Utah railway project

[Bpete]

I introduced myself in the introductions section of this forum with a little info on what I was up to under new guy last week. briefly I am fairly new to the actual modeling portion of this hobby but i have been interested for a long time. my dad had been working on a layout before he passed away and after several years of it just sitting there in my moms basement I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to do something in the hobby other than just going to shows and look at other folks layouts. anyway I was not able to find out very much info on his vision of the layout so i made a guess and decided to loosely model the utah railway/ UP line between Martin utah and grand junction Co with the line servicing the wildcat coal mine near martin and helper utah in HO. last night i finished cleaning up all the mess that has collected on top of the partially finished layout ( benchwork and some track layed) I took some pics but for some reason with my computer challenged self am unable to post them. I ran a couple of locos on the tracks and everything so far checks out ok with a few minor issues. Like I said before I am fairly new at this and his wiring is going to take a bit for me to figure out. I am going to continue with traditional block wiring for now. right now the surveyor crew is out on the line formulating a plan to finish the trackwork and come up with a plan for senicking the layout. this will be a slow process as I will get some pics posted as soon as I can and if anyone can give me some tips on the easiest way to do this it would be appreciated.

looks like I figured it out

Bri

 

[MooMan]

Have a track plan, and layout size?

You said this is very loosely based, but are you doing an out and back from Martin, to Utah RW Junction, then back through Helper on to Grand Junction?
Coal movements from the Wildcat mine (whether UP or Utah Railway) typically move from/through Martin west to Provo and beyond.

 

[Bpete]

not sure yet. I have not been able to find my dads original track plans, this surprises me because he was so good at keeping track of everything. after i get everything drawn up for what is already there I will figure out what direction I will take. I am not so sure I am to interested in things being very prototypical but I can sure appreciate folks who do. alot of my decisions are based on the fact that I like the looks of UR and UP locos. I like the scenery in the area and the area is close enough for me to easily visit in person. I am just barely starting to learn about the prototype operations in the area. the benchwork is set up for continuos running .

thanks for the comments and the items to consider

 

[Bpete]

the survey crew is done with their initial sketches on the benchwork and what track is already laid, when I can I will get the plans posted with currect trackage and planned trackage. ran some locos on the existing track and found a few problem dead spots, clearance issues and such. cold be due to the length of time inacive and being used as a storage spot plus some tracl looks like it had a pipe leak on it. i am trying to figure out the wiring right now. i believe this will be my biggest challenge. plus i will have to get stuff added in small pieces because of budget but it should be fun for me and the kids. I have found this rather addicting.

 

[JimT]

Congratulations! This is the greatest hobby in the world. Once it's in your heart it will never leave you, maybe your kids too! This is a great place to get info, read read. Learn how to stretch that budget too, I have.

 

[JimT]

Those rugs look nice. I bought a used couch at a garage sale and threw away the couch for the cushions. My RR is scheduled to vary from 48 inches down to 36 inches, and there is sure to be alot of me under those shelves. Jim + cushion + tile = tolerable, I hope.