Construction Update #10 - From Bridge 45A to Trout Lake

 

Bridge 45A

Getting Bridge 45A to fit turned out to be quite a challenge.  I knew at some point in time things would turn out to be a bit difficult when it came to transferring the 1st District plan into reality.  In the case of Bridge 45A, the vertical supports for the scenic divider and valence, that run down the center of the peninsula, are to close to the bridge location.  I gained a few inches by shifting the Ophir module but each additional inch between the offending supports took a way aisle space on the opposite side.  Options include moving the supports which may be possible or eliminating the valance which is probably the best option. The south end of the bridge, along with the turnout that leads to the spur behind the depot, should really be on a curve. Unfortunately I couldn't make that work given my space constraints.  I still need to build the bench work that will support the bridge module.

Ophir

 

At Ophir, construction changes form conventional L-Girder back to removable modules.  The Ophir module is the largest on the layout measuring 4x6 feet.  The track is resting on three and a half inches pink foam.

Looking South

Looking North

There should be enough room to include most of the significant structures to include the house at the end of the trestle, Mrs Skillens, The Oilton Club, the "correct" depot, the tram terminal and the general store.

 

South of the Ophir Loop is the Ophir siding.  It is the shortest siding on the layout; about six feet long.  At one time ore was packed or trucked down to the siding and loaded into box cars.  Mining and general supplies were probably unloaded here too.  In order to add more operating interest, this is how I plan to use the siding.

One feature I had to eliminate from the plan was a good representation of the "High Line" south of Ophir.  My version of the "High Line" will be a couple of short trestles on the 180 degree curve on the end of the peninsula.  

 

Matterhorn

Matterhorn was added to the plan with the last revision.  The San Bernardo Mill (Matterhorn Mill) was located on a spur at Matterhorn along with a RGS section house, bunkhouse and tool shed.  There was never a depot.  The mill is still standing and there are ongoing efforts to stabilize and preserve it including a recent grant from the EPA.  The mill was rebuilt several times and operated sporadically until 1968 with it's most productive year being 1926.

Looking North

In order to include the mill, I had to move the mill spur from the west side of the mainline to the east side (right in this photo).  The Montezuma Lumber Co spur is in the center foreground.    After the Ophir siding turned out to be shorter than I expected, and there was no room to add the siding at Trout Lake, I decided to add a long (Lake Fork Siding) siding between Matterhorn and Trout Lake.

The Lake Fork siding is on the left and Ophir siding is on the right.  The two scenes will eventually be separated by a center divider  The mainline and siding are 59 inches above the floor at this point.  I have kept all the sidings level.

Trout Lake 

 

Looking South

The long siding ends at Trout Lake which will be represented by the shoreline along the right side of the tracks.  The water tank will be tucked into the side of the hill on the inside of the curve.  The grade, from the south end of the siding, up to Lizard Head is 2%.

Looking North

The track here loops around the Lake Trout shore line towards the current "end of track" that is just short of the future Lizard Head Summit duck under. 

Pretty good progress, I think, for 58 days into the project (Construction Start Date - September 3, 2023).

 

As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

Construction Update #9 - Revised Track Plan, Death of the Helix & The Right Of Way moves South

Revised Track Plan

October 10,2023

 

Several changes have been made to the original plan.  The first was the addition of Wilson, between Placerville and Vanadium, which was covered in a previous post.  The second change involved the addition of Mattahorn between Ophir and Lizard Head.  While the change reduced the mileage between Vance Jct and Ophir, it allowed for two additional spurs; the Bernardo Mine spur and the Montezuma Lumber spur.  Both spurs will add operating interest to the layout.

 

The next change involved the track layout at Lizard Head.  The wye was moved to the opposite side (correct side) of the mainline and the stock pens were added to the tail of the wye.  As a result of this change, the Rico staging tracks were moved to a second level shelf above the Placerville wye.

Finally, the Telluride reverse loop/staging (not shown on plan) will now be located beneath Matterhorn.  While the new plan sacrifices a little aisle width at a couple of locations, I think the changes are worth a little congestion at a couple of choke points.

 

The Death of a Mushroom

 October 14, 2023

 

It took 4 days, about 6-8 hours a day, but the "mushroom" is finally gone.  About the only good thing that came out of the removal is an abundance of good material that can be used for building the new bench work.  The bench work on the right, the only part that remains, will be used under Vance Junction.

October 15, 2023

 

New bench work starting to go in.  Most of the cabinets have been moved to their final locations.  About 95% of the old bench work was salvaged and being reused.  Given the cost of materials I'm glad, with the exception of the L-Girders, not much glue was used when building the old bench work. I have purchased about 250 feet of high quality 1x4 to build the new modules.

 

October 22 ,2023

After a week, a lot of progress has been made.  The bench bench work, sub roadbed and cork roadbed is in from Placerville through Wilson, Vanadium and Vance Junction to Bridge 45A.  Beyond Bridge 45A the bench work stands at about 85% complete through Ophir and Trout Lake.  What follows is a recap in pictures of progress to date.

Placerville

 

Placerville is located along the 22' along north wall.  Most of the required structures are temporarily set in place to include a ore dump and several warehouses.  The module with the sub roadbed for the wye is also in place (Not shown).

Looking South

Looking North

Looking south along the San Miguel River between Placerville and Wilson.  The radius here is 36".  The minimum radius on the mainline is 30".  The minimum radius on the Telluride Branch is 26"  All those trees were salvaged off the old layout.

Wilson

 

Wilson takes up about 12' along the east wall.  A siding, section house, speeder shed and water tank will be located at Wilson.  I have not been able to find a picture of Wilson so what you see at Wilson is kind of proto-freelanced.

 

Looking South

 

Looking North

Vanadium

 

Vanadium takes up another 12' along the east wall.  There will be a long spur here for servicing the mill.  Based upon my research, the mill received coal and limestone in gondolas,  tank cars(?), and box cars.  The ore was shipped out in box cars.  The mill here was large so it will have to compressed to fit the space.  

Looking South

Looking North

Right of Way between Vanadium and Vance Jct.

 

There is a 1.5% grade south of Vanadium.  The construction here is conventional L-Girder with risers and plywood sub roadbed.  A section of the old layout lives on in the corner.

 

 

Vance Junction

Vance Jct is laid out on one side of the long peninsula.  I have all of the Banta kits to replicate the section house and various out buildings.  I also have the Cristal River kit for the coal pockets.  The ramp on the far right will lead to the coal pockets

Looking South

 

 Looking North

 

 

Looking North - The Vance Jct Section House, Depot (Old Coach) and the outbuildings will be to the right along the single track between the turnouts.  The layout is set up so the depot will be visible from both sides.  The turnout in lower section of the photo leads to the Telluride Branch (Staging),

 

 

Bridges 44A and 45A

 

Bridge 44A is located along the curve on the end of the long peninsula.  The length will have to be reduced the by about 60% and the height by about 30% to fit my space.  Bridge 45A will have to be reduced in length by about 25% to fit the space; the height will be OK since the bench work has been lowered to accommodate the bridge.  The grade here is 2%.

Looking North.  Bridge 44A will be just to the right out of the photo

 

 

Looking North - The future location of Bridge 45A

 

I've been putting in 8 to 10 hours day on the layout for the last week while Pam was away in Kansas City.  She's just got back so I probably won't have quite as much time during the coming week. But, I plan to get the rest of  the bench work, sub roadbed and cork installed between Bridge 44A and Trout Lake  during the next week or so...  We'll see how it goes!

 

 As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #8 - Looking South, Upper level Demo & Sn3 Items For Sale or Trade

Headed South

October 2, 2023

 

The HO Scale Preston Miller Yard got removed from the east wall of the room today.  It was built on a 3" layer of foam; 1" over 2".  The top layer (1") cane up in pieces due to the fact it was spot glued to the lower level.  It can be salvaged for building scenery.  The lower layer (2") came up with only some minor damage so it will be used as the base for the new modules where it will be covered with a new layer of 1" foam. 

 

Since the railroad will wind along the San Miguel River here with a hillside in the background I plan to leave just a trace of  the existing backdrop peeking through several layers of actual trees. This wall is almost 27' long  and will be divided into two scenes, Wilson and Vanadium.

 

Wilson

 

After laying out Placerville, I decided that there should be another passing track between staging (Ridgeway) and Vance Junction.  Wilson was located at Milepost 32.6, about .4 of a mile north of Vanadium, and had a 27 car long passing siding.  

 

 

Since I couldn't find a photo or track diagram for Wilson anywhere, I decided it was the perfect location for a "what if" structure I happened to have on hand.  After all, if no one can come up with a actual photo of Wilson then who's to say my little section house and box car addition didn't exist.  I scratch built the main structure and the boxcar addition came from a Design Tech kit.  The model is based upon a structure that stood at Pagosa Junction (Gato) on the D&RGW.  It is shown in yellow on the plan.

 

Extending the line to the South

October 5, 2023

Leaving Placerville, the main line curves to the south along the San Miguel River on a 36" radius.  The right-of-way itself will be obscured from the aisle in a deep cut blasted out of the side of the canyon  The view block will help create distance between Placerville and Wilson.

 

Looking South with Wilson in the foreground.  Vanadium will be located beyond the south end of the siding in the distance.  

The view looking north and the south end of the siding.  The siding will hold a locomotive, about 12 cars and a caboose.  There are no grades between Placerville and Wilson.  South of Wilson, the grade between Wilson, through Vanadium to Vance Junction will be 2%.  All but a couple of inches along the top of those southeastern hills will soon be covered with the rugged terrain associated with southwestern Colorado.  What remains will reduced to not much more than a silhouette with flat white spray paint.

 

Removing the Upper Level

September 8, 2023

I've gone about as far as I can on the lower level without removing what's above.  I am starting with the salvage operation.

 

 

After the removal of the structures, the P-B-L flex track is next.  I think about 50% of it can be removed with little or no damage.  In the future, it will only be used for secondary tracks; spurs & staging.  And of the remaining flex that can't be salvaged intact, I can probably save most of the rail.

 

Items For Sale or Trade

 

Since I have decided to concentrate on the RGS, I have several items I would like to sell or trade (RGS).  If you are seriously interested, I can provide additional photographs.  Prices include shipping and insurance.  sdepolo@outlook.com

P-B-L K-28 #476 Foreground Model.  $1295.00 or trade for Foreground K-27 (except #455, 461 or 463).  Would  also consider trade for RGS #41 Foreground Model.  Original box.

Rio Grande Long Caboose ##0503.  Built from kit with removable roof and interior detail.  $175.00 or trade.  SOLD

PFM Pagosa Jct Combine.  Combine has been modified and is equipped with P-B-L Trucks.  Original Box.  $295 for sale or trade. SOLD

 

Locomotive Servicing Complex.  Consists of P-B-L Chama Lube House, AMB Powerhouse and scratch built coal dock. $200 or Best Offer

 

P-B-L Lube House with details

 

Power House

 

P-B-L C-25 equipped with DCC and Tsunami Sound System. Original Box $1295.00 or trade

As always your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #7 - The Placerville Post Office & The Third Residence

 

The Truck Scale

 September 24, 2023

  

 

The Placerville Post Office

September 24, 2023

 

During the period I model, the Placerville post office was located right next door to the Placerville store.  McCarville Studios make a nice kit in S-Scale for the post office but due to its simplicity and my need to reduce the depth of the structure by about 60%, I decided to scratch build the post office and save the $80 cost of the kit.   Here is how it appeared around 1940.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Denver Public Library Digital Collection

 

While the structure itself is pretty simple, the doors and windows were a bit of a challenge.  This view, taken during the 1960's provides a better veiw of the windows. By this time, it looked like the original wood siding was covered by some kind of rolled roofing or siding material.  Note: Since the original post I have been informed by Charles Weston that the walls were covered with wavy bottom asbestos shingles.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                       Bill Plunkett Photo

I've covered how I normally scratch build structures by covering a styrene core with scribed wood so I am not going to repeat the process here.  I will, however, cover how one can modify commercial windows and doors to better represent the prototype.  For the post office, I used Grandt Line 5 panel doors #4003 shown below on the left.  I glued two of the doors together and then cut down two of the single door frames and combined them to make the double doors and frame shown on the right.

For the windows, I used Tichy 2/2 double hung windows #3525.  

 

Cutting them apart and reassembling them was a bit more difficult than the doors.  The dimensions aren't quite right and the vertical mullions are a little oversize. But I my mind these were acceptable compromises (Anything to avoid scratch building a window).

 

And here is the post office ready to go on the layout with its second sign.  The first sign included the zip code and that was a problem for my early 1940's era layout.  Zip codes weren't introduced until July of 1963!  The flag is from Woodland Scenics.  The colors are just a guess.  The only thing I could tell from the 1940's era B&W photos was that the siding was a darker and the trim was a lighter.

The Third Residence

September 27, 2023

 

Note:  Several people have sent me emails to ask how I come up with a suitable model without having a lot of pictures and/or dimensional drawings.  In short, I use photographs, a known dimension such as a door height, and a bit of modelers license.

 

The third residence I want to include in my Placerville scene was located 200 Front Street south of the post office.

                                                                                                                                                                         Denver Public Library Digital Collection

 

Interestingly, this little house is still standing along Front Street in Placerville.  The property, that includes 3 city lots and two small houses sold for $850,000 in February of 2022.   

 

Using the the probable door height, I adjusted the size of the photo in order to measure the major dimensions.  The measurements were then confirmed using the photo shown above and transferred onto the photo.

                                                                                                                                                                          Denver Public Library Digital Collection

 

The most difficult part of building any of these structures is those pesky windows and doors which never seem to match up with a commercial part.  The fact that details change, over time, makes it even more difficult when older photographs are hard to find or don't exist.  Again, I went through my stock of Tichy and Grandt Line windows and came up with three that were reasonably close.  In this case, I just removed a few mullions and decided they were close enough.  The original window is shown to the left of the modified one.  The door is a stock part.

 

After studying the two pictures included here and the street view on Google, I came to the conclusion that the front porch was screened in at one time and totally enclosed with the roof extended when the most recent color photo was taken.  When I blew up the B&W photo I could barely see one window and a door behind the screens.

When it was all said and done, here is what I came up with.  Like all the other structures along the backdrop, it is around 2" deep.

My completed version of the residence at 200 Front Street.  I did use a little modeler's license by adding the picket fence and Elder Tree in the front yard.  The block stone retaining wall out front is more left overs from the Monster Model works Placerville store kit.  The chimney and picket fence are from Rail Scale Models.  The Elder tree is from JTT.  I left off the screened in porch since I had no idea if it was correct for my era.

Originally, I only planned on building 4 structures for Placerville; the depot, two warehouse and the store.  Of course one led to another as I studied the available photos and now there are 8 based upon photos and three "stand ins".  There are another 3 I would like to add as shown in the photo below.  Unfortunately, the hotel and the two saloons down Front Street burnt down in 1919. 

                                                                                                                                                                                      Denver Public Library Digital Collection
 

As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welocome

sdepolo@outlook.com