As you may know, I’m a Rio Grande fan. One of the forum members asked me about the progress on my layout. So I’m posting some pictures for you all to look at. It’s only benchwork building at the moment but as soon the benchwork you see in the following pictures is finished I will lay down some spline roadbed and track. Then I can run trains when continue building the rest of the benchwork. As you can see the layout have two levels except at Big Ten Curves. That area is used to connect the two levels.
Very impressive, EL! [8D] Is that the beginnings of spline roadbed you show with the clamps and the lath running behind those uprights in a curve and grade? If so, how will you manage any problems behind the facade or scenery on the tracks behind them?
Good question. The spline roadbed you see is the ramp down to the hidden staging yard. The hidden staging yard will be located under North Yard. I will reach the area from underneeth the layout.
That’s coming right along there, Electro! Is the pinwheel of boards in the one pic where the end of a peninsula will be? If so, that’s an ingeneous and logical way to do that. [:)][tup]
Keep up the good work and continue to keep us posted on the progress!
Yes I will build the return loop there. I attached the wood in a circle for two reasons.
1 - It’s very easy to add risers for the spline roadbed and get a curve.
2 - I have something to attach the masonite fascia to. The fascia will be a circle as well.
There will in fact be 2 levels there. The lower level for the hidden staging yard return loop. And 20 cm above that the upper level for the Big Ten Curves return loop. That will make it even easier to attach the round fascia. The hidden staging yard return loop will be used to turn around the Rio Grande Zephyr F9, and to store trains that are not used at the moment.
Thank you much, electrolove; your doing a very good job. I can tell from your photos that your benchwork should have no problem handling the weight of your layout.
Curiosity question! Your Utah Railway engines; I am an N Scaler and I really don’t keep a close eye on HO Scale offerings but are those engines manufacturer painted or did you do it yourself. I ask because I am getting ready to go into an extensive custom painting project for my freelanced Seaboard and Western Virginia Railway and, if those are DIY paint jobs, I was wondering if you might have any special advice on the seperation of colors on a model.
Once again, you are doing an outstanding job; I’m looking forward to periodic progress reports as things move along.
Like I said I don’t keep a real close watch on HO Scale offerings; it is nice that Atlas has elected to provide modelers with some lokes painted up in Utah Railway livery.
Have another curiosity question: how do you acquire your American manufactured merchandise? When you add duty and VAT - I will assume that Sweden. like other European countries, has a VAT - what does that do to the price of merchandise compared to what I would have to pay for it at, say, my LHS?
Not wanting to pry into your personal life; how you spend your money is your business and extremely private! The reason I ask this is because, as I have mentioned on occasion, I was stationed in West Germany with the U.S. Military forces in the late-'60s - early-'70s. There was a hobby shop in downtown Kaiserslautern that kept some American manufactured merchandise on hand - I was surprised by the number of German Nationals who were interested in American prototype modeling - and the people at this hobby shop could, and would, order almost anything you might need; I knew a few Americans who did special order some things that way but generally by the time it came in the cost was about 50% more than what we Americans would pay by ordering from a mail-order house and having it shipped to an APO address.
When we import stuff to Sweden we get to pay customs and VAT. The VAT is 25% on all MRR related items(and most other things). Ad shipping to that which is usually around 10-30 % depending on what you order and you get the idea. Sometimes things slip through customs and you get a bonus. So I would say that a good guess is that we in Sweden pay about 40% more then you. But that applies to most things. Good thing we only pay about half of our incomes in taxes and earn half as much as you. [:D]
But in comparison to European MRR American items are cheap. When you say that a 200$ engine is expensive I get surprised. I do not think that there is a single European engine available for that price in Sweden. A Roco, Trix, or Fleischmann engine will be twice that and specific Swedish models will start out at perhaps 500-600$ for DC only.
Thanks Magnus for explaining that. I could not have said it better myself.
There are a few stores that can import, but it’s better to do it myself. I often buy things from eBay, Caboose Hobbies and places like that. Life would be much easier for me if I lived in the US but…
You can do whatever you want to do, if you just want to do it hard enought. So things like this will not stop a Swede.
Great job… from a part swede to a full swede (my grandmother imigrated from Sweden).
BTW, you got all 3 sets of the NORX hoppers right? I’m trying to put together a NORX train myself and hoping to get at least 25 of them for a longish looking train.
Thanks. Yes I have all three sets (15 cars) but they are getting hard to find so if you find them, buy them quick is my advice. There is one NORX set on eBay right now. Here is the link.
