a serious question.

[Fritz 52]

Hi everyone.

I know I've posted about building my layout in the past. Recently after sucessful cataract surgery I finally am going to begin construction on some bench work in my 12' x11' room. We livein a mobile home and space is a bit of an issue.
A neighbor moved and gifted me with enough lumber to construct the benchwork.
Over the years, I've pretty much collected On30 ocos and rolling stock. But here's my question$.
1. Should I consider building in Sn3?
2. In my rather limited space should i possibly try to build an upper and lower layout?
Thanks guys
Fred Cotterell
C&S Ohio credk sub

[skip]

Fritz 52 wrote

Hi everyone.

I know I've posted about building my layout in the past. Recently after sucessful cataract surgery I finally am going to begin construction on some bench work in my 12' x11' room. We livein a mobile home and space is a bit of an issue.
A neighbor moved and gifted me with enough lumber to construct the benchwork.
Over the years, I've pretty much collected On30 ocos and rolling stock. But here's my question$.
1. Should I consider building in Sn3?
2. In my rather limited space should i possibly try to build an upper and lower layout?
Thanks guys
Fred Cotterell
C&S Ohio credk sub

Fred,
I have recently moved into the same situation. No direct advice, but here is how I approached that similar situation.
We recently re-arranged how parts of the house were used and I have a spare bedroom for a layout. Like you, I did a play into ON30 a few years ago which had two effects. The first was seeing how important DCC and sound were to my enjoyment of my trains. The second was re-enforcing an idea I have had for most of my life. "There is a time to do scale model railroading and a time to play with toy trains." Both are important.
My choice of scale boiled down to doing On30 and thoroughly enjoying playing with toy trains with no specific prototype (C&S had no 2-4-4-2s or 2-4-0s) or doing HOn3 (in my case) and doing more specific C&S-based modeling. I will never have the skills to challenge the amazing contest-level modeling displayed on this forum, but I am really enjoying getting my old collection of C&S stuff out of the closet, adding DCC/sound/detail/paint, and seeing them puff and chuff up and down my test track.
For the new layout I am going with a single level; mostly a dogbone loop. There will be space for my Como roundhouse and a nice station and yard and maybe a coaling dock. I am not trying to re-create Leadville or Dickey or Como. This is a fantasy based loosely on what Grand Junction might have looked if the DSP&P had made it over Ohio Pass and into Grand Junction ahead of the D&RG. Being a fantasy there is still a bit of "Playing with toy trains." But in any case, I'm happy with my choice.
So my choice was to go in the direction of more scale modeling in the smaller scale. Yours may be different, but the good news is that either direction should give a lot of pleasure. Lots of luck! and keep us posted on how the layout progresses whichever path you take.

For what it's worth...
Skip Egdorf
Los Alamos, NM

[Fritz 52]

Thanks Skip.
I probably will stick to my On30nstuff for now. I'll have at least two moguls to use and a basket case rebuilt. That way I'll be ables to at least 'play trains'. Lol.
The idea behind my little sliceof DSP&P/C&S fantasy comes from my love of the Gunnison area. We explored it years ago. We fell in love with the area when we used to live in eastern Utah and would travel several times a year to ride mountain bikes up around Crested Butte. At one point we camped next to the river that ran up from Gunnison to the area of Crested Butte. Across the river from our campsite was the old D&RGW ROW. I waded across with one of my sons and walked a bit of it.
We did go up towards Baldwin and saw some of what was left of the ROW there.
When we had anold school bus/RV we traveled over Kebler pass from Carbondale to Crested Butte. Quite an adventure. That cemented our love for the area.
We never got to explore the area upmariund Pitkin and the Alpine tunnel and I'm sorroy now we missed that.
My overall plan is to try to have a rr that could have existed if the DSP&P/C&S had survived long enough to finish the Ohio Creek extension. Like some folks have pointed out, it's my rr and I can do what I want. Lol. I will try to keep my equipment as close to the prototype as possible using C&S, D&RGW and a smattering of RGS equipment. I don't plan on using any locos beyong the smaller Conniesl although they would be interesting.
Again thanks Skip.
Fred Cotterell
C&S Ohio Creek Sub.
'The Kebler Pass Route'
 

[Fritz 52]

Skip.
I totally missed the end of your reply! We are trying to model the same area!.
Kurt posted some interesting pictures from some exploration he did up.Ohio creek that included some excellent pictures of the unfinshed and still existent grade.
Fred Cotterell
C&S Ohio Creek Sub
'The Kebler Pass Route'.

[Ken Martin]

You might want to look up the articles by Bill and Mary Miller on their Ohio Creek Extension in the Gazette and 1999 MR Planning.

Ken Martin

[Fritz 52]

Ken:

Thank you. I had one of those annuals put out by Klambach a few years ago that featured their layout. It triggered a renewal in my interest in Colorado narrow gauge and started me down my love affair with all things C&S.
I'll try to find those other articles and see if somewhere that annual still is available.
Fred Cotterell
C&S Ohio Creek Sub.
'The Kebler Pass Route'