Building the Timberline No. 1 mine
The edges of the Gatorboard (left) were cut at a 5 degree angle with a table saw to allow for easier removal once the plaster was added later. The inner structure of the ore bunker (right) was
on Homasote® which was glued to the
industrial particle board sub-roadbed. The track had to come up and I decided to have its replacement directly on the base with the ore bins. The new base was made from ½″− thick Gatorboard®
. It had to be large
enough to hold the ore bins and the trestle bents that would support the conveyor building. When satisfied with the fit, the board was removed and the edges were slightly angled with my table saw without changing the overall size.
All my track is handlaid, so I marked where the new spur line would be and laid new ties on the foam board with yellow carpenter’s glue. When firmly secured in place, their tops were sand- ed level with the ties leading up to them. The two pieces of code 70 weath- ered rail removed earlier were spiked
made from untempered fiberboard. Its size and shape was deter- mined by templates made with CadRail. Since the interior may be visible when the bunker doors are raised, the floor was stained.
back onto the newly installed ties. The idea of locating the foam board base in the exact same location every time it was removed and re-installed on the layout was part of the process of building up the surrounding ground. The angled edges of the foam board were covered with cellophane tape, and it was replaced into position and tem- porarily screwed in place so that it wouldn’t move. The hole in the side of the mountain was filled in with an in- terlaced mesh of thin cardboard strips, then covered with Hydrocal-soaked swatches of paper grocery sack materi- al. Hydrocal was also placed around the rear and at both ends of the foam board. The leading, or front edge with the spur track, was butted up flush against the Homasote that was origi- nally installed years ago. Any Hydrocal that flowed on top of the foam board
was quickly removed because I wanted a smooth transition from the board to the adjacent ground surface. When it was hardened, the temporary screws were removed and the foam board base was easily pried up with the tip of a screw driver and removed. Eventually, pieces of the structure will serve as, “lifting points.”
While the Hydrocal mountain face
was still damp, it was brush painted with white dental plaster, then carved to blend in with the other rock faces. After about a week of drying, it was painted with acrylic craft paints to blend in with the previously colored stone work.
My initial plans called for a wooden, three chute ore bin structure resting atop a timber frame base, but after a few attempts, I decided to change to a cut stone foundation carved into a den-
Pieces of scale 3″×12″ stripwood (left) were glued onto the exte- rior of the shell. They were colored with Timberline Scenery Out- house stain. The strips were trimmed flush once the rest of the
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stripwood was in place. The three chute floors (right) were fabri- cated from pieces of stripwood and fitted into their openings. Note the vertical and horizontal framing added to the openings.
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