October 2011 Update: Back to the Living Desert

EDIT 10/21: I've added to this post since it was initially published; scroll down to see more!

On the eve of the layout's 6th anniversary on Sept. 25, I thought it was time to get something done. While Bear Country and the other forest sections are progressing on the west side of the layout, over in the opposite corner, the geothermic area of the Living Desert has been on hold for some time.

This area was spruced up and rebuilt after the Big Redo of Winter '09 when the whole desert was elevated to accommodate the underpass to the caverns.

Since then, ideas of having animation, spurred after adding movement to Balancing Rock Canyon, to the geysers was always something in the back of my head.

For some time, the acrylic rod and spider-web material looked pretty good, the only thing that it was missing was movement. In February of 2010, I figured out a way to make air powered geysers that worked by means of a pneumatic actuator.

"I was initially thing of using a screw type with a motor and bolt, but I later figured out a way to do it with pneumatics. I started playing around with a few short lengths of small brass tubing and an aquarium air pump (the ones that are about 2-3 psi) to my surprise, it actually works quite well, more than enough power to push up a rod of plastic (I might even be able to power all the geysers off of the same pump).

I built a prototype and I've been playing around with it, adjusting the amount of air pressure, location of overflow holes, and a bunch of other things. Basically, with my brass tube pneumatic actuator, when the air pump is turned on, the column rises, when power is off, column falls. I can control the amount of air pressure by using a dimmer switch on the air pump (a 3-way gang with adjustable valves is probably ideal). Since it's all aquarium equipment, it's virtually silent, aside from the very slight rumble of the air pump. The next thing to figure out is making the column fluctuate and vary in height, probably with a valve on a cam."

While the prototype worked at my work table, the main issue was the size of the mechanics involved; in order to have the acrylic rod fully retract and have the actuator, the overall unit would have to protrude down several inches-- almost a foot if I recall-- into the table below (and my 20,000 Leagues Project, namely the squid fight scene).

Another issue with that prototype was the idea that the whole layout would become portable and break into two parts, thus scrapping that plan.

I went back to ultrasonic misters for my next idea. This one seemed promising due to the fact that it didn't go beyond the dimensions of the table, namely through the bottom. A few days of tonsillitis revealed my next idea-- an ultrasonic humidifier.

"A few months ago I had a really bad sore throat (Tonsillitis!) and went over to Target to get a new humidifier to help alleviate it. I got one, and as it turns out, it's an ultrasonic one ( unlike the fan and filter ones I've been use to). Since it was suggested, I've been trying figure out how to get an ultrasonic mister to work for a geyser for the layout, through the use of containers, piping, and fans; it would have been trial and error to get it as efficient as possible. Enter the humidifier: it had exactly what I needed; an ultrasonic mister that outputted adjustable mist, but kept water contained-- all done efficiently and with a stylish look!


Rather than lay down and rest my throat, I immediately started pulling out pieces of PVC piping and other bits of assorted tubing to test the limits of this humidifier. I was very surprised with the amount of power it had and the volume output of the mist (it's not really mist, more of fine vapor, like steam). I plugged a length of PVC with four holes to represent geysers, and even through it wasn't at full blast, each "geyser" was putting out a good amount to be called a geyser."


Fast forward to a few days ago (now that I don't have tonsillitis!) I began playing with it again, and this time tried it with 1/4" tubing on the last leg after the mist leaves the 1 1/4" PVC before it actually goes to the geyser. I wasn't expecting much to come out since the 1/4" tubing is pretty much too small, let alone over a foot of it--but, to my surprise, a good size column came out! Again, this wasn't even at full power and I still got a good effect, doesn't really need to get any taller IMO. But, the 1/4" tubing has it's problems-- condensed vapor drops obstruct the tube easily after running less than a minute. No problem, just need a larger, shorter tube, and have it positioned so gravity does the work in getting condensed water out.

The humidifier did look really good in the video, but as I studied it more, the effect was something hard to look at without the proper lighting all the time. What the moisture would do to the scenery besides attracting more silverfish, concerned me slightly, and visually, this solution did really do it and it was scrapped.

Earlier that same year, the Devil's Paint Pots were also looked at for potential kinetic energy. Digging right into the scenery, I started experimenting:

"I've also been looking at making the Bubbling Mud pots actually bubble. The basic premise here is to make tube full of water, and adding an air line to make it bubble like an aquarium. I built a few prototypes right in the scene, and so far, things haven't been that successful. Since I'm using 1/4" tubing, the water tends to get sucked out of PVC pipe mud pot when the air pump is shut off, and controlling the amount of air flow to get the right bubble interval isn't easy. Plus, in some tests, I found that the bubbles weren't popping easily (maybe the painty water that I used did that). I'm still working it out, and this element might need to end up being static."

 

 At the same time, I tried to get more "authentic" with the faux turnout at the "mine tunnel". In theory all I had to do was splice in an Atlas turnout and it would look a lot better than what I had before. In the end, all it did was roughen up the curve and kink it out of shape. The turnout is also too wide and shouldn't have been put in at all in the first place. My mistake. After that failure, this corner of the layout sat untouched while the rest of the layout expanded with progress, abandoned with unfinished ideas and effects that didn't work.

Fast forward to a month ago. A trip to Lowe's reignited my interest in geyser animation with their fog machine. While I did already have a fog machine, what intrigued me with this one was it's dimensions; if I wanted to use it for the geysers like the ultrasonic mister, it can fit perfectly below the surface of the scenery, without protruding through the table the layout is sitting on (remember, the layout has to be portable ). I bought the fog machine and began experimenting. Despite it's ideal size, the results from the fog machine were hard to achieve because in order to have the fog come out that tiny hole at the geyser, the container that the fog and machine would be in would have to be perfectly sealed-- which doesn't help when the machine needs to breathe with all the heat it generates. This fog machine also produced an oily film from the fog, despite using water-based fluid, which was something I didn't want to deal with when it comes to maintenance. So, while it excited me at first, like the ideas before, this one was scrapped.

While trying to brainstorm various ways to get geysers to materialize, one idea kept appearing-- or more appropriately, reappearing-- the acrylic rod. The very first geysers always looked the best visually, it was just getting them to move that was the tricky part. After numerous sketches, I found one that looked very promising and ended up being the simplest one.

As in the video below, the acrylic rod is contained in a styrene tube while in the down position. When the geyser "erupts", a thread pulls the acrylic rod up from it's base. The water column-- with an appearance like the Enchanted Tiki Room's "Enchanted Fountain" at this point-- drops when slack is given in the thread.

A few coats of Mod Podge gave the rod a more organic look. At night, a bright white LED illuminates the water column from below. Cool!

It's not quite as "airy" as the first static ones, but I think the motion of them bursting out of the ground will make up for that. 

EDIT: 10/21

While looking over reference shots of the geysers, I noticed that three of the four spewed quite a column of water. The fourth, however, was a little different. This one had more of a "spray" appearance, and was not as "persistent" as the other ones. It was on most of the time, while the others varied in hight and this one stayed constantly at the same height.

When designing the mechanism to control the geysers, I thought this smaller "spray" geyser could use a different approach, since it had a different appearance and performance. While I could use a little fluff material to represent it, a little movement would help it fit in with the other geysers, which are bobbing and fluctuating. So far I've come up with a very thin rod, wrapped in spider-web material (which is very abundant this time of year). The rod is on a motor, which spins at a fairly moderate speed. Haven't decided on whether to use it or not, but it looks pretty neat.

Meanwhile, still on my experimenting kick, I took a look at the mud pots. After the mess with bubbling painty water, I took a different route and instead of actually using liquid, I decided to simulate it. Using a piece of rubber from a dishwashing glove, I cut out a disk and glued it right onto the original prototype and gave it a coat of paint and mod podge.

In the test footage, it looks pretty good, so I proceeded to build the mechanics to do this. 

With all the things being thought of and requiring a substantial amount of overhaul work, the only time to really get them done was at the same time. So when I was ready to install the geysers, mud pots, and a new stretch of track, I ripped up what was there leaving a gaping hole. Doing everything now reduces the amount of stuff I need to replace or rebuild (which I'm sick and tired of doing). 

Above left is the hole cut into the scenery and entire chunk removed. That chunk was on a piece of particle board which made any renovations such as this one difficult. A jigsaw changed that. At right is the new piece of flex-track, perfectly smooth with no kinks or bumps like the mish-mashed track before it. 

On to the mud pots, I had to figure out the position of each colorful bowl mainly so I could determine the mechanics orientation, but also so I could be accurate to the real thing. In the past, I simply made up a composition of the Devil's Paint Pots, a sort of random pattern. This time around, I actually studied the real ones from numerous photos and drew up a map of the cluster. This map made it easier to determine which mud pots I would animate and which ones would leave static. 

The actual mechanism would consist of my usual cam and lever operation. Basically, the cam would slowly push down on a lever, raising a rod to push up on the bottom of the rubber disk-- giving the illusion that a "bubble" is rising to the surface. A notch in the cam would release the lever, dropping the rod, creating the illusion that the bubble "popped". Below is the mechanism in action, before the "surface" was put on top.

When the mechanism was finished, I cut a piece of masonite for the ground surface and the mud pots themselves. The ones that would actually be working have a piece of PVC pipe to support the rubber disk. After cutting the actuating rod to the proper height, I glued down the rubber disk.

After doing three of these, seen below (two of them have a test coat of red paint), I let the mechanism run for a while to break-in. However, even after a few hours and few tweaks, the overall effect just wasn't that satisfying, after many adjustments; every time a bubble "popped" if made a loud clack noise, which is the sound of lever dropping. The sound can be dampened with a piece of foam, however at the cost of having the visual illusion diminished. After sound dampening the three I had, the minimal movement of the mud pot bubbles made this little project  seem unnecessary; was it really worth it to have these barley noticeable tiny "bubbles" that raise no more than a 1/16th of an inch?

Not really, at least at this point. I've changed gear and I'm working on the geysers. Maybe if I find yet another solution, I might try. For now, Devil's Paint pots project is shelved. Who knows, I might go with what I predicted when I did the first prototype-- might make them static and just look good. 

August 2011 Update-- Or Lack of Update...

There won't be anything for the August update, many because nothing really happened. I haven't had the time lately to do considerable progress on the layout, as I'm in the middle of a major studio renovation, which includes the dismantling of my 20,000 Leagues under the Sea project directly below the layout. When my work space gets back in order over the next few weeks, work will return to the Wonderland, hopefully. There are a few things I've got cooked up for the layout on the horizon, one of which is a very promising solution for animating my geysers, something that has been long-time in the making.

July 2011 Update

Wires, wires, wires

After going through many design changes, I'm proud to say that I got my block relay system put together and up running successfully.

All the wires for every block and every signal run to the back corner near under the geysers. This is where all the relays turn on and off sections of track, depending on which reed switch was toggled, as well as the appropriate light signals for each block.

Originally, I tried to wire and solder everything in place in the back corner in tight confinement, like so:

Messy and unorganized wires....

That lead to problems in keeping everything organized and hard to maintain if I wanted to replace a relay or make changes.

To keep things clean and easy to maintain, as well as build, the new layout for all the relays and wires was done on a separate piece that I can work on my desk comfortably.

...clean and organized wires. 

The end result was a "plug-in" to the layout by adding jumper wires from one terminal block to another. This has been the most complicated wiring project I've ever done. Despite it's complexity, using different colored wires and planning everything out carefully made the construction go smoothly. In case a relay  craps out over time, it can be replaced easily thanks to pin sockets, as opposed to having to de-solder the leads and resolder them again. 

The big relay with all the orange wires is the "override" relay; usually, when there is a red light, the train will stop since it's power is cut off; with the override on, the train can still move despite another relay trying to keep the block off, which is mainly for testing or if a reed switch doesn't trigger to clear the block. 

All the wires for the layout, whether it be light, sound, animation, block controls, throttles, power lines, turnout motors, etc, run down to the front of the layout, and will eventually connect to a control panel. This control panel will be built to look like the ones used on Disneyland attractions. That still requires planning when I have everything ready to connect (since I don't want any add-ons later), but for the mean time, this is what it looks like, all 30+ wires... 

Yes, everything is labeled

Let There Be Light! 

Almost two years ago, as I was making modifications to the track, the night-time lighting for the Living Desert had to be re-adjusted. Rather than embedding the lights into the ground again, I decided to make "light towers" like so below:

Original lighting package for the Living Desert.

They seemed to work when I added them, but for some reason, the the blue-white LED's just didn't have the right feel, despite having color gels placed in front of them. The christmas tree lights just weren't cutting it for me. 

Perhaps the main reason they were doing it for me was the fact that I keep referring to me very first train layout:

A 4 X 5' miniature Disneyland. 

Between 2004 and 2005, I built my own miniature Disneyland out of cardstock and acrylic paint, surrounded by a loop of HO snap-track. While crude when I built it, as I was 14 at the time, the one thing I really liked about it nowadays was the night-time lighting hidden within the buildings. Using 12V incandescent lights and color gels, I tried to light all the main structures like the real counterparts at Disneyland. It worked really well and it was a lot of fun to operate the train and look over the layout in the dark. The 12V lights gave a nice warm glow to everything as opposed to the blue-white, cold LED's.

A blast from the past: my model railroad before Nature's Wonderland
circa early 2005

If I wanted to replicate that feeling of that model on my NWRR model, I had to use the same techniques I used over 7 years ago. 

I ripped up all the LED's that I had embedded, as well as the light towers, and I began running wires for the new 12V lights. Once again, I will be using color gels to set the mood of the lights to match the scenes. 

Nature's Wonderland at night is a difficult thing to determine since there is hardly any recollections or photos to get an idea of how it was lit. As usual, if there isn't any reference, I have to take some artistic license. 

When it comes to how the model will be lit, Rainbow Ridge will have it's buildings lit up from the inside, as well as a few lanterns on the station platform. The Living Desert will consist of warm colors, like red, orange, and yellow, while the forrest areas and Cascade Peak will get cool colors like blue and green. The choice of the warm colors from the Living Desert is inspired by how Big Thunder Mountain (on my old model and the real thing) is lit with orange flood-lights. The use of cool colors for Bear Country and Cascade Peak, came from real Bear Country pond at night, when illuminated with a blue light at night. 

Since a lot of wires had to be imbedded in the scenery, the lighting had to be done before anymore work can progress on the scenery (since I don't want to redo any more stuff!). So I had to do it NOW. 

The basic process for installing lights starts with making the enclosure for the "grain-of- wheat" bulb out of aluminum and adding the appropriate color gel. The light is installed in the scenery, whether it be concealed in a rock, hillside, or even in a tree. When the light was tested and everything looked good, it was secured in place and the wires were run to it. These wires are either drilled through scenery or will be covered later.

Here are lights for Bear Country, all attached and ready for patch-work which will include a layer of celluclay and scenery. A few trees and shrubs and it'll be hard to notice. 

Here's what the layout is looking light now, in all it's night-time glory. About half of the required lighting is already installed-- about 25 bulbs-- with more to come. Since I mainly work night shifts, installing lights during the daytime is a challenge when the position of each light needs to be tested.  During the installation process, I've blacked out the windows of my studio to overcome that obstacle and utilize precious time.

Photographing the night-time isn't easy, especially if you're trying to replicate what it looks like in person without being too dark or too blown-out. 

One of the difficult parts to lighting the layout, from a design perspective, is hiding the lights. Normally, when lighting an attraction, the lights are hidden in bushes, rocks, on rooftops, etc. The problem is, this isn't a real attraction, it's a model that will be viewed from above, and not from the train itself. So it becomes a careful balance of lighting the scene like the real thing, but also keeping in mind of how it will be viewed from above and from several different angles. 

June 2011 Update

A new photo for the Aerial shots post (see the links at the top). Much of the future Rainbow Ridge and Rivers of America area looks a little cleaner, thanks to a little paint, applied in preparation for the OC Register shoot last March.  

The Sound of.... Sound

Since the layout started construction almost six years ago, it was mainly a visual art. Now for the first time, you can also "hear" it.

While it was still easy to route wires, I decided to run lines for speakers to be incorporated into the layout to broadcast sound effects for each of the different areas. Such sounds include waterfalls, creeks, animals, geysers, townsfolk, and just ambient sounds.

Last winter I bough a bunch of inexpensive iPod speakers from Target that I could disassemble and customize so I can hide speakers in the layout and have the sound input be accessible. To have the sound playback, I'm using the tried and true CD player, two of them in this case. By taking advantage of the stereo quality of CD's that created four channels, each player having a left and right speaker. So this creates four different sounds that can be implemented in four different areas on the layout.

"Hacked" CD players that will run the sounds of Nature's Wonderland.
The wires will run to a custom panel that will control both players at the same time

The four sound channels or "zones" as I call them lie in four areas: Cascade Peak, Bear Country/Beaver Valley, Living Desert, and Rainbow Ridge. The sounds of Cascade Peak include the rumble of the waterfalls with the sound of the Mark Twain's whistle and bell sounding off every 10 minutes or so as if it were passing by. Bear Country and Beaver Valley features sounds of the creek and ambient bird chirps. Animals that fade in and out include the bears, beavers and battling elk-- all sounds from the original attraction. Over in the Living Desert, the sounds of coyotes and geyser spurts can heard, as well as crashing and rumbling rocks from Balancing rock canyon. Rainbow Ridge will have one speaker installed in the Saloon where sounds of the piano players and rowdy townspeople will be heard.

All of these sounds are being mixed in GarageBand, and compiled onto one 1-hour track on CD. Each player will have two areas being played simultaneously

All the audio tracks being mixed in GarageBand

Right now, there are two speakers installed in Cascade Peak, Beaver Valley/Bear Country and two need to be installed in the Living Desert and one in Rainbow Ridge. 

Can you see the speaker? After a speaker was embedded in the scenery, it was covered
with a wire screen and blended into the surrounding terrain. The speaker that
broadcasts sounds of Cascade Peak's waterfalls is in the dead center of the picture, behind
a few trees. 

A speaker for Beaver Valley, yet to be hidden by trees and foliage.

A speaker for Bear Country covered in wire screen and preliminary scenery
blending. A few trees and shrubs and it wont be seen.  

On the subject of sound, Rainbow Caverns got it's memorable eerie choir that echos through the caves. I didn't want to dedicate a who track to the caverns so I used a 9V recording module from Radio Shack. At the press of a button, you can hear a 20 second sample of the music used in the Rainbow Caverns.

Here's a recording of the sound module in action (camera has poor video quality, no visuals).

Trees

Meanwhile in Beaver Valley, scenery began to "grow". Trees are starting to sprout as I experiment with different ways of making different varieties of trees. Some pines are scratchbuilt out of sculpey and wire branches, while others are Woodland scenics brand. What's nice about modeling Nature's Wonderland is that it's actually prototypical to have few trees, unlike most model railroads, since foliage still needed time to grow in. I won't need too many trees for that reason, but also so the viewer can actually see the scenes on the layout without being too cluttered. 

Finally, here's a side-by-side look at Cascade Peak, a year ago before it's major rebuild, and just a few days ago. Quite a difference! 

May 2011 Update

The western half of the layout picked up considerable progress as I put in the last piece of the complex puzzle-- the Battling Elk. Since it was a large portion of the "forest" section, it need to be completed and installed before anything else like Beaver Valley and Bear Country could be worked on.

Figuring out the exact placement of the Elk was quite a challenge considering the space I provided for them isn't much at all. And also considering how close they border the Bears and the Beavers, I had to take careful measures in making their position just right so it didn't impact the other two areas. Basically I had to take three major areas, make them as accurate as I can, fit them all together in a prototypical fashion, and make everything look good overall without anything looking "off". I also had to factor in how they would look from different point of perspective. For example, if you were on the miniature train passing through Beaver Valley, you wouldn't see the Elk fighting on the hill just above. To solve that, room had to be accounted for trees, shrub, and other visual barriers to make accurate site lines.

When I had everything figured out to a certain extent, I constructed the mechanism that would animate the Elk figures. Since I wasn't going to have their tiny legs move, all the Elk are going to do is move back and forth on a horizontal track, basically enough to give the illusion of movement. While someone with no mechanical animation experience might say "you should have made the legs move!", I say "good enough".

The mechanism, but with the original elk stand-ins

Here's a test of the mechanics, with the figures with fresh primer

When the mechanism was finished and duration tested, the hills sloping up to the Elk could be installed and built for the umpteenth and final time.

To accomodate space for the hills to house the mechanism, the Beaver Valley river had to shift a little bit. I could have left it where it was, but the hills would look too steep and unnatural.

The basics of land forms

The "fault line" is visible since the layout
can break into two pieces.

The basic structure of the hillside started with floral foam to help support and fill out the aluminum foil skin. Celluclay or "miniature concrete" as I like to think of it, is applied creating a hard shell to create the ground layer.Since the layout can split in half, I had to make sure the scenery still did. A few more shrubs and you won't notice the "fault" line.

Once dry, various ground foam foliage and carved rocks scattered over the terrain helped make this section of the layout more nature-like for the first time in years.

To accompany the Battling duo, Woodland Scenics deer stand in for the "cow-elk" that lounge on the grassy meadow. Eventually they'll be repainted to match the elk and my painting style.

Trees are the current focus; after experimenting with a few techniques, one made out of sculpey and wire with ground foliage seems to work pretty well. Now it's a matter of sitting down and creating a whole forest of trees one by one-- by hand.

Here's the final video of the Elk in action:

The NWRR Model's "Cousin"

Over at the Disneyland Hotel, as part of their major renovation, the "Frontierland" tower received a new centerpiece for their lobby-- A replica of the original concept model for Big Thunder Mountain. This 1/4" scale model --the same scale as my NWRR model-- is a re-creation of the one fabricated by Tony Baxter back in 1978. Since only a portion of the original model exists and since WDI wants to keep original things in it's archive, this brand-new model was created. After getting word of it being installed from the Official Disney Parks Blog, I did a quick trip over to the hotel to get a good look at the model. It's chock full of details with a lot to look at. I instantly noticed the locomotives on the coaster trains are repainted Bachmann 0-4-0 porters with the side rods taken off. There are differences between this model and the real thing, but considering this is suppose to be a concept model, those discrepancies aren't a big deal. Many people, typically with no mechanical animation experience, have said "they should have made the trains move!".           I say "good enough!".

I snapped a few photos and shot some video of the model, but really, it's worth it to see it in person.

April 2011 Update

The Battling Elk sculpts have finally been redone and finished; now it's a matter of getting them installed on their mechanism, painted, and area scenic detailing.

The left shot shows the scale difference between my original figures and the new figures. The right shot gives a sense of scale of the new figures. 

Here's a video that shows the general movement of the elk on their mechanisms. While I would have liked to have their legs move like in the original ride, they were just too delicate and small to mechanize. 

Next month's update will show the actual mechanism itself, plus the finished scene. 

Virtual Wonderland

On a Nature's Wonderland related note, I've slowly been working on a CG version of the Mine Train. Since the world is leaning towards doing everything in the computer and less physical models, I'm having to teach myself how to compete in the ever-evolving world of movie studios, architectural and design firms, and even Imagineering. So, as a little project in addition to other modeling for school projects, I decided to bring my favorite attraction into the 3D medium. I won't be recreating the entire attraction (yet....) since I'm just learning and working on small scale things (I don't want to take a bite out I can't chew ).

Here's a little sample of where just the locomotive it at.

And here is a little bit of the work flow, which shows the sand pipe being modeling in Maya.

In other NWRR "News"

Normally the layout is only known to the public through this blog. I've checked the stats and the views have risen slowly over time and it's relayed through-out cyber space. But within the last month, it really went "public".

I got an email from a guy named Mark Eades, who was a reporter for the OC Register (and a former Disneyland CM and Imagineer). Being how great the register has been with covering what's going down at Disneyland and reflecting back on it's history, I was intrgued. He said he was doing a story on the old Mine Train ride and he had noticed my blog. He thought it would make a great story for the Register and he asked if he could do an interview. Being that the register was an "official" establishment and not some freaky fan-run unofficial website, I naturally said yes.

Although there wasn't much to show, since only half of the layout was finished, the layout did get cleaned up and the finished areas given a touch-up. Everything went smoothly during the video and photo sessions. It was really odd being in front of the camera, since I'm so use to being behind the camera and doing everything myself. It was interesting to see how they documented it from their perspective.


http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2011/04/01/long-shuttered-disneyland-railroad-lives-on-in-miniature/73977/

(Didn't realize how flat and monotone my voice was ( I really don't think I sound like that!))

The day after the article was posted, I went downstairs to the dispatch office at work, and there it was, all printed up and pinned on the bulletin board-- the article. Honestly, I didn't know how to feel; I liked the fact that it was noticed (probably by one of the managers), but at the same time, having the entire Disneyland Custodial Department (and probably the rest of the park) know about my unusual hobby of building a dead theme park ride did make me feel a little awkward. Something like this is something I would just keep to myself since I don't like to toot my own horn too much; especially at work where you have a few people that could care less about the park's history and would see people that knew too much about the place as "obsessed".

However, my coworkers that saw it and said something to me about it were all appreciative of the work I did and were very impressed. The newspaper version was later printed and it got more praise and exposure.  In the end, after cringing a bit over all my coworkers knowing about I what I do when not at "The Park", it was a good move and looks really good on a resumé.

And now everyone knows why I take a lot of time when working around Big Thunder!

March 2011 Update

Before I could really get any work done-- or really preliminary work-- on Rainbow Ridge, I had to get the turnout motors installed. (By the way, the photo at left has no relation to the topic of turnouts; I just thought it looked nice). Originally I was going to have ground-throws, but I thought it would be easier and more fun to actually have them move automatically without fingers interfering with the scene. The most popular turnout motors out there for model railroads are the Tortoise switch machines; I was planning on using two of these to control the turnouts that would diverge the trains onto the main line or the spur line. The problem with  the Tortoise machines was finding a way to adapt them to my layout (since I can't mount them underneath as they are intended). After reading an article of Model Railroader, I found a much easier and cheaper alternative: servo motors. Intrigued by how they were used, I ordered two Hitect HS-311 servos for about $7 a pop (which is a great deal considering Tortoise Machines go for about $20 each directly from Circuitron). 

Because of their small size, I was able to  mount each servo next to their respective turnout. Considering the strength the servos have under power, I included a pair of micro-switches that will cut power to the motor when the switch points make a full movement. This way, when the switch points complete their move, the motor isn't still on and stalling itself out. To make life simpler, both servos are connected to a single DPDT switch which will align both turnouts to either the Main or spur. 

Here's the servos mounted next to the turnouts. Each one got it's own unique set-up, due to the position of

the actuating rod for the switch points. The servo on the left next to the Rainbow Caverns 

tunnel will be hidden by Mineral Hall and the servo on the right will be hidden by the Opera House.

Here's a quick video showing the servos in operation. The great thing about the servos is that they're very efficient; I can run both of them off a single AA battery. (To create a slower motion, I could even drop the voltage further). 

Back to the Battling Elk

After wasting my time making the first figures the wrong size, I finally got myself to at least start the revised elk figures. These ones are going to match the same general scale/size as the Woodland Scenics deer so they won't look out of place next to them in the finished scene. While I would have liked to get the both done installed by the end of this month, it's a start. As you can see, the new more in scale sculpts are about a 1/3 smaller than the originals.  

If I go any smaller, I think I'll go blind.

Relay Delay

I hit another snag in my block system; I need to separate the relays that control the signals and the relays that control the block cut segments. Since I want to be able to disable the block relays and still have the signals work if I was testing a train or just running one train (which results in having two relays for each block, one for the cut segment and one for the signals) I was originally going to have the power cut from the block relays to disable that feature while the signal relays still worked. Well as it turns out, from testing it didn't matter if power was cut (aka the common wire); the relay with no power still worked! It was getting power from the other relay it was connected to.  So as a result, I need to add 3PDT switches between the two relays for each block. This was power for the block cut segments will be completely turned off without anything weird going on. (Did that make any sense?).