WP's Canyon Sub in N Scale

[LorenC]

For some reason even though you said that you were going to do it, the afterward photos were quite shocking. Best of luck on the rebuild.

[Rodney]

Got the sub-roadbed with Micore done on the staging yard and the cork almost done. The sub-roadbed is about half done on the mainline.

[Allen]

Woohoo Rodney, way to get after it.
With less cuviness to the main line, I think it looks better, a lot more gentle.
Are you going to keep that snake on the far side of the support in the last image?

[Rodney]

Are you going to keep that snake on the far side of the support in the last image?

Yes, it's going to represent Serpentine Canyon on the prototype.

[Rodney]

The track is laid in the staging yard.
It'll hold a 47, a 49 and 55 plus car trains.
This is 50 cars.







The first would be staged where the far locos are. This train will have to me moved before a inbound train could be sent to it.

[Paul S.]

The track is laid in the staging yard.
It'll hold a 47, a 49 and 55 plus car trains.
This is 50 cars.

One 50-car train or four Slate Fork Mine Runs!

Seriously, that's really cool, Rodney, that you can run trains of that length.

[Rodney]

The advantage of N scale

[LorenC]

Amen, Amen and Amen. A fellow HO scale friend just sent me an email yesterday and sadly stated that he has finally determined that he won’t have the space for a turntable and roundhouse on his layout. If he was modeling in N scale, it wouldn’t even be a mild concern.

[Rodney]

All the bechwork is done. I'm ready to start laying cork roadbed

[Rodney]

Loren, Yes, I retired almost 4 years ago. But I think I still don't get as much done on the layout as I did when I was working.

[Allen]

Looks good Rodney!

[N Scale Brad]

Rodney, I feel the same way. I've been retired for over 10 years and can't understand how I got so much done when I was still working.

[Rodney]

Found out that I only had a few pieces of HO cork left, so I ran to the hobby shop and bought another box. That was sticker shock as the last box I bought was about 5 years ago. It was less than $30 out the door, and this box was almost $60 out the door. Ripped 12 strips down on the tablesaw, to the same width I had used before and got all the cork glued down. I remembered to paint everything this time before laying track.










All the old wiring was ripped out as I only had a single buss wires feeding everything from Oroville yard up to Keddie.
I will now have a main buss and then sub buss for each section of track between the turnouts and the sidings. The high line side of the wye and the staging yard is the reversing section. All the feeder wires are soldered on the staging tracks and working on reversing section buss.

[Paul S.]

Amazing how prices on everything have skyrocketed. Reminds me of the 1970s.

[Michael Whiteman]

You're really going to town on this now Rodney. Looks real good. You're right, this hobby is sure becoming more expensive.

[Rodney]

All the rewiring is done and trains are running again. Ran a couple of 50 car trains up and down the new section with no problems. Haven't ran a train into the new staging yard, but I have faith it's OK.
Started building foam scenery sub-base and attached aluminum angle to the wall to hold the foam above the staging yard. Tunnel portals are glue in place, and checked for clearance.


















The work on the fascia will begin with 24" high, 1/8" hardboard.

[Rodney]

I painted the portals with Scalecoat aged concrete. Started installing the fascia.

[JerryZ]

Wow Rodney, 50 car trains. You layout looks awesome! I will see you next week at MinnRail. When I attend Prairie Rail this coming year, I'll make sure that I put in for your railroad.

Regards,
Jerry

[Rodney]

Thanks for the kind words on the layout. I hope you will get the chance to come operate on it at PrairieRail.

I just looked and the only place that we will operate on the same railroad will be at Otto's Thursday evening. I guess, I'll meet you then.

[Rodney]

More fascia has went up and painted. Control panels installed. A few needs to be repainted to match the fascia.

[Paul S.]

Geez, you have switch position indicators installed and everything. Nice.

[Michael Whiteman]

It wasn't that long ago we saw you tearing this up. Boy, you work fast ! I too think this is a much better plan. It looks real clean, which is nice.

[N Scale Brad]

Really impressive progress Rodney.

[Rodney]

Spent the weekend in Minnesota for the Minn-Rail Ops weekend. Got to meet Jerry Z at the Thursday evening session on Jeff Otto's very large Missabe Northern-GN layout. In all, I got to operate on 5 great layouts and meet some wonderful operators and layout owners.

Now, it's time to get the layout ready for my Saturday Ops session for the Prairie Rail committee. KC is different than most that holds weekends Ops sessions.
Layout owners elect the committee to plan everything. The big difference is, that the committee wants to have a session on all new layouts and stress test the layout before it goes on the layout host list.

The great thing is that I hosted 2 sessions for the all N scale weekend this past February, and for most part, everything went well.

[JerryZ]

Hi Rodney: It was a pleasure to meet you this weekend. Hope your layout stress test goes well. I look forward to seeing your railroad at Prairie Rail 2024.
Regards,
Jerry