I’m a retired Naval Officer residing in the Charleston, SC area, who is still supporting the United States Navy as a defense contractor. I am an avid Denver South Park & Pacific history buff and Colorado & Southern narrow gauge modeler for the last 30 years; I am actively building my retirement layout, which focuses on C&S narrow gauge operations between Kenosha, Como, and Boreas Pass. The layout will be DCC equipped, with state-of-the-art DCC components from Tam Valley Depot.
Welcome to the forum! Terrific job on the Argo,please post more photo’s as you progress.The area you are focusing on is one of my favorites - I love that drop into South Park after coming over Kenosha(not so much in the winter…). Also,there is a thread every weekend called Weekend Photo Fun,where everyone is encouraged to post pictures - hope to see you there!
Mike
[#welcome] It looks like you are off to a good start, nice detail.
Is it HOn3?
Welcome fellow defense contractor! Nice subject to model. Even though I grew up in California, trips to Colorado sparked my interest in modeling RRing there too, although I’m going standard gauge D&RGW.
Cheers, Jim
[#welcome]
I am LION. LION was in Navy.
Now LION lives in North Dakota, Him builds Subway Trains. Has Largest subway layout in state of North Dakota. 14 miles of track, 10 trains, 3-4 minute headway, fully automatic operation (flower of 1960s technology). LION not understand little black chips with pins sticking out of them. Him builds with real relays: goes CLICK when it works. LION can SEE what is happening.
LION builds as good as him can from whatever scratch him can find. After all, nobody pays LIONS anything (other than some tasty wildebeests), and 'sides, him has big furry paws that do not allow for fine model work. Still, LION is happy with what him builded, and that is all that counts.
ROAR
Looks better than my efforts on the Appalachians. The Cawdor Southern still lacks scenery, and small industrial power. Plenty for through freights, nada otherwise. Unless I dual gauge some track for the TARDIS 0-6-0 that someone bought from Britain.
[:-^]
Hi DSPP and [#welcome], also a very happy Remembrance/Veterns Day to you, and thanks for your service. The Same goes to all our Veterns dropping by this post.
The photo that you show of the Argo mine is great, very well done and has gained our attention, we will be watching for your further postings here.
Glad to have you on board. Be sure to drop by the Diner as well “Jeffrey’s Diner” in this same Forum. We have a great buch there and it is open to more things than just Railroading as long as we keep it civil and not flamed.
We have some excellent modellers here, lots of different experiences and skills. They can help a guy out no matter what kind of a problem he encounters and all are welcome no matter how long you have been in the hobby of MRRing.
Great that you have found this site. Kalmbach does us a great service here and we appreciate it.
Johnboy out…
Well hello and welcome back into the hobby - Thanks for posting and sharing your photo ! Nice job. When you need a break visit us in Jeffries dinner and have a cup of joe and join us for on and off topic stuff ( only place off topic stuffed is allowed ) Hope to see you there soon.
YGW
Welcome! You have done some awesome work on that mine. I am looking forward to you sharing more of your layout in the near future. I am a big fan of narrow gauge. And my the way, happy Veterans Day to you and the other Veterans on the fourm.
Ralph
DSPP Fan:
Welcome to the forums!! [#welcome]
You have done a great job on the mine scene. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Dave
P.S. Happy retirement from an honourable career.
Thanks for the kind words guys!
The new HOn3 layout I am building is based on the C&S prototype, to the maximum extent possible, with the exception being the Argo Tunnel complex. Please allow me to explain - my first HOn3 Layout was based on Malcom Furlow’s San Juan Central, with a C&S theme. This layout included a model of the Argo built from a set of Harry Brunk’s plans in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. Unfortuntley, the tight curves and steep grades caused major reliability issues and I wanted to convert to DCC; so I decided to salvage all the buildings and start over. I hated to do it, but it was the only way.
When I started to plan the new layout I just fell in love with Como, and decided that it had to be the centerpiece of the new layout. Here are the other requirements I set for myself, when it came to planning the new layout:
Here is the track plan I settled on, which was created using 3D Planit software:
For this new layout, I decided to drop the Argo Complex into the area west of Kenosha and east of the pass, just before you round the big bend and drop down into South Park. This complex will be renamed the “Kenosha Tunnel”, and provide the
Cool. Lots of work for you there.
My maiden name was Donald. My name became Elias when I entered the monastery.
Alter Ego is the LION.
ROAR
Don:
I love your track plan, partially because it is very similar to my own.
I only have 10’ width wise so my aisle is narrower, but I have 23’ to work with length wise. I’m also putting staging underneath so there will be at least one helix to access it.
My layout is on hold (has been for 10 years) until my son moves out. Believe me, I’m dropping all sorts of hints!
Dave
Don:
I don’t mean to detract from your thread’s theme, but could you explain how you got the image of your track plan to post in the forum?
I have done it in the past, and I looked up the thread where it was explained to me how to do it, but I can’t make it work. When I hit the ‘print screen’ button nothing happens.
I can print a copy of the layout plan using the 3rdPlanIt commands but for whatever reason it comes out with very faint lines.
Thanks
Sorry to go [#offtopic]
Dave
EDIT:
My wee dinosaur brain just went back and studied the 3rdPlanIt print screen and I discovered that I could control the minimum line width. After adjusting that to 1.5 points from the default setting of .25 points I actually got a clear image that is suitable for posting as a PDF. However, I still don’t understand how to do it without printing the plan and then scanning it into a PDF format so I can post it. Any edification in that regard would be much appreciated.
Here is my track plan. The similarities are pretty obvious. This doesn’t show the lower level staging or the helises to get there. The brown track in the lower left is an HOn30 mine scene that will sit about 8" above the main track.
Dave
As far as converting your track plan to PDF format, I use a shareware program called CutePDF. Once you install it, it replicates an installed printer. You just select it when the window opens to select a printer. A dialog window will open so you can save the PDF wherever you want to. I’m using Windows 10 and there isn’t any compatibility issues.
Happy Sunday critter! [(-D]I haven’t actually read the instructions for posting pics here, but here is my humble input. There are many apps you can use to capture that screen shot, so that you can upload it. I use an app called Snagit for the screen shot part of the equation, I save it as a .jpg file and then I upload it to Photobucket. All I have to do then is point the forum post pic I want to post to the Photobucket address, and voila.
Very nice - there isn’t much not to like. Only thing I noticed was minimum radius of 20 inches but maybe for Narrow Gauge it’s not too bad. In standard gauge that would be extremely restrictive, but std gauge has long cars and Narrow Guage all short so should be ok I’d think.
Once upon a time, when DOS was the operating system, and only text appeared on the screen, you could press the print screen button and it would print the text on your printer. You know : Print Screen.
Today is different. Today you hit “Print Screen” and it makes a copy of the screen on your clipboard. It is up to you to open a photo editor and paste the results there, and then make a .jpg or whatever of it.
ROAR
Typical narrow gauge cars are only about 30’ long. Looking at minimum radius as a function of car length, 30’ cars on a 20" curve is the aesthetic equivalent of 89’ auto racks on a 60" radius.