In the proud tradition of Allen McClelland, Tony Koester, David Barrow, John Cater and others, I've started to rebuild my N scale layout from its simple oval design to a folded dogbone. The "footprint" will take up part of a 5 foot by 9 1/2 foot space along two walls of our bedroom, and is encouraged by the local Bureau of Land Management agent (read: the wife). I'll still be using foam in the construction, and I'll also get the possibility for semi-hidden staging and a longer run for my freights. With the layout change comes a change in the railroad, name and all. Gone is the Oklahoma & North Eastern concept; in its place is the Paris & Mt. Pleasant RR, a "what-if" based on the real P&MtP that ran between Paris and Mt. Pleasant, TX from 1912-1956. In this incarnation I'll be adding more traffic, as well as a branch from Deport, TX to Valliant, OK, along most of the right-of-way of the former Oklahoma, Red River & Texas. Interchange will be with Kiamichi at Paris and Valliant, TO&E at Valliant, and UP at Mt. Pleasant. And, since we're kinda traditionalist on the Pa & Ma, we'll run cabooses on the train as God intended Y'all watch for more details as they come out, hear? (this is what I get for having in-laws from Oklahoma & Texas )
Sounds good to me Bob-like hearing some of those Texas names i recognize like Paris. I too have become a "dogboner". Hard to beat the idea of continous running-one end is in my bedroom which i can watch from bed, the other end is in my living room i can watch from my favorite chair. I have a two track mainline i wanted to avoid using return loops on, thus my foray into the bone mode. It gives me a nice long streach of four track mainline as well. I model a state above you-Arizona- in freelance as well. Need any copper ore down there? Enjoy the expansion! Curt
Depending on when you model Arizona, you can haul just about any ore imaginable! And timber! Livestock, Cotton, Agriculture, manufacturing, just about everything is here somewhere, or going on a trip from California to The East through Arizona. Say, whereabouts is Vernon? I sort of forgot(and here I am, a 20 year Arizona native!)
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by rmathos: Sounds good to me Bob-like hearing some of those Texas names i recognize like Paris. I too have become a "dogboner". Hard to beat the idea of continous running-one end is in my bedroom which i can watch from bed, the other end is in my living room i can watch from my favorite chair. I have a two track mainline i wanted to avoid using return loops on, thus my foray into the bone mode. It gives me a nice long streach of four track mainline as well. I model a state above you-Arizona- in freelance as well. Need any copper ore down there? Enjoy the expansion! Curt<hr></blockquote> Refined copper, perhaps...I'll have to consult the Traffic Manager. Traffic on the P&MtP will be lumber, crushed stone, sand, lignite, cement, paper, lumber, feed, asphaltic oil (the really thick stuff from around Talco, TX), among other things. As soon as I work up a scenario, it goes on my Web site. I lived in Paris for 10 years, and had plenty of time to research the area. Now that I'm in Colorado, I'm grateful for the data, and can put it to work.
Well Benny, Vernon is a fir piece from Tucson. We're up in the NE corner near Showlow and Pinetop, about 30 or 40 miles from the New Mexico border at just under 7000'. You know Bob, us freelancers need to stick together if we're going to keep from getting sucked in by the big guys. We have lots of timber up here to harvest-we hang tree huggers [got a couple hanging from a tree outside my big timber camp] or send them back to california. We also have Pearlite mines, coal, cotton and cattle [which of course you Texas folks also have aplenty] as well as the copper we are famous for. Maybe us freelancers could work out some shipping back and forth-heck, we've talked about building an oil refinery here if we had a good source of crude. What do you think guys? Curt
My mom lives in Eager/Springerville. Closest sources of crude might be the NewMexico Colorado corner, and mybe the california connection, as well as the Texas Connection. I don't remember any places in Arizona, though...
AAAAAHHHHHhhhhhhh Bob! Welcome to my world! Sounds like a great plan, and a great move. Good luck and do keep us updated! John
The Finance Department of the Paris & Mt. Pleasant RR has submitted an order for the purchase of two GP38s at $300,000 apiece (well, actually 49 bucks apiece). The new locomotives are being delivered as undecorated units, and will be painted in Frisco colors. This leaves a GP7, 2 GP20s and an RSD4 as P&MtP power. [ 25 November 2001: Message edited by: friscobob ]</p>
Sounds Great!! The motive power on the SFSW is so old that it has wooden wheels!! Seriously, it would be nice to get hold of new equipment, but I need to rebuild the railroad first!! John
