The Mogollon Railroad

[TrainNut]

The retaining wall behind the little building looks great.

[Gary S]

Looking good Kevin. The rocks are believable and the color turned out nicely. Good to see your progress.

[nachoman]

I've been working on some ballast in Joy's Camp yard.

[Gary S]

Looks good Kevin. What product did you use? A mixture of something?

[nachoman]

Looks good Kevin. What product did you use? A mixture of something?

For the ballast? It is simply sifted dirt from my back yard.

[faraway]

Looks good Kevin. What product did you use? A mixture of something?

For the ballast? It is simply sifted dirt from my back yard.

That looks really good. Don't worry if you find some strangers digging in your back yard. We are getting ballast only :o

[Gary S]

Kevin, I was thinking that the ballast had some dirt mixed in. Didn't realize the entire mixture was dirt. I very much like the way it looks. I consider you fortunate to have that kind of dirt so readily available. All we have over here is black clay that isn't much good for anything model railroad wise. I have gone to various gravel or shell country roads arond the area and scooped up some of the fines for use as ballast mix and other scenery purposes. Since this stuff comes from roads, I do run a strong magnet through it and do find magnetic stuff in it though. I figure if I run the magnet through it enough, it'll take the particles out, plus a heavy dose of glue should hold any remaining particles in place. Haven't used any yet, but I am confident it will work well.

Again, I very much like the way your ballast turned out. It has a great mix of various sized particles in it. Just right!

[nachoman]

Gary -

Clay would be no good. If it is the kind of stuff that never dries out, it will never dry out on your layout - and when it does it may shrink or crack. I used dirt because I figured the real railroad would have used dirt at that time for an industrial narrow gauge line. I wish it was a bit finer, though, but I only had one size of scrap window screen One thing I dislike about many commercial ballast (especially woodland scenics) is that it is too uniform in size. I always recommend people to mix fine and medium ballast for HO scale, using a different color of each.

[ocalicreek]

That dirt has just the right look for a narrow gauge train yard, imo. Well done!

Now you've got to get some sort of interior in that great big beautiful kitbashed building on the hill if you're going to keep taking pictures from this low angle. hock:

Galen

[nachoman]

That dirt has just the right look for a narrow gauge train yard, imo. Well done!

Now you've got to get some sort of interior in that great big beautiful kitbashed building on the hill if you're going to keep taking pictures from this low angle. hock:

Galen

Agreed. I plan on making some "window boxes" that display merchandise, and then a great big awning to cover the whole front of the building. I am still unsure how a store may have displayed merchandise or what kind of merchandise in that era. I figure they may have had mannequins with dresses or hats, and perhaps a display to show new appliances. I am learning that mining towns were often early customers of electricity, because the mining operations required a power plant and excess electricity was sold to the town (company owned town). Perhaps a store window displaying very early electric appliances may be appropriate. The remaining windows will just have glass and shades.

[ocalicreek]

That sounds like a nice evening project...maybe two if you allow for drying time on painting the little details. Looking forward to whatever you come up with.

Galen

[TrainNut]

Kevin,
Have you ever been to the town of Mogollon in NM? Your layout reminds me of it a bit... 'cept your town sits at the top of a hill while the actual town of Mogollon sits in a valley. While it's kind of tucked out of the way, it's still a neat place to stop with a pretty decent little burger joint. If you keep going out the backside, your in for a treat of several hours worth of beautiful, single lane, dirt, mountain driving.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/mogollon.html">http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/mogollon.html</a><!-- m -->

[nachoman]

Kevin,
Have you ever been to the town of Mogollon in NM? Your layout reminds me of it a bit... 'cept your town sits at the top of a hill while the actual town of Mogollon sits in a valley. While it's kind of tucked out of the way, it's still a neat place to stop with a pretty decent little burger joint. If you keep going out the backside, your in for a treat of several hours worth of beautiful, single lane, dirt, mountain driving.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/mogollon.html">http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/mogollon.html</a><!-- m -->

I've been to silver city, and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. New Mexico is one of those states where if you didn't know better, you would think the whole place is a crap hole. But when you get off the main routes (specifially I-40 and I-10), there are some awesome areas to discover.

I am basing my layout on Old Morenci, which no longer exists. Morenci was called "Joy's Camp" before it was called Morenci, and because my layout is supposed to be freelanced, I chose "Joy's Camp" for the name of my town. Even though I am baisng my town off of Morenci, I am not hesitant throw in elements from other regional mining towns - Jerome, Bisbee, Silver City, Globe, and yes, even Mogollon. My railroad is actually named after the ancient people who once inhabited the area, and I assume the town of Mogollon was named accordingly. I wanted a single, regional sounding name similar to the "Coronado" Railroad, so I whipped out a map and looked for names that sounded good.

[TrainNut]

I've got family that lives in Silver City... though I don't care much to associate with 'em. You mentioned that you named your layout after the ancients of the area. Here's another plausible source courtesy of this site... ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://rozylowicz.com/retirement/mogollon/mogollon.html">http://rozylowicz.com/retirement/mogollon/mogollon.html</a><!-- m --> )
Early in the eighteenth century, Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon served as the Spanish governor of lands from present New Mexico to the Pacific coast. Later the extensive mountain range of western New Mexico was given his name, and amid the mountains of this locality grew the gold and silver mining camp of Mogollon.
I was within about 10 miles of Mogollon a couple of weeks ago. My family and I drove down from Big Lake (near Eagar, AZ) to hike the catwalk trail through Whitewater Canyon. Neat stuff.
History....
In 1889 silver and gold was discovered in the Mogollon Mountains above Whitewater Canyon, just outside of Glenwood. Several mines were developed, and ore was hauled in wagons to a mill at the mouth of the Canyon. Water to operate the electric generators came from a pipeline reaching up into the Canyon. The pipeline was held onto the rock walls of the Canyon with timbers and iron bars that were in constant need of maintenance. Workmen dubbed it the Catwalk, and today it is operated as part of the Whitewater Canyon National Forest Recreation Area. Today it is the site of the one-mile Catwalk National Recreation Trail.

[nachoman]

Now that I can kinda/sorta operate my layout, having a power pack sitting on a shelf under the layout was a bit too inconvenient. Actually, not having something handheld was inconvenient, as I have to walk to the other side of the layout to do some uncoupling and throw switches. DCC went way, way down on my priority list because of unemployment, so I decided to build this little handheld throttle using a schematic I found on the net HERE.

I used as many parts as I had laying around, but wound up having to purchase a few components. I also slightly modified the design because the components I had were slightly different than what the schematic calls for. I drastically reduced the amount of "momentum", because I really don't like momentum throttles. I designed and etched a PCB for everything to fit on, and used the aluminum back plate of the project box as a heat sink for the voltage regulator. The cord is a standard telephone line cord, and I am using a phone jack to connect it to the layout.