Prototype Inspiration

I haven't done much on this blog about the prototype in Northern Wyoming and Southeastern Montana since my first post. Most of the discussion on the prototype railroads have been on a Facebook group I created some time ago to collect photos and stories about railroading in this part of the country. I invite you all to take a look and participate at the Sheridan and Everywhere West Facebook Group.

Joists

Chris Palmieri brought his some Jacob over Sunday and we put up some joists and cut some decking.

Hopefully the section house is level, because for now, at least the benchwork is.

Chris did a complete write up on his visit on his blog. The Meridian Speedway.

Backdrops

Had some help from the family putting up some backdrops. Decided to continue with 1/4" sheetrock because of cost and ease to work with. I have a lot of 1/8" Masonite, so I may move to that material in the future.

Once I taped and mudded the sheetrock, I put some paint on the backdrops. I went with a Home Depot Behr color called Aztec Sky. 

A little paint.

It turns out that Devoe Upland Green is no longer available at Sherwin Williams or any other paint store around here, so I grabbed a few cards and picked a couple shades that I felt were close to the US&S CTC machine boxes. Here are a couple shots of the painted valance.

Since painting, I've mostly been cleaning up so I have room to work.

Back to testing deck heights.

With some valence lights up, I decided to put the temporary shelving units back on and see how comfortable things were with the decks at the planned 45 and 64.5 inches.

The upper shelf is 18" wide and the lower is 24". The Valance is roughly 24" wide, but varies some around the curve. I cut the Masonite to 9" strips, which seem to cover the bulbs the way they hang. I don't have a feel yet for how deep the upper shelf will be. You can see that I have several pieces of 4" foam leaning against the wall. I'm not sure if I will use that as benchwork, or save it for scenery.

I also haven't figured out a good way to connect the valance. For these two pieces, I just used roofing nails to connect the Masonite to the 2x3 joists I built the valance with. I'll probably go back to screws, but this was quick and the screws I had were too long. The problem is butting the pieces together. I think I need a good, solid piece to stitch them together. My first thought is to use a 6" wide piece of Masonite and glue the pieces with Liquid Nails, but I had very poor luck getting the rough side of Masonite to stick using Liquid Nails on my old layout. Let me know your thoughts.

Interviewed about the layout and section house

Some of you might be interested in hearing the interview I did with Lionel, Jim and Bruce on a Modeler's Life Podcast. It started when Lionel asked for photos of people listening to the podcast. I was out mowing and took this shot of me on the tractor in front of the section house.

In May, Lionel contacted me on Facebook to ask if I'd like to talk about the section house. I said that was fine, so I got on Skype and this is what happened:

Valance lights

When I operated at Dean Ferris' last weekend, I asked him about his valance lighting. He said he Googled Barn Dance Lights and said he was using strings of standard light CFL light bulbs spaced 24" apart. I found his source, and ordered 220 feet of lights with 150 sockets spaced 18".

http://www.noveltylights.com/25-White-Commercial-Grade-stringer-e27-Medium-Base.html

I picked up some 13W Daylight CFL bulbs at Home Depot for $19.99 a 12 pack. One string used two boxes plus one and got me just over half way around the peninsula. Somewhere I have a bunch of masonite cut into strips that I am planning on using for the valance, but who know where that is. I thru up a temporary piece of  Homasote that was 10" wide just to see how it looked.

May's big project.

I didn't get much done in the section house in May other than perhaps adding the most important accessory back. When I took out the toilet, I had decided to make a small power room in the closet between the two A/C units. Then it started raining. I didn't really want to go play in the mud under the building, so I hired a guy to move the plumbing. What should have taken a couple days wound up taking several weeks. Luckily we negotiated a flat fee, so I didn't pay him any more. The plumbing all works, but I still need to paint and do some more finish work.

April progress

With 2.5 acres of lawn to mow, progress slowed quite a bit in April as more and more of my free time was taken up with yard work. I did get the valence hung over the peninsula, and here are some photos.

2015 Indian Nations LDSIG/OPSIG meet

One of my favorite annual events is the Indian Nations LDSIG/OPSIG meet in Tulsa. I've been fortunate enough to have made around 20 operating trips to Tulsa since 2002. Besides attending the Tulsa Line operating weekend every three years, a group of friends from the DFW area have been making semi-regular trips to Tulsa for impromptu operating weekends over the years. However, the LDSIG/OPSIG weekend is something special.

Besides the opportunity to operate on three of the region's best layouts, every year Saturday is filled with clinics from top notch layout design and operating experts. There is also a chance to bring your own track plan to the group to solicit critique.

This year's meet featured clinics from Charlie Duckworth, Ken Ehlers, Dean Ferris and Michael Borkon. I've been fortunate to operate on all but Charlie's layouts. Mostly, the presenters talked about lessons learned in designing and operating their own layouts. Dean's was unique in that he talked a lot about what it is like to be a prototype yard master and how that relates to modeling.

Claremore and Southern Model Railroad Club

On Friday evening, I operated on the Claremore and Southern club layout in Claremore. I learned years ago that if you want a choice job on the C&S, come early and mark up. I always like the Claremore operator job where you run the small yard that interchanges traffic between the C&S and MOP. I have taken that job a couple times in the past and it can get very busy. I think the Muskogee job was a little light, so the evening was pretty laid back.

Steve Campbell's Frisco Cherokee Subdivision

On Saturday evening, I went to Steve Campbell's Frisco Cherokee Subdivision. Steve used to have a very large version of this layout at his old house. I really enjoyed the 5-6 operating sessions I attended on the old Cherokee Sub - especially the time I drew the yard master job. My other favorite job on the old layout was the refinery, which sat on the back side of the yard peninsula. The refinery spends the whole session transferring tank cars back and forth to the yard.

Steve's new layout is a smaller version of the old Cherokee Sub with more emphasis on interchange between the various railroads that operated in the Tulsa area. As with the old layout, jobs are chosen randomly. I drew the AT&SF operator which has a fairly isolated industrial yard at the end of one peninsula.

I noticed that like the old layout, the refinery job moves the most freight. As I was waiting to get into the yard, Pat Hiatte came in behind me with 36 cars. The yard is only about half as big as the old yard and isn't set up for trains that big, but it sure looked good.

Sammy Carlile's AT&SF Herford Subdivision 

Sunday morning I was Don Winn, Wayne Snider and I were off to Sammy Carlile's Herford Subdivision of the AT&SF along with Dean and Brian Ferris. Sammy has a nice double decked nolix design in a 3 car garage. His layout photographs very well with lights, but I had some trouble getting good photos using available light. His scenery really feels like the Texas Panhandle and he runs fairly long, high speed trains.

Since I operated there last a few years ago, he has the layout signaled, which works very well. Also, the scenery has come a long way and he has added a lot of detail. He added a big grain elevator above the dispatcher. Wayne and I drew that job as our local. Here it is after we switched it out.

As always, the group in Tulsa put on a great event and it was a lot of fun. If you can make it to Tulsa next March, I highly recommend the trip.