Good Afternoon everyone, I want to know if anyone has any ideas regarding concealing IR Sensors mounted above track level and also any ideas regarding concealing a tunnel entrance besides tunnel portals. I thought about installing a coal mine at the mountain entrance but it will not look realistic to me if a merchandise train progresses through the coal mine. The way my track on my layout is set up I have to make my own customized portals and I am trying to avoid this if at all possible. As for the IR sensors, I could not mount this pair under the layout as the track runs on the edge and I had to put them above track in this one spot for my block signals. Thanks.
I have hidden track. One end is a tunnel portal, this is the other end. tried to hide it with trees, a bridge, and other scenery. Trying to get the look of the train going into and out of a valley, along a creek
You might be able to also use mirrors, along with scenery.
Mike.
I have cut over to all IR beam break and IR reflected beam detection on my layout. I pretty much went with my imagination on hiding the IR emitters and detectors. Here is one of my early detectors, it’s been in service for about 5 years working without any problems.
The trees are WS tree armatures, after the foliage is glued to the limbs and the trunk and emitter are painted you have to look very hard to see them.
It’s best to angle the beam across the track to prevent the beam from seeing between the cars.
While I do have a tunnel on my layout, both portals are visible…
However, I also have five staging yards to enhance operations, and for the most part, the access to them is not readily visible.
In the photo below, the curving track, at left, and behind the billboards…
…eventually leads through an opening in the backdrop and into a pair of industrial staging tracks and portion of track which allows continuous running on my otherwise point-to-point railroad - useful if visitors just want to see some trains running…
Likewise, the upper tracks shown in photo 3 also pass between large structures…
…which, along with the overhead walkways, obscures the opening through which the tracks pass in order to gain access to another staging yard. That opening is hidden, unless the structures are removed…
Here’s a view of those tracks behind the backdrop…
I bought one Woodland Scenics cut stone cast Hydrocal portal. It was much too thick and large for my applications, so I made a latex mold and was then able to cast my own portals, a lot thinner and more manageable. I even used one pair for a low arched road bridge over a pond.
I built a bridge to cover up the hole in the back drop and sized the bridge supports to be roughly where the verticals cuts are in the backdrop. Unless you are staring directly into it, its hard to tell there is a hole in the backdrop.
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