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Aristo-Craft Tunnel Portal
May 14, 2003
By Jon C.A. DeKeles |
Author
Bio
Tunnels are always a great addition to a Garden Railroad. Aristo-Craft has a new foam tunnel portal that makes finishing your tunnel a snap.
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Click for larger picture Tunnels are always a great addition to a Garden Railroad. There are many different ways to create them. Watch for some upcoming articles on just how to do that here at LSOL. Aristo-Craft has a new foam tunnel portal that makes finishing your tunnel a snap. It is made out of a dense foam material that is about one inch thick. It has a detailed carving of rock in the face and the back is completely flat. The foam is strong, but could break if bent or crushed if stepped on. Here are the dimensions:
Overall Height: 14 7/8"
Overall Width: 14"
Portal Width Bottom: 7 7/16"
Portal Width Top: 7"
Portal Height: 8 1/2" 
Click for larger picture Here is a picture of John Damkier's final portal placement in action. If you have an Aristo-Craft Portal on your layout take a picture of it and send it to us here at LSOL.com. Aristo-Craft created this new product by selecting pictures of actual tunnel portals. These photos were given to an artist that drew an illustration of the tunnel portal. After it was approved a carved scale model of the tunnel portal was created. Once the scale model was approved, a mold was created, samples were made and approved. 
Click for larger picture I wanted to see what was inside the foam portal, so I cut a section out on the back of mine. (This way you do not have to.) The foam is grey and there appears to be a 1/16" crust on the outside of the portal. The portal is painted a dark grey with light grey highlights. The paint has a UV additive that will protect the portal for outdoor use.
The clearance of the portal opening worked for our Aristo Craft box cars with 1 1/16" clearance on the side and 1 3/4" clearance on the top. Our SD-45 had 1 1/2" clearance on the side and 1 3/16" on the top. Our Bachmann 1:20.3 engine had less than 1" clearance on the sides and on the top. You will have to raise the portals up to allow some larger rolling stock like USA Trains Intermodel Corrugated Containers that are stacked. Click any picture for larger image
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