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This is the blog for my Southern Pacific's Jefferson Branch of Klamath Subdivision in Northern California. The Klamath Subdivision is proto-lanced line for my dream layout and the Jefferson Branch is a totally freelanced branch for the layout space I was able to get. This allows me to attempt to capture the flavor I want in the space I have………..

I’m moving my blog for my layout here to the Big Blue.  I am going to try and post about one entry a day so you can can catch up to the current status.

ratled
Its a start

We were very fortunate to acquire a nice little train room with an attached 4 bedroom home. While the 16.5' x 11' space isn't what I really wanted it is the space I needed. It has been about 9 years since my last layout or even do much operating as guest at other layouts. We have had 6 moves in 9 years and it is nice to be stable enough to railroading again.
 
Please forgive me while I provide some basic information on the line and the back story. Rest assured that building has already begun and I will start posting that soon.
 
 
Constructive criticism and lively discussion is welcome but in the end Rule #1 is in full affect……

The Outline:
Southern Pacific's Oregon Div., Klamath Sub., Jefferson Branch
“The State of Jefferson Line”
 
PHILOSOPHY
Have Fun
Trains have a purpose - Operations based
Local freight & yard work primary focus
The space has a sense of distance
Allows for solo op’s
Allows for informal Op sessions with guests operators
Nothing is absolute – can be enhanced to achieve the overall objective
Essence trumps accuracy – “feels like” more important than “is like”
 
CONCEPT
September 1980 SP Klamath subdivision branch, totally free lanced in Nor Cal
Point to point for Op’s
6- 13 car locals with 50’/60’ cars
Car forwarding via CC&WB - w/ option cards?
Communications via hope n holler if needed
PICS blended with Cornerstones– LD Boot camp notes
 
Must Haves
Switching challenges w/o Time Saver feel.
Silver truss bridge over river
Wood trestle bridges over creek
Grade – None
Larger main industries – lumber- dimensional, ply, woodchip, veneer
Secondary industries – Seiad Cement, Vegely DeFind, BF Salvage, AD&W, others?
Angled track in places – Train coming at you not always a side view
 
CONSTRUCTION
54” track base height
Code 83 Atlas flex
24” flat mainline curves
#4 & #6 T/O’s – Atlas
Manual turnout control – Z spring
DCC- Digitrax, current system
Shadow box w/ household storage above
Drape under fascia w/ train storage below
Good lighting – scene, room and task
A place to sort CC/WB at towns and yards
Storage for live/open loads at sites when not in use
Consider future recycle of track and parts - No TOMA or modules
 
POSSIBLE TRAINS
Humboldt switcher
Siskiyou Turn
Jefferson Local
 
CONSIDERED INDUSTRIES
The Siskiyou Lumber Co – Homage to The Pacific Lumber Co
Vegley DeFind – Atlas forums WPF (The ultimate team track)
Seiad Cement – small trans-loader facility “Now you know where it comes from”
Hampton Affiliates reloader
Big Foot Salvage
Anderson Window & Door
 
CONVICTION
Regional RR aspects – regional per diem freight cars -A&MR, OP&E, UO, and YW
SP colors and practices
Additional regional aspects – State of Jefferson, dredge scene(s), big foot icons
Just a quick teaser to show what the room started as and close to where it is now. I'm also working a bolgspot location for this - https://spjeffersonbranch.blogspot.com/

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Just want to let you know you do have followers. We tend to watch carefully but offer encouragement from time to time. I like what you have done so far. 
Charlie
Thanks Charlie!

Meet the Klamath Sub

The Klamath Sub “The State of Jefferson Line”
All Bold items  show which items are real world actual.
 
The SP's Klamath Sub was literally born out of the ashes of NWP's tunnel 27 September 6th, 1978.
MD's report on Train Orders of the actual fire https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r...?18,929824

During the early post fire planning the NWP briefly considered a new railroad, which would have connected Eureka with either Redding or Red Bluff. The area around Junction city was discovered to be too steep for a modern railroad and Morrison- Knudsen was contacted to rebuild the tunnel to restore service to the northern end of the NWP.

The fire had ultimately burned for over two weeks. While it was initially thought it would be 6 months before the line could be restored, revised estimates found it could be a year or more. In light of this updated information a second look at another route was pursued. Routes either through southern Oregon up and around through Cave Junction on over to Medford or along the Klamath River area seemed to be the mostly likely contenders.. The Oregon route would have serious right of way acquisition issues and would prove to be too costly in time and money. It was decided the Klamath route was the only plausible way to go and the new subdivision was born!

The northern end of the NWP would be the starting point and allow service to the existing customer base to continue. The infamous Pacific Lumber Co. would provided significant rail traffic on its own, let alone the numerous other customers, to warrant the effort.

The first point of order was to absorb the Arcata & Mad River shortline that connected the large Simpson mill in Korbel as well as several other customers in the area to the NWP. This added trackage was a good start and in the desired direction. Additional track rights were acquired along state Route 299 over to Willow Creek.

At Willow Creek the route turns north to follow along Highway 96 along The Bigfoot Scenic Byway and the Klamath River. This route allowed for easier and faster building as the the old highway 96 right of way had significant parts remaining when a new highway was built after the monstrous flood of 1964. The right of way was fairly easy to acquire as most of this was under control of the Six Rivers National Forest. However, the USFS required the SP to utilize the SP's current water car practices.

The long gentle slope along the Klamath River from Orleans to Happy Camp, while isolated, was very accommodating for the railroad. In Happy Camp the almost defunct Happy Camp mill was able to see new life and provided an additional source of revenue. The line continues compass east (railroad west for the SP folks) along the Klamath River and the State of Jefferson Scenic Byway for about 20 miles to Siead Valley.

In Siead the recently (sort of) closed Seiad Valley shake mill was reopened providing one more source of revenue. The line continues along the Klamath River via Ladd road to Walker where the SP was able to acquire the ability to use Walker Creek road all the way to Horse Creek.

Once at Horse Creek trackage would easily continue all the way to Highway 263 as the SP has vast land holdings along the Klamath River from the old days of the great timberland grants all the way to the I-5 freeway.

The Klamath Sub main continues east along Klamathon Rd to tie with the Siskiyou Line at Hornbrook. With local input over concerns of how the Yerka Western in Yerka CA and it's active customers would be affected by the Klamath Sub a deal was reached and the YW was acquired by the SP to become YW branch of the Klamath Sub and preserve it's history.

Tied into the SP system once again traffic could head compass north over the Siskiyou Grade to Medford or compass south to Butte.
The State of Jefferson

For those that aren't familiar with the State of Jefferson it has been on going pursuit since the 1800's for the 6 or so counties of Northern California and the Southern Oregon to be a stand alone state. Real traction was being made in early 1941. The first real official movement for independence was scheduled in Washington DC for Monday, December 8th 1941................
 
The push still continues even more today to be a stand alone state and several additional counties are expressing the desire to part of The State of Jefferson.

https://jeffersonoutfitters.com/jefferso...ry/the-xx/#
https://www.amazon.com/State-Jefferson-C...ay&sr=8-11

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~Jefferson Branch ~

 
Side note ~ I intended to build the Klamath Sub mainline from The Pacific Lumber Co all the way to Hornbrook via the Klamath River. It was planed to build it over Bob Osborn's ver 2 of the Chicago & Mackinac plan. The C&M was a really nice Nolix and was featured in a 2 part series in the Layout Design Journal back late 2012. I was fortunate enough to have been a regular operator on it for it's last couple of years. Bob, the C&M and the host of regular and guest operators had the greatest impact in refining what I consider model railroading... and yes, I am a model railroader (as opposed to a railroad modeler).

http://cmrailroad.com/index.html
http://cmrailroad.com/Article.html

While I didn't get the 24' x 24' space I wanted to build the Klamath Sub I was blessed to get a 16.5' x 11' space that is all mine. The plus side is there are no windows, doors, pipes, water heaters etc to get in the way....and it's insulated, rocked, taped and textured........ the builder even put in base boards for what is considered by most to be garage space.
 
The Jefferson Branch allows me to capture some of the vibe I wanted in the space I have and still be fun to build and operate.......
 
Humboldt Yard:
It's a play off the Eureka yard of the NWP and reminiscent of C&M's Comstock Park yard. It's way too much yard for this layout but allows me to scratch that itch for yard ops. The Set Out track will serve as on line staging.
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Bob's photo of Andy operating the Comstock Yard
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Jefferson
Jefferson allows me to have some fun with the design and offers operational opportunities.
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Vegely De Find is the focal point of this section. It allows for some diverse cars and loads.  It will be model after Reinhard's  (Freelance) 2012 Grain Mill.  I so liked his work on that so much I reversed engineered it so I can build it similarly.....imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
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With Jefferson being longer than originally planed I expect this complex to grow as it gets built.

A W&D (Anderson Window & Door) will be large enough for up to two 60’ cars but the exact size has yet to be determined.

Seiad Cement is a tongue and cheek build for anyone who has done any poking around near Seiad Valley. It's a small cement trans-loader and is based on the structure below.
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Siskiyou

This is homage to the Pacific Lumber Co and allows me to have signature lumber scene.
 
This PLCO scene is the inspiration for Siskiyou Lumber
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And now on to the build........
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The Layout Room

The house we were so fortunate to get was new construction.  The builder provided the train room (part of the garage) with tape, texture and paint.  One of the upgrades we had was to have the garage fully insulated.

With the impending move, all the chaos that encompasses it, and that the space needing to do double duty for the layout/train storage and household storage, I needed to get things going.

I laid out the upper and lower lines of the shadowbox while the room was still pristine and empty. I started about midpoint of the longest wall as this is a garage floor with a 2% grade, I marked a starting point for the level line at  52”  and laid out a line in both directions. I went up 20” from that line and had the upper line for the upper valance.
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With that all laid out I went right to work on the upper valence. The upper valance is not only the framing for the shadow box look but does double duty with household storage above. This 11' section is the longest single piece and went in first. 
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The next two 8' sections went in easily. You can see the plywood gussets that will allow for zero interruptions to the view for the approx 50' of run and help carry the storage load. There is a lag bolt in each stud to ensure proper support. The underneath will be painted black and there will be a black drape from the ceiling when done to complete the shadowbox look I'm after.
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I did have to put in one wall and door to complete the room.  The upside I was able to install the door to swing out of and not into the room
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The wall is taped and textured on both sides, although I intentionally left out the texture in the area where the backdrop will go to make that prep easier. This wall is designed to be taken down quickly if I ever have to return it all back to original condition. I did not tape the edges but I did caulk them to give a completed look. I also left the base boards in place by working around them.
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The last of the upper valance is in on the three walls, the move is complete and the household storage is filling it all in FAST. Now on to the build..........
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A word on construction

With every layout I keep what worked well before, try new things I have been looking forward to work with and experimenting with something new - this layout is no different. The biggest thing for me this time is as much as possible needs to be recyclable. In the off chance I have to move again I want to be able to recycle as much as possible for the next layout. I'm talking about the pieces that make a scene and not the scene itself - flex track, turnouts, buildings and those Canyon Creek trees type of things.

I have done the modules, TOMA is the current buzzword, and found they don't work as expected. Unless you have the exact same space for it you wind up making compromises and changes to make it work.... which defeats the idea in the first place. Even if you take just a bit of a scene to carry over you often are forced to make it fit. That might not the best thing for that scene or the best use of the new space. It's much more practicable to carry over the essence of the scene to the new layout and reconstruct the scene to the new space.

This time around I will be using Elmer's Glue All for those things that aren't intended to be recycled and Elmer's School glue for those that are. Both look the same, dry clear and are “water soluble”. The difference is once they dry the Glue All is more permanent (more like Modge Podge for those that know that medium) and the school glue can be rehydrated with a little effort. Simply gluing ballast won't pull up already laid in track (but you still want to be careful, especially with track work). The upside to this method is if you make a mistake or want to make changes you can do so at any time and it won't be as costly or destructive.

For the benchwork I'm using 16” x 10” heavy duty shelf brackets from Walmart. I have used these before in other applications and found them very reliable. I had some left over from shelving at the old house (already recycling) and found that they were on sale on line from Walmart for $2 off the regular price. I ordered another dozen. These will be used along the walls under the Humboldt Yard, the cross over to Jefferson and under Jefferson. That's a bulk of the RR and nearly 40' of run. Spacing will be mostly ever other stud but never to exceed 32” of span. These are topped with 20” of 1 x 3 soft pine that will support a thin plywood “subfloor”. 2” XPS foam will top that for the benchwork.

Here you can see the first 3 brackets in at the end of the Humboldt Yard.... I really need to get a hold of an air compress and get that door in!
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Looking forward to following your progress!
Thanks Mike.  The next week should be good for that.  

Just a reminder that I am bringing over a year's worth of progress.   Once it gets caught up it will slow down.  Nobody but Reinhard (Freelance fame) can work that fast!

Benchwork complete!

A nice milestone to reach.  Started at the Humboldt Yard and worked around the walls. I wound up using 17 of these HD brackets and some cleats in the corners (as seen in the photo in the previous thread and below).

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I made sure to trim the plywood as needed so the butt joints would fall on a bracket unlike this.
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 Rounded the corner as you walk into the room at the end of the yard.
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Please excuse the mess as I had to move things around as I worked to put in the benchwork. Now that it is complete I can work on some proper storage solutions, start putting things away and get rid of the boxes.   I tacked up some landscape fabric for the skirt.

Enjoy the vista view while you can, when the Siskiyou area starts to get worked on the backdrop and upper valance will get installed first.


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I also removed the two builder installed lights and put in four shop lights for general room lighting.  I'll dress the cords when the valance goes in.   Now on to getting the room organized......
On deck is the foam installed as seen in the pictures and testing some LED 2835 lights for under mount scene lighting.
Steve
The next installment of the blog...... I'll be doing entries two today in 2 parts.  

Not much currently in terms sexy layout photos.   Since the backdrop from the yard all the way through Jefferson will be directly on drywall I've been applying a skim coat of mud to eliminate the texture and have a smooth working surface. Hoping to have that primed today along with the upper valance and have that completed by Monday.

I have been playing with LEDs for the under mount lighting. Unfortunately the subtle differences don't show well in pics.   For me a single strand is too dim and gives  the multiple shadow directions I am trying to avoid.  Hopefully I'll have this figured out this weekend but it's looking like dual strands of 2835s with 600 LEDs per 5 m might be the winner. I may play with a 3rd strand of warm LEDs with the 2 bright whites but that will be later.

Lastly I had a to go through a lot of boxes to get somewhat organized.  I did get rid of my last box of N scale stuff and a box of Z scale stuff, as well as 2 boxes of Scale Rails and Bulletins. I did find a couple of things from the way back machine and a few print gems I forgot I had......

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And I found the "field notes" from the original Klamath Sub feasibility study

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Sorry about not getting the second post up last night, life stepped in and delayed that.  
Now is as good of time as any for the other ….


The upper valance received 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of satin black paint. I finished it off with landscape fabric for the skirting. It's complete all the way through Jefferson. The valance from there on will not be storage but more like a light weight box kite on it's side. For now it's on hold as I really want to start laying track. Enjoy the vista view a little longer……….

The backdrop from the yard all the way through Jefferson will be directly on the builder's textured drywall so it received 2 coats of mud to fill in the texture and was sanded smooth. That also got 2 coats of primer and a single coat of blue just to give it some color. It will get a 2nd coat when the backdrop scene gets added. Right now I really want to start laying track.

All of the 2” foam subterrain has been cut to fit and glued in place using Liquid Nails for projects. A quick layer of gray paint went down in the yard and Siskiyou Lumber while a light tan went down for the rest of the layout to tone down the pink foam. I'm thinking it will need a second coat but at least I can start figuring out the exact track arrangement.

I had a power failure the other day when I was in the layout room.  Being deep in the garage with no windows in any of the garage it was DARK.  I added a power outage flashlight to the room for a simple emergency lighting.  Here is the link in case anyone wants it
Power outage Flashlight

Lighting has been the biggest PITA. I tried various types of LED strip lighting, multiple strands and still wasn't getting the results I was after. I finally decided that LED strips are not for me and I wasn't going to spend any more effort chasing that.

Looking for alternatives for under mount lighting I found a guy on You Tube with a nice BNSF layout using T5 LED fixtures that he was getting good results from, and at a good price on Amazon. His You Tube link is railfan220  His T5 light video is here T5 light video

Being I have zero patients I rushed out and over paid for a similar one at the big box store (which got returned). Being it was 4' at 1800lm it was close enough to know that I was on the right track but this was not “it”. I figured that dual strips of 2200lm might just be good enough. These T5 lights can be daisy chained together for 15 lights, the connecting cables are provided, so no extra outlet is required for me.   They also come with solid connecting terminals that you can plug them into each other but I went with the cables to make the 90' turns.

At $36 for a 6 pack of them, and with a special deal from Amazon offering $60 off if you apply for the their credit card (I'll cancel that next month), I ordered 4 boxes to get the 50' of layout covered with a dual set of lights.  Here is the Amazon link for those interested T5 Lights

Being they were ordered from Amazon they were delivered on a Sunday. Man these things have a nice small profile. Made in the USA, included all of the cables, wires and mounting hardware for most situations these things are great. They have a 5 year warranty so I hoping the will hold up well for my application.

Again, I have zero patients so I quickly tore open the first case and tacked up the first one. These things are bright! I hung a second one and was thinking that it might too bright. I rehung the first one down the center and it seems to be working well with just a single light. I chained the rest of the first set of 6 temporarily to see how I like them. My wife says l reminded her of Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway clicking the little light while looking at his Helen Hunt picture.

So here is how the layout looks tonight (in 2019) without the lights on and with them on. So far I am happy and have started playing with track configurations…. You can see the emergency light plugged in too

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Well ratled, you sir made my day.  I was researching those lights a few months back and didn't find what I thought I wanted. You even included the link.
I ordered 3 sets and I hope they come in unbroken condition. 

     You are marching right along with progress and the lighting looks quite adequate. Out of respect I did not shorten your user name  Icon_e_biggrin
I am looking forward to more.
Charlie
@ Charlie - So glad it helped someone!   I have had them for about a year now (my layout is about a year old now, I'm just bringing the blog here up to date) and still love em as much as  I did back on day 1.   All the pictures are from layout and room lighting only without a flash on a Iphone 10.  Once you get them in give them a couple of days so you can get use to them before making any decisions.   One tip for anyone who uses these lights, the little clips are a little fragile.  They go in fine and stay up fine but be careful if you want to relocate them or even unclip the light from them

The yard track is in!

First a quick follow up on the lights. I'm still really liking these things and they are the final lighting choice. Anyone looking for under mount lighting really should consider giving these a look.

The Humboldt yard is complete! Well, the main yard part anyway, the service tracks still need to go in but I have to figure out the route from the yard over to Jefferson to see how the service area will fit in. All of the feeder wires are also in and ready to hook up to the bus.

I spent a a day or so just playing with the final track configuration and tweaking it as I went. I didn't mention it back in the layout philosophies but I really don't like a bunch of crammed in track packed in one area. I really like how it came out both in looks and function.

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From left to right-
The switch back from the service area to the yard. I'm not a big fan of switch backs but it had to be. The tail end will serve has the ready track for water cars that have been serviced and are good to go.

The next three tracks are the classification tracks.  The longest will hold about 10 cars of mixed 50'/60' cars

AD-1 which will also serve as on line staging – anything coming in from the rest of the world will get set out here.

The main. Only the main will be elevated with the standard Midwest cork.

AD-2 – Originally planned to be stub end visible staging but I went the double ended route. It only makes sense as it improves it from an operational standpoint and I think it looks better overall. While it can be used as visible staging I see it being the terminus for trains coming from Jefferson and Siskiyou. It's better operationally in that cars that are outbound for the rest of the world are out of the way and cars to be sorted in the yard don't have to cross over the main to get the classification tracks.

The RIP track is a stub track off the far end of AD-2.

The yard run around track is also in and will not only serve as the run around but it will be where returning water cars are set out to be serviced. There will be a water column there to service these. Fouling the run around should encourage the ground crews to service the water cars quickly so the yard switcher can push them to the water car ready track.

Noticeably absent is a yard lead. It just wasn't going to fit in a practical manner. Given the size of the yard and the traffic on the line I don't think this will be an issue. It is my understanding that this is not an uncommon proto practice for yards this size/traffic anyways.

OriginallyAD-1 was supposed to be the only double ended track in the yard. The idea was there would bit of main would serve as the escape track for AD-1 and it would flipped up & down as needed. Looking at it this evening I was thinking of putting another little extension off the end so it would be up all of the time. I went ahead and mocked it up but was concerned that it would look out of place.

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I remembered a picture I took some years ago of a SP tunnel and thinking that could make nice little scene out this section and would represent “the rest of the world” while providing a an escape track for the AD-1 & AD-2.

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Next up is giving the yard a good vacuuming and wiping down all the rail with some MEK in preparation to getting it wired in to the bus and running trains. I'm going to start putting in the bus and 1156 bulbs short districts to get things started. I'm really looking forward to get my original Zephyr up and running. I decided to give the Digitrax wireless interface a try so I can use smartphone throttles instead of buying several more throttles.  (NOTE: as of 12/15/2020 I am no longer using the Digitrax LNWI as it failed me too many times but I am using wifi and phone throttles still… very happily)
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