Bob, your layout is looking great, I look forward to seeing your progress. How long is the mainline now? Joe
Hey Joe, Thanks for the encouragement! The space is not quite 20 x 20 ft. From the south of Cherokee to the end of the Weir tail track is about 50 ft. The Lightning Creek Mine is about another 8ft if you count that as "end-to-end". I think that the 15-20 ft between the two towns along the north side gives a good separation and feeling of distance, even though it is not too large of a layout. All the best, -Bob T.
Well, back from West Point and working on finishing up the wiring for the new Lightning Creek Mine Modules. Should be ready to go tomorrow. To my embarrassment, one of the switch machines was right on the cross-brace of the waffle (lower left). Turns out the drawings don't always work out with track placement on the real thing. The tough part was seeing the wire to place into the turnout throwbar....had to drill a sight hole in the bottom of the waffle. Oh well, I will add a supplemental brace back further and move on. Karl's postings of maps for the P&C inspired me to do a bit more research on the area. I found an interesting report from 1923: Which you can find on Google.... The 1923 report contains lists of industries and number of persons (male and female) on staff. For example: While not complete, it gives me some business names for structures when built. There is also a table for Weir: But was disappointed that there is no mention of Weir's brick factory. It appears in the map that Karl provided from near the turn of century, and was operating until just around the year 2000. Strange. The report does also include a nice narrative of other industry in the area, such as mines in our beloved Crawford and Cherokee Counties: Mine production by county (1898): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy. I hope all are well! -Bob T.
Tom asked about the possibility of a continuous-run version of the Crawford and Cherokee. I noodled on this a bit and came up with below. I think it is very do-able. Probably not anytime soon, though. It would allow for a more prototypical snaking track out to the brick yard in Weir City, and room for a yard track there for more car storage, approximately where the prototype had three tracks at one time. The lift-out would be approximately two feet wide. I could probably better align the two ends to make the lift-out perpendicular. I think you'll get the picture. Another addition might be a wye off of the Lightning Creek Mine area, back to the main to allow loco turns. Hope are all well. Take care out there in Frisco Land. -Bob T.
Well, it has been about a month since I have posted in this thread. Although I have placed a few updates in the "Workshop Wednesday" thread, I thought that I might place a more complete update here, covering what is mostly March and April progress. (1) Weir City Brickyard Section While I have scattered the discussion of adding a section to the south of Weir City such that the "Weir City Brickyard" or "Weir City Brick and Tile", here is some detail. I hosted a couple of friends back in late January who suggested that in order to improve operating potential for the layout, it would be useful to have another reason for a train to go out to the Weir City Branch Line. After some historical work (see post from Feb 29th) and some great info from Karl Brand, a new section was created for the layout. This extended the south of Weir City by 3-1/2 feet and includes a double track spur to represent the brickyard. It also provides an extended tail track for Weir City, improving operations (and extending possible train length). I had posted a few of these photos previously, but here are a few images from the new section and the area just south of Oak Street (right in in image above). Frisco 498 Ten Wheeler at Weir City Brickyard by rjthomas909 posted May 3, 2020 at 12:53 PM Switching at Weir City Brickyard by rjthomas909 posted May 3, 2020 at 12:56 PM Consolidation 1216 on Weir Brickyard Module by rjthomas909 posted May 3, 2020 at 1:13 PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2) Lightning Creek Mine Sections While I had hoped to finish these by the end of March, and have them ready for an open house for the "South Texas Railroad Social", neither happened as planned. The current pandemic turned the event into a "Virtual" social, and the increased workload for my day job led to very slow progress. I was able to get some time in the past couple of weekends as a welcomed distraction, and have the two short sections that make up a ~7ft area for the Lightning Creek Mine to a presentable point with some scenery, while still working on a representation of the mine using the AMB "Martinsburg No. 1 Coal Mine" kit as a basis for the structure. These sections turn off from the South Cherokee section at a right angle. They, with the adjoining section, make a nice switching layout by themselves, and even better with the Cherokee Yard. The plan for the mine area was modified slightly, in order to accommodate another short spur for a warehouse, again adding to operations. The mine's location comes from our earlier map of Cherokee Kansas from approximately the time of the layout's setting. The Lightning Creek Mine (14 on the map below) was on the west side of the Afton Sub, just south of town. My space does not allow it to be on the west side, so the track plan places it opposite. There is very little detail for the track plan, other than 3-4 tracks at the mine. As of this weekend, here are a few photos, with the connection to the South Cherokee section. The short fiddle track section has not been built, but a final design will allow the connection of a 2-3 track staging track off behind the mine sections. Train to Lightning Creek Mine by rjthomas909 posted May 3, 2020 at 1:50 PM Train at Lightning Creek by rjthomas909 posted May 3, 2020 at 1:54 PM 1216 Switching Lightning Creek Mine by rjthomas909 posted May 3, 2020 at 1:49 PM I hope that you enjoyed this update. Take care, Frisco Friends! -Bob T.
That’s a great video. I wish more folks would post videos like that. You’ve got the sound dialed in just right and the acoustics are nice. Great scenery too.
Thanks Jim, I think I am going to invest in a big piece of sky-blue cardstock to serve as a temporary background.
I’d do several videos if I knew how to post them. I’ve been unable to fully activate YouTube, the “publishing” stalls in eternal purgatory. I’m trying to do it from an iPhone on a squirrelly WiFi, maybe that’s the problem. But this video doesn't look like YouTube.
How long does it take you to put all those modules together, put all the buildings on, and get to operating?
Patrick, It is about a 2-hour set up. I usually leave half of the layout up as a switching layout, though.
Excellent presentation by Bob at the NMRAx: Link to the Crawford and Cherokee Starts at 4:50, goes to 53 minute mark. Nice job
Thanks Gary, They should eventually post separately as a stand-alone video. Sorry, not much work on the layout over the past two weeks. It has been pretty busy at work. -Bob T.
