still supported,
we swung the leg assembly up inside
the girders and put the bolts from the 48"
top of the leg through holes drilled in 42" 48"
36"
the girders and the legs expressly for 36"
that purpose. Next, we swung the girder
braces up and put the bolts through
holes in the girders drilled to match the
girder-brace holes in the legs. See fig. 3.
We followed the same procedure at
the other end, and the layout was ready
to move. We eventually made one modi-
fication to standard L-girder construc-
tion for the sake of portability. We added
a length of 1 x 4 flush across each end Fig. 6 Cutting to fit. Dick and Stener Fig. 7 Double the joist. Where the
between the girders and below the joists cut the joists to fit the curve of the additional 12" of plywood was added
to serve as lifting points. See fig. 4 on layout on the Meadow Valley Wash to the end of the layout, another joist
the opposite page. side; the other side is straight. The was needed for support. It’s the same
One of the best suggestions that MR’s joists at the near end are 3 feet long; length as its mate, and Dick and
managing editor David Popp gave me at the far end they’re 4 feet. The fourth Stener secured it with glue and screws
was to put casters on each leg, as seen one in from the far end is about 42". to the L girder.
in fig. 5. I’d already put in leveling
bolts, but I followed his advice. The
casters raised the layout another inch
or so, but it made moving the layout
much more convenient. I could whirl it
around whenever I wanted to get a bet-
ter angle, better light, or better position
for photographs.
With the leg-and-girder assembly put
together, we cut the joists and screwed
them into the girder flanges. The 1 x 4s
are the width of the plywood to which
they will be attached, as shown in fig. 6.
We doubled the joist under the plywood
splice at the wide end so that both edges
would have a firm support. See fig. 7.
After we had the benchwork built,
Stener asked the logical, but previously
unasked, question, “Can we get it out of Fig. 8 Cookie-cutter benchwork. Meadow Valley Creek runs out from between
the basement?” For one horrible mo- a pair of canyon walls, flows beneath a through-truss bridge, and then spreads
ment I was sure we couldn’t. But then I out (in flood times) into a wide wash. Stener marked this on the plywood and
realized that we’d simply need to tip it then cut it out, saving the cut piece for the floor of the wash.
on one edge, carefully make an S curve
through the workshop, and then guide With the plywood in place, we drew
it through the sliding glass door of my pencil lines across the plywood directly
walk-out basement. From there we’d over each joist. As shown in fig. 11, we
just turn it right-side-up, carry it around then drove 1" drywall screws through
to the front yard, and put it in the van. the plywood into the joists.

Meadow Valley Wash bed Fancy fascia

With the plywood sheet resting on Fascia, the flat edge trim attached to
the joists, Stener and I marked on the the side of most model railroads, is a
plywood where the track would be, beautiful thing. In addition to provid-
where the wash at the end of the can- ing a place to attach bill boxes, town
yon would be, and where the creek names, cup holders, and plug panels
would disappear between the canyon for walkaround control, fascia finishes
walls. Then we used a saber saw to cut a layout. The fascia has to be firmly
out the base for the creek as shown in mounted. Stener and I cut 7" lengths of
fig. 8. Next, Stener measured down 2" 1 x 2 and screwed them into the sides Fig. 9 Lowering the joists. After
from the tops of each of the appropriate of each of the joists. See fig. 12. marking the edge of the creek bed
joists and cut them with a saber saw. See The fascia itself is 1 ⁄8"-thick tem- and wash on the joists, Stener
fig. 9 at right. After adding a couple of pered hardboard. We cut three 81 ⁄4"- measured down 2" and then used a
supports here and there, we placed the wide lengths 8 feet long for the sides. saber saw to cut the joists. These
plywood creek on the now-slimmer joists, We’d cut the ends later to roughly slimmer, cut-down joists support the
as seen in fig. 10 on page 44. match the shape of the terrain. We used base for the plywood creek.

o2/1o • Model Railroader 43

 ⁄ "-long Phillips roundhead screws to
3 4

attach the fascia to the vertical sup-

ports previously attached to the joists,
allowing about ¼" of the hardboard to
extend above the top of the plywood.
Two screws per joist sufficed. I consid-
ered using flathead screws that could
be countersunk flush with the fascia.
They would be less obtrusive, perhaps,
but I was concerned that they might
pull through the thin hardboard. See
fig. 13.

Double-sided curved backdrop

There are a couple of ways to visu-
ally divide a layout, and Stener and I
chose to run a double-sided, curved
backdrop roughly down the center. On
Fig. 10 Below-grade scenery. Here the grade-level plywood has been removed the Meadow Valley Wash side, the hills
and the wash bed plywood put in place. A few additional supports were needed and steep bluffs could have pretty well
to keep the plywood from sagging between joists. divided the two sides of the layout by
themselves, but I needed to hide the
backs of the mountains.
We made the backdrop from tem-
pered hardboard. L-girder benchwork
lends itself well to adding a backdrop
by allowing you to attach vertical sup-
ports to the joists. At this point on our
layout, however, the joists were covered
by plywood. Had we planned ahead,
perhaps we could have cut the plywood
in such a way as to allow us to drop
supports to the joists, but we didn’t.
Instead, we used lengths of 10"-high
Fig. 11 A sturdy layout. Dick and 1 x 2 attached to the plywood with L-
Stener used a pencil to mark the brackets at appropriate locations to
location of the joists, applied glue to support the backdrop. As you can see
the tops of the joists, and then drove Fig. 12 Fascia fine points. Dick and in fig. 14, we beveled the tops of the
drywall screws through the plywood Stener used glue and screws to supports, angling them down toward
into the tops of the joists. At this point attach vertical 7" lengths of 1 x 2 to the Meadow Valley Wash side, making
all of the joists are tied together by the the side of the joists to support the it easier to cover them with scenery.
girders below and the plywood above. layout’s hardboard fascia. The backdrop itself is attached to the
yard side of the vertical supports.
We cut three 1 x 8-foot strips of
hardboard for the backdrop. The mate-
rial we used is smooth only on one side,
so we positioned one piece with the
smooth side facing the supports. This
provides a smooth surface for the cou-
ple of inches of sky that would show
above the mountains on the Meadow
Fig. 13 A clean look. Here’s the layout with the hardboard fascia attached to the Valley Wash side.
sides. The ends will come later once the scenery contour has been determined. Next, we marked the backdrop to
It’s amazing how adding the fascia gives the layout a finished look. show where each of the supports would
be, applied glue to the back of the sup-
ports, and then attached the hardboard
using flathead screws carefully drawn
down flush with the surface, as shown
in fig. 15. The photo also shows how we
cut openings for the tracks to pass be-
tween the scenes.
And since the entire backdrop need-
ed to be more than 9 feet long, we ended
up splicing another 18" or so at the other
Fig. 14 Backdrop support. Because the layout’s design calls for two different end. We used additional supports at the
types of terrain, a backdrop down the middle of the layout makes a good scene splice point and at both edges of the tun-
divider. The 1 x 2s and 2 x 2s are attached to the plywood with metal L-brackets. nel openings at both ends.

44 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

 With one side of the backdrop firmly
glued and screwed in place, we applied
carpenter’s glue on the rough side of
another length (having cut matching
tunnel openings) and placed it against
the backside of the hardboard already
in place. See fig. 16. Note that we alter-
nated ends for the splice.
We used 1 x 4 scraps, shown in fig. 17,
clamped at the top and screwed on an
angle at the bottom to apply pressure
as evenly as we could while the carpen-
ter’s glue dried.
Once the glue dried, we removed the
clamps. I sanded the joints on both sides
of the backdrop and applied spackling
compound. When that dried, I sanded Fig. 15 Fitting the backdrop. Even Fig. 16 Two-sided backdrop. Since
the joint and it was ready for paint. though only a few inches of sky shows the laminated backdrop couldn’t be
above the hills on the Meadow Valley screwed together, Stener applied a
End fascia side of the layout, that hardboard liberal amount of carpenter’s wood
By this time, Stener had sketched surface had to be smooth. glue to the mating faces.
our joint vision of how the layout would
look. The Meadow Valley Wash side
took only one version; it was pretty well
set in stone (so to speak). The Caliente
side – well, like the track plan, that was
still in a state of flux. Nevertheless, we
had general ideas of where elements
would go and what the slopes at the
ends of the layout would look like.
The first step was simply to screw
some large hardboard pieces to the
ends, lining up the bottom with the bot-
tom of the side fascia and the top with
the top of the backdrop. See fig. 18. Fig. 17 Squeezed together. C-clamps at the top of the backdrop and drywall
Then we marked the back of the hard- screws at the bottom force the back-to-back pieces (rough side to rough side)
board where we thought the mountains of tempered hardboard together until the carpenter’s glue dries.
might fall, as shown in fig. 19. It would
be possible to trim them later to match
the actual mountain contour or, as in
one corner of the yard, to add more
hardboard to match the ground con-
tour, as shown in fig. 20. Mountain
line
Fond farewell
Too soon it was time for Stener to
bid farewell to the Salt Lake Route lay-
out and head home to Oslo. I’m sure I
could have muddled along and built
benchwork on my own, but it was nice
to have an extra pair of hands. I’ve con-
tinued to update Stener via e-mail on Fig. 18 More fascia. Stener attached Fig. 19 Marking the mountains. Dick
my progress, and he’s done a couple large hardboard pieces to the ends of used a pencil to mark where the
more sketches to more accurately re- the layout with screws. mountains would meet the fascia.
flect what the yard side looks like. But
more on that later. From this point on,
I was – for better or worse – pretty
much on my own. MR
Fascia extensions
Now on ModelRailroader.com
Registered Web site users can read
Dick’s layout construction log book,
and magazine subscribers can take
a video tour of the Salt Lake Route Fig. 20 Changing terrain. When the layout was further along, Dick felt like there
online at www.ModelRailroader.com. needed to be a reason for the tracks to change direction, so he added a hill. The
fascia extensions help hide the extruded-foam insulation board.

o2/1o • Model Railroader 45

 The Salt Lake Route part 3
Laying realistic
sectional track

A pair of Union Pacific freights bank into

the superelevated curves on the N scale
Salt Lake Route. This month, Dick
Christianson explains how he installed
Kato Unitrack, including the firm’s new
double-track sections with superelevated
curves (inset), on our project layout.

Kato’s reliable and ingenious sectional track

make this 4 x 9 N scale track plan possible
By Dick Christianson • Photos by the author
34 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com
O
ne of the parameters Model
Railroader gave me regarding
the N scale project layout was
that I needed to use Kato’s new
superelevated sectional track
(set V11), at least for part of the railroad.
What I knew of traditional Kato Uni-
track, with its molded roadbed, was pos-
itive. The firm’s new superelevated dou-
ble track looks terrific, with molded gray
and black ballast. The crossties are
gray, representing concrete. Interestingly,
the Union Pacific has concrete ties on the
grade through Meadow Valley Wash and
Clover Creek Canyon, so the track was
prototypical for the area modeled.
I’d experimented with the superele-
vated track on the Meadow Valley Wash Fig. 1 Two types of joiners. There are two ways to attach feeder wires to Kato
side of the layout before I realized that Unitrack. The first way is with the firm’s short track sections (no. 041) that have
all wasn’t as simple as it seemed. I first small sockets built in for the feeder wire plug (top). The second option is to use
laid out the track so it went directly track clips/rail joiners (no. 24-818) with the feeder wires attached.
from a left-hand curve into a right-
hand curve. The track clips fit, but
there was a heck of a difference in track
levels where the sections, which were
elevated on opposite rails, met. Clearly, Epoxy
I was missing some sort of transition
sections designed to take curves to level
and then to superelevation in the oppo-
site direction.

Transition sections
Set V11 included half-sections that
transition from a left-hand curve direct-
ly into a right-hand curve (or vice versa). Discard
At the end of each curve I installed the plug
appropriate half-section to keep the track
geometry intact.
The half-section transition was what Fig. 2 Wire modifications. Kato Fig. 3 A solid bond. Dick used five-
I needed to bring the curve at the left turnouts use control wires with a plug minute epoxy to cement the miniature
end toward the center of the layout, in- at one end. Dick removed these plugs plug to the Unitrack. This prevents
stead of parallel to the edge. It func- so he could slip the wires through the plug from falling out when the
tioned the same way at the other end. holes drilled in the plywood subroad- feeder wires are pulled through the
With the proper placement of straight bed. The turnouts operate manually. holes he drilled in the layout surface.
sections between the curves, the track
fit perfectly along the Meadow Valley would absorb some sound. Molded plas- After connecting the miniature plug
Wash side of the layout at both ends. tic on plywood didn’t seem like a great to the track, I cemented it with five-
Those half sections came into play sound-deadening combination. minute epoxy. See fig. 3. Only after I
on the yard side as well, determining had glued and nailed down some of the
where the molded double-track sec- Two kinds of feeders track did I realize that one of these sec-
tions would end and the single-track Kato has two options when it comes tions was without power. Apparently,
straights and curves would begin. It to feeder wires, and I used both on the as I pulled the wires down through the
was just a matter of which sections to Salt Lake Route. First, Kato offers short holes in the plywood beneath them, I
use. I knew it could be done. track sections with sockets built in un- must have tugged hard enough to pull
der the roadbed for the feeder-wire plug. the plug from its socket. Fortunately, I
Cork roadbed too? See fig. 1. A miniature plug on one end tested the connection before I had laid
I began by tracing along the edges of of the two wires (blue and white) snaps much track. Now the epoxy keeps the
the roadbed of the track on the Mead- into the socket. A larger plug, part of plug from pulling out.
ow Valley Wash side. Then I cemented Kato’s plug-and-play direct-current sys-
N scale cork roadbed along the outsides tem, is attached to the other end of the ▸▸ Union Pacific Salt Lake Route
so that the beveled edge of the cork wires. Since I used DCC on the layout, I
aligned with the slope of the molded clipped the plug off, as shown in fig. 2.
roadbed. I attached two strips of cork It’s important to orient the blue and January 2010: Design
down the middle to provide support the white wires the same throughout the February 2010: Roll-away
and a surface to apply Liquid Nails. layout so the polarity isn’t reversed. benchwork
You’re probably asking, “Why would That way blue is always the same rail, April 2010: Wiring
he add cork roadbed?” I felt the cork and white is always the other rail.

o3/1o • Model Railroader 35

 Hole for
track nail

No. 60 bit

Fig. 4 Oh, that’s what it’s for. The blue Fig. 5 Hidden holes. From above, it Fig. 6 Securing the track. To prevent
plastic tool included with Kato appears the Kato Unitrack doesn’t the track from coming loose when
Unitrack is for removing the track clip/ have holes for track nails. Underneath moving our portable layout, Dick
rail joiner. The tool levers the clip/ the track are hollow tubes that Dick further secured it to the cork with
joiner out of its socket. opened with a no. 60 bit. Liquid Nails for Projects.

Fig. 7 Testing the track plan. Dick laid Fig. 8 Spacing guide. Dick used a Fig. 9 Track alignment. While main-
out the Kato Unitrack on the Caliente notecard to maintain proper track taining the desired spacing between
yard side of the layout. He positioned spacing on the layout. The red marks tracks, Dick placed a metal yardstick
the track as far away from the back- of the main line match up with the along the edge of the molded-plastic
drop as possible to make room for the superelevated double track from roadbed to make sure the parallel
enginehouse and furniture factory. the Unitrack V11 set. tracks would be straight as an arrow.

removing the original clips, shown in Nails and Liquid Nails

fig. 4. Kato provides drilling guides that
To join Kato Unitrack, I slid the rail make it easy for you to nail down its
ends into the joiners of the adjoining track. From the top, no nail holes are
section (molded into plastic spring clips visible through the ties. If you flip the
that hold the plastic subroadbed sec- track over, however, you’ll see hollow
tions together) and pushed until I could tubes, as shown in fig. 5. Insert a no. 60
hear and feel a snap. This system re- bit (in a pin vise) into the “tube” and
Fig. 10 Expansion track. These clever sults in a positive mechanical and reli- give it a couple twists. Now you have a
3" lengths of track can be expanded to able electrical connection. nail hole from above.
41 ⁄4". The plastic in the middle has To take sections apart, I held one in I nailed down the track all the way
molded wood plank detail, allowing the each hand and with my thumbs, pushed around the layout. I also used Liquid
track to double as a grade crossing. the joint away from me. The clip far- Nails for Projects, sparingly, at rail
ther away released first. As I continued joints and in the middle of each sec-
Second, Kato produces combination pushing on the track, the near clip re- tion. See fig. 6.
track clips/rail joiners to which blue leased. I experimented on the yard for Before I began this project, MR
and white wires have been attached hours with various curve diameters executive editor Andy Sperandeo men-
(soldered to the metal rail joiners). and straight-section lengths. Despite tioned that I should pay attention to
Since the track plan doesn’t always call snapping sections together and push- how the rails meet from section to sec-
for a short section of track where power ing them apart dozens of times, they tion. He had observed that sometimes
is needed, I needed to use a few of these. continued to hold well and provide a Kato HO track seems to have a slight up-
Kato offers a tool with the joiners for positive electrical connection. ward curvature at the ends of each sec-

36 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

 ▸▸ Materials List 048 048 20-182R
048 048
20-181
202
Kato Unitrack 160
20-000 9 3 ⁄4"straight (22) 000 000 030
000 000 140
20-010 75 ⁄16"straight (13) 110
140
20-020 47 ⁄8"straight (7) 20-181
20-030 21 ⁄2" straight (6)
20-041 27 ⁄16" straight feeder (7)*
20-048 2" straight with bumping 020
post (6) 000 000 000 202
000 000
20-050 3"-41 ⁄4" expansion
section (16)
020
20-101 93 ⁄4"-radius curve (4) 000
20-110 11"-radius curve (1) 030
000 20-181
20-111 11"-radius curve (2) 020
203
20-121 123 ⁄8"-radius curve (1) 010 000 000
010
20-140 15"-radius curve (2) 000 150
20-150 281 ⁄4"-radius curve (4) 160 041 101 20-182L
20-160 19"-radius curve (5) 041 000 030 20-023
041
20-202 no. 6 left-hand turnout (6) 20-042
050 20-043
20-203 no. 6 right-hand turnout (6) 000 203
20-210 123 ⁄4" double crossover 202 202 000
010
20-182L
20-300 15-degree crossing 020 050
20-437 double-track bridge, silver 020
20-8701 V11 track set 050
050
20-004 (2), 20-023 (1), 20-042 (1), 050 050
203 010
20-043 (1), 20-181 (7), 20-182R (3), 050 111
20-181
20-182L (3) 050 050 050
041
*Dick used seven of these short
150 150
feeder sections as indicated on the 203 150 300
track plan. In seven other instances,
he used Kato factory-wired terminal 20-182R
joiners as feeders. The other two 041 041
010
feeders were in section 20-043 030 010 203
from the V11 track set. 010

000 030 20-004

Miscellaneous 050 041
Cork sheet 000 020
Liquid Nails for Projects 010 050 101
050
N scale cork roadbed 050
N scale track nails 101
010 111
010 20-437
000

tion, making a peak where the rails meet. 010

020
I laid the track with this in mind, adjust-
ing the heights of the rail ends by driv-
210 050
ing the nails a little deeper. I also filed a 160 202 050 20-004
few joints for smoother transitions. Run-
ning your fingernails along the heads of
the rail will tell you which joints could 010
stand some filing. 203
202 000
20-182R
Turnouts
All of the turnouts are on the Cali- 101
121
ente yard side of the layout. I used 000
160
no. 6s throughout, including the double 010
crossover at the right end of the yard. 160
This section of track (four turnouts 20-181
molded into one section) provides a 20-182L 030
048
way for locomotives to get from one
048
side of the yard to the other. A cross- Not to scale
over at both ends would have been ideal, Feeders
20-181
but that would have meant shortening 20-181
041 and 20-043
the sidings. Since long unit trains would track sections
be common on this model railroad, I include feeder wires
Illustration by Rick Johnson
o3/1o • Model Railroader 37
 Rail Brown

Railroad Tie Brown

Rust

Fig. 11 Bumping posts. To finish the Fig. 12 Roughing it in. Since the track Fig. 13 Quick weathering. Dick used
intermodal yard and industrial sidings, spacing for the Walthers enginehouse Floquil’s three-pack of organic solvent-
Dick installed 2" track sections with is different than the geometry of based track weathering markers to
bumping posts. He secured each Kato’s no. 6 turnout, the tracks aren’t paint the web of the rail on the Uni-
section to the layout with track nails parallel. The difference is only visible track. From front to back are Rust,
and Liquid Nails for Projects. from the far end of the layout. Railroad Tie Brown, and Rail Brown.

wanted the passings sidings to be as yard to the double track at the right used the bases of the enginehouse and
long as possible. end. The curved sections all had to be furniture factory kits to assure there
As I installed each turnout, I drilled precise to keep the track spacing con- would be room for these buildings. I
a small hole through the roadbed di- sistent. I wish I could say my track even cut the enginehouse floor to ac-
rectly under the position of the wires planning skills made it work, but I ma- commodate the track clips.
attached to the turnouts. I fed the red jored in English, not math, and geom- In fig. 12 you’ll notice that the tracks
and black turnout wires (minus the etry definitely isn’t my strength. It was going into the enginehouse aren’t par-
plug) through the hole and, like the all a matter of trial and error. allel. The turnout angle didn’t match
power leads, left them dangling. Speaking of consistent track spac- the spacing of the track grooves in the
I’ve always liked the look and sound ing, here’s a simple little tip. On a note- enginehouse floor.
of crossings, and it was my Norwegian card I marked the spacing I wanted
visitor and benchwork-building buddy between tracks (main line in red, pass- Painting the rails and the ties
Stener Harildstad who suggested the ing tracks and yards in black). As seen I used a set of Floquil’s track weath-
configuration that put the diamond be- in fig. 8, the mainline spacing through ering markers to tone down the shiny
tween the engine terminal and furni- the yard simply continues the spacing Kato Unitrack, as shown in fig. 13.
ture factory. Getting those sidings far between the rails on the superelevated I started by painting the rails using
enough away from the backdrop to sections. Then, when I eventually came the Rail Brown marker. I set the mark-
make reasonable-looking scenery pos- to spiking down the tracks, I used the er’s tip in the web of the rail and
sible was a bit of a challenge. You can marks as an alignment guide. I also used dragged it along the track. I used it on
see in fig. 7 on page 36 that the jog in a long straightedge, shown in fig. 9, to both the inside and outside of the main-
the tracks going to the furniture factory keep the track arrow-straight. line rails and along the passing sidings
and enginehouse is there to move them and intermodal tracks. I used the Rust
away from the backdrop. Last puzzle piece marker along the diamond, furniture
The passing siding is a little closer to During a visit to the hobby shop, I factory, and enginehouse tracks, sug-
the edge of the layout than I would have saw a short section of track on the Kato gesting that they’re not heavily used. I
preferred, but the curve diameters of rack. It looked like a grade crossing, cleaned any paint off the railhead with
the superelevated tracks on the Mead- with simulated wood planks running a track cleaning block.
ow Valley Wash side determined where parallel to and between the rails. Closer After studying prototype photos in
everything – track, turnouts, and struc- examination revealed that it was an ex- Mark Hemphill’s Union Pacific Salt
tures – would be on the Caliente side. pansion section, meaning that it was a Lake Route, I could see that in real life
I can’t overstate how challenging it flexible length – anywhere between 3" to the ties and ballast between the rails
was to connect, without kinks or gaps, 41 ⁄4". See fig. 10. get heavily discolored as well. So, I
the double track at the left end of the This track section changed every- next dragged the Railroad Tie Brown
thing. In addition to using the expan- marker between the rails. Later, the
Now on ModelRailroader.com sion tracks as “fitters” to provide the crew at MR used an airbrush and
needed, but unavailable, track lengths, thinned Polly Scale paints to further
Registered users can read Dick’s log I used them as grade crossings. So, I weather between the rails and along
book entries as he built the layout dur- ended up using about a dozen. the edge of the ballast.
ing a 10-month period, and subscrib- I used Kato track section 20-048 With the track in place, it was nearly
ers can take a video tour of the Salt (with bumping post, shown in fig. 11), time to try running some trains. Next
Lake Route at ModelRailroader.com. at the end of each of the intermodal yard month, I’ll explain how I wired the lay-
tracks and furniture factory sidings. I out for Digital Command Control. MR

38 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

 The Salt Lake Route part 4
Wiring a small
layout for DCC
Plug-and-play components are easy to install
and yield great results
By Dick Christianson • Photos by the author

Dick Christianson explains how to

wire the Salt Lake Route for Digital
Command Control. He concealed
the system’s command station in a
drawer built beneath the layout’s
intermodal yard. Bill Zuback photo
A
ll right, I’ll fess up. Wiring is
not my strong suit. I grew up
with AC tinplate trains and
still find even that a little
challenging. I understand the
principles of DC cab control wiring, and
⁄ " holes
1 2
I’ve read all of Kalmbach’s wiring books
as well as pretty much every article
Model Railroader has published on wir-
ing, electronics, and Digital Command
Control (including Bruce’s Chubb’s and
Keith Gutierrez’s early features on com-
mand control). Between 1978 and 2007,
I served as both a magazine and book
editor at Kalmbach Publishing Co., so
that’s what I was paid to do! Fig. 1 Power feeders. Last month Fig. 2 Wire routing holes. Because of
Reading and doing, however, aren’t Dick explained how to install Kato the layout’s design, nothing can hang
exactly the same. Unitrack power feeders during down between the girders. Dick drilled
When MR’s editors called about this tracklaying. He used plug-in sections ½" diameter holes through the joists so
project, they gave me the choice of us- on the straight tracks, while the joiner he could route the wiring through them
ing block wiring, but they preferred type worked better for the curves. and keep it clear of the folding legs.
Digital Command Control (DCC). Pro-
gressive (and maybe a little lazy) per- plug from the opposite end of the blue
son that I am, I thought about it briefly and white wires and fed them through Switch machine wires
and opted for Digitrax DCC. My rea- the holes I drilled in the layout’s sur-
soning? In theory, DCC requires only face. I left the wires hanging until it
two wires from the command station was time to connect them.
to the rails, and that’s it. In theory. By the way, because of the way my
friend, Stener, and I designed the fold-
Idiot-proof DCC ing benchwork, nothing can be allowed
In fact, I learned to my considerable to hang down between the layout’s L-
pleasure and relief, it really didn’t take girders. That space is reserved for the
much more than that. Also to my plea- leg assemblies. That being the case, we
sure and relief, the trains ran just fine drilled a couple of ½"-diameter holes
the first time I fired up the N scale Salt through each joist, fig. 2, and ran the
Lake Route layout. I’d gotten it right wiring through these holes to keep it
the first time! (I’m still a little surprised neat and clear of the folding legs.
that the trains actually run when I turn Fig. 3 Turnout wires. Dick slipped the
on the power.) That being the case, I can Turnouts red and black wires down through
only assume that DCC, at least in this Kato’s switch machines are hidden the plywood, coiled them up, and
simple form, is pretty much idiot-proof. under the turnout inside the molded stapled them to a joist.
This layout uses Kato Unitrack, but roadbed. A small black tab next to the
the firm doesn’t offer a DCC system. points actuates the turnout manually. Command station drawer
However, its DC plug-and-play control The tab is unobtrusive and blends into Since all of the switching activity
system is as close to foolproof as you the background. The turnout’s action is will be happening on the yard side of
could make it. If you’re using Unitrack positive, and the points make good the layout, that seemed like the logical
but really not interested in DCC, go contact with the stock rails. I had to location for the DCC system’s com-
ahead and use Kato’s DC wiring sys- use a small file to smooth the points a mand station. Unfortunately, that’s the
tem. The turnouts are power-routing, little on only two of the dozen turnouts side with the least space available. The
and Kato sells insulated rail joiners to I used (not including the crossover). area where the benchwork flares out on
make block wiring easy. The feeder tracks Like the feeder sections, the turn- the Meadow Valley Wash side would be
and the combination feeder joiners/clips, outs come with wires attached – one ideal, but that’s open country and the
seen in fig. 1, come ready to plug in; black, one red, and a big plug. As with trains just pass through without any
Kato also offers extension wires for lon- the feeders, I trimmed off the plug so I reason to stop.
ger runs. Though I wired the Salt Lake could feed the switch machine wires I located the DCC system in a drawer
Route for DCC, much of what follows through a small hole in the layout sur- under the left end of the intermodal
applies to both DC and DCC. face under the turnout. I left the blue yard beyond the legs, as shown in fig. 4.
Once you’ve removed both of the and white track feeders dangling, but
original connectors from the end of since I wasn’t going to wire the switch ▸▸ Union Pacific Salt Lake Route
the appropriate track sections, simply machines (the turnouts all can be aligned
insert Kato’s feeder connectors into the manually), I fed the red and black wires
openings molded into the roadbed and through the plywood, coiled them up, January 2010: Design
push on them until they snap into place. and tacked them to the side of the joist so February 2010: Roll-away
Once again, be sure to orient the blue they’d be out of the way. See fig. 3. I was benchwork
and white wires to the correct rails to careful to keep the staples from penetrat- March 2010: Track
avoid an accidental short circuit from ing the wire insulation to avoid any May 2010: Desert scenery
reversed polarity. I cut off the large potential short circuits.

o4/1o • Model Railroader 63

 I bought a pair of drawer tracks at the
local home improvement center, used a
piece of leftover plywood for the drawer
bottom, and attached a piece of scrap
1 x 2 and the Masonite I cut out from
the side as the drawer front. I wanted
everything on the fascia flush, so I
drilled a hole in the drawer front to
serve as a drawer pull.
Drawer guide
Bringing it all together
Remember my comments about at-
taching two wires to connect the DCC
to the layout? I ran a pair of 16-gauge
bus wires, one blue and one white, from
the Digitrax command station to a pair
of barrier terminal strips mounted on a
joist under the layout.
I could have run bus wires under the
tracks and connected the feeder wires
(indicated in fig. 5) to those. I know
Fig. 4 Control drawer. The command station drawer is inset into the fascia. some modelers like to use the suitcase
Dick made it using scrap material and drawer slides. connectors (Scotchlok insulation dis-
placement connectors) for this purpose.
However, I was unable to find any small
enough for the 24 gauge wires.
The layout is actually at a reason-
able height for wiring. I was almost
able to sit in a desk chair lowered as far
DCC command as it would go – almost, but not quite.
station in So I began the wiring process on my
slide-out drawer
hands and knees with my head bent
back, which wasn’t very comfortable.
When I was about halfway done, my
wife, Diana, came down to the base-
ment to check on my progress. She
asked, “How about folding the legs up
Plug and tipping the layout on its side?” A
panel great idea. In fact, it was such a great
idea that I was able to wire the layout
more comfortably. See fig. 6.
I numbered each pair of feeders at the
point where they came through the ply-
Plug wood; I also numbered each of the con-
panel nection points on the terminal strips.
This probably isn’t necessary on such a
small layout, but it’ll help in trouble-
shooting if problems arise later.
Back to the two wires from the DCC
command station. One of the terminal
strips is for the blue wires; the other is
for the white. See fig. 7 on page 66.
These particular strips have continuity
from top to bottom, but not side to side.
To use them as I have here, I stripped
a couple feet of insulation from the
end of both the 16 gauge white and
blue wires.
After loosening all of the lower screw
terminals, I looped the bare wire over
the first screw, pulled the insulation up
close to the terminal, and tightened the
Not to scale screw. Then I looped the bare wire up
Feeders and around each screw in turn and
tightened the connections as I went
Fig. 5 Location, location. The location of the DCC command station and plug along. That made all of the screw termi-
panels are shown on this track plan. The blue arrows indicate feeder wires. nals live. Then I did the same with the

64 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

 ▸▸ Materials list

Digitrax
DCS50 Zephyr Digital Command
Control system
RJ12 cables, 48" long, 2
RJ12 plugs, 4
UP5 universal interconnect panel
(remote terminal), 2
UT4 throttle, 2

Kato
24818 terminal joiners, 8

Miscellaneous
32 wire terminals, fork type
Barrier terminal strips, 2
Drawer tracks/slides, 12", 1 pair
Rosin soldering flux
Solder
Wire, 24 gauge, blue Fig. 6 Wiring access. Dick began wiring the layout on his hands and knees.
Wire, 24 gauge, white Then his wife, Diana, suggested he tip the model railroad on its side so he could
wire the layout from a more comfortable position.

white terminal strip. Later on, I found

out that most terminal strip manufac- Installing N scale DCC decoders
turers sell bridge connectors that fit un-
der the screws to do this job. MRC 1645
Digitrax DN163A2 sound decoder TCS K1D4-NC
Tiny wire troubles solved
I could have just stripped the insula-
tion from the ends of each of the
stranded feeder wires, wrapped them
around the terminal screws, and tight-
ened them down. But I was a little bit
concerned about stray strands of wire
causing a short circuit. So, I bought
spade lugs to make everything more
permanent and neater. However, the
openings in the smallest spade lugs
were too large for the wire, so there Atlas GP15-1 Kato P42 Kato SD70ACe
wasn’t any way a crimping tool could
squeeze the lug onto the wire tightly
enough for a good connection. Since I’m the resident N scaler on staff, it fell to me to install the decoders
To resolve this problem, I stripped in the locomotives for the Salt Lake Route. I used drop-in decoders from
about an inch of insulation from the Digitrax, MRC, and TCS. For those of you new to DCC, drop-in decoders are
end of each wire, folded the bare wire made to replace the circuit boards in particular N scale locomotives, so make
over on itself at about ½", and twisted it sure you purchase the correct ones for your models.
– effectively doubling the gauge. I fed To install the decoder, simply loosen the screws that hold the frame
that through the hole in the shank of together, remove the old circuit board, and set the decoder in its place. You
the spade lug, tinned it, and soldered it. may need to add a small amount of insulation between the frame and the
This trick would probably work just as decoder (usually a piece or two of electrical tape), which will be outlined in the
well with a crimping tool, but I didn’t instruction sheet. After that, test the decoder on the programming track by
have one so I went with soldering the reading back its address. You should get 03, the factory default. If everything
joints. They’ll hold forever. checks out, program the address to match the locomotive’s road number, and
At this point, finishing the wiring you’re ready to run trains! – David Popp, managing editor
was just a matter of sliding the spade
lugs under the appropriate screw ter-
minals and tightening them down. punched in the locomotive’s address in siding, the turnouts at both ends must
Having done that with all 16 feeder the DCC system, and ran it around the be lined properly or the siding will be
pairs, I set the layout on its legs, plugged mainline loop in the other direction at dead. With DCC, all of the track can be
in the command station, and placed a the same time. live all the time. So, feeder wires need
decoder-equipped locomotive on the You may be asking yourself, “Why 16 to go to each side of the double-track
track. Much to my pleasure, it ran pairs of feeders? Why not just one main line on the Meadow Valley Wash
smoothly everywhere! Next, I added a pair?” The Kato turnouts I used are side of the layout. On the more complex
second DCC locomotive to the track, power-routing, so if I want to enter a yard side, I installed 14 pairs connecting

o4/1o • Model Railroader 65

 Kato clip removal tool Locations for bolts

Fascia to be
removed

Fig. 7 Terminal strips. A pair of ter- Fig. 8 Position faceplate. Dick used
minal strips make it easy to organize the Digitrax faceplate as a template to
the layout’s wiring. Labeling the wires mark the fascia for the mounting bolt
helps troubleshooting later on. holes and the cutout for the sockets.

Kato clip removal tool. This bright

blue plastic tool simplifies the
removal of the rail joiner/clips from
sections of Kato Unitrack. As the
photo sequence shows, slip it over
the joiner, rotate it 90 degrees, and
then rock the joiner from side to
side until it comes free.
Fig. 9 Faceplate mounting. Dick used Fig. 10 Loconet. A cable connects the
Before I realized what the little small nuts, bolts, and washers to plug panel to the Loconet socket on
blue device in the photos was used secure the faceplates. the back of the command station.
for, I struggled mightily to remove
Kato’s combination track clip/rail to the main lines, the passing sidings, was nothing solid enough behind the
joiners from the track sections. the intermodal tracks, the industrial fascia to hold any screws, I drilled holes
Read the instructions? Are you sidings, the engine servicing tracks, and through the fascia for small bolts that I
kidding? I’m a guy. Well, eventually I both sides of the crossing. used to secure the faceplate.
read the instructions and found that Next, holding the plug module in
this clever little piece of blue Remote control place from behind the fascia, I posi-
styrene worked really well and Were I to build this layout for my- tioned the faceplate, inserted the fasten-
proved to be a real time saver. self, I probably would have been con- ers, and tightened them down as seen in
Let me save you the frustration tent to run the layout from the com- fig. 9. All that was left was to connect a
and lost time resulting from not mand station alone. But MR’s managing cable from the command station to the
reading the instructions. Here’s how editor, David Popp, observed that it remote plug-in unit, shown in fig. 10.
I removed the clip/joiners: would be good to have a socket for a For the remote station at the other
First, I grasped the blue styrene handheld throttle on the other side of end of the yard, I simply followed the
by the tab end (without the hole) the layout for a second operator to keep same steps. After painting the fascia I
and slid the hole over the clip/joiner an eye on trains passing through the attached a strip of hook-and-loop fas-
with the tab positioned below the Meadow Valley Wash. teners to the fascia and its matching
track (i.e., at 6 o’clock). Now rotate Perhaps more important, he noted tape to the back of the handheld con-
the device clockwise, so the tab that having the command station drawer troller. The layout was ready to run.
end is pointing to 9 o’clock. Holding open all the time was a little awkward, The photo of the layout on its side in
the tab, and keeping the clip/joiner and the manually-operated turnouts fig. 6 shows that the basic wiring isn’t
in the hole, I pried and lifted the tab were out of reach at the opposite end what I’d call pretty. But it’s effective,
end away from the end of the track. of the yard. Valid points. it’s labeled, and it works. Phew!
It’s like using a pry bar to lever the So, I found a spot on the angled fas- Next month I’ll begin adding the
clip/joiner out of its socket from the cia of the Meadow Valley Wash side desert scenery on the Meadow Valley
left side first and then the right. It that wouldn’t interfere with the retract- Wash side of the layout. MR
works great every time. able legs. Using the faceplate of the
To turn the track piece into a Digitrax plug-in panel as a template, I Now on ModelRailroader.com
feeder section, I replaced the made pencil marks where the screw
removed clip/joiner (and fill the holes would be. See Fig. 8. Then I Registered users can read Dick’s log
empty socket next to it as well) with placed the plug module against the fas- book entries as he built the layout,
Kato feeder clips. I also removed cia and marked how large a hole I’d and subscribers can watch a video on
the opposite clip/joiner from the need to fit the plugs through. I drilled DCC for the Salt Lake Route online at
adjoining track. – D.C. ¼" corner holes and used a keyhole saw www.ModelRailroader.com.
to cut the center opening. Since there

66 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

The Salt Lake Route part 5
Easy-to-build
desert scenery
Prototype photos provided plenty
of inspiration and ideas
By Dick Christianson • Photos by the author

S
Union Pacific road diesels lead a stack
ome model railroaders enjoy book Union Pacific Salt Lake Route, train along the Meadow Valley Wash.
laying track. Others get a kick which provided inspiration for this lay- This month, Dick Christianson ex-
out of wiring. I’m happiest out. Then Stener sat down with paper plains how he scenicked this side of
when I’m building scenery. The and pencil and sketched the Wash as he our N scale project layout. Photo by
desert landscape of the Mead- thought it might look on our N scale lay- Bill Zuback
ow Valley Wash would be the signature out. [His vision is shown on page 41 of
scene of this layout, and I couldn’t wait the January 2010 issue. – Ed.] we began cutting 11 ⁄2"-thick extruded-
to get started. foam insulation board. I used a sharp,
My friend Stener Harildstad and I Pink hills serrated kitchen knife (bought specifi-
looked closely at the photos of the Mead- On the last day or two before Stener cally for this purpose – not borrowed
ow Valley Wash in Mark Hemphill’s was to return to his home in Norway, from the kitchen). I’d tried a knife

50 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

blade in a saber saw, and that worked
fine for cutting the general shapes. But
for cutting the slope into the edges, the
serrated knife worked better.
The idea is to cut the first piece to
the shape of the base of the hill – pretty
much following a curved line an inch
or so in from the edge of the track.
Then we used the serrated knife to cut
the edge to about a 45-degree angle, as
shown in fig. 1, roughly matching the
slope we had cut on the end fascia.
Next, we flipped that first layer of
foam on its top and used it as a tem-
plate for the next smaller layer of the
hill. We did this until we got all the way
to the top. The hill needed to reach its Fig. 1 Cutting foam. Dick’s friend Stener Harildstad used a serrated kitchen
summit about one inch (at the ends) be- knife to cut the extruded-foam insulation board. The sloping contour of the
low the top of the backdrop. foam roughly matches the railroad right-of-way.
At this point we had a rough form for
the first hill (right end). We made cut- Spaces for rock cliffs
outs in the back edge of the foam to al-
low for the vertical backdrop supports,
allowing the foam to seat flush. We also
had to cut the tunnel through the first
and second layers.
With the first hill in shape, we next
cut the foam for the hill in the center of
the layout, again providing a tunnel
through the foam for the double-track
main, as shown in fig. 2.
Backside notched
Roughing it in to fit backdrop support
I drew a light pencil line on the
backdrop along the tops of the hills.
Where there were no hills (eventually
to be rock cliffs), I drew a wavy line, Fig. 2 Pink hills. When Stener went home to Norway, this is how the Meadow
suggesting that the tops of the hills and Valley Wash side of the layout looked. Though the hills were in place, the layers
cliffs wouldn’t be a straight line. Not were still removable so Dick could add the tunnel linings and ballast the track.
having glued any of the mountains in
place yet, I lifted off the stacks of foam the edge of the roadbed and poured chunks of foam to support the portals
and set them out of harm’s way. Kato’s matching ballast onto it. When temporarily. I used the same techniques
With a brush, I applied two coats of the glue had dried, I dribbled Woodland to attach the wing walls. This completed
blue paint on the backdrop above and a Scenics Scenic Cement onto the ballast the basic work on the hills that are
little below my pencil line. When the with a small turkey baster. above grade level.
paint had dried, I placed the first layer With the tunnel liners in place and Next, I shaped the pieces of foam to
of the hills onto the layout, traced their the edges of the track ballasted, I con- make a slope between the creek and
location, and removed them. Then I ap- tinued assembling the foam hills, layer track level; PL300 held these in place as
plied beads of PL300 Foamboard Ad- by layer. well. Since much of the “headwaters”
hesive onto the plywood and set the of the creek will be visible from one
first layer of foam in place. I next coated Tunnel portals and bridge angle or another, I filled in the gap be-
the top of the first layer of foam with Installing the portals was no easy tween track and creek level all the way
adhesive and attached the second layer. task. With the foam hills permanently in back into the eventual canyon.
I stuck pins through the foam so it place and the tunnel openings where The Kato bridge spanning Meadow
wouldn’t shift. they were going to be, I temporarily set Valley Creek is a beauty, complete with
Next, I added the tunnel liner, which the portals in place and pushed a double-
I made using 3"-wide strips of Wood- stack well car through the openings in ▸▸ Union Pacific Salt Lake Route
land Scenics Track-Bed Sheets. I at- both directions on both tracks to check
tached them to the foam with the PL300, for clearance.
as shown in fig. 3 on the next page. I I attached the portals to the under- January 2010: Design
used pins to hold the roadbed material side of the third layer of foam – a bit February 2010: Benchwork
in place while the adhesive dried. high – and then filled in underneath. March 2010: Track
Before attaching the third layer of This was the only way I could get the April 2010: Digital Command
foam, forever precluding access to the loaded well cars to go through freely. I Control
tunnel interior, I added ballast along applied PL300 to the openings and Coming next month: Scenery for
the edges of the plastic roadbed. I paint- hung the portals with masking tape Caliente, Nev.
ed a band of Elmer’s white glue along until the adhesive set. I also used

o5/1o • Model Railroader 51

Fig. 3 Tunnel linings. Before enclosing Fig. 4 Bridge details. Dick trimmed Fig. 5 Needed depth. To give the Noch
the tunnel, Dick lined the walls with the Chooch bridge abutments to fit rock walls added depth, Dick attached
Woodland Scenics Track-Bed. under the Kato bridge. scrap foam to the backdrop.

challenge. I ultimately built a two-sided

rock outcropping. Perfect solution? No,
but no one who has seen the layout has
commented negatively about it.
I placed two pieces of the foam to-
gether back to back and cut them to the
shape I wanted. I also cut into the foam
hill at the far left end to make the out-
cropping appear to come out of some-
thing, as shown in fig. 7, opposite. With
the two sides cemented together, I set
this rock aside. Had I cemented it in
place, finishing the scenery behind it
would have been much more difficult.
With the problem of the disappear-
ing creek solved, I turned to the creek
itself. Perhaps I could have just used
the plywood to form the base of the
wash, but I wanted a little bit of depth
for the streambed. To simulate this, I
cut pieces of 1 ⁄8" tempered hardboard
Fig. 6 Blending the rock walls. Dick rotated some of the Noch rock walls so the to cover the plywood base, except where
patterns wouldn’t be repeated. He also shortened some to vary the height. He the channel of the creek would be, as in
used Sculptamold to fill the gaps between the sections. fig. 8. I used Elmer’s Carpenter’s Glue
and short drywall screws to fasten the
shoes that rest on the bridge abutments. a double-sided one to hide the inner- hardboard. Then I added another layer
I picked abutments from Chooch, mea- most part of the creek. In the case of the of hardboard, set back an inch or so,
sured the distance between the shoes short and long walls, I varied the height giving a stream depth of about 1 ⁄4".
and the plywood, and used a razor saw and width of the slabs, and I tipped a
to cut the abutments to fit. I fashioned couple end for end to make sure that Shaping the hills
wing walls from the abutments as well the rock pattern didn’t repeat itself. I While cutting the extruded-foam in-
and carved out the foam to accommo- used a serrated knife to make a clean, sulation board for the hills, I hadn’t
date the piers and walls. I used PL300 straight cut through the foam so I could spent a lot of time or effort shaping
to affix these to the plywood. See fig. 4. butt the edges together neatly. them precisely. With all of the chunks
I added pieces of foam to blend the wing I didn’t want to cement the rock out- glued together and in place, I got out
walls into the embankments going down croppings directly to the backdrop, so I my Stanley Surform and started shav-
to the creek. used PL300 to first cement scraps of ing away the mismatches. Then, as the
foam behind them to give the bluffs a seams became smoother, I switched
Rockwork little more depth, as shown in fig. 5. over to rubbing 3M SandBlaster sand-
I first came across the Noch rocks Then I used PL300 to attach the rocks ing sponges over the entire surface of
when I was building my large O gauge to the foam scraps, as in fig. 6. I also the hills.
Lionel layout during my tenure as edi- cemented scraps to the backdrop at the The horizontal seams between the
tor of Classic Toy Trains magazine. The very tops of the cliffs to hide the gap layers of foam need to be hidden or
rocks come in 8" x 13" factory-painted and to form the tops of the bluffs. they’ll show through the ground cover
sheets, are lightweight, and are made and make the hills look like a layered
of a very dense and easy-to-cut foam. The disappearing creek wedding cake. Sculptamold troweled
I needed to build three sections of Hiding the source of the creek on onto the seams is a good start. I also
canyon wall: a short one, a long one, and the far side of the tracks was a bit of a applied a thinner coat of Sculptamold

52 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

 ▸▸ Materials List
Creek disappears in gap

Amaco
41819M Sculptamold

Atlas Model Railroad Co.

2992 Union Pacific Ford F-150
pickups

Bachmann
42506 telephone poles, 2 packages

Two-sided rock wall Chooch Enterprises

9832 double concrete bridge
Fig. 7 Visual trickery. Meadow Valley Creek needed to disappear into a canyon, abutments
so Dick made a two-sided rock wall by gluing rock sections back-to-back. The
dense foam is easy to cut, so carving the edges to match requires little effort. Kato USA
24-039 N scale ballast, 3 bags

Model Master paint

2910 Sand Beige

Noch
58460 sandstone rock wall

Pre-Size Model Specialties

214 tunnel portals, 5
Hardboard
bank 215 abutments/wing walls, 10

Polly Scale paint

Hardboard
bank 414275 Roof Brown
414323 Rust
Fig. 8 Adding banks. To give the streambed some profile, Dick attached 1 ⁄8"
tempered hardboard to the top of the plywood. To match the 1 ⁄4" of fascia above Woodland Scenics
the top of the plywood, Dick added more hardboard. 191 Scenic Cement
198 Scenic Accents glue
over blemishes in the foam. See fig. 9 on do much for their finish. I painted the 571 dry transfer railroad signs
the next page. When this dried, I went two rock walls and outcroppings with 1133 fine-leaf foliage
back with the sponges and smoothed gray latex paint. 1279 gray talus
the seams and other rough spots. Next, I put a squirt of Mars Black 1349 green blend blended turf
acrylic artist’s paint into a food con- 1373 buff ballast
Blending vertical seams tainer and thinned it with water to 1374 light gray fine ballast
The Noch rocks aren’t necessarily make a wash. I dipped a paintbrush in 1478 Track-Bed
made to be pieced together side by side. the wash and flowed the liquid on top 1634 olive green underbrush
Where there are outcroppings on one of the rock castings, letting it run down 2147 train mechanic figures
piece, there may very well be indenta- as rainwater would. I coaxed the wash
tions on the adjacent piece when you down the cliff here and there so it Miscellaneous
butt them together. Where this oc- would catch in the crevices, as shown 3M Sandblaster sanding sponges,
curred, I used a hobby knife to carve in fig. 10. 60 and 80 grit
away the outcroppings to more or less In looking more closely at the pho- Artists’ acrylic paints: Mars Black,
match the indentations. tos and reading the text and captions Burnt Umber, Titanium White,
My next step was to mix a batch of in Hemphill’s book, I noticed that he 1 tube each
Sculptamold to a consistency similar comments on the orange color of some Carpenter’s glue
to oatmeal. Then, using a small palette of the rocks. To suggest just a hint of Extruded-foam insulation board,
knife, I worked the Sculptamold into this, I mixed a little Titanium White 11 ⁄2"-thick 4 x 8 sheets, 2
the gaps along the vertical seams. In and Burnt Umber acrylic paint, adding Liquid Nails for Projects
some areas, I had to build up the white until I got an orange tint. Then I Painter’s tape
Sculptamold so the two edges matched. drybrushed the paint on the rock cast- Rust-Oleum Ace American Accents
I did the same with the seam along the ings with a flat-end brush. Soldier Gray (glossy)
top of the rock wall that hides the disap- If the low areas in the rock face are Pittsburgh flat latex paint, 54A-3
pearing creek, as well as along the in shadow, then the high areas should Harbor Sky
banks of Meadow Valley Creek itself. be in light. To simulate the effect of sun Pittsburgh flat latex paint, N158
on surfaces, I drybrushed the high Palm Oasis
Painting the rocks points of the rocks with Titanium PL300 Foamboard Adhesive
Though the Noch foam rocks come White. Just a hint of white, as shown in White glue
painted, the cutting and carving didn’t fig. 11, is all you need.

o5/1o • Model Railroader 53

Fig. 9 Seamless blending. Dick used Fig. 10 Adding depth. After Dick Fig. 11 High points. To suggest
Sculptamold to hide horizontal gaps painted the rock castings, he applied shadows, Dick drybrushed the high
and imperfections in the foam. a wash of black acrylic paint. spots on the rocks with white paint.

Fig. 12 Spreading sand. Woodland Fig. 13 Brush by the boatload. Dick Fig. 14 Bald spots. Where the terrain
Scenics buff ballast captured the look populated the hillsides with Woodland would be too steep for vegetation
of desert sand quite well. Scenics Olive Green underbrush. growth, Dick left the hillside bare.

Talus Woodland Scenics underbrush for the Scenics Scenic Cement so the granules
Once I finished painting the rock brush, but I hadn’t figured out how I’d would stay in place.
faces, I worked on the talus pile. Wood- capture the look of millions of plants.
land Scenics talus was the right color But first things first. I went to my local Shrubs
(gray) and about the right size, though home center and picked out a paint I used Liquid Nails to attach the
pretty uniform. I painted on full- color I thought would look right for the Woodland Scenics ground foam I used
strength Elmer’s White Glue at the base hills and brought it home. When I com- for desert brush. After plopping about
of the outcroppings and then poured pared the color against the Woodland 30 or 40 dots on the side of the hill, I
on some of the talus. To my chagrin, Scenics ballast I’d chosen to use as the broke off little shrubs and stuck them
more of it rolled into the creek bed desert sand, I realized once again that into the adhesive, as shown in fig. 13.
than stayed on the talus pile. I can’t trust my memory when it comes When I stepped back to admire my
To fix this, I curved a piece of thin to colors. Back to the home center, but work, my impression was that the hill
cardstock to generally match the cur- this time with the ballast in hand. had chicken pox. My wife agreed. So
vature of the talus pile. Holding it near Starting at track level and working did David Popp, MR’s managing editor,
the bottom of the hill, I carefully poured up until I had covered maybe a square when I sent him a photo. After discuss-
on some talus. The card kept the excess foot of hill, I slathered on a thick coat ing the problem with them, I decided the
from falling to the bottom. I carefully of tan paint. While the paint was still clumps were too big and too far apart.
moved it up the slope as I continued wet, I sprinkled a thin layer of ballast I left a few of the steeper parts of the
pouring the talus out of the bag. onto the paint, staying an inch or so hillside bare, rationalizing that nothing
When that dried, there were still too away from the edges of the painted would grow on a hill that steep! In fact,
many gaps. I applied more white glue area. That way when you apply more
to the gaps and sprinkled on pieces of paint, you can overlap the paint with- Now on ModelRailroader.com
talus. There are still some holes in the out painting into a “sandy” area. I con-
pile, but the overall effect is good. tinued this process until the hills were Registered users can read Dick’s log
covered with paint and sand, as shown book entries as he built the layout dur-
Ground (sort of) cover in fig. 12. ing a 10-month period, and subscrib-
The predominant look of the Mead- The paint held most of the ballast, ers can take a video tour of the Salt
ow Valley Wash is tan sand and gray/ but some was loose on the surface. I Lake Route at ModelRailroader.com.
green brush. I’d already decided to use soaked the sandy areas with Woodland

54 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com

the hills look more natural with a few
bare areas. You can see the finished re-
sults in fig. 14.

Meadow Valley Creek

To model the banks of the stream, I
applied Sculptamold along the edge of
the tempered hardboard, shaping it to
a gentle slope. I also used Sculptamold
to blend the hardboard into the foam
sloping down from the tracks.
Next, I painted the entire creek bed
with tan paint and then poured a thin
layer of sand over the surface, as seen in
fig. 15. In addition, I sprinkled a little bit
of fine green ground foam along the
banks of both sides of the creek.
A photo in Hemphill’s book revealed
a detail I hadn’t thought of. The bed of
Meadow Valley Creek has gray gravel
in it. Apparently, small fragments of
rock break off the nearby canyon walls Fig. 15 Dry creek bed. Dick added Fig. 16 Adding details. Rocks and
and end up in the creek bed where green ground foam in the shadow of twigs from Dick’s back yard represent
they’re carried along by the seasonal the bridge and along the creek banks. boulders and branches.
rains. That was easy to suggest by sprin-
kling fine, gray ballast onto the stream-
bed. I secured the loose ballast with
Scenic Cement.
When the cement dried, I used dots
of Liquid Nails to hold in place rocks
that I brought in from the woods be-
hind my house. I also glued down a few
twigs, also from the woods as in fig. 16;
they’re small, but big enough to look
like fallen dead trees from growth
along Meadow Valley Creek.
The photo on which I based this
scene shows that trees had somehow
managed to take root and grow near
the bridge. I tore off delicate pieces of
Woodland Scenics Fine-Leaf Foliage,
picking pieces that looked like scrawny,
scrubby trees. I drilled small holes in
the sand-covered tempered hardboard, Fig. 17 Trees. Though most of the vegetation on this side of the layout is brush,
filled the holes with white glue, and set there are a few trees. Dick used Woodland Scenics Fine-Leaf Foliage to model
the trees in place. See fig. 17. the trees along the creek bed.

Ballast to dribble Scenic Cement over the bal-

The molded ballast on the Kato track last to hold the granules in place.
looks good; it looks even better once the Where the tracks run close to the em-
rails have been painted and the ties bankment along the wash, I poured
weathered. Where the molded roadbed Scenic Cement down the slope. Then I
meets the ground, though, it still looks poured ballast down the hill after it, let-
like sectional track because of the hard ting the granules tumble where they
line between the plastic and the surface naturally would.
below it.
Kato sells a ballast color that matches Still more to do
the molded roadbed. I brushed white Though I modeled the Meadow Val-
glue along the beveled edge of the road- ley Wash in mid-summer when it would
bed and along the base. Then I used a be dry, adding water would be easy Fig. 18 Blending the scenery. The
small cup to carefully pour the ballast with a two-part resin or ready-to-use hard edge between the molded
onto the glue, as shown in fig. 18. When water product [see this month’s install- roadbed and scenery didn’t look
the glue had dried, I used a soft-bristle ment of Step by Step on page 30. – Ed.] realistic. To soften the transition, Dick
brush to gently nudge extraneous pieces Next month, I’ll wrap up this six- brushed white glue on the edge of the
of loose ballast back toward the track. part series by showing you how I sce- roadbed and nearby scenery. With the
Having covered the rails with painter’s nicked the Caliente, Nev., side of the glue still wet, Dick sprinkled on Kato’s
tape, I then used a small turkey baster layout. MR matching ballast.

o5/1o • Model Railroader 55