The JACALAR RR

Thanks Mike. Laurel Gulch, named after my youngest, and the LA of Jacalar, is a lot of fun. Was an active mining town at one time, but now the ore processing sidings are used to house the excursion trains.

 

Thanks, Jerry. Not quite as much real life as you have been having of late! I didn't get a picture of it, but the other evening a skunk walked up to the door of the train shed and looked in through the screen door. Our cat sat quietly on the deck until it had left.

 

Good eye, Ken! The photo from last week, of the painted coach, was when Mark brought his sample by. What you see in the photo is my first one, which will get painted once I am done with this scene. I really like these layout level shots, even though not all that easy to do, especially in this canyon. I need a smaller camera with good depth of field. I tried using my old web cam, but the field just doesn't work.

 

Thanks Paul, and welcome to TrainBoard. This is a great place to learn, as I did.

 

A couple of canoes, heading down the river past Laurel Gulch. As can be seen, the current is very strong here, and there are some rocks sticking up through the surface.



There is some major white water just ahead of them. Don't know if they realize it

 

Here the river turns to run along the highway, and the water gets very rough



Looking at lots of white water along the highway



A helicopter shot

 

After coming out of the mountains and into the foothill region, the river becomes more gentle



And flows into Lake Jacalar. Looks like a fishing pier has been added, and is in use, since last we visited here. Water level is up, too



The whole lake

 

I got a bit of work done this weekend, and also took some higher quality photos of the river and lake, rather than the iPad photos above.

First, I got the stagecoach, from CGN-Scale mostly painted, just need some detail highlights around the windows and doors



The work I got done, physically demanding, was finally working on the last scenery in this area which was up against the window. This entailed standing on a step ladder, and leaning in through the window. I have no idea why I didn't do this area way back when (and I still have a small bit of ballasting left to do). This is the only photo I took of the area, and the reality is this is more a "stage craft" landscaping work, rather than details, since it is barely seen even when standing right in front of it. The nearer hills block it from view



The track which runs right along the window sill can't even be seen in this photo! the main benefit is that now, when looking in the window, you see hills and rock cliffs, versus white blobs

 

Here's a shot, looking down river, at the canoes going downstream



Here's looking down at the canoes. I am really pleased with the depth effects I achieved



Canoeing down the river, what a great way to railfan, as an SP Daylight pulls into Laurel Gulch

 

Here we have a "canyon shot" of the Daylight coming into Laurel Gulch, along the river



Here, the SP GS-4 is pulling into town

 

Here's a shot where the river turns into the main rapids



An overview of the Lake Jacalar valley






Here's a shot looking down the mountains at the canoes on the river

 

Here we can see the Morning Daylight running around the Lake Jacalar park. I'm thinking I need to add a bit of surface ripples on the lake, as it seems to be just a bit too smooth in the photos. You can't even really see the water's edge!



Relaxing by the lake

 

This park is a great place. An outdoor BBQ and two tracks for rail fanning. Here these lucky folks get to see the Calif Zephyr crossing the river, and the Morning Daylight running up the canyon



Looking down at the rapids, while the Zephyr crosses the river



Next up for work is the terrain in the foreground, and ballasting there. But that may wait until later this summer.

 

That is the RIX Early Highway Overpass. The approaches are scratch built, using extra bridge guard rails on 0.020" styrene, to create a unified structure.

 

A couple photos (really, the same one, one a crop of the other, to show details) of SP AC12 #4253 coming out of the High Sierra tunnel at dusk

The close up




The original