New On30 Layout.


Did you ride the Durango and Silverton to go to work?
That would have been cool; however usually I had to leave before the train even left Durango and most normally returned about the time that the train was returning to Durango. I did meet it a couple times in the canyon - I had a plane that I used to fly out of Silverton to Albuquerque and if winds were on the calm side- I would wind my way through the canyon. In the winter I would base the plane out of Durango. After I left there - Standard Metals (Mayflower Mill) buried the 3000 foot strip with tailings - ugh!
I will add that the "natural" banking of snow really made a difference in keeping the house warm!
 
Surf Oldalot, Where was the strip that got buried: Silverton, Durango; or, Albuquerque? It is interesting how 70 years of age can make physical work WORK! Have you ever seen an R/C Snoopy's Dog House Fly? It doesn't fly very well, but it is possible.

No work on the new layout, yet; but, tearing out the old HO layout is progressing!
 
Yesterday I started removing all the rolling stock from the layout. I will come up with a list of numbers of the various types of rolling stock. I'm in the process of selling off my locomotives. If interested look on Ebay, if it's Northern Pacific, it's probably mine. My handle on Ebay is Daboosailing. The de-construction of the layout is progressing; but, it seems slowly! I have also decided I will keep a couple of twenty car trains so I can join a HO club up in Bemidji, if I want.
 
All the rolling stock except for a log car and caboose which are inaccessable at this time, have been removed from the old layout. I am now removing the ground throws and have also started removing structures and am trying to save as much as I can. I will likely attempt to sell groups of buildings on Ebay.
 
Surf Oldalot, Where was the strip that got buried: Silverton, Durango; or, Albuquerque? It is interesting how 70 years of age can make physical work WORK! Have you ever seen an R/C Snoopy's Dog House Fly? It doesn't fly very well, but it is possible.

No work on the new layout, yet; but, tearing out the old HO layout is progressing!
Too bad - I just bought an RS-1 about 6 months back. I don't know why? Only had it out of the box to look at it - brand new - never run.
The landing strip was built by a Frontier pilot back in the 50's.
Not sure how this will come up, but at the NE edge of town - the Lakes Campground was built by me and the landing strip ran from where "20"crosses the river (Cement street and "20") draw a straight line from there to 'Scotty Bob's Custom Shop'. You can see on the satellite view the last straight portion of the runway.
 
Sherrel, In 2014 the wife and I visited Silverton and stopped at the Funnel Cake Factory to eat. Then we rode the Durango and Silverton down to Durango. It was a neat trip and I want to go back and would have this year excepting the Pandemic!!
 
A last look at my HO Layout.

HPIM7305.JPG
 
Where this layout failed the test of time was in the track work. It took a lot of maintenance and trouble- shooting every year to keep the railroad going. I also found Atlas Under-Table Switch Machines to lack the "Umff" needed to always slap the points to the other side when activated. Possibly the new Atlas Under-Table switch machine is better. I also didn't find the Atlas Snap Relay to be very reliable. I am not saying that Atlas produces "Junk", I am saying that following the guidelines and current thinking at that time, back in the late 80s and 90s, might not produce the most reliable layout as the layout gets older. Some of my problems might have been due to inadequate wire sizes being used. Also, for many years my basement lacked a dehumidifier during the Summer and was subject to large humidity changes.

I look forward to my new layout which will make use of the easier wiring for DCC. 12–14-gauge buss wires and many Feeders feeding off from the Buss!

Certainly, your findings may differ.
 
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So, all of the Rolling Stock, Structures and, Bridges have been removed. I have even gotten the Roundhouse off in one piece without breaking it and removed the Turntable. I am focusing on removing track at this time. It is a slow process and I don't want to damage the track as I will be using the rail from the track for the new On30 layout. (I suppose this didn't really happen as I haven't supplied photos showing the barron layout table tops).
 
Then we rode the Durango and Silverton down to Durango. It was a neat trip and I want to go back and would have this year excepting the Pandemic!!

Curious as to what you did with your car? Did you leave it in Silverton, or did you have someone else with you to drive the car to Durango?
You may want to check out the Chama to Antonito trip! I have not been on it, however I hear that it is a really neat ride.
 
Curious as to what you did with your car? Did you leave it in Silverton, or did you have someone else with you to drive the car to Durango?
You may want to check out the Chama to Antonito trip! I have not been on it, however I hear that it is a really neat ride.

We were on a tour bus. We came down to Silverton along the Million Dollar Highway from Grand Junction. Then the bus met us in Durango.

I'll assume your still talking to me, Surf-Oldalot! I have been drawing my plan using the AnyRail 6 software I have been talking about, starting on the second page. I'm considering a Point to loop. with a logging branchline going up several switch backs to a logging camp.
 
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I'm down to pulling up track in Butte Yard and and the staging yard. The river valley shown below is now full of track and the two buildings to the left are simply stored where the were set as I'm running out of storage space.
HPIM8370.JPG

Maybe I will attempt to save the back drop. The track in the foreground is gone now. Yes, the hammer does get used
HPIM8371.JPG
 
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How it used to look at the Roundhouse. When I look at these photos, I'm amazed at the amount of work I put into this layout. What is weird is there is a little bit of melon collie for tearing it down; but, not nearly as much as I figured there would be! Mostly I am looking forward to starting over and the fun I had with building this one. Anyone interested in any of these building, Turntable?

HPIM7282.JPG


Below is the HOODO GULCH TRESTLE. I managed to remove this bridge without breaking anything including the abutments on both ends. It would take a very large box to ship this to anyone interested in purchasing. Although it has Ties for HO, I may attempt to use in the new layout. I need to see how far out of "whack" this bridge would look as an On30 bridge.
HPIM7317 (2017_10_27 16_37_18 UTC).JPG
 
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I would think that you could use -at least parts of the bridge? Be interesting to see how an On30 loco would look on it. Put a loco and car on it and give us a photo!
 
We shall see. On30 ties are 6 scale feet long and quite a bit longer than HO ties, which in O scale are a little over 5 feet long. O scale Bridge ties are 10 feet long; so, they are little under twice as long as HO Bridge ties. Dimensions I am quoting are from Fast Tracks and measurements I have taken from my HO Track. It looks like the Bridge Ties on the Durango and Silverton might be around 8 feet long. I know how these technical discussions can get totally out of hand on model railroad forums. So, Instead of this ending up in a long protracted discussion here on this thread, let me head that off by saying that I don't think the HO Bridge ties I have on the HOODOO Gulch Trestle will look right as an On30 trestle. So, I feel changing the track on this trestle would be in order. I'm unsure if I could remove the track on this bridge without destroying the trestle!
 
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Opps - I did not think about the difference in the tie size. I don't know what you have planned, but you could partly destroy and burn - then use it as a secinic addition or an abandoned spur?

Want to pm me your e-mail address?
 
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I maybe should have started a new thread on tearing out my old layout. However at the time, I thought that removing the old layout was part and parcel to building a new one; so, here we are. The process is going very slowly. Also, because my layout started as DC, the track work was divided into 30 or more actual electrically isolated brocks, 19 or so main line blocks and 10-15 routing controlled blocks, there are many many wires to remove. For the most part I have removed much of the wiring and this has taken a bit of time to do. Now, a big problem is locating the screws that hold parts of the layout to other parts. The problem being, the screws got hidden under scenery and where they are hidden is anybody's guess!

I realize that all of this is a pretty boring read to those of you who just want to see photos! I will see what I can do about this!
 



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