AT&N: Modern-Era Layout

I would like to thank Robert (Bob) Thomas (rjthomas909) for giving me my very first Katy and Mopac items! They arrived in the mail today. They are going to look great on the restored AT&N. I think a load of woodchips would look very nice in the black, Katy hopper. I love the cars' weight, metal wheels, and couplers. I can even make a transition car out of at least one of them if I so choose. I also want to thank God for the free moss that falls out of the oak tree in my front yard literally every time the wind blows. I spent some time extracting some of it this afternoon from limbs and twigs that I have collected.
Folks,... if I hadn't discovered frisco.org almost 9 years ago, I probably wouldn't have gotten the inspiration, motivation, encouragement, advice, and help that I needed to get back into the hobby and the items I collected during my childhood would probably still be in storage. I appreciate this site and it's users/members so much.

 

Simply put... the clay cracked. It looks like there was an earthquake. Back to square one. In the meantime, I had a fun-packed day of model railroading today.
1. I've had an RS1 that I bought from Keith Robinson a few years ago. Keith had an Atlas decoder in it and programmed it to run on DC for me. However, the decoder was turned the wrong way so the RS1 always ran in the opposite direction of everything else I have, plus the short hood headlight worked instead of the long hood headlight. After Keith looked at pictures and helped me figure out what to do, I turned the decoder around this morning. Now I can run it with other locos & the long hood head light works!
2. I took a cardboard box, wood stain, Elmer's glue, and ground foam to go make a couple of fields in a total of about 3 hours.
3. While waiting on the stain to dry, I put together a couple of boxcar kits.
4. While working on the boxcars and fields, I baked 3 colors of dirt to dry it. After finishing the fields, I sifted each color of dirt several times to separate sizes. Then I took the smallest stuff and ran it through my blender a few times to get it as small as I possibly could. I have big plans for the dirt.
5. As a bonus, I've had a lot of issues with my 44 tonner but is mysteriously started working just fine today. I can't explain it, but I'll take it.

 

I finally got around to building my Model Power, Quickie Supermarket kit. However, I'm leaning more toward using the building for a fictitious local bbq restaurant in Reform instead... maybe something like "Tracks Bar-B-Que." Also, a student of mine wanted to give me some Hot Wheels and/or Matchbox cars for my layout. One car in particular will go well with my freelanced model of Reform, AL.

 

I finally got to do some more work on the layout tonight. I worked on the Sulligent side of the layout, cutting shingles for Elm St., gluing all of Sulligent's shingle streets down with DAP Alex Fast Dry, cutting and gluing down some hobby sticks for the crossings, cutting some foam roadbed for the foundation of the depot, spreading DAP from one end of town to the other for the parking lots, and spreading some very thin, shifted limestone on top of the DAP to model the limestone parking lots between the tracks and Front Street/the inside edge of the layout. I plan on using a vacuum hose to remove excess limestone after the DAP dries. I'm looking forward to ballasting the track and adding some grass and weeds.

 

I am considering changing my layout to model my hometown of Sulligent, AL and the surrounding area as it was in the 70's and 80's. The layout would cover a 7 mile stretch of the Birmingham Subdivision from the Flynn pulpwood yard at MP 631, to Sulligent at MP 635, to Crews at MP 638. With no more progress than I've made on my current layout, it wouldn't be too difficult to modify what I already have in place. I would leave the main in place as well as the run-around at the top since it has my two best/longest turnouts (#6's) and would offer visitors the best view. Also, much of the track for the Flynn pulpwood yard is already in place. All it would require is removing a right turnout and replacing it with a left turnout. I would model the top side as Sulligent, with a siding for the Odgen Management pulpwood yard in the upper left corner, and two sidings for Tri-County Farm Supply to the upper left on the inside. To the left of Sulligent (around the left end curve), I would model the bottom left area as the Flynn pulpwood. To the right of Sulligent (around the right end curve), I would model the bottom right area as the Crews pulpwood yard. I already have all of the turnouts I would need. The view from the center would be the view from the highway - looking north (railroad east) all the way around. My only dilemma would be how to create a good scene divide between the west end (bottom left) and the east end (bottom right). I'm thinking several of the 80 brand new trees I have on hand just waiting to be installed might help break up the two scenes since there is almost no real-life changes in terrain. Any ideas for a scenic divide between the bottom two scenes would be appreciated. Here's a link to a map of the area from Flynn yard to the west (RR North), through Sulligent, and on to Crews to the east (RR South).
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/33....,-88.1363302,11233m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2
Here's the first draft of the track plan I have in mind. Any thoughts?

 

I began clearing off my layout last night in order to "morph" it into a prototypical model of the Sulligent, AL area. I've been trying to determine if the Frisco had a name for the area for a few days now on my own with no luck. Can anyone tell me the name & HQ of the section gang territory for the Birmingham Subdivison from milepost 632-639?

 

I had fun with my AT&N Extention layout, but now I'm going in a new direction. You can follow my progress on my new "Sulligent Layout" at http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/sulligent-layout.8819/