Time to get this railroad back on track

[Don Pacetti]

Well hello there again C&S NG fans!  I’m finally retired-retired and I’ve decided to get off me bum and get trains running. So I’ve got the cobwebs removed vacuumed up and I’ve actually started wiring this beast. It only took me 5 years to actually tackle the part of the hobby that strikes fear in me heart, after I finished the track work, but the deed is done and I’ll definitely be around more now. Thank goodness DCC has arrived in the household to help me.

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

Congratulations on retirement, retirement. I look forward to photos and posts of your work. I've studied your Como roundhouse and its details and always find something new. Take care and best wishes.

Lee Gustafson

[Jim Courtney]

Don,

Congratulations on your "retirement-retirement" -- hope to join you there next May 1st. Maybe there is still time to build a modest C&Sn3 layout.

I look forward to seeing photo posts of your beautiful C&S models!

[Don Pacetti]

Thanks gents. Lee if you need any additional photos just let me know. Jim I just cannot believe how fast the years have gone by. I’ll be lucky if I get this thing even close to “finished”, but I say go for it.

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

When you get a chance I would appreciate seeing more pictures of your Como roundhouse and your railroad. I’m sure others on the list would enjoy pictures as well.

Lee Gustafson

[Don Pacetti]

Hi Lee.
Hard as it is to believe, I just about have the peninsula with the large wooden trestle and the yard throat south of Como wired. I have also installed Tam Valley servo powered turnouts in that entire area and they work perfectly. I’m very impressed with the Cream City Turnouts I selected for the layout. The quality is top notch  and they are very reliable. Too bad the builder’s health declined to the point where he was forced to close in 2016. Sucks to get old 😩.

It’s just amazing how easy it is to wire a model railroad with the modern, digital equipment available. I post some updated photos and a video in the next few days.

All the best, Don

[Don Pacetti]

Ok, so wiring is almost complete on the peninsula part of the layout, so I decided to take a break, dig out my buildings and start roughing out locations.







Here is option two, which the wife and I like better.  It catches your eye as soon as you enter the layout room and it creates realistic streets that allow views of the backside of the buildings. Mountain  would be the backdrop.  








I won’t be permanently mounting any structures until I get the track painted and weathered, but I think these locations and the theme are about right. I placed the large rock casting on the right, just to give me a feel for the type of terrain I want to model. Not sure if it will stay but if it does it will obviously be blended in. I also plan to fill the area behind the town and the trestle with a mountain, a la Malcom Furlow and Harry Brunk, who I will always love for giving me inspiration.  More to follow.

All the best, Don.

[Paul R.]

Hello Don,
I like the second set out of the buildings and I love that trestle. Paul R.

[Don Pacetti]

Hi Paul. Option 2 is definitely the ticket. I love that trestle, as well, even even though it’s total fantasy for the C&S NG.

I tried to stick to the prototype when I first decided to model this railroad; however, I just had to model Como and the Argo, as they were what I loved about the prototype, so that’s what I’ve done. It may not be “correct” but I think it captures the flavor.

[Don Pacetti]

So today I get the Sculptamold down near the track and the town and street areas. I plan to lay some wax paper over the areas where the buildings are going and press them down into the Sculptamold so that the edges look buried but the structures can still be removed for cleaning. Once that’s done I’ll weather the track on the peninsula so it’s ready for ballast.

[Lee Gustafson]

Don,

I also like option 2 for building placement. I look forward to photos as the building scene progresses. The work in progress photos are valuable and help put the final scene or project in perspective. Again thanks.

Lee Gustafson

[South Park]

  Have any of youze guys seen photos of the Burke mining district in Idaho ?
It is a modeler's fantasy of way too much crammed into an impossibly tiny
space.  👍

[Don Pacetti]

I have not, but would love to.

[South Park]

  Give it a Google.  Lots of images of a town, six miles long and 300 feet wide,
with a creek, a road, and a railroad running up the middle.  It was even served
originally by a narrow gauge railroad.  Can't beat that !

[South Park]

  Here are just a few.  The major hotel there had the railroad running
right through the lobby, in a trestle over the creek !











  Both the UP and NP had tracks up the canyon.

[Dave Eggleston]

Brian Ellerby had a beautiful, gigantic, Sn3 layout here in Seattle, based on an Alaskan line in the 1940s. He had a branch terminating in a town based on Burke, with track up the main street and a concentrator and mine tucked into the town's edges and a yard below town. It was a great concept. Brian or someone else told me about staying at that hotel with the track running through it. It shook like crazy, amazing it lasted more than a few months!

Here's a picture I took of his version of town. The station is tucked between Wardell's garage (named after a local modeler) and that tall red mill. Sadly Brian passed years ago and the layout was dismantled.

[Jeff Young]

I’m actually going to do the same with my Kokomo — not because it’s correct but because I don’t have room for anything else.

Glad to know there’s a prototype for it somewhere. ;)

[Fred H.]

Take care where you park!

[Jim Courtney]

Both the NP and UP used the same trackage through much of Burke to reach the various mines, not enough room for two separate railroads. And it was reported that the freight crews often had to stop and search the bars to find the driver who left his car or truck parked on the tracks . . . sometimes it involved numerous bar visits.

The hotel was the Tiger Hotel, here is a picture:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/489062840762981092/?lp=true



Things were even crowded during the narrow gauge days. (The link is to a pdf article on the railroads of Burke for your reading pleasure):

http://www.museumni.org/Newslet%20Spr%202016.pdf


Another good Burke read is here: https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/idaho/burke/


And Brian Ellerby's layout was awesome, especially the Nighthawk branch with the town of Nighthawk, as in the photo above. He used a model of the DSP&P Hancock / Romley depot for the Nighthawk depot in 1:64 scale, just to keep this post somewhat C&S'centric.

It is my understanding that after Brian's death the local Seattle narrow gaugers were able to remove the town of Nighthawk intact, and I believe it now resides in Ukiah with the PBL folks.

The Inside Gateway has a few photos of Brian's town of Nighthawk. http://www.theinsidegateway.com/Copper%20River%20&%20Yukon.htm

Most of the structures were built of Brian's own Evergreen styrene, his legacy to all of us model builders.

[Don Pacetti]

This group is so much fun and it’s just amazing what you can learn here.

My 1st mountain scenery should be going in next week, so I’ll post pics of the progress. I purchased some awesome rock molds and casting materials from Joel Bragdon that look amazingly similar to the Palisades...soooo, I plan to add that scene to the layout in the area just down the tracks from the big trestle.  I have the benchwork set up in that area for lots of rock castings below track level so I really hope to do it justice.