Hawgheads Rio Grande Southern

[Hawghead]

Well it's been a few months since I updated this thread.  Basically I'm right back where I started from.  I wasn't able to come up with a method to control my turnouts that I was happy with having 4" of foam on top of the plywood.  Additionally I had used some turnouts I had made many years ago and was exactly thrilled with them either.  So I ripped out the foam, laid out some cork sheet and relaid all the turnouts.  I also made some changes to the track plan.  I moved Placerville to the top to get some space between it and Ridgway, now an eight car train will just fit between Old Placerville and Ridgway without either end being in either location, barely.  It means losing the Ames bridge, but I still have the Gallagher bridges.  I'm still debating on the Meadow Creek bridge between Gallagher and Rico as it may be to much in to little space.  Works been real busy and my wife is having back issues again, so it hasn't left a lot of time to work on the layout, but I wanted to show that there is some progress being made.

New track plan:



Rico yard to date:








Sorry for the picture quality, my cell phone takes lousy pictures and I should have cleaned up more.

Thanks,
Scott

[Hawghead]

Just a quick update to show that some progress is being made albeit slowly,


All the switches for the south end of Rico yard are laid down and all the yard tracks.




Have two of the three 3-way stubs on the north end.  I can't do the third one and the two left hand stubs leading to the engine house until I can layout the track spacing for the engine house.  I'm waiting on the engine house and sand house plans from Mike Blazek.
 



I didn't want the ties moving with the rails when the rails were bent for the stub switches so I came up with these gauge bars.  I think they are a reasonable facsimile of the prototype ones. 



Thanks for following along,
Scott

[Dave V]

That's a very elegant and prototypical solution!  Love it!

Also loving how the yard is shaping up in general.

[Hawghead]

Thanks Dave that means a lot coming from you.

I made some out of plastic hotel room cards (I have a LOT of those) using a piece of flex track and holding a soldering iron against the rails to make them melt through the plastic.  I'd then file them to shape but it was very easy to break off the ends and they were a real bear to get on and off the rail.  You can see an example in the middle photo on that top piece of flex track and on the rail between the two 3-ways.  The gauge bars in the bottom photo are a PC board tie sanded thin, then rail joiners soldered on top.  I use code 70 rail joiners as they slide easily on the code 55 rail.

Scott

[Dave V]

Thanks Dave that means a lot coming from you.

Thanks, but please don't suggest my praise is worth more than anyone else's!   

To be fair, I'm not even close to the level of RGS modeling as many of the guys over at the Rio Grande SouthernModeling & History Facebook page.  My version of Rico is only maybe some 60-70% accurate if I'm being generous.  I sought to capture the things that I associate with Rico, but that's not the same for everyone.  For example, I was fine with only one 3-way turnout, but for many, the three 3-way turnouts at the north end of Rico yard are one of the defining features of Rico.  I was also happy to kitbash the Rico enginehouse rather than to scratchbuild an exact replica or pay $300 for the hydrocal kit. 

Your version is much more true to the track arrangement, and I imagine will look much more like the real Rico than mine does.

I don't recall if we discussed...  What's your plan for the massive Pro Patria Mill?  I see it on your plans...  Banta kit, scratchbuild, or kitbash?

[Hawghead]

Dave,

I was more thinking about the quality of the modeling on your RGS.  No one has done a completely 100% accurate RGS layout.  All layouts have some amount of compromise. It's just not possible to not to.  At least all your scenes are in the right order, I watched a youtube video the other day showing a guys layout going from Rico to Lizard Head.  The train left Rico and went through Placerville before it got to Lizard Head??????

As far as the Pro Patria mill is concerned I'm hoping to get the Banta kit, but it's a lot of money and I'm going to have to be extra good if Mrs. Claus is going to be persuaded to put it under the tree for me.    But I will scratch build it if I have to or, at least, some version of it.

Speaking of Rico, was there a Conoco/Texaco bulk oil facility at Rico?  I want to say I read about one off the lead to the Pro Patria mill but I can't remember where and I haven't been able to find any photos of it.

Thanks,
Scott

[Dave V]

Dave,

I was more thinking about the quality of the modeling on your RGS.  No one has done a completely 100% accurate RGS layout.  All layouts have some amount of compromise. It's just not possible to not to.  At least all your scenes are in the right order, I watched a youtube video the other day showing a guys layout going from Rico to Lizard Head.  The train left Rico and went through Placerville before it got to Lizard Head??????

As far as the Pro Patria mill is concerned I'm hoping to get the Banta kit, but it's a lot of money and I'm going to have to be extra good if Mrs. Claus is going to be persuaded to put it under the tree for me.    But I will scratch build it if I have to or, at least, some version of it.

Speaking of Rico, was there a Conoco/Texaco bulk oil facility at Rico?  I want to say I read about one off the lead to the Pro Patria mill but I can't remember where and I haven't been able to find any photos of it.

Thanks,
Scott

The layout you're referring to is Gregg Condon's HOn3 RGS.  Gregg's stuff has been in GMR and he has an article every issue of NG&SLG.  TBH, I'm not a fan of the liberties he's taken with the order of stations either.  But, we all have to work with the space and constraints we're given.

Rico did have a bulk oil facility--or so I've been told--and it is alleged to have been on the north end of the yard near the Pro Patria Mill.  Like you I've not found photos of it.  Then again, I've not found photos of the Rico Sampling Works either so I "winged it." 

Bill Scobie, noted Canadian RGS modeler extraordinaire (Sn3) modeled a tiny Conoco facility on the Pro Patria Mill lead...approximately where I put the Rico sampler on my layout:

Start around 27:40 or so.

[Hawghead]

Ah Ha,

That's where I must have seen it.  I've seen all of those videos I just didn't remember that I saw the bulk facility there.  I just checked Mike Blazek's site and he doesn't have a plan listed for the Conoco facility, but he does have a plan for the sampling works so some information for that must exist.  I think I'll drop him a line to see if he knows anything about the Conoco facility.  Speaking of fidelity to the prototype  Bill Scoobie has probably one of if not the best renditions of the RGS and still has some significant departures.  Like I said no one has the room/time/resources to do a truly prototypical rendition of the RGS, every layout is going to have some compromises and as such you should be very proud of your little piece of Colorado.   Oh as an aside, I think the proper past tense for wing it is wung it 

All stations con:
Going deep

Scott

[Hawghead]

Well the north end of the yard has all of it's switches installed with the exception of house track switch leading to the Pro Patria Mill.  I'm waiting on that one until I decide if I'm going try and make room for the Conoco bulk oil facility there. (Now that I know it existed).

Here's the North end with all the stubs laid



And south looking north:



I still need to make all the spreader bars for the switches and install the servos (ran out of those)

Thanks for following along,
Scott

[amato1969]

@Hawghead your turnouts look crazy good!  The engine house scene is coming together nicely.

  Frank

[Hawghead]

Thanks Frank, I appreciate that.

Scott

[Summit]

Scott - I really like what you have done so far and that you stayed with the Original town names.  RGS is one of my favorite Colorado NG lines.  Even my wife has a soft spot for the RGS as she grew up in Telluride and spent many an hour playing on and around the Goose near the courthouse.

Keep up the great work and updates!

[Hawghead]

Scott - I really like what you have done so far and that you stayed with the Original town names.  RGS is one of my favorite Colorado NG lines.  Even my wife has a soft spot for the RGS as she grew up in Telluride and spent many an hour playing on and around the Goose near the courthouse.

Keep up the great work and updates!

Thanks,
The layout was originally going to be "Protolanced" but it the end I decided to try following the RGS as closely as I could and as much as the space I have would allow.  I did have one version of the layout that was Ridgway to Teluride and Pandora but decided to go with this one. 

I've updated the track plan and changed Ridgway to give some more "open field running" between it and Placerville.
 

[Hawghead]

Well I certainly let this thread fall off the face of the earth.  My layout is in my garage and with the exception of a couple of months a year it's either too hot or too cold to want to spend any time in it.  Well not anymore!



I recently finished the installation of a mini-split and now walking into the garage is just like walking into another room of the house.  Additionally I insulated and sheet rocked one of the walls of the garage that hadn't been done when the house was built.

I also revised the track plan to what I'm calling the RGS 3rd Division.  While the RGS had two divisions, operationally the forty miles between Rico and Dolores was an added day turn to trains running Durango to Dolores when there were cars that needed to go further north (east) or cars in Rico that needed to go south (west).  The only real exception to this were stock and oil trains.



This will essentially make it two switching layouts with some open field running in between, which is what the prototype really operated like.  The time frame is going to be fall 1928 as I want to model the fall season with all the colors and the associated stock rush.  1928 allows me to run passenger trains as the Galloping Geese had yet to be implemented and the Ames slide hadn't occurred ending the Durango to Ridgway oil trains.

Anyway that's where things currently stand and hopefully in the future updates won't be so infrequent.

Scott 

[Cajonpassfan]

I like it!
Best, Otto K.