Sierra Railroad 1955

December 10, 2009

The primary focus this year was on scenery. Ron Core, a retired BNSF conductor, started painting backdrops. Over 200 ft of brown paper bag base scenery was added, Oakdale to Warnerville and HH Jct to Chinese. Three trestles were completed, River Bridge on the WSLC, Chinaman Creek on the Pickering and Turnback Creek on the Sierra. But the signature piece of work was the Peeled Onion on the Pickering.

We used a 3′ x 6′ casting that we made using Joel Bragdon latex casting mold and resin to make the actual casting. We used 3 separate molds to make the complete Peeled Onion. There is still some finishing touches to be made, mostly adding foliage to the casting.

Here’s an example of the painted backdrop work that Ron completed during the second half of the year.

The lower level here is Lime Kiln on the Sierra. The trestle is the River Bridge on the WSLC. On the right side of the upper deck is the Pickering line to Soap Creek. The snow cover peak in the middle of the picture is an intermediate backdrop, the clouds are approximately 2 ft behind the snow covered peak.

To view more photos of the work completed in 2009 go to Photos -> Layout Photos and then select the section of the layout you want to view.

On the schedule for 2010 are the following projects:

>      Complete the Beardsley Flat bridge and trestle approaches on the    Pickering

>     Complete the short trestle over the Spring Gap Incline on the Pickering

>    Complete the remaining three trestles on the Sierra:  Black Oak, Draper and Sullivan Creek

>   Complete the brown paper bag scenery base on the remaining portions of the layout

>    Continue backdrop painting