“The crosses at the Dawson cemetery. No one comes here anymore, and few stay until sunset when the crosses cast long shadows. If you do want to go, it’s not far off US Hwy 64.”
Even the rail line that ran thru Dawson, NM is now a ghost, where the rails have been ripped up (for the second time) about 4 years ago.
Indeed. The York Canyon operation is part of the Vermijo ranch now, and the last thing they want is mining on their land! I don’t blame them.
To my knowledge, Don Ball was the only person to model York Canyon back in 2011 or so. Not sure if the layout is still around. Most folks who model the Raton coal ops model the ones on the main, but there were entire districts not too unlike what the N&W and C&O had in WV, KY, and VA.
The ATSF served several of these districts and numerous mines, they all fed back into the main. One of the more curious mines was the Swastika Mine in Swastika, New Mexico. This mine was laid out by the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific Railroad Company, known as the Swastika Route. Their cars and locomotives were emblazoned with a swastika set at 45° from the vertical, right facing; and wouldn’t have been out of place in Germany in 1940! They’d been founded in 1905 and predated National Socialism by a good 20 years. They’re worth a google, the paint scheme is wild to our modern eyes. Seeing their locomotives and cars in the US definitely feels like some sort of dystopian future-past.
The railroad was bought out by the ATSF but the coal was sold to consumers under the Swastika brand until 1940 when the whole region received a name change, and for good reason!! Swastika became Brilliant, and this was part of a larger rebranding of the whole area.
The incredibly irritating thing is that the line is absolutely fascinating and would make an excellent layout, but the hassle of explaining that it’s 1912 New Mexico and not 1930s Germany isn’t worth the trouble. Most modelers of the line conveniently sidestep this by modeling the 50s when all of that nonsense was gone. Sadly, so too the traffic in those mining districts. Setting it in the 20s or even 1930s doesn’t help, as the branding for the coal was everywhere. Better to let sleeping dogs be.
If you go to Raton today, the tallest building is now a bank but it was once the grand Swastika Hotel. A luxury hotel even then. If it weren’t for the southwestern architecture, you’d swear the old photos of the interiors were taken at a grand Austrian chalet in 1938. Even the fireplace was decorated with the symbol. Apparently the hotel issued postcards that explained that the symbol predated the German corruption by thousands of years, but some small town in New Mexico was never going to change world opinion on that one! By the time the occupation of the Sudatenland happened, the Swastika Hotel rebranded to the Yucca Hotel. A good idea if you ask me!
If you look closely at the former hotel, now the INBank building, you’ll see a couple dozen 4’ tall swastikas around the top. Oddly out of place, and once you see them, they can’t be unseen. Swastikas still seem to permeate the area, and if you look closely you’ll see them. You won’t find them on my layout though.
The first single-destination point-to-point unit train came out of the York Canyon mine destined for the Kaiser steel mill in Fontana, CA in 1966. The last coal train out of York was 2003.
Speaking of New Mexico railroading, if you look around you can find some very interesting modeling opportunities. Two foot narrow gauge in Silver City, standard gauge coal lines sans swastikas, and a very curious narrow gauge line in northern New Mexico that was called the Santa Barbara Tie and Pole Company. They had a 3’ gauge logging line up in Jemez mountains that provided ties to the ATSF. They packed the locomotive in by mule… The logging operation had EVERYTHING! Not only sawmills and the like but booms, flumes, ties floated out on the rivers… a modeler’s dream!
I forgot to add this link:
The Friends have a gallery of SL,RM&P photos taken in Cimarron. If you google around you can find photos of the big mines up in the canyons, and some are VERY big indeed. I think all told the SLRMP had around 150 miles of track.
I stayed a night in Raton several years ago on the way to stay at the St. James Hotel in Cimmaron. It was dark and I went straight to the hotel. I wish I had known about the Swastika Hotel then. I would have liked to take some pictures of it.
Yeah, it’s a weird one, that’s for sure!
I thought about doing a whole tutorial on hand-laying track, but after a quick search of the YouTube, it seems that we’re well covered. I’ve already mentioned above that I used Fast Tracks jigs for the 220mm curves, and the center section of the 195mm curves. The 195mm curves are spiral curves so I couldn’t use the jig for the whole thing. The turnouts were laid using FT jigs and the rest was done with Trifecta rail gauges. Fast Tracks recommends using 3 Trifecta tools, but I only used 2. If I were to do it again, I’d order a 3rd. It wasn’t terribly difficult to do with 2, but a third hand is always better.
Bare, unpainted track.
A few words on painting. Once the track was complete, I masked off the contact points of the turnouts, well the inside anyway. I do this because I don’t want paint between the rails, in Z scale, even a small amount of paint could cause the train to pick the switch. Once that was finished, I painted everything Tamiya XF-1 black. I’ve been a proponent of black-basing for years. Even with my ship models, everything is painted black first, and I work back from there. Model railroading is no exception. Black takes all of the dissimilar materials and textures and marries them together. From here, we have the canvas the same color, and the rest of our paint will go down evenly, and there is no variation in the color. The black also mimics natural shadow, so even after the track is painted with the color coats, the black will make the track appear more natural.
After the black base, it was time for the rail brown. In small scales, colors should always be much lighter than 1:1. Small models make the brain think they’re farther away and the colors should always be lighter to compensate. Painting 1:1 color on a scale model will always make them appear too dark. I always have a chuckle over the folks who agonize over that color chip to paint their favorite model, when in the real world they’ve gone far too dark. Model railroad track is no exception. HOWEVER, with that said, there are exceptions. The exception being things you’d like to hide, such as rail. Painting the rail lighter was going to make it stick out a lot, especially against my lighter, sun-bleached ties.
I did a little experiment; I mixed up some of my usual rail-brown color and set it aside. Then I mixed up another batch, that was lighter, and more of a “rust” color. I did a small test area, and it looked atrocious. The rust color just stuck out too much, suspicions confirmed. Revert to type. Rail brown is Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown and a small amount of Orange, X-6. You can mix till you find a color that matches your lighting conditions.
I painted over the “rust” with my darker, more 1:1 rail brown color. One of the advantages of a small layout like mine, is that I can turn it on its side for all of this. So instead of airbrushing downward, I was able to do it as if it were a canvas painting. Far more natural!
For the ties I used Tamiya:
XF-59 Desert Yellow
XF-52 ■■■■■■■■■■
XF-57 Buff
XF-55 Deck Tan
…and several combinations mixed together.
Having 4 or 5 colors really adds a light of visual interest. In order to marry everything back together, I used Tamiya ■■■■■■■■■■ to blend all the colors.
With the ties now painted, it’s time to cover the track with masking tape. That means no running trains until the basic scenery is in. I don’t ballast my track until nearly the end. The one exception is the track inside the tunnel portals. That’ll be ballasted and sealed.
I did a test fit of the tunnel liner forms, and the wood tunnel portals themselves are just there to make sure that everything is aligned. They’ll be disposed of when the proper portals are finished. Nothing is lined up in this photo, just some rough stacking to give you the impression of how things will look.
Also, I had a little help from Eli
Looking at the Santa Fe, ex-StLRM&P, line between the Raton area and Des Moines where it connected to C&S, I wonder if it was ever used as a placeholder to complete the gap in the never completed Colmor Cutoff ?
What a gorgeous cat!
Rich
Agreed!
Thanks! He’s a Bengal. Bengals are a cross between an ASH and the Asian Leopard Cat. They combine the best traits of dogs and cats, but they’re extremely high energy. He’s a rescue. Lots of people think they want one but then can’t handle them. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it pet. You have to engage with them. They’re very talkative, you’ll know where you stand. Eli is a former breeding stud, which meant he cost someone into the high 4 figures, low 5 figures. He was very young when he came to us, just entered maturity, he probably didn’t father too many litters before the previous owners realized they couldn’t care for him. We had him neutered, but that meant he got to reach full maturity before that and he’s built like a brick battleship. He’s a cat with muscles! It’s impressive to watch him walk, you can see just how built he is.
Bengals tend to love water, play fetch, learn tricks, shed a lot less than most cats because they have a true pelt, not fur. To say they’re soft is an understatement. They’re problem-solving smart though. If they watch you do something, they can replicate it. They also have a much better memory than most cats.
They’re pretty cool animals, and a lot of fun to have around. You have to earn the love of a Bengal, but once you do, they’re your best friend. Eli is a little sweetheart, he just wants to play and do tricks for treats. He loves to watch the trains on the layout. I have a working table that I use and he’ll jump up and watch while I’m working.