The Burlington C&I Sub

[PAL_Houston]

So as of Saturday last all of the modules have been transported to their new home  and are more or less in their new geographic  position, although still unjoined, on the floor and without their legs.  Saturday was productively spent installing the new lighting tracks on the ceiling, the new power circuit having been previously installed (by a qualified electrician) some weeks previously along with a few other  circuits for ceiling fans and heat pumps. 

The new layout will have the same theme but significantly different topology owing to the room shape.  I actually need another module, and will also need to alter trackage on several others.  Time for that later this year.  Other priorities come first, like selling the house we've  outgrown...

[PAL_Houston]

Another year has gone by with minimal progress on the C&I Sub.  It took far longer than I'd anticipated to sell our former house, but thankfully we came our far better on the deal than I'd hoped.  (Thank you, Saint Joseph!)  However, I can now anticipate spend some quality time working on the layout. 

The resurrection and re-incarnation of the C&I Sub is taking place in "The Pumphouse".
. 
This building was the original structure on the property, built in the 1930's I believe.  It served as the garage for the property adjacent, and also housed the water well, now since abandoned, and replaced by the new well shown in the left foreground.  (The chickens are my wife's idea of a joke.)

The interior is sufficiently spacious to house the C&I Sub, in an altered configuration.  The structural assembly of the original modules actually occurred last February, and a friend helped me assemble and join a new module that is necessary to make a transition between a couple of the original modules and better utilize the available space.  The new module is shown in the foreground here:


Yesterday I completed re-joining the mainline trackage into a complete circuit. 
Next step will be to re-install and test the track power, and then test the track.

After that, I plan to start work on re-joining and testing the spurs and sidings that remain incomplete.

Happy New Year!

[C855B]

That looks great, Paul! Has a wonderful "clubhouse" feel to it. Looks like a great place to just hang and enjoy life.

Tell your wife she was spot-on with the chickens.

[PAL_Houston]

Using the odd hours here and there, I have a complete circuit to run trains.  I have also relocated some tortoises, and painted some new switch panels.  I have not gotten them wired, much less installed, so it's not much fun operating yet.  Only one F3A/B Loco is on the layout to run.  All rolling stock is still packed up still.

This weekend I put down an earth colored baseboard on the new, or newly visible areas, and started terra forming.  Owing to the revised geometry, there is a significant amount of scenicing needs be done before unpacking and installing any structures.  And I am not sure what I am going to do in some areas.

[PAL_Houston]

So: another year and a half with minimal progress reconstituting C&I Sub. 
I have spent the odd hours over the recent holidays to some profit, however.
All of the switches now function as intended, and all of the track has power. 
I've completed re-ballasting the track around the module joins and cleaned the track.
Most of the track is clean and smooth, so my worst car (a Pennsy gon with gravel, and a high center of gravity) now transits it all without falling over or derailing.  So now it's possible to run trains.  Hooray!! 
So I've put some freight cars on the layout and run them around a bit.
So far so good.  Maybe I'll get some Zephyrs running soon.

I've also started re-scenicing.  Structures are back on the layout, and mostly about where they were before. 
Unfortunately, Galena Junction is just not right and I have no clue what I'm going to do about that.
There's also the inserted module that is basically just grass and some track that I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. 
Farm field, maybe?   While procrastinating on any such decisions, I've completed adding the masonite skirting to all layout sections.

Here are some recent pix of Savanna:






Flagg Center:




and Oregon:

[MVW]

That's just freakin' beautiful.

Jim

[PAL_Houston]

Thank you for your kind words, Jim.

In the spirit of Railwire, some constructive criticisms are in order. My (preemptive) comments are:

1. Need to clean up the sloppy ballasting on (what formerly was faced toward a wall, and so not very conspicuous)  the "Far Side" of the track, which is the near side in this pic, and would be visible to whomsoever would volunteer to stage trains on this version of the C&I Sub.

2 . The Oregon cattle pens need some cattle, and probably a vintage 40 foot cattle car or 2 to load them onto.

3. Further in the distance, you note that the roof of the Oregon passenger depot has a concave upwards roof that needs fixing.  (It was fabricated using sand paper that has curled from humidity or temperature or because it has some other reason it hasn't  yet communicated to me.)

4. Also, if you look really carefully you will note 3 passengers who, apparently, have passed out on the platform of the depot.  This could be for a variety of reasons, among them:

a.   boredom, possibly related to the excessively  long wait for passenger service at Oregon, now approximating 3 years.

b.  (a preemptive reaction to ) noxious fumes from those cattle pens that are not yet occupied

c. reaction to the inadvertent release of nerve gas from storage facilities at Jefferson Proving Ground ,  Indiana, some 320 miles to the SE in real space, but which is not explicitly modeled on this layout. ( But, then again, the spatial compression on this layout is ginormous:  the scale distance from Oregon to Savanna on this layout is  about 2000 feet, compared the a actual distance in real space of 45 miles or so.)

d.  failure of the glue originally used to secure their feet to the platform.

Further comments accepted.

Will deal with it eventually.

Oh: and PS: does anyone happen to recognize  the scenic back drop? For the life of me I cannot recall who I got it from some years ago, and I'd actually like to get some more of it, if that vendors is still in business

[MVW]

The weathering of the lumber on the cattle pens is so convincing, the solid brown of the fascia behind it barely registers with me.

The three victims of the "railroad station massacre" are indeed unfortunate.

Yes, the ballast could be cleaned up a bit. But other than that, that's a damn nice scene, all the way around.

JTG

[nkalanaga]

If the passengers were glued down, they probably starved to death!

You probably wouldn't have to put cattle in the pens.  Most railroad stock pens weren't used for holding cattle, but for transferring or feeding them.   If they were being shipped out they'd be brought in by truck, or on foot, put in the pen, then moved to the stock cars as soon as possible.  If the run was long enough they needed to be fed and rested, they would be in the pen longer, but the railroads avoided that as much as possible, especially by the late 50s.

[PAL_Houston]

If the passengers were glued down, they probably starved to death!

You probably wouldn't have to put cattle in the pens.  Most railroad stock pens weren't used for holding cattle, but for transferring or feeding them.   If they were being shipped out they'd be brought in by truck, or on foot, put in the pen, then moved to the stock cars as soon as possible.  If the run was long enough they needed to be fed and rested, they would be in the pen longer, but the railroads avoided that as much as possible, especially by the late 50s.

About those cattle:  first, I like cattle.  Sirloins; T-bones; porterhouse; butt steaks, flank steaks, beef ribs, even filet mignon and hamburger.  Second, there actually were rules about how long cattle could travel before needing to be unloaded, fed and watered.  Burlington Bulletin #25 " Stock cars and Livestock Traffic" provides some excellent material on this topic, along with drawings of a representative selection of facilities.  (contact:  Burlington Route Historical Society at CompanyStore@BurlingtonRoute.org).

As it turns out, Oregon, Illinois, was a good spot for loading local livestock, as well as caring for livestock in transit.  Not all that far out of Chicago, the cattle could make it to the stockyards there pretty well fed and healthy, thus improving bids on their lots.  This was big business in Chicago thru the '50s and '60s, until the meat packers started moving operations to Omaha enmass in the early 70's  (at about which time my dad refused a move with William Davies and instead got a job with the State of Illinois  -- family first, I think.).

About those passengers, you'd be entirely correct, unless they removed their shoes and went into town in their stocking feet.