Tehachapi, BC

[ChrisKLAS]

Very nice, Gary!

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks Otto, you're too kind.

Agreed!  I would love to see a real spread on your layout, including some examples of your backdrop techniques.

Lol guys, I've been toying with the idea of starting a layout engineering thread, but this stuff takes time (like you didn't know this). Right now, I'd rather put the little free time I have into the layout, and I'm going much much slower then you. One more year til' retirement, maybe then. But Gary, since you asked, here's a "stretch" backdrop of a well known place in SoCal 



Otto K.

[ChrisKLAS]

That looks like "ole Baldy!" Fantastic stuff, Otto!

[GaryHinshaw]

Very effective Otto!  I would never have guessed that it was stretched.  Now I'm looking forward to your retirement, so you can post more.

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks guys!
And now back to the regularly scheduled Tehachapi BC programming!
Or so I hope
Otto

[Santa Fe Guy]

Nice pic Otto. Don't hurry retirement on too fast, I've been retired 13 years already and the years go a lot faster now.
Rod.

[Hamaker]

How right you are, Santa Fe Guy !  After retirement, a year only last eight months.

[GaryHinshaw]

Here is a quick update.  When we last met, the Vortex was operational, but the roadbed and track in the uppermost turn was still only temped in place.  That has now been completed, along with the associated bus and feeder wiring:



The S-curve on the left is where the southern end of the mainline transitions from the back of the Loop shelf into the staging helix (representing Mojave).  It's is equal parts reassuring and sobering to compare it to a similar photo angle posted 3 years ago:



Reassuring to see the progress, sobering to realize it has been 3 years...  Coming around to the front of the Vortex, this is the view operators see looking through the window in the fascia:



The transition from concrete tie ME track to Peco track marks Mojave yard limits and is the spot where crews will terminate their road trains.   There is room to terminate 4 southbound trains in the Vortex before some of them need to be flushed into the storage yard.  The crossover was included to allow for some flexibility in deploying staged northbound trains out of the Vortex.  In all there are 13 turnouts in the Vortex including 4 crossovers, 2 helper pockets, and a handful of transitions from single to triple to double track.  Next up is to install the Tortoises to power these turnouts.  (The ballasted track on the right is the connector between the upper and lower mainline decks.)

Finally, we had VanRail 2015 in Vancouver this weekend and while I was hoping to host a few ops sessions, circumstances forced me to scale back to hosting open houses for two afternoons.  So over the weekend I had ~15 visitors from among the 35 or so VanRail participants, including a group from Pennsylvania, one from the UK, and the guru of the La Mesa Tehachapi club, Don Mitchell.  In preparation for that, I decided it would be a good idea to install fascias around the rest of the upper deck to tidy things up a bit more:



Sorry, no photos of the guests - I was too busy chatting with them...

[Scottl]

Has it really been three years?    The progress is pretty significant, especially when you show inner workings of the vortex.  By comparison during the same period I built a large oval of track 

How do you like the backdrop elements you have set up?  Are they meant as placeholders?

[C855B]

I just showed the overhead pic of The Vortex to Robyn... her comment was "pass the Parmesan".

[basementcalling]

Lol guys, I've been toying with the idea of starting a layout engineering thread, but this stuff takes time (like you didn't know this). Right now, I'd rather put the little free time I have into the layout, and I'm going much much slower then you. One more year til' retirement, maybe then. But Gary, since you asked, here's a "stretch" backdrop of a well known place in SoCal 



Otto K.

Otto, why should you have more non internet free time than the rest of the Asshats? Get with it!

Would love to see more of your layout.

[GaryHinshaw]

By comparison during the same period I built a large oval of track 

And a pretty awesome little bridge over a gorge too!  But yes, it really has been 3 years...

I am happy with the backdrop elements that I have in place, but they are the original test prints I put up quite a while ago.  My son and I took new (better) pictures last year, but we have yet to process them into panoramas and have them professionally printed.  I am pretty close to the point of adding landforms to the upper deck, which will force the issue.  I can't wait for that phase!  (But I can't let that stand in the way of building Bakersfield staging and the lower deck mainline.)

I just showed the overhead pic of The Vortex to Robyn... her comment was "pass the Parmesan".

I know... ironic given how spare the visible deck trackage is.  These are the kind of solutions you are forced to accept when you try to build a large layout in a neighbourhood where land prices are ~$650/sqft.   

[basementcalling]

  These are the kind of solutions you are forced to accept when you try to build a large layout in a neighbourhood where land prices are ~$650/sqft.   

You need to move to a less expensive neighborhood. Sheesh, that's outrageous. Good thing C855B doesn't live in your neck of the woods. Who knew Canada was so expensive. That's worse than NOVA and DC prices on homes and land.

[Philip H]

You need to move to a less expensive neighborhood. Sheesh, that's outrageous. Good thing C855B doesn't live in your neck of the woods. Who knew Canada was so expensive. That's worse than NOVA and DC prices on homes and land.

There we places in Vancouver that I am sure are less expensive, but likely not to Mrs. Gary Hinshaw's taste. Vancouver seems to track Seattle for real estate prices fwiw.

So Gary - did you pick up any insights during Vanrail that will shape current or future work on the Tehachapi?

[C855B]

<thread drift = 255>

... These are the kind of solutions you are forced to accept when you try to build a large layout in a neighbourhood where land prices are ~$650/sqft.   

Holy cow. Must be awfully dense where you are. When we were dealing with R's mother's estate on the San Francisco peninsula, raw land was in the $120-150 sq. ft. range, and that was a pretty tony neighborhood, with a view of the bay.

Speaking of D.C. ... 25 years ago we got a hard lesson in relative location values, which influenced our decision to retire someplace where housing costs didn't eat us alive. Living in Atlanta, I accepted a job in D.C., and our pre-move research about cost of living was flawed. As a result, I negotiated poorly. After doing the math forced by a dwindling checkbook balance, I quit after three months and we moved back to our house in Atlanta. It was cheaper to live in Atlanta with no job than in D.C. with a job that paid too little.

So, yeah, I fully understand living where property values are in the dumper is 95% of what makes the train palace possible.

</thread drift>

Robyn already knew what a helix was and how it was needed to change levels in a normal-sized MRR space. The impression from that particular angle with the non-helix trackage juxtaposed is, however, a little bit overwhelming. Artfully executed, of course.