Walthers Cornerstone kits

Ohh, ooooh, oh those Walthers kits.  I've said it before - you're thankful they exist because you don't have to scratchbuild these things.  But so often they don't want to go together very easily.  And you want to have words with the engineer who designed it.  ("Did you guys ever actually have to put this kit together?")  A vital tool for building one is a roll of blue painter's tape.  To hold things together that are supposed to go together while the glue dries.  The tugboat kit is going about as well as you'd expect right now based on the amount of tape you see in the photo.

I set up some plaster cloth for the embankment on one side of the shipping channel, and started setting up the cardboard supports on the other.  As much as everyone wants to get outside, and the calendar says it's spring, it's not spring here yet.  We woke up to an inch of snow yesterday morning.  The kind of weather that helps facilitate layout progress.  I want to get some Sculptamold plaster to even out the surface of these embankments, then I'm going to need to seal the river bed (plaster? or maybe the paint will do it) and paint it.

Ballasting and river planning

As you'll see with the following photos, I've been making gradual progress on ballasting the mainline.  All that's left is most of the end on either side of the harbor bridges, plus the area around where a grade crossing will be located.  I've gotten the hang of ballasting, though I want to go back around and do a thorough job of getting any excess ballast away from the rails. I need to buy more ballast, and I also need to figure out how I'm going to ballast the passing tracks and the sidings.  For the sidings, maybe dirt, though I have black cinders for the steel mill area.  For the passing tracks, maybe the same as the mainlines, maybe some dirt mixed in. 

On a layout, one thing tends to lead into another.  In order to do one thing, you need to work on another thing.  Thus as I was ballasting, I realized I needed to plan for any grade crossing, as well as for the river.  The river is supposed to be a shipping channel, which means it should appear straight and deep.  I found that the bridges didn't appear to be too high over the potential surface of the water, but it sure seemed like the ground level was.  The embankments will be a little steep, but maybe that means that the channel had to be cut through there.  I'm planning to get a Walthers tugboat to place in there, and I've been watching videos on how to use Woodland Scenics' water modelling materials. 

To start, I placed a couple pieces of hardboard under the bridges, for the abutments to lean against.  I painted and glued on the abutments underneath.  Then I started attaching the cardboard strips that will support the embankments.  One thing I need to look out for this time is the slight depression in the plaster cloth along there, either I need more supports laterally or maybe get some sculptamold plaster afterwards to smooth it over.  I'm not sure yet if I'm going to install any sheet piling.  To cover both sides I'll need 3 of the Walthers kits - that's $45 for sheet piling, maybe I can make that myself.  Or just go without it.  I think I want to pour some plaster along the bottom of the river bed - to seal along there and along the sides, and provide a good surface to paint on.  I'm glad I got something started on this however.

As I was typing this I thought, I'm missing some actual trains.  Right now I have one CSX switcher and a few cars.  Maybe I should take a break soon and buy some more trains to run.  Of course, that will also involve learning how to program a consist in the DCC system, and perhaps buying another controller.  Never a dull moment.