Heat Wave

We have been having a heat wave here in the San Joaquin Valley this past week with temperatures of up to 110 for several days.  Needless to say, it has been pretty hot in the garage so I did not get much done out there. Not living in the land of basements puts a real cramp on model railroading in California.  I have a room upstairs that is about the same size as the garage space I am using but when we moved in about 6 years ago I was and still am interested in building and displaying HO dioramas so the room is dedicated to that pasttime.  Someday I will post some photos of what's going on in that room.

I put in some retaining walls on the trestle and started to rough in some scenery.  The emphasis is on rough.  I will be refining it in the future.  Right now I am just searching for what looks right and so far this isn't it.

The only other thing I managed to get done this week is a little more hot wire work on the land forms.  I am just working out some general land forms and hope to pull it all together with some plaster and some rock work.  That and a lot of trees and undergrowth should give the effect I am looking for.

I hope to have more progress to report in the future.

Log Loading Area

I spent some time this week figuring out just where the track was going using flex track instead of ready track.  Not much new to see so I won't post any photos of that end of the railroad.  I did, however, do some work on the log-loading area in the corner next to the garage door.  This area is just beyond the high trestle.

The above photo shows the area I have been working in.  The track that comes in from the left and continues off to the right is the main high line.  The train in the foreground has just crossed the trestle and is headed towards the mine.  At that point the railroad becomes a twin-level railroad and the track on the upper level crosses over the yard area that is on the lower level and proceeds to the mine which is also on an upper level.  The track behind the main holds some skeleton log cars and that is to be the log loading area.  The rear track with the gas mechanical engine is the track that will hold the log loader.  More about that below.  The area directly behind the third track is where the steam powered yarder will sit and will be dragging logs into the site.  There will be trees along the back so you cannot see exactly where the logs are coming from but hopefully will give the illusion that they are being dragged from a point where they well felled, deeper in the forest.

This is a photo of Backwoods Miniatures self-propelled log loader kit.  It uses a Bachmann gas mechanical engine as the donor for the drive mechanism.  That explains the gas mechanical in the first photo.  Hopefully when I build mine it will look like the one in the photo.  Well, close anyway.  The space that I have available in the loading area is not large enough to support a haystack loader or any kind of high line rigging so this is my compromise.  The idea is for the loader to pick up a log, rotate 180 degrees and then run along its track to load the log on an empty car.  This way the log cars do not have to be moved once they are spotted until it is time to head for the log dump at the dock.

Here is an overall shot of the area showing the main line below the log-loading area. This line will pass through a tunnel and exit behind the yard on a little higher level and be traveling through a wooded area.

That's it for this week. Hope to do a little land forming in the area of the high trestle in the coming week.

Travel Time

I have not posted for the last two Fridays because Laurie and I decided to attend the National Garden Railroad Convention that was held in Tacoma, Washington, this year.  We visited garden railroads in the greater Seattle/Tacoma area for 5 days and saw some very nice garden railroads.  Although I have no real interest in building a garden railroad I enjoy seeing good modeling in any scale.  A chance to get out of the heat of Central California and visit the Northwest is always a good thing.  It is also nice because Laurie gets to enjoy the gardening aspect of the hobby as many of the railroads have very nice landscaping.

After the convention we decided to drive up to British Columbia and visit some friends.  We stopped to visit with our good friend Dario Le Donne who is the creator of Rail Scale Miniatures.  We had a great visit and while we were there I picked up his latest kit, which is a real beauty.

This is Horwood Bros. and is an incredibly outstanding kit.  You can also order a lighting kit which must be seen to be believed.  Dario has only been in business for a few years but has turned out a line of fine craftsman kits.  Click on Rail Scale Miniatures in the side bar of this blog to visit his website and check out his line of kits.

We also visited Steve and Cecile Tate, two of our favorite people in the hobby.  Steve has an online business called Kettle Valley Trains and has started manufacturing an upscale precision cutter that cuts wood at any angle.

Here is a close up of the cutting blade.  Instead of coming straight down like a chopper, the blade cuts across the wood, slicing it in two which makes for a clean cut.  You can check out Steve's website by clicking on Kettle Valley Trains in the sidebar under favorite sites.

Steve also sold me the Tractor and Logging Repair Shed from SierraWest Scale Models.  This is an O-Scale kit that I will find a place for on my railroad.  I did not plan to have a model of this type but after one look into the box I knew I had to have it.  I have been buying HO kits from SierraWest since the mid-90's when he started his business and have a standing order to buy whatever he makes.  My hobby room has several of his fine kits built into dioramas and they are pure enjoyment to build. This kit is loaded with detail and the crawler tractor in the foreground of this photo is super detailed as is the whole kit.  Once again, you can find his site listed in the sidebar to the right.  One click and you will see some of the nicest kits you have ever seen.

I am back from my trip and anxious to get started working on the railroad again so check in next Friday as I hope to have some new progress to report.