Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

Here's a pic of the "Desert Market" in Daggett from what looks to be roughly 20 years ago:



The screen doors were behind the front doors. Plenty of recent pictures online, with different signage and modern glass & aluminum doors. Swamp cooler is that louvered box hanging on the left of the structure, just visible under the portico. "1908" is near the end of the peak years, as mining operations moved out of the area in 1911. ATSF originally wanted to locate their station and big yard in Daggett, but land was too expensive relative to Barstow because of the mining and businesses supporting it.

Whenever Robyn grouses about our current hometown and that she misses California, I remind her that that ship has sailed, and all we could afford there could easily be Daggett (and I wouldn't mind).

[C855B]

Putting the "engineering" in layout engineering. Brisk progress on the benchwork for "District 0", a/k/a the north wall:

[James Costello]

I am mulling all the inputs here, so heartfelt thanks to everybody.

One thing I'm fretting over at the moment is what is turning into a signature scene, the junction at Daggett. This was a favorite railfan haunt of mine back in the day, parking the VW in the sandy expanse south of the signal bridge, occasionally moving over to the shade of the patch of scrubby trees for relief from the heat, cold Orange Crush in hand, bought from the general store across the tracks with the squeaky screen door and the swamp cooler with its distinctive squee-squee-squee. What I have done on the layout is paint myself into a corner, with track too close to the background for much other than the background. If it were a perfect world, I would find a panoramic photo of the stores, shops and houses on the north side of Santa Fe St. east of taken circa 1970, fix any distortions in Photoshop, apply a wee bit of blur/haze to it, and call it done. Of course, any photography I have or my friends have from the time are focused on the trains, with no clear views of what's behind.

Thinking momentarily is there might be just enough room for building flats if I skootched the scene over a smidge. Background becomes less important, as it can then be just the sky and a wispy silhouette of the hills around Calico.

I'm not sure what else I have on the old hard drive, but I shared these back a few years ago.... I didn't see any trains when there, so I can only imagine how cool it is to stand inside the junction as they came through. Great story Mike.

BNSF / UP Junction, Daggett California (2008):

Junction:


BNSF Transcon continues east over dry creek crossing:


Approach signals:


UP leg crossing Santa Fe Street:


and continues north to Yermo and onto Vegas


Of course no trains, until I got in the car and drove off .... seeing a BNSF in the rear view mirrow. Didn't see a single UP train between here and Vegas....

[C855B]

Thank you, James! Certainly has changed in the 40 years since my story... including a lot more traffic on the UP then. The Yermo station was still standing, in fact, the beanery was still operating and was a decent meal for a great price!

Your pictures offer a different perspective than the images implanted in my memory, and have me rethinking relative scenery locations that might solve some of the issues I was discussing. Very much appreciated!

[James Costello]

Thank you, James! Certainly has changed in the 40 years since my story... including a lot more traffic on the UP then. The Yermo station was still standing, in fact, the beanery was still operating and was a decent meal for a great price!

Your pictures offer a different perspective than the images implanted in my memory, and have me rethinking relative scenery locations that might solve some of the issues I was discussing. Very much appreciated!

No worries mate, glad they were of use! I need to try and recover the photos of that trip of that hard drive (which has power supply issues) for my own modelling purposes, so I should do that soon. I know I shot more of the surrounds so it'll be interesting to see what else is there....there certainly wasn't much left of Daggett and we didn't get too adventurous out in the back streets!

The junction itself seems like it would be a great candidate for a couple of Free-moN modules and could really show-off the BLMA segmental bridge.

[C855B]

Too Smart for My Own Good

Using micro R/C models servos for switch machines has been a great success. Talk about something that "just works". With over a dozen installed, operating cleanly and quietly I'm ready to commit to a 55-gallon drum of them for the rest of the layout, even past Phase 0. So what's the problem?

Supply. Apparently these cheap nano servos are in very high demand, and are now out of stock everywhere. The main supplier (hobbyking.com) has turned flaky, showing "backorder" on the product for the past couple of months. The kicker is they've shut down customer support, turned off their forum last fall, and have garnered an 'F' rating from the BBB. Not a good sign, although they filled a recent order for servo cables without a problem. I was able to find 50 servos (supposedly) from an online retailer... in Russia. Not going there. I found an alternate product and source in the UK... also out of stock.

Looking at the construction plan and relative progress, it appears work will stop in about six weeks over this issue. I'm still sold on servos, but I'm steeling myself prepared to redesign the linkage approach for larger servos under the benchwork, which, frankly, is a lot more work. In the interim, Phase 0 construction has a lot of turnouts that go nowhere in anticipation of subsequent build-out, so I can install those temporarily with the points spiked to stretch the current inventory.

[Philip H]

Normally, when supply is an issue, we would get together a TRW bulk order and that usually uncorks a supply.  Apparently you ARE a TRW bulk order, so that's out . . . . .

Have you checked with the usual R/C hobby shops and Yahoo groups?

[C855B]

... Have you checked with the usual R/C hobby shops and Yahoo groups?

Yep. The R/C guys spend a lot of time thumping "metal gears", which is a price multiplier, usually 3 to 5X over what I've been paying. That's serious overkill for what I'm doing. In the interim I've been digging deeper and appear to be getting closer to the Chinese manufacturer, or at least a Chinese seller who seems to be connected to the factory. Their end-user retail price is roughly the same as Hobby King, so I'll create a disposable e-mail address, sign-up for the required "membership", purchase a few samples, and inquire about a quantity buy.

Surfing the forums, this particular sub-micro servo has been around 5 or 6 years, so it's a mature product. There is still nothing on the market smaller or lighter, "lighter" being the R/C crowd's concern. I'm seeing it used on a lot of helis. I guess my concern about the relative market is that segment has been clouded by cheap multi-rotors ("drones"), which have it all over R/C helis for doing something practical with the tech.

[C855B]

Hey, James... I felt there was something odd in this shot, but couldn't immediately put my finger on it:

Now I can. It's the Griswell crossing gate mechanism cabinets. They are old, and relatively rare these days. Amazed they're (probably) still there since the most recent dated image I could find online was 2012. Old stuff lasts forever in the desert.

[James Costello]

Hey, James... I felt there was something odd in this shot, but couldn't immediately put my finger on it:

Now I can. It's the Griswell crossing gate mechanism cabinets. They are old, and relatively rare these days. Amazed they're (probably) still there since the most recent dated image I could find online was 2012. Old stuff lasts forever in the desert.

Cool!

[C855B]

Good news, and bad news. Good news first. Between MBK and NSS I was able to scrounge enough #10 turnouts to complete Phase 0. That should keep things pretty much on track through roughly mid-summer. A finished Phase 0 will take roughly 12 minutes to complete a lap at 45 smph.

Bad news - the sub-micro servos are not to be had. Well, sort of. The Chinese supplier accepted the order and processed the PayPal ...naturally... only to mark it "backordered, no ETA". Jerkwads. I would file a protest with PayPal, but I don't want to burn this bridge, not just yet. Hobby King (yes, back to them) has the servo in stock, at least enough to solve the current dilemma, but with a different micro connector than before, and, oh, by the way, they are backordered on the adapter to make them compatible with the old connector system. W. T. F. I sent a support request specifically outlining I needed 300, but won't place any order until I have assurances that either the servo with the old connector or the new adapters can meet the quantity. We'll see how that goes; I hope the prospect of a large buy gets their attention.

[Philip H]

So I connected with a guy on Trainboard who works in the R/C industry for his day job. He said that the vendor he reps (JR America) recently switched factories and so supply is down. He also said sales for R/C aircraft are down the last couple of years so the demand perception is also trending downward.

[C855B]

Oh, boy. Thanks very much for the intel, Philip. Not good news, but also not surprising.

> ...down the last couple of years...

Yep. Drones are making a dent the R/C market.

Armed with this info, I need to not be picky and snarf up as much remaining stock as I can, even with the "wrong" connector. I can replace connectors on the bench with much less effort than managing (mangling?) under-table points motors and linkages, and the required gymnastics to do so.

[...sigh...]

EDIT: Oh, this is a pain... in poking around their site, I discovered that Hobby King does have sufficient inventory for my entire project. Just not at warehouses they allow to ship to the US. Did I mention their customer service sucked?

[Steve Smith]

Good news, and bad news. Good news first. Between MBK and NSS I was able to scrounge enough #10 turnouts to complete Phase 0. That should keep things pretty much on track through roughly mid-summer. A finished Phase 0 will take roughly 12 minutes to complete a lap at 45 smph.

Bad news - the sub-micro servos are not to be had. Well, sort of. The Chinese supplier accepted the order and processed the PayPal ...naturally... only to mark it "backordered, no ETA". Jerkwads. I would file a protest with PayPal, but I don't want to burn this bridge, not just yet. Hobby King (yes, back to them) has the servo in stock, at least enough to solve the current dilemma, but with a different micro connector than before, and, oh, by the way, they are backordered on the adapter to make them compatible with the old connector system. W. T. F. I sent a support request specifically outlining I needed 300, but won't place any order until I have assurances that either the servo with the old connector or the new adapters can meet the quantity. We'll see how that goes; I hope the prospect of a large buy gets their attention.

Hi Mike,

Not sure of the dimensions of the servo motors you need, but I suggest you take a look over www.dx.com.   They have a lot of RC equipment and you may get lucky.

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

Steve
South Africa

[C855B]

Thanks, Steve, but same problem there, as well... nearly every small servo listed was "Sold Out", and the few remaining were too big. I think Philip's intel is where we're at at the moment.