Life has grabbed me by the horns a bit, and slowed me down. I've spent most of my free time recently converting a guest room to a nursery. But I'm still in it. I found time to order some scale lumber packs from Black Bear Construction and build a bridge. I have some of their bridge jigs from my N scale days for truss and trestle bridges, so it was a cheap option for me. Also, N scale bridges look just about right for HOn30 bridges. It also allows me to build something perfectly sized for the gap. I'm starting to glue down track. I hope to have a working mainline soon. Under construction but making sure it fits the space. I was able to build the truss bridge with a very thin bridge deck to increase the clearance with the trains below. Finished bridge Finished bridge and starting to place track I also picked up one of these with sound. Right now this is my only 9mm gauge layout so it will also have to run some N scale from time to time.
I like mine just fine but it is a tea kettle. If you have any of the other Minitrains engines, it has about the same pulling power as the Forney. It can really only pull one of the passenger cars up the 4% grade, almost 2. The forney is a bit worse as not all of its weight is over the drivers. Other than that, it runs just as smooth as any of their other offerings. The screw in the centre of the smoke stack it painfully obvious from above as the whole thing is painted silver, and just needs a quick application of black to hide it. Weights: 0-6-0T: 40.45 grams Forney: 38.86 grams F&C 0-4-0: 50.77 (71.58 with tender) Gmeinder Diesel: 44.24 grams My Gmeinder Diesel is physically the smallest, but is so well weighted over the driver that it pull the most of the bunch.
Got my mainline track installed and wired. I'm finally able to run trains! I just need to finish the sidings but I'm short a few insulated rail joiners. All track sections between turnouts have their own power feed wires soldered on. All the siding will also have their own power feeds. I am not relying on the turnouts to route power. I have made that mistake before. The bridge also was painted prior to gluing down all the track. For the bridge track, I used ties from a piece of Peco HOn30 mainline track, and cut out all the spacers to give the look or tightly spaced sleepers. Trains are running! Matt
These threads are fun to follow. What really is good about them are the different approaches taken and sharing of the trial-and-error learning. With the photos and video, one can imagine the smell of sawdust, paint, and glue.
I finished getting the rest of the track glued down and the wiring done. Everything is working perfectly so far. I had a lot of left over 22 gauge stranded green wire as Radio Shack sells it in a 3 pack of red, black and green, and I just never use the green.. So for this layout I used green for positive and ordered in a spool or black wire. I just ran the wire though zip tie mounts to affix it, but didn't use any zip ties. There are a total of 11 power feeds through the layout. Kind of necessary with the Peco turnouts. I use 2.1x5.5mm power connectors for all of my DC power, so that I can easily plug my power packs into any of my layouts. I left extra wire at each end. At some point I might add a DCC system underneath. Now its time to move onto scenery, and structures. The wiring underneath: Track Finished Locations of Power Feeds (Shown in Red): Additional Materials & Cost Black Bear Construction N Scale Truss Bridge Materials Pack $7.75 Black Bear Construction N Scale ASM Trestle Materials Pack $12.36 7 x Peco SL-E492 HOe Left Hand Turnout $111.79 10 x Peco SL-400 HOe Flex Track $53.80 Peco SL-404 HOe Mainline Flex Track (Used for Bridge Flex) $7.47 2 x Peco SL-310 N Scale Rail Joiners $6.10 2 x Peco SL-311 N Scale Insulated Rail Joiners $6.70 100' Black 22Guage Stranded Wire $11.94 Replacement Soldering Tip $9.99 Zip Tie Anchors, 100 pk $5.58 Heat Shrink Set $6.00 Lead Free Solder $4.50 Female 2.1x5.5mm power plug connectors, 5 pk $4.79 Sub Total: $248.72 Total Spent So Far: $552.20 (This total does not include CA state/use taxes (8.75%) or shipping costs) Matt
Where was the Yosemite Short Line? The exact route of Yosemite Short Line (YSL) isn't well known. There are several maps that show its supposed route, but even these are inconsistent. Also, half of the completed track lays at the bottom of Don Pedro Reservoir which makes tracing its route difficult from satellite images. The biggest unknown is what side Woods Creek canyon were the tracks on. Before the tracks submerge below the surface of Don Pedro Reservoir, they are on the east (north east) side of the Canyon. Here is a map showing where these local creeks are which will be important in the following the discussion. North is Up. Various maps from various books are shown below. (All Copyrighted Material. Only small sections are shown for discussion as allowed under fair use rules) Al Rose Map (Deane) showing the route cross to the west side of canyon above Jacksonville. Mallory Hope Ferrell (NGSLG) showing the route on the east side of Woods Creek Sierra Railroad Promotional Map, (French) showing the route on the east side of Woods Creek Donald C. DeVere Map (Gutohtrlein) showing the route on the east side of Woods Creek Jacksonville Map (Paden) showing a 1906 Sierra Railway Tuolumne River Bridge on the west side of Woods Creek. Obviously these maps contradict each other. Luckily there is some textual evidence as to where the YSL tracks really were. Deane states “Grading work proceeded smoothly down the west bank of Woods Creek towards the Tuolumne River” and that Trestles were “built across Woods and Sullivans creeks”. As there was a Woods Creek trestle, than the tracks had to cross to the west side of the Canyon at some point. Francis found this tidbit in a Sonora news paper: “The fourth and successful survey for the Yosemite Valley Railway past the Shawmut mine has been made. The depot will be in front of the chlorination plant at that mine. The new route brings the track between the chlorination works and the creek.” The Eagle Shawmut mine was a huge gold mine in the area north of Jacksonville on Woods Creek. The Mine and shafts were at the top of the Canyon and a 100 stamp mill was build along Woods Creek on the east bank. Concentrates from the stamp mill were sent to the chlorination works on the west side of the creek by an elevated tramway for further extraction and purification. I found two images of the Chlorination works in 1903 and 1909 in some Google books on mining. I believe the 1909 photo shows grading between the Chlorination works and the Creek that isn't present in the 1903 photos. This may be the best evidence I can come up with for the tracks being on the west bank, but the quality of the photos leaves much to be desired. 1903: 1909: For Christmas I got a copy of “Hetch Hetchy Railroad” by Ted Wurm which had not only a fairy accurate map by R.R. Mugele of the YSL that showed the tracks crossing to the west side of Woods Creek above Shawmut, but also the full survey of the YSL all the way to the Yosemite Park boarder at Carlon. With the Mugele Map, a great deal of historic topo maps, and Satalite images from Google Earth, I believe I have come up with an accurate map of where the YSL railroad was, and where it would have been built if it would have been completed. Sierra Railroad is Pink Hetch Hetchy Railroad is Blue Constructed YSL is Red Proposed or Surveyed YSL is Orange West Side Lumber Co. is Yellow Pickering is Green Empire City Railway is Light Blue. Here is a link to the map set. You should be able to download it as a .KML file to open it in Google Earth. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1V5UD6vNkO6KUMfT94udkLKvMobA&hl=en&usp=sharing Sources: Dorothy Newell Deane, Sierra Railway, (Berkeley, Howell-North, 1960) Mallory Hope Ferrell, Along the Narrow Gauge, Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette, Vol. 32, No. 5, Nov.- Dec. 2006 Mark Steven Francis,Yosemite Short Line Railroad Company. A Fresh Look, PacificNG.org Gerald French, When Stram Was King, (Eureka Publishing LLC, Petalum CA, 2006) Adolf Gutohrlein (AKA Hungry Wolf), Rails in the Mother Lode, (Kratville Publications, Omaha NE, 1969) Irene D. Paden and Margaret E. Schlichtmann, Big Oak Flat Road, http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/big_oak_flat_road/jacksonville.html Ted Wurm Hetch Hetchy Railroad, (Stauffer Publishing, Fish Camp CA, 2000) Mining Magazine: An International Monthly Review of Current Progress in Mining and Metallurgy, Volume 7 W.J. Johnston, 1903, Google Books Tuolumne County, California: Being a Frank, Fair and Accurate Exposition, Pictorially and Otherwise, of the Resources and Possibilities of this Magnificent Section of California, J.A. Van Harlingen & Company, 1909, Google Books USGS Historic Topo Maps from http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/TopoView/ Matt
By chance have you seen John Barnhill's "Foothill Rails" web site? Maybe there is something helpful there? http://www.trainweb.org/foothill/
John's site is mostly for the Northern Mother Lode lines. He has the roster for the YSL but the furthest south he has journey is the Sierra RR Angels branch. It's my google map of that line that he is showing on that page. I hiked down there in November when the water was the lowest and on the west side there was a long grade between the creek and foundation of the cholorination works. Unfortunately the action of the waves, sediment and 50 years mining have taken its tole. Upstream from the mine on the west side there is nothing but tailings and south of the cholorination works the hill gave way the the cut disappears. I can't be sure if this is the YSL or just a road built on the tailings. Matt
Curn, Love your work on the other small layouts. Just saw your HOn30 Youtube video and had to find out if there was a build thread. I'm sure this one will turn out great as well. If you have the Marsh Creek cars I'm sure you've seen his trucks and other items on Shapeways. Rich has also made a 3D model of the YSL coach! I have made the Toma conversion to the F&C loco as well, even turned a F&C into a Forney. Keep posting the progress!
Thanks Chris, love the work you have been doing over on the Wire and associated videos. Your HOn30 layout(s) are much more substantial than mine, and are an inspiration. You work at a much faster pace than I can, and could probably finish what I have done in a week. I saw your Forney. Beautiful paint job!
I have some of his trucks coming. Supposedly will be here in a couple of days. As I have been using Grandt Line, this will be an interesting change.
Wish I would have kept the smaller HOn30 layout I started with. Will probably downgrade size wise. More chance of progress that way.
