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

Hi Keith,

What I was thinking about was a small platform that is dock high with just the team track that a truck could back up to. Karl suggested a small empty location to make local deliveries to. The platform would just enhance the delivery location and make it easier to offload whatever is coming out of the rail car or going into it.

Another idea that hit me this morning would be to put a pillar crane there for loading / unloading gons and flats. Karl's suggestion was great; I was just thinking about how they would get the goods out of the rail car.

I don't know the exact location of either photo. The top photo (uncovered platform) is California and the narrow gauge cars are SP. Regarding the bottom photo...none of the D&RGW freight cars had three digit reporting numbers that I know of--usually six digit. C&S narrow gauge cars usually had four digit numbers. I don't know much about the RGS. Maybe the East Broad Top? The std gauge car is a PRR merchandise box car, so maybe it's East Broad Top. The pieces of lumber being used as wheel stops are definitely typical narrow gauge!

Paul Moore

 

Is that narrow gauge transfer location in the high desert on the SP narrow gage ? Looks very un-Colorado.

I saw lots of team tracks with wood loading ramps/platforms way back, with no traveling crane at all. And lots more without even a platform at all.

About ballast and weeds. Ballast costs money. Weeds grow everywhere.

The best definition I heard of a weed is a plant that’s where you don’t want it.

 

Hi Patrick,

The top narrow gauge shot (larger yard, ATSF wood box cars on the left) is definitely California SP narrow gauge. Looking at the photo more closely, in the background, straddling the tracks, is either a signal tower or an overhead crane of some type.

Thanks,

Paul Moore

 

Patrick and Keith,

After doing a little more research, the photo is on the Carson and Colorado (SP narrow gauge) at Owenyo. Here's a better photo. Also, here's a link to the Carson and Colorado history site: http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/carson_n_colorado/page50.html

Paul Moore

 

Paul, you said your layout would be a backwoods railroad. A lot of weeds would be seen in the area, the more backwoods means even more weeds.

Joe

 

Here’s is what is so good about a team track with an “empty spot”...direct from freight car to truck transfer. Here are new TV’s going from boxcar to truck. I think that the less you put on a team track with regard to “facilities”, the better are the possibilities with regard to what can be transferred at the team track.

index.php

 

Now I understand, and thanks!!

 

Thanks, Joe. The scenery is just being started. It will get weeds, some "stuff" laying around, etc. It won't be clean like it is now.

Thanks,

Paul Moore

 

Thanks, Tom. The dirt / ballast are in the beginning stages. It will get lots more dirt!!!

 

Vanderbilt tender, very SP looking steam engine, Harriman passenger cars..... the answers were very obvious and I didn’t see them.

 

A little more progress on the layout. There was some space we weren't sure what to do with between the town and the church / cemetery, and my wife came up with the great idea of a small town baseball diamond. It's not quite done (may build some fences--haven't decided), but it's close.

Also finished a pumpjack for the oil patch. Due to the old model railroad compression thing (not enough space to make anything really prototypically sized), it's too close to a small stream. It may now be a dry streambed. It was going to have water, but I may forego that.

The pumpjack was a bear. It is an Alexander Scale Models kit and it was...well, I'll just be honest. The kit was overpriced junk. Their molds are so worn out that the pieces had to be filed almost to the point they wouldn't fit to get rid of the huge mold lines and offset. Numerous times I had to fill gaps with the flexible super glue. That is the last Alexander kit of any type I will ever buy. If it had been $15 or something like that, so what, but not at what they charge for these things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It needs some weathering, but I'm scared to touch it due to the fragile nature of the model. Maybe some weathering power carefully brushed on with an extremely soft brush.

A few weeks ago while researching oilfield stuff, I found a photo of a church, cemetery, old pumpjack and a couple of storage tanks. That is what gave me the idea of the positioning of everything.

Paul Moore

 

Looks great Paul. The baseball scene is neat.

 

I love the ball yard! Perhaps a couple of small, vertical, cylindrical tanks would be a nice adjunct to your pumpjack.

 

Thanks, Steve and Karl. The production tanks are a few scale feet away. Here are a couple of shots that show their proximity. There was just no way to put the pumpjack near the storage tanks. A pipe will be added that's 3 scale feet underground, but crosses the dry stream above it.

Question: what do you think about fences at the ballpark. If fences were added, they would only be adjacent to the two base lines and behind home plate.
At this point, my inclination is to leave it as is. It's simple, looks like a place kids would play sandlot ball, etc. There's even a scale homeplate and pitcher's mound and rubber. First and third bases are typical of what kids used: the cover for a barrel and a small piece of plywood.

Talk to you later,

Paul Moore

 

Paul,

I like the small town look... leave the field open, but build a rudimentary backstop. I think something wood framed with wire fencing. I think wood benches along each foul line finishes things nicely.

 

Paul, really like the baseball field and like Karl said a back stop and a couple of benches could be added. As far as fencing I don't think they would be necessary to keep small town effect.

Also might consider moving the pump jack on the other side of tanks near the pickup truck.

Joe

 

Thanks, Joe. I tried to put the pumpjack on the other side of the dry stream behind the 3 phase separator but there's not enough room. In the photos it's difficult to see, but there's a hill that slopes up immediately adjacent to the red work pickup, and the pumpjack won't go where you suggest, either.

Often when I'm building a layout I come up with, "wouldn't it be cool...", and I make changes on the fly to the original layout plan. The hill, modeled after Kiowa Peak near our home, was an idea I had while bicycling one day after starting the benchwork. Pancake flat layouts don't appeal to me. Little elevation changes make for better scenery and viewing, in my opinion. that is why I added Kiowa Peak. But in doing so, the space where the pumpjack was going to be was lost.

Oh well...layouts are a compromise.

 

Something like this comes to mind