Tehachapi, BC

[Sokramiketes]

I'm cringing that the rough scenery isn't going in before the ballast!  You're a rebel Gary!

[C855B]

...  And the signal bridge is a place-holder for this one from Traincat.

I clicked on the link and, [...sigh...] it's a pic from home. (North of Mojave looking northbound, just before the big left turn into The Pass.) This bridge was slated for replacement - was it still there during your recent visit, Gary?

I'm missing the desert these days. It's been the mid-100's in Illinois for two weeks now, and having the humidity along with that sucks. NWS says 24% in Mojave right now, which is actually slightly up from normal. 10-15% is the norm. You sweat like crazy, but, funny, somehow your clothes never get wet. 

[Scottl]

I'm cringing that the rough scenery isn't going in before the ballast!  You're a rebel Gary!

Your trackwork is beautiful and the ballast perfect.  But I can't help but agree with this statement.  Like the prototype, I have found ballast looks more natural when it is last and has imperfections that arise from the grading and topography.  Have you thought through how you will scenic  this?  Maybe some experimental work 

[GaryHinshaw]

I clicked on the link and, [...sigh...] it's a pic from home. (North of Mojave looking northbound, just before the big left turn into The Pass.) This bridge was slated for replacement - was it still there during your recent visit, Gary?

You're correct, of course, and thankfully all 4 bridges/cantilevers on the pass (Mojave, Walong, Sandcut, Magundun) are still there.  While I plan to try and keep up with the present day, I will partially freeze time for the sake of these bridges.  And for the record, being a west coast native, I never adapted to eastern summer weather either. Happily, I no longer need to. 

RE ballasting ahead of time: either rebel or stupid, take your pick.  Two things: 1. I can't picture getting neat enough ballast with landforms in the way of my brush hand. Most of us install track before scenery;  I figure I can tape over the ballast as easily as I do the track when messy work starts.  2. The bulk of the mainline will have a graded access road along it, or simply be bare dirt, like in this earlier test shot.  As Skibbe warned at the time, the dirt just stains when the ballast is glued (and it did in that test), so I'll need to go back and redo the juxtaposing scenery anyway.

I may regret it, but I'm not going to go too far with this approach before putting some basic landforms in and making sure that I can pull it off.  For now this is my diversion from turnout work.  (I actually enjoy ballasting...)

-gfh

[Cajonpassfan]

Gary,
I'm just in absolute awe at the ballast-scorching pace of progress, and you have time to insert some hand-built turnouts to boot. Oh, and then you find more time to document it and post it for the rest of us! For all I care, you could do ballast first and then lay track...
Keep the pics coming'
Otto K.

[GaryHinshaw]

LOL, thanks for the kind words Otto, I'll keep ballasting.   Now that I live near Mark Dance and see the kind of progress he makes, I feel like a schmoo* slug by comparison.   (But it is incredibly inspirational!)

Welcome to Railwire BTW.  I've admired your work in several venues and would love to see you post some Cajon action here. 

*edit - just looked up schmoo in the urban dictionary and it has several alternate meanings that are better left to other fora.   

[C855B]

Pff. The "Urban Dictionary" makes something dirty out of everything. We all know that Al Capp was responsible for schmoos, right? So delicious they jump right on your plate, voluntarily. Like bacon.

[Coxy]

Gary, found your thread on page 2! Should we consider the line now abandoned?!! 

- Steven

[ednadolski]

Should we consider the line now abandoned?!! 

Nooooooo!!!

[mike in bc]

Am i the only one who thinks star wars would have been better without a winney luke skywalker
mike

[GaryHinshaw]

Yep - it's abandoned.  I just got back from a road trip from San Francisco to Vancouver via the interior (mostly US 97), much of which follows the beautiful Oregon Trunk line along the Deschutes River up to Celilo on the Columbia.  I could really go for modeling a line through so many varied landscapes including the Ponderosa Pine forests, lava flows, upland sage brush deserts, and stark river gorges.  The trip culminated yesterday with a drive over Stevens Pass which included very few train spotting opportunities, a 10 mile traffic back-up on the west end, and 100+ degree temps (including 92 at the 4000 ft summit).  Remind me never to railfan there again... 

Back home now and work will soon resume on a crossover, so I can get going on track-laying again...  Tehachapi BC lives on.

Cheers,
Gary

P.S. It's actually a great sign of the health of this Board that a semi-active thread can drop to page 2. 

[3DTrains]

Am i the only one who thinks star wars would have been better without a winney luke skywalker

I blame Lucas, not Hamill.

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside

[Coxy]

  Tehachapi BC lives on.

...It's actually a great sign of the health of this Board that a semi-active thread can drop to page 2. 

Phew! 

Agreed. Good place to come for inspiration.

[Sokramiketes]

The trip culminated yesterday with a drive over Stevens Pass which included very few train spotting opportunities, a 10 mile traffic back-up on the west end, and 100+ degree temps (including 92 at the 4000 ft summit).  Remind me never to railfan there again... 

Say it ain't so!  You need a better tour guide.  Did you at least make it to Trinidad on the east end?

[GaryHinshaw]

Yes, I did make it to Trinidad - that was very cool!  (But I didn't see a train there.)  We spent the night in Wenatchee, which was quite nice, but I only saw 4 trains come through in the 18 hours we were there (not all of that time by the tracks, of course).  By the time we crossed Stevens, we were hankering to get home, so we weren't in the mood to linger.  I will go back and head off road some more when time permits, but I'll probably head back to Fraser Canyon first.