Construction Update #46 - Final 1st District Plan, Vance Jct Scenery

 

RGS 1st District Plan (Final)

May 15, 2025

For those of you who have been following the blog, the layout currently has a "temporary" return loop south of Matterhorn that I have referred to as Trout Lake.  The loop was installed in order to delay the installation of a "lift out" that led to a truncated version of Lizard Head and a staging yard on a shelf above Ridgway/Dallas.  Since there wasn't enough room for the Lizard Head Wye, the plan also included a provision for a hidden return loop inside the dispatchers office to turn helpers.  

Over time, I decided against the lift out.  After looking at several alternative, I decided on the following plan.  The temporary reverse loop was replaced by a more accurate representation of Lizard Head, including the wye, and the staging yard is now located on a shelf above the loop between Vanadium and Vance Junction.  While the Trout Lake scene was lost in the revision, I think operations will be enhanced when it comes to removing helpers at Lizard Head, turning them on the wye, and running light back to Ridgway.  While there will be room for more, the three Rico/Durango staging tracks three should be adequate to start with.  They are arranged to eliminate any reverse curves.

Vance Junction Scenery

May 16,2025

After some pretty nice weather, I finally got back to working on the scenery around Vance Junction.  For the last couple of weeks, I have spent most of my time setting up my new Costco greenhouse.  All the pink foam is in place and I should be able to finish off all the cardboard lattice this coming week and get the red rosin paper glued in place.

Looking north towards Vanadium.

Looking south towards Ophir.

May 17, 2024

Most of the cardboard lattice got installed before I ran out of hot glue.  The scenery should really slop downward towards the San Miguel River on the far side of the tracks.  Unfortunately the lack of space made that impossible.  The hill behind the track serves as a view block.  The Bridge 45A and Ophir scenes are on the other side.

May 18, 2025

Here is the red rosin paper glued in place.  While this step probably isn't necessary, I like to do it for two reasons.  First, it gives me a pretty good idea of what the final terrain will look like and second, it reduces the amount of plaster cloth and Sculptamold needed to hide the card board lattice work.

May 19, 2025

The red rosin paper covered by plaster cloth.

 

I buy my plaster cloth on Amazon.  A 12-pack of 6"x180" rolls costs around $32 including shipping (Prime).  That works out to about $2.60 a roll or about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost for the same coverage with products from Woodland Scenics or Scenic Express.  I cut the rolls into individual sheets about 8" long.  I normally apply it two layers thick.  The Amazon vendor is "Airgame".

 

Not much of an update.  A new green house and nice weather has kept me out of the train room.  

 

As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.   

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #45 - Caboose Track, Vance Junction Scenery and Ridgway Roundhouse

 May 3, 2025

 As is often the case, I walked into the train room, lost focus, and spent most of the day working on a couple of projects that weren't even on my radar!

Ridgway Caboose Track

The first thing I did was to move the proposed caboose track back from the aisle (Update #37).  The RGS actually used one of the shop tracks near the turntable and roundhouse for a caboose track.

The new location, shown below, is a closer representation of the prototype.  It is now located on one of the shop tracks next to the backdrop away from "wandering elbows" and the manual turnout ground throws along the Ridgway yard lead.

 

Since I was already working near the turntable/roundhouse, I decided to add a couple of more structures along the backdrop behind the turntable.  All three of these structures were given to me by Bruce Hanley.  I scratch built the coal dock for my old Alaska Pacific.  The RGS actually loaded coal into the tenders from high side gondola next to the turntable lead.  I tried to include the elevated spur the gondolas sat on but there wasn't enough room.

 

 Vance Junction

I spent the rest of the day working around Vance Junction planning, cutting and gluing in pink foam profiles.  I made sure to include enough room for the prototypically correct section house, depot (old coach) and other outbuildings.

Here is a view looking to the south.  The coal pockets are in the foreground.

In update #37 there was a picture and explanation of the Telluride Spur.  The original layout plan included the Telluride Branch along with a two track staging yard.  Unfortunately, the Bridge 45A scene took up a lot more space than I had anticipated.  So, instead of the Telluride Branch, I was left with the Telluride Spur (4 cars).

 

I am going to try and hide the end of the spur using a shallow cut, a small mirror and trees...

 

Ridgway Caboose Track

May 4, 2025

The caboose track with scenery

 

 

And gas for the goose.  I still need to add an elevated shed and gas pump.
 

And here are the tree little structures down by the turntable.

The Water Plug

Since there was no room for a water tank on the turntable lead, I decided to add a "Water Plug".  The main tank is down by the depot (Update #43).  Not sure who made this item since I found it in my box of loose parts.

 

The Coal Bin

On the prototype, Coal was hand shoveled into locomotive tenders from a high side gondola that was spotted on a slightly elevated spur next to one of the turntable leads.  Unfortunately the elevated spur fell victim to that old space problem that keeps raising it's ugly head.  While not prototypically correct, there is room between one of the leads and the shop tracks to install a coal bin.  The coal bin was left over from the Rio Lobos Branch layout.

 The Ridgway Roundhouse

 May 5, 2025

Work continues on the Ridgway roundhouse.  Since I have seen way to many removable roofs warp, over time, I decided to permanently attach to roof to the sides and roof supports.  In order to access the interior, the building will only be resting loosely on the foundation.

Only one of the outside back wall sections can be partially seen from the aisle.  Rather than spend the money for another sheet of brick material, I decided to cobble together the leftovers to make the wall and pilasters.  My one remaining widow and another section of lintel were also used.  The other three back walls were made from styrene and covered with brick paper on the inside.  The outsides were left blank.

  

May 7, 2025

 Here is the roundhouse temporarily set in place.  It still needs track, floor, doors, stacks, some minor paint work and roofing

Here is an overall view of the roundhouse/turntable scene.  The stalls are deep enough to accommodate a C-19 or T-19 but not a K-27; there just wasn't enough room.  My goal is to have this area pretty much "finished" by the time I have my open house in July.

As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

 

 

 

Construction Update #44 - Ridgway Roundhouse, Scenery and the Sn3 Symposium

 

The Ridgway Roundhouse 

April 2, 2025

The Ridgway turntable and future location of the roundhouse are right inside the door as you enter or leave the layout room.  The turntable was installed more than a year ago and the drive was installed back in July of last year (Construction Update #36).  As a result, the thought occurred to me that the roundhouse might be a nice addition to the list of ongoing projects.

My original plan was to purchase a Banta kit and modify it to fit the space; a bad plan.  Ultimately I decided against sacrificing a $350 kit for in order to build an questionable, at best, representation of the prototype.  Instead I decided to scratch build the model, to fit the available space, from styrene, strip wood and laser cut brick sheets from Monster Model Works (for the visible exterior walls).  For the interior, my "stash" included a package of brick wall paper texture sheets from Paper Creek Model Works.

The first step was to draw a floor plan.  Due to my limited space I initially planned on reducing the depth of the stalls from 72 to 65 scale feet.  While shorter than the prototype, the 65 feet would still accommodate a K-27.  Unfortunately, the resulting doorways were only 10 scale feet wide instead of the required 12 feet.  Since there wasn't room to move the roundhouse further away from the turntable, the only other option was to increase the angle of the radiating tracks and rework the two turntable lead tracks.  Again, there wasn't really room to make those changes.  Ultimately I decided to reduce the length of stalls by another 6 scale feet which allowed me to move the roundhouse further away from the turntable and accommodate the 12 scale foot wide roundhouse doors.  With the exception of the K-27's all my other RGS power will squeeze within the shortened stalls.  

The Plan

I decided to start with the framing.  There are plans for the Ridgway roundhouse in the RGS Story, Volume I.  I took a picture of the plans and loaded the resulting images into Photoshop.  Then, using the "Transform" tool, adjustments were made to fit my space.  This is probably about as close to the prototype as the model will ever get!

 

April 2, 2025

Since I needed more than one section of framing, I decided to build a fixture out of styrene so they would all be exactly the same.  Several subtle changes were made during this process. to include a minor adjustment to the length of stalls to add a little more depth.  The components were cut using the fixture.  They were then removed for staining, allowed to dry and placed back in fixture for gluing. 

Here is the framing.

April 3, 2025

The cores for the side walls were cut from .030" styrene.  The Monster Model Works "Old Bricks" will be laminated to the outside of the walls, Paper Creek "Brick Wall" will be used for the insides.

 

The Paper Creek brick was attached with double sided tape.  Since the roof trusses would probably sit directly on top of the bricks side walls/pillasters, the timber roofs supports next to the wall may or may not be correct.  The windows came from my "left overs".  Since I only had one package of windows, windows weren't used on the side wall facing the backdrop

The Cut Between Placerville & Wilson

April 9, 2025

 

While waiting for the Monster Model Works laser cut brick sheets, I did some work on "new" rock face between Placerville and Wilson.  The pink foam rock face was given a coat of earth colored flat acrylic exterior house paint and allowed to dry.  Several earth tones and black were then sprayed on to the rock.  The sprays were made by mixing acrylic paint pigments, water and alcohol. 

 

 The end result.

 

 

The Ridgway Roundhouse

 April 28, 2025

The "Old Brick Sheet" materials arrived!  If you haven't built one of the Monster Model Works structure kits or tried out their laser cut building materials you should.  The texture is amazing and it is very easy to work with.  Also received engine house stack set from Grandt Line (ebay).

The outer side, left side, of the wall facing the aisle.

The inside of the left wall.

The inside of the right side wall.  Since this wall and the back wall will be facing the backdrop and can't be seen, the pilaster was left off one end (left).

The far side of the back wall.  This wall will end up being about 5 inches away from the backdrop.

April 21, 2024

With the roundhouse walls ready to finish, several tests were run to figure out how to model the brick walls.  I started by sealing the laser cut material with Tamiya TS80 Flat.  Then three mortar colors were applied left to right; Ceramcoat Light Ivory and Quaker Gray and Folk Art Linen.  The mortar colors were allowed to cure overnight and another coat of flat was applied.  I decided to use the Quaker Gray on the model.

The wall was given a generous application of Quaker Gray in order to make sure all the recessed mortar lines were covered followed by another coat of Tamiya flat.  A sponge, with very little paint, was then used to dab on the brick colors; Americana Heritage Brick, Mississippi Mud, Napa Red, Soft Black, Folk Art Bark Brown and Raw Sienna and Ceramcoat Barn Red. 

There is no need to clean or replace the sponge during this process.  I generally worked light to dark and used a sheet of paper to remove about 95% of the paint before I started dabbing it on.

 

The finished wall.  The lintels were cut to size, painted and glued to the wall with Aleen's Tacky Glue.

The Sn3 Symposium

 April 22-26, 2024

Work on the roundhouse got interrupted by the Sn3 Symposium in Salt Lake Center.  The annual event was hosted by Chairman Doug Jolley and Co-Chairmen Gil Bennet and Mark Evans.  They did a fantastic job!  I attended with a group of modelers from here in the Pacific Northwest and I think I can speak for all of them in that we can't wait until next year when the Symposium will take place in Denver.

 

The Symposium included clinics, layout tours, op sessions, vendors, model contests, a swap meet, and plenty of time to meet up with old friends.  There were about 130 attendees.  The high point for me was operating on Doug Jolley's fabulous Sn3 3rd Division layout.  Here is a picture of the coal train I was assigned to operate.  It just happened to be powered by one of my favorite narrow gauge locomotives, a C-21.  And I actually made it across the division without being written up by the superintendent. 

 

There were about 12 layouts open for the Symposium. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all of them. One I did get to see was Steve Blodgett's HO standard gauge Bear River Railroad.  You don't seem many 1880's era layouts but this one is pretty special.  Steve's layout features beautiful scenery, fabulous scratch built structures and smooth running period locomotives.

 

When it came to the vendor sale and swap meet there were only two things on my want list.  I have been in the market for a P-B-L RGS 4-6-0 #22 or #25 for some time.  Unfortunately I didn't find one.  I did, on the other hand, bid and win a Sn3 P-B-L brass CONOCO tank on ebay while I was at the Symposium.

 

We also took a trip down to Promontory Point while we were there.  While the visitors center was closed and the locomotives were shut down on the day were were there, we did get a short tour of the engine house which was very interesting.

As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

 sdepolo@outlook.com

 

Construction Update #43 - Water Tank at Ridgway, Temporary Depots, The Telluride Spur, Scenery, A new Combine and More

 

Deviate Behavior 

"Departing from an established course"

Anyone who has been following my RGS 1st District blog for any length of time is aware of my willingness to deviate from the prototype.   Simply put, the changes are made due to space constraints or more importantly to enhance operations; and, some changes are temporary. While my Placerville, Vanadium, Vance Junction, Bridge 45A and Ophir scenes are reasonably accurate, given the available space, Ridgway, Dallas, Wilson and Matterhorn are not.

The Water Tank at Ridgway

March 22, 2025

I guess the water tank, shown below, is a good example of "temporary" and "available space".  It's in the wrong location and it should be painted oxide red.  At some point I will build a replacement and paint it oxide red.  When it comes to the location, it will have to stay where it is.  There isn't any room for a water tank on the turntable lead.

A Temporary Depot for Ridgway

The depot shown below was scratch built for Arroyo Lobo on the short lived D&RGW Sn3 Arroyo Lobo branch layout.  It is based upon the D&RGW depot at Cumbres.  Its a place holder for the Building & Structure Co. Ridgway Depot kit being built... painfully slow.

A Temporary Depot for Vance Junction

Here's another structure that has found a temporary home on the layout.  It was built for McCall on the Arroyo Lobo layout.  At some point it will be replaced with the correct depot/section house and out buildings.  

 

The Telluride Spur?

Often things that look good on paper don't pan out.  Such was the case when it came to the Telluride Branch.  The branch was supposed branch off from Vance Junction and loop down grade, around the end of peninsula, to a small stub end staging yard hidden below and behind the Bridge 45A scene.   Unfortunately there was no way to retain the branch without negatively impacting the Bridge 45A scene.  Ultimately, the bridge scene won out and the branch was eliminated.  Unfortunately, from an operational point of view, the Telluride Branch was a big take away.  The mines and mills at the end of the branch added significantly to the RGS's meager traffic base.

After due consideration and in keeping with my ongoing willingness to bend reality in order to enhance operations the Telluride Branch became the "Telluride Spur" at Vance Junction.  Here, up to 4 cars can be dropped off for or picked up from Telluride.

The Cut Between Placerville & Wilson

 March 26, 2025

I was never happy with the hillside to the left of the rock work shown on the right side of the photo.  As a result, the only thing I ever did, scenery wise, in this area was to paint the riverbed and apply a coat of earth colored house paint to the hillside.  The rock face to the right was carved from layered pink foam.

The old hillside was cut away and replaced by layered pink foam.  .

 

The rock face was carved with a utility knife and a wire brush was used to clean up the carving and add a little texture.  Lightweight spackling compound was then used to fill in the cracks between the individual pieces of foam.  A stiff bristled paint brush was used to add texture to the spackling compound.  The creation of the original cliff and prototype photos are in updates #14, #21, #22 and #23.

March 28, 2025

Sculptamold was used to fill in the gaps between the rock face and the old hillside.  Given the weather conditions, its going to take a few days for the Sculptamold to dry.

D&RGW Combine #212

During the Spring of last year I purchased a PFM coach and combine set.  While the cars were pretty good for their pre-1980 build date, Precision Scale and P-B-L have since produced nicer versions.  The Precision Scale versions typically go for $3-400 and the P-B-L versions go for around $600 both of which are out of my price range.  So, when the PSC version showed up on ebay for $233 or best offer, I made an offer for $200 and it was accepted.  I covered the cost of the PSC combine by selling the PFM set with a few dollars left over.  

#212 went through a lot of changes over the years but for my time period, mid 1940's, I think it is correct.  Probably never saw service on the RGS but I will use it in "mixed service".  By 1949 it was painted gold and silver for the Silverton train.

The inaugural Trip

Southbound through the cut between Ophir siding and Matterhorn

Matterhorn

Northbound across Bridge 45A

At Wilson

 And Placerville

 As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

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