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

[C855B]

I see where you're going with that. The bug with Cheyenne as a destination is there isn't quite enough room for 15' yard tracks. Cheyenne's raison d'être is the locomotive service facility and an excuse for a roundhouse. I'll see what I can tweak, however - maybe 4 tracks can fit once I scoot Afton to the left a little. I was already thinking the possibility of staging under Cozad, although that further crowds operators into that one aisle.

This doesn't consider an unmentioned of the operating scheme - I am thinking that many mainline trains will originate at East Yard and then become westbounds at Cima, Grant Tower or Cheyenne, returning via the backbone and terminating at East for reblocking. E/Bs turning around at Cheyenne also have the option of running W/B through the single-track sections. This puts the most staging burden on East Yard, which - ta da! - matches the perceived imbalance.

Side note... I was up until 0300 this morning trying to add a double-track loopback line in the east wye of Grant to make the "pink first" scheme work. I had boxed myself into a corner with the left turn into Grant from Curvo, the inner curve at 22" already violating my 24" mainline minimum. Trying to cross at grade with off-the-shelf bits completely screwed the curves. No problem (i.e., hell no!) with chopping up a stock crossing to minimize the straight legs, but making that work in AnyRail wasn't happenin'. A flyover would add interest, however, and I might have room for the grade change without violating 1.5%.

[C855B]

Well, I fubarred the pink plan. I worked out the double-track return curve at east Grant, but I can't set it up for true double-track operation because of the crossover at Curvo. It creates a sort of Möbius loop, swapping eastbound and westbound tracks. In fact, the crossover hoses several planned "set the switches, set the throttle and stand back" operating routes. Crossing the tracks back over inside the tunnels would be a major cheat, but it looks like I might have to consider that.

[C855B]

And now for something completely different.

Railcam equipment arrived this week. Bench testing:



Works as expected. Trick is going to be coordinating cable internet installation with the construction, especially keeping servers out of harm's way. Might be 3-4 weeks until we can get it going in earnest. Camera location will be temporary until I can get the tower up.

[C855B]

The picture above is now a live link, updated every minute. If the camera slips on my desk and you happen to catch me in my underwear, cover your eyes.   Seriously... this is just the snapshot update, when the internet is working at the building we will have both 1-minute updates and live streaming video.

[C855B]

[...sigh...]

The project feels like it's bogging down even though there is still very visible progress. The deconstruction of the workshop area is finished and cleaned-up, and I just shot lasers last night for the new mezzanine supports. I think I'll have one of extension walls for the layout area done in the next day or so.

The sense of bog-down is a couple of places. The biggest one is finishing the ceiling in the studio, which is critical-path to a bunch of stuff. The drywall went up poorly because of uneven/unsquare joists, and Robyn spent too much time mudding around misaligned gaps and repairing my screws set at angles to catch a joist. In retrospect I could have used furring strips to even-out the grid, but the loss of ceiling height would make the special paneling we have for studio ("trackwall") more of a bear to work with. Anyway, after three weeks of futzing with it she's discouraged now, I'm doing repair work on her repair work, which is costing time spent on construction. At least I primed the ceiling on Thursday, even if it was mostly to see how much mudding and patching was remaining. I have two more days of mud work, I guess, and then can paint for real and move on.

The other daunting area is the restroom, which has been out of commission for over a week now for tiling when it was supposed to be an "express project" to minimize the downtime. It needed a couple of sheets of drywall once the toilet and sink were removed, and fortunately before that happened Robyn mentioned as an aside there wasn't enough light in there to apply make-up, and, gee, shouldn't there be an outlet somewhere for a hair dryer or curling iron? So... another two days lost making big revisions to electrical in an area I thought was "done" with this. Robyn then decided that the restroom would be a good place to train Phonsie how to mud drywall. Oops. Two more days lost as she patches his mistakes and then waits for the mud to cure before sanding. With any luck that should be done today and I can at least dry fit the floor if not execute.

Adding insult, the weather has been abominable here, with no windows for painting the exterior.

Speaking of windows, and trains... when we relocated the tool storage it was decided it was necessary to cover the windows on the north side against prying eyes. There went the easy views of passing trains.

The internet connection for the railcam is also depressing. Charter has been messing with their "rules" - as a monopoly does - and suddenly the price of the connection has doubled. If there was a way to shoot an "enhanced WiFi" signal from the house to the building I would - and I have the FCC license to do so - but too much foliage in the path. I checked with the fiber provider who has been building infrastructure here, and they want 3X what Charter is demanding - $500/month for 10GB symmetrical? And you have a handhold already on my property? Byte me.

Again, [...sigh...].

On the plus side, our college kid comes home tomorrow, for a couple of weeks. He needs some pocket change for his upcoming overseas assignment, so we're going to task him with assembling Ikea cabinets for the studio. Also, he and Phonsie are going to be our muscle for removing the floor joists from the now-cleared mezzanine area over the layout room. They're going to be getting applied lessons in rigging.

[C855B]

Forgot to mention... adding to the sense of impending defeat was the news that Atlas is not going to re-fill the C55 turnout pipeline until November. We know how that works - it will slip to January, then production, packaging, and/or loading the container will hit Chinese New Year, and the container won't be on the boat until April. Then it's another month. So even if we work like madmen getting the space in shape, track cannot go down for another year. That'll be two years since pressing "go".

I am seriously looking at what it's going to take to roll my own, bearing in mind that the plan as it stands has over 200 turnouts. I know it's been done (San Diego club, Daryl Kruse's Rochelle Sub), and I honestly, really, would like C40 in yards. We'll see.

[Scottl]

This is a really large project, so I think it is quite natural to have these times where it is quite hard to keep morale up.  Still, you've made remarkable progress and it looks like it will be a great space.  The track timeline will sort itself out.  Making your own is in the end an option, but I would worry more about that when you are nearing track laying.

[Specter3]

You need to build a module or something to keep the spirits up. Heck, buy some unitrak off ebay, run something, and then sell it on the bay for near what you bought it for when real track arrives. Dont get discouraged. Its tough, especially when there is scope creep in auxillary projects(hairdryer and more lights) but you are making great progress. It will get done. Also remember to use lightweight joint compound and not spackle on the drywall.

[C855B]

... lightweight joint compound and not spackle...

After her artists' class on Saturday I was wondering if it was going be red pottery clay.   No, we buy the lightweight/low dust mud in the 3-gallon buckets (which, BTW, are not lightweight... until you schlep a bucket of the "regular"). Lots more of it in a few weeks, when we start mudding the layout room. That'll be 64 panels of 4x8 drywall. The studio ceiling was "only" 20. I am hanging onto a thought of using 4x12 sheets to cut down on the taping, etc., but my shoulders really aren't up to that kind of repetitive heavy lifting.

As to actual MMR'ing, I do have a module under construction, but it's now buried under piles of stuff in the project room at the house as we rearrange things for the college kid. You're right, I probably need to take a modeling break. When the kid leaves end of next week I should unbury it and play a little.

[NARmike]

Hang in there Mike! I've renovated before and, by far, mudding is the most disheartening aspect... seems like you're just spinning your wheels and it takes 10 times as long as your most pessimistic estimates. Not to mention all the unexpected surprises that come from opening up an old wall to find skeletons of past mistakes and the whole "Well I'm this far in... may as well do this right" thing.

You won't regret the results, though!

[MichaelWinicki]

As to actual MMR'ing, I do have a module under construction, but it's now buried under piles of stuff in the project room at the house as we rearrange things for the college kid. You're right, I probably need to take a modeling break. When the kid leaves end of next week I should unbury it and play a little.

Sounds like a winner of an idea Mike.

[JMaurer1]

Drywall and painting are two things that I have sworn to never do again. When you do them, you know where every little mistake and imperfection are and they constantly scream out to you. FORGET THEM, nobody else will ever notice them (especially once trains are running). I actually wish I was close enough to help...even help with the drywall (in spite of my swearing to never do it again)...it's always easier doing it for someone else because the mistakes don't matter as much. Unfortunately, I live too far away (in No Calif), but with 100 degree temps in the forecast, I might be willing to travel in a few days. Keep your head up and know that others are pulling for you.

[C855B]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, gentlemen. We've stepped away from the drywall for a couple of days to clear our heads, rest our shoulders, and make headway on other stuff.

College kid (Adam) - with ample experience because any self-respecting college kid knows ALL about Ikea furniture - spent two days assembling the Ikea cabinets. He and Robyn placed the cabinets, sink and fridge in the studio work area to confirm the vision, and Robyn's all excited again because she sees it coming together. I asked her to start thinking hard about the floor. We are doing a modular plastic tile - actually, a garage floor material - that works sort of like Lego blocks, and she needs to decide on a pattern so we can order the tiles. I turned-up the pressure last night by graphing a couple of railroad-themed designs. Not seriously, but it was fun to see her squirm.

Tile floor is down in the bathroom. It looks sharp. It was delayed because we decided to finish painting in there first rather than risk dripping paint on new mosaic grout. We're doing tile half-way up the walls, and once that's in and grouted, everything goes back together. I figure Tuesday or Wednesday, allowing three days to do the wall tile. Pictures then.

Floor joists are finally starting to come down. Adam and I ran string levels to confirm last week's laser work for the new mezzanine. I should be able to start building the new joist supports next week, but as far as putting those joists up, read on...

...we haven't seen Phonsie all week. I knew he was having trouble looking for a new apartment, but to my surprise tonight I got a call - he's in jail!!! Outstanding traffic warrants. Maybe a week before he's out, but I'm not counting on it. Adam heads off to his overseas school year next week, so we are going to have to find new help. It's a real shame, 'cause Phonsie is a good worker and a nice guy, but his soap opera has been spinning out of control since his girlfriend came back to town last month, and we have things to get done. 

On an RR note, the three of us were returning from lunch today, and we hear a horn with two or three chimes badly out of whack. "What's THAT??!? protests Robyn, who then runs around the end of the building to see what's passing. I was expecting it, having seen it coming out the yard lead as we crossed the tracks. It was the BNSF branchline turn, which usually draws a couple of Baby Toasters. Second unit was silver/red. The third unit - surprise! - looked to be a modified GP35 or GP40, missing the center radiator fan. I didn't catch the number, or I'd look it up. Anyway, it was nice to see a solid set of B-B power on more than a few cars. Shades of the '80s, provided one ignores the orange-and-green.

[C855B]

Some quick "good news" to report...

I did a fair bit of work on the layout plan and it is getting close to something I'm happy with. Fixed the branchline, especially. Still need to flesh-out Cheyenne and then we'll publish for comments. I am going with the suggested pink-blue-green-yellow phasing plan.

Phonsie is out of jail. It was really stupid (C'mon, Phonsie!) that he was hauled off in cuffs for ignoring $150 in traffic fines... for five years. 

Floor in the restroom is grouted. I don't know if any of you have grouted mosaic, but it is a lot of work. I flat wore out Robyn and Adam, who were serving as "sponge brigade", and my shoulders are protesting. Robyn is finalizing the "Lego tile" pattern in the studio.

Mucho progress being made.

[C855B]

Researching Cheyenne. Topo circa 1961 with corrections through 1972; railroad details likely not corrected from '61 art: