Devils Gulch

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Devils Gulch

The Devils Gulch area was a featured piece along the west wall, which was all mountains, the north end resembling West Virginia and the south end looking more like the Rocky Mountains with the area in between resembling the glacier-carved Midwest. This area is loosely based on Devils Gulch, SD. Plaster on screen wire over a wooden frame was the choice for scenery throughout this region. With 50ft of mountains, we finished it in sections of about 10ft each to keep it manageable. Also taken into consideration was accessibility of the track, much of which is hidden by scenery. In one case, trains entered a tunnel at Sacred Mountain and didn't emerge again until they had traveled a scale 1 1/2 miles.

A Norfolk & Western Powatton Arrow crosses a double track truss bridge spanning part of Devils Gulch. Below it is a favorite fishing spot. Many of the tunnel portals were custom built. All together there are 11 tunnels along the west wall on four levels.

Nearly 800 pounds of molding plaster was used along the west wall. Part of the reason for the amount of plaster was many areas are filled with dramatic rock formations from floor to ceiling, which use quite a lot. That was our tribute to the legendary modeler John Allen, who pioneered such dramatic scenery. We had to create scaffolding to access some of the higher elevations. All of the coloring was done with an airbrush using both solvent based and water based paints and stains, plus India ink washes.

Looking up from the bottom of the gulch shows some more of the many rock formations. The supports for these two bridges are actually anchored through the plaster to the floor for complete stability

Click on the images below to take you to other areas.

Updated: Tuesday, October 30, 2012