"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Pruitt I've been a subscriber to Model Railroader magazine almost continuously since the early 1980's. I joined this forum roughly two weeks after it first went live back in early 2001. To say Model Railroader has been an integral part of most of my life is not exaggeration. Until recently it was just a given that I would always be a subscriber, and since the early 2000's a member of this forum. But at this point (and I'm rather amazed to be saying this) I have no plans to renew my subscription when it expires. Things are that bad. For now this is just a "trial separation." How long it lasts, and whether or not it becomes permanent, is dependent upon Kalmbach. Y'all take care!
I've been a subscriber to Model Railroader magazine almost continuously since the early 1980's. I joined this forum roughly two weeks after it first went live back in early 2001. To say Model Railroader has been an integral part of most of my life is not exaggeration. Until recently it was just a given that I would always be a subscriber, and since the early 2000's a member of this forum. But at this point (and I'm rather amazed to be saying this) I have no plans to renew my subscription when it expires. Things are that bad.
For now this is just a "trial separation." How long it lasts, and whether or not it becomes permanent, is dependent upon Kalmbach.
Y'all take care!
You're tying your subscription to the functionality of the forum? Up to you, of course, however I'll state thats the existence of Kalmbach and its publications is important. The existence of its forums is not.
Whatever happens to the forums, I'll keep subscribing to MR and Trains, keep buying the annual issues that interest me, keep buying the occasional books and tools.
I read other public forums but haven't joined any, even the more heavily moderated ones are depressing due to the atitudes of the posters. Internet forums are making me more and more embarrased to be a model railroader.
I'm taking a sabbatical from Model Railroader, and from these forums. I'll lurk around for a few days, but I won't be posting in at least the near term.
The reason:
Many forum members have complained over the past several years about the continually deteriorating functionality of these forums, but it does not appear to have triggered any concerns or efforts to fix the problems.
This past weekend the forums were essentially "off the air" again. I tried to post an update to this thread (and reply to others), and repeatedly got error messages. I was able to post a new thread about the forums being down again in the "General Discussions" forum, to which several people, including one moderator, replied in support of my post. Kalmbach's reaction was to simply delete the thread.
So for now at least, I'm done. For those who want to follow my layout progress you can find photos of progress on my website, plus the usual monthly updates on my YouTube channel. I'll also still be posting photos and such elsewhere (to the forum which cannot be named).
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
PruittThe session was a great success.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for sharing that excellent operating session with us. I clearly have a lot to learn about model railroading.
You have every right to be proud and happy that your layout attracts such a knowledgable and experienced group of operators. I think we are all impressed!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Mark, I don't know which I am more by your latest post - - impressed or intimidated. I am totally impressed by your layout - - the best on the forum IMHO. But, I am also totally intimidated by your willingness and ability to host such a well attended and well operated session. I would simply lack the courage to assemble and host such a gathering.
My second favorite layout on the forum is my own, but you put me to shame with your efforts and skills.
Rich
Alton Junction
Great layout, great friends, great wife, you're a lucky man! Thanks for the latest report.
York1 John
Thanks guys!
27 October 2023
Since my last update I installed most of the Douglas passing siding. It's connected to the mainline on the west end of Douglas (Casper end), but isn't on the east end yet. For the 24th of October operating session it acted as one of the east staging tracks (holding train 177, the westbound through freight).
On October 14th I installed temporary roundhouse tracks at Greybull. By the 16th I had them wired. With the number of sound locos on the layout, I have to be approaching the point of no return for my DCC system, so I added on-off switches to the roundhouse tracks. Casper roundhouse will also be retrofitted with on-off switches on the roundhouse tracks - someday. Soon I'll have to add power boosters to the layout.
By the end of the day on the 17th I had the Thermopolis skyboard installed, though the seams aren't yet filled. That will be done in the next week or so and the skyboard will be painted.
I spent several days cleaning the train room and the layout in preparation for the operating session, then generated the trains and staged the off-layout ones. Here train 29, the Burlington "Nightcrawler," is sitting in east staging awaiting the session. The loco is a New York Central Pacific. Consider it an early experiment in pool power. Sometime in the next few months (when I screw up the courage) I'll re-letter it for the Burlington.
Here Greybull engine terminal is ready for the session. The locomotives in the background are awaiting decoders and such to make them operational. One of those is a brass Burlington S-2 Pacific, which will be used to pull train 30, the eastbound Nightcrawler. Compare this picture to the earlier one of Greybull. I actually managed to find a home for all that crap piled on the table (that may be the most impressive thing I've done all year!).
Here's train 177 now staged on the Douglas siding / east staging.
On October 24th we had the operating session. A few of the out-of-town guys' wives came with them. All those that traveled to the session and were able to come early went out to lunch at Pizza Ranch before the session. The day became a great social event.
At the restaurant, left to right, we have Kevin from Harriman, WY, just west of Cheyenne about three hours away, Dave from Basin, WY, about 3 1/2 hours in the opposite direction, Steve from Evanston, WY, in the southwestern corner of the state about five hours away (he has his back to the camera), Johnny from Cape St. Francis, South Africa (yes, that's the country of South Africa!), about two days' flying time away, me, Bill from Sheridan, WY, about 2 1/2 hours north (Bill is the NMRA Northern Wyoming Division Superintendent), Debbie, Steve's wife, and Doris, Dave's wife, in the booth. Juying, my wife, is taking the picture.
This shot gives a better look at some of the guys (me included, unfortunately for you). That's Johnny on the left, then me, Bill, Steve and Dave.
After lunch we headed over to the house and down into the train room (except for the wives - they went shopping).
Before we began the operating session I provided a tour / overview of the layout. Here we're standing in the wide aisleway between Powder River and the Wind River Canyon, just beyond the Casper engine terminal. From left to right we have Johnny, who arrived on October 21st and stayed with my wife and I, Bill, Steve, yours truly and Dave.
Then we got started! Kevin is running the first road train of the session, the CNW passenger train from Casper to Hudson. That train is usually a Doodlebug with a trailer, as it was this day.
Johnny, not knowing any better, agreed to be Casper yard operator for the session. Here he starting to break down the westbound reefer train to take it to the icing rack while Kurt, one of the local guys, is bringing his locomotive out of the engine facility.
Johnny proved to be a very accomplished operator and handled the rather demanding task of running Casper yard without a hiccup.
Bill took on the duties of Greybull yard operator. Like Johnny, he proved up to the task, building the two locals that service the Big Horn Basin towns, and coordinating the arrivals from and departures to east and west staging, all of which have to pass through Frannie / Greybull / Orin on their way onto and off of the layout. Dave is watching Bill work, while Steve (partially behind the pole) is bringing the eastbound reefer express up from west staging.
Dave tried to sneak a diseasel onto the layout (an act punishable by severe flogging!), but I caught him and foiled his plan.
A bit later in the session Bill is looking a bit shell-shocked at Greybull while Kevin is running his second train of the day, the Greybull-Worland-Basin turn. Meanwhile Steve, who is handling the Greybull-Thermopolis-Holly Sugar turn, is planning out his switching strategy.
Larry, who arrived a bit later in the session to take on the duties of the Casper local switcher, isn't in any of the photos I took on the 24th.
For the first time we managed to run all trains on the schedule.
The session was a great success. Everyone said they had a great time. Most of the long-distance folks headed for home by five in the afternoon, but Steve and his wife, who were in town for several days, and Johnny of course, stayed after the session for dinner and to visit. The next day we headed down to the Casper train club for a few hours, then Steve and Debbie headed back to Evanston. Johnny and I ran a few more trains that afternoon and again this morning. About 1 pm I took Johnny to the airport (in a dose of Wyoming autumn weather - a snow storm!) for the next leg of his world tour - a visit with his son in the UK, then back to South Africa.
Thanks for coming Johnny! Juying and I really enjoyed having you stay with us, and your participation in the ops session made it something very special. Your suggestions for future sessions will be helpful as well. I hope we can get together again one of these days!
Unfortunately Johnny got caught up in delays by Mesa airlines in Casper, and had to spend the night roaming around Denver airport (missed his fconnection). He won't fly on to the UK until this afternoon.
Having a group of such exceptional people, some from several hundred miles away (and one from half a world away!), come to my house to run trains on my layout is immensely gratifying as well as humbling. These gentlemen are outstanding modelers (much better than me), and many are expert-level operators as well.
Last item for this update - On October 25th my last major purchase of the year arrived - this Nickel Plate Products brass CB&Q R-1 Prairie, all the way from Switzerland! Now I need to convert it to DCC (and letter it). Not sure how I'm going to fit a sound decoder and speaker in that tiny little tender.
The Burlington rostered several R-4 Prairies in the Casper division in the mid-1930's. Unfortunately no one has ever made anything but this R-1 Prairie in HO, so I'll make due with these. I need to acquire several more for the layout. Overall this thing is about the same size as my Life-Like / Walthers Heritage 0-6-0s. It will look great hauling eight or nine car locals around the Big Horn basin. The much larger Mikados will handle the longer, higher-speed through trains.
Mark, this is impressive! Great work. I envy you having that much room and the energy to build a layout to fill the room.
Progress by Bear, on Flickr
It's an astounding amount of work, Mark, but of such great pains and quality. You'll already be quite proud of what you have accomplished. I would be.
Pruitt Rich, it sure is! It's almost five hours. I had to go to Loveland for some work on the Tesla, and Englewood is about an hour further. I combined the two tasks into one trip. 13 October 2023 I just posted a video of the firt train to make the trip around the entire layout:
Rich, it sure is! It's almost five hours. I had to go to Loveland for some work on the Tesla, and Englewood is about an hour further. I combined the two tasks into one trip.
13 October 2023
I just posted a video of the firt train to make the trip around the entire layout:
Sorry Bear, no golden spike (maybe a plastic one...)
Pruitt On October 5th I drove from Casper to Englewood, Colorado (in the south end of the Denver metro area) to pick up styrene sheets for more backdrop.
On October 5th I drove from Casper to Englewood, Colorado (in the south end of the Denver metro area) to pick up styrene sheets for more backdrop.
Absconder by Bear, on Flickr
Thanks Douglas, Dave!
10 October 2023
Yesterday I hit a major milestone.
I completed the Burlington mainline with the installation of the last section of flextrack in Douglas.
That completes a 3-1/3 scale mile squahsed and folded oval around the room. I can be a roundy-rounder now whenever I want!
The continous connection won't be used in operating sessions, and was simply a fallout of the configuration of the routes to the east and west staging yards (which are not yet complete).
Here's the last town on the layout - Douglas. Neither the siding nor the industrial spurs are in yet. Most of the siding will be installed in the next couple days, but I need to build another turnout at the far end of the town on (left side of the photo), and that won't be done before my next operating session on October 24th. For that session I'll use the siding as another track in east staging.
On October 5th I drove from Casper to Englewood, Colorado (in the south end of the Denver metro area) to pick up styrene sheets for more backdrop. I got four sheets, which will do most of the rest of the railroad. I added cap rails to the top of the support posts I installed a few weeks ago in Thermopolis in preparation for installing the styrene.
Hopefully I'll get the styrene installed before the session, but I doubt I'll get it painted.
Another excellent video Mark! I like what you have done with the Virginian car and the reefers.
PruittToday I started on subroadbed for Douglas.
Thanks Mark, I've been wanting more....
- Douglas
Thanks Dave, Bear!
I posted my latest layout update video yesterday:
hon30critterI'm glad that you were able to save the stock pens!
Stock pens by Bear, on Flickr
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” - Douglas Adams
PruittThe last couple weeks have seen progress and a near disaster.
I'm glad that you were able to save the stock pens!
Thanks John, Tin Can II!
26 September 2023
The last couple weeks have seen progress and a near disaster.
At the end of the last update I was working on the lead into West Staging. Because of it's location under Casper, it would be very difficult to build the lead in place, so I built it in the open and mounted it later. Here's the final section of subroadbed that leads to the staging yard itself, ready for track. It's late on the 10th of September.
On the 11th I added track, then worked the new section under Casper and mated it to the already-placed section under Douglas.
I had the section sitting on plastic bins for temporary support, but I crawled under Casper and installed the permanent supports a couple days later. I was very careful to set the grade properly on this track, since it will be hard to work on later.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could sit comfortably on a step stool under the layout without being hunched over. It made installing the roadbed supports much easier than I thought it would be.
On the 15th I backed a long train down the entire lead to make sure the trackwork was up to par. The yard, which I'll build in the garage and then move into place in sections, will start just behind the waycar (caboose) to the right of this photo.
If you look close, you can see where the pre-attached feeders are dangling just beyond the second support from the camera. These will be attached to the Staging power buss, which I haven't run under Casper yet. I'll have to do that soon.
With that done, I turned my attention to the Powder River stock pens. It was time to add dirt to the base and finish the scenery in this area.
First I had to fill in the gap between the edge of the base and the fascia. I did this by soaking paper towels with diluted glue and putting them in the gap.
Next I misted the pens with water and sprinkled on the powdered grout, then misted it with some more water. Everything looked real good at this point.
A couple hours later I went back into the train room to see how the pens looked, and got this nasty shock.
The water had twisted and warped the stripwood in the pens a bit, and made the foamcore base curl up drastically! It was significantly worse than it looks in this picture.
This was NOT GOOD! For awhile I was thinking all those hours I spent building the pens had gone completely to waste. I thought I would have to start all over again.
I removed the pens from the layout and set them on the library table to dry out for a couple days. Here you can better see how badly warped everything is, and when I took this shot it had flattened out quite a bit from where it was earlier.
To top it off, at several points the fence posts had come loose from the base and lifted up. You can see that clearly in the fence sections closest to the camera.
I considered lifting the pens off the base (hopefully) in several pieces, and then trying to rebuild them on a new base. But I decided to try putting the entire thing on a new, more solid base first, to see if things would flatten out. What did I have to lose? At worst, I'd have to go back and take it all apart anyway.
I cut a piece of Masonite to the same size as the foamcore base and gave it a couple coats of diluted Modge Podge to seal it. Here the second coat is just starting to dry.
On the 23rd I sprayed the masonite panel with Supper77 adhesive and stuck the foamcore down onto it. I eft it with some weights on it for a couple days.
The pens are still a bit twisted in a few places, but the base is flat again. I deepened the recess in the pink foam on the layout to account for the thicker base and placed the pens in place again. I still need to straighten some fo the fence sections and glue the posts back down, but it looks like it will be usable without a total rebuild after all.
This is where it's at right now.
While I was dealing with the stock pens debacle, I also worked on the pink foam in Wind River Canyon. I started on the 20th by trimming the fascia to rough final shape with a Roto-Zip.
Here's how the canyon looked after the rough trimming.
Then I broke out the hot wire cutter and began shaping all those foam blocks. I started with the newly-added Tunnel 3.
Once that and a few feet of the canyon wall were shaped, I went back with a Surform tool to rough up the foam so plaster cloth will have something to grab on to.
Then I continued right on around the end of the peninsula with the hot wire cutter.
Then the Surform tool again. Sure is making a mess on the track and on the floor!
After vacuuming up all the pink foam chunks and "de-fuzzing" the fascia edge, the canyon now looks like this.
The next step here is to add plaster cloth, then a layer of Hydrocal.
But that will be a few days. Today I started on subroadbed for Douglas. I have an Operating Session scheduled for 24 October, and my goal is to have the mainline complete through Douglas so it can tie into East Staging at Orin.
Mark: Thank you for posting pictures of your excellent modelling.
As always, amazing work, Mark! Thanks for posting the progress.
Thanks Douglas!
10 September 2023
Last layout photo update I posted was 22 August. I've been doing a lot since then.
I'll start with the Rocky Mountain Drilling area.
I'd weathered the houses and the industry. Then I started messing with lighting. I added a couple LEDs to the brown house (the one with the porch). Best night shot I could get with my cellphone camera (the only still camera I have) is this one:
It left an obvious dead space between RMD and the lit house, so I went back and added LEDs to the white house that faces front. I figured the thick resin walls and exterior paint on the house would stop any light leaks, but boy, was I wrong!
I pulled the house off the layout and painted the inside walls of the roo with the LEDs a dark grey. That pretty much did the trick.
All I needed to do now was balance the intensity of the LEDs a bit. For that I added resistors of varying values to the LED leads. Here's how my LED driver with wiring looks now:
This is attached to an L-girder under Casper. I'll need to move it slightly to make room for the west staging track that will pass under here right at the left side, as it turns out.
After adjusting the brightness of the buildings, here's how it looks. The brown house throws some light onto the backdrop, but in person your eye edits that out, so I probably won't go to the trouble of trying to add baffles to block that.
It looks better in real life than in these photos - a combination of both camera limitations and my meager photography skills.
There was one more thing the area sorely needed, though - some overhead lighting for daytime. The area is tucked under the upper deck curve leading into Hudson, so it sits in shadow. I added an under-counter light to brighten up the area, and a switch (the one on the right below) to the fascia to control it. The switch on the left controls power to the outlets the wall-wart(s) is/will be plugged into for the LED lighting. The switch on the right has been replaced with a dimmer, but I don't have a shot of that.
Here's how the area looks with the light at full brightness. Pretty intense. The dimmer helps with that.Before I took this shot I added some additional grasses in the pipe yard and along the road.
Final shot of the area, finished for now. As time goes on I'll add additional clutter to the pipe yard, and finish the chain link fence around the front of Rocky Mountain Drilling.
I also finally tied in the Cody branch (the track with the helix I installed in December of last year) to the Frannie end of Greybull. Took all of about an hour to do that. I still need to gap the tracks so that the power switch on the swing gate (which is just out of view to the right) will cut power when the gate is open.
The biggest project I've tackled is building up the foam underlayment for Wind River Canyon landscaping. With the fascia all in place around the end of the peninsula I was able to continue that long-stalled project (last work I did on that area was around a year ago).
Here are the first new pieces of pink foam installed above what will be Pink Tunnel (the prototype train crews' name for the real tunnel) on the layout.
I trimmed the foam chunks to roughly fit against the curve of the fascia. The wide pieces you see here are to provide a solid support over the CNW line for the foam that will be stacked above the area.
I also went back and added the missing tunnel, Tunnel 3, a bit farther south in the canyon.
Then it was just a matter of cutting and stacking foam. Here's a few in-progress shots of that task:
Here's where things stand now.
In the next few weeks I'll start carving the new foam and trim the fascia down to its fina height to about halfway around the end of the peninsula. The bulk of the canyon will be ready for plaster cloth, hydrocal and final finishing. That will take a lot of rock castings! The Thermopolis end needs yet more foam added, but I have work left to do at the south end of Thermopolis (like adding a turntable) before I can do that.
Speaking of Thermopolis, over the last few days I've added the backdrop vertical supports to that area. That was a bit more involved than I expected, thanks to some not-so-forward-looking work I'd already done to the benchwork - notabley the track power buss wiring. The green wire in this shot was right where the backdrop supports needed to attach to the joists.
I moved it to the right (in the above shot) a bit and then had room to attach the supports.
The supports will be capped with a horizontal 1X2 for backdrop attachment, so they had to all be the same height. That was pretty easy to do using level as a stop at the top. I also used a ruled along the Thermopolis baseboard to position the supports in a line.
Then it was just a matter of clamping a support into position from under the Wind River Canyon side of the peninsula (had to bend like a pretzel to reach some of these!), get up off the floor and walk around to the Thermopolis side to check how far off of vertical the post was, then go back around, crawl under the benchwork again and make some adjustments, then check again. For soe of those posts I did that four or five times! I walked about two miles back and forth to get all those posts lined up and straight.
All that effort was worth it though - here the supports all installed and ready for the capping 1X2s:
Now I need to drive back to Denver (about 300 miles) to buy some sheets of styrene for the backdrop.
I've also spent some time the last few days extending the subroadbed for West Staging. In the first shot you can also see the dimmer I replaced the switch for the light over Rocky Mountain Drilling with.
Staging is going to be more difficult to install than I was expecting. From this point forward I'll build the subroadbed in the garage and add it in subassemblies. When I get to the yard throats I'll build those completely in the garage, then assemble them in final position under Casper. NOT looking forward to that job!
And as if this update wasn't far too long already, I've also been adding additional rolling stock to the layout. Here's a few samples of the 13 freight cars and waycars I've added.
This is one of the oldest (in prototype years) cars on the layout - A truss-rod boxcar. This is a LaBelle kit built and custom lettered by a guy who was thinning out his collection when I was just lucky enough to be there. Too old for interchange service by my era, this car will be limited to running along the Cowboy Line between Casper and Lander.
Here's a waycar also custom lettered for the Wyoming & North Western (a Chicago & North Western-owned railroad that built the Cowboy Line from Casper to Lander. That railroad was absorbed into the CNW in 1920, but in my world a few pieces of the W&NW equipment were somehow missed and can still be seen running in their original livery). This was done by the same guy that did the boxcar.
Here's an express boxcar from that very same guy. This is an Athearn RTR car I added Kadee sprung trucks and couplers (which I always use), then weathered the car.
And there's this reefer, which is an Accurail car I got, along with about a dozen others, mostly reefers, as a gift from one of the forum members here (I didn't get his permission to say who he is before posting this, so he'll remain anonymous for now). My heartfelt thanks to him for such a generous gesture!
And finally, the guy who was thinning his collection also was getting rid of a bunch of the Walthers Heavyweights passenger cars. The CB&Q passenger cars were the first of the Walthers now-annual name train series. I've been kicking myself for not buying them then ever since.
Now I have the full set - enough to make up two trains for my layout, with the two I already had from buying them on ebay.
The very last thing for now - here's a hobo's-eyes shot of a flatcar being delivered to Rocky Mountain Drilling.
Another great video Mark. The layout is really shaping up.
And speaking from a selfish viewers point of view, thank you for breaking up the construction into sections...benchwork to scenery all mixed together as a variety of topics for the videos.
Thanks for posting, Bear!
I have slacked off a bit on the photo updates - I've been pretty busy on the layout! But until I'm either dead or seriously incapacitated (or abandon Model Railroading alltogether), videos will appear the third of each month. In five years I've only missed two, and that's because I was moving and in between layouts.
I'll post a photo update in the next day or two.
Press Sec. by Bear, on Flickr
22 August 2023
I shingled and weathered that third small house for the area behind Rocky Mountain Drilling.
I added some stacks of drill pipe to the pipe yard and put the house in place. The area looked like this as of August 12th:
I need to add a lot more clutter to the yard. With the addition of some lights in the brown house and sparse grasses along the edges of the road and other places, this area is almost done (for now).
After I took the shot above, I added the signs to Rocky Mountain Drilling and weathered the building. It will go back in place in the next day or two.
After I built the structure, I found a few pictures of the real Rocky Mountain Drilling. I modeled the sign after the real one, but beyond that the structure doesn't look a lot like the prototype, I'm afraid. Maybe at some point in the future I'll scratchbuild a closer version of it.
I spent quite a bit of time the last couple of weeks working on fascia install for Wind River Canyon. I built a pretty stout set of supports for the tall fascia at the free end of the peninsula.
Then on the 17th my friend Dave from Basin came down and helped me with several things around the layout. The near corner of the benchwork in the above shot was far too sharp for the Masonite to curve around it without breaking, so we cut the corner off and installed a 45-degree (more or less) bevel in its place.
As it turned out, the benchwork alterations and fascia support frames took up most of the day he was here, except for one other thing I'll mention below.
On the 20th I was finally ready to add the sheets of fascia around the end of the peninsula. Here it's partly installed:
And in these two shots it's finished. It wasn't easy doing this part by myself, but I managed. Later the top will be trimmed unevenly to the profile of the mountain slopes, and the fascia will be painted green to match what you can see at Casper to the left.
The other thing Dave and I did on the 17th was install the backdrop for Douglas, the lower level in this shot. Track level for Douglas will be about the bottom of the right-most part of the backdrop, where you can't see the skyboard at the bottom.