Seamus O' Flannahan's Gulch

I thought that was a lot more colorful than Northlake Gulch. And a colorful history can be invented later for a pioneer with that name.


What I wanted to do with the gulch is create visual separation between the passing track and the mainline - as well as create another level to give the RR a more varied geological appearance.


A few other goals in creating the Gulch:

• Make room for a substantial fire station I wanted on the layout but not in a spot where it would overpower the trains visually.
  
• I also wanted a viaduct that passed over the street below - with a building tucked in underneath it. This would give me a small area to replicate overhead el tracks - and a canvas on which to paint the occasional colorful message during college football season!
  
• To get to this level, the road would slope down hill next to the tracks - giving me an area to install a retaining wall. This wall is also a blank canvas for whatever messages I want to add later on.

To build the gulch, the first step was to mark off the area I wanted to bring down to a lower elevation - in this case the plywood table top beneath the foam to which all of the track is attached. That area is here:

I used a regular steak knife to cut the foam away. After eyeballing this for a couple of days to make sure it was the way I wanted it, I then "engineered" the road down to the lower level of the gulch.


I forgot to take pictures of the construction of this area, but it's pretty straightforward. The ramp down is thick artboard with foam filled in underneath. A liberal coating of Elmer's glue holds it down. The cliffside leading from the inside passing siding down to the gulch is cut at a rough angle all along the cliffside. This angled slope was then covered with gauze and plaster to shape.

Once this was done, I now had an elevated area of track hanging out in space.

Next time: The Canadian Pacific Viaduct.