Pacific Railway & Navigation

[MDW]

A picture of The summit at Cochran to go with the previous update - 78” elevation but 60” off the raised floor.  The last hunk of work to get the mainline fully connected sits on this upper deck at the back of the photograph. 




It’s been slow going but I hope to pick up the pace this next couple of months.

Michel

[MDW]

It’s been a while but closing in on my Golden Spike moment.  Here is my first attempt to scratchbuild a styrene trestle - curved & on a grade.   Needless to say it took longer than I planned & only had to be ripped apart & rebuilt once.  The track is set on both sides but the 3 pieces of the bridge are just temporarily set in place.   Working on permanently fixing the base & trestle itself soon.



This ubiquitous trestle (&yet to be built tunnel) on a turn-back loop at the end of a peninsula actually depicts the real situation at Wolf Creek where the Tillamook Branch pulls away from the Salmonberry River to tun up the small canyon to gain elevation.  At the top of the canyon, the line crosses over the creek, runs immediately into the tunnel and continues It’s climb on the opposite side of the creek. 

More to come soon.
Michel

[Cajonpassfan]

Gonna be awesome!
Otto

[MDW]

And......just as I was ready to celebrate my Golden Spike, i realized that I built the Big Baldwin bridge deck and handrails too narrow.... crap!   So with the bridge anchored, track soldered and wired - and with a whiskey in hand to calm the nerves - I had to perform in situ surgery and slice the handrails off the bridge.  Added a strip of styrene, reset the handrails, touched up the paint and the bridge was ready for that first train around the layout.





So - 35 months from the start of construction - here is the last section of track, from Wolf Creek trestle to The Big Baldwin trestle and the first locomotive creeping around this final stretch of track.





Now painting track as a way to procrastinate from starting the fascia work!
Michel

[Hawghead]

Michel,

I don't know how to tell you this dude, but the bents for that girder bridge are a bit too short.   

Looks great, nice work.

Scott

[Cajonpassfan]

Makings of a great scene, see below...
What's your grade again? I do realize the depth compression makes it look steeper that it is....I have a similar effect on my layout.
Great work, unfinished towers notwithstanding
Otto
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[MDW]

Michel,

I don't know how to tell you this dude, but the bents for that girder bridge are a bit too short.   

Looks great, nice work.

Scott

Yeah..... still some work left to do on that bridge!!!
The aluminum channel inside the bridge does allow me to run trains now and build scenery & the towers at the same time sometime in the future.

Michel

[MDW]

Makings of a great scene, see below...
What's your grade again? I do realize the depth compression makes it look steeper that it is....I have a similar effect on my layout.
Great work, unfinished towers notwithstanding
Otto

Otto-
The grade is about 3%.   I created a test ramp on my previous layout (before tearing it down) to make sure 4 Bachman 2-8-0’s could pull/push 24 cars up that kind of grade.

Michel

[Dave V]

Having built a few trestles in my day I have to say I'm really impressed with your work! Curve and grades...that's no easy feat! I've only done that once.

[MDW]

Thanks Dave.
Spent lots of time looking at your work on TRW for inspiration - and not just trestles.   I try and plan as best I can, but a lot of this ends up being trial & error...... I’d love to say I nailed it on the first attempt, but that trestle did get ripped apart twice to get the curve & grade I needed!

Michel

[Angus Shops]

Thanks for the update - this is going to be a great layout. And congrats on the ‘golden spike’ milestone. Just for interest I went back to your first post and see that you’ve gone from sketch to golden spike in two years on a fairly complex layout. That seems to be good progress. I was also struck by the number of posts that expressed concern over the possibilities of ‘unintended vertical acceleration’. While the layout in its current state without scenery still looks a little hair raising, the railings on the side of the steel trestle looked comforting…

[Cajonpassfan]

Otto-
The grade is about 3%.   I created a test ramp on my previous layout (before tearing it down) to make sure 4 Bachman 2-8-0’s could pull/push 24 cars up that kind of grade.

Michel

Whoa, I love it! FOUR Consolidations to get a train up the mountain! Just like the real thing. Love helper ops. Should be quite the show!
Otto

[MDW]

Otto-
The SP used up to six consolidations for heavy trains so I’m still selectively compressing!!!
Michel

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Whoa, I love it! FOUR Consolidations to get a train up the mountain! Just like the real thing. Love helper ops. Should be quite the show!
Otto

Oh man, I cannot WAIT to see that!!

[Cajonpassfan]

Me too!
Michel, I too am playing with the use of helpers. What I found so far with my 24 car trains on 2.2% grades and 18" minimum radius curves is that neither the front or rear end locos should have too much power. If either end stalls (I know, it shouldn't) the whole train should stall. Too much power upfront can stringline the cars; too much pusher power and the rear of the train can buckle up. My favorite pusher engine is the original somewhat anemic LifeLike mallet, pic below, with no traction tires (one of these days I'd like to convert it to a UP 2-8-8-0 "Bull Moose").
Consistent car weight is also important, but not necessarily over NMRA recommended weight...trains that are too heavy create a whole another set of issues in the "hill" imo.
It's exiting to see your progress so far!
Otto