Well it's been a bit quiet round here, so I thought i'd post a few more pics of Rock Springs, seens as we are out at a show this weekend. If anyone is in the Woking area then feel free to drop in on us! Anyhow, on to the pics... Here's the portal of Tunnel 5 with an SP GP40M-2 rolling out with a train. The loco is an Atlas GP40 with some detail modifications to more closely represent the prototypes. At the other end of the layout, a BNSF train crosses the dry wash, hope that railfan doesn't get a ticket for stopping like that! [ 12. September 2002, 17:56: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Looking good Martyn! I love the bridge scene the transition from hard road to bridge bottom is very realistic! As for the dry patch, to bad thats not a SP Cab Forwards !
Thanks for the comments John, here's another pic, a Kodachrome SD40-2 pops out of the other end of the tunnel we saw earlier. Here's a shot which shows what the boards look like, and the racks that the boards stack up in for transportation and storage. This pic has "stepped back" from the previous shot. The white panel on the board in the rack is a switching control panel on the outside of the layout, we tend to have one person operating from the public side of the layout as it lets the public ask questions easily. The mainline crews like not having the switching operator under their feet as well!
Interesting! I like the way the sections "snap" together as a figure of speach.. Thats a different approach to a layout as its like"Ntrack" kinda! The way you run the controls is also interesting! Buy, in my area its kind hard to have the control on the "public side" from alot of kids etc, so.... We have to limit the amount at times being Mike (6206_S1a) had some trouble with one so we kinda limited kids for awhile.... But It only takes one rowdy kid to ruin a $1,000 train so... We kinda cooled off on the kids behind the board for now.... So, their excitement doesn't cuse Mike or I any headaches being the one kid had done some damage to his Rivarossi Allegheny so... But its ok for older more settled folk to come behind the layout, which isn't a problem, even Johnny Trains when he was around the 26th of July was half afraid to pick up my famed custom built EM-1! And I told to go on... I wish the kids were like that! But, I'll bever forget JT's words when he lined up my EM-1 and one of the 2 EL-5's I had at the club when he was in the area! HA! "These 2 end to end are as long as my layout at home!" Hes got a small switching layout! So, thats normal for the size, just me an my love for Articulateds, I have got to have a real long run, being I LOVE big steamers, and long trains draging behind them!
Very nice Martyn. I really want to see this layout, but Woking is a bit far. (In fact I used to live there - actually spent most of my life in that area until moving to Cheshire 16 years ago.) When are you next bringing Rock Springs north of Watford? (or maybe north of Gloucester would be more appropriate as you would be coming from Exeter .)
Unfortunately the outlook is kinda quiet at the moment. We have a lot of "maybe's" out there (at least one is in your neck-o-the-woods) but the next firm date is the NMRA spring meet in Ulverston (2004). But I guess that might be a bit further north than you intended! I'll keep you posted, and I try & get the website updated as soon as we have a new show. We'll have a couple of open house type things if nothing else...gives us a good chance for a play! John, in the UK most shows have a fence line that the public stays behind, usually only a foot or so back, but far enough to make it difficult for little fingers to do too much damage. We can switch out that panel as well so if nobody is there then someone pushing the buttons doesn't do anything nasty! We do different era's at shows as well, at Derby earlier this year we were in 1950's mode, and we had big steam (challengers, big boys, 4-8-2's etc) running along with older diesel power. Unfortunately I'm short on photo's for those era's. I'll try & dig up a couple for you though. [ 15. September 2002, 08:06: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Martyn, I'll be looking forwards on seeing the steam ear pictures! especially the articulateds and large rigid frame steamers! As for the rope around the layouts at the historical society, it wouldn't be possble to do this! The room is a freight room of an old Western Maryland railroad passenger/freight station located dirrectly across the street from me! And the freight room is where all the layouts are. 3 HUGE layouts, including, HO, O, and G scale. I designed and run the HO layout with the help from "6206_S1a" Mike K. He deservessome credit for his efforts on saving my behind so to speak, I was preforming a show, and thankfull Mike was their, being my trains just did not want to cooperate with me or preform! Where his did and done a fine job! As for the saving me behind, and being to all shows for the past year an a half, he deserves alot of credit when I had to run both O and G scale layouts he ran the HO layout alone, with swaping power in and out between his and I loco's and cars. But being these 3 layout are as big as they are, it would be hard to put rope around then a foot away from top surface being the isles are narrow to 4 foot as it is.... So, We made their controls behind, in the back so to speak. But for now, they're runable, but these layouts are still in the "contruction" phase so.... And being a non profit org, it takes time to get the needed money to do the work. Even so, I've donated a ton of dirrent things to the Historical Society to get the layouts up and running. So I could have "My Fun" so to speak and run trains!
John, those layouts sound great, hope I can get across & visit them some time. I see what you mean about not having a barrier line if your aisles are only 4', we wouldn't be allowed to do that in a UK show (usually in a sports hall or similar) because of fire regulations, I guess they are treated differently when the layouts are fixed into the building & not temporary, and with how many people usually visit at once.
Oh yeah, the show! I went up on the Saturday only (a politically bad move to spend the entire weekend away two weeks after getting married! ) and it was lookin' good. We were in modern mode this weekend, with a couple of Amtrak's (one long, one short) a handful of intermodals, some manifests etc. A freshly weathered SP rock/ballast train made it's appearance too. Loco-wise we had a selection of 90MAC's, one RPP based UP one, plus a UP and CP Kato version teamed up with an Atlas "9-11-01" B40-8. From Athearn a UP "Flag" SD70M debuted (and looked absolutely excellent!) plus a RTR "desert storm" SD40-2 was paired with UP and CNW painted classmates. Atlas B32-8's in two schemes plus Athearn AMD103's and F59's and a filthy Walthers F40 handled the Amtrak's between them (creating some very interesting power consists! ) Of the loco's i've shown in pictures here only the GP40M-2 at the top attended, but a friend of mine was taking lots of pics so i'll see if I can get some from him! All the best. [ 16. September 2002, 14:21: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Martyn, Yeah the layouts are stationary. Thing is, as I remeber it from thinking about it, the widest isle is 5 foot 2 inch from one layout skirt, to the other layout skirt.... Which still isn't to awfull wide and all. The displays will evenually have a 18 to 20 inch high piece of sturdy plexiglass to "protect" whats on the inside of it. But, won't have it all the way around. just on the "public facing" sides, where back at the controls it will be open for the opperators...And for "train swaping" to be done etc... Once this shield goes up. Then its High ball ya'll We won' have to worry so much about little fingers, getting to the cars or the loco's so... Which won't require all that attention to keep an eye out as much as we have been.... The G scale layout is pretty well safe tho, The lowest track is a good 12 inches from the edge so... And the highest I can bearly reach standing on a foot stool from the outside "public" side of the layout, being this layout was made as a circle. All 4 sides are public, with a duck under, to get in the middle of to its controls....So That one is safe without the plexiglass.... But the HO and O scale layouts aren't and need some type of protection. To prevent anything tragic from happening....
Hi John, here's a couple of 1950's era images from our open house a few months back...I may have posted these before BTW, sorry! Here's a Santa Fe passenger service calling at the depot: An SP mountain arrives at the depot on a passenger train, a freight is held on track 2 behind a Rock Island 2-8-0. The 2-8-0 is a Bachmann one, whilst the Mountain is brass. The depot from the other side, with an REA van awaiting the next train. The depot is an AMB laserkit & the van is a Classic Metal Works one.
Martyn, Thats a good looking set of.... DL-109's (I think thats what those diesels are) on the passenger consist! The steamers are the sight tho! Nice work! I have yet to get the Spectrum 2-8-0 so. But mine will be the B&O, and Western Maryland... I did get the Spectrum WM 2-10-0 Decapod tho! I just have to get the 2-8-0 now! Then I'll have some good running rigid frame WM steamers to run with my WM 4-6-6-4 Challenger! But anything steam to me is worth looking at! Even the older first generation diesels.... [ 17. September 2002, 09:34: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Here's a couple of pics taken by Chris Ibbotson, he brought along an Amtrak set to run, and here it is crossing the river, and pulling out of the staging yard in the second picture. Unfortunately the lights in the hall have made these somewhat yellow, which I haven't been able to completely correct **quick update, thank you to Paul Davis for doing a little colour correction on those pics, a good deal less yellow now!** And Chris also had a photo of that loco consist on the Coast Starlight! Just in case someone was thinking it was kind of unlikely! [ 19. September 2002, 20:56: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Nice! I like the bridge scene. Thats a nicely detailed bridge.... As for the train. What Amtrak loco is the wide nose???? Thats a decent looking loco!
The lead loco is a GE P32-8 in what's known as the "pepsi can" paintscheme. These were built in 1991 and as far as I can tell, used on western long distance trains, more recently they have been used on Chicago and California shorter distance runs, replaced by Genesis loco's and allowing them to retire more F40's. This website has a bunch of prototype pics Amtrak Photo Archive P32 Pepsi can They've since been painted into Ph4, and a couple are now painted for Amtrak California (we had an Amtrak California one running at the show too! ) Amtrak Photo Archive P32 Phase 4 Amtrak Photo Archive P32 California Oh, the Santa Fe units were P2K E6's, but I do seem to have found an angle where they look somewhat similar to a DL109 in that photo! [ 20. September 2002, 10:58: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Martyn, I like the "Pepsi Can" look on that, P-32-8! But I'm more on the old passenger consists like the E-6 Santa Fe you have posted! I'm working on a B&O E-8, A-B-B-A set to high ball a 22 car heavy weight consist, of Celestory roof cars! Can't wait to get this one done! Will be a sharp looking set... to haul my Varnish!
