The Morada Belt Railway
the narrowing of certain walkways, al- though yard and industrial zones re- tained wider work areas to accommo- date two or more operators. There is one pinch point and a pair of “suck it up” aisles. However, with five operators plus a dispatcher and freight agent working out of the crew lounge, ses- sions shouldn’t be too uncomfortable.
Construction With various “how-to” books in hand, I began construction of the layout in late 2004. Using L-girders, I chose to start at the lower (staging yard) level and build up from there. Benchwork is supported from three walls and then at- tached to a pair of peninsulas, an aerial view of which resembles an underlined letter “N.” Plywood is used for the yards and mainline sub-roadbed, then over- laid with cork roadbed glued down with matte medium. On yard track and in in- dustrial areas, after lightly sanding the cork, I apply either Sculptamold® Celluclay®
or a
-plaster mix to fill in the space between adjacent cork strips. This results in a relatively flat appearance characteristic of freight yards, yet with slight drainage between tracks. Origi- nally, I was going to use Homasote®
for
the yards but I didn’t like the totally flat look. I’ve worked in many freight yards during my 39-year railroad career and I’ve never seen one perfectly smooth and level.
Once everything has dried, I paint the
cork, filler and plywood using a latex earth color. This seals the cork and pre- vents it from deteriorating over time. Flex track is then laid using Atlas code 83 on the mainline, sidings and classifi- cation yard, while Micro Engineering code 70 is used on spurs, in the Junction City interchange yard and on the branchline. Turnouts are a combination
SP 4137, a 4-8-8-2 cab-forward, leads a beet train across the Lake Davis bridge. This scene was created by Pat Davis. Note the fisherman in his row boat reeling in a trout near the edge of the dam (above). As the Central California Traction Company’s daily local heads for the Westside Branch (below), an upper quadrant Magnetic Flagman protects the Nunes Ranch crossing located near the east switch at Lake Davis. The author started his railroad career with the CCT in 1974 and later co-authored the book, The Central California Trac- tion Company. Pat Davis modeled the GP7 and caboose. An SP caboose brings up the rear of the Advance Starpacer (page 47). The still under construction Westside Branch can be seen above it in the distance. Black fascia will eventually hide the sub structure.
of Atlas, Walthers (Shinohara) and Micro Engineering powered by Tortoise ma- chines on the main and yard tracks. All branchline turnouts will be thrown by Blue Point cable-actuated devices. We experimented with poly iso foam
board (as featured in the March, 2011, RMC) as sub-roadbed for the branch line which occupies a portion of the up- per level. However, we found that the foam amplified the sound of a passing train when compared to plywood, so we have since backed away from it.
Scenery, a group effort The Morada Belt was designed as a freelanced railroad set in the western U.S. during the transition era. Al- though no specific prototype is fol- lowed, you will see locales that resem- ble the arid, Tehachapi,
rocky terrain of the oak-studded rolling
hillsides of the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada range, and the sand- stone cliffs and lava rock walls found in various regions of California, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Utah. My ideas for scenery have been influenced by lo- cations visited during thirty-plus years of railroad photography and places in California and Nevada where I have operated trains as an engineer for Union Pacific. Well seasoned techniques for terrain were used, such as plaster over chicken wire as well as carved foam, both coat- ed with Sculptamold which is then painted and textured. John Signor, well known artist, author and friend, spent two days painting the hardboard back- drops, the upper level depicting the Sierra Nevada foothills while the lower deck represents the Coast Range as viewed from California’s Central Val- ley. Clouds were applied using stencils enlarged and photocopied from an old- er issue of RMC. Using flat white and then lightly overspraying with gray, I was able to create the sky I wanted. Good friends and co-conspirators on
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