G scale Rio Grande Southern Engineering Report

[johnb]

It's been a fun little read, and makes me want to fix my Fn3 36 ton Shay even more. I have all of the needed parts and a bunch of old Aristo track...I think that I have 3 switches. Since I live in sunny Arizona, I think that I am going to need to paint the track. I might need to start my own outdoor engineering thread....

[basementcalling]

No one should be worried. 

That is somehow less than reassuring.   

[Dave V]

Here's a shot of the layout this afternoon.  You can see that I model the period after 1947 when the prototype RGS's only rotary snowplow exploded at Vance Junction.     For reference, Bilk Trestle is in the lower right where the visible drift is.



Also picked up an eBay steal...a new combine to match the coach in the good ole' D&RGW "Grande Gold" scheme.  I paid $10 for it (shipping was twice that!).

[Dave V]

Code 55 can be a little challenging for my hands these days, but code 332 is pretty easy to work with!  I keep an eye out for discount LGB track and am slowly replacing the Aristocraft track with LGB.

I also added yet another spur, so it almost looks like an actual model railroad!

[eric220]

Oooooooh! Many trains!

[Dave V]

Like real railroads, outdoor G scale layouts occasionally need to be reballasted.  In my case I also had to raise the west end of the layout (again) due to settling.  If G scale were my primary hobby and had I known for sure when I started that this was/is my retirement home (likely now but not guaranteed) I would have opted for a more permanent subroadbed.  For now it rests on stacked pavers and gravel with pavers and boulders as retaining walls.  Anyway, the ballast is a paver base aggregate from Permangreen/Aspen Mountain that actually works out to be the perfect size for G scale.  The stones are also sharp so they should lock in place.  For now my Rio Grande Southern is better ballasted than the prototype ever was.

[Dave V]

A little nighttime fun.  "Night train to Durango."

[Dave V]

Had some more RGS fun.  I could get used to G scale!



True "cockpit" style layout design!





I think at some point I'd like to add a depot here...



Here's a little video...  The train does slow down significantly when it crosses the trestle because that's the start of the long grade to Lizard Head Pass!  In reality I need more overjoiner connectors (ordered) to ensure better electrical connectivity and something more powerful than the chintzy train set power pack that came with the original Big Hauler.

Oh, and in case you ever wondered what a Bright Boy might look like in G scale, here you go.  It's a Scotch-Brite pad stapled to a 4x4 block:

[nuno81291]

Very nice! Are there much in the way of G scale kits? Or going to scratch build a depot? Having USA trains next door always makes me drool... If only space and time (and $) weren't an issue... To model in 3 scales must be fun to get outside for train action!

[eric220]

I see RGS is importing oversized beer kegs.

[mcjaco]

Way back in the day, when I worked at our local hobby shop, the G scale guy in the store and I, did professional installs for people.  We used to use the landscape timbers with the holes at one end so you could make curved flower beds, etc.  Laid those out, and 3' rebar hammered in.  Perfect sub-roadbed for years! 

[nkalanaga]

Would that be a "beer can tank" car?  Considering that a "tank car", AAR type T, can include cars with removable tanks, one could legitimately letter this as a tank car.

Anyone remember Walthers "beer can" cars, made from real beer cans, sold in the 60s(?) 70s(?)?

[Dave V]

I kinda wish I could raise the whole thing up more so I didn't have to bend over to work on it.  Nevertheless, it's been a blast.

What I would like to do in the future is maybe switch to battery power.  At a minimum too I'd like to have a depot and D&RGW/RGS-style water tank.  Unfortunately those run about $150 each...  Ack!

[Rich_S]

I see RGS is importing oversized beer kegs.

Now that is impressive, I did not know you could get the nations oldest brewery's beer in Colorado. I figured they only beer sold in Colorado was Coors   

[Dave V]

Now that is impressive, I did not know you could get the nations oldest brewery's beer in Colorado. I figured they only beer sold in Colorado was Coors   

No Yuengling west of the Mississippi that I know of.  I hauled several cases of Vitamin Y myself cross-country from Lancaster, PA this summer.

As for Colorado beer, every mountain town in this state has one or more microbreweries.  Colorado Springs has more than half a dozen.  Colorado is a leading state for craft beer.  Coors is drifting to the edge of irrelevance to the point that they're contract-brewing for craft beer breweries.