Six New Pics

[rockislandmike]

Finally retrieved the digital camera from my brother; finished a couple last second projects, tidied, and here we are. Whew - now I gotta drive to Sicamous BC for the long weekend.

The Union Pacific track crawls through the canyon in this area, with two Rock Island mainlines above. The closer bridge is known as the "Shane & Bailey"; the UP river crossings are known as the "Three Bridges of Witchcraft" (Aug-2002).

 

[rockislandmike]

On the other side of the layout, Northern Telecom sets the scene, with one mainline passing in front; the other behind. Behind NT on the right is a turntable for reversing locomotives; on its left and past the mainline will be a small yard. The trackage in the forefront continues towards a triple wye intersection, then passes over the outer mainline heading north to Kansas (Aug-2002).

 

[rockislandmike]

In this view you get the feel of the whole layout, sans of course the UP route through Timber Canyon. In the near left corner will be the City of Beverages, with American Can and Milwaukee Brewery (Aug-2002).

 

[rockislandmike]

Another view of the entire layout. Here the center of attention is once again the Shane & Bailey Bridge - the near bridge is still just temporary. The entire right side will be occupied by Edward, an industrial center named after our recently departed cat (Aug-2002).

 

[rockislandmike]

Here's another shot of the canyon, with a UP GP18 crossing the Third Bridge of Witchcraft prior to entering the 3.25-mile Peabody Pearson Tunnel (Aug-2002).

 

[rockislandmike]

The final shot of the day, with my ATSF consist (these are all Rock Island mainlines, but I'm still working on my ROCK motive power) heading north towards Granite Spur - the bright yellow units are club cars from the Thunderbird Model Railroad Club in AZ. The roadbed you see in the bottom right will first cross a MoPac mainline, then parallel it to Enid OK. The long stretch of roadbed in the air is of course Edward - awaiting more budget allocation to continue work here (Aug-2002). PS - can you tell which freight car has been weathered?

 

[Woodie]

Looking good!

Mike,
That is looking good! So many twist & turns and ups and overs! The second last car of the set is the weathered one??

And what is the "blue strip" running through the canyon? The river base?

 

[shamus]

Looking excellent Michael, love the bridge and the holding tracks underneath.
Shamus

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Progressing nicely Mike !!!

 

[Drew1125]

Looks like you're going to have some really nice scenic possibilities with this one Michael!

 

[t. alexander]

Looking good, nice sturdy benchwork and a lot of awsome scenery potential.

t.

 

[kettlestack]

Great layout you have there Mike. Awesome carpentry!
I particularly like the "Y" and can visualise it in a hilly area.
Multi-level terrain always fascinates me and the potential you have there is fantastic.
Heh heh heh, Trees? .. no problem.... Shamus can be your contractor for those!

It looks like HO gauge, is it?

Errol

 

[Lighthorseman]

Hey, Mike!

Nice work! Is your track base 1/2 or 3/4 inch plywood? I am at the benchwork stage, and could use any practical advice.

I am ALSO just out of Edmonton on an acreage near Stony Plain...and would LOVE to see your layout in person!

Hope to hear from you!

-Steve H.-

 

[rockislandmike]

Answers:

(1) HO, yes. I keep forgetting to mention that, sorry.

(2) 1/2" Steve. And feel free to pop me a private message, we'll figure out a weekend when you're in the city you can pop by. If you want I'll lend you my benchwork book (I can't remember what it's called right now) for a spell, it provided a *lot* of help.

(3) The blue strip is the river base. Eventually I'm gonna use Envirotex or something like that, but for now I thought it would be useful to paint it blue.

 

[marty w.]

Looks like your off to a fine start. Nice work.
That's the type of benchwork I like. Nice and beefy.
Marty

 

[RI541]

I sure do like that bridge Mike

Your doing alot better on your layout than I'm doing on mine.

 

[rockislandmike]

LOL I totally forgot about that - nobody even caught on to the name of the bridge................................

 

[Matthyro]

Great track plan there Mike with all that scenery posibilties. Takes some thought and planning to get all those levels connected.
Now the big question, winter is coming so what will you do about railroading then?? No apparent insulation in that garage.
So what do you do at Sicamous if you don't go houseboating?

 

[rockislandmike]

I'm gonna throw a couple sheets over the layout in the winter to keep it somewhat protected from the elements; and we have a warm day here and there, so I can go run trains on those days.

Otherwise, I've got plenty of projects to work on inside, and I'm gonna start a 2 x 4 diorama of a potash facility for inclusion on the final layout when we buy a house and I get a basement instead of a non-insulated garage.

As for Sicamous, not much when it's raining all weekend.