The Stackrock & Verde River Railway, narrow gauge mining on a bookshelf


SoCal Chris

Member
The S&VR is my first exploration into HOn30 modeling, inspired by many trips to Utah/Arizona canyon country and Thunder Mesa Studio. The layout is a simple loop of track with a dummy siding and dramatic red rock scenery, designed to fit on a narrow Ikea bookshelf. Coming from N scale, I'm excited to get a little more ambitious with detailing and building in a bigger scale.
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It all started with this N scale Kato Pocket Line set which runs beautifully for a 4-wheel power unit (it's actually powered by the first passenger car, the loco is just a dummy) but I always thought looked a little too clean and toylike. Some hacking and slashing with random bits from the parts bin led to this HOn30 Porter-ish loco (rivet counters don't look too closely!) and an HO overland coach from the train store bargain bin was sacrificed for the coach/drive unit conversion. The tank car is a shortened N scale starter set car on a basswood flat car frame:

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I'm happy enough with how this little experiment turned out that I decided it needed a layout to run on and it all started to snowball from there. The "benchwork" is 1/8" MDF on 1"x4" risers soon to be covered by carved foam rockwork and terrain with Peco 009 flex track. The turnout is obviously nonfunctional...four wheel N scale power doesn't like frogs and I don't plan to operate this layout, I just want to watch trains run smoothly and reliably. The stamp mill is a kitbashed Grandt Line kit, the two town buildings are bashed from a single Woodland Scenics kit, and the tiny station is scratchbuilt from the stamp mill leftovers. I'm enjoying making these HO structures so much I'll probably end up sandwiching a couple more in sooner or later!

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Much more to come!
 
I was into HOn30 for quite some time. Too small for me at my age now, but I built a 2'x3' display layout so they weren't packed in storage.

If you are interested in taking my engines and rolling stock off my hands let me know. I can send you an inventory, photos, etc.

Engine #2 is built on a Bachmann Plymouth chassis and #4 is built on a Kato drive.
 

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I was into HOn30 for quite some time. Too small for me at my age now, but I built a 2'x3' display layout so they weren't packed in storage.

If you are interested in taking my engines and rolling stock off my hands let me know. I can send you an inventory, photos, etc.

Engine #2 is built on a Bachmann Plymouth chassis and #4 is built on a Kato drive.
I like the coal loading and coal train. A lot in a little space. Nice job!
 
Well it's sure been a while! Sometimes life just pulls ya in all sorts of random directions. Some progress has been made in the meantime though...I scratchbuilt the miner's cabin out of sculpting foam and random basswood scraps, and the tiny caboose on a cut-down Bachmann bobber chassis.

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And scenery is finally starting to take shape! Fitting the rocks around the benchwork is a total jigsaw puzzle: the canyon is made up of seven different pieces squeezed in around the MDF. There wasn't a whole lot of pre-planning, it's mostly dumb luck that the gaps all line up pretty well! I'm using Sculptamold to blend them and the foam layers together. The goal on the fascia is to make it look like the stained boards are built into the rockwork with the canyon bottom spilling off the edge on the left. The track got a quick weathering as well.

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Since it'll be pretty much impossible to access the scenery within the canyon once it's installed, I'm painting and finishing each piece before gluing them in place.

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Test fitting the bridge. It'll be mostly built in place once the rock is in for good.

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Nice start ! I'll follow your work with a great interest.
This is adorable! I bet you're going to have an absolute blast working on this. I can't wait to see more!
Thanks so much! I'm loving this build so far, especially now that the mental vision is really starting to take shape with some scenery.

I was into HOn30 for quite some time. Too small for me at my age now, but I built a 2'x3' display layout so they weren't packed in storage.

If you are interested in taking my engines and rolling stock off my hands let me know. I can send you an inventory, photos, etc.

Engine #2 is built on a Bachmann Plymouth chassis and #4 is built on a Kato drive.
What a great offer and some really nice looking models! I figure it might be a bit too late but you definitely have my interest in adding some to the collection.
 

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