HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District 1938-1945

[Dave V]

So what's the radius at Ophir and do you want to show the tracks double back on each other?

Jason

Haven't worked that all out yet but I'm not picky either way.  More turnback means more trestles to scratchbuild though.

But, in other news, Patricia just voluntarily offered for me to punch though the adjacent mechanical/storage room wall for staging!  Damn I'm a lucky man!   

[Tom L]

Lizards head pass is a awesome place and I love the name. I'm no expert on CO narrow gauge, but I recall reading that a lot of the trackage there was under snow sheds because of severe drifting. I think originally the passing siding and wye were covered? That would be a good way to enter or exit a scene and snow sheds are inherently interesting structures

Tom L
Wellington CO

[signalmaintainer]

The K28s and K36s are apparently slow-rolling. ...

Slow-rolling?!! Darned near invisible, too, I'd say. They've been in the offing for what, three-four years now? I reserved a K-28 in early 2015, for a now still-born Chili Line layout (Barranca to Espanola via Embudo -- not enough operation, though).

And today I read that Blackstone is just completing the drawings. I tell you, a Galloping Goose moved faster than that up a 4 percent grade. ...

[Dave V]

Slow-rolling?!! Darned near invisible, too, I'd say. They've been in the offing for what, three-four years now? I reserved a K-28 in early 2015, for a now still-born Chili Line layout (Barranca to Espanola via Embudo -- not enough operation, though).

And today I read that Blackstone is just completing the drawings. I tell you, a Galloping Goose moved faster than that up a 4 percent grade. ...

I waited 12 years for the N scale BLI M1s...

That said I came to the same conclusion regarding the Chili Line.  Beautiful scenery, unique vibe...but virtually no variety of ops.  That and I really love the T-12s, and I'd have to resort to brass to have one.

Lizards head pass is a awesome place and I love the name. I'm no expert on CO narrow gauge, but I recall reading that a lot of the trackage there was under snow sheds because of severe drifting. I think originally the passing siding and wye were covered? That would be a good way to enter or exit a scene and snow sheds are inherently interesting structures

Tom L
Wellington CO

The snowshed idea is actually a really great idea!

[Chris333]

4 pages and you aren't even in the house yet 

[signalmaintainer]

That said I came to the same conclusion regarding the Chili Line.  Beautiful scenery, unique vibe...but virtually no variety of ops.

Although I gave a lot of consideration to running with T-12s and a C-19 helper at Embudo. Adding a helper would have slowed down the "pace" of the train.

That and I really love the T-12s, and I'd have to resort to brass to have one.

Had a brass Balboa T-12 model from the early 1960s. It would have required a re-gear/re-motor kit from the Loco Doc to run smoothly, then a paint job. (No way I'm painting brass steam!) But I had doubts was it could pull my brass Key Imports Chili Line RPO/coach set up even a moderate 2 percent grade without issues.

[Tom L]

Maybe you've seen this resource but cool pics of the sheds at Lizard Head. Something that occurred to me thinking about it more,  is that the drifts up there would probably last through spring and well into summer, depending on the winter. It would be cool to see snow sheds modeled with snow on them.

https://www.cumbrestoltec.org/images/stories/Dorman_Catalog/RD137_RGS_Lizard_Head_Pass_Catalog.pdf

Every time I travel up in the mountains, I get the urge to do what your doing!

Tom L
Wellington CO

[Dave V]

4 pages and you aren't even in the house yet 

You know that's how I roll...!   

[wazzou]

Gotta keep updating or people start busting your balls.

[Dave V]

Okay, went over to the house after Caboose and measured out the spaces (I rounded down for drywall as we only have the studs right now).

The highlighted areas are train areas.  Bedroom #5 is tentatively slated to receive the N scale Juniata Division, the Colorado Midland, and my railroad library (along with some G scale on display).  The other area is where I'm planning the RGS.  And yes, I can duck into the mech room for staging or other shenanigans.  I just can't use it all since that's probably where all our Christmas decorations are going.

That waste pipe causing the 45-degree corner in the upper left isn't there in our house, so that's a regular square corner.

[OldEastRR]

You could put a helix in the mech room and have two separate levels for the RGS. W/o losing space to a helix. The upper level could be that big treeless area and "lonely" track you want.

[Dave V]

You could put a helix in the mech room and have two separate levels for the RGS. W/o losing space to a helix. The upper level could be that big treeless area and "lonely" track you want.

I've never been a fan of double-deck layouts, but in this case I've had that very same thought you've had...  Plus, the vertical component of the RGS is just as important as the horizontal.  There wasn't more than a few miles out of the 162 total that wasn't on a grade of some sort.

If I keep it tight, i.e., 18" radius, I could maybe fit a helix in the mechanical room without sacrificing some of the storage.  Unfortunately the water heater as installed is actually close to the outside wall, because otherwise that's a perfect spot for said helix.

[pdx1955]

Here's a thought - maybe the helix could go in the other corner next to the outside wall then the mainline could be on the outside and upper wall. The wall shared with the mechanical room could be used for a branch say representing the line to Pandora. This might be a good place for a tipple or two. The helix could also be used to spit out staging tacks at different levels onto shelves. You could then have a wall of shelves for storage but a couple shelves would be staging instead, so in sense the staging really wouldn't take any floor space.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Here's a different thought.

A helix will greatly increase the likelihood this won't actually get built.

Just sayin.

[Dave V]

Here's a different thought.

A helix will greatly increase the likelihood this won't actually get built.

Just sayin.

Ooo, Ed's gettin' salty!   

I have some ideas swimming in my head but yes, a helix makes this much more of a beast than I'd originally intended.  I do have some ideas for keeping this interesting that don't involve 100,000 board-feet of lumber.