Today was a "mental health" day from work. Too many hours on the job and not enough hours slacking off. Wayne and Drew were over and once again, we got a lot done. The bus wires are in for the U.P. tracks, the foam has a coat of drywall mud and mesh, the backdrop at Morman Rocks is going up, and there is a new peg board for some tools. In the afternoon, Wayne and I headed over to Longs and TrainQuest where I bought two boxes of cork, the code 100 track for the hidden U.P. tracks, rail joiners, etc.

Wayne and I did another recon trip up to the Pass today. I took four pages of notes and Wayne shot at least a CD full of photos. It was interesting to see someone else look at the Pass with a critical eye towards modeling the area. Usualy when I go railfanning, everyone else is concentrating on the trains. I'm the only one looking at signals, culverts, etc. I'm so glad Wayne is now comfortable enough with the layout that he can look at the Pass with that same eye and thought process.

In no particular order, here are some of the notes from today's trip:

• The freeway bridge at Devore is actually two bridges, one in each direction.
• It would be nice to add at least a ranch or two on the hillside by Keenbrook.
• Bee hive boxes in the creek bottom, under Sycamores.
• There are at least three culverts between the freeway and Blue Cut.
• The culverts always line up with a gully or canyon above.
• The connecting canyons all face downstream.
• In a few places there is a corrugated steel debris screen uphill of the tracks.
• A few higher areas have pockets of Coulter Pines.
• High power lines are rail brown.
• Curved creek bank before Blue Cut has rail fence and oxidized rip-rap.
• Power lines are directly above the Blue Cut viaduct.
• The BC Viaduct is 32' tall, 80' long and double track wide.
• The opening is 20' high and wide, but 20' from the downhill side.
• There is a cool cut-stone wall extending from the uphill side.
• There is a 6' I-beam and wood retaining wall between Swarthout Road and the BNSF tracks.
• Many of the signals and boxes are painted a fleshy tan color.
• There are several enclosed culverts running from the UP tracks to the BNSF tracks before Cajon Station.
• There is a 6' flood wall on the creek side of Cajon Station.
• The entire crossover between the signals at Summit is wood ties.
• The BO tracks at Summit have wood ties.
• The grade crossing at Summit Guard shack is cement.
• The security lamps at Summit are on the top of wood poles, with white insulators and three wires.

Wayne came over today to help out with the layout. Yup, at long last we're working on the layout again. We got the benchwork for the entire UP loop completed. We re-worked Sullivan's Curve and finalized the grade at Silverwood. I need to get 5 rolls of the WS Plaster Cloth, 2 Large Right Turnouts, 1 Large Left Turnout, 15 pieces of cork, 13 pieces of Peco Code 80 Concrete Tie flex track, and 10 pieces of Atlas Code 100 Flex Track. Sherry has suggested a new wall to create a laundry room, which led to Wayne's suggestion of widening the layout at Alray. Damn! Another project!

So the cop traffic jam scene is a little stereotypical, but being a fan of urban layouts, The Acela Express is a winner. The work around the house has progressed at a break neck pace. We're almost ready for the gunite on the pool, but before the deck goes in, I want to run the irrigation, plus conduit for low-voltage lighting and garden speakers.

Alright. Time to come clean. I haven't worked on the layout since February 12th. In the interim, I've fought off at least one virus, installed new toilets, built a fence, moved the door on the tool shed from the north wall to the east wall, put new hardware on the kitchen cabinets, and supervised the digging for our new swimming pool. Sherry tells me this weekend will be spent putting in crown molding in the master bath. It may be another week before I get to play trains.

Well, as predicted, the counter rolled over to 10,000 yesterday. The honor of clicking that one over goes to John Quinn. Stuart Chirls was disappointed to have made 10,001. I promise to give him some warning when I get close to 25,000.

On Saturday, I headed over to the Model Train Expo with Wayne, Mario and Roy. Later we ran into Hugo at the show. Mario spent at least a grand on G Scale stuff. Just a few years ago, the shows were about 5% G Scale. Now it is at least 50% G scale.

well-i-spent-several-hours-today

well-i-spent-several-hours-today

Well, I spent several hours today working on the layout. After the last work day with Wayne and Drew, I had decided to go with the Woodland Scenics foam for the grades. This turned out to be pretty expensive, but the math and engineering on the alternatives was driving me crazy! It's not that easy to do cookie cutter on a 500 square-foot layout.

It cost $110 for the foam just to do the UP line, BUT the grades are perfect. Since I plan on keeping this layout for ten years or more, perfect grades seem worth the expense.


The InterMountain tunnel motors are starting to hit the shelves and I expect mine in the mail soon. The buzz has been mixed on these. Some comments about thick glue lines, distorted details, and headlight locations. Much of the noise seems to be coming from the usual rivet counters. That is not a concern of mine, unless they are poor runners. I've got a Cotton Belt, a Southern Pacific and a Union Pacific on order. My roster was light for the UP tracks, and with the UP trademark crap going on, I figured I better get some while I can. If I don't like them, I can always sell them on eBay. They're already getting about $20 more than I paid for mine.