Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928
- Thread starter Bill Nelson
- Start date
Working on trestle parts on the weekends @ Kentucky lake. I cut a bunch of scale lumber on my 4 inch tablesaw. starting with planks of aromatic cedar I bought at Kroger. it was marketed for folks to smoke slabs of salmon on. I bought the first one planning to use it as intended; but I realized my wife, who love smoked salmon, is allergic to cedar. It has a nice color, a fine grain, and cuts well. It is a tad softer than the yellow polar I was using, and I had to stain the yellow polar. for some uses I paint the cedar sub assemblies with spray paint. in other cases I use it natural. Here are about half the HOn3 trestle bents I have mass produced in the last three weeks.The grey vertical line is an approximately five foot long Hon3 trestle deck. Coal and iron ore cars will be delivered to the building it passes through, where they will be dumped, and transported via conveyor belt to the ore and loading building for the standard gauge. the narrow gauge main runs on the cork roadbed behind this scene. The iron ore and coal loaded here will be delivered to Montgomery Furnace , at the opposite end of my standard gauge operations. besides this long ore trestle, the narrow gauge main line crosses over the storage tracks for the ore transfer in the corner of the room. this scene is just a few inches below eye level. To the left of this photo you can see the sloped ceiling of the RR room. as the narrow gauge separates from the standard gauge to the left it will continue on it's own narrow shelf fastened to the sloped ceiling.
Below is a photo of the narrow gauge mainlines trestle deck, for where it will cross the Ore transfer's storage tracks. I will have to had stain it to match the trestle bents, and the ore buildings, as I was not smart enough to spray paint it before I hand laid the track on it. I have started to fill in the space between the narrow gauge in the back, and the rest of the scene with some cribbing, but that is taking some time. this scene is going to be awesome , with the narrow gauge, the standard gauge and all that trestleing. Might get some stuff done on the RR this week. am on fall break. but I have to cut firewood, my wife will take next Wednesday Thursday and Friday off, my Daughter is coming up from Houston with the #1 Grandson, and of course, we will be going to the lake.
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Really enjoying all the updates. The interchange of the narrow gauge with standard is nicely done. The coal and iron transfer is a neat use of space. I really like the conveyor......I had not seen it before. In fact those structures all look new to my eye??
Know you will love seeing your grandchild. Those visits are the best. Tom
Know you will love seeing your grandchild. Those visits are the best. Tom
Tom, the conveyor is new, built from a Walther's kit. The main Ore transfer building, over the standard gauge was on the back side of Ridgemont, behind the narrow gauge main. It was kind of out of the way operationally, and viable mainly from the claustrophobic aisle behind old Harlow. The Ore house that the narrow gauge tracks pass through is shortened from the old one. it was on a scratchbuilt ore bin, and I shortened it to fit on top of one of structures I had built for one of the Mines at the club. 
I built this jig, an a scrap of 1x4 to make HOn3 trestlebents. the trestle bent I built the jig around is much longer than any of these bents, so I can build a much taller jig for the tall trestle that will lead over to the Log reload on the center peninsula easily Next week is fall break. Jennifer is working flu clinic today, and we are signed up for children's chapel at Church tomorrow, so we will have a rare weekend at the farm. I'm going to try to do some cleaning around the house, get the recyclables taken out; fire up the farm truck, and clean last years firewood debris out of the bed, and move some wood from the shed to the front porch; and fire up the tractor, and make some trails out into the woods prospecting for firewood. I have drawn out plans for the subroadbed turning the corner form the lowest level on the east wall, making the turn to the lowest level on the central peninsula, and I also have drawn out plans for the Mainline crossing the top level of the central peninsula, including the wye, where one end of the wye will lead down to the helix, the second will go slightly down to the level of the upper standard gauge mainline shelf on the east wall, heading towards the ore transfer, and State line. State line has inherited some building and flats from old Harlow, and from the clubs old layout,, so there is actually a city forming up there.
The third leg of the wye will go up, to curl around the end of the top level of the center peninsula (above the river front in Harlow below) to a sizable permanent log camp. there will be two high tracks, one for empties, and the other for one of the Surry parker loaders. there will be a steep grade to get to those tracks. considerably lower there will be a track to make the tail track for the wye. the grade to it will not excede 3.3% so I can turn passenger equipment, so it can be backed into State line. another track at that level will be for delivering supplies to the logging camp. The narrow gauge track will be considerably higher, so logs will roll down a hill into a pile, which the surry parker can skid them to the loading area
With the wye, the logging camp, and the narrow gauge main making the long climb to The Top shelf @ Gegokayoosa NC. all on the center peninsula, it will be tricky not to make it too crowded, but I think I have a plan that will work visually. The top level shelf will be extended all across the west wall, turn the corner over the turntable in state line, and extend almost halfway down the south wall, stopping just short of the access door to the attic above the historic portions of the house. That will add more than 12 feet of narrow gauge main line on the shelf alone, allowing me to make the logging camp up there bigger, add a coal mine, enlarge the logging camp, and perhaps add another ore mine, or a limestone quarry. this is going to be fun!!
I built this jig, an a scrap of 1x4 to make HOn3 trestlebents. the trestle bent I built the jig around is much longer than any of these bents, so I can build a much taller jig for the tall trestle that will lead over to the Log reload on the center peninsula easily Next week is fall break. Jennifer is working flu clinic today, and we are signed up for children's chapel at Church tomorrow, so we will have a rare weekend at the farm. I'm going to try to do some cleaning around the house, get the recyclables taken out; fire up the farm truck, and clean last years firewood debris out of the bed, and move some wood from the shed to the front porch; and fire up the tractor, and make some trails out into the woods prospecting for firewood. I have drawn out plans for the subroadbed turning the corner form the lowest level on the east wall, making the turn to the lowest level on the central peninsula, and I also have drawn out plans for the Mainline crossing the top level of the central peninsula, including the wye, where one end of the wye will lead down to the helix, the second will go slightly down to the level of the upper standard gauge mainline shelf on the east wall, heading towards the ore transfer, and State line. State line has inherited some building and flats from old Harlow, and from the clubs old layout,, so there is actually a city forming up there.
The third leg of the wye will go up, to curl around the end of the top level of the center peninsula (above the river front in Harlow below) to a sizable permanent log camp. there will be two high tracks, one for empties, and the other for one of the Surry parker loaders. there will be a steep grade to get to those tracks. considerably lower there will be a track to make the tail track for the wye. the grade to it will not excede 3.3% so I can turn passenger equipment, so it can be backed into State line. another track at that level will be for delivering supplies to the logging camp. The narrow gauge track will be considerably higher, so logs will roll down a hill into a pile, which the surry parker can skid them to the loading area
With the wye, the logging camp, and the narrow gauge main making the long climb to The Top shelf @ Gegokayoosa NC. all on the center peninsula, it will be tricky not to make it too crowded, but I think I have a plan that will work visually. The top level shelf will be extended all across the west wall, turn the corner over the turntable in state line, and extend almost halfway down the south wall, stopping just short of the access door to the attic above the historic portions of the house. That will add more than 12 feet of narrow gauge main line on the shelf alone, allowing me to make the logging camp up there bigger, add a coal mine, enlarge the logging camp, and perhaps add another ore mine, or a limestone quarry. this is going to be fun!!
I cut up some foam meat trays to make the backing for the cribbing behind the ore transfer, suppoerting the narrow gauge main. usually build my cribbing from the top down. I'm building this one from the middle up and down, as neither the top or the bottom is level. the narrow gauge is sloping up, and the standard gauge is sloping down. when the wood is all glued in place, I will paint it, and then pack the openings with ballast stirred into white glue to make a paste. the foam backing make it easy for me to pin any beams up that want to droop while the glue dries. heading down to the garage soon to draw out the plan for the cookie cutter roadbed for the lower level's approach to the center aisle, and if I have enough time, starting to lay out the subroadbed for the wye on standard gauge on the top level of the central peninsula.
Nelson
Nelson
Bill, this is a very visually interesting scene in a tight space. Really like all the geometric shapes represented. How many coal cars standard gauge will fit in there? Tom
The coal hopper go on the back track, and I'm thinking it will hold seven or eight hoppers, since my ore cars are shorter, I can fit considerably more ore cars. When the standard gauge gets all the way on the shelf on the east wall, the main will widen to three tracks, for a small double ended yard, for passing, and for working this site. In this photo I have the Narrow gauge main line bridge out to do the cribbing. I'll need to decide if I'll do cribbing on the other side of the bridge or rocks. The cribbing would look good, the rocks may be faster. Note the foam car bumpers. I had something like that on a steep siding on my Bumpass module. when cars roll down the siding, the hit the foam, and bounce a little. without the foam they would occasionally de reail when contacting the ceiling
Test fitting bents to the Narrow gauge min line near the ore and coal transfer facilities. A J.E.P. C. & L.Co hopper in visible. I have a lot of these, as Bob and Dave have wanted to evict all of my interests from the club. I think the coal mine I put on the narrow gauge will be J.E,P,C.& L Co. so the company built in tribute to John Patterson will continue past the club's eviction. I have finally found my surplus narrow gauge switches, and can hook the ore trestle in to the main line. I think there will be a slope from the left to the right, and when that is established, I'll trim one more bent to fit the mainline trestle, and then try to stain the bridge deck to look similar to the spray painted bents. the cribbing will likely be stained or painted a similar gray The ground in this area will be predominantly red reflecting the iron ore. I'll be aiming at a look similar to the old ore transfer below, but hopefully I can make it a little more impressive this time.
test fitting the ore bridge. conclusions I need to cut a little off the top of the ore dump bin, and then recess the bridge deck into it to lower the height of the track at the ore dump. also the standard gauge loading facility is a tad to far forward for my liking, but hard up against the bridge deck. First off i need to cut some off the far end of the ore trestle, which will allow me to angle it slightly farther back. after doing that I may need to notch the trestle deck a tad, and possibly make some modifications to the back side of the big ore/coal bin . To answer tom's question 6 hoppers will fit in the back siding with a chance of being loaded. A seventh will fit clearance wise, but could not be loaded with coal without moving the cars behind it. looks like there is room to load eight ore cars. I like to do all the scenery before installing the bridges. this may not be possible here, the narrow gauge flex track on the ends of the bridge decks has scale sized spike heads, and is somewhat fragile, so installing and removing it many times might cause damage.
After I do my modifications, I might need to leave both bridges out until I can get the scenery close to done, but that is going to be so hard, as this is looking really neat. will be cutting subroadbed for the lower level's approach to the central peninsula, and for the wye area on the top level of the center peninsula. will be going to the lake later this week, don't have a big project planned for a four day stay there, so I have some thinking to do!
After I do my modifications, I might need to leave both bridges out until I can get the scenery close to done, but that is going to be so hard, as this is looking really neat. will be cutting subroadbed for the lower level's approach to the central peninsula, and for the wye area on the top level of the center peninsula. will be going to the lake later this week, don't have a big project planned for a four day stay there, so I have some thinking to do!
drafting the upper levels wye with straightedges and a home made radius bar to try to get it perfect!
double checking it against the final plan recently finalized after more than three years of planning. Cookie cutter roadbed, requiring careful planning, returning maximal scenic flexibility . this looks like it will work. with the wye on the top level, I can turn passenger trains, and back them into the stub end tracks at State line, where the narrow gauge has a return loop, but there is not enough room to do that on the standard gauge, where I can't get away with a 16 inch radius. I have 19 inch minimum radiuses here .
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double checking it against the final plan recently finalized after more than three years of planning. Cookie cutter roadbed, requiring careful planning, returning maximal scenic flexibility . this looks like it will work. with the wye on the top level, I can turn passenger trains, and back them into the stub end tracks at State line, where the narrow gauge has a return loop, but there is not enough room to do that on the standard gauge, where I can't get away with a 16 inch radius. I have 19 inch minimum radiuses here .
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Bill,
Finally got myself caught up on the updates, great work so far! I'll be keeping my eyes open for inspiration.
Finally got myself caught up on the updates, great work so far! I'll be keeping my eyes open for inspiration.
I got the ore and coal transfer dump bin lowered. this levels out the ore trestle considerably. it has some sag to the right that will come out when the bents are added. I need to trim off the left end of the ore trestle, where it angles into the wall. that will let the left side move back a little, letting both buildings move a tad to the rear, which should help multiple clearance issues. it is a miracle this stuff fits in this corner as tightly as it does without more problems.
fitting more of the trestle bents. soon I'm going to have to pull all that stuff out, try to order it so I don't get the pieces mixed up, and then try to finish the cribbing, and work on some scenery to get it to the point where I can start glueing these bridge pieces in place. I have some masonite, so I can cut back drop sections for directly below this scene, where the second level is a very narrow shelf three inches wide at most. a back drop there will make a huge difference. I will also want to put a back drop in place at the lowest level, where it curves to meet the center peninsula, as it would be very difficult to do after the subroadbed, roadbed, and track is in place. that corner will be a huge scenic opportunity, with an interesting bridge.
I also want to start putting benchwork in place on the end of the top level of the central peninsula, over the river front scene. that will be the anchor for removable (if needed) sections of bench work. nothing easily removable, just designed to be possible to get it out of the attic without major destruction should the need occur.
I also want to start putting benchwork in place on the end of the top level of the central peninsula, over the river front scene. that will be the anchor for removable (if needed) sections of bench work. nothing easily removable, just designed to be possible to get it out of the attic without major destruction should the need occur.
Love seeing all those little tea kettles at work. Are those ex-C&S flats I spy in the foreground??
Nice 3 dimensional trackwork there Bill. I think you will have several of these interesting spots for photos on your new layout. Bridge building as always looks superb in your hands.:Bravo::Bravo::Bravo: Tom:smuggrin::smuggrin:
Nice 3 dimensional trackwork there Bill. I think you will have several of these interesting spots for photos on your new layout. Bridge building as always looks superb in your hands.:Bravo::Bravo::Bravo: Tom:smuggrin::smuggrin:
Zathros, behind the mower is my #1 woods mule, a 78 3 cyl 25 horse Kubota diesel tractor. #2 woods mule is a 81 toyota 4x4. I use the two of them to maintain the trails through the woods my 21 acres and to bring in the firewood.
these photos are out of order, but this one shows the first section of the wye on the upper deck in place with the risers. this photo is taken from the back aisle. the sub roadbed to the right is the main line. it has stopped climbing, and is slightly higher than the subroadbed on the top level on the east walls long shelf, so it will go downgrade a little to get to the level of the shelf. this is as high as the mainline will get on the central peninsula . ( there is a small grade on the final approach to State line near the ore transfer.) the leg of the wye to the left is still climbing, and the remaining leg will climb to meet it. the grade is the 3.3% grade of the mainline, so main line passenger trains can turn on the wye, and back into Stateline, so I won't have to turn the locomotives or head end cars at StateLine's very cramped facilities
this second photo, which would precede the first if things were rationally presented Is a photo of the entire wye section being test fit, before I started to section it to fit on the benchwork sections. The central peninsula is large, and one section of benchwork would be way to big to remove from the room, should that ever be necessary, so there are four sections of benchwork on the upper level of the peninsula, and may be more later. or I might make those sections disposable. the far end of the wye will be elevated slightly, and lead to two tracks to a log re load camp off the narrow gauge. one track will be a tail track to the wye, to turn mainline trains, and the other will be to supply the camp. there will be a switch off the wye, that leads to s steeper grade, for two elevated tracks through the camp, one track to hold empties, and the other to run through one of my Surry Parker log loaders. farther up the hill will be a siding off the narrow gauge, where logs will be dumped for the reload. The narrow gauge main line will run along the top of a ridge, close to six feet off the floor.
on the back (east) wall I have made progress, and have most of the track down for the Sander's Switch block, on the lowest level of the east wall, below the engine facilities, and the Harlow Yard block. @ Sander's Switch, I have a six fool long passing siding, with a track leading off the back side. It will lead to a new branch under construction. and a limestone quarry. Until my center peninsula's lowest level is completed it will be used as staging. I can store three large trains there, and one or two more at the Murray passing siding. On the top of the mountain I have another large passing siding that can hole two long trains. once I get the tracks down on the Wye, I can store another two trains there. with eight trains in staging, full operations in Crooked Creek, and partial operations in Harlos should be possible, so I'm going to work on getting trains set up, and track cleaned, and hope to be operating in a month or two! If I can complete the Southern Staging, then I would have three to four trains a day operable from the Southern, which could set up a lot of interchange traffic.
these photos are out of order, but this one shows the first section of the wye on the upper deck in place with the risers. this photo is taken from the back aisle. the sub roadbed to the right is the main line. it has stopped climbing, and is slightly higher than the subroadbed on the top level on the east walls long shelf, so it will go downgrade a little to get to the level of the shelf. this is as high as the mainline will get on the central peninsula . ( there is a small grade on the final approach to State line near the ore transfer.) the leg of the wye to the left is still climbing, and the remaining leg will climb to meet it. the grade is the 3.3% grade of the mainline, so main line passenger trains can turn on the wye, and back into Stateline, so I won't have to turn the locomotives or head end cars at StateLine's very cramped facilities
this second photo, which would precede the first if things were rationally presented Is a photo of the entire wye section being test fit, before I started to section it to fit on the benchwork sections. The central peninsula is large, and one section of benchwork would be way to big to remove from the room, should that ever be necessary, so there are four sections of benchwork on the upper level of the peninsula, and may be more later. or I might make those sections disposable. the far end of the wye will be elevated slightly, and lead to two tracks to a log re load camp off the narrow gauge. one track will be a tail track to the wye, to turn mainline trains, and the other will be to supply the camp. there will be a switch off the wye, that leads to s steeper grade, for two elevated tracks through the camp, one track to hold empties, and the other to run through one of my Surry Parker log loaders. farther up the hill will be a siding off the narrow gauge, where logs will be dumped for the reload. The narrow gauge main line will run along the top of a ridge, close to six feet off the floor.
on the back (east) wall I have made progress, and have most of the track down for the Sander's Switch block, on the lowest level of the east wall, below the engine facilities, and the Harlow Yard block. @ Sander's Switch, I have a six fool long passing siding, with a track leading off the back side. It will lead to a new branch under construction. and a limestone quarry. Until my center peninsula's lowest level is completed it will be used as staging. I can store three large trains there, and one or two more at the Murray passing siding. On the top of the mountain I have another large passing siding that can hole two long trains. once I get the tracks down on the Wye, I can store another two trains there. with eight trains in staging, full operations in Crooked Creek, and partial operations in Harlos should be possible, so I'm going to work on getting trains set up, and track cleaned, and hope to be operating in a month or two! If I can complete the Southern Staging, then I would have three to four trains a day operable from the Southern, which could set up a lot of interchange traffic.