Welcome to Trainboard and I have to jump on the bandwagon and say great layout. I'd love to see a trackplan as well. You've definately got a wonderful layout and I'm sure you'll have alot of great ideas you can pass on to us here. Post some more pics--don't be shy!
Great to see you over here!! I have admired you layout on the net for a while and followed it on you tube. You have great knowledge to share based on your layout!!
Hi Boxcab... There is a video on my Youtube page specifically on the barge operation. Also, the "overview video" is a tour of the layout and the barge operation is on the branch line at the end of it. The branch starts at the swing-out junction of South Slocan continues up to Slocan City, heads on to the rail barge transfer to Rosebery, then continues up the Kaslo branch to Nakusp. http://www.youtube.com/markdance63 I have also posted a schematic and trackplan in an album I just created at “Mark Dance: N scale Columbia and Western Railway”. Not sure if this is the right way to direct people to the album so if there is a more direct way to “link” to it I would appreciate the instruction. I put some older photos in it as well. The scenery has been extended quite a bit and the Youtube videos are more recent. md
Welcome to the group. You'll find a lot of friendly, helpful people here. Trainboard is my favorite Website for N scale model railroading.
Here is the track plan of the four decks (3 + lower level storage). Level 2: Note there are two swing gates on this level: one at the Slocan River Bridge and one at the Sout Slocan Junction. Both may be readily opened and closed for operation. The design and operation of these gates is included in the "Overview - Mechanical Construction" Youtube video. Level 3: Note there are two gates on this level also but both are generally left closed during operation: one at Fife and a lift gate on the east end of Coykendahl. These gates are also described at the Youtube video. Also note that the design in the Coykendahl/Slocan/Roseberry area is a form of "double mushroom". The isolated Slocan and Rosebery branches on the 2nd and 4th decks are only visible by operators isolated inside the small "room" in the middle of the layout while the climb to Farron is only visible by operators on the outside in the main operating aisles. Level 4: Note: the 4th level is operated from a pull-out 14" step which is actually more like a floor pulled out when required to cover most of surface of the operating area. Two operators can operate in this area - one operating Slocan City and one Nakusp/Rosebery - but any more than two is getting a bit cosy .
Level 0: Hidden Storage beneath Castlegar and the simplified schmatic to try and make sense of it all! Hope that all makes sense. md
VERY nice layout and nice video as well. Welcome to TrainBoard. It's great to have another mountain biker on the site
I'll look forward to your Ponderosas. I'll have to make those myself and have been casting about for a way to do that. 40-50 cents per tree is a lot more than I'm willing to spend. Fortunately, I won't be wanting to make 10-12,000 trees. $4-6,000? :tb-shocked:
If anyone is interested in seeing progress on my layout, I have uploaded a couple more videos showing some new scenery at: http://www.youtube.com/user/markdance63 The new videos are of Eastbound freight 82. I have been experimenting with static grass and also trees from Architrees...let me know what you think of both. thx md
Love the videos, Mark. Thanks for letting us know about them. You have constructed some scenery of truly grand proportions: it's hard to believe the layout isn't bigger than it is. Every time I see your layout I'm impressed by your mock-ups. They really help flesh out the layout. I looked for new trees and I peered to see the static grass, but I'm afraid I was unable to see much with the video. Photos would help in that regard. I did want to mention that I saw some beautiful cedars in the McCormack Ck. watershed. Where did you find those--or how did you make them?
Here are a few more photos. Hopefully these show the Architrees and static grass to better effect. The tall pines in McCormack creek are by Grand Central Gems. I have also put a few more photos in my photo album in case trhere is interest. thx md
Mark- Looks really, really nice. Your scenery is excellent! Is there a web site for Architrees or Grand Central Gems? Boxcab E50
http://www.grandcentralgems.com/ I buy the architrees through ebay, for example: http://cgi.ebay.com.my/Bulk-264-Pre...ewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item45ede0f263 md
Both look great. Your results with static grass are encouraging: I've built my own applicator and have a jar of grass to use, but I was worried it might look out of scale. Not so!
Wow! This is incredible modelling. There is just so much detail, it's hard to identify everything from the videos. The photos are really great, too. I remember seeing the first videos you posted a couple months ago, when a link was posted in another forum. I was blown away, because I grew up reading and re-reading the Railway Mileposts book on all the southern BC lines and I got to know them really well. I really appreciate you posting here, because I wanted nothing more than to get into a really good discussion about the C&W layout. It's definitely at least worth a discussion board all its own. Interestingly enough, I always had dreams of building a layout based along these lines, although I wanted to imagineer it to my own ideas of the types of trains I wanted to operate. I always envisioned operating a work train just like you have on the schedule of your layout. I could just see a poor lonely conductor and crew stuck in a bunk car in the middle of a blizzard at Farron Summit, miles from civilization. It really appealed to me.
