Compromising the Prototype
Model railroads, based upon a prototype, are always a compromise. Space is normally the limiting factors but there are others.
Placerville, Vanadium, Vance Junction and Ophir on my 1st District were all planned to be reasonable representations of the prototype. The remaining scenes, most notably Ridgway/Dallas, were not. While space was a consideration when including and/or changing the "not so accurate" scenes it wasn't my primary motivation... Operations were. Unfortunately, the prototype with it's meandering scenic mainline, abundant charm, rustic character and refusal to succumb to economic reality, was nearly devoid of meaningful on line traffic through most of it's history. As a result, those not so accurate scenes all have one thing in common. They all include plausible online shippers that can contribute car loads to my version of the 1st District.
Which gets me back to Ridgway...
The Ridgway Caboose Track
To the best of my knowledge, the Ridgway yard never had a dedicated caboose track. From the photos I've seen, it appears the RGS used one of the storage tracks near the roundhouse and turntable to store and possibly service cabooses between runs. Since my operating plan will require the prototype's four caboose plus several loaners from the D&RGW, I have decided to add another one of those "not so accurate" elements to the "not so accurate" Ridgway yard; a caboose track.
The proposed location for the caboose track. Since I love cabooses, its right up front! Now all I have to do is come up with about 3 sections of HO-Scale cork roadbed.
Bridge 45A
The bents and deck stringers were finished up back in April and yesterday my son Andrew and I found time to cut the lumber for the Bridge 45A's removable base. As a result, I thought I should get back to to working on the the bridge. The 45A bridge deck will require about 275 ties. Gluing all the ties is a slow and tedious process. At my current pace, it's going to take 3 or 4 hours over several days to complete the job. Including the ties, I have cut and stained over 900 pieces of scale lumber for this project.
August 7, 2024
With the bridge deck finished, it was time to start attaching the bents. I find flipping the deck over and attaching the bents from the bottom is the easiest way to build one of these bridges. Since the bridge will be on a 2.5% grade one end of the deck was elevated a inch and a quarter on one one end. The bents are then installed perpendicular the to the desk, not the bridge deck.
I have to give the glue about an hour to set up until I can go on to the next bent. Here is an overall view of Bridge 45A on my desk. The bridge will be 280 scale feet long (52.5") and about 90 scale feet above the river bed. The prototype was 466 feet long and the deck was 93 feet above the riverbed. I modeled the bridge as it appeared after the 1914 rebuild when the original 108 foot Howe-truss that spanned the river was replaced with bents in order to accommodate heavier locomotives. Heavier stringers were used in the center section and the bents were spaced further apart; 20 feet instead of 16. On the model, I reduced the spacing by 2 scale feet to make the bridge appear a little longer.
Here is the "almost" finished bridge sitting on my desk. I made a mistake when I built the three bottom bents. They sit on an angle, parallel to the river, so they needed to be about 5 scale feet wider than I built them.
August 9, 2024
The bents were cut, stained and laid out to dry. The two on the left, will be doubled up and sit in the riverbed on concrete footings. The two on the right, one above the other sit on the opposite banks. The Howard Fork of the San Miguel River, at this point, is entrenched about 20 feet below the surrounding terrain and dropping quickly from the east to west below the right of way at an angle of about 70 degrees.
The bents ready for installation on the bridge... I thought. The bracing shown one on the middle right bent is not typical of RGS trestles. But, there were exceptions so the question is do I rebuild it or live with it?
Here are a few pictures of the finished bridge ready to install on the base. Since RGS bridges were held together with drift pins and bridge nails, with the exception of the sills, no nut and bolt details were added. While nuts, bolts and washers were use to hold the sills together, they are not readily seen from the bridges normal viewing angle so they were left off the model.
The House at the End of the Trestle
This little house was situated at the south end of the trestle. This is another one of those Bruce Hanley built structures. I'm going to repaint the white siding to tone done the weathering and better represent the structure during the early 1940's
The Oilton Club - Ophir
I recently had the opportunity to purchase a built up version of the Oilton Club. Based upon the information supplied by the seller, I believe the model was built by Bill Banta of Banta Model Works. It is a very nice model but I'm not sure about the color. While it may be right for the period I model, it appears in photos to have been painted white during the last few years of operations.
Currently, it is the last structure standing in the area. A highway was built through the area and for all practical purposes obliterated any remaining traces of the RGS. According to a post on the internet, it is currently a gift shop and personal residence.
Here is a picture of the model. I don't think attempting a repaint would be a good idea. What do you think?
As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. I read them all and respond where appropriate.
Location and views through the first week of August.
.
Steve, I like the caboose track and appreciate you're improving reality for your enjoyment. I'd never thought about the process of building a trestle on grade. Nicely done and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete