HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District 1938-1945

[Dave V]

Your craftsmanship really shines with this project.  I can see why HOn3 appeals to you.

I'll just be over here trying to figure out the noise my 50 year old N scale engine is making... or is that my 56 year old spine?

Thanks man!  HOn3 has always been a craftsman scale, although Blackstone changed that for the brief period of time it was available.  But now that Blackstone is almost unobtainable again, the craftsman kits are still around and are still a lot of fun.  With the pressure of completing a layout off my shoulders I can really dig into these projects.

[johnb]

Thanks man!  HOn3 has always been a craftsman scale, although Blackstone changed that for the brief period of time it was available.  But now that Blackstone is almost unobtainable again, the craftsman kits are still around and are still a lot of fun.  With the pressure of completing a layout off my shoulders I can really dig into these projects.

I totally get what you mean, I am delving into the world of white metal kits with my latest project.

[Dave V]

It’s 1941 and RGS C-19 #41 (still in the older lettering scheme) approaches Lizard Head Pass with a northbound (railroad east) consist of one boxcar of Rico ore and five tank cars of oil from Farmington, NM. Caboose 0400 sports its new “sunrise” herald in silver paint.

[davefoxx]

I said it before, and I'll say it again.  That's a shot that is cover-worthy.

DFF

[Philip H]

Yep.

[Dave V]

Just a quick iPhone grab is all.  I had my weekly SlimRail Zoom meeting last night and I usually set up the laptop at Lizard Head or Placerville and let it record trains going by as the meeting goes on.

[Dave V]

Lots of doings on the RGS lately.

Placerville before:



Placerville after I added a new spur and the Primos Chemical Company carnotite ore loader that sits just south at Saw Pit (it still stands today!).



Then it was time to tackle a track trouble spot.  A cold solder joint during my initial tracklaying marathon came back to haunt me in the form of a kink. 



Well, since I use a 19” minimum radius curve, dropping in a section of Blackstone sectional track was a no-brainer.



And...like it never happened (minus the kink):



Now it's one thing to model typical consists...it's another to model exact consists.  This is the 1938 Barriger inspection special that ran the full 162 miles north from Durango to Ridgway modeled exactly with the same loco and cars as the real deal:



That particular train movement was conducted to document the state of the RGS prior to applying for federal loans under the New Deal and included some of the first color photographs ever taken of the RGS.  So now I can model it exactly.

And then here's just a choo-choo shot near the Rico-Argentine Pro Patria Mill in north Rico.



Lastly, some San Juan Central fun as a re-routed SJC train finds itself at Deep Creek headed northbound for Ridgway and home rails at Montrose.

[Point353]

Then it was time to tackle a track trouble spot.  A cold solder joint during my initial tracklaying marathon came back to haunt me in the form of a kink. 



Well, since I use a 19” minimum radius curve, dropping in a section of Blackstone sectional track was a no-brainer.



And...like it never happened (minus the kink):

That's reminiscent of a fix you made on the Juniata Div. layout using a section of Kato Unitrack.

[Dave V]

That's reminiscent of a fix you made on the Juniata Div. layout using a section of Kato Unitrack.

Very much so!  And...I never had trouble again at that spot.

[davefoxx]

I would have taken this for an April Fool’s Day joke . . .

if I hadn’t witnessed you turn it into this:

DFF

[Chris333]

Turn the top of the ore loader so the bucket line is aimed at the mountain behind it. 

[Dave V]

Turn the top of the ore loader so the bucket line is aimed at the mountain behind it. 

Most of the kit was already built when I acquired the structure, and it was built per kit instruction.  It's set up so the buckets come from across the river, across the track for this one.  The real thing was also oriented such that the buckets came into the same side as the chute.  So I suppose I could turn it around so you see the back of it, but then it doesn't look so much like an ore tipple.  To change it up like you suggest isn't going to be possible without destroying it.

For completeness I probably should add a tramway post in the foreground but I'm concerned that'll screw up photography.

[Chris333]

Oh well. Was actually thinking aiming to the right would be better with a bucket line going up the hill behind the water tank.

[Dave V]

Oh well. Was actually thinking aiming to the right would be better with a bucket line going up the hill behind the water tank.

That might have worked, but this is wood and it’s already glued...  Oh well.  I may yet add an aerial ore tram; they were so common out here that I almost need to have one.  Virtually every hard rock mine structure served by the RGS was served by an aerial tramway.

[davefoxx]

That might have worked, but this is wood and it’s already glued...  Oh well.  I may yet add an aerial ore tram; they were so common out here that I almost need to have one.  Virtually every hard rock mine structure served by the RGS was served by an aerial tramway.

Aerial tramway? Do tell!

DFF