Sunday, May 21, 2017

Piercing the backdrop - our first actual tunnel portal

 Well, when the main line leaves Herndon, it has to pierce the backdrop to go over towards the main yard and the Susquehanna River. So, I have an old home made PRR style tunnel portal that was on the Middle Division. I also have the mold for this portal which was cast in molding plaster. This one was removed from an old friend's layout - Doug Jones. It was up for many years and even sustained a broken leg which I fixed.
 I had to add a base which I did by placing a bridging piece of plywood under the main line as the portal is high and is meant to go down to grade. You can see the piece I used which was about 13 by 4 inches. One of the next steps is to fabricate a liner which will not have to curve as you cannot see the top from a normal viewing angle. Then I have to paint the track before installing everything as it would be difficult to do that later.
This is an overview of the area. A low hill will surround the portal and incorporate the base of the tower as the track flows into Herdon on the right. I have set the fascia height on the left to reflect this.

No comments:

Post a Comment