On Right-of-Way and Drainage

 There is very little 'flat' about the details along railroad tracks.  Even in some of the most flat and level territory, tracks are installed to facilitate drainage, which means some elevation changes are present even if they must be added by the construction.  

One reason most larger model railroads are built with subroadbed cut to fit the track areas and then mounted on support piers is that the terrain around the roadbed then can easily be built to be above and, more importantly, below the track level.  Water flows down, and adding simulated ditches where that would happen adds a lot of plausibility to your model.  

Here is a scene on the OC where the terrain is both above and below the right of way.  The bridge is up on abutments with slopes down and away from the road, but those slopes keep right on going down past the tracks, suggesting a spot where the railroad is on an embankment.  This is a key to a scene's plausibility and adds a to the overall feel of an area.  Real railroads provide a spot for water to run off too, and modelers should, too.

Fitting it all in

It is a summer of good stuff here on the Onondaga Cutoff, and we are busy with family, travel, and future plans while doing our best to stay present. 

One of the projects recently finished to completion is Woodchuck Hill Road and its overhead bridge over the Chicago Line at MP 279.69.  As part of the photo shoot for an article in this month's Railroad Model Craftsman magazine, I took a few extra frames playing with backlight and some new angles.

Here we have ML-401 pausing at CP280 on its westbound trip to wait for an eastbound to cross over in front of him, as the sun begins to set in the west.  YAON-20, the evening yard job, is also working on the East Lead and in the far distance the M&E is tying down for the night too.  You can also see the labels for the road, which I use to help crews know where they are during operating sessions.    

I also played with a few vertical angles of the new bridge, of which this one is a favorite.   This is UBO-44A, a coal load for the Bow, NH power plant.  

Still, nothing worth doing is ever that easy.  For this shot above I created a sheet of sky backdrop with spray paint, representing a humid summer sky, and hung it from the ceiling to block the view of the wall of the layout room.  This brightened the photo and allows your eye to go right to the train without distraction.  The downside is this shot took more than an hour to set up!  But I think it was worth it.  We have to fit in opportunities for creativity when we can.

A few images from a recent family trip across the country are coming soon too.  Summer is rarely a quiet time in the Abeles family!  I hope you are enjoying yours as much as we are enjoying ours.