Tom, that cab is that of Santa Maria Valley 205, a 2-6-2 being restored by George Lavacot at his place. Taken in September 2015 at the first steam-up. I have not learened anything about subsequent events due to health issues of mine. In Railimages I have a bunch more cab photos, llink: https://www.tainboard.com/highball/index.php?media/albums/steam-cabs.12/
My layout is in a spare bedroom that is approximately 10x11. I have seven modules of eleven set up, modules 02 thru 08. Have been working on installing track on modules 02 and 03, hopefully will be ready to run a train this weekend. Joe
Great pictures, guys! Now we know the layouts behind all the postings. Couple more here, just as you enter the train room. (The drumheads and letterboard are unfortunately replicas I made lol.) Davidsville is on the left, Hannah Vista on the right, and Sean's Oil on the swing-down in the middle. The tunnel in Davidsville represents the layout's connection to the outside world. This is a analog DC layout and the room has no windows; just the one entry door. Work in progress over the last 25-30 years. More pictures to come over the next few days..... John Layout map; the door to the room is at the bottom of the map.
Russ, love the car number sign, do you know where it is from? SP-Wolf; being both in SoCal we should get together sometime; I like your open-space industrial area! Railmix; keep us posted on your layout! John
It is off of a Santa Fe dining car. Santa Fe sold the car to a restaurant in Houston who tubed it out and used it for a private dining room. When they were tired of it, they donated it to the Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS. We had no use for it as they had welded up the truck suspension to keep it from bouncing when folks walked around in it. It also had a serious case of "Pullman Rot" behind the stainless steel corrugations. We removed the number and name boards to salvage the moldings behind them that fills in the gaps in the corrugations to use on other cars in our collection. The car was then sold to someone in Waelder, Texas who turned it into a traditional roadside diner called the Chew Chew Lounge. Years later from there it went to a scrap yard only to re-emerge a few years later as another diner along Interstate 10 outside Luling, Texas. It is gone again and I have lost track of it. Here it is a few years ago when I stopped and had a meal. Was actually good food too.
John, I am always impressed with your layout photos, although most of them are spectacular night shots. The daylight shots Are interesting, too, and this is the first time I have seen a track plan. Very nice. BTW, the plan looks to be CAD generated. Which software do you use? Always liked Wolf's layout with its feeling of wide open spaces, but this is the first time I have seen an overview. Joe's layout looks to be progressing well, too. Also, I visited Jim's steam cab album. Although I couldn't get the link to work, I did a search and got there. I would recommend that everyone check it out. It may be a while before I start layout construction as there are some kitchen cabinets in line ahead of it, but I will start a thread when construction begins. Great thread so far!
My "modeling work room" was intended to eventually become a bonafide layout room. I build out a section of the attic adjacent to the loft over the dining room. It is an "L" shaped room with sloping ceilings. I build in a valence to conceal lighting and indirect base lighting that would be behind the "horizon" mountain backdrops shining up against the blue painted walls. Some day I may get around to building my narrow gauge D&RG Durango to Silverton layout. Until then it is a couple of hollow core doors for my test track and junk, storage for my NTRAK buildings and train collection under the doors, shelving for parts & paints and my railroad library. Not shown in these photos is the work bench and my drafting table where I do most of my decal work.
RailMix; I used Autodesk's Revit 3D CAD to do the layout plan. I'm an architect and use Revit for my plans so it came in handy for the layout plan. Russ; cool history on the car number sign of yours, and great backdrops, too! John
Just a little. Due to circumstances beyond my control, the original roof lasted 58 years. Fortunately, the "shack" as we've always referred to it, is still structurally sound, having needed only a couple of new roof boards, and a new metal roof is now in place. Just need to replace a fair sized chunk of the ceiling.
Man! Two layouts I never get tired of looking at. Montanan, I haven't seen that wooden roundhouse before. Very distinctive. I recall seeing pictures of one like it somewhere in the northwest. Maybe Roseburg? Nice.
Montanan....in one word....WOW!!! Couple more of the Gulf & Pacific Railroad. This layout is "L" shaped, and this the rear leg of it.
