Hip boot's, waiters and a shovel would help. Perhaps a blow up float toy. The kind kids wear in a pool.
Waiders and a floatie, LOL, I was picturing something more like this Actually, that is some interesting history. Detours can for sure make for some strange sightings indeed. Would have been really cool to see. Thanks for sharing sir Rick
Getting back to the S.P. and Ca. Zephyr Detours. It seems this story as told to me has hung around in the back of my mind for a fairly long time. Thinking that sub-consciously I wanted to recreate that. Problem here is I'm not the one who has modeled Barstow. Someone else who has the space to do so and beat me to it. Not a bad thing. Way to go David! I was once asked, "What is my model railroad all about?" Fun! To start with. The BVMR's in Big Bear Country, we got together and sponsored a joint Open House or Layout Tour. When some of the visitors saw my layout, the most asked question: "What are you trying to accomplish with your layout?" The comment I overheard most often: "I don't want anything like this." Noted: After seeing the look alike San Bernardino, Santa Fe Train Station, sitting on a shorter then short section of a flat train table. Some suggested it might work for Cajon Pass. I grimaced and said, it might work for that but I don't have enough real estate. A 9.5 X 9.5 ft., wide square shed just doesn't have the room I need to make that happen. Today, No room in the train room... I'm in now. The layout has the moniker the Williams and Ashfork Division. Not after Williams or Ashfork in Arizona. Again, no real estate. Williams after the five William's in the family. Ashfork, because it's one hell of a layout. Did that make any sense? I didn't think so. I view it as a bridge route where trains have been detoured for various reasons allowing me to operate Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Western Pacific and D&RGW trains. The Coal District will be handled by D&RGW trains. The main would see freight and passenger trains for said railroad lines. The San Bernardino look alike train station would serve all the passenger trains. The problem here is... it was Barstow, that handled all those varieties of passenger trains. Prompting the question where's Barstow? Just over the horizon Yeah, I thought so. That doesn't work for me either. I've tried to find pictures of the Casa Del Deserito and place it topside. Flat against the wall. Works? Not that well. I'm looking for more detail and a 3D affect. If I could fit in a Barstow, train station look alike, I certainly would. Again, someone beat me to modeling the train station. If I could make that happen then the passenger trains, I like to run would be pro-typically correct. Question is how important is that to me? Not sure at the moment. Confused yet? So what's the inspiration? I like to run trains. Fun! What this leaves me with is a layout designed to run trains, destination unknown, and with train equipment that leaves me in shock and awe. Or something like that. Later.
Rule #1. Wait until a Great Northern Passenger Train and a Mail Train show up. How do I justify that? Because, I want to.
Rick, your answer to this question is the absolute most important thing in any hobby. If you like it and you are having fun with it, that is absolutely all that matters. I for one really like your layout and cant wait to see it back up and running! This is George showing his wisdom Rick. RULE #1
George is a funny and wise guy. A good friend. That's for sure! Just like me (did I say that) he runs what he wants to run. Nothing wrong with that. What's the hobby about if not for that. BNSF FAN, glad you like my layout. Thank you for that. Bragging time: I can run one train at a time. I can run several trains at slow speeds and watch for train meets. If the Coast Daylight detours over the layout...why not? If the San Joaquin Daylight actually makes it this far south more power to it. If W.P. needs to run the California Zephyr, our way...again why not? I have a number of passenger trains that will run on the layout. I can't say which one is my favorite. No, that's not right. Let's see my favorites are: The California Zephyr, my Santa Fe Chief's, Hi-level El Capitan and all the Daylights. Okay, I give up, which one is my favorite. Which one is yours? You've already seen this but I like to revisit it from time to time. Santa Fe and Union Pacific's Fast Mail Trains. Holiday Rush!!! You would of seen these trains running through Barstow, down Cajon Pass to San Bernardino and on into Southern California. Final destination the L.A.U.P.T. They are right at home on the layout. Video courtesy of John Acosta. Today is the perfect day to work on the wiring project. More later.
Glad you liked the last posting. Passenger trains play a big part in my modeling of the Railroads. Have you by chance seen the latest issue of Classic Trains? The headline,if you can call it that, reads "Pullman America's Hotel on Wheels." Sub title, "The golden age of overnight train travel." When I first picked it up I did like most of us and checked out the price $12.99 or over $13.00+ with tax. The price of a ConCor (full length) passenger car, at one time. Sticker shock for me as I haven't bought one in a while. I glanced through it and found it packed with information. Well worth the price. So, I did what any addict would do and bought it. Odd... that we would be talking about passenger trains here on TB. To include the trains I run on my layout. For sometime I've been putting together the San Joaquin Valley Daylight. A mix of Southern Pacific's (red and orange) Daylight Cars and the Silver/Aluminum with the Red Stripe across the top. Hard to find passenger cars that fit the bill. Most have skirts where SP had removed them by the time they got to the Valley. Rapido has some that are correct but the price, the price. They might as well be brass passenger cars. I thought about the Barstow Detours. When S.P. trains ran out of L.A. up and over Cajon, via Barstow and over to Phoenix. You would have seen S.P.'s Sunset, R.I./S.P. Golden State and the various Mail Trains. Pretty sure there were other name trains but that's all that comes to mind. Never mind the freight trains they routed over the detour. Add Pullman to this mix and it gets very interesting. Found this next picture. W.P.'s California Zephyr and S.P.'s San Joaquin Valley Daylight. At Horse Creek Draw. Here they are crossing over the Dry Gulch Arch Bridge. I was looking for S.P.'s Del Monte and the AT&SF's Chipewa Chief. Train meet just short of the look alike San Berdu... Santa Fe Train Station. I found it. Odd that they'd both find each other this far south. Well, the wiring isn't going to get down by itself. Got's to get back to it. Later.
As a fan of passenger trains I have a definite favorite... The Powhatan Arrow! Mainly because of the beautiful girl leading the cars. The Class J. After that just about any passenger train, old and new. My rails have TGVs followed by the Empire Builder... because rule #1.
If you have a layout all of us are using Rule #1 because it is impossible to setup the entire rail system in the space we have to work with. My N scale Boston Mountains Sub Division will have 33 foot mainline, a scale mile. It represents 44 miles of Frisco's line from Ft. Smith to Winslow Arkansas. Joe
Joe, Have you taken the AM RR from Springdale to Van Buren & back, that covers most of that trackage? Complete with tunnels and high trestles, and some of the prettiest country God ever made! I have not yet, but sure am looking forward to it when they reopen. I had/have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in Springdale and Huntsville. My last two years of high school were in Van Buren, and I got my Electrical Engineering degree at U of A in Fayetteville. Both my kids graduated Razorbacks too. Been up and down US 71 & I-540 (now I-49) probably a hundred times. Beautiful country!
When I lived in VA, I got to visit a layout that was exact scale. It was an N scale of some short line I do not remember the name of. It was housed in an old railroad warehouse, once owned by this short line and it was a good 200 or so feet long. There was some modelers license taken with the layout making some turns that were not in the real line so it could fit in the building. But everything was modeled as it is now. The tracks now belong to CSX but they modeled it as if it was today, even the warehouse is modeled. It was pretty cool, and would take a train 45 minutes to go from end to end, ignoring everything in between, and a couple hours of you made the necessary stops. It was pretty fun to watch!
I like hearing about other layouts. I appreciate your sharing about yours and the other one you visited. Feel free to jump in. It is welcomed. How others maximized their layouts, in the cramped spaces we have. Especially, when space comes at a premium most of us can't afford. So... good space utilization and size compression, is the name of the game. I've had to do that with my layout. I had a friend who has his HO scale railroad in a room smaller then my train shed or today's train room. He had a folded over dog bone, as he referred to it. Then he had a leg of the layout that went down to a number of dead end spurs making for a hidden staging yard. Awesome to watch and it was while visiting his layout the light bulb lit up. You guessed it. I borrowed his idea and copied it with some exceptions and ideas of my own. Here is Steve's layout. You've more then likely seen this before. A video/slide show presentation. Who said you can't get ideas from the guys in HO scale. That's where I got my start. Steve once said of my layout. If we could remove the N Scale track and lay down HO he could run his trains on my layout. He was right, you know. I'll be back later.
Back tracking. Meant to respond to this earlier. Anything N&W or N&S did will be a favorites of mine. Right there with you. Rule #1.
The thing I like about NS is how simple and elegant their engines are. Just simply black with the logo. My favorite being the horse head logo.
Pennsylvania railroad passenger train visits Barstow and San Bernardino, Ca. On the subject of foreign power or passenger trains that traveled down the Santa Fe to Barstow. There was yet another story of a Pennsylvania Special that came through Barstow, down to San Bernardino and from there I' can only guess where it went. If it was New Years day it could have been a Football Team from the East headed for the Rose Bowl. If it was the Shriner's, they would of been headed for a Convention. At any rate a Pennsylvania Passenger train and Pennsylvania Steamer/Stove made it all the way to San Bernardino. Which means they would of had to service that Locomotive on the Fly. If you ever stop in to visit the Railroad museum, now housed in the old train station, be sure to look for the exhibit that immortalizes this event. I thought I had pictures but the ones I took had a flash-back from the plexiglass cover over the model of the San Bernardino Santa Fe train station and the parked Pennsylvania passenger train. This wasn't the only time Pennsylvania passenger equipment visited Barstow and San Bernardino. Quite often you would find passenger cars from foreign railroads tied into the Consist of Santa Fe passenger trains. You could almost say with some validity. "If you look long enough you will find a prototype for something you want to do on your model railroad," that used to be my sign off signature. This would be true of any age or era of model railroading. Correction: After going back to read something I wrote. Always looking for a way to improve my communications. I said of Barstow, "The Arm Bit" when I should of said "Arm Pit". My good friend of a Mountain Man in Big Bear Country hated Barstow, Ca. However, he wouldn't miss Railroad Days and the Flea Market Style of Railroad Paraphernalia and Toy Train Stuff. A number of clubs would bring their portable layouts and set-up to run trains. The camaraderie, rubbing shoulder with the professionals of the Rails. For me meeting with old family friends and checking in with them to see how they are doing. Those were indeed good times, the best of times. Jack the crane operator was a good friend and I hated to say good bye to him. He gave me his hard hat. Yeah, I know. Some gifts speak words that can't be expressed audibly. Sorry, no pictures. Mine didn't make it past the click in the camera.
