...to get off yer duff, and vote here for the Challenge entries that most deserve your consideration.

Wayne

It's time to vote for your choices in the 2016/2017 Get Off Yer Duff Challenge. Everyone who entered has been included, but not all participants met their projected targets. Each participant's listed entry is a link to the thread showing their efforts. You may vote for as many or as few as you would like to. If you can't make up your mind, you can cast a vote for everyone in the challenge just to show you appreciate their work.

Welcome! I moved up to CO late last year and have been exploring around ever since. I work in outside sales for a pet food company so any town with a feed store is fair game. I'm usually moving a little quickly for rail fanning, but I still manage to get a few shots here and there. I occasionally go to NM, UT and WY but mostly Colorado.

Feel free to add any pictures of your own, otherwise I will just update this thread as I get something good.

Durango & Silverton using steam to shuffle some cars around



My favorite Goose from the Colorado Railroad Museum



Ex DRG&W GP30 waiting for restoration. The Museum also has a tunnel motor sitting at Coors waiting for funds to move it into the museum



A dead line of F-units in Alamosa. Hard to tell if they're here for restoration or parts





Steam hibernating the winter in Chama, NM



The engine house at Silver Plume for the Georgetown loop



Back in Durango, a tiny diesel handling switching duties



Thanks for looking!




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Finally! We have some decent weather so My friend Kevin and I headed north to our little version of ALCo territory, and though we missed our real target (Ex Army S-1 7371 at The Akron, Carson and Jefferson Railroad, we did connect with 3 others and one of them was working. The 7371 was working too, but we could only see it off in the distance.
Our first find was the AC&J 107 which is stored at Jefferson, Ohio    
Next we stumbled across this cosmetically restored S-2 at Meadville, Pa     and finally we caught this C425 working its way into the Meadville Yard.    
Along the way we were lucky enough to catch this NS train on the trestle at Coneaught, Ohio    
A very enjoyable day made even better by letting Kevin do all of the driving.

...to all participants in the 2016/2017 Get off yer duff Challenge, that the Challenge ends on Saturday, April 15th.

Hopefully, I'll have a poll ready so that all Members of Big Blue will have an opportunity to vote for the projects they feel most worthy, even those ( like me :oops: ) that didn't quite complete their project(s).

Wayne

OK here it is, the highly anticipated, overly glorified, incredibly extravagant, start of the Tender Tuesday thread.

Hello! I am researching my freelance short line and could use some wisdom. Specially, I would like to put a cement plant at one end of the line and a supplier at the other. Research has suggested gypsum as a good candidate, as the cement plant would probably contain its own aggregate pit. Gypsum is also a little cheap for a Class 1 to bother with it, but a short line might haul it less than 10 miles in captive equipment.

My first question is rolling stock in a late 70's/early 80's era. I have spotted a few rare models lettered for gypsum companies and they tend to be 2 bay covered hoppers. Any idea if this is correct versus an open hopper?

Second question is the loader. An open hopper would surely use a conveyor or flood loader, but what about closed hoppers? Is it a structure more like an elevator?

Thanks!


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Hello! My name is Aaron and I am getting back into the hobby after over a decade away. I have been dabbling since January, having brought back a box of my old stuff after the holidays. Turns out it's really relaxing to focus on building a model, which is probably news to none of you [emoji1]

I have been working on a couple of diesels, a Kato GP35 and a Walthers SW1. The switcher is much farther along, a freelance unit that I can have fun with and build some skills before tackling the prototype model. Here's where it's at so far







Eventually I would like a room sized layout and I have a working concept so that I can start building a collection of 'stuff.' The long term goal is a short line connecting 3-4 industries to the BN in the late 70's/early 80's. The setting is the PNW so I can have fancy switchers as road power, along with F-units and Alcos at the interchange. SP and WP run throughs also appeared at that place and time.

The short line will serve a brewery/malting operation, a feed mill and an aggregate mine. I would like to put a cement plant at the interchange. While I don't have an extra room, I do have space for a 16" x 70" ISL with option for an add on lead/fiddle track. I'm playing with the idea of using that entire space for the brewery with a Timesaver type track plan. It would make a nice 'end of the line' someday with a passing siding replacing the fiddle track. I think detailing that module and enough equipment to operate it would be a nice starting place.


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I must bid farewell to to the friends , acquaintances and fine modellers on this forum ,,,,,,,,unfortunately I have a few weeks to go ......bone cancer , no cure ,keep me comfortable type situation . Keep the hobby going fellas .

Terry Jolliffe