Blue Skies

Blue Skies, aptly named for the backdrop?  No.  The name is from the Sierra West building kit, Bluesky, that is to be erected near the Mine at the far end of the road.  The trackage at this point from Juanita ends in a Wye with a siding for the Stock Yard loading pen. The ground cover here is mostly the Chama, New Mexico gold soil I picked up during a visit to the C&TS RR.  I use this same dirt on another part of the layout at Far Side Lumber and Timber View.  Here it is modeled with much more detail.

Blue Skies is also the dead end of the road from Juanita. I used the Arizona Rock and Mineral CO Asphalt mix for the base road.  It is very good looking and applies easily.  I like to make the roads worn out. Really, nothing on my layout is new looking.   Spreading the Asphalt mix onto the surface of the dirt is accomplished using a small cake spatula bent a little for using as a spreader.  The Asphalt mix powder is mixed with the thinned white glue solution in a plastic tub.  While spreading skip over some of the ground cover to simulate worn out areas as pot holes.  I then take fine gravel and granite dust and spread in places where the asphalt is wearing through and it was tried to be patched.    This road surface was painted with Woodland Scenics Asphalt coating, then aged using a thin wash of white glue and dirt dust to simulate dirt and gravel where the traffic areas are on the road.  The power poles are tapered down from 5/16 dowels with horizontal braces for the insulators to mount onto.  The insulators are glass beads with a straight pin as support.  EZ Line is used for the electric lines.  I double twist the EZ Line together to form a thicker wire and then it separates to look like the insulation is coming off of  the wire.  Also it allows a slight sag to be put on the line itself.  Thin Super Glue bonds instantly to the stuff.

Banta Models is the manaufacturer of the stock pen here.  It was a double deck loader, but I had to fit it to my layout and the area it is in.  It took a lot of kitbashing to make the curved loading ramp as seen here.

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The Railroad employees living in the Gang house need to cut  their own firewood for heating and cooking.

This Old Wagon is on display here.  It was once used to haul Ore from the Blues Sky Mine.  It is one wagon from the 20 Mule team Borax Wagon train model.

The watchman tapped into the electricity from the power pole.

The Cattle truck for Blue skies was built from the Revell  Models kit of the Honest John Missile l hauler

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A shack built to cover a turnout machine.

At the Wye yard used ties and new rail with barrels of grease and spikes.