john flann Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Welcome to the Union Pacific... ...at Providence... .... crossing Summit Creek... and switching at the Smith & Hawken processing facility. The 'story' and a track plan will follow in due course but for those who have back numbers my Providence River Branch was featured in MRP 2009 and CM of June 2011.P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Barry Ten Posted December 5, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 5, 2012 Does it still exist, John? I always wondered if you'd taken it down to build the GWR layout. I enjoyed seeing it in the mags. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 5, 2012 Author Share Posted December 5, 2012 Yes, Teri very much so, and I enjoy running it. There's nothing quite like the chunkiness of American HO. I'm fortunate to live in an American home and it 'lives' in a large walk in cupboard whilst Hintock is in my office. I'll write more about it's 'home' in due course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 The PRB occupies a walk-in- cupboard in the basement of my American home. Not dank and dark as so many UK ones are but of the walk-out nature onto a patio from which the garden falls as the house is built on a slope. It was one of the reasons we bought the house on moving in 1999 from Missoula, Montana to Utah. There I had built 'Clark Fork' featured in GMR 2000, dismantled it and brought it with us. The cupboard had no natural light so I installed florescent lighting and carpeted the floor. It measures 6'0x18'0 and the PRB as finished is overall 6'0x15'0. At bottom right is the entry door and at left space i use as a workshop. Into the PRB I incorporated much of CFk and also expanded it, the remainder is all a new build. I built an open frame fixed to the walls to support baseboards made of conventional materials. These have a plywood top covered with cork flooring tiles. On this I laid Atlas code 100 track and Peco points. This I laid, painted and ballasted carefully whilst the geometry of the Peco points made fitting it altogether comparatively easy. To the walls I added a backscene painted blue to represent open sky. The PRB was designed as a switching layout as that and operating realistically, is my main interest. It has three switching zones: Providence Yard to right, Top Yard at the top and Smith & Hawken to left. These are served by three roads in the staging yard. Control is straight DC. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodshaw Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Nice layout. I read the CM feature and it was one of the reasons I started with HO. Wish I had room for something as big! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 8, 2012 Author Share Posted December 8, 2012 Now with a track plan it will be help to locate these images:- Central Gas & LPG to lower left, Butler Frozen Foods to right, both being scratch-built. De la Force Oil to left followed by Jergens Paper and Simmons Custom Feed and Seed being kit bashed and part Consolidated Elevator to right, scratch built. More of Smith & Hawken, scratch built. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 8, 2012 Author Share Posted December 8, 2012 Now with a track plan it will be help to locate these images:- Central Gas & LPG to lower left, Butler Frozen Foods to right, both being scratch-built. De la Force Oil to left followed by Jergens Paper and Simmons Custom Feed and Seed being kit bashed and part Consolidated Elevator to right, scratch built. More of Smith & Hawken, scratch built. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
298 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Thanks for posting, I thought I recognised it from your CM article. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulbb Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 John looks nice in colour (color?) after the MTI images. Did not realise that Utah had so many trees-must be the old John Ford movies making me think everywhere is like Monument Valley. Like the Smith and Hawken 'plant' - is this a prototype, or from your head/composite of several?? Paul BB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 9, 2012 Author Share Posted December 9, 2012 Glad this is meeting with approval;: it would appear the CM article was widely read and remembered. And nice too Paul meeting up with you, Utah is a large state and probably around 500 miles north to south, Monument Valley is in Canyonlands which occupies much of the southern part and is very much John Ford country, Cache Valley is at the northern end, largely agricultural and in a different kind of terrain being a high mountain valley (around 4,500') surrounded on all sides by ranges of the Rocky Mountains (up to 9.000+'). Up here too we are not far away from that 'Western image' as about 50 miles further north ran the Oregon Trail traversed by so many in the early days of opening up the West..As we do also have to the west about another 50 miles the site of the Golden Spike being driven to commemorate the completion of the Trans Continental railway link. Trees are abundant, especially in the towns, and beneficial for the shade they afford when summer temperature reach 100F and certain species do well although Utah is classed as a 'desert state' having little rain. The trees do well because of the ground water that flows down from the mountains winter snow melt, it is also collected for irrigation purposes and thus rich crops can be grown. The early settlers worked hard to make it so. Smith & Hawken is based on no particular prototype and on what I have seen of this kind of modern processing facility. The colour images certainly add to the pleasure of looking at the layout. It, is of course, all neat and clean as out here in 'the West' we experience little pollution nor dirt and grime.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
long island jack Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Remember this from many moons ago in CM,still looking good. Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 14, 2012 Author Share Posted December 14, 2012 Entering the yard at Providence. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWB Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Not sure if you had this in mind or not, but the trees have a very good Cottonwood-style appearance. How did you do them? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 14, 2012 Author Share Posted December 14, 2012 JWB, as you will know cottonwoods grow like weeds where there is water as in this creek. I made them in my usual fashion of unstranded wire cable that I wrap with paper towel and Woodlands Scenic materials. I usually make batches at a time and they all finish up more or less looking the same but each is different. I have made conifers too using the same methods. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 Having just been on the 'other side' with Hintock, I thought I'd add a few more images of Top Yard of my PRB. The box car is 'patched' and now operated by WWX, Western Wagon Leasing, the two UP hoppers are loaded with crushed stone from the Quarry. These are removable loads and if you look closely you can see the pin by which the cars are loaded/unloaded. A bodged bulkhead flat car, again the load is removable. Philips is mostly kitbashed, in the corner the Mutual Grain elevator is an 'improved' kit and the Farmers Co-Operative is scratch builtthat initially saw the light of day in the 1960's on an old GWR layout of mine,Melbury. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john flann Posted January 19, 2013 Author Share Posted January 19, 2013 Two images of the yard at Providence. The major buildings along the back are kit bashed, to the right can be seen the beginnings of the scratch built Consolidated Elevator 14 complex. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Removed a/c Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Another great layout John. Would love to hear and see more about it. Regards Scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.