Friday I made up a couple dozen trees to finally fill the gap on the ridge line. I'm hoping to add a few more later this weekend. Also I need to finish cleaning track and locomotive wheels prior to the Mesquite Club meeting this Thursday. Here is a pic of the ridge line after planting yesterday afternoon. It will take about 100 more trees just to finish that portion of the ridge line.
Thanks Spidge. I had a chance to make up another 18 trees Saturday afternoon before running out of foam. So this morning I planted those. Here are some grab shots of the progress. For some reason the pics look darker than when I processed them. The east edge of the ridge line. Here is the east end from a different angle. This last one is looking from the west edge of the tree line. The distance along the ridge line that's planted so far is about 12 ft. Since I am out of foam I guess I will start on some engine maintenance in preparation for the club meeting Thursday night. All the visible trackage is clean and ready so it won't be long before trains will be rolling again. Maybe I can learn to take a decent picture between now and then.
Absolutely beautiful. Please keep the updates coming. Larry http://s527.photobucket.com/albums/cc354/ClinchValley/ [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpOCUTrjyo4"]YouTube - Detroit Edison by Carbo[/ame]
Enough of this working on the railroad. Its time to have some fun and operate this thing. The maintenance window has been lifted and trains are running again. First up is an eastbound pig nearing Ozark. Right behind him is a eastbound Spadra turn. Later as evening approaches, a westbound rolls by. I'm feeling better already.
Nothing more done on the layout. I am cleaning the train room and making sure everything operates as it should for the Mesquite RR club meeting that I am hosting Thursday night. I'm expecting around 15 to 20 folks to show up so it ought to be a great time. One of the members is bringing me some more WS foam I ordered so maybe I can resume making trees this weekend. I just got a call from my son and it appears I might be going over to his house Friday to attend the first Cowboy game in their new stadium (also known as JerryWorld in this part of the country). The party starts around 1:00 in the afternoon then we will go to the stadium and tailgate for a couple of hours before the game so I'm sure we'll have a good time.
Well a dozen folks showed up Thursday night for the club meeting. We ran trains till about 10:30 and a good time was had by all. I don't remember even one minor derailment during the evening so that was a bonus. Friday I did go see the Cowboys play their first game in the new stadium. It is a good thing Jerry installed that giant TV for the fans to view because from our seats, I couldn't read the numbers on the players jersey. At least they won this game. Saturday was spent recovering from the all day party Friday. Sunday I received a call from my "boss" at the Northpark Train display. He had come to the club meeting Thursday and said he had something to drop off later that afternoon. My guess is he lamented the lack of passenger trains on my layout (passenger service on the Van Buren sub was gone before 1975) so he decided to contribute a couple of cool looking MOP cars. One is a coach and the other is a cafe/lounge car. He said he has a baggage and observation on order so I can have a nice executive train to run. Here are the first two cars running in their own OCS. and from a different angle This will be a cool special train to run during op sessions. All in all it was a neat weekend. Now with some more foam, maybe I can get around to making some more trees this week.
It's very interesting to look at this thread and see your growing layout. I like it, to the the progress from bare plywood to finished scenery. Do you have a track plan? I didn't found one. Wolfgang
Wolfgang, the "trackplan" is nothing more than doodling on a sketch pad. I have built enough layouts over the years to know what will fit so I didn't waste time drawing out a "scale" plan. The layout is a walk-in design, no duck unders, no reverse loops, manual ground throws on all turnouts and anything else that will make maintenance easier. At some point I need to put something together in the way of a plan for the benefit of the folks here on TB.
This past weekend I made and planted 75 additional trees to make the ridge line "forest" a little thicker and still need more to get the final effect I want. However, I have run out of Nandina armatures. The good news is that it looks like I will have a wonderful "crop" this fall. I took a few pics and will try to upload them this weekend. Have a great Labor Day weekend.
Here are a couple of progress pics from this past week. This is a normal view shot And an overhead view Since I'm out of Nandina armatures I guess I'll have to settle on just running trains for now.
Thanks Jerry. I love the work you are doing on your Santa Fe line. Maybe next time (if there is one) I/we might think about doing a desert layout so we don't have to build so darn many trees LOL.
Well it's been a while since posting. I haven't done a lot of work on the railroad but I have been enjoying running the railroad. This railroad was built to operate, not just run trains for the hell of it. So today I'm going to take you on a little trip aboard the Spadra Turn. You will see areas of the layout that range from basic scenery to bare benchwork (ah the abyss) so let's get on board. With a single GP35 as our power, the local departs the yard in Van Buren with 9 cars. 1 gon for Davis Salvage in Alma, 5 cars for Ozark and 3 cars for Spadra. At the east end of Van Buren, we see the tail end passing the Farmland elevator. In Alma we cut off the mty gon and switch Davis Salvage. After putting our train back together we head east toward Spadra. Here we are entering the cut just west of Ozark along the Arkansas river.
After passing through Ozark (we will switch Ozark on the way back to Van Buren) and Clarksville Jct. (more on that later) we arrive over the abyss in Spadra. We pull into the main, cut off our engine and run around the train to get the cars for the team track. We pull the last three cars on the train (2 boxcars loaded with bricks and a flat with a couple of dozers). Leaving the caboose on the main, the local shoves our cars down the siding to the team track where we will pick up 2 mty boxcars. We set the mtys on the siding and spot the loads on the team track. The engine then couples the mtys and runs back around the train, picks up the cab and shoves back into the siding.
We pick up the remaining cars on the main and shove down the siding to get the rest of our train. After the air test we depart Spadra. On the way to Ozark, we pass Clarksville Jct. This is where the branch to Clarksville leaves the main. There will be a small yard at this location that serves a cement plant and a co-op. The sections of flex track are laid out just to see what will fit. The actual track work will be handlaid C70 and C55. When Clarksville is built, there will be a feed mill, poultry processing plant, and lumber mill to switch. Tell me this local on the branch won't have a lot of work to do. A few minutes later we arrive in Ozark. The local breaks its train and switches the plastic pellet hoppers on the team track.
