Just checking in to let you all know I’m alive. I have been spending every spare second online promoting my biz through social media, so it’s difficult to chat for fun.
I haven’t been totally dormant in terms of modeling though. I’ve been working on the benchwork for my new layout for a couple months. The challenge is that I’m having to balance other tasks with construction–like I have to move my son’s layout and foosball table so I need to clear a space and that takes rearranging the garage type thing. That slows down the process to a crawl. I have only two small sections left to frame out, but to do so I must dismantle the selves in that area and find locations for all the stuff displaced.
And that is the way it has gone. Soon I’ll be landscaping and once I get the major features in the center of the layout. I can start laying track.
Still seems like a long way off. You can follow my progress here.
One additional note: My son has given me permission to change the name of Train City. Should I. If I do I’m thinking of using the name of one of the towns in the SP overland route to fix the location on the grade from Sacramento to Donner. The town needs to be large enough to support an engine change operation. Ideas?
Yes. Train City is too “cutesy.” While Colfax was a helper locomotive point, Rocklin would be more logical as it was a locomotive-change point until the coming of the Roseville yard. Pages 82-83 of Signor’s Donner Pass contains a pre-Roseville trackplan of Rocklin. Yes, the name Rocklin “rocks.”
Chip? Hmmmm. Have we met before? I seem to recall some one who went by the name of Chip… Some kind of rodent I think.
Jeeezzz Chip I thought you had fallen off the face of the Earth or taken one too many vitamins or something!
Good to hear from you. Oh, about the town name, call it what ever you and your son like. Hey it’s your railroad and as Harold Russell MMR always says, “Are you having Fun?!”
Well it’s good to have you back in the fold Chip, er i mean Mr President Mouse sir! pardon the informalness of the above as i just got emotionaly carried away there, as for the name change thing you should most definatly figure that out with the son, but i do like the Rockridge suggestion a lot, lots of possibilities for mischief, so there you go and good to have you back kind sir!
I’m with Barry on this one. Perhaps you and Shane could sit down together and look over the different towns along the SP overland route to discuss and agree upon a name and town that would be the most appropriate for what you are trying to accomplish. It would make for a great father/son bonding moment. [^]
I did a cursory google search on Rocklin and it seems ideal. The railroad map of the town almost exactly fits my layout–except the rocklin roundhouse is giagormous. I’ll have to rethink my little 3-stall engine house.
Rock Ridge is about as freelance as I intend to go. I’m actually trying to ground the railroad a little as I want to establish a feasable opearting scheme.
Tom,
Yes he is 11. My previous attempts to have Shane rename Train City have come up with names like Pokemon City. I think he’s content to let me do the naming.
Hmm, yes. “Rock Ridge and Train City” has a good rhythm. Bang Bang and Bang Bang. Changing to Rocklin makes it Bang Bang and Bangbang; not only is there too much Rock, the beat is off.
(Contrariwise, something like “Rocklin & Colfax” sounds great…Bangbang & Bangbang…or even Rocklin & Train City.)
I think you need a strong-sounding name of at least two syllables to fit there…you know, Rock Ridge & Donner Pass has a nice ring to it. The other town could be Rocklin, too…it just wouldn’t be in the name.
Both my railroad’s names are off-table names. Heck, some full-size railroads used “off-table” names.
If the Rocklin name fits but the other town’s name of Rock Ridge sounds redundant, well, rename Rock Ridge.
As I said before, Rocklin was the last locomotive change place on the west side of Donner Pass although Colfax was a helper engine station. To replace the name of Rock Ridge, you might consider, in order of west to east, Loomis, Pennryn, Newcastle, Flint, Auburn, Bowman, Applegate, and Colfax. There was little industrial going on beyond Colfax. Colfax was probably the most interesting, and it is where the SP interchanged with the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad.
I seem to recall that the first part of the NCNG was onetime dual-gauged so that standard-gauged rails could serve a quarry. Or is my mind playing tricks?
I was thinking Colfax for the second name. I like the idea of helper service and I could Include a steep grade to Phase II when the time comes. I have no room for a connection at this point. The benchwork is done and the mainline is pretty well set.
Other than Signor’s Donner Pass, Do you have any suggestions for reference materials? I have Dunscomb’s A Century of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives and Beebe’s The Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. Neither have been a great help with this.
Love this Rocklin Roundhouse photo. Check out the woodpile.
