Is the East Valley Idea "really" dead....???

No, apparently not...  I was playing around with the 11x13 foot grid design in Microsoft drawing and painting and after creating a fairly decent one for the Coast Line, I then went for something in the "East Valley" theme, but with both the SP and WP in it.  I had no master plan or idea, or "layout design elements" in mind... just started doodling in the design and added this, deleted that, adjusted this, redesigned that......and here 'tis!

This is what I had in mind for a combined SP-WP themed East Valley layout.   For now, I won't go into details, and labels, and description boxes -- what line is which and that kinda stuff.  Suffice it to say that I decided to add a small switching area in the layout center that would, or "could" represent a subsidiary line of one of the big Class 1's.  Well, that ought to give it away to anyone that knows the area!

Anyway, it's got some key "signature" elements of the area.  One is a lumber / planing mill to handle all sorts of wood products-related freight cars (and a great place for a "scale smell" generator for that fresh-cut green wood smell, eh?   And of course, there's room for fruit packing sheds, agricultural dealers, and perhaps a rice mill.  I just can't seem to rid myself of using a grain elevator and sheds and bins on a layout, no matter what it is supposed to represent!

You'll note that there's a working interchange track between the Class 1's...and a close-by runaround track on each main so that engs can get on the "right end" of an interchange car or cut of cars.  The railroad that has the "subsidiary" switching line on it has more potential for having a local switch engine / road switcher operation, and indeed on one side of the "diamond" crossing there's a small engine service / tie-up track.  One thing I forgot now that I have transferred the work from drawing to paint mode (and thus can't easily change things) is an aggregates-loading industry, for some little short covered hoppers full of rust spots, dings and dents, and heavily weathered. 

There's plenty of room I think for scenery...some hilllock coming down to track level that would blend nicely into a painted backdrop featuring the Sierra foothills and perhaps, a hazy Mt. Shasta way off in the distance.  looks like the subsidiary and both mains should cross a river over in the middle left portion - the small line on a wood trestle, one mainline/sdg using a thru truss, and the other main/sdg on a lower deck girder design.  I also wanted the chance to have a "main drag" with crossing flashers (upper right corner), and some wider open spaces (lover edge) where I could have an orchard or something like that. 

The staging would be somewhere "under" the main layout level, which means they'd be a double ended design, and a grade on the visible layout (very slight) to create the needed offset in elevation.  Remember that this layout will be built at a height that suits my operating it, so a "nod under" scheme to get from one "operating pit" to the other will not be a major problem for me.  It's not like the level of the layout is 36 or 40 inches above the floor, and you'd have to groan and creak and crack the body doing a limbo under the layout!  And the "underneath" staging tracks would be pretty much accessible directly from the side.  Certainly not conducive to switching out trains by hand between "sessions," but I'd be more inclined to bring the "used" consists out to the open area and swap out, and then run the "new" consists back into the staging areas.  I don't think that "surround staging" would work on this size layout without cramping the visible portion, reducing that generous 30-36 inch mainline radius curves, and creating a problem in blending the "foreground background scenery" with the "background scenery," with the "hidden staging tracks" in between them.  And how to get from the layout to staging visually?  Well, the town end would use the tired old but dependable overhead highway bridge (maybe old highway 99 concrete design?), and the "open scenery end (lower right) would use bigger hills, more oak trees and deepening cuts at an angle that would "hide" the openings to the staging.

And, there's that diamond crossing.  I just have to have some sort of signaled element on the layout, with an attendant CTC board, US&S knob and lever design.  With just approach signals and the home signals themselves, I could maybe afford a prototypical signaling system set up that would work.  The DCC control probably would help out in that respect.

Yeah, it's a small layout, mainline runs aren't all that long (but at least visible for three runs of the sides of the room!) and it's a bit tight in operator access for more than three (probably two!) people, but I'm not envisioning operating sessions.  I'm after a layout that takes me back to my "youth" in terms of locale and railroads, gives a variety of rolling stock, and is the size that I could maybe even get it up and running not long after a room this size becomes available in the place we settle in after retirement. 

Any comments welcome.

The LAST frame of K64 from Dwayne's to me....

Evidently thay ran out of the processing chemicals before they could finish my last roll....

Well, let's put it this way.... I had gotten to frame 15 on the roll, and then it was time to send it to Dwayne's to beat the deadline!  How embarassing - the last shots of damned wide nose GE's and EMD's and unit coal trains!  Oh well, at least I can wear my souvenir "End of an Era" tee-shirt that they produced.

Seriously, in answer to the "contest" in the previous couple of posts about how many more frames of that 10 roll inventory of K64 that I'd shoot before the end of the era, the answer is

NONE

I believe we had a winner, Wes Carr of the Great Nation of Texas.  He gets (got) a box of fresh, unused K64 for his troubles.  Actually, he requested a roll for posterity well in advance of the end of K64, and said he'd shoot it in memory of film photography.

Here's a link to my RR Photos Archives Page that shows the actual last sequence of pics taken with my last roll of K64 that was used....

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=64809


Enjoy!

And the Contest is on....

You can ignore the blather in the last post about me using up my stash of Kodachrome film.  Didn't happen. What will follow now is the "run for the end" of K64....  If you didn't get my "carpet bombed" email explaing the rules, email me at      pdflynn@aol.com

Now, back to cleaning up the garage so the truck can join the car inside as we hit the teens consistently each nite...

PDF

Does anyone want some "fresh" Kodachrome 64?

They'll be yours for the asking, plus shipping costs via Priority Mail.  They are all 36 exposure "Professional" K64, with fresh dates into 2011 (what were they thinking?), and have been stored in the proper temperature range since being bought last year. 

The catch?  Well, ya have to get them loaded into your camera, shoot the stuff, and then get it to Dwayne's Photo Service in Parsons KS by December 30th in order to get it processed before the K64 film and its associated services is GONE.

I have nine rolls left, got enough film after the big bombshell from Kodak last summer to handle what I thought I would need by 12-30-10, but just ain't had the opportunity, gumption, or good weather to get out and shoot it.  And looking forward to the next three weeks, it won't happen.  So, I'll finish the last 20 or so shots on the roll in the Canon now, and that'll be it.

If you are interested, drop me a line to my email at    pdflynn@aol.com  and the first person(s) that wants some can get it... as I said- just for the cost of me shipping it Priority Mail to them so you have time to use it!

Happy times aren't here anymore for me and picture taking.  Except for the digital Canon mini, and there will be more of those shots of the "layout" coming to this blog very soon.

Then, and now

  FIRST ARE A SERIES OF SHOTS TAKEN IN LATE 2009 AND EARLY 2010 AS THE DOUBLE DECK LAYOUT OF THE MARVELOUS MIDWEST AND THE GREAT RIVER REGION WAS BEING DOWNSIZED AND THEN TAKEN OUT COMPLETELY

Recycled layout, indeed. The notation indicates that this portion was originally built down in Fort Worth TX over twelve years ago.  When we moved to Kansas City in 2000, it was one of the surviving sections (three or four) that made the move in layout "sarcophagus" boxes, and reassembled into the KC double-decker design.

Here's a look at the LONG side of the layout space, not long after I removed the helix and lower levels.  The idea was to retain the upper level as the layout, with staging off to the left behind a backdrop, and then a small crew change town type of situation along the long wall, with a branch taking off in front of the backdrop and going over to the left.

From up on the stairway leading from the front porch landing, this is what greeted you if you descended inside of ascending to the living area.  This pretty much shows the footprint of the double deck layout, with the exception of the area where the helix went, and that's directly in front of the stacked paint cans.  The helix structure started just about where the carpet gives way to the wood floor laminate (in front of the trash bag), and came back towards the photographers' location. The left hand wall of the layout was a bit over 9 feet, the rear wall about 10 and one-half feet, and the right hand wall a bit over 23 feet.

Looking down the shorter of the two "long walls," you can see the two layout levels.  The lower level staging yard, Bensenville, is located to the left of the backdrop, and the upper level staging, Mason City, is above it in behind the backdrop too.  Above Mason City staging was another long shelf of six tracks (dead-end) that was added to increase "on-rail" car capacity of the whole thing.  Kind of a dis-jointed fiddle yard.

Here's looking down the "Bensenville" storage tracks that occupied the shorter wall, behind the backdrop, on the lower layout level.  It was three tracks, each capable of holding a train of about 12 to 13 total feet in length, plenty long enough for me, and matched up the length of the shortest siding on the layout, Clearwater.

One of the scenic breaks on the remaining upper level of the layout was going to be Calmar Creek.  It has a lower deck steel girder bridge on the mainline portion that was in the rear...it snuck into staging in the middle of the picture, and coni\tinued into the town towards the right.  The branch had a wooden trestle. 

NOW, WE MOVE AHEAD TO 2010 AND WHAT'S BEING BUILT IN THE "SPACE DOWNSTAIRS..."

Pay no attention to the man behind all the dust, debris, half-completed projects and unfulfilled dreams of layouts.  This was taken early November, as the outdoor projects for 2010 were just about done, and I could focus indoors, specifically the model railroad.

How serious is the Mighty Oz about getting model railroad progress back in gear in 2011?  Well, we've got the NMRA calender already tacked on the end of the diorama. 

Behind the calender, well, the makings of a layout, diorama, test track or whatever this is going to evolve into!  Where the Bensenville staging and Bluffdale branch was, you can the desk, files, storage drawers, work bench, paint spray booth and lots of crap sitting around.  Let's see....the "benchwork" of this has been in for about 7 or 8 months, he fascia top and bottom temp tacked in place for about 5 months, and just this week, I was starting to install the lighting.

This is the shorter side of the layout, with the workbench, storage bins and shelves and drawers of all types evident, along with the air filter for the spray booth.  Dangling down are the to-be-installed lights for the diorama.  they are also able to be used for hanging cats that didn't learn from their previous destructive run along the previous layout over two years ago that forced me to look at the whole deal down here.

Oh, here's what else occupies the downstairs area.....a medium sized wide screen TV and sound stuff, more drawers for all sorts of model railroading-related stuff, and hey, there's a Wii sitting in the dusty shelf below the screen. 

















   
 




      










  


  



  



   



  



 





 









Oh crap, I've fallen into another politically correct habit!

Politically correct... maybe that's the wrong subject to start the very first blog entry on MY OWN BLOG off with. Friday afternoon November 12, 2010.  A rainy cold afternoon here in the northern parts of Kansas City, MO.

There won't be any talk of politics on this blog.  Hopefully no arguments, name calling or taking cheap shots at others in their email domains. I guess I'll have to learn to become a hard-ass blog administrator and figure out to delete all the stuff that I don't want on my blog.  Who said this was a democratic blog?  This is MY blog.  If you don't like it, please (as Don Imus would say if he was a blogger) "SHUT UP AND GET OFF MY BLOG"

I guess blogs really are a bit passe (pronounced   PASS'-A,  since I don't know how to add little foreign language marks above the letters yet..), but I'll start out here.  Facebook, YouTube, InMyFace, PleaseReadMyCrapCauseIHaveNoFriends, and other socially relevent locations will have to wait.

Excuse me now, I've had enough of my first blogging experience on my own blog.  You'll just have to wait til I have absolutely nothing else in life to do for a few minutes and decide to post some more.