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| 1. Whetstone Ridge |
Whetstone Ridge (1) is a six foot from-the-floor mountain that encloses
the helix that moves trains from the staging yard under Ascape up to the West
Whetstone Tunnel portal onto the trestle at Sulphur Gulch (eastbound) or the East
Whetstone Tunnel portal at Professor Plunge (westbound). Park City attaches to Whetstone Ridge at the
left side; Echo Canyon and Ascape engine facilities attach to Whetstone Ridge
at the right side. The front of
Whetstone Ridge (2) is adjacent to the aisle entering the railroad.
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| 2 Front Whetstone Ridge |
The mountain is constructed by attaching strips of
corrugated cardboard together using hot glue to form an armature for the
mountain. Several 1x1 wood posts
attached to the benchwork support the top-most part of the ridge. Vertical cardboard strips are glued to this
top ridge and then formed to the shape of the mountain and glued to the
benchwork. Horizontal strips are attached to these vertical strips forming a
lattice like armature. The cardboard
strips are then covered with cheese cloth painted with diluted white glue to
form the terrain of the mountain. This
cardboard armature and cheese cloth are easily modified as the work progresses
to form a pleasing terrain for the mountain. The terrain starts at 6 inches
above the floor and rises to just over 6 feet above the floor. The mountain is open at the top, which is not
visible to the observer but does allow standing inside the mountain to make
repairs on the helix or the scenery on the top of the mountain.
Once the cheese cloth is formed to represent the terrain of
the mountain it is painted with a thin mixture of plaster of Paris which forms
into a thin shell. The plaster contains
a bit of stucco dye to give it a tan color so that it isn’t stark white. Once the shell is dry it is covered with a
thicker mixture of plaster of Paris.
This material becomes like modeling clay as it dries making it easy to
carve. This stage only lasts for about
15 or 20 minutes before the plaster becomes hard as stone and is very difficult
to carve. The rocks and cliffs are hand
carved a small section at a time during this molding period. Carving tools consist of a small piece of
wire brush, several different Xacto knives, some dental picks, and a small
paint brush with stiff bristles. Once
the carved plaster is dry it is first spayed with alcohol containing a few
drops of India ink. This emphasizes the cracks and ridges in the carved
rock. The whole surface is then colored
using diluted (12 to 1) tan latex house paint applied with a spay bottle and
allowed to run where it will over the scenery.
When the paint is dry the rocks are brushed with pastel chalks in
various earth tones until the rock has a realistic appearance. The cliffs and rocks are then sprayed with
flat lacquer to prevent the chalk from smearing. Scenery on this railroad is never painted
with full strength paint because then the rocks and surface do not look
natural.
Once the terrain is carved, colored foliage is added
consisting of small shrubs from Woodland Scenic colored foam, trees from
various manufactures, and other scenic details.
Trees are sized to force perspective. The top of the mountain Is covered
with small conifer trees with a few aspens.
Lower on the cliffs and closer to the viewer the trees are more to
scale. Around the stream are some
deciduous trees and shrubs. Water in the stream and waterfall is Woodland
Scenic Easy Water, a plastic substance that melts at a low temperature allowing
it to be melted on the stove and then poured in the scenery. We did encounter one problem, when the hot
plastic hits the cold plaster it tends to set up very quickly rather than
flowing into place. The problem was
solved by using a hot gun to melt the plaster in place on the scenery causing
it to flow. Rapids are emphasized by
painting the plastic with acrylic white paint.
The left side of the mountain contains a tunnel entrance to
Park City near where the mountain attaches to the backdrop. A stream appears to flow from somewhere on
top rear of the mountain and makes its way down and toward to top of Katy
Falls, a large waterfall falling into Sulphur Gulch, a recess in the cliff in
the front of the mountain to the bottom of the benchwork 6 inches above the
floor. The stream itself continue
several smaller falls and rapids. A
large scratch built wooden trestle carries the main line in front of this
waterfall across Sulphur Gulch to the front side of Whetstone Ridge (Figure 1).
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| 3 West Whetstone Tunnel |
The eastbound main line exits the West
Whetstone Tunnel portal (3) immediately onto the trestle . The trestle is on a curve and a 3 % grade,
matching the grade in the helix inside the mountain. Katy falls is behind the trestle in Sulphur
Gulch.
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| 4 Doug's Lake |
The mainline crosses at the base of Whetstone Ridge around
the front of the mountain (2). A barbwire
fence protects the railroad from cattle grazing on the hill side below the
track. The scenery on this side of
Whetstone Ridge contains yellow, red, and orange fall colors to represent
autumn weather. A Doug’s lake (4) is nestled
at the base of the ridge behind the Ascape round house. Some fishermen can be seen trying their luck
in the lake.
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| 5 Professor Plunge |
The right side of Whetstone Ridge contains two tunnel
entrances. One is the East Whetstone
Tunnel portal that returns the main line to the helix inside the mountain and
down to the staging yard under the Ascape Engine Terminal, station, and
classification yard. The East Whetstone
Tunnel portal is in a large cirque in the mountain known as Professor Plunge
(Figure 3). Beyond the cirque the Park
City branch line enters the Park City tunnel.
This right side of the Whetstone Ridge forms the backdrop for the Ascape
Engine Terminal.
Structures.
The large wood trestle at Sulphur Gulch is scratch
built. A clear piece of 1 x4 pine was
cut into ¼ inch strips on my radial arm saw and then cut into scale size lumber
of the sizes require by the trestle using a small 4 in table saw with a carbide
blade. The tunnel portals are Woodland
Scenic products. An under-track girder bridge crosses Professor Plunge behind
the Ascape roundhouse.
Lighting.
Whetstone Ridge is lit by LED track lights mounted in the
ceiling.
Realism.
The cliffs toward the top of Whetstone Ridge are red in
color created by mixing a bit of red acrylic in the tan house paint mixture
before spaying the upper cliffs. The
pastel chalks used to color the rocks also tended toward the reds. Behind the waterfall the cliffs are grayer in
color representing more hard stone found in lower strata in the mountain, also
accomplished by adding a bit of blue acrylic paint to our base spray and
emphasizing the grayer chalks in coloring the cliffs. The result is a very realistic looking
mountain and water feature.
