Back to Work! Here comes the 2012 Edition

Following a lengthy break for teaching abroad in the fall and early winter, it's back to work (or fun) on the Ponderosa Lines. This post provides a brief update on progress at Boulder Point as of mid-March, 2012. First, the revised track plan for the back yard:

Boulder Point is getting an "extreme makeover," initially conceived as the end-of-the-line destination, and finally designed to be just that. No more sharing trackage with the other end of the line at Paradise, and the Viterbo siding has moved over to a separate location at a small wayside town of that name. All of this should be visible in the map and images here. Boulder Point now has a freight siding, a house track, a passing siding with two tracks in front of the station (recently acquired), an extended reverse loop, and a "tail track" to allow for switching the sidings. The tail track doubles as the "continuous loop" connector allowing trains to run in show-off circles if desired.

Thanks to wonderful weather and using part of spring break, the Boulder Point track plan is now in place, with four new Piko switches (8-foot diameter) and fresh ballast.

The "New" Boulder Point, with paving blocks for platform for station area.

An early March snowstorm suspended work on Boulder Point.

Latest track plan becomes reality

The PLR track gang (i.e. me) has been busy this summer in the track laying department. Because track switches are at a premium, the PLR's Operations Manager first decided to cannibalize a switch from Blumenthal and re-install it for an additional siding at Paradise for staging trains. Daily operations rarely required the passing siding at Blumenthal, so it has been converted to a stub track. One more siding soon followed at Paradise, providing a four-track yard, point of origin for PLR trains. The yard can also double as overflow trackage for trains arriving at Boulder Point at the other end of the line.

As this is written, track is being laid at the PLR's newest town along the route, Viterbo -- themed as a small Italian village. Though Viterbo has been "on the map" in name since the beginning, it will now enjoy its own passing siding and house track (or "team track") for spotting freight and occasional passenger cars. And, we can look forward to the Viterbo Express making short trips up the line for those wishing to spend the day in this Italianate village. The Express can now turn its train there instead of relying on the reverse loop at Boulder Point. Buon Viaggio! And welcome to the 2011 version of the Ponderosa Lines!

Chasing the Forney

Following a nail-biting series of monsoonal thunderstorms sandwiching long bouts of drizzle, Flagstaff has dried out enough lately to allow for train running without major track cleaning efforts. It was a good test to see what the railroad could handle, including three extreme downpours with hail and the requisite lightning that treats ponderosa pine trees like match sticks (and, incidentally, knocked out our garage door opener, a problem still to be solved). Before the railroad's appearance in the back yard, I had always welcomed as much rain as we could get, given our consistent drought throughout the Southwest. Now I find myself torn, intently watching the right-of-way out the window to see how much ballast is floating away during a downpour. Even after all that, I re-ballasted a few sections and shored up some poorly contained areas last week, and the railroad is in great shape. Sections of it are even showing signs of being embedded into the landscape with an overgrown appearance, which is what I was hoping for in certain areas. Tonight provided a relaxing opportunity to run a couple of trains in a leisurely way before the sun went down. The action tonight featured the newest addition to the Ponderosa Lines' roster, an 0-4-4 Forney with its two-car set and an added G&RGW coach. The battery for the Forney's power is in the trailing passenger car behind the tender - a required feature due to my decision to rely on battery power rather than track wires. I am waiting for my first fusion generator, but for now I need to rely on traditional batteries. As for the sun, I noticed quickly that the lighting was great tonight, so I grabbed Linda's camera phone nearby and did some railfanning. Here are the shots.

Click on the photos for larger images. Click again on the larger images for the full-size photos, if you dare. The first image below is the actual map of the Ponderosa Lines Railway, as it now exists with place names.)

Above: Just beyond the trestle for Palmer Gulch

Above: Getting close to Viterbo in the late evening sun, making the final run back home to Paradise.

Above: Station Stop at Blumenthal, one of two passing sidings.

Above: Rolling up Angel's Flight, toward (the other) White Pass

Above: Exiting White Pass (the highest point on the line, hence the name), through the "forest".

Concept and Plan for the PLR

A funny thing happened on the airplane from Tampa last week. I needed something else to do as we sat patiently with our fellow passengers enroute back to Phoenix. Given my limited access to entertainment or reading, I needed paper and pen to jot down our new mental plan for the Ponderosa Lines. I enjoy the creativity of designing railroads, and putting one outside in the elements is the ultimate challenge (well, sort of). In need of something to write on, I turned desperately to the overused seat pocket in front of me with the ubiquitous Sky Mall (or equivalent) airline magazine. Digging down a bit more, I pulled out the expected barf bag, and turned it into a draft map of the PLR. I have only ever seen one of these things used for its intended purpose, and that was a nearby passenger on the rocky Phoenix-Flagstaff commuter jump in an overheated prop plane last year. She had eaten a half-pound burger that.... never mind. So after drafting a basic plan for the rail route, I turned to Linda for inspiration about landscaping ideas. She added a few features, such as potential railroad ties (real ones), planter boxes, and pathways. The product was a "napkin version" of the Ponderosa Lines, which I strangely saved, scanned, and am now sharing here.

More professionally, I used the AnyRail planning software I purchased online to create a more professional version of the current version of the future PLR. This is the tenth map, sort of like Boeing or Microsoft that come up with numerous versions before they roll out the successful one. Although the town and place names may change with time, this is the current plan.

The concept is similar to that of the past, though with some variations. The Ponderosa Lines are still designed as a regional tourist line that uses an imaginary old right of way through northern Arizona. Thus, the Lines are intent on acquiring a variety of narrow-gauge rolling stock and motive power either donated or sold from existing railways throughout the nation.

The layout is a "point-to-point" design with a continuous loop option, so that we can run trains in veritable circles if desired, or enjoy more prototypical operating sessions with crews, train orders, and so forth. This latter concept would involve a train leaving House Rock southbound (right side of map), and passing through the towns of Viterbo, Blumenthal, Snow Flake, Needles, Twin Pines, and reaching the "end" of the line at Paradise. Essentially, then, we can say this is "The Road to Paradise," to borrow a similar title from the Strasburg Railroad back in Pennsylvania. Town names are subject to change as Linda and I modify the plan. For now, however, these are all meaningful names that do not try to replicate actual places in northern Arizona (the exception is the town of Snow Flake, which is an actual small town in eastern Arizona. I am adding it here because it would be in the coldest, snowiest part of our yard, near the annual north-side glacier). (Click on maps for larger images.)

Some Parameters (especially for G-scale fans)

The minimum radius on this plan is 2.5 feet (5-foot diameter) for the reverse loop at House Rock (which can serve both ends of the line with as few turnouts as possible). The rest of the railroad uses either 10-foot or 11.5-foot diameter curves. Future sidings or spurs will be added as funds and time allow, such as at House Rock, Paradise, and Blumenthal. So, here is the Ponderosa Lines as it exists on paper. The rest of the summer will determine how much of it is actually built after the filling and grading are taken care of. For now, it's great exercise moving dirt around.

The track is (based on what I've already purchased) a combination of used and new LGB and Aristocraft track, mostly with European ties, but some American because that's what I could get. After weeks of investigating possible road bed approaches, I have chosen to "float" the track on a bed of "quarter-minus" crushed granite, or whatever is available locally here in Flagstaff. Given our 7,000-foot elevation, this is an extreme freeze-thaw region, on a daily as well as annual basis. Thus, the track will need to expand and contract with rapid warming and cooling. This aspect will be somewhat of an experiment, and I'll be curious about the maintenance involved.

After learning all about the issue of scale within "G-scale," I am salivating over the 1:20.3 opportunities in the future and am keeping this in the back of my mind as we plan the railroad (i.e. curve diameters and bridge clearances). More immediately, however, I have acquired some pieces of LGB and Bachmann trains that will serve well on the PLR to get things started. Although I'm not a serious modeler when it comes to detail and prototypical accuracy (I prefer a representative approach, I guess), I can certainly see the noticable difference between the 1:20.3 and smaller scale equipment. So, I'm content for now with the "meter gauge" scale, and LGB and Bachmann are interchangable and look good together. For now, I'm looking forward to building an actual railroad, albeit a bit too small to ride on (probably a good thing for the neighbors, who will nonetheless get used to future train whistles of Forneys and Baldwins. I need something to drown out those barking dogs..."Scottie, set whistle on Stun!).