Now, I've gone and done it! I just got back from a trip up the Feather River to visit the Feather River Rail Society museum in Portola. It was a great trip, but now I'm in a quandry! Originally, my layout was going to be a small line in the California Central Valley that connects with the WP. After two glorious days in the canyon, I'm wondering if I should forget all that and model the WP proper. My reasons for modeling my own line are this; 1) I LOVE Alco PAs. WP never owned any and I want a set to power my rr's short streamliner. 2) I really don't have enough room to do justice to the canyon. I do think I might be able to use the WP's curving trackage to my advantage on a small layout to make small scenes, kind of the way Mike Dannemann did on his small Rio Grande layout. 3) The WP doesn't have much in the way of online industries in the canyon. From research, I know there were quite a few lumber mills in the area, but the customers I'd like to represent; grain elevators, produce packers, gravel pits are all down in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. I do like to take a railfan approach to operating trains on my layouts, but so few places to switch might get a little boring. 4) Doesn't everyone who models the WP model the Feather River Canyon??? What to do...what to do... John
You mentioned that you don't have room to do the canyon justice... in my opinion, small layouts are one of the absolute *best* ways to give a canyon or river valley scene the very best treatment possible. Why? It is a perfect harmony of available space and prototype fidelity. Small layouts don't have a lot of room for spurs, sidings, industry, or branches. Neither do 500 foot canyon walls! With a small (2' x 6' or so) layout, you could have a breathtaking canyon layout. One of the things that you've probably got to really come to grips with is that you Absolutely Cannot Do Everything. This applies no matter how big your layout is actually, but obviously holds true to smaller layouts. Large layouts get to do several things, some of them well. A small layout really only has room to do a few things badly, or one or two things really, really well. If you chose to model the canyon, with a passing siding midway, maybe a switchback at one end and a helix on the other, you could do it in two feet of depth and have an awesome layout that included staging, and possibly even some switching if you wanted. For the PAs, perhaps you could the UP Overland consist through the canyon, which often had to be diverted off Donner Pass due to weather. Feather River was the natural divert route. If you are interested in (very reasonably priced) professional help developing a plan, contact me off list! Regards, David
I'm staying here in town, just moving to my own apartment. Not sharing a place will give me more room and I'll get to spread my stuff out. Right now, everything is crammed into one bedroom. John
Well, I think I found a place. A friend I work with has a studio cottage on her property that is absolutely huge. I have a space already picked out where the new and improved Western Pacific Third Subdivision will take shape. It still won't be a big layout, but it'll probably be the biggest layout I've attempted thus far, and the first that I'll try and do a prototype area. I went to the GATS show here in town today and bought myself an Atlas GP35 Classic. It's in AT&SF clothes right now, but I have plans to repaint it as WP #3003, the only GP35 to be painted in the "Pumpkin" scheme. John
I've been looking at some of the photos that I took while up in the Feather River Canyon and have come up with some ideas of what I'd like to incorperate into my layout. I'd like to start the layout at a staging yard, representing the WP west of Oroville. Next, Oroville yards with the station and perhaps an engine service facility. From there, I'd like to feature the loop at James and the rail/road bridge over Lake Oroville, Pulga, Tobin, the Keddie Wye with a staging yard for the High Line trains. If I have the room, I might have the Keddie yard, the interchange with the Quincy RR and Williams Loop, finishing the main off with another staging yard for the east end of the line. I'd like to have continuous running, because I usually operate by myself, either with a reverse loop at each end, or better yet, a large oval which means I may be able to combine the Oroville and Portola staging yards. There are other ideas I have running around in my head, mostly scenic areas that I fell in love with on my trip. Of course, this is a lot, and I know things will be dropped as I get moved into my new place and see what real space I have. I'm still very much in the tinkering stage!
Staging is the way to go modeling the WP. Like you said, industry is nil on the 3rd sub. The 4th sub had more industries than the 3rd sub. The 3rd sub was 114 miles long. Lots of curves and very little straight track. Most of the operation possibilities will be in your train meets. Out of curiosity, what era are you going to model? And on a slightly related subject, are you going to Portola Rail Days this coming week end? Greg Elems
I'm modeling early 1970, just before the final trip of the Zephyr. I'd like to have the Zephyr, most of the F7s and an A-B set of FTs, just because...well, I like them! I wish I was going to Portola Days. I was up just last week, and loved the place.
Cool! With that for your cut date, you can model WP's roster very easy. The U23B's and SW1500's are too late, but the U30B's fit as well as the early orders of GP40's. If you do an FTA/B set, get an F3 to complete it. Very common lash up out of Oroville in the late 60's. Greg Elems
I'm hoping for a U30B or two. I'd like to have some BN Inside Gateway traffic as well. That will give me my daily allowance of Alcos or whatever other goodies I might like!
Yes, Inside Gateway traffic was a veritable rainbow from the newly formed BN. Many Alco's would be in SP&S colors with a few in NP and GN. CB&Q GP's would be common too. Also, WP's name sake silver and orange would most prevalent too. Greg Elems
I have a WP video that shows a solid set of Chinese red GP35s in the Feather River Canyon. There may not be a lot a switching, but things would never get boring!
Never boring for visiting power. Besides BN pool power, UP had some pool power show up in the form of SD40's and GP30's, on one train I saw. A UP caboose would tag along once in a while too. Seems to me there was an SP&S C636 offered a while back in N. A good start for BN pool power right there. Just about every type of road unit BN had probably made it down the Feather River canyon at some time or another. Many times they would trade power in the canyon on the high line trains, if not it would go to Oroville and sometimes clear to Oakland. Greg Elems
Anything is possible from what I've seen in photos. GN F45s, BN SD45s in an experimental paint scheme, NP F3s, SP&S Alcos. I'd better plan a BIG staging yard for The High Line!
On a 2x4' layout, your possibilities are limited. On my BN High Prairie Sub, I added what essentially is a double-ended yard, behind a short false backdrop. I have a large one, and shorter, 3-track single-ended staging yard on the other side of the room. I also plan on covering it with a false backdrop. In a 2x4', this could be a challenge. If youadded a simple foot more, you very well could have 4-6 tracks of staging, hidden behind a false, short backdrop. If you did Keddie Wye, one leg of the wye could lead to a tunnel into staging.
John Armstrong came up with a check sheet whereupon the person whose layout he was planning would write down a list of Givens and Druthers. This would include the era, scale, equipment, switching vs. mainline running, amount of track vs. scenery, and so on. Also, if you read a recent issue of Model Railroader, (September 2003 IIRC) you may have noticed the concept of a Montana Rail Link layout. That layout is planned for running through awesome scenery, with staging tracks in the back hidden by backdrop and scenery. I had an N scale layout on a hollow-core door, and expanded it to a 5x9 foot walkin type, tracks laid out in a folded dogbone type. The back tracks were used for staging, and represented both the terminal towns of Paris amd Mt. Pleasant (name of the layout was the Paris & Mt. Pleasant), and emphasized switching from Deport to Talco, TX. Sadly, I no longer have the trackplan for that layout, as that file was lost in the last virus attack on my computer. How much space do you have to work with?
I don't really know at this point. I just moved into a bigger place, but it will be bigger than the 2'x4' layout I have now. I really like the Montana Rail Link layout as well. There was also a layout on a door in MR a couple months ago, based on new England. It was an L shape, with a staging yard on the L. I could probably make it a bit larger, even make it a U shape.
