Sunday, March 24, 2013

Some Progress

Dear friends of the Rose Gulch and Portland Railroad.  It has really been a long time since my last post.  Sorry for the gap, but life does move on.  There have been a few changes.  The yard has been finished, save scenic work.  In the above picture you can see (left to right) the two main lines and the six yard tracks.  All turnouts are controlled by the use of Tortoise Switches activated from the control panel.


The track is composed of dual gage HO/HOn3 track around the periphery with a 2% grade up to the back side of the layout.  There is a long siding up here in the middle.  At the far right you can see there is a "Y" which allows turning whole trains around as needed.  There is a narrow gage spur off the upper track which will lead to mining/timber areas.  The far side of the "Y" will connect via a shelf and bridge to the other layouts on the same floor.  Thus it will be possible for us to make very long runs and all will have use of the "Y" to turn around.

As you see in the above picture, the mountain is not finished yet.  On the left see the track leading off to the "Y" and the HOn3 track leading through the mountain and around this side.  On the lower level there is what looks like a tunnel entrance, but is actually just a spur for storage.  The track to the left of the tunnel actually goes through a tunnel and comes out in front of the mountain just at the start of the yard.

This gives you some sense of the length of the yard.  If you look closely at the main lines on the lower level on the left you will see a crossover.  This allows trans on the lower level to turn around without going up to the "Y".  All the track except on short common section in the lower area is standard gage, thus the HOn3 trains cannot access this area.  Only the track you see on the far left (upper area) and the far right is dual gage.


Here you can see the other end of the layout, with the control panel located about mid-way.  The far end will be city when I get around to building it.  The track and a couple of turnouts still need to be installed in what will be streets.  The wall behind the layout will eventually be blue and the fascia at the back (only partially installed until scenic work is finished) that is presently painted blue may get treated with scenic backdrop ... but that is a long way off and a lot of saving-up.



You may have noticed a lot of SP&S equipment.  It seems that the Rose Gulch got bought out, still retaining its distinctive look, but surrounded now with SP&S and the roads that will eventually swollow even it.

Model Railroad Trestle from Western Dominican Friars on Vimeo.

I almost forgot ... did you notice the trestle??  This magnificent structure was created by a friend, removing the Styrofoam  2% incline and replacing it with all those individually made bents.  The above video gives you a feel for it.  Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this little visit.  I hope to have more in the future.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

NIce post! I have have passed the link on to a rail fan.

--A