D&RGW narrow gauge: Back to scenics.

[JZ]

42 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Alternatively take a series of photos from a set height above the layout, (or from ceiling),

 

Problem is that the layout is 19'6" x 9'9"

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, JZ said:

Problem is that the layout is 19'6" x 9'9"

Take lots of photos 😆 

 

 

If you can get the camera about 3ft up you’ll get a decent amount in. A friends exhibition layout is a similar size and I did the plan for that from 9 ‘aerial’ photos taken in his garage. 
The photo plan works well enough really. 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

10 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Alternatively take a series of photos from a set height above the layout, (or from ceiling),

 

 

Then insert the photos into WORD and format as ‘in front of text’ and then select them all and resize them down and then move them around to create an aerial plan. You can tape it to a window or light box and trace a plan from it too. 

But is there, or is there not, hidden track in the tunnel?

(Looking closely suggests not, but if I remember the original plan for this one, and  look at the tunnel mouths, it suggests there could / should be?). Keith.

[JZ]

1 minute ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

But is there, or is there not, hidden track in the tunnel?

(Looking closely suggests not, but if I remember the original plan for this one, and  look at the tunnel mouths, it suggests there could / should be?). Keith.

About 9".

[PaulRhB]

You can add hidden track as a dashed line or as many plans do with the same letter at each portal 😀 All personal taste but I can pop a selection of pics together faster than I can draw up a plan. 

[JZ]

27 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

You can add hidden track as a dashed line or as many plans do with the same letter at each portal 😀 All personal taste but I can pop a selection of pics together faster than I can draw up a plan. 

My son is a bit of a whizz with this, so I'll ask him to stitch some together for me.

[JZ]

Just picked up this.

Never built a B-17 in my youth and after reading the reviews, took the plunge. 

Next up is the Hasegawa B-24J. Reckoned to be the best Liberator kit in any scale. But, at the moment fetching premium prices outside of Japan.

[JZ]

Denver & Rio Grande Western No. 462 K-27 2-8-2 Mikado (Baldwin 1903) pulling a westbound empty livestock train at Placerville, Colorado on July 3rd 1948.

Photo Richard Heath Kindig

[JZ]

Rio Grande Southern No. 461 2-8-2 Mikado (Baldwin 1903 Ex- D&RGW K-27) as a mid trai helper with a southbound train from Matterhorn led by Rio Grande Southern No. 455 K-27 2-8-2 Mikado (Baldwin 1903 Ex- D&RGW K-27), about to enter the Lizard Head Snowshed at ***Lizard Head Pass Colorado in ***June 5 1951

[JZ]

Here we see Denver & Rio Grande Western Crew on the back of D&RGW Caboose No. 04343 being pulled by** D&RGW No. 483 **K-36 2-8-2 Mikado (Baldwin 1925) Leaving Chama, New Mexico July 18 1968 Photo Neil Reich.

This is one of the cabooses that was converted from a boxcar. The original car number had a 0 prefix added. Also looks like it has recently been re-roofed. Six weeks after this photo, the last revenue freight train ran over the Cumbres Pass, one of only 9 that year. The chap in the middle looks like he knows it's days are numbered. A few other train ran for films (Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid?) and to move stock to the Silverton Branch.

Edited September 17, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

text taken from "Rio Grande Narrow Gauge- Final Years, Alamosa to Chama" by
Joseph P. Hereford, Jr. and Ernest W. Robart.

Pending ICC's decision, occasional freight trains operated in 1968. Thirty four freight trains had run over Cumbres Pass in 1967;there were only nine the following year. The last trainload of revenue freight over Cumbres Pass, fourteen cars of lumber, moved from Chama to Alamosa on August 29, 1968.
Some trains operated during Sept. and Oct. '68 in conjunction with motion pictures being filmed along the line. One of the movies was filmed between Chama and Toltec and involved train operations over Cumbres. The other was filmed on the Silverton branch. Early in Oct. '68 Locomotive 473, one of the Silverton branch passenger locomotives, used in the movie filmed there, ran light from Durango to the shops at Alamosa for work. During the third week in Nov., 483, which had been used in the filming at Chama, took a special passenger train for the National Park Service from Durango to Alamosa.
On Dec. 5, '68, the last Rio Grande train over Cumbres departed Alamosa for Durango. Powered by locomotives 483 and 473, it comprised locomotive 481 ( not used after it had been overhauled two years earlier), a gondola of boiler flues, three Silverton branch passenger cars and three cabooses. Nine empty boxcars were included to provide additional brakes for easing the train down the west side of Cuumbres Pass. After spending the night in Chama, 473 took the train west, reaching Durango late in the evening of Dec. 6. 483 returned light to Alamosa.
After Dec. 6, then, the narrow gauge , except for summer passenger trains on the Silverton branch, was idle. The Park Service excursion had been operated so that the agency could evaluate the Durango-Alamosa line as a possible addition to the nation's park system-but no further action was taken. Instead, a small number of dedicated individuals worked to interest the states of Colorado and New Mexico in purchasing the track between Antonito and Chama. Finally on July 14, 1969, the ICC granted the Rio Grande's abandonment request.

Edited September 17, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

After wanting to try these for ages, I now find another modeller was also frustrated at getting them, so developed his own. And while they can't be posted abroad, from Norway, I have done a deal where he will post them to the hotel I am staying in in Bergen at the end of October. Post free no less.

Edited September 17, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

Taking a break from putting over 100 decals on the B-17, I decided to put together a low relief building for Lucyville.

This is Fos Scale's Cookson Soap building. A nice easy build while I had one eye on the rugby.

Yes. It is meant to be painted badly. I'll be lifting a fewplanks on the cladding and getting some powders on it when it's a bit more complete.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

"Heading around Tanglefoot Curve eastbound just east of Cumbres. Next stop, Antonito. 1948."

Photo: Nolan Black.

[JZ]

Cookson Soap.

[JZ]

Another low relief building and another Fos Scale kit. Murdock fastenings.

 

I'll be adding some black card to the rear to block the view through the windows. Fos Scale supplied it with the Cookson kit, but not this. Once on, I will get a picture of the two together on the layout.

[JZ]

Kirby's News & Gas.

This is one of Fos Scale's free kits. They are issued a few times a year and free if your order is over $50. The come with all parts, except bin and figures, but no instructions. They are one off releases.

I always scan and keep a copy of the signage that come with kits and often use 50gm paper to reprint them, as it follows the contour of the panels for painted on look. To get a worn look, I will lightly sand with fine emery. See this afternoon's post.

[JZ]

Whalen Apiaries. Another from Fos Scale, now discontinued. I did the basic kit a month or two back, but added the signage this morning.

Woodland Scenic do a beekeepers set with hives, so I will be using that to make up a small diorama.

[JZ]

Another of Fos Scale's free kits knocked out, This one is their latest, Raskin's Candy Store.

 

I don't think it's seen any customers for a while.

[JZ]

As much as I want to get on with the layout, I am troubled by hip pain, so standing for prolonged periods is quite painful. At the moment I am waiting the results of an x-ray. Also off work for the first time in my working life, apart from the odd day here and there.. So for the time being it is mostly the workbench. 

First up we have this Nevada County Narrow Gauge RR (the Never Come, Never Go) 3D printed job from Shapeways. Pretty basic caboose, the original was scrapped and a replica built using original plans. The NCNGRR kept lettering to the minimum, literally just NCNGRR and the road number. I have a few items of stock to go with this.

Still to add a stovepipe and paint the handrails.

 

Next we have this freelance passenger caboose. Designed and printed by a member of the Slim Gauge Circle and picked up for a tenner.

A bit rough, but stands the three foot test. Lettered for Monticello Ranchers, no number as it is the only one they have. This is to go with a couple of stock cars I picked that had been started, quite badly, but were cheap, so I did them in the fictitious livery of Monticello Ranchers Association. The idea behind the caboose is from Australia, where they had drovers brake vans to carry sheep or cattle drovers on the livestock trains.

[JZ]

Two of the recent buildings on the layout.

I will need to knock up something to cover the bottom of the backscene. Maybe just a fence or gate.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

16 minutes ago, JZ said:

Two of the recent buildings on the layout.

I will need to knock up something to cover the bottom of the backscene. Maybe just a fence or gate.

More excellent buildings - do you keep count?  Just one thought if I may: in this photo the grain bin on the right looks quite close to the buildings.  Is there any space to spread them out a bit - or conversely of course a prototype photo showing them close to other structures?  (It could just be I’ve been mainly watching videos of the Alaska Railroad recently - where they plenty of roooom).  All looking good, Keith.

[JZ]

1 minute ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

More excellent buildings - do you keep count?  Just one thought if I may: in this photo the grain bin on the right looks quite close to the buildings.  Is there any space to spread them out a bit - or conversely of course a prototype photo showing them close to other structures?  (It could just be I’ve been mainly watching videos of the Alaska Railroad recently - where they plenty of roooom).  All looking good, Keith.

The grain bin is to be placed elsewhere, together with it's feed mill and a grain drier I have just found, just not sure where yet. It might well end up in the other township. I have a few smaller building that will relace it. As for the number of buildings, I am not sure. I do have a list of unbuilt ones and many won't have a place at all, but I just enjoy building them. I intend a couple of extensions into the central space just for more buildings, as I like a railway in the scenery, not scenery built around a railway. If you get what I mean.

[JZ]

Knocked up the grain drier today. It's a Walther's kit, pretty basic, but similar to ones I found online.

I'll add a few cables and bis like the one below.

Note the use of, presumably, concrete filled oil drums for support.

Here is a slightly different design.

Quite how I will attach it remains to be seen. A search online shows them connected to multiple bins using an elevator. Me? I have a single one and a feed mill. So maybe using a piece of Plastruct tube to act as an auger. Any other suggestions?

 

[JZ]

Now looking a bit more used.

Weathered with a mix of Com-Art, AK and MIG products