I used the cardboard strip method to build the outline of my hill for the GOP.  I used hot glue and staples as needed to hold the pieces together.  Once I formed the basic shape of the hill I hot glued the large rock castings onto the strips and also glued them to the table top.

I then used plaster cloth to cover the supports and fill the large gaps up to the rock castings.  One thing that I neglected to do, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference, was to wet the rock castings before applying the cloth.  In theory this would have helped the adhesion of the cloth to the castings, I later covered this with a layer of hydrocal so it didn’t make any problems.

I overlapped the strips of cloth about 25% on the first layer, followed by another layer set at 90 degrees to the first.

Over the Labor Day weekend my wife and I traveled up to Eureka, California.  While we were there we went to a couple places around the area that contained items from the history of the local area.

At Fort Humboldt they had many examples of logging equipment from a wide range of years.

This picture shows a logging “disconnect” car.  These were used in pairs, with the log providing the frame for the car.

Here is a picture of a Dolbeer Logging engine, or steam donkey.  This was invented right in the area, and they had several examples of different types of engines.  This was used for many different tasks in the woods, one of which was loading railroad cars.  This is an example of one of the smaller ones.  I will post pictures of some of the larger “bull” engines later.

After my last post I came to the conclusion that my module has gone beyond being just a module, but a part of my home railroad.

In all further posts I will refer to it as the GOP.  This stands for the “Get Out and Push” railroad company, which I mentioned in building the waycar kit.  The reference comes from a book of classic logging pictures.  This was a book borrowed from the local (at the time) library, and I don’t currently have access to it, so I don’t remember the name of it.

The book contained a picture of a locomotive which was derailed on the side of a narrow gauge line.  Ironically the name painted on the side was the GOP;  I am guessing that this might have been a fairly regular occurrence.

My intention is to eventually build a logging themed layout, or at least a section devoted to logging – which will be the GOP rr. co.