LK&O

A Railroad with Relevance

Upper Benchwork – Part V

Written By: Alan - Feb• 17•13

Woohoo! The benchwork is complete to Kitzmiller.

The final 3″ elevation drop makes the Kitzmiller benchwork 6″ lower than the rest of the layout. That doesn’t mean the whole scene is 6″ lower. The purpose of the benchwork elevation drop is to provide additional vertical working space for scenery, specifically the Potomac River. The lower benchwork means the bridges over the river will be at a more natural height instead of only an inch above the river. It also permits greater latitude in forming gulleys, creeks, etc.

If you are thinking the benchwork looks a little too deep in this area you would be right… normally. This is a special case however. The Kitzmiller scene requires that I model the whole town including the houses along the road halfway up the mountain. That requires a lot of depth else Rt 38 would be at a ridiculously exaggerated angle going up the mountain side. The real Rt 38 is an 11% grade at Kitzmiller so it is plenty steep but not so steep that I can get away with making the modeled Rt 38 a 50% grade! Hence the deep scene.

The bulk of the mountain will be mounted on a 2″ foam insert that fits where you see the benchwork opening along the backdrop. This way I can pop it out and work on it at the workbench. Minus the insert the benchwork is really less than 18″ wide as far as reach is concerned.

Next, it is back to the south helix area where I first began building benchwork. The south helix area is going to tricky to build. An update in the next post.

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