Southern Pacific's Jefferson Branch

[ratled]

Some visual progress

Trains run frequently as the track work gets vetted. It is remarkably solid except for one Atlas #4 TO and that hasn't made me mad enough to replace it....... yet. Almost all of my running issues have been the rolling stock related. It's either been couplers and trip pins, wheels or car weight (really lack of weight) . I have been correcting those as the crop up by replacing the couplers with Kadee #148 couplers and removing the all trip pins or replacing the wheels with Walthers 33” metal wheels and running a truck tuner through them as I go. The weight adjustments are coming soon. I'm developing a nice little operating scheme too.

While mostly just running trains there was a short whirlwind of activity. First off, the workbench was relocated to it's permanent location. It has been working so well, and I was really settling into it, that  I didn't want to make too many additions to it only to have to move it when the Oro River eventually goes in. You can see it in the upcoming pictures.

I put in the backdrop behind Siskiyou. It has been bare 1/8” hardboard that connects to the upper soffits and peninsula so it's really not too structural.



Home Depot had some vinyl flooring for 49 cents a foot. I was able to get a 2' x12' section. It was glued in with Liquid Nails for projects. I hit it with a sealer of Killz and gave it a single coat of my sky color. I finished the area behind Placer Creek and the extension past Humboldt yard at the other of the RR with the blue paint while I was at it. Now the whole layout has a basic backdrop with the sky color.



All of the fascia is in! It's 1/8” hardboard and 9” tall.  The hardest parts was this section.  I used wet hot towels to soften the masonite.  After about 10 minutes of soaking it was good to go.  I clamped in place and left it to dry.  Once dry I ensured I liked the fit and installed it.



I gave it a quick coat of Kilz Wildwood RL#250 in Walmart's cheapest satin finish. It is the final color but not the final coat. It does give it some color for now. It's a funny color too, sometimes it is Sage Green or OD green, sometimes it a gray/green and sometimes it is slate or gun metal gray. The pictures don't show it too well but I really like it and its a departure from my normal thought process.



I finished up the upper soffits with skirting. I also installed all of the lower fascia skirting as well. Here are some of pictures as the layout all dressed up. You can see the workbench it's new location……





Here is the drawer slide for the DCC and the fascia.





I found about a dozen of my old unbranded wood loads for the bulkhead flats and put them into service as place holders until I can make some real lumber loads It's nice not having to always haul empties. I liked it so much I'm going to make place holders for the woodchip cars and the gons at Bigfoot Salvage.



I have been playing with ballast samples and dirt for the yard. I saw BArailsystem had in interesting ballast tool from Proses (Bachman) in this Dec 19 update. Mine came today and am looking forward to checking it out.



Here is a link to that video and the ballast tool starts at the 8:28 mark (but his layout is worth watching the whole video).




Other things that have been going on is getting my paint booth up and working on some backdrop colors for the distant mountains. It's nice to see it come together and no longer a vision in my head.......