Oregon Joint Line N Scale

[nkalanaga]

Maybe one of the SDs was having problems? Clogged sanders, maybe?

Maybe some of the cars had been stored too long and the brakes were sticking?

Maybe the Geep was needed somewhere else, and rather than haul it dead-in-tow, someone decided it would be a good chance to train a helper crew, without risking a stalled train blocking the main?

There's always a "prototypical" explanation, as they've done almost everything than can be done, at least once.

I'm sure you already know this, but for those not familiar with the NP, a lot of NP's old stock cars made it into the late 70s, and they actually "modernized" some in the late 60s, removing the roofwalks and shortening the ladders.  They hauled a lot more than animals in their later years, including ties and grain.  Nail plywood over the inside and they worked as well as a boxcar for grain.  The open sides made them perfect for freshly creosoted ties, as the fumes could escape, but the ties were protected from thieves.  I don't know about 36 ft cars, but they had a lot of old 40 ft.

[coldriver]

With work on my lumber mill scene winding down I've been able to start hanging some of the 75' worth of backdrops I purchased from Trainjunkies.com.  The backdrop for this scene was a panorama I took in the Cathedral Rock area of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in August 2015.  I'm pretty happy on the color match - the scenery/backdrop transition is just below the treeline.  Pictured is the Union Pacific Burns Local entering the Northern Pacific siding at Emigrant.   

IMG_5642 by Dean Ferris, on Flickr

[nkalanaga]

I think I'm homesick...

[Blazeman]

I'm pretty happy on the color match - the scenery/backdrop transition is just below the treeline.   

Looks pretty good to me from 3000 miles away. I agree with you on the color match.

fixed quote tag -gfh

[Cajonpassfan]

I think I'm homesick...

Lol, what a compliment that is!
And I agree, splendid! Great job of blending the five D's: the two and the three
Otto K.

[jagged ben]

To put it straightforwardly...

Dean, your layout has the best blending of scenery to background I have ever seen.

[coldriver]

To put it straightforwardly...

Dean, your layout has the best blending of scenery to background I have ever seen.

Thanks for that - but I should confess that I only have about photos hung for about 10% of the layout.  The rest is still my rather iffy artwork 

[coldriver]

Now that I'm nearly finished hanging my 75' of photo backdrops, I put together this video chronicling my trials and tribulations and (fortunately) successes. 

[SSW7771]

Now that I'm nearly finished hanging my 75' of photo backdrops, I put together this video chronicling my trials and tribulations and (fortunately) successes. 

Nice video! Can't wait to see the new backdrops in person. 

[Blackout]

Amazing. Id like to see a massive articulated cruising through that scenery.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Those backdrops look awesome, great job with the video also.
Rod.

[superchief]

Damn!!!!....... Dean, the photo backdrops are the bomb, and your color matching is spot on. I cannot wait to visit your layout again!!!! Great job, Gordon

[coldriver]

2017-07-09 20-55-47 (A,Radius8,Smoothing4) by Dean Ferris, on Flickr

Since I've been taking quite a few Helicon photos lately I thought I'd post some scenes from the OJL that I don't think I've shared here.  This is the town of Silvies, Oregon which is meant to be a classic small railroad mountain crew change town similar to Avery, ID on the Milwaukee, Dunsmuir, CA on the SP, Lillooet, BC on BC Rail, Portola, CA on the WP, and Huntington, OR on the UP.  As is typical of eastern Oregon most of the structures are wood and towns are somewhat spread out since development came after the arrival of the automobile.  I've tried to keep a somewhat believable (by model railroad standards) ratio of residential to commercial structures (there's an additional house just out of view).  Besides being a crew change point Silvies is also a base for helper operations and a gathering yard for a handful of locals.  In this scene Northern Pacific train 656, which originated on the Western Pacific at Stockton, CA, is pulling out of the visible south staging yard called Harney and into Silvies Yard where tonnage will be reduced and a helper added for the 1.8% climb to Snowline. 

[wazzou]

Awesome Dean!  You're achieving everything you have set out to do.

[nkalanaga]

Silver and Orange WP GP-35s were a common sight in Pasco in the mid 70s.  I don't remember seeing a GP-40, but they were probably there as well.  Certainly looks like the trains I remember at the time.

Just one thing stands out, though.  If the 4th car is an NP GS gon woodchip conversion, it probably should be almost as tall as the chip car in front of it.  All of the pictures I have show the extension to be about 1/3 taller than the original gon's sides, rather than shorter.  They all seemed to be plate B cars, though, where many of the GN's chip cars were plate C.

Of course, if it ISN"T an NP chip car, I'll take your word that it's right.  I've seen pictures of the SP sugar beet conversions, and many of them had lower extensions than the NP/GN/SP&S chip conversions.