Topic: Am I ready? To: Everyone For the last several weeks, I have been busy making plans for the construction of the second copy of the Santa Fe & Cajon Pass in “N” Scale. I learned a lot! With the help of Bob, Sheldon, Hutch, Owen and many others I finished today when I added the buildings along Alameda St. The attached plan is what I have been calling the landscape plan. It shows some building locations and includes pictures of most of the buildings and the key scenery along the tracks in the Cajon Pass. Almost all of the structures are located in the lower left hand corner of the layout. Please note that I have an almost equal number of trailing point and facing point turnouts. That was done on purpose so that the car setout and pickup would never get boring. There will be no structures in the Pass. The terrain is mostly dessert, and not an attractive place to live or do business. Except for those who run the tourist trap near summit. I had a tough time coming up with a suitable Depot for San Bernardino. The one I finally chose is a replica of the Santa Fe Depot that was built in Azusa back in 1946. You can see the photo on the plan. It is the second one down from the words Passenger Station. I’m still looking for some “N” scale Oil Storage Tanks. The ones in the Walters catalog are listed as discontinued. My wife used to work as the dispatcher in that terminal. She arranged for docking of tanker ships and sent tank cars loaded with petroleum products all over the country. In addition to the storage tanks, I would like to find a piping setup for filling the tank cars with the products stored in the tanks. With the exception of the Real Lumber Co., all of my industries are involved in shipping via truck. There are no driveways to the industries, because most of the industrial property will be covered with asphalt paving. That’s enough for now. If anyone finds that I am heading in the wrong direction, please sound off! Here’s a link to the Landscape Plan. The Landscape Plan This is a link to all of the Plans. All the Plans. Thanks to all who helped make these plans as complete possible. GM [ March 20, 2006, 09:43 PM: Message edited by: GM ]
GM: You can make oil storage tanks with PVC piping. It comes in many diameters. I built the two oil storage tanks in this photo from a Helgan kit over six years ago. Stay cool and run steam.... [ March 20, 2006, 10:52 PM: Message edited by: Powersteamguy1790 ]
GM: wow - I'm honored that you'd attach my name to that layout plan! I'm not sure what I helped out with, but thanks any rate! That plan really looks great to me! Looks like it's gonna keep you pretty occupied. Now, I need to get around to figuring out landscaping on my railroad. (As well as a name, purpose, location, etc, etc.)
I was curious about what the buildings would look like in the Industrial area of the Santa Fe & Cajon Pass. The image below shows what they should look like from atop a small hill behind the engine service building. The view looking down Alameda Street from the Dominguez Hills is just about how I remember it. The LA Local Switching District Buildings What do you think, to many? Not enough? GM
Owen, The nice thing about Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) software is the ability to model things in three dimensions. More important is that it facilitates the observation of the project from an almost infinite number of vantage points. You probably didn’t notice, but there is a much better place for the tunnel portal shown in the lower right-hand corner of the rendering. That portal needs to be moved to a point somewhere near the midpoint on the curve leading from the west end of the yard. With the portal placed near the middle of the curve, it will be much easier to form the topography behind the branch line leading to the LA Switching District. This is what it looks like with the portal moved. The LA Local Switching District Buildings II At this time, I envision a slope coming down off of the room wall where it will terminate in the ditch line of the LA Local Track. A continuation of the same slope will become a very shallow swale between the dual mainline leading to the LA Tunnel under the switching district. The soil near the tracks will be colored a dark oily brown color. As we move further away from the tracks, the dark brown will yield to shades of yellow and tan with an intermittent patchy green look. The sparse vegetation will be mostly live oak trees and chaparral with some sandstone boulders that will occasionally show through the soil surface. All of this will be done using Hydro cal and some plaster, with colored pigment mixed in. The industrial site will of course be mostly asphalt paving with a very small green grass lawn adjacient to the front door of each industry. I'm sure looking forward to when I get to that stage of construction. GM [ March 24, 2006, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: GM ]
