Finally, after much wheeling and dealing, I've gotten the go ahead from the "Project permit office" (read:Wife) to begin construction of my HO switching layout, The Blacklog Valley Railroad. Its a ficticious line, but is based in Huntingdon County, PA where I grew up. The very short version of the back story is this...
Line sold to New Enterprise Stone and Lime from Conrail in the early 1980s. Sold again to private operators in 1996. Set in approximately spring 1998. Line serves many customers including:
New Enterprise (empties in, stone loads out)
East Broad Top Coal Co Mine 21 (recently reopened, fuel tank cars in for equipment and empty hoppers in, loads out)
Juniata Industrial Park (several customers... Covered hoppers, boxcars, flats both in and out loads and empties)
There will also be a lumber dealer and a scrap dealer who will get occasional cars in and out.
To handle this volume, the Blacklog Valley owns a SW700 and an RS3 and is leasing a pair of GP38s to handle the aggregate services.
Layout construction will begin as soon as the weather cools a bit as there's no A/C in the room yet. The plan is to have a two level "around the walls" layout with a helix over my work bench to connect the levels. Mostly single track and lots of switching! Ill post the whole story when I get a chance to not do it on my Blackberry. I'm just so excited to finally get to laying track and building benchwork.
Ill keep this updated.
Russ
