HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District 1938-1945

[CRL]

Thanks guys!  This is the layout I dreamed of building after a 1988 trip on the Durango and Silverton.  It's my passion.  FWIW, it's the layout my father and I talked about building together shortly after that D&SNG ride, but we never got around to it.  High school was a blur and then off to Penn State and the Air Force.  I was never less than a day's drive from home after that.

Once COVID's settled to the point where my parents (read: my mother with COPD) feel comfortable flying (yes, they're vaccinated), they're planning to visit and Dad can at last run his brass RGS 25 (that I had professionally painted and upgraded to Tsunami2) on the Rio Grande Southern from Ridgway to Rico with completed scenery all the way.

Every time we talk he still mentions the fun he had on the trip I took him on in 2018 along the RGS right of way the week after my Air Force retirement.  We felt a bit like archeologists and detectives using maps, books, and photos to figure out where things were.  We found some interesting stuff like coal from the Ridgway turntable pit, a few bricks and the concrete sill from the Rico enginehouse (deep in the trees!), wood trim scraps and shingles from the Rico depot, the wood sill from the Lizard Head snowshed (the part that burned in 1939!), and so on.  Most of the structures that survived to the 21st century have been lovingly restored, like the Rico and Trout Lake water tanks, the Trout Lake trestle, the Vance Junction coal pockets, the Ridgway depot, and even the re-constructed Dolores depot.  People in that part of the state remember the RGS with a deep reverence it seems.

You need to fly to where they are, rent a nice, comfortable big car, suv or RV and drive them to your home & back. Don’t wait… do it now. When you have parents getting up in years, you never know when an unexpected health issue is going to arise that will keep them from traveling. Money & time we’ll spent. Much better than living with the regret of not having spent more time with them while you could. Trust me on this one.

[Dave V]

You need to fly to where they are, rent a nice, comfortable big car, suv or RV and drive them to your home & back. Don’t wait… do it now. When you have parents getting up in years, you never know when an unexpected health issue is going to arise that will keep them from traveling. Money & time we’ll spent. Much better than living with the regret of not having spent more time with them while you could. Trust me on this one.

I appreciate the thought but my mother is not interested in traveling yet, including by car that distance.  We're visiting them in Pennsylvania in June.  They promise they'd like to come out here before the year is out though.  Maybe Christmas.

Your thought isn't lost on me though...  The older they get and the more new health problems they seem to "acquire," the more urgent visits become.

[Dave V]

The D&RGW Gunnison to Montrose passenger train has been diverted over the RGS at Lizard Head.  That RPO is a new addition.  I picked it up built on eBay but I painted and decaled it.



And...it's being pulled by a new(ish) addition.  I picked up D&RGW C-19 #346 earlier in the year but my hand injury meant it had to wait for weathering.  It waits no longer!  I used weathering powders, chalks, and washes.  I added real coal and a brass D&RGW-style spark arrestor:





I also replaced the old "house at the end of the trestle" at Ophir that I'd scratchbuilt way back in high school (1990?  1991?).  It was inaccurate in a lot of ways because I built it from limited photographs and no plans.  The Banta Modelworks kit is based on the Mike Blazek plans and is much more correct.





And now I can start working on the Ridgway depot kit by Ragg's to Riches again!  Today I finished the first floor:

[CRL]

@Dave V - Stupid question maybe… Is the RPO one of those “standard gauge car on narrow gauge trucks” that were sometimes found on narrow gauge lines? It seems so much larger (taller & wider) than the passenger car behind it.

[Dave V]

@Dave V - Stupid question maybe… Is the RPO one of those “standard gauge car on narrow gauge trucks” that were sometimes found on narrow gauge lines? It seems so much larger (taller & wider) than the passenger car behind it.

No, it's not.  The prototypes were built narrow gauge.  It's taller than the car behind, but not wider.  It's a Labelle kit and they're notoriously taller than the MRGS and Blackstone cars.  I may see if I can at least lower the right height without compromising anything.

I actually have the MRGS short RPO kit, but it's way at the bottom of the to-do list.  This gives me something to run for now.

[davefoxx]

What's with the PRR-style train phone antenna on the RPO?  Just can't get away from PRR/PC/CR, can you? 

DFF

[Dave V]

What's with the PRR-style train phone antenna on the RPO?  Just can't get away from PRR/PC/CR, can you? 

DFF

One end of the car is blank; no end door per prototype.  What you see is a handrail; there’s a three-plank walkway on the other side of the clearstory.  To wit:

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[davefoxx]

Seriously, if you can get that car to sit down on the trucks without fouling, you might be able to make up six scale inches right there.  Check out how the bottom of the two passenger cars are not aligned in your photo.  If you can even get a little lower than the bottom of the other car, that might make up enough difference that you have to do no other modifications to the body (which I don't know how you would do without destroying the car).  Nobody says that the tops of the cars have to be in perfect alignment, but if you can get them closer, they won't be objectionable.  That said, what does the prototype look like?

DFF

[Dave V]

The cast LaBelle bolsters will need to be ground down to lower the body. By the time I get to that I may as well build the MRGS kit. For now I have other projects higher in the queue.  FWIW this RPO has no window glazing (no way to remove the roof without damaging it) and no brake wheels. But the price was right!  It’ll do for now. Thanks for your interest though!

[k27463]

To fill in a few of the RPO questions:

The Postal Service had a standard spec floorplan for RPOs with a few different options; one was a 30' RPO section, one was a complete 60' RPO.  Most standard gauge cars would use one of these (hence a lot of 60' full RPOs, some 85' RPO/bags with a 25' baggage section, and some RPO/bags with a 30' RPO section and 40' baggage).  This spec included a height guideline which was a bit taller than the standard narrow gauge car, hence the narrow gauge RPOs' height.

In addition, for security purposes RPOs typically did not have a path through the car; though I haven't seen anything similar on standard gauge equipment, D&RGW equipped their RPOs with rooftop walkways to travel from the locomotive to the train.  This disappeared in the later rebuildings, along with the cars' platforms.

[Dave V]

[dcarrell8]

What a fantastic looking model!  Did you get the full length version or is it compressed?

~Dennis

[Dave V]

What a fantastic looking model!  Did you get the full length version or is it compressed?

~Dennis

The same kit includes parts for either the full or shortened version.  I'm building the shortened version.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The same kit includes parts for either the full or shortened version.  I'm building the shortened version.

That's the short version??

[Dave V]

That's the short version??

Indeed.  Thousands and thousands of shingles...but it's still a long way from done.

Intentional anachronism here...  I chose to build the original wood plank platform instead of the replacement concrete slab platform (no one's exactly sure when that change happened) that was there during my era.  I think the wood platform is more visually appealing.