In-ko-pah RR: The Mineral Ridge Mill

[Hydrostat]

Hi Ray,

I'm watching your progress with continuously growing amazement. Your work on the artificial wood is simply stunning. It's interesting, that the coloring looks more coarse in the distance shots than in the close ups.

Always a pleasure to stop by.

Volker

[Ray Dunakin]

A little more progress...

First, I used some chemicals to stain the concrete "soil" outside the mine, making it look more like mine tailings. Mostly I used ferric chloride, the stuff used to etch copper circuit boards. I wet the area with water, then used an eye dropper to very carefully dribble small quantities of the etchant here and there. I quickly used a paint brush and a water to thin it and spread it around. I also used some Rust-All to add some reddish tones. Then the whole area was liberally rinsed with water.






Next, I started work on a trestle to carry the tracks from the mine to the mill. The trestle at the Nivloc Mine in Nevada was my primary source of inspiration for this. I first built a support for the mine end of the trestle that will go to the mill. It's made of styrene, scribed and painted to look like old wood. Nut/bolt/washer castings from Ozark Miniatures appear to secure it to the stone wall. In reality, I glued it with Dynaflex 360.

The trestle stringers are also made of styrene, while the ties were cut from strips of 6mm thick Sintra PVC. The ties were glued to the stringers and then the whole assembly was primed with white primer, followed by a base coat of light, warm gray latex paint:




I finished painting the ties and stringers, using various shades of brown and black. These were thinned just enough so that they would be a bit translucent when brushed on. Once this was done, I spiked down the rails. The walkway planks and guard timbers were painted individually, then glued to the ties.

I still have to touch up some of the paint, and also need to add a lot of nut/bolt/washer castings plus the handrails. But here's how it looks so far:










I also need to build a bent to support the middle of the trestle.
.

[finescalerr]

That scene displays more excellence in color, texture, and detail than any viewer of an outdoor layout has a right to expect. -- Russ

[Chuck Doan]

Based on my experience, your ferric chloride coloring will outlast anything else on your layout!

[TRAINS1941]

That coloring is perfect.  What a great job your doing.  And outside no less.

Jerry

[Ray Dunakin]

All my modeling came to a screeching halt a couple weeks ago when Cris ended up in the hospital for 9 days following complications from a colonoscopy. She's home and doing much better now, though she still likely needs surgery for another issue. Anyway, I've finally finished up the trestle from the mine to the top of the mill.

I installed Grandt Line nut/bolt/washers, and touched up the paint as needed. I also painted some "nails" onto the planks:




I built a bent to support the middle of the trestle. Like the stringers, the bent is made of styrene, textured and painted to look like weathered wood. The NBWs are from Ozark Miniatures:




I had planned to make cast concrete footing for the trestle bent. However, I decided instead to just cement in some additional rock under it, then build up the ground around it using tinted mortar:




Here are some shots of the finished trestle. I may still add some braces at a 45 degree angle, between the bent and the stringers:










And just for fun, here are some pics I shot this evening:








Enjoy!

[finescalerr]

Satisfactory. -- Russ

[Max Corey]

He probably hasn't painted it yet.  I would probably spray it silver and then weather dirty but little rust.  Mines I have explored are usually dirty in the color of the ore they are mining.  New corrugated like this would be is shiny and it takes many years to rust.

[NE Brownstone]

This is so cool. The retaining walls where the mine tracks lead to the bin is spot on.  I like the ferric acid idea and it looks great.  Did you find out to use that from someone else, or did you just catch a wild hair and apply and hope something good would happen?

I wish I could have a layout in my backyard, but the winters are pretty rough over here.  That, or my dog would eat it.

[Chuck Doan]

Ray, I hope your wife is on the mend and feeling better. Are you cutting the styrene sizes you need from larger sheets, or?


Russ, if you have spilled ferric chloride etchant, you will know of its remarkable coloring and permanence.

[Ray Dunakin]

Max, the mill is intended to represent an older structure that is still in use -- old enough to no longer be shiny, and have some areas of rust beginning to show through the galvanizing. I used photos of structures at the Tonopah Historic Mining Park as my primary reference, such as this one:




Russ, as Chuck mentioned, I've seen how small drops of the etchant stains concrete such as the floor of my garage. I tried it awhile back to add rust streaks to some concrete bridge piers (a bit too much!) so it was a short leap from that to staining the mine dump.

Chuck, thanks. For this trestle, I used some of the large size strips that are available from Evergreen. For instance the stringers were made by gluing a .250" x .500" strip to a .125" x .500" strip. These large sizes come in 24" lengths.

[artizen]

That would make a neat model! Oh wait, it's being done!