Tehachapi, BC

[Scottl]

Fantastic, congratulations!   The view from the loop is really interesting, it gives a great sense of your progress in recent months.

[Bendtracker1]

Looks fantastic Gary! Congrats.
Like Scott said, gives a good idea of the layout.

[coldriver]

Exciting times on the Tehachapi, BC for sure - I can definitely see the vision.  Great to see that you won't be scrambling to lay the Golden Spike the night before your public unveiling in early May. 

[MVW]

With this critical construction step behind me, I can start to focus on using the layout now, rather than building it.

-gfh

Certainly a significant milestone. Congratulations, Gary!

[James Costello]

Congrats Gary - it's come a long way since my last visit. Looking forward to seeing it again sometime soon!

[C855B]

Very well done, Gary. It's got to be a big sense of accomplishment and relief all rolled into one. Now you have the time to relax (...maybe slightly...) and get the operational kinks ironed out. I was envisioning panic-driven sessions slapping down sticks of flex right up to the public showing. You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

[Scottl]

Now he can catch up on all the marking that was put aside 

[ednadolski]

Great work Gary, a really impressive accomplishment!    It's one thing to see a plan "on paper", but quite another to see it come to life in a real, tangible form. Well done! 

Love that master/overview shot.  Looks like the foamboard land forms are really working out well.   Wait until you see how many trees it takes to fill that all up -- but after painting all those rail clips maybe it won't seem like so much after all

Ed

[ednadolski]

BTW what are the stats on the mainline run, total vertical climb, and totals of turnouts & flextrack?

Ed

[bdennis]

Nice work. Enjoying watching this one come to life.

[Spades]

Gary

The last photo showing a stack train on the left and viewing the trains on the lower two levels highlights the scale of project and really captures the feels of Tehachapi

[Chris333]

Nice, but how much is ballasted? 

[GaryHinshaw]

Thank you for the supportive comments, both above and throughout this build!

BTW what are the stats on the mainline run, total vertical climb, and totals of turnouts & flextrack?

Ed

This is probably a good time for a stats review. [We all know how much I love statistics. ]  The total mainline run from Kern Junction, in Bakersfield, to the top of Mojave staging is 187' (5.67 scale miles).  This includes two turns around the Vortex (~13' each), and a bit of hidden run just before Mojave.   There are three sections of single track on the line: 15' from Caliente to Allard, 16' from Woodford to Walong, and 17' from Walong to Summit, 48' in all.  This means there is a total of 326' of concrete tie mainline track (109 sticks, almost 10 scale miles), all of which will be ballasted, eventually... at a rate of ~3 hours per foot, so ~1000 hours total, or ~125 eight-hour days.   

Nice, but how much is ballasted? 

LOL. To date, the upper deck is fully ballasted, except for Walong siding, and a portion of the Walong main.  The two double-track turns in the Vortex are as well, for a total of 169' (just over half!!).  For better or worse, I will never get those 500 hours back, but I do love how it's turning out.  [And only 52,750 Pandrol clips left to paint.   ]

Fun fact: the entire lower deck main was laid in the three weeks since returning from business travel on March 19: 56' of mainline run, 97' of cork & track.  The track is not glued down yet, but all of the joinerless joints are formed and all of the feeders are dropped.  I'll glue it down as I get the handlaid turnouts completed.  The short-term priority was to become operational again.  Happily, there was not a single issue related to track work in yesterday's session.

The total elevation change from Bakersfield to Summit is just under 30" (a mere 400 scale feet): 38.25" at Kern to 66.6" at Summit.  The line drops back down to 56.5" at the top of the Mojave helix.

Counting Kern junction, there are 29 turnouts on the mainline, including 5 crossovers, all of which will be hand-laid.  There are ~70 turnouts total, counting yard and industrial tracks.  In addition, there are 8 staging tracks at each end of the line, and 9 tracks in the storage yard, all 14' or longer.  If fully loaded, the staging could store 933 60' cars, not that I would ever attempt that.   

Ok, enough stats for now.

Now he can catch up on all the marking that was put aside 

I suspect that truer words were never spoken.   

[GaryHinshaw]

Here are a few lower-deck vignettes.

Side view of the central peninsula, showing how Bakersfield sits beneath the lower deck main:



Looking towards Edison, and the longest stretch of tangent track on the main line:



Looking in the other direction, towards Sandcut:



The approach into Caliente:



The reverse curves at Allard:



Now let's follow the progress of an empty southbound grain train, first through Edison:



then, meeting a stack train at Sandcut:



and navigating the reverse curves at Allard:

[robert3985]

Y'know....sometimes it seems like a real shame to cover up quality benchwork with scenery! 

Really fascinating!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore