High Greens at Fordyce

The last post I got out and tested the signal for the ripped out crossing between Fordyce and Haskell.  I worked all week getting them prepped for installation and finished them up last night.

As the story goes on my layout, there was a short line that crossed the Rock near Fordyce.  It ran through Haskell and on the west.  The short line shut down and Gavilon Fertilizer swayed the Rock to add a connection at Haskell so they could still rely on rail service.

After making this happen, the Rock tore out the crossing near Fordyce, but left the signals in place for now, leaving them green for their mainline and red for the short line.  As I was told, they would need to request permission to completely remove the signals from the FRA.  The request is pending... 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this section of the layout, I've taken some pics to help you follow along.

Here's the track plan for that area.  There are two green dots where the signals are located on the Rock and a red dot where the one stands on the defunct short line.

The following images show an overview of the locations, followed by shots of the signals.

Looking North from Fordyce.  The building in the upper left hand is Gavilon in Haskell.  The signal is next to the loco.

Looking down the short line, the removed crossing can be seen in the middle near the backdrop.

Looking South from Haskell.  You can see both signals, the green on the left behind Gavilon's building and the red to the right of the unloading shed.

The south signal

The North signal

The Short line signal

Signals at Fordyce

In 2019 I ordered some signals from CSS (Custom Signal Systems) out of Utah.  There is a spot near Fordyce (on my layout) where a fictional short line crossed the Rock Island, just to the north of where the current Whitewater bridge is standing today. 

In my world, the short line is now abandoned, the Rock Island tore out the diamond, but they left the signals intact and lit.  The signals will have a constant GREEN signal displaying for the Rock Island and RED for the short line.  Part of the short line is now operated by the Rock Island with a connection at Haskell, AR.

This is one of the small projects that I want to get done before October.

Op Session: Jan 25th, 2025 time lapse

After getting the basement and layout cleaned up I decided to hold another session, one it was time and two I wanted to make sure things were working properly.

One of my colleagues from work wanted a closer look into our mad little world of model railroading so I invited him over to give him a first hand look.  He set up his phone and took a time lapse video of the first half of the session.

I think it turned out pretty good, and I think I may do this again for the next session?

The Ruston Depot

As usual, my layout is not modeled exactly after the prototype, but Ruston had a brick depot, which I think was more of a freight house?  

So I wanted to try and find one that was close and decided upon the Walther's Santa Fe brick depot. 

The first thing I did was to remove the circle on the end peaks and the semi circles on both bays.  After cutting them off I then glued on some pieces of styrene to cap them off and then left off the end sections of the roof that overhung the end windows.  Not perfect, but close enough for this modeler.

Then I painted the brick to somewhat match the original depot/freight house, but it came out a touch lighter than I had planned, but I'm hoping I can offset that when I get around to weathering it.

When it came time to plant it, I asked a friend what he might suggest?  He told me to add a strip of styrene around the brick platform then sit right on the parking lot and finish it off with weeds.  Instead of concrete, I chose a wooden border made from ties.  So I took some time and cut up and stained a batch of ties from Balsa wood and glued them in place and now I have a way to reposition it when I have to take it up to weather it.  Plus I have a sensor inside the depot for the right side of the crossing.

Once I get some signage applied and some details placed around it,  I think it will be plausible or passable?

I've also got some Showcase Miniatures Train Order boards that I can add as well, if I can remember where I stashed them.

The bog finale

I started the bog back in October 2024 and tonight I think I'm going to stick a fork in it (hopefully I won't drain it).  The final thing I added to it was some algae around the edges and a few lily pads. 

I wound up giving the bog a second pour using the Liquitex Pouring Medium, but this time I added a few more drops of Vallejo Burnt Umber to help offset some of the lighter areas.  For the most it worked.  But you will notice differences in colors from post to the next.  This is due mainly to lighting and camera/image editing.  In person it does have a slight orangish look like coffee, but it's hard to get that to show correctly with the camera.

The algae I'm happy with.  I took some fine ground foam of three different shades of greens and put a pinch in a very fine strainer and rubbed it till it fell through the strainer.  This gave me a much finer ground foam.  I used the pouring medium to glue the algae in place, it took a bit of practice to keep it from being overwhelming and to get the right colors.  While it's not perfect, I'm happy with the outcome.  As for the lily pads, I'm not 100% happy, but they'll work.

Also if you plan to go fishing or wading in the bog, do be mindful of the local gators!

If there is anything I need to add to the bog it will be around the cabin and the boat dock.  I need to build a small, old dock,  the one I got from Woodland Scenics: Family Fishing pack, just looks cheap.  I think I'll fabricate one that'll look much better?

The bog

For the last couple of months I have been working on the bog, this past weekend I finally got to the point where I felt I could finally make the first pour.

I finally settled on using the Liquitex Pouring Medium and I added 3 drops of Vallejo Burnt Umber to 2ozs of the pouring medium, just enough to give it a slight murkiness.  It took three 2oz cups to fill it all in.  Although I knew it would probably take a second pour, since this stuff reduces in thickness as it dries.

I had to coax it around the edges, weeds and trees, but it flowed in nice and smooth.  Another bonus of this stuff, as Boomer mentioned, it does not creep.  Having said that, as I said, when it dries it reduces in thickness so it does have the appearance of creeping up the banks and trees.  Hopefully the second pour will not shrink as much or be as noticeable.  If it does, I do have a backup plan.

The first image was taken within minutes of making the original pour, it does have a milky appearance, but it starts to dry fairly quickly and begins to clear up as well.

The following three images were taken a couple of days later, it still took another couple of days to fully cure.

I still have some minor details to add to the water and surrounding areas, but so far so good, I'm happy with it so far.  Time will tell.