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

Thank you. Like all railroads, it's a work in progress. But it's been fun!!! It's the first railroad I've built that has been this close to completion. Of course now I'm thinking of ripping out the track on the peninsula portion of the layout and completely redoing it!

 

No cow patties!

 

They're in the stock pens.

 

Thanks to Tom Holley, the MOW facility is just about done. A few details will be added, but the equipment is now in place. There's a new (to me) water car, derrick, derrick tender, and boom tender--all QA&P. MOW equipment has always been some of my favorites. Cranes, flatcars covered with stuff, specialized tank cars, etc.,..it's all cool.

 

Can't remember if anything on the new backdrop was posted, so here goes. After looking at professional backdrop prices, I decided to just paint it myself. It's simple: sky and a few clouds. It's amazing how much depth that one thing gave the shelf layout. Still need more clouds and more work on the existing ones, but it's coming along.

The blue in the photographs is much deeper than the actual color. When I put in the ceiling lights before starting the layout, I chose poorly. As a result, the camera white balance is giving me fits. Eventually that will get sorted out, but for now I just live with it.

 

This isn't a criticism, just a comment. A clear sky grades from light blue at the horizon, sometimes almost white, probably yellowish in West Texas because of the dust (where you're looking through the thickest part of the atmosphere) to darker blue at the zenith.

 

Made some progress on the backdrop today and took a few photos. Definitely looks like QA&P country and not Missouri!!

 

It's there, just hard to see due to the lighting. The lighting in my railroad room is terrible.

 

Thanks, Jim. It's been fun. My wife has been a huge help with colors (my color vision is terrible).

 

Some of you may remember from previous posts that my maternal grandfather was a career Frisco employee, most of the time as a lineman on the QA&P. Mom grew up in Quanah.

As a tribute to granddad, I decided to make an attempt at semi-realistic looking telegraph poles and lines. It's not easy...especially not the line part. Tom Holley gave me some great info on these things, as well (white band around a pole every quarter mile, occasional call box, etc). Don't know when the call boxes came into being. At one time a lineman had to climb a pole and hook onto a line to communicate with the dispatcher.

Anyway, after painting poles (twice), painting insulators (some twice), trying to figure out how to string thread to look somewhat realistic...here is the first line on the first few poles. It is super time consuming. There was no way to create the symmetrical sag in the line between each pair of poles. Since it's thread, which wraps tightly around a spool until used, it just waves around all over the place. As a result, I got it as tight as possible and left it.

 

Good idea, Tom. Let me ask my wife-the-quilter. She'll know about fabric and thread. She's in a quilting guild, goes to quilting retreats, etc.

A shot of the telegraph lines with an F3 ABA set (lead unit by Tom Holley) leading a mixed freight. Still can't figure out how to adjust the white balance to get rid of the blue predominance.

 

I like the suggestion to wet the thread to make it "relax," especially if it was cotton. It is worth a try. It will take a deft touch. Polyester or any other synthetic might not respond, however.

 

Might try pulling thread over bees wax prior to pole placement.

 

After discussing the idea on this forum two years ago or so, I finally decided to do it: make a staging yard. The part I wasn't comfortable with was cutting a hole through the wall because the staging yard is in an adjacent closet. The closet is huge: 16' X 8' and is mostly empty. Over the weekend I cut the holes, built the benchwork and started on the track. The wall cutouts are in the closet and labeled as to which goes to the closet and which one goes to the room.

It's going to take awhile to complete the staging yard but at least it's underway. Now that spring is here working on the property and pecan orchard has taken precedence. The shots of the layout show where lead to the staging yard is and how long the wall is that the closet is behind.

 

That should really add to operations on your layout.

I've found that sometimes you've just gotta jump in and go for it on a project. Normally it pays off

 

You will love what staging brings to the layout, guaranteed!

 

Coonskin is correct! I cut two holes and ran track from the finished layout room under the basement stairs to the unfinished part of the basement. Put a six track staging yard there. After I retire this fall, it's gonna get expanded to 9 tracks. You always need more staging than you think!