I finally finished posting a report on my latest adventure, exploring old mines and ghost towns in Nevada and the Mojave desert:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Trip_2014_Part_One.html
Lots of good modeling reference here, especially mines, mills, etc. Railroad-related items of interest include a cabin made from a narrow gauge box car at Buckhorn Mine, and a wooden Las Vegas & Salt Lake RR caboose at Rhyolite. I also got detailed photos of a Skagit B-20 Logging and Loading Donkey, which was being used to operate a steep aerial tram at the Gray Eagle Mine.
Sites I visited this year include:
Viking Mine, CA
Buckhorn Mine, CA
Saline Valley, CA
Gray Eagle Mine, CA
Bunker Hill Mine, CA
North Star Mines, NV
Black Hawk Mine, NV
Silver Gulch Mine, NV
Belleville, NV
Reward Mine, NV
Warner Corral, NV
Gunmetal Mine, NV
Turquoise Bonanza Mine, NV
Simon, NV
Rawhide Ranch, NV
Illinois Mill, NV
Illinois Mine, NV
Quartz Mountain and the San Rafael Mine, NV
Broken Hills Mine, NV
West Lodi Mine, NV
Victory Mine, NV
Buffalo Summit, NV
Knickerbocker, NV
Ione, NV
Pigeon Springs, NV
Sylvania Mountain Mine, NV
Log Spring, NV
Olsen's Folly, NV
Willow Spring, CA
Bonnie Claire, NV
Thorp's Well, NV
Rhyolite, NV
Death Valley Junction, CA
Danby, CA
I've also added a lot of new photos to my Modeler's Resource pages:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Modelers_Resource.html
These are images of weathered wood, metal, steel drums, and much more -- all great reference for modeling and weathering.
Industrial archeology is one of my favorite activities, but mine has all been more or less urban. This stuff is terrific! Thanks Ray for these fascinating images and the extended narrative.
Dave Nelson
Obviouly they handles were an early attempt at developing a "porta-potty". How else would you move it? Pick it up and hug it?
Charlie
Ray.
I thoroughly enjoyed "your trip". I have done a lot of exploring of ghost towns up here in the Great White North as well. Unfortunatly for us up here, the climate is much less friendly compared to the desert when it comes to perserving all this stuff. We arrive at the towns only to find the iron bits left intacked. My son and I had a very weird experence two years ago about eighty KMS in from the nearest paved road. We both look at each other and shrug our shoulders to this day. We were in at a long abandon gold mine (1890s) and well, just think ghost. Both of us just admit we were seeing things though.
So just how high do those rockets get anyway? In high school my friend was very involved with model rocketry and I spent a lot of time helping him look for his Apollo/ Saturn five, three stage model after it came down.
A little further up the road it was a thousand feet straight down. My buddy had to get out and walk over these parts as it terrified him to drive over them. My son stayed in the truck with Dad though and his only comment was "we better not tell Mom about this or show her any pictures". What a guy!
I can go 700KMS on a tank of diesel. When we go up North and go off road exploring, we always have to take Jerry cans with us. Unlike you there is no running back to town to fill up.
Great website you have.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Thanks, Brent! Yeah, the desert climate really helps keep this stuff standing. And not just the dry conditions, but also not having trees growing up everywhere and hiding or damaging whatever's left!
The rockets I fly most often, in single stage configuration, go about 1000' up. The highest I've ever gotten with a larger, two-stage rocket was close to 9000'. Could have gone even higher if I'd put bigger motors in it.