Southern Pacific's Jefferson Branch

[ratled]

Here is today's update.... it's a long one.   I should be current hopefully by the end of the weekend

Continuing progress
First off, I found a new to me picture of the Pres to logs building at PALCO. The poster stated they thought it was c. 1940 based on the vehicles in the photo.

I'm posting the link for anyone who might want to see it. Not much there but the photo I grabbed is HUGE which allows for some nice zoom.
PALCO c. 1940



I have been playing with various styles of the over sprung turnout throws to see what will work best. This is a WIP at best. I am using Atlas turnouts which aren't the easiest to setup for this. The issue is the distance between the throw bar and the first usable sleeper to hinge off of is a little long for my liking for a finished product. I have been successful but haven't perfected it yet. I'm trying to find some suitable brass tubing to try as the pivot point to see how that works.

I did cobble together a little roll out shelf for the Digitrax with a on/off power strip conveniently located. I also updated the system with a Digitrax LNWI Now I can use smart phones as throttles instead of having to buy more UT4 throttles. I have begun installing the DCC bus for the layout.  (Note as of this posting 12/17/202 I am NOT using the LNWI anymore)





In between I have been making a few wood ties to fill in the gaps between the flex track. I use to use the ME stained ties for this but they are no longer available. I looked at similar products but it's $15- $20 plus about $10 in shipping for only a 1,000! I wound up going the DIY route. Walmart sells stick matches for 97 cents for 250. A little TV time at The Chopper and I'm good to go. I used 2 squirts of cheap craft acrylic brown paint and a half a squirt of black in about 2 cups of IPA for the wash. I let it sit for about 2 days until a couple of the ties started to sink. I plan to use some for track clutter that would have been left track side and the rest for the gaps. When I hit the track with brown paint they will blend in nicely.





I was able to get the service yard installed and the caboose track in the far end of the Humboldt yard.



I mocked up the track for the Oro River scenic area which goes from the yard over to Jefferson. This area will have a CV 1902 truss bridge over the Oro river and will allow me to transition from the green/conifer area of the yard to the golden grass that will be in Jefferson. It's not quite like I wanted but given about the 12' of run and keeping the curves not too tight it is what it is.





I started to mock up Jefferson while I was at it. Vegely DeFind got stretched and added to. I'm liking the potential for several different spots for box cars and tanks for hoppers / tanks cars. I mocked up a little loading platform from a door shim and some scrap plywood which opens up all kinds of car potential...... Vegely DeFind, the ultimate team track! At about 4' (yet to be used T5 lights serves as the main building place holder) it should provide some good traffic.







I roughed out the Jefferson run around, the trackage for Bigfoot Salvage and Seiad Cement.



Anderson Door & Window just didn't seem to fit the theme of the layout so I am looking for a change. It needs to be something with a little more rail traffic and fit the space available. I was thinking of doing a plywood mill and would like to see if any were served by the NWP in the northern area to play off of. I'm thinking of something like the backside of Murphy Plywood in Rouge River OR (off I-5) if anyone knows of that. I also need to look into what would be appropriate car loads in/out would be other than plywood out.