Status
The mountain is now finished except for some detailing work, such as planting bushes, trees, and integrating the scenery with the track. It took a little over a week to install the cardboard strips, cover them with plaster cloth, and cover the plaster cloth with the Sculptamold. Followed by one day for painting and one day for covering the area with various shades of ground cover. The mountain measures 54 inches (137 cm) long, 36 inches (91 cm) wide at the base, and its top is 28 inches (71 cm) above the track (or 373 feet, 113 m, tall in n-scale).


Design

Pogo Mountain is a small, but tall mountain on top of the helix. The white area in the diagram shows where the Pogo Mountain area is. The mountain itself is steep and tall, reaching to just below the room's ceiling. The grayed regions represent the other areas, such as the Helix and Shire Oaks. The track in the Pogo Mountain area is a simple reversing loop that runs around the perimeter of the modeled mountain, crossing the mountain via Pogo Tunnel #1 and #2. The mountain inside will be hollow so that we can maintain our access to the track in the Helix and in Pogo Mountain. The reversing loop has a 15.5-inch radius, but for the section in the tunnel it will get closer to 8.5 inches. This is tight, but that is the best we could do here. The tunnels will be placed such that the tightest radius will be hidden from direct view.

After testing, a multiple-unit consist of a Kato PA-1 and PB-1 with about 12 passenger cars were able to back through this reversing loop at a very slow speed with no problems. The cars did touch each other and the locomotives needed some extra juice to overcome the friction, but it was doable. We also tested the new Con-Cor S2. This locomotive also required some extra juice, but did just fine. Finally we also tested with body-mounted couplers on a set of freight cars. They had no problems at all.

Progress
The next collection of photos shows the progress of this part of layout over the duration of the layout.

Today was the official launch date for construction on Pogo Mountain. The area serves as a cover for the helix. Initially we wanted to build a small yard here with a turntable for turning locomotives. However, we don't think we will be able to complete the Diamond Scale turntable before we move, so we decided instead to build some more scenery. The objective is to fill this area in. It is the last not scenicked area on the layout. We will build a simple reversing loop inside the diameter of the helix that will allow us to turn whole trains. The radius of the track curves will be tight, so we will have to wait and see which locomotives are going to have problems. If we ever get enough time to build the aforementioned turntable, we can always tear down the mountain and replace the area with a small yard. However, in the meantime we will have a more "finished" look to the model railroad, AND a way to turn trains.

We started off today with cutting the custom-fitted luan boards for the sub-roadbed. This photo shows the same technique we used for constructing the sub-roadbed of the Helix - sections of luan board spliced together using Elmer's wood glue.


Here is an overall shot of the pieces of luan board we cut. I decided to update the web site while waiting for the glue to dry. :-)


Over the past few days we have worked on completing the simple benchwork and sub-roadbed support for the track. The reverse loop sub-roadbed pieces were glued together with wood glue and attached with small screws to the tops of the vertical stiles of the Helix. This provided support for about 75% of the sub-roadbed but that was not enough. On the other hand, we didn't want to build a lot of infrastructure on the top of the Helix to support this sub-roadbed so as to ruin the wonderful access inside the Helix. The solution shown in the photo below is what we came up with. A small strip of Masonite board cut to fit between two of the vertical stiles of the Helix. These were attached with screws and bent such that it provided support for the sub-roadbed. One of the requirements is to be able to completely remove the Pogo Mountain track and support without damage to the Helix woodwork. So the sub-roadbed and its support are screwed to the Helix, but glued to each other. The clamps are gluing up the supports.


We have completed the turnout that feeds the reverse loop. It is a scratch-built no. 6 turnout. We have started laying the flextrack that makes up the loop itself. The turnout's rails have been painted, but the ties still need to be stained. Also, we will ballast the turnout when the flextrack is done.


The track work is now done. The sharp curve at one leg of the reverse loop is indeed tight. A rough measurement shows an 8.5-inch radius! That piece of track was done first so that we could test to see if this was going to work. We ran a small diesel locomotive on it and it ran fine. Next, we figured we test the worse-case scenario and ran the ConCor S2 (4-8-4) on the track. The locomotive's wheel were grinding and more juice was necessary from the throttle but much to our amazement, it worked! We also tried some passenger and freight cars with truck-mounted and body-mounted couplers and they, too, worked.


After completing the track work, we shaped the AMI Roadbed, soldered feeder wires, and installed wooden ties under the rail joiners. The next photo shows the preparation that went into getting ready to paint the track. When we actually painted the track, another piece of plastic overlaid this area so as to control the spray from the paint cans. We weaved the plastic through the Helix to protect the Helix's outside cover and its track.


We have finished painting the track and ballasting it. Before we started building the mountain, we wanted to make sure the track was fully functional. We installed the Digitrax PM4, using one of its sections to act as an auto-reverser. This configuration allows the system to adjust the polarity of the reversing loop so that it will always line up electrically with the mainline. The PM4 works well, although it does occasionally cause some hesitation in the train. I know they have come out with a new version, which hopefully fixes this glitch.

Well, the day has arrived to build mountains! We always enjoy doing scenery, and especially big mountains. We have been collecting cardboard boxes for the last few weeks in preparation for building this mountain. It is the last big scenic component to build for this layout. We started off by cutting 1-inch strips. We used a metal straight edge and a utility knife with a new blade. This photo shows the first pile we made, but so far we've needed a total of three of these piles. This mountain is big and it needs lots of cardboard.

The next step is to start gluing them to the framework. We use a hot glue gun. The glue sticks are a product called "Magic Melt" made by Adhesive Technologies, Inc. The glue sets in a matter of seconds, so you can squeeze the parts together by hand (no need for clamps of any kind). The glue isn't particularly strong, but the cardboard method gets a lot of its strength from the webbing. At first we glued long strips to the underside of the luan board of the reversing loop. The next step was to start bending some of these strips up and start the webbing process.


Of special concern are the three tunnel portals we will be building (the two shown here and the third one in the back). The cardboard strips just create a rough opening. The opening needs to be bigger than the final (scratchbuild) tunnel portals, but it gives you a bit of an idea of where things are going to be.


Here you can see the mountain getting more of its definition. We like the random effects you can create by letting the strips bend and come together in various ways. It is very much like sculpting something out of clay.


Here are some photos of the most recent state from the various angles. We'll start off with an overall shot.


Here is a top-down view of the front of the mountain/helix, looking at it from the left side.


Looking at the mountain from the right side. You can see the two tunnel portals shown earlier.


And, finally, a photo from the rear of the mountain (as seen from the closet behind Shire Oaks). On the right side of the photo you can see the rear tunnel portal that feeds the other leg of the reversing loop.


We finished installing the Sculptamold today. The first photo shows me working on the Sculptamold several days ago. I am standing on a 12 inch step bench. My head comes to about halfway up the mountain (I am 6'4"). Some people have asked for us to be included in the pictures to give an impression of how big this mountain is. We will add more later on. What you will also see in the photos is that we covered the entire Helix and Shire Oaks areas with plastic drop cloth. Building scenery is messy work. Any exposed track was covered with blue masking tape (used by painters, and can be easily removed).


Here is a nice frontal view of the mountain as seen when you enter the room. The Sculptamold really gives the surface its definition.


The next photo shows the two tunnel portals to-be; one is for the reversing loop of Pogo Mountain, and the other is the entrance to the hidden portion of the Helix. Both areas will eventually have a scratch-built tunnel portal. The angle of this photo is from about where I am standing in the photo above, only standing on the floor.


And finally a photo of the rear of the mountain. This shot was taken from inside the closet. The mountain's entrance is the area where the reversing loop comes out of the mountain. This tunnel portal will not be visible from the normal front view angle of the layout. The foreground area of Shire Oaks and the Fairmont bridge are covered with plastic drop cloth. On the left side, the mountain slopes right into the Allegheny River.


We spent about 1.5 hours painting the mountain. We used our standard ground latex paint. Dipping the brush in water before dipping it into the paint made the paint thin enough to fill in the cracks and holes left by the Sculptamold.


We spent about 4 hours covering the entire mountain with 9 different shades of Woodland Scenics' ground foam. The next set of photos were taken today after cleaning up the entire area. We were careful to not let glue congregate at the bottom of the mountain near the track, so the blue masking tape came off with no problems. The white you see at the bottom of the mountain near the track will still need to be painted and covered by bushes later on. We consider this part of the "super detailing" stage of the layout.

And now for a behind-the-scenes look of the mountain. This photo shows the mountain and the Helix from underneath (while laying on the floor). You can see the various levels of the Helix and the cardboard structure that is the mountain.


This photo shows both of the tunnel portal walls inside the mountain. They were constructed using the same methods as the mountain itself. The walls are meant to hide the mountain's interior from view should the viewer look in the tunnel portals from the front of the layout. We will paint them a dark gray or flat black so that they absorb all of the room's light. The track in the foreground is the Pogo Mountain reverse loop, and the track in the background is the top rung of the back of the helix.