Construction Udate #51 - A Layout Tour and Lizard Head

1,000 Page Views during August

During the month of August the RGS 1st District Blog had just over 1000 views; a first.  Most of the views came from the US (855).  The other top locations were Australia, Norway, Canada, Brazil, France and the United Kingdom.  Interestingly enough there were also views from Russia, Poland, Cambodia and Singapore.  Thank you all for taking an interest.

A Photo Tour as of September 1, 2025

We'll be following Train #371 from Ridgway to Lizard Head.  Train #371 will be handled by "Goose" or Motor #3.  The RGS started using motor cars in the early 1930's.  The objective was to save money over the use of a steam powered train to provide passenger, LCL/Freight and mail serices.  The basis for #3 was a Pierce Arrow model 33 limousine.  The overall length was about 43 feet and could accomodate about 9 passenger.  The express box was 24 feet long.

Here is the #3 being readied for service on the shop track.

The trip south will require a quick spin on the Ridgway turntable.  Here is #3 on the lead.

Having been turned, the #3 heads towards the Ridgway depot to pick up passengers, freight and mail.

The #3 getting ready to depart the "temporary" Ridgway depot.  The proper Ridgway depot is under construction and will, at some point, replace this and the Chama lube house located to the left of the depot.

 

Passing the Dallas section house.  The Dallas scene was a late addition to the plan.  There is a mill that was once a fish processing plant on the late Paul Scoles' layout and the section house came off of Brude Hanley's old layout.  At one time Dallas was the northern terminus of the RGS.  Later the town was abandoned in favor of Ridgway.  During the period I model any traces of Dallas were long gone.

 

Old Placerville was located 26 miles south of Ridgeway (On my layout about 6 feet)  The restaurant is on the right and the gas station is in the background.  Both were built from kits. (McCarville Studios).  The spur in the foreground leads to the stock pens and a fuel oil dealer.

 

Placerville was a main supply center for miners and farmers living along the San Miguel River.  It was home for a number of businesses, a hotel and post office.  With the exception of the hotel and small warehouse on the south end of town, the model is a close representation of the prototype.  About half the structures were scratch built, including the two large warehouses, the garage, the post office and several houses.  The remainder were built from kits, including the store (Monster Model Works), the depot (Rag's... to Riches), the small warehouse (Banta) and the hotel (Bar Mills).

 

Between Placerville and Wilson, the RGS encountered some pretty impressive geography.  Here is the #3 along the banks of the San Miguel near Wilson.  The rock work here is carved pink foam colored with washes of inexpensive craft paints

 

Wilson was located at Milepost 32.6,  Wilson was primarily a passing side and I couldn't find any pictures of the actual location.  The section house, speeder shed and water tank came off my previous layout.

There was a large mill at Vanadium, Milepost 33, built to process vanadium and uranium from carnotite ore.  The mill was very active during the period I model.  A few mock ups have been built for the mill but that's about it.  Bilk is just to the south of the mill and a relatively small sawmill is planned for a new spur at that location.

 

Vance Junction, Milepost 37.8, was another key point on the RGS.  The branch line to Telluride left the mainline at this location.  While all the kits are on hand to build the correct section house, coach body depot and the accessory buildings they are not yet built.  The structure shown below was scratch built for my previous layout.  The coal dock, out of the picture on the left was built by Bruce Hanley.  The small yard here consisted of three tracks.  The turnout in the foreground leads to the Telluride Branch (4 car stub end spur).

#3 southbound between Vance Junction and Bridge 45A

 

 

Bridge 45A just north of Ophir.  The bridge contains over 600 individual pieces of scale lumber.  The scenery in this area, to this point, consists of basic ground cover.

 

 Another picture of #3 on the Bridge 45A.  The rocks in the background are Cripplebush Valley Models rubber rocks.

 

 Ophir Loop.  Still a lot of work to be done around Ophir.  

 

The Ophir Siding.  There were several mines on the hills above Ophir and the siding was often used in support of those mining operations.

 

 The cut between Ophir siding and Matterhorn.

 

Matterhorn, Milepost 46.7.  The mine in the background is another build by Bruce Hanley.  I built the section house in the foreground from a Buildings & Structure Co kit.

 

 

The Montezuma Lumber Company Spur was also located at Matterhorn.  I couldn't find a picture of any lumber related activities going on here.  The covered platform is used for loading/unloading agricultural goods.

 

 

Lizard Head, Milepost 52.6, replaced Trout Lake in the original plan.  The switch was made to facilitate the turning of helper locomotives at the summit and add 4 staging tracks to represent Rico and points south.  The original plan included a duck under or lift out in front of the entry door with Lizard Head and staging located on a shelf above Ridgway.  The duck under/lift out was eliminated with this change.

 

Here #3 is on the siding while a northbound freight passes by on the main.  The wye is in the background.  Most of the tracks here were located in snow sheds.

 

Our tour ends with #3 heading into the summit tunnel and Rico staging.  Note:  There were no tunnels on the prototype.

 

 

Well, that's the 2 year update.  Layout construction started in August of 2023. 

 

The Summit Tunnel Portal  

 August 31, 2025

There were no tunnels on the RGS but I needed a way to disguise the entrance to the Rico staging yard.  Originally I thought I could "disappear" the entrance in a cut but given the space that didn't work out.  Here is what I came up with.  I followed my normal technique of using individual pieces of strip wood backed by styrene and sealed with generous coat of  Tamiya TS-80 clear flat.

 

Since the right-of-way is on a 30" radius curve, I cut the outer base on a 32" arc and the inner base on a 28" arc.  The wing walls were built up in in one piece, cut into sections, and glued to the base.  All the wood was pre-stained with Builders in Scale Silver Wood.  The wood on styrene joints was attached with Zap-A-Gap ACC and the wood on wood joints were attached with Aleen's tacky glue.

 Here is the portal placed temporarily on the layout.

 

 

Turnouts

Two additional turnouts are needed for the Rico staging yard, one for the mill spur at Birk and one for the north end of Vance Junction.  All are #6's built with a Fast Track turnout assembly fixture.  Since I am out of new Code 70 rail, I scrounged up some flex track remnants, stripped away the ties, and built the four required turnouts shown below.  Once the Quick Sticks laser cut ties are received, the turnouts can be installed on the layout.

Tortoise switch machines are being used to control the turnouts in the Rico staging yard.  Since the yard will be hidden from normal viewing, I decided to mount the machines from above for easy access.   

 As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

Construction Update #50 - The track gang arrives at Lizard Head, Operations at the summit & The Mill Spur at Bilk

 

The Track Gang

August 18,2025

The original transition between old and new was on a curve.  A smooth transition, at that point, proved difficult so the transition was moved about 15" to the north (left).  The track was removed and the cork roadbed was scraped and sanded smooth.

Here is the transition with the new track temporarily sitting in place.  I made a test run with one of my K-27's, a couple of freight cars and a caboose to make sure there was a smooth transition.  I won't go into a lot of detail on how I create the roadbed, glue the track in place with clear Polyseamseal or wire the power bus.  I have done this in previous posts.

 

Operations at Summit

August 19, 2025

After a 8 hour day of wiring, trouble shooting a short, and a bit of fine tuning, the first freight arrived at Lizard Head under it's own power.  A C-19 is good for about 5 cars and a caboose on the 1st District.  Here #40 and #42 have 7 cars and a caboose.  #42 is the road engine, #40 the helper.  The #40 will cut off, turn on the wye, and head back to Ridgway.

Helper locomotive #40 cutting off at Lizard Head.  On the prototype, most of this area was covered by snow sheds.  I'm not so sure covering the wye with snow sheds is a great idea for "my" 1st District.

 

Backing through the south leg of the wye.

#40 on the tail of the wye.  The stock pens will eventually be located in the right foreground.

Having turned on the wye, the #40 approaches the mainline while Extra #42 departs for Rico.  A Digitrax AR-1 is used to control the polarity on the tail of the wye.

 

Helper #42 departs northward back towards Ridgway

Extra #42 passing the Lizard Head section house and bunk house.

#42 headed south towards Rico (Staging).

The Saw Mill Spur at Bilk

While working on the new Rico staging tracks, I got to thinking about the turn back curve at the end of the aisle between Vanadium and Vance Junction.  The bench work here is averages about 30" deep.  The plan was to have the mainline, on the left, pass through a cut, disappear under the staging and leave about 20" between the staging yard shelf and the aisle. 

At one time, according to the RGS Story, Volume 1, page 323, there was a sawmill at Bilk (Milepost 36.4).  While there were still stock pens on the Bilk spur during the 1940's, it appears the sawmill itself was long gone.  Other than the one reference in the RGS Story, a internet search didn't turn up any additional information about the mill.  After due consideration, about a minute or so, I decided a small sawmill was perfect for the available space.

I think something like the small mill shown below would be perfect.  It was a 3-man mill in Humboldt County, CA capable of producing about 5,000 board feet of lumber a day. The picture shows three 4-inch cants being fed through a single circular headsaw to create 2x4s. 

Here is a roughed in plan for Bilk.  Building trestle and the mill will make for a great winter time project.

As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com 

 

Construction Update #49 - Lizard Head & Rico Staging & Rolling Stock Additions

 

Lizard Head/Rico Staging 

August 9, 2025

The revised plan (Construction Update #48) includes a three track staging yard that represents Rico.  The staging tracks will be located on a 2nd module that is 9" wide and 82" long.  The curve on the far end aligns with the curve in the backdrop in the northwest corner of the room.  One of the tracks will hold a K-Class locomotive, 12 cars and a caboose.  The other two will hold a K-Class, 10 cars and a caboose.  There is room for a shorter 4th track that could be added at some point in the future.

 August 11, 2025

The cork roadbed finally arrived.  Here is the Lizard Head module ready for installation on the layout.  

And here is the is the Rico staging module.  When the modules are installed on the layout, the gaps in the cork roadbed between the modules will be filled in.  Since the module turned out to be wide enough, a 4th staging track was added. 

 August 14, 2025

 It was a bit of a struggle but here is the Lizard Head module installed and leveled on the layout.  The "new" Lizard Head did add about 8" of aisle width between Lizard Head and the Ridgway engine facility on the opposite side of the aisle.  It also added some additional space for the Ophir scene.  The Rico staging yard will extend from right to left along the far wall.

The Lizard Head section house, bunk house and outhouse sitting temporarily in their future locations.
 

 The Rico staging yard. 

I did have to make a minor change where the module meet up with the rest of the layout south of Matterhorn.  The mainline and siding, on the module, had to be extended about 12" in order to create a smooth the transition betweem old to new..

Rolling Stock Additions

August 15, 2025 

Like most modelers I tend to pick up rolling stock, in varying states of repair, and stash them away for future use.  After accumulating a half a dozen or so cars, I decided to make the necessary repairs, add a little weathering and put them in service.  The average price of  P-B-L ready to run cars is now about $100.00.  One of these cars cost $60, two cost $40 and one cost $10.  It took about 3 hours to get all 4 in operating condition.

D&RGW #3458

#3458 used to be #3456.  Not sure where I got this car but it needed a little work when I got it and I already had a #3456 on the layout.  The old #6 was burnished off the car and a decal was used to add the #8.  A new brake wheel was added, one of the truss rods was replaced and the existing weathering was touched up.

D&&RGW #9536

D&RGW #9536 is a factory assembled P-B-L Hi-Side gondola.  The wheels were painted and it was weathered lightly with powdered pigments. 

D&RGW #3499

D&RGW #9536 is a factory assembled P-B-L box car.  The wheels were painted, a coupler spring was replaced and it was weathered lightly with powdered pigments. 

D&RGW # 1447

D&RGW #1447 required a bit more work.  It was missing three stakes/stake pockets, two stirrup steps, a brake wheel, trucks and wheel sets.  All the parts were salvaged from a "basket case" gondola that hit the concrete floor in my train room

On The Bench

Here are another three cars that I should be able to finish off in the next couple of weeks.  The three cars were given to me "as is" so they will require a bit more work than the four shown above.

D&RGW #1646

I think this car was built from an old Tomalco kit.   It's a wood kit with white metal hardware.  The basic model is OK but the under frame needs work, its missing a brake wheel and some hardware,  two stirrup steps are missing, and the white metal trucks need to be replaced.  I think I have the parts on hand so the rebuild shouldn't be to difficult.  While the current P-B-L models are a bit nicer, it's kind of nice to have a few "old school" models on the layout.

D&RGW Gondola

Here's a pretty sad looking model.  It looks like it was built from a P-B-L kit.  It's complete except for the missing brake wheel.  Due to the awful paint, the best I can do is replace the brake wheel, letter it with new decals, replace the plastic wheel sets and try to salvage the finish with some weathering and a coat of Tamiya flat.

Pacific Coast #1101

Pretty sure this car was built P-B-L stock car kit.  About all I have to due is remove the "Pacific Coast" and letter it for the D&RGW.  The paint is glossy and there doesn't appear to be any clear coat over the existing decal so once the replacement decals are on hand, this should be a easy fix. After a little weathering and a coat of Tamiya flat, this car should fit right in with the rest of my stock cars.

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

sdepolo@outlook.com.

 

 

 

 

Construction Update #48 - Lizard Head Benchwork, The Lizard Head Bunk House & Adam's Models

The Plan

August 1, 2014 

The original plan was to place Lizard Head on a shelf above Ridgway (Construction Update #9)  That plan included a lift out section in front of the entry door.  Later on I decided to install a temporary reverse loop to postpone blocking the doorway (Construction Update #16).  More recently I decided to move Lizard Head and eliminate the lift section altogether (Construction Update #46).  Since the last update, I made a minor modification to the plan as shown below.  My mainline minimum radius is 32"  The legs of the wye are 28". 

 

Construction Begins

August 2, 2025 

 

It took about a half an hour to remove the existing reverse loop.  I managed to salvage most of the track and two turnouts.  Here is the before. 

 

And here is the after.

 

 

The Lizard Head Module

I decided to start the Lizard Head scene module in my barn and then move it into the train work once the basic carpentry was done. In order to minimize weight, I decided to use 3/8" thick shop grade plywood along with a 1"x 3" frame   The plywood was rested on a couple of sawhorses and the plan was drawn on the surface with a Sharpie.

The excess plywood was then cut away.

 

 

August 3, 2025 

The plywood was then flipped over and the 1" x 3" framework was glued, clamped and screwed in place.

The completed Lizard Head Module ready for cork roadbed.  

It turns out that HO-Scale cork roadbed is in short supply.  I finally found a box on the east coast for $54.95 plus shipping and tax ($80.00).  It's supposed to arrive on the 11th.  In the meantime........

 

The Lizard Head Bunkhouse 

 August 4, 2025

The lead photograph has a picture of my Lizard Head section house.  I build this several years ago.  I thought now would be a good time to build the section house.  I've done "how to" posts on building structures before so some of you may want to skip this section.

I like to start by laying out the parts and comparing them to the instructions.  My kit included everything but the black roofing paper listed in the instructions.

.

Years ago I started painting D&RW/RGS structures with Floquil Depot Buff and Roof Brown.  While I am going to continue to use those two colors, for continuity, both Tru-Color and P-B-L Star brand paints have more accurate colors.  There may be others.  I don't recommend using acrylics on wood.  Water based paints tend to make the wood warp.

 

 

Normally I would use an airbrush to paint the wall before they were assembled.  In this case, because the structure is small and without a lot of contrasting trim, I decided to assemble the walls before painting.  To prevent warping, bracing from the scrap box was added on the inside of the walls.  Some of you may have noticed that I screwed up the back wall by installing it upside down!  At this point, there are two options; leave it since it won't be seen on the layout or fix it.

 

August 5, 2025 

Well...  I couldn't let it go; it had to be fixed.  The building was assembled with Aleen's Tacky Glue so all it took was a sharp Xacto knife and little prying to remove the back wall and interior bracing.  The old joints were scraped and sanded smooth, a new section of bracing was installed along the inside top of the wall and it was re-attached.  The whole process took about 30 minutes and then it went out for paint.

August 7, 2025

Here is the assembled model.  I like to mount most of my buildings on a piece of styrene and add a few details before I place them on the layout.  The roof was done with blue painters tape, painted with gray craft paints and weathered with powdered pigments. The windows were covered and the entire model was sealed with Tamiya TS-80 flat clear.

Here is the Lizard Head bunk house pictured along side the section house.

The Model Builder - My 12 year old grandson

Several years ago, my grandson Adam and I built the small warehouse (Banta Modelworks #4959) shown below.   It's now part of my Placerville scene.  He was around 9 or 10 at the time.  Adam did about half the work and I did the rest including the roof that has yet to be painted!

When I ordered the warehouse, Bill Banta was gracious enough to include a couple of extra kits for Adam.  Adam has wanted to tackle these kits from the day they arrived but I had him hold off.  I wanted him to build the kits on his own and I didn't think he was ready.  Recently he dug out the kits and went to work.  Here are the results.  The Hillside Water Tank (#4124) is about done and the Mner's Cabin (#4078) needs some roofing.  Adam built both kits over three days without any of my help.  Adam will be 13 in October.

 As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com