Oregon Joint Line N Scale

[Denver Road Doug]

Dean, Love the progress.   Really incredible look with the backdrops.

[wazzou]

Reminds me a little bit of Plummer, ID.

[coldriver]

looks great Dean, can not wait to see the layout again and this time operate. Both myself and Eddie Adcock are coming up for Dallas interchange in October, yours was our first choice. Starting to work on my own tab system, have about half the tabs made so far, looking forward to operating with your system. Gordon / Santa Fe-All the way

Good deal Gordon, I've signed up to host two sessions and if I appear completely frazzled by restaging for the second session then you'll know that car tab systems on a large layout are a big mistake...   

With any luck the Dallas interchange sessions will be the last to use "not in the correct era" track warrant dispatching.  We're preparing to plunge headfirst into timetable and trainorder!   

[Missaberoad]

Reminds me a little bit of Plummer, ID.

Very much so 

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/263926/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/455754/

[basementcalling]

Damn it, Dean! That's hot.

[coldriver]

The east central Oregon territory that provides the Oregon Joint Line setting is a hard place to scratch out a living with many abandoned homes and ranches dotting the landscape.  I recently finally got around to modeling one of these signature scenes just south of Dayville.  I made the landscape and backdrop nice and bleached out to reinforce the idea of living in an inhospitable area.  I've explored many of these houses and I'm always moved when I see traces of the kids who lived there, frozen in time in their bedroom wallpaper and floor coverings, often with height marks on the walls where their growth was charted.  So I added rusty swing set in the front yard as a nod to those kids.

Abandoned House 2 by Dean Ferris, on Flickr

Abandoned House by Dean Ferris, on Flickr

[mopacaustin]

Just passed through Dayville and John Day a week or so ago and yea....that's exactly what a bunch of the homesteads out there look like. +1!

[Cajonpassfan]

Beautiful! Talk about capturing the essence of the scene! Very very nice....
Otto K.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Chillingly beautiful!

[TLOC]

It's a sign of great modeling when the viewer can put themselves into the scene. I agree with Ed, chilling. Well, well done.

TomO

[coldriver]

This weekend the DFW layout owners hosted out-of-towners from Houston, Austin, and Oklahoma for the every three year DFW Interchange operating weekend.  I had a blast hosting op sessions on both Saturday and Sunday morning. 
IMG_4932 by Dean Ferris, on Flickr
Great Northern Yard Crew Bruce Alcock patiently waits for Northern Pacific Yardmaster Gordon Bliss to get the hell out of the way so he can finish his transfer run to the Oregon & Northeastern Railroad. 

IMG_4944 by Dean Ferris, on Flickr
For those of you trying to plan your aisle widths this is what four feet looks like.  Perhaps model railroaders need to allow a bit extra beyond ergonomic norms...

IMG_4946 by Dean Ferris, on Flickr

Dispatcher Chris King has temporarily abandoned his office to see what the heck has thrown a monkey wrench into his perfectly laid plans for getting a fleet of three southbounds past the local working at Emigrant.  It turns out the local crew had exceeded their authority to switch the Basalt ballast pit on single track, which blocked a passenger train, coal empty, and work train for several minutes!  Here the local has finally ducked out of the way at Emigrant siding with the pulls from the ballast pit and is preparing to switch the Hines Lumber mill.  The UP caboose is at the end of today's especially long UP Burns Turn which is still hanging out of the Burns staging track long after the UP crew has tied up. 

[GaryHinshaw]

I love it when a layout comes alive - even when that means it comes to a screeching halt.

[superchief]

Dean,
   The layout ran great and I think everyone had a great time. That yardmaster had it easy until the CEO and the GN yardmaster and the two other trains showed up in such a short time Sorry I had to send the passenger train down yard track #2, but it is 1969 and Amtrak wasn't around yet, did not want to delay it. The yard did flow very well even with all that traffic at once, goes to show you that your prototype knowledge and laying out the yard works well. Our group talked about how well the layout ran on the drive back home. You have a great looking and great operating railroad.
                                                    Gordon Bliss - Santa Fe / All the way

[nkalanaga]

Gordon:  I was in the control tower at Pasco Yard one night, with my father, the retarder operator, when Amtrak was run through the yard.  Pasco yard runs north-south, north being timetable east.  The mainline is on the west side, with a "running rail" track between it and the yard, and another on the east side, along that edge of the yard.  They were the North and South Running Rails, but I can't remember which was which.  Based on timetable directions, the one on the west would be the north side.

In any case, there was some problem between the Pasco passenger station, south (TT west) of the yard, and the north end of the yard.  The eastbound Empire Builder was sent up the east-side running rail, around the departure yard and bowl tracks, behind the tower/yard office, and out the hump leads, rejoining the mainline at the north end of the leads, almost to Glade Crossing, where the approach signal for the yard was located.

This would have been in 72 or 73, so your solution was quite prototypical.

[OldEastRR]

For the farm scene: is that an abandoned grade crossing leading to the house? If so, excellent!