Our first open house! In-ko-pah Railroad

[Ray Dunakin]

We had our first open house for the In-ko-pah Railroad today, and it was a blast! Cris and I both had a lot of fun. Lots of folks from the local club showed up, plus a few friends and neighbors we'd invited. The new canopy made a great place to socialize out of the sun. It'll be even better once we get rid of the old storage shed which restricts the view of the railroad.

One of our friends kindly loaned us her patio furniture and also provided some tasty homemade snacks.

I've been running trains back and forth on the stretch of completed track for about three weeks now without a hitch, so naturally there were a few derailments and stalls today. I guess that's the model railroading correlary to Murphy's Law: Nothing goes wrong until there's an audience. ;)

No new pics yet, but hopefully I'll have some posted soon.

[Anonymous]

Ray....sounded like a blast!!!! Did you note the spots of derailments? And now your wife will get your credit card and get some patio furniture

And now back to the old storage shed, ask around to see if any one wants one, had one and did that and boom it was gone! The ole metal guys wanted it for scrap. Free take down

I am very glade to hear all went well and was enjoyed by all.

William 

[Mike Dorsch CJ&M r.r.]

Glad your first open house went well Ray . We are gonna have our first one July 29th . I'm looking forward to it . Hope ours go as well as yours .

[Ray Dunakin]

I've posted a few new photos of our In-ko-pah Railroad. Unfortunately, I was so busy during the open house on Saturady that I forgot to take any photos of the event!

The first photo shows the engineer I made by modifying a Railroad Avenue "Wayne" figure:

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=3009006&a=32116967&p=75644691

Click through to the rest of the pics from there, or go here to see the entire album:

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=3009006&a=32116967

The second photo was taken from the roof of our house. The last time I took a photo from up there, I still had not completed the cliffs at the rear of the layout, nor installed the concrete viaduct, canyon, etc. So there's a lot of progress in this new photo.

Next are a couple pics of a train on the layout, crossing bridges, going through tunnels. Last is a rather blurry shot of my scratchbuilt ore bin. I'll replace that later with a sharper pic, but this one will have to do for now.

[kimbrit]

Very nice Ray, very nice indeed. A RR to be proud of. You must have muscles in places that can't be mentioned after building that!!

Cheers,

Kim

[altterrain]

Thanks for your comments on my railroad, Ray. I have enjoyed watching the progress on the artistry of the unusual terrain of your railroad. I have to say, just looking at all that rock makes that disc in my lower back flair up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have wanted to ask what is the history and concept behind your railroad and its name?

 

-Brian 

[Ray Dunakin]

altterrain wrote: "I have wanted to ask what is the history and concept behind your railroad and its name?"

The name comes from the In-ko-pah Mountains and In-ko-pah Gorge in the southeastern corner of San Diego County. It's an Indian word but I haven't been able to find out what it means.

My railroad was inspired, in part, by the Carrizo Gorge section of the of the San Diego & Arizona RR. This is a huge desert canyon between the In-ko-pah Mountains on the west and the Jacumba Mountains on the east. The SD&A passes through here on the way down into the Imperial Valley. It's extremely rugged, rocky terrain (one of the world's largest regions of exposed granite) and there are numerous tunnels and trestles. Many of the trestles are on the side of steep slopes, where it was impractical to cut or fill. There are no significant mines in the area, nor any settlements. The SD&A simply passes through.

I wanted to model a railroad in this type of extreme desert terrain, but I also wanted lots of mines, old buildings, and even some abandoned mines and ghost towns. I've spent many years exploring the Mojave desert and Nevada, and I love all the old mines and mining towns I've found there. I needed a way to include these things in my layout.

So... in the imaginary world of the In-ko-pah Railroad, history and geology are a bit different. The rugged mountainous terrain of the Jacumba and In-ko-pah area is much more geologically diverse and richer in minerals in my world than in the real world. This resulted in a small mining boom at the turn of the 19th century, and a bigger mining boom a few years later. The narrow gauge In-ko-pah Railroad was built to serve the many remote mines and the settlements that cropped up around them. Some of these mines produced tungsten and other essential materials which kept the mines, and the railroad, operating through WWII. Tourists drawn to the spectactular scenery and a popular hot springs resort helped keep things going during the lean years when many of the mines played out. Old steam locos and rolling stock were put back into service as an added attraction for tourists. In recent years, the rising price of gold and improvements in mining technology have made it possible to reopen some old mines.

That's the history of the In-ko-pah Railroad. :)