HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District 1938-1945

[Cajonpassfan]

So does Otto K.
Thanks Dave.

[Erik W]

Dave,

I've been checking in on the Railwire lately specifically to watch your progress.  Simply put, I'm impressed.  As a long time Coloradan, I've been to the places you're modeling and I must say you've done a great job of replicating the look.  And as someone who's ridden the D&SNG and the C&TSR a dozen or so times, I also have to say, you've accurately captured the flavor of Colorado narrow gauge.  I have several books on the RGS.  You've pulled off the neglected look of the track work well.  I'm glad you're able to capture that look yet still have your trains run smoothly!

Keep up the awesome work!

Erik

[Dave V]

Dave,

I've been checking in on the Railwire lately specifically to watch your progress.  Simply put, I'm impressed.  As a long time Coloradan, I've been to the places you're modeling and I must say you've done a great job of replicating the look.  And as someone who's ridden the D&SNG and the C&TSR a dozen or so times, I also have to say, you've accurately captured the flavor of Colorado narrow gauge.  I have several books on the RGS.  You've pulled off the neglected look of the track work well.  I'm glad you're able to capture that look yet still have your trains run smoothly!

Keep up the awesome work!

Erik

Thanks!  I've been living here in Colorado just shy of 6 years now but my first trip to the real RGS First District (other than Ridgway) was last September.  With my parents visiting for my Air Force retirement, I took my father with me for a tour of the old RGS grade from Ridgway to Dolores.  We'd talked about doing that for 30 years since a ride on the D&SNG, and we finally got to do it.  We would have continued to Durango via Mancos, Hesperus, and Wildcat Canyon but my father discovered he had left his credit card in Ridgway, LOL...  So after we poked around the recreated depot at Dolores we drove back to Ridgway (and saw some stuff we missed on the way down!) and then my father--who's scared of heights--got a right-hand seat view on the outside of the Million Dollar Highway out of Ouray.  He won't forget that anytime soon!

Anyway, visiting the real areas at the same time of year I model really, really helped on a number of levels:

1)  I brought back like 20 pounds of real dirt from Rico, Lizard Head, and Placerville...which means the foreground matches the backdrops with little effort!
2)  I came back with part of a roof bracket from the Rico depot debris pile, a broken brick from the Rico enginhouse, and two lumps of RGS coal from the weed-choked site of the former Ridgway turntable pit.
3)  I noticed that in the second week of September, the Western Slope is waaaaaaay greener than the average Rio Grande modeler seems to model.  Absent a drought, the grass is still green everywhere but the highest altitudes and the underbrush is quite thick and deep.  I'm trying to capture that rather than the barren, rocky landscape you tend to see on models.
4)  I've learned more about the vegetation...  Having fought a battle with the neighbor's aspen trees coming under my fence at my old house I appreciate how aspen grow.  They don't stand alone or scatter about...they share a common root system and grow in groves.  They also don't turn gold all at once.

The track is just commercial code 70.  It's been said many, many times that painting commercial track is critical, and in my case it's about making it look like light rail on untreated ties.  So hitting it with a dark brown spray bomb and calling it good wasn't enough.  I spend hours painting individual ties slightly different shades of tan and gray, but I enjoy it and actually find it therapeutic. 

So as you mentioned, the key was making the track look unsafe while being bulletproof.  Up close, the rail height is apparent, but under normal viewing distances, the code 70 doesn't bother me one bit.  Maybe it's the Pennsy guy in me, but when I started I was making the track look too neat.  Some feedback from fellow RGS modelers helped me see the light.  The layout runs pretty flawlessly for now at least.

[Erik W]

Dave,

It's awesome you brought back local dirt.  That falls in the category of, You know you're a model railroader when . . .  As far as the green grass at the altitude in September, I totally agree with you.  I'm an avid hiker, so have noticed when the front range urban corridor is browning down mid to late summer, the high country is still green.  This is especially true in years of normal moisture and regular mountain thunder storms. 

All the effort you've put into the look of the track really has paid off.  Incidentally, the first couple times I rode the Cumbres and Toltec was back when they were having serious financial issues.  The track looked just like old photos of the D&RGW and RGS.  Scarce ballast, and a lot of weeds.  Derailments were fairly common.  I was riding the train once when it derailed.  We had to get bused the rest of the way.  Another time while chasing the train, I watch part of one of the K-36's trailing truck tumble through the air as the locomotive derailed.  I have a feeling the RGS had a lot of derailments.  Especially in the spring after everything started thawing out.

I'm glad you were able to visit the old RGS sites.  In addition to helping get the look right on the model railroad, that really helps you get a flavor of the place.  It's stunningly beautiful up there.

Erik

[Dave V]

#41 does her brake test at Lizard Head before descending with four empties to Rico.



Started making line poles and planting them in their exact positions based on photographs from the last few years of the railroad.



Jays crossing 4 miles out of Ridgway.  Still needs planking and crossbucks.



Bridges 27A and 27AS over Leopard Creek at Placeville:



Placerville station...need to work the platform warp.



Placerville progress.  The white in the river is uncured resin and gloss medium.  It should be clear by tomorrow.



Ophir progress:

[Chris333]

Is there a way to put 2 screws up from the bottom of the station platform to pull it down?

[Dave V]

Is there a way to put 2 screws up from the bottom of the station platform to pull it down?

Into foam?  Dunno.  More than once I tried un-warping it with alcohol and weights too.  Might just take something of the order of hot glue.

[DKS]

What is it made from?

[Dave V]

What is it made from?

The platform is thin laser-cut wood on a grid of compressed paper/cardboard.  It’s how the kit came.

[DKS]

The platform is thin laser-cut wood on a grid of compressed paper/cardboard.  It’s how the kit came.

I think I'd be tempted to make a new platform. Should be a simple enough build. I'd also make it a little deeper than the kit's, and cut it into the foam so the joint is seamless all around.

If that's not an option, then I'd likely run 4" deck screws right down through the top and into the foam, then place props like crates or whatever over the screw heads.

 

[wazzou]

Is there enough open space beneath the platform to glue some 3/16" square wood strips the full length and then clamp until the glue has dried?

[Dave V]

So I tried the screw idea...  That ended up being a great big nope.  So the correct answer was "build a new platform."

Well...kinda.

I re-used the cardboard grid, but I hot-glued it down at every intersection so it would stay flat.  I thankfully happened to have 0.020" styrene scribed to the exact same width as the kit-supplied platform decking.  And just enough to do the job:



So I painted it and dirted it in tonight.  Tomorrow, when it's dry, I can weather it and detail it.  The real Placerville platform was covered with old junk.

[Dave V]

...and done.  Waiting for the Aleene's Tacky Glue to dry on the details...

[garethashenden]

Now that the platform is fixed down it looks like the building is floating.

[Dave V]

Now that the platform is fixed down it looks like the building is floating.

There is a gap, yes...  Originally the depot fit down into the platform, but that was obviated by the replaced decking.

Meh, it still looks a helluvalot better than it did with the banana platform.  I may deal with it someday, but for now I'm moving on to the next thing.