POSSIBLE LAYOUT THEME MODIFICATION

Having just returned from a day trip into the Sawtooth Mountains, I may be rethinking part of my layout theme.  The layout will still be set in 1947 but I may modify the fictional locale somewhat, from the southern semi-desert Idaho plains to the southern central mountains of Idaho.  A real-life example would be the town of McCall, a couple of hours north of Boise.  It no longer has rail service but there was a line up there that I believe was a UP branch, later part of Idaho Northern & Pacific before that portion of their road was abandoned.  The scenery in that area is very appealing, though with such a small layout, I'd only be able to suggest it by having plenty of trees and some water.

No track plan modifications would be required, but the scenery, rather than representing arid sagebrush country, would feature forest...ponderosa and lodgepole pine, inland Douglas fir, etc.  The station name will have to reflect this, of course.  Rather than "Snake River" it might be something like "Ponderosa Lake" or "Ponderosa Junction" or simply "Ponderosa." 

If, instead, I decide to stick to the sagebrush, I think I might model a very thin slice of the Snake River at the front of the layout.  Whatever I settle on, I think it's important to convey a strong sense of time and place so that any viewer can grasp it without additional explanation.   

PLANNING TRACKWORK

As mentioned previously, I have a full-size track diagram laid out on four sheets of packing paper.  My thought is to cut out sections and glue them to white pine boards (1 x 4, 1 x 6, etc. as needed), and then those boards will serve as the roadbed and will be mounted on the layout.  Ties and rail will be laid on top of this "template."  I plan to have a basic baseboard surface of particle board, with the white pine roadbed on top of that.  Because the layout will be small, there won't be much in the way of terrain elevation changes and no "deep" water features, so this arrangement, based on experience, should be fine.  The layout will essentially represent a town so, again, there won't be any dramatic hills, etc., but maybe a gradual rise toward the backdrop of 2 to 3 inches at most.  The only water I plan on having is a muddy stream in a ditch; any road or track that intersects it will have a culvert, so it will be "shallow."

I've just used my printer's scanning feature to run off switch templates to glue onto the track diagram.  These are from the great Paul Mallery book on trackwork, blown up to S Scale.

I used to spike every tie, a time-consuming process to say the least.  That was when I used Homasote.  When I switched to white pine for roadbed I found that, because the spikes held better, spiking every fourth or fifth tie (the NMRA recommendation) worked very well.  Thus, I think the tracklaying this time will go faster.  What I haven't decided is whether to lay the turnouts separately on individual roadbed pieces or simply lay them as part of a larger...say 3 foot...section.  I think I'm leaning toward the first option, because it's really helpful to be able to pick up a turnout and sight along the rails, etc., in striving for accuracy.  I'll think about it.

PLANNING A NEW LAYOUT (CONTINUED)

Another road name I'm considering is "Idaho & Pacific"...a lot of railroads, small and large, seemed intent on including "Pacific" in their names, though some of them never got near that ocean.  Not far from here, we have the Idaho Northern & Pacific today, which operates a couple of ex-Union Pacific branch lines that are strictly local, and we are a Rocky Mountain state, hundreds of miles inland.  Sounds ambitious, though.

As I've said, my layout will depict a small town that happens to be at an (offstage) junction, where the east/west mainline connects with a branch.  Actually, I've decided it will connect with both a northbound and a southbound branch.  Thus, switching activity will largely consist of traffic between the branches and the mainline and between the branches themselves, which will presumably operate local trains originating at the junction town, with no through services from one branch to the other.

There will also be a couple of town industries to switch, a lumber yard and a coal dealer, as well as a small freight house and team track.  Eventually, there will be a little passenger train switching activity...adding or dropping cars for the mainline, assembling short locals and mixed trains for the branches, etc.

The layout will be set in April 1947, and, as was the case for the prototype roads, freight house business will steeply decline in the next few years with the loss of l.c.l. traffic to trucking.  The team track will have a more extended future.  Branch passenger traffic won't have much of a lifespan, either.  However, since it will always be April 1947 on my layout, none of these upcoming developments will affect my scheme!

I won't have any room for staging, so the arrival/departure track will serve to absorb and regenerate traffic via a simple card order system.

PLANNING A NEW LAYOUT

We moved into our new home in mid-December, in awful weather.  I wasn't planning to build a new layout, but instead decided to build static models to display in a glass-fronted cabinet we have.  However, we do have a double garage with an extra bay/shop area deep in the rear, almost a separate room. So that's where I have decided, with my wife Susie's strong encouragement, to build a 3' x 12' switching layout.  It will lie along one wall of the shop area and will have a 4' floor to ceiling "wall" on the front end to ward off dust. 

I'm not sure dust in the garage will be much of a problem.  At least, it hasn't been so far, even with a lot of home construction still occurring on our street, which has stirred up plenty of soil.  Our garage is very "tight" and, moreover, is very, very well insulated in both ceiling and walls.  Much of my decision to build a layout was due to the garage passing the "comfort test."  Since we've lived here, the past six months, outside temperatures have ranged from minus 11 in January to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit recently.  Through all that, the garage has remained quite comfortable, and would be even more so using a small electric heater and a portable fan.

The layout, as I said, will be a switching pike.  I'm once again modeling April 1947, this time in a small, fictitious town in southern Idaho on a fictitious railroad line running across Idaho into Oregon, with branch lines into Wyoming, Nevada and Utah.  I haven't settled on a road name yet but am leaning toward "Idaho & Oregon."  The town will be at a junction point where a branch joins the main line, though the actual junction would be "off stage."  Thus, the town name I'm thinking of will be "Snake River Junction" in order to convey a sense of place. 

My track plan is essentially finalized and is actually based on a layout in "101 Track Plans."  The plan in the book is entitled "Mechanic Street Yard," though I've modified it in several ways.  Since my S Scale layout will be small, I've laid out a full-size track plan on four sheets of leftover packing paper.  I plan to use this as a tracklaying template when construction begins. 

I also will be buying a brand new supply of rail.  When I scrapped my Texas layout, I really scrapped it!  The only things I saved, besides rolling stock of course, were most of the structures and all of the vehicles, figures, signs, etc.  I didn't save the rail, since it had been used and reused in six different layouts over nearly 40 years, and the original 3' lengths of rail had long since been reduced to various-sized fragments.  I think I definitely had gotten my money's worth from that rail!

So my rough plan is to begin construction around September or October.  This summer, since we've been through moving, settling in and major surgery for my wife, we're just going to take it easy!

IN THE NORTH

We've been back in Idaho since early October and have been living in a short-term rental apartment until we can get into a house...which will happen in about a week or so.  It's good to be back here after 8-1/2 years.  We've quickly gotten reacquainted with the Boise area and people we know, particularly at our old church.  We're also currently getting reacquainted with snow!

The house we're buying has three bedrooms and two baths, but no room for a layout, which is fine since I hadn't planned on having one, anyway.  I will have room to display static models and small dioramas and am looking forward to that.  Since I have always enjoyed scenery and structure construction the most, this will suit my needs just fine.  It will be a while before I have photos, but they will eventually appear.

After unpacking and building storage shelves and a workbench in the garage (which has a shop-sized area in addition to room for two cars), my first display project will be my 1930s Orient Express coach, which I've been sporadically working on for several years.

HEADING NORTH

We've sold our house and will be leaving for Idaho in less than a week.  We will miss our many good Texas friends, but we know this is the right thing for us.  God has opened every door for our sale and move and so we really know this is what we're supposed to be doing.  We're very grateful.

END OF THE LINE

The Gulf Harbor Terminal Railway no longer exists.  The layout has been completely dismantled; rolling stock, most structures, figures, vehicles, signs and other scenery items have been packed away.  The layout itself, including track and scenic base, is now scrap in a local recycling center.

This is not a sad event, but one that signals a change in our lives, a change we are looking forward to implementing.  It's a decision inspired by a recent visit to our daughter and her family in Utah.  Having been in Texas eight years, we are returning to the Northwest, back to Boise, Idaho.  Though my wife and I are both Washington State natives, we have lived in Idaho on three different occasions (if I count my Air Force time), two of which were in Boise, and consider it a second home.  While we've enjoyed Texas and have made many close friends here, we no longer have family here and so it's time to go.  Our daughter in Utah will be only a five-hour drive from Boise, and that's a darn sight closer than a 1200- mile plane ride.  Way less expensive, too!

We also plan to downsize, shedding about 1,000 square feet of living space, so there won't be room for a layout.  And I'm fine with that.  The GHT was my sixth layout and, believe it or not, the same rail and spikes were used in all six!  I sure got my money's worth from that rail I bought in 1978 and 1985!  I had countless hours of enjoyment and learned a lot from building and operating those layouts, but it's time for a change.  I want to pursue other interests, such as my other hobby of amateur astronomy and get back into trout fishing and become reacquainted with the mountains.

While I won't be building another layout, I intend to continue to build models of rolling stock strictly for display purposes and someday may even create a couple of bookshelf dioramas.  We'll see; for now, I suspect my equipment and rolling stock projects in progress will be packed away for at least a year or two, if not longer.  Our immediate concern is to sell our house here in Texas and find another up north.

The decision to relocate wasn't easy, but it feels absolutely right, and we trust in God to lead us into this next phase of our lives.  As I said, we have made some wonderful friends here and that's the hard part of leaving.  However, I am looking forward to living again where there are four distinct seasons and, being a native of the Northwest, I have never stopped missing the sight of mountains.  Boise is a very pleasant, very livable city of 200,000 that backs up to a mountain range and has a nice climate.  We will have to get used to snow again, true, but since Boise has a high desert climate, we won't have to deal with the sticky humidity any longer...nor with bug treatments for our house!

I don't know how many people have read this blog and it doesn't really matter, because I've enjoyed writing it.  It focused my thoughts and was fun to do.  I hope some of the experiences I've set down here have been helpful and I hope you have enjoyed my photos, too.

Thanks for reading!

ROLLING STOCK UNDER CONSTRUCTION...MORE

Also under construction:

--Baltimore & Ohio boxcar using American Flyer car body, doors that were extra from a kit, scale trucks and couplers.

--Refurbishing a "billboard" refrigerator car I built a number of years ago from a kit.  "Billboard" reefers became illegal by the late 1930's so this one will be repainted and relettered for "Texas Coast" railroad. 

ROLLING STOCK UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Several cars in the works:

--Texas & Pacific gondola using an American Flyer carbody.  The scale trucks have been mounted and couplers are next, along with steps and weathering.  The car will have to be weighted and, to hide the weights, it will have a load of utility poles.

--Texas Coast (my fictional connecting line) boxcar, also using an American Flyer carbody.  Lettering, using dry transfers, is done.

-- Texas Coast boxcar from a partially assembled (but incomplete) kit I acquired somewhere (can't remember where).  I need to mount trucks, add lettering and a roofwalk, which I'll make out of styrene.

--Southern Pacific flatcar using an American Flyer carbody.  Scale trucks are mounted, couplers and steps and a brakewheel are next.

Upcoming projects:

--Scratchbuilt baggage car and a coach using plans from Model Railroader.

--Steam loco water column and an oil column (Texas steam power was often oil-fired).

--Diesel fuel tank.

MISCELLANEOUS UPDATE

In no particular order of importance, some of the things I've been working on:

--I just received an order of freight trucks from American Models which will help in the completion of a dozen cars.  Ten of these will use American Flyer car bodies, two will be scratchbuilt boxcars.  I also have a kit-built billboard reefer that I will repaint as a Texas Coast reefer, since billboard reefers were no longer legal in the year, 1947, I'm modeling.

--I have six pairs of passenger trucks available.  Five will be used for cars to be used on the layout.  One pair will be set aside for a special project:  I'm working on a model, strictly for display on a bookshelf, of a 1930s Orient Express coach.  I found plans in a book about famous trains and have been building the coach on and off for several years.

--I still have on hand window castings, so I will try to find space to add one more structure...I don't know what it will be, though I'm considering a small office shack for my Coastal Barge Lines pier.

SEPARATING SCENES TO MAKE THE LAYOUT SEEM LARGER

My S Scale layout isn't very large.  It measures approximately 8' x 12'; the HO Scale equivalent would be about 5-1/2' x 8'.  With no obstructions to viewing it in its entirety, it would look pretty small.  That's why I have deliberately broken it up into scenes, with subtle barriers between areas to block a full view.  This fits in with what the layout represents, chiefly  a congested portside industrial area.  There is some portion devoted to the Gulf Harbor "downtown" but it's a minor part of the layout.  These subtle barriers require the viewer to consider one section at a time and, thus, the layout seems larger and the distances greater.

We'll start with the "downtown."  It is slightly elevated...maybe 7 scale feet above track level, with a gradual incline rising from the area of the depot.  Remember, this is the flat Texas coast, so any elevation change must be minimal to appear credible.  And 7 scale feet is just enough to draw the eye upward from the tracks.

 

Another thing I've done, as the top photo shows, is to conceal the ends of streets that run into the backdrop.  This done through angling the streets and blocking the view with trees and structures.  This gives the impression that there's more "town" just out of sight.

 

 

(Above) The building to the left, Southern Maritime Supply, is situated midway along the long (12') section of the layout.  It obstructs the view, in this case, to the north end of the layout, just as you'd encounter driving through an industrial area.

 

 

This is the area to the south of that building.  Note the edge of "downtown" in the background.  The roads in the industrial area do not visibly connect to the downtown streets, but are separated by multiple tracks.  This lends the impression that there's much of the city of Gulf Harbor that can't be seen and that the port area is reached from a different section of the city.

 

 

Now we're looking from the other side of Southern Maritime Supply, with the view to the south partially blocked.

 

 

And this is what lies to the north of Southern Maritime Supply.

 

 

I used an odd corner on the north end of the layout to add a small scene.  I leaned over the layout to get this shot; the edge of the backdrop at the end of the street shows in this photo, but is not normally visible to observers.

 

 

The roundhouse faces away from the room entrance, leading the observer to turn toward it and effectively making it a separate scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

USING RESEARCH TO CREATE A SENSE OF TIME AND PLACE (PHOTOS)

The Liberty Theatre movie marquee displays a film that was released in April 1947.

 

 

At the Gulf Harbor depot, the flagpole displays a 48-star flag and the Texas state flag.  Automobiles of 1940s vintage are parked nearby.

 
Billboards from the era advertise 1947 Mercury automobiles and Chesterfield cigarettes.

The shed on Pier 1 gives a sense of the location through a sign and the era by displaying a 48-star flag.

 Stop signs in 1947 were black on yellow.  Correct vintage autos are parked nearby.

 

 

On the layout room wall is an April 1947 calendar page I created for the fictional Texas Coast Railroad, an "off layout" line that interchanges with the Gulf Harbor Terminal Railway.

 

Vintage advertisements from an April 1947 National Geographic are displayed on the layout room wall.

I also created an April 1947 calendar page for the GHT.  The telephone number, PA-6-5000, is taken from the title of a Glenn Miller recording.

USING RESEARCH TO CREATE A SENSE OF TIME AND PLACE

As I've said previously, my model railroad is set in April 1947, the month and year of my birth.  I set out to create an impression of both time and place, and the research involved was actually pretty enjoyable.  I love history anyway, so maybe that's why I liked this part of planning.

The place part was the easiest.  I've lived in Texas for eight years and my wife Susie and I have driven the length of the Texas coast, so I've gained a pretty good impression of how things are in the ports.  Also, I've pored over historical photos and related material to get an idea of what type of rail traffic and industries existed in this state in 1947, as well as other details.  For example, because of our southerly latitude the tidal fluctuation on the Texas coast is much less than it is in my native Washington state, so I made the piers lower than I would have if I were modeling, say, a Puget Sound port. 

When it came to creating an impression of the time being modeled, the Internet was a tremendous asset in this kind of project.  Also, late-1940s movies and vintage magazines helped .  My earliest memories date back to 1951 or '52, and the postwar appearance of many things persisted well into the mid-'50s, so much of what I found was already familiar to me.  My objective was to convey the era well enough that a visitor could figure it out without being told.  To do this, I used buildings, signs, automobiles, a movie marquee and vintage billboards.  Details, no matter how small, all contribute to the larger picture, even something as small as the fact that in 1947 stop signs were yellow with black lettering, or a gas station would likely have a "mechanic on duty" sign.

SCRATCH BUILDING

All of my structures are scratch built; that is, they aren't built from kits.  However, I have made extensive use of commercial materials such as plastic brick sheets, doors, windows, etc.  Grandt Line has (had, anyway) S Scale doors and windows and in 1998 I acquired a supply that has lasted until now.  In fact, I'm down to my last window!

Also, I've done a bit of recycling.  My last three completed layouts have reflected where we lived, in order, Oregon, Idaho and Texas.  Some of the buildings that would be appropriate for one area didn't necessarily work in another, though most have served on all three layouts.  But I've reconfigured some in order to make them appropriate to a layout set on the Texas coast.  My Idaho layout had a feed mill and a grain elevator.  I combined the two buildings and added a dock to produce Southern Maritime Supply.  My power company service center incorporates sections from my Idaho passenger depot.

Trees were reused, too, though I could no longer use the autumn-hued deciduous trees from my Idaho layout, since my layout is set in April 1947 and there isn't much autumn color down here, anyway.  My Northwest fir trees were another casualty.

SOME BUILDINGS ON THE GULF HARBOR TERMINAL RAILWAY

 

Top: This is a model of a theater in Pasco, Washington where my mother worked as a teenager in the 1930s.  The movie billed, "My Favorite Brunette," was released in early April 1947, the exact month and year of the setting for my layout.

 

Second from Top:  The Hillier Hotel (named in honor of one of my sons-in-law) is a model based on a hotel in Lewiston, Idaho.

 

Third from Top:  The Gulf Harbor Methodist Church is based on a Lutheran church in Silverton, Oregon.  Since I happen to be Methodist, I changed the denomination...modeler's license, I guess!

 

Fourth from Top:  I modeled this Texaco station based on photos of a late-1930s station I found in a book on vintage gas stations.  Emily's Fine Fashions, in the background, is named after one of my granddaughters.

 

Bottom:  Another view of the Texaco station.  I fashioned the gas pumps out of balsa wood blocks and styrene.  The figures are from Artistta Associates S Scale offerings.  The Lazy Susan Café is a joke on my wife, Susie, who is most definitely not lazy!

THE POWER COMPANY

Top Photo: Harborland Power & Light west harbor service center.  This represents an aging structure.  The Reddy Kilowatt logo was used by electric utilities across the nation in the 1940s and later.

Middle Photo: Overall view of the Harborland Power & Light service center, including the utility pole storage, seen near the top of the photo.  The chain link fences were made using styrene rods, along with plastic screen purchased from a home improvement store.

Bottom Photo:  The main entrance to the Harborland service center yard is adjacent to the tail track at the far west end of the layout, across the street from the Texas Gulf Cotton Co.  The land side of Pier 2 is on the opposite side of the service center.

POWER COMPANY UPDATE

I'll post photos soon of my power company service center.  I found a Reddy Kilowatt logo and created a sign.  Turns out that I couldn't get away from the use of "harbor" and so "Harborland Power & Light" now exists on the layout, and the name does make sense, given the fictional port I'm modeling.  The chain link fence is done and all that remains is to place a stack of utility poles on the property.

FILLING EMPTY SPACES

There are only a couple of "empty" spaces left on the GHT.  These spaces have completed scenery so they are "empty" only in the sense that they could serve as sites for new structures.  The roundhouse area is one such space, and I plan to use that by adding a water column, a steam loco fuel oil column, and a diesel fuel tank.

The other space is on the west harbor addition, between the Texas Gulf Cotton Co. and the pier shed.  I'm in the process of filling that in by adding an electric utility service center building and "(utility) pole yard."  The building (photos coming soon) is actually cannibalized from the remains of the passenger depot on the layout I had when we lived in Idaho.  I retired from PacifiCorp (Pacific Power/Utah Power) so I figured I'd better have something reminiscent of my corporate employment.  A service center doesn't involve power generation, but is just what the name implies:  it's a center of operations for crews who maintain the power lines.  I've been thinking about what to call the utility.  The words "harbor, "gulf" and "coast" already appear extensively on the layout, so I'd like to come up with something different, as long as it includes the words "Power & Light," which is characteristic of the 1940s.  I also plan to include a Reddy Kilowatt logo, which was used all across the country.

Finally, I'm looking for space to add one more billboard.  I already have one that has Bing Crosby touting Chesterfield cigarettes, but to help reinforce the era concept, I'd also like one advertising a 1947 automobile make.

TRACKWORK ON THE GULF HARBOR TERMINAL RY.

   The track on the Gulf Harbor Terminal Railway is all hand laid.  I use Code 100 rail, which represents medium weight prototype rail in S Scale.  I guess the HO equivalent would be Code 83.  For roadbed I use white pine, which takes spikes well.

 

The ties are 1/8" x 1/8" balsa and are stained with acrylic burnt umber, then fixed to the roadbed with white glue.  The balsa shows grain well and takes stain unevenly, which gives a weathered appearance.  I was spiking the rail to every tie, but found that wasn't necessary, so in later construction I spiked every fourth tie.  The rail sides are painted a combination of rust and brown.

 

 

All turnouts are No. 6 which will accommodate any length car.  I'd have preferred to use No. 8s but they require too much space to use on an 8' x 12' layout.  The very minimum radius is 25", though most curves are in the 32" to 45" range.  Track is ballasted using a white glue/water 50/50 mix.

 

 

On a couple of the tighter curves I use guard rails on the inside rail, per prototype practice.  Above is a track approaching a turnout leading to a wharf.

 

 

The GHT, as its name implies, is a port-area industrial switching line, which means track in streets.  The streets are created using patching plaster, which I sand when dry and then paint a light gray color, with a little black added.  I then rub the surface with light-colored dirt (found in our area) and, for "oil drippings" I rub a little graphite obtained from pencil lead.  It's not apparent in this photo, but the flangeways are protected by L-shaped styrene strips, just as prototype flangeways use metal guards.  The street track is laid directly on the white pine roadbed and flangeway guards are attached with white glue, then the plaster is added.  The pavement must be a fraction lower than the top of the rail.

 

 

To accurately model turnouts in streets, I studied photos of New York's Bush Terminal trackage.  I think the website is entitled "New York's Crosstown Railroad" or something like that.  Anyway, the photos on that site were very helpful.  By the way, the camera's flash made this pavement appear lighter in color in the photos than it actually is.

 

 

A turnout completely in the street means, of course, switch points in pavement, along with special guards for the points, for which I used Code 70 rail.  To throw the switch, the prototype often uses a lever that's covered by a metal plate between the points.  I depicted the metal plate by using a styrene strip appropriately painted;  hidden under this "plate" is a brass strip connecting the switch points.  The brass strip is lined with spikes which keep the points from rising.  The stock rails have metal tabs that the points must ride over and this arrangement makes the points fit snugly and securely against the stock rails.  It also ensures positive electrical contact.  To throw the turnout, I simply push the points over with a small screwdriver;  I got the idea for that when I read about a street turnout being thrown using a crowbar!

 

 

The Texas Gulf Cotton Co.'s sidings have lighter rail, represented by Code 83.

 

I enjoy laying track, though since my layout is complete and this is our retirement home, it's not likely I'll be constructing any more trackwork.  I plan to concentrate on adding rolling stock and maybe a few more structures...and also to get that old 0-6-0 back into running shape!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LAYOUT PHOTOS

1. North end of layout before addition was built.  This is a general merchandise pier.  Wholesale grocery warehouse is on right and track "exiting" layout to fictitious main line of the Texas Coast Railroad (also fictitious) passed behind pier shed.
2.  
3. 

 2.  West end of layout, part of new addition.  General merchandise pier is in foreground, with rail spur behind.  Building in back is Texas Gulf Cotton Co. warehouse.

3.  This is how the north end of the layout looks now, since construction of the west end addition.  There is now a smaller pier shed and the former "main line connection" is now the branch to the addition.

4.  The Gulf Harbor Terminal Railway's NW-2 on the turntable at the layout's south end.  The loco is painted to resemble an NW-2 I saw on the Heber Valley Railroad tourist line south of Park City, Utah.

5.  The south end of the layout.  The roundhouse is at left.  The track on the far right is the new "main line connection" that runs past the depot, which is modeled after the former Santa Rosa, California depot.  The business district of the town of Gulf Harbor is in the background.

6.  Looking south from the layout's mid-point.  The Gulf Harbor business district and a couple of residences are at left.  Gulf Harbor Fuel's spur heads off to the upper right, along with a spur to Southern Maritime Supply.  The track at lower right leads to the original general merchandise pier.

7.  The view, looking east, from the end of the new west end addition.  To the left is the Texas Gulf Cotton Co. warehouse and to the right, the truck and rail loading side of the new general merchandise pier.