Quanah, Acme and Pacific (QA&P) - West Texas - Fictitious Model Railroad Layout Agriculture Industry

Paul, thanks for the call. I can view the attached photos but not your two track plans. I was sitting in my 14x20' store room at the time of your call. It's an interesting size with which to work. Not too big nor small. BTW, I just sold my Martin cornet to a friend in Ann Arbor. I'll take some photos of the Overland 4300 tomorrow. I'm sure we can agree on a good price.

 

Love RS-1 101. Doug

 

We all love the Gruesome Casket kit. I built two furniture factories for a new branch line of the Knoxville club's HO layout. I used that kit for the smaller of the two.

 

This is s combination of the machine shop and the western union telegraph office.

 

I was going to say the same thing when I realized Karl had. I’d do a small backstop, wood frame. Wire fence. Some we had growing up had wood for the bottom two feet where the ball always hit. No catcher is perfect. I like the bench idea for each side too. Even with that, kids playing offseason for fun would have to scrounge up some bases.

Nice work Paul.

 

Hi Doug,

Months ago after choosing the direction with which track plan to use, I removed them from the post. Maybe a mistake. You're not the first person to comment that there aren't two track plans there. Here's the track plan (mostly) I settled on.

Thanks,

Paul

 

Tom did a beautiful job on that. It may be my favorite of all the ones I own. In the current lashup with it are two Athearn Genesis GP-7's--one Frisco and one QA&P--and a fictitious CF-7 Tom lettered for Acme, Red River & Northern. The interesting thing about that locomotive is that the QA&P started life as the ARR & N. In the Hofsommer book there's a scan of an Acme Red River & Northern stock certificate.

Paul

 

Thanks, and I agree completely. My wife is a pretty accomplished quilter who has several quilting friends in the area. She's going to look for a piece of tulle fabric for the fence (thanks to Tom Holley for the idea). The wood supports are a great idea. That's what we had at the small diamond I played at growing up. Good reminder about the wood at the bottom of the backstop. First and third bases are scrounged: a barrel lid and a piece of plywood.

To you and Karl: would you put the first and third base bench about halfway down the baseline between home and the base?

One other thing of interest...with layout space being an ever present issue, I did a little selective compression on the ball field. After doing some quick calculations, changing the base paths from 90' to 75' was the exact same ratio as downsizing the distance from the pitching rubber to the plate from 60' 6" to 50'. And that's the size my field is. In reality, small town ball fields weren't necessarily full size.

The other issue was squeezing the ball park between the city buildings and the cemetery. I had to move it around and reorient it a few times before coming up with the best location.

Thanks to Joyce, my wife, for a great idea!!

 

Doug,

Where did you get the pallets? Those look great and I need several.

Paul

 

Paul our little league diamond was 70’ bases and 50’ mound. As a kid the first time playing on a full size field was a shock.

I’d put the bench’s a little closer to home. So a coach can talk to batters. I’d add a little dirt spot worn by on deck batters too.

 

Thanks, Steve. That's great to hear about the distances.

Paul

 

Wasn't baseball the most popular sport during QP&A time frame?

Joe

 

What Tom is probably referring to is that football is king in TX. Probably always has been. During the 40's, 50's and earlier? Don't know, but baseball fits our sleepy-rural town layout better. And baseball was called America's Pastime.

Paul

 

I really like the wide open spaces of this layout. Very “anti-Selios.”

 

West Texas vs the East Coast! That's one of the reasons we live here. George's layout is packed, but it's pretty amazing.

Thanks, Patrick.

 

One more question regarding the baseball diamond.

There's currently an outdoors vending machine that's covered by the roof overhand on one end of the depot (photo attached). There are some kids on bicycles drinking soft drinks and talking. It's across the tracks from the baseball diamond. At the time, town wasn't finalized and the ball field wasn't even being considered.

What do you think about putting the vending machine under an awning on the back of a building next to the ball diamond? All it needs is power and cover from the weather. It would be next to a back door, so it could be serviced or filled from the back of the building.

Paul Moore

 

Man, this baseball thing is a trip down memory lane for me.

What I remember about those small town park baseball fields back home was the lights, multiple ones on wood crossarms on wood poles. Two poles on the first base side, two on the third base side, and one behind home plate. Open 3 wire 240v wires between them all. The Rix crossarms with the insulators trimmed off might work though maybe a little short. Two crossarms on each pole. The tallest Rix poles would work, maybe even be a little too tall. Model the lights with LEDs and reflectors and you’ve got night baseball! One thing you can’t model - the dense swarms of bugs around the lights.

Someone find a picture of these lights and post it. You need bleachers too. Not big, just two rows. Wood. The kind that used to gift you splinters in the hindquarters.

What kit is that depot Paul? It smells so “Santa Fe.”

 

I’d put that depot at the intersection of Main Street and the track, and try to get a gravel parking lot behind it with a team track buried in the gravel. Now you’re talking small town! I only wish I had the space for that. Totally takes me back! Way back!

 

Ha. You must be from a bigger town than me Patrick. We didn’t have lights or bleachers.