Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

I've not ignored the maintenance angle. For starters, we're spending extra on the HVAC for better filtering. Certainly won't get a "clean room", but I've have been advised by experienced big layout operators that environment is a big factor. The other issue is that for better or worse, we're not too far away from the layout being my retirement "job". It shouldn't be a case of wanting to run for two or three hours, once or twice a week, and each time having an hour or more of track cleaning just to get something to move. I am expecting to run nearly every day, and in the early stages Robyn can help with track cleaning while I tend to the electromechanical nits and track pops.

That's not to say I'm not recruiting. To a certain extent I'm hoping for a "Build it, they will come." I have been putting the word out when encountering visiting railfans around the station, and have received twinges of interest. Did meet an N scaler last weekend visiting from about two hours north of here, and I'm sure he will mention something to his fellow club members about this crazy dude down in Centralia who thinks he's building the layout-to-end-all-layouts in a pole barn. That does remind me, however, that I need to post something at the closest train store. But not yet... we need to have more of the building done and actually start on benchwork before getting the troops riled up.

[packers#1]

One other thought for maintenance angle; will you be running track-cleaning cars in the long trains? In my mind, that would help the upkeep as well, or have other big-layout guys advised against this?

[C855B]

Actually, I'm figuring on a dedicated track-cleaning train with a couple of different types of cleaner cars. I think there was a post or thread here about something similar - a vacuum car, a wet pad and then a dry roller are what I recall. It's our club's local show season, so maybe I can put together such a train for testing on the club layout.

[MichaelWinicki]

Jim Reising had a wonderful article in one of the N-scale mags about his "track cleaning" train.

[C855B]

Contract for roof replacement executed yesterday, work starts Wednesday. Roofer's injury (mentioned above) was fortunately limited to left pinkie, just below first joint.

New bathroom wall is framed, we have floor tile ready to lay, delayed by a couple of days for the leveling compound to set. Once the roof is done we can start deconstructing the mezzanine and making serious inroads raising the ceiling in the layout area.

[C855B]

Un-effin'-believable. We were at the studio today working on the usual, and the contractor showed up while we were there with the metals delivery truck on his tail. Wednesday, just like he said. We are going to get a new roof. Where was this guy three months ago?

I'll try to remember the camera for progress shots.

[C855B]

Roof coming off:



Roof going on:

[C855B]

A bit of research into track alignments in southwest Utah refreshed childhood memories, and what I was thinking as "St. George" should actually be Cedar City, at the end of a stub branchline connecting with the main at Lund. This branch was notable at one time for passenger traffic serving Zion National Park and the surrounding area. I'm still thinking about how to incorporate this branch into the plan, and may not. I've chased the LA&SL between the Nevada line and Provo, and the scenery in the region must be the prototype for plywood prairies everywhere.

[C855B]

Latest trackplan musings:



Notable changes:

- Line sketched from Cima to Ogden. Gary's inspiration to simplify the main from Cima eastward was a great opportunity to feature the Meadow Valley Wash, a not-well-known bit of rough railroading. Many tunnels and bridges on this climb out the Las Vegas valley.

- As mentioned, eliminated St. George. Still have not decided if I'm going to attempt the Cedar City branch. If so, it will junction from the siding between Caliente and Lynndyl.

- Lynndyl. Track splits here for two routes to SLC/Ogden. I'm not that familiar with the western leg, but IIRC it primarily serves the mines southwest of SLC.

- Ogden, a/k/a Spaghetti Junction. Completely fanciful excuse for a complex interlocking and loop-running opportunities. Exact routings remain to be adjusted.

- Ghosted-in the catwalk and observation deck. This uses the new "transparency" feature in AnyRail v5.

Haven't moved Colton Tower and Pomona yet, so no new work on the L.A. end. Inventory currently stands at 200 sticks of 3' flex, or about 19 scale miles of track.

[C855B]

This I think qualifies as "spooky".

The area I call "Ogden" with all the wyes and tracks going everywhere, a design I pulled out of my... uh... imagination bears an uncanny resemblance to a real interlocking in the area, "Grant Tower". I swear, I've never railfanned in the SLC/Ogden area, it's always been a view out the windshield en route to someplace else. But still... 

[packers#1]

When one thinks like the prototype . . . 

[GaryHinshaw]

That's looking pretty wide open now.  If you add a wye track at Daggett (hidden or obscured so as not to break with the prototype too much) you could have some nice desert roundy-round between Ogden and Daggett.  A railfan's delight when you want to just let'em run.

Nice progress on the roof.  The thing that strikes me most about your outdoor shot is the clear blue sky.  I'd forgotten what that looks like...   

-gfh

[C855B]

The roundy-round on the western side is all the way to L.A. The lobe with East Yard is the end of a dogbone section that loops back around, it's just not drawn yet. I can't think an easy way to make that leg of the RR an independent roundy-round without overlapping the loop in the middle or seriously violating the minimum mainline radius.

Set-out tracks! Oooo! Something rarely modeled. You don't have vast expanses of uninterrupted mainline without opportunities to set out B/O cars. I'll have to drop one somewhere.

Roof was finished the next day. We're about to head over to put the new door up on the restroom. In a fit of poor timing, the restroom walls were missing while the roofing crew was on site. Seriously puts the "public" in "public restroom". 

[GaryHinshaw]

I can't think an easy way to make that leg of the RR an independent roundy-round without overlapping the loop in the middle or seriously violating the minimum mainline radius.

I'm lost.  Do you mean the LA leg? Overlapping the loop in the middle of what?  I get the dog-bone, but not the rest of the discussion.

Set-out tracks! Oooo! Something rarely modeled. You don't have vast expanses of uninterrupted mainline without opportunities to set out B/O cars. I'll have to drop one somewhere.

I've got three set-out tracks in TBC: Caliente, Bealville, and Walong, as per the prototype.  It will figure into the ops scheme at the whim of the superintendent.



P.S. Re your comment in Ian's thread about static grass: 4 and 5 mm lengths are on the menu too, but the last time I played with it (~4 years ago) only 2 and 6 mm were available.  2 mm was way too short, and 6 mm looked great.  A mixture will surely be called for.

[C855B]

Oh, it's just a fractional thought about making the L.A.-Daggett portion run as another independent loop. Way things are right now I could poke a return loop through to the hidden access, but doing so would create conflicts with the Ogden-Daggett loop you suggested. But stand by, emerging ideas about a couple of grade separations that might work.

Gotta run to band practice.