Big Thunder Mine Part 2: Ore Bins, Trestles & Retaining Walls

[@Ryan-pr7vq]

You are the Norm Abram of this craft, without the Boston Accent.❤

[@scottfrey2710]

The realistic detailing you create is amazing!! :-)

[@TheBajabus]

Indeed the Bob Ross of model R/R! Hope to get to the July studio tour…. Keep on shaving that foam.

[@lifeisagift.cherisheverymoment]

RTFM: I have always loved to read. But when modeling, the last thing I wanted to do was Read The ^ Manual. Big Thunder Mine is a beautiful and very informative Two Part Series. Lots of inspiration. Thank you. And I like the little Track Ends you created.

[@ronalddwyer6592]

It's looking really fantastic. You are capturing the realism of a real working mine house. I grew up close to Cripple Creek, Colorado and I have seen alot of old mines and buildings. You are spot on. My layout that I am modeling is the Colorado Midland, Midland Terminal standard guage and Florence and Cripple Creek narrow gauge. Modeling mountains and mining has always been my favorite. Can't wait to see how you finish it and automate it. Great job and looking forward to the working model. Thanks for sharing and be safe.👍🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂

[@paulditzen2708]

I was re-watching this video this morning and came up with a mildly related question. Having watched virtually all of your builds, I can’t recall you ever giving any direction on how to set the buildings in place. It seems like most folks in the hobby want to be able to easily remove the buildings to do repairs or changes. That makes perfect sense. But, I worry that just setting the building where it supposed to be that it will wiggle around because the cat bumped it or we had an earthquake or somebody bumped it or whatever. So , if you ever have a mind to, I would be interested in a video on the art of setting buildings in place. Thanks. Keep up the good work.

[@Johnny-tt8zc]

Time management is an issue I struggle with. You have some serious skills. Stay safe 🌲

[@bryanmeyer-cunningham3171]

I'm not good at layouts but plastic planes,tanks,and ships YESSIR

[@NeoByteNL]

Your eye for detail is amazing, absolutely love your work Dave.

[@OtterCreek]

Probably my favorite build series so far. I've had a spot marked on my track plan for the WWM Atlantic Cable Mine for a while now. I know where to go for inspiration when it comes time to build it! Thanks Dave.

[@dennisfillhart88]

Another "I love it" project. Good to see this mine getting operational... soon. :) You always have so many great tips to do a project. Thank you.

[@WonderingModeller]

Hi Dave I am new to the channel and the railroading hobby, I have enjoyed some of your videos enormously (lots more to watch yet) and I have Huge admiration for your modelling talents and sharing them with us all 😉👍 I very much look forward to seeing more progress on you Amazing Thunder Mesa Railroad. Your a Huge inspiration and Thanks again 😊🙏👍👍 Kindest regards Dan 😎

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thank you! Welcome to the channel

[@markdeschane4467]

I have to agree with Tom T about going with less stressful modeling. I have switched from HO Northern Pacific to On30 who know what RR. I'm having fun!

[@ritafarrow8734]

watch the railways ,it was superb,really great layouts,enjoyed everyone ,well done everyone for the show,loved it cheers from the uk

[@tomt9543]

I’ve always wondered about where the wood & Timbers came from in those mines in the desert, where nary a tree can be seen!

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

It’s called basin and range country. The higher elevations of the mesas and mountains in the southwest are covered in forests of ponderosa pine. If you look closely, those forests are represented on the backdrop.

[@StephanLambAssociates]

Awesome job, thanks for sharing,

[@dkaustin98]

Dave, your layout theme and structure builds is why your channel is my favorite. Great job! I can give you an excuse for a small waste pile on the rail side. In my reading/research on the Arizona Narrow Gauge Railways I learned they were recycling the waste material to be ballast on the line. It was free material. In the case of the Morenci Southern Railway they had miles of line to ballast. There were all those ACC baby gauge lines running all over and through the top of the mountain. There were the occasional thunderstorms that washed away portions of the lines. Waste material was used as fill and ballast to relay those washouts. So, the railway was hauling their waste out. That might account for the photos I mentioned before of the ballast between the rails covering the ties so that only the ends of the ties were visible.

[@tomt9543]

Really enjoying this project! I’ve picked up so many little “kinks”, as they called clever techniques in the 50’s, and you’ve also got me taking a second look at On30! As a former prototype modeler, I’ve really come to enjoy the philosophy that you model by! It’s so much less stressful than modeling, say, the Santa Fe between Easternville and Westernville at 2:47pm on August 12, 1961! Keep up the great work!

[@vincenthuying98]

Cool vid, love the way you built the ore shoot! Thanks 🙏 for sharing.

[@KeanesCove]

What a brilliant build series. So much to learn from your videos

[@thatonegscaler3855]

Ever considered doing a TMMC railtruck or a TMMC Doodle bug?

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Yes, but it would need to be a steam powered since the layout pre-dates internal combustion engines by a year or two.

[@SpookyMcGhee]

Dave! Your videos have inspired me to start planning out an On30 layout and I have learned a lot of techniques from your videos that I have already used on my 1940's era Appalachian N scale layout! I like your wood trestle style and method a lot and I used your Calico Creek bridge as a baseline for the trestle on my layout. Obviously it is much smaller since it's N scale but the staining technique and relatively simple build process made the construction of the bridge much easier with all those small parts. I didn't have india ink but RIT fabric dye from Walmart or Target works just as well. I used a bit of the black dye and a bit of the red/scarlet dye mixed with a little distilled water and it worked great. It gave a rich dark brown-ish character to the wood which was perfect for the Appalachian setting of the layout. I've also got a question. I don't consider myself a locomotive scratch builder in any way at all. That being said, what is your recommendation for a ready to run On30 steamer? DCC isn't a huge priority but if it can be converted to DCC that would be a plus. Thanks again and keep up the fantastic work! Cheers from Cleveland, DG

[@SpookyMcGhee]

PS: I saw you already did a video on this but I gotta say the Verde Canyon RR trip is a great one, did it almost exactly a year ago and loved every minute of it :)

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thanks so much. A good starting point for On30 is the Bachmann 2-6-0. They are still widely available and can be found in both DC and DCC versions. They run well on a minimum radius down to 18”.

[@robertalford69]

Once again, very nice! At the end you have a miner and ore cart shown. Where are they from? Thanks Dave.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

The miners are Rail King figures and the rotary dump car is from Grandt Line. I’ll be talking about all of that in a future episode.

[@humphrey_bear_MDC]

More special effects in the future?

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Always!

[@AppalachiaRRlover]

this is cool One of these days i wanna make a 4 x 8 HO layout that is of The Duckburg and Toontown RR( my attempt to honor my love of disney) Im either gonna set it in the 30s/40s or 80/90s divide it in two one side Duckburg the other Toontown and with the advent of 3d printing make the anthropomorphic animal characters I have even done a few paintings of scenes along h DT RR I would also make some Carollwood and Pacific Cars and Thunder mountain RR cars but as of right now I am focused solely on My Tennessee River Union RR.

[@roybouvier5021]

Hi Dave, did you ever release a Part 3 Big Thunder Mine?

[@K27fan]

Another great build and video. One question: at around the 52:30 mark, the small shack that is in the foreground... can you tell me which shingles you used for the roof? They look great. Thanks.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thank you. Those are shingles from Wild West Scale Models.

[@mikesigmon3480]

After stomping around some old mine sites in Colorado I have heard that a lot of tailings were harmful to your health. Does anyone know if this is true

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

The mill tailings can be dangerous. Cyanide was often used to separate valuable ore from the rock.

[@thomasfrench2012]

In addition to the cyanide, the main silver belt in Colorado also contained a lot of lead. While useful in its own right, it wasn't as valuable as silver, so there is probably a lot of lead in the tailings. And there are very good reasons we don't use lead in our paint and gasoline anymore.