Much progress has been made since my last post. I have managed to complete the trackwork for BNSF Downtown Yard, the interchange track with UP and the short modeled stretch of UP's Duncan sub, the short main, interchange track, and service track for the Fort Wort & Western, all of the body of Wichita Falls Yard, and the industrial tracks for all of the Wichita Falls indistries. I have also ordered the materials I need to complete the models of ADM elevator and Attebury Grain in Saginaw. In the meantime I have started a cardboard mock-up of Attebury. You can see a photo of the mock-up in the Gallery section of the site.
With these track projects completed I am beginning to see the light at the end of the track-laying tunnel. I have four major track projects left to complete with a combined total of 26 turnouts and approximately 38 joints of flextrack. Those projects include a four-track Alliance sub staging spur with Universal Forest Products, the loading yard for ADM elevator in Saginaw with tracks to three other local industries, Wichita, Tillman & Jackson's Katy Yard in Wichita Falls, and the four remaining tracks in the main staging yard. My...
I live not too many mile from a resort area on the Lake of the Ozarks. Driving through that area not too long ago I saw a bumber sticker that read, "If its tourist season, does that mean we can shoot them?" Well, it model railroad season in my house again, but please don't shoot. I'm excited about what I hope and plan to accomplish over the next 6 or 8 weeks. I got enough Peco switches and Atlas flex track for Christmas to work of a sizeable track laying project, which is my first order of business.
Isn't it funny how plans and priorities change with time. I had always planned on finishing the Saginaw industrial district and Alliance interchange before moving on to any other areas of the railroad. Well, that has changed. As I have operated the railroad alone over the past months I decided that I need to expand my interchange capacity first to alow me to move more cars around the layout sooner. Last week I began laying Downtown Yard and the interchange with UP at Fort Worth. I have all of the track laid and plan to start wiring it today. I am going...
Well, as usual, it has been a long spring-summer-fall hiatus from this web site and from much model railroad activity. The time since April has been filled with baseball, vacation, camps, volleyball, Hello Dolly (a story in itself), many church activities, and other sundry things with take up most of my time. The Saginaw and Western has not been completely dormant in that time, however. I have managed to build several kit and scratch build details around North Yard as well as P&O Cold Logistics and some background flats near downtown Fort Worth. I have also completed the main industrial lead through Saginaw.
My lack of activity over the past few months has left me with the model railroading itch and many big plans. Christmas through February usually affords me my most abundand model building time of the year. I am looking forward to laying the trackwork in Fort Worth Downtown Yard and industrial trackage for Universal Forest Products, Quality Carriers, KOCH materials, and Trinity Railcar (all in Saginaw). I will keep you posted as well as post pictures as these projects progress. In the mean time, check out my updated track plan and the pictures from railroad sites on my...
My taxes were done long ago, so I can focus on more pleasant things today . . . like model railroading. I finally finished the ballast on all of the classification tracks in North Yard. I am awaiting the arrival of some bumbers to install at the end of Attebury and RIP service tracks so I can ballast those last tracks, gravel the service areas, and work toward completing the yard as a whole.
In the mean time I have been working on scenery on the area at the south end of the layout, between Fort Worth and Temple (staging). I have decided to dub this open country area Crawford due to the noteriety of that small town as George W. Bush's Presidential retreat and since this line does pass through the town. The scene is not complete, but good progress is happening and a couple of pics are now on the gallery to show it.
Spring is here. For me that means baseball season, summer youth and children's activities to plan and lead at church, vacation, and little if any time for trains. I will do what I can when I can and continue to post here as time...
Well, I suppost that April fools joke is on me. It has come a long way, however. Ballast in North Yard is neary complete. I think I will finish up the las couple of classification tracks and the ends of the Atteburry and RIP tracks this week. I will then need to gravel the parking areas and access roads as well as the supply storage area in the back of the yard. I think I will be able to finish all of this in the next two weeks, however.
In between ballasting sessions (while waiting for glue to dry) I have been scenicing the area south of Fort Worth. I have newly dubbed this area Crawford as the BNSF passes through Crawford (President Bush's getaway spot) before coming into Temple (south end staging on the S&W). In part I chose Crawford for its noteriety, but mostly I needed a road to be be represented where the trackage passes over it south of Fort Worth on the layout. I searched for hours on Googld Earth and decided that FM 917 north of Crawford was my best bet. I do confess, however, that I am considering changing the designation for this road now...
Well, the title says it all. As usual and expected, time has become a precious commodity as Easter approaches. I am now about 1/2 finished ballasting North Yard. I do small sections around switches (I don't want to do too many switches at a time and run the risk of gluing one permanenty shut). As glue dries I have started some scenery in the open country area south of Fort Worth. I have a great new idea for a background scene with a country church, a cemetary, and a funeral in progress modeled in the corner just before entering staging. I'm goning to model it with Z scale models for some forced perspective.
I have also started some work on buildings for Bowie. Thanks to Doug, a friend I made I made on the forumns on www.trains.com and on the yahoo Nscale group, I have a veritable liabrary of great new pictures of the part of Bowie I plan to model. Doug lives in the Fort Worth area (about 60 miles from Bowie) and grew up in Bowie, so he knew exactly what to photograph and had opportunity while visiting family recently. Thanks, Doug!
It has been quite a month on the S&W. I have completed all of the trackwork for North Yard now. I spent an entire weekend building dummy switch stands per my friend Olaf Mellhaus in Watauga, TX. These are as appear on his N scale Dakota Northern which he described in an article in Model Railroader magazine a couple of years ago. I got them all completed and installed only to find out 5 minutes later that the styrene rods that hold the switch targets are too fragile. Yes, over the course of about a week I broke half of them. Now I am going around and drilling all of them out and replacing then with brass wire. I should have made this modification in the first place.
I also started my least favorite job in model railroading this month--ballasting North Yard. UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! I've been working an hour here and an hour there for about three weeks and I have the yard about 1/4 ballasted. I am happy to report that I have not permanently glued any switches open/shut, though I came close. I must say, it is starting to look really good though. As soon as ballasting is complete and...
I have been working this month on completing the trackwork in North Yard. I am nearly there. I have laid all of the remaining classification tracks (tracks 6-9) as well as industry trackage for Attebury Grain, P&O Cold Logistics, and Evergreen Feeds. I have also extended the Saginaw industrial lead north out of the Yard up to the ADM elevator. This track includes a lead to Payless Cashways, a crossover to the main, and the switch which will eventually lead to Universal Forest Products and the Alliance Sub staging.
Yesterday I wired and tested all of this track. All went very well. I still have to install bumbers at the end of 4 stub-ended tracks. Then I will install replacement ties under rail joints and mask and paint all of this track. After that I will be painting and rough textruing surrounding scenery, preparing the area for ballasting. I hope to complete all of this, including ballast, before things get busy in the Spring. I will try to get some new pics of North Yard in the gallery in the next week so you can see the progress.
P.S. I got those photos taken an online this afternoon--earlier than anticipated....
Well, the holidays are behind us now. January is usually one of my favorite months of the year. It is my birthday--although this year turning 40 is a mixed blessing :)--and work us slowest this time of year, usually making extra time for model railroading.
As hoped I received MRC's Prodigy Advance wireless conversion kit and throttle for Christmas, so I am operating wirelessly now. Woohoo!!! The system works great. I installed some track over the holidays--the lead from Wichita falls yard, across the Wichita River, the lead into Bell Processing, and up to the ladder at WT&J Katy Yard. This track is not yet connected to the main, but having it in place alows me to progress with the scenery in the Wichita River valley between the two yards. I have spent time this past week working on that scenery and so far it is looking pretty good. You can see some new pics of this progress in the Gallery section.
I have turnouts and am awaiting the arrival of some flex track this week to allow me to finish the thoroughfare track through North Yard and extent the industrial lead past Payless Cashways, the Alliance interchange, Universal Forest...
It has been quite a while since I last posted on my site. I hope everyone hasn't given up on me completely. Summer and Fall tend to be pretty insane with my kids in baseball, swimming, football, volleyball, drama, etc. and with a miriad of summer and fall activities. I get the most model railroading done by far in the Winter months (January-March). But the layout has not been completely without progress since May. With the Trinity River fairly far along in scenery, I have started the process of scenicking the Wichita River valley and am happy with the early progress. I scratchbuild some more structures for North Yard including a RIP shed and fuel tanks and feuling facilities. I also started another grain elevator--Atteberry Grain off the corner of North Yard. I also bought, painted, and place a background structure at the south side of the Trinity River. It is a Z scale warehouse for a little forced perspective behind the UP tracks. [By the way, I will try to get pics of all of this in the Gallery before Christmas.]
I have placed filler ties between rail joints and painted a lot of track. I started to use Joe...
