I was running a train on my 1/24th scale outdoor layout recently and decided to shoot a few new photos...

Crossing the Cora Canyon viaduct:



Stopping at Dos Manos:



Coming out of the tunnel east of Grandt Cliff:



Passing the old miner's cabin at Grandt Cliff:



Late afternoon sun:



Enjoy!

Here's a video I put together from my 2012 visit to the Nevada Northern Railway museum, featuring 4-6-0 #40 in action:

http://youtu.be/6EqCxt2yQzY


BTW, if you'd like to see more cool stuff from my adventures in Nevada and the Mojave, check it out here:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Trip_2012_Part_One.html

There are lots of photos of old mines, mills, etc, which would make good modeling and weathering reference. Plus pics of a SPNG stock car.

Last Saturday the In-ko-pah Railroad was part of the West Coast Garden Railroad Tour. We opened at 9 a.m. and had visitors almost the entire time, until almost 4:30. I was surprised at how many people showed up, and how many came from out of state. We had visitors from Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Ohio and Florida! About 160 signed our guest book, and there were probably a few more than that.

Cris and I wish to extend a big "thank you" to all who visited! We had a great time.

I wanted to get some good shots of the crowds but as usual when there were a lot of people there I was far too busy to get any photos. Here's a shot from one of the quieter moments:




In the weeks prior to the tour, I labored to get the railroad up and running after an extended "down time". I got the Hotel Torgo finished enough to show, and added it to the town of Dos Manos. (It still needs a few small details, some lighting, and a partial interior.):



The house in the lower left corner of that photo needed repairs to the roof. I had originally used a glue called "E-6000" to attach the simulated "rolled roofing" material, and it didn't hold. Also, the overhang on one side had warped badly from the sun. So I scraped off the old roofing material, heated and straightened the warped section of roof, and then laminated another layer of scribed siding to strengthen the roof and prevent further warping. Then I applied the "rolled roofing" -- painted strips of Tyvek, held in place with acrylic matte medium. Ironically, this had to be carefully cut and torn to represent old, slightly tattered material!



My mini-people also needed a bit of work. Some had faded a bit and needed to be touched up. A couple had become badly mildewed (a result of using a clear coat that was not compatible with the polyclay) and needed almost complete repainting. Mini Me ended up with a new shirt.

I added a lot of new, handmade plants to the layout, mostly on Grandt Cliff near the Cliffside Mine, as seen in the photos below:








Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas from Ray & Cris Dunakin and the In-ko-pah Railroad!



Christmas lights 2011:  http://youtu.be/wPohvEBtKT0

Last Sunday our club had its annual picnic at Old Poway Park in Poway, CA. At the park they have a beautiful, 1907 Baldwin 0-4-0 steam locomotive that runs on a 42" gauge track around the park. I spent much of my time there shooting video of this train and got a lot of interesting and unusual shots, which I've edited into a nifty video for YouTube:

http://youtu.be/E_SE7M9ThrI


This locomotive was originally an industrial saddle-tank engine. It was later bought by a private individual who "backdated" it and converted it to use a tender.

Enjoy!

I just completed a new structure for my 1/24th scale In-ko-pah Railroad. It's a replica of an old miner's cabin in the little town of Ione, NV. Here's a photo of the prototype:



As you can see, there are some unique features that really give this cabin a lot of character, particularly the homemade metal awnings over the windows, the stovepipe with its fancy clay cap, and the window cut into the original door. One of the awnings appears to be made from part of the roof of an early automobile.

I only had a couple of photos, taken from a distance, and the the cabin is surround by tall weeds and junk. So I had to "fill in the blanks" using my knowledge of other cabins similar to this one. I also added a window to the blank wall on the opposite side.

The model is made of styrene, textured and painted to look like old, weathered wood. The awnings and corrugated roofing are made of brass. The door and door frame are modified Grandt Line castings.

Here are some photos of the model:



I replaced the saw mounted on the front of the cabin, with a bighorn sheep skull. The skull was sculpted from polyclay...




The rear of the prototype cabin was not visible. On my model, I opted to give it a different style of siding -- a common practice on many of these old buildings. I also painted it with grayer, more muted colors, to represent the shaded side of the cabin...


Here are some close up detail photos. The window shades were made from Tyvek, cut from an envelope and painted a yellowish tan. The curtains were made from lace, saturated with acrylic matte medium and then painted grungy off-white::




Here's the cabin temporarily in place on the layout. I still need to do more work on the site, to bring the concrete "soil" up around the cabin. I also need to add plants, an outhouse, and other details:



The cabin is located in an area without wiring, so I installed an LED powered by two D cell batteries. Here's a test shot of the cabin at night:


As I complete the cabin's site on the layout, I'll post new pics:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Miners_Cabin.html


Enjoy!

Here's a brand new video of my 1/24th scale, In-ko-pah Railroad. I think it's my best video of the RR to date! I've tried to shoot and edit this in the style of a professional railfan video, depicting a day on the In-ko-pah Railroad. You'll see my Bachmann/BBT 4-6-0 steam locomotive and my kitbashed narrow gauge RS-3 diesel in action, along with detailed structures and the beautiful, realistic desert scenery I've created.

http://youtu.be/9yeiCCiTwQw


I'm really excited about how this video turned out!

BTW, there are no "dubbed" sounds. All the locomotive sounds are produced by the Phoenix P9 sound systems installed in the locos.

Edit: Fixed typo

I'm converting all my locos to be controlled by an Aristocraft "Revolution" system, and my Bachmann "annie" is next in line. Does anyone have any advice they can give me on doing this? Is there any trick to disassembling this loco in order to access the wiring?

I got back from my annual Nevada trip a couple days ago and still have tons of catching up to do. I will post more pics and info in a few days but for now, here are some videos I shot in and near Ely, NV. Most of them show 2-8-0 #93 in action. One features RS3 #109. The first is a cool "over the camera" shot. The last one is kind of a blooper reel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnRlJwrZFuQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-z_LQpIk7c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7HgIgWkpps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb1FAANeXFM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyF00lh-rcU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONR7kCg5ShA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNlulkBBMGc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQeimzJwaeI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_wqkFdi22Y

Hi! It's been a while since I've been to this forum. I've been busy working on some model buildings. But I needed a break from that, so lately I've been doing some work on the layout. (It's a 1/24th scale outdoor model railroad.)

I'm "fine-tuning" some of the rock work on older areas of the layout, and also creating and installing hundreds of miniature, scale plants. And, I'm working on improving my photography, trying out different camera angles, lighting, etc. Here are a few of my recent photos:

This first shot is one of my favorites... A train crosses the Serenity Canyon Viaduct, as the setting sun casts long shadows on the ruins of an old mine. The loco is a Bachmann "Annie" with a Barry's Big Trains custom drive:




The fireman of this locomotive takes a moment to enjoy the view as the late afternoon sun highlights the rocks and plants:




A bird's eye view as a train traverses the cliffs of the In-ko-pah Railroad:




A view of the abandoned Monolith Mine, as seen from a train on the Serenity Canyon Viaduct. Note the red-tail hawk on the headframe:




Another view of the train on the Serenity Canyon Viaduct:




Scraggly ocotillos, prickly cholla cactus, brittlebush, and other desert shrubs dot this rocky ridge as a train passes in the distance:






The train struggles upgrade in the shadow of the cliffs:

I asked this once before and never got an answer, so I'll try again. Can someone tell me the specs (votage, current, whatever) for the LEDs used in the Annie's headlights?

I've posted a pictorial account of my recent Nevada-Mojave camping trip on my website...

Nevada Trip 2009 Part One:

   http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Trip_2009_Part_One.html


I've divided this account of my trip into four parts to keep the page load times short. You can click through from page to page, or jump to a specific page.

There are many photos of interest to modelers and railfans. A lot of the buildings and equipment I saw would make great subjects for scale models.

Some of the interesting sites I visited include the ghost towns of Delamar, Minerva, Palisade, Ruby Hill, Tybo, Warm Springs, and Carrara.

I visited several historic small towns and "near-ghosts", such as Amboy, Death Valley Junction, Pioche, Tonopah, Goldfield, Carlin, Caliente, and Ely.

I also explored various abandoned mines and mining camps -- the Everett Mines, the Monkeywrench Mine, the Wide Awake Mine, and the St. Lawrence Mine.

Many of the sites were once served by railroads, and some still have railroad related structures, equipment or artifacts. And of course, there's the fabulous Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, where I photographed and videotaped 2-8-0 #93 in action and at the station.

I've added a page for vintage machinery and vehicles:

   http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Vintage_Machinery.html

Here you'll find detailed photos of some of the interesting old mining equipment I've seen, including an amazing steam-powered drilling rig built in the late 1800's. There's also a battered International Harvester dump truck, and a small John Deere crawler-type tractor, plus an aerial bucket tram, mine lifts, ore cars, and a horse-drawn ore wagon.

Along the way I encountered and photographed a lot of wildlife, including bats, lizards, deer, pronghorn antelope, and a herd of rare bighorn sheep.

The weirdest site I visited was a 3000' wide nuclear sinkhole, site of the 1968 Project Faultless underground nuclear bomb test. It's very strange to walk around over Ground Zero, knowing that somewhere below is a vast radioactive cavern!

Anyway, check out the links above and read the whole story. (Let me know if there are any broken links.)

Enjoy!

I put together a series of clips showing the entire layout, as seen by a "cameraman" riding a flat car on a freight train. It's almost seven minutes long, so it takes a little time to download it, but it's pretty cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq6ue5K7nSU

I've posted a couple videos of the In-ko-pah Railroad on YouTube. Here's a clip I shot this evening. In this video, a train is chugging up the grade between tunnels, passing under the Serenity Canyon Viaduct:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfu1SoteTNw

Enjoy!

I just finished building and installing a new building for the town of Dos Manos, on my In-ko-pah Railroad. It's a rock and mineral shop, housed in an old, false-front wood building. It has a detailed interior, complete with working lights and a lighted display cabinet. All the rock specimens are real stone.

Here are a few pics:





The door is a modified Grandt Line product. I added the window and an Ozarks Miniatures door knob. Everything else is scratch-built:



The interior details really show up well at night. The hanging lamps were made from fancy "pewter" buttons and a small bead:





I also finished wiring up the lights in the two-story house:



You can see a few more pics on my site:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Dos_Manos.html

Somehow, the rear LED on my Anniversary edition 4-6-0 went kablooey (actually broke in half and blew the lens cover off the light!), so I need to replace it. What are the specs for that, and are they the same for the headlight? I'd like to replace both with brighter, "warm white" LEDs if possible.

As a result of my recent hard drive crash, I had to recreate my website files. So I also made a few changes... nothing huge, mostly just fixed a few glitches, added a few new pics here and there, etc.

Since I'm now using a newer version of iWeb, I'm also hoping that the site will work better for folks using Firefox. If anyone using the current version of Firefox has had trouble with my site in the past, please try it again and let me know if there's any improvement.

www.raydunakin.com

Be sure to check out my In-ko-pah Railroad pages!

Also, I discovered that through some oversight, the pics I shot last summer of the Nevada Northern did not get posted to the site. That has been corrected.

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Northern.html

The newest addition to the In-ko-pah Railroad is this shiny new Bachmann "Anniversary" edition 4-6-0 from Barry's Big Trains! It has the custom BBT drive mechanism and is equipped with realistic Phoenix PB9 sound.

I added the "smoke" in Photoshop...




It looks and runs great! Nice and smooth, and a strong puller. The sound is awesome too.











Now I just need to weather it and letter it for my railroad.

I've sculpted a few custom figures in 1/24th scale for my outdoor model railroad. I've even modeled myself and my wife:



You can see all my figures here:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR-Figures.html

Some of you may know me from other forums, but for those who don't I'd like to invite you see pics of my railroad:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR-Photos.html

The In-ko-pah Railroad is a 1/24th scale outdoor model railroad built on a steep slope. The theme is a narrow gauge railroad serving mines and small towns in a rugged, rocky desert area. The scenery was inspired by the San Diego & Arizona RR's famed Carrizo Gorge. At least 20 tons of rocks were used to create the mountains. There are numerous tunnels, bridges and trestles, all scratch-built.

There are just a few structures completed at this time, also scratch-built. Eventually there will be many more.

Enjoy!