Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

You know that old adage, "You always find it in the last place you looked." Well, duh. But in this case, I had been rifling through boxes for about a week both at home and at the studio, and was down to the very last tote they could've possibly been in, in the back and bottom of a stack of 15 totes of train supplies, and getting really, really concerned that I had lost them; they were essentially irreplaceable, and very expensive if I could.

Found 'em!:



Along with a brown recluse spider in the bottom of the tote, which was quickly dispatched.

I acquired these BLMA bridges over the span [pun!] of a decade, knowing there was an Afton Canyon end game somewhere in the distant future. And here we are. I elected to only do a single 200' span to represent the west crossing (1:1 has two, as modeled by @jpwisc here), spending the shekels to do the more interesting but lesser-seen east crossing.

Progress on this end of the peninsula is going a lot slower than planned; I was hoping to at least have the mainline operable by today. There were several mental blocks in the terraforming, but with the bridges in hand there's renewed clarity, including [...shuffling his feet...] the realization that the terraced benchwork now puts the RR too high above the river bottom. Yeah, fixing it is only yet more pink foam. (Grumble.)

[Frank Amato]

Nice save!  Those bridges will be a nice scene for sure.

  Frank

[C855B]

Thanks, Frank!

BTW, I stand corrected - Atlas has current stock on the 200' camelback, so I could do the full span by the campground if I wanted to. Still costly, tho'. The 150'-er is nowhere to be found, however. Glad I snatched-up the one when I did.

[wazzou]

Is the 150'er really all that much different than the much cheaper and readily available Central Valley bridge?

I think I've got 4 or 5 of those.
I've built one mostly stock as a test and since have acquired enough spare parts to make the pin connected ones I'll need for the Northern Pacific's iterations.
I may just sell the one I've built as it really would be hard to retrofit to a pin connected version.

[C855B]

Is the 150'er really all that much different than the much cheaper and readily available Central Valley bridge? ...

I'll look. I also have a handful of the CV kits in original and modernized versions for other points on the layout, one assembled. One immediate difference I can think of is walkways.

There's only the one 150' truss in the canyon, so my concern was replacing if it came down to that.

[Cajonpassfan]

Mike, those bridges will be gorgeous!
(They already are).
Otto

[CRL]

Now, as to the Brown Recluse... call an exterminator. Where there’s one, there’s a bunch more you haven’t found... yet and you don’t want to mess with those.

[C855B]

This answers our questions on CV versus BLMA on the 150' truss:



I was surprised in the side by side comparison; the CV is based on a much lighter prototype. I was planning to use four as-is, thinking "close enough" for the Meadow Valley Wash portion of the layout, but they're really not appropriate for a heavy Class I main. However, a little bit of light kitbashing such as beefing-up the diagonals and adding gussets should put the look in the ballpark.

[Missaberoad]

Murphy's Law says that one will show up the same day it's designated "finished".    Anyway, the issue is the period: daylighted in '57, I model 1970.

Hate to disappoint Edward Murphy, but I found some UP company photos you might find interesting. 



And on the Subject of Tunnel vs Daylight... Why not both?  Bend the timeline a little bit and model the Daylighting process...







All photos Union Pacific.

[C855B]

/>
+10 for you! Thanks, Ryan.

That top shot of the east portal looks to be of the aftermath of the big flood in 1938.

[C855B]

Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes it gets you. Correcting design and engineering mistakes:



Wrapping my head around this whole thing threw progress way behind.

The design mistake was mentioned a couple of posts back, terracing the framework when the extreme elevation change was a fanciful fabrication rather than reflecting the scene to be captured. Adding the second layer of pink foam addresses that. There was passing thought to scrap everything from the framework join to the end, but "less work" made the decision since a full teardown wouldn't save materials.

The engineering mistake was stupid stupid stupid - a Structural Design 201 fail: never piece structural elements that are well within material specs for a continuous span. As a result, as @CRudeME pointed out at the time, there was a visible sag in one side of the peninsula lobe. I was planning to cover the "oops!" with fascia like so much frosting on a cake, but laminating the new top layer put the mistake front and center and I couldn't live with it any longer. Adding a gusset to the pieced cross-member fixed most of the sag and there are other adjustments including the additional structure of the foam topper that should make things tolerable. We'll know for sure tomorrow after the adhesive has cured.

Next on the list is cookie-cutter subroadbed with its own complications and...

[...pause to watch the passing CN train on the railcam. Blueberry on the point of a seven unit lashup including two leased GP-somethings in patched UP paint. Weird...]

...anyway, once the subroadbed is down and the bridge supports carved in, I can get going on making mountains out of molehills that annoying growing pile of pink foam scraps.

[Sokramiketes]

Imagine that photo, but with the sky blue all they way up to the ceiling line.

[C855B]

Imagine that photo, but with the sky blue all they way up to the ceiling line.

Already imagined:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=26087.msg418348#msg418348

[C855B]

Bless me Father, for it has been 10 weeks since my last confession...

The layout has been playing second fiddle, or even worse, first viola for the past two months after Robyn and I "chucked it all" and took a breather from the depressing chaos that is 2020. We outfitted our full-size van for camping and found us a nice campground in the middle of deepest rural Amish country, spending a series of four-day stints at least partially off the grid, returning home between to restock supplies, reunite with our dog, and hack at the lawns. What was great is that we scheduled most of our stays where we were the only campers on the grounds, the owners (and campground dog) comprising the sum total of our socialization. The campground is now closed for the season, so we are back, not necessarily refreshed, but at least slightly better equipped to cope with the insanity.

Resuming work on the layout has been in fits and starts, but I did manage to finish the JMRI panel ('cept signals) for the latest expansion:



I've become adept at doing most of the editing directly in the XML, only using Panel Editor for final positioning. This greatly reduces the rate of hair loss versus configuring JMRI through device tables. Very little of the track is fully laid at this point, but with the control side done it should come alive as each section goes down and is wired. After hitting "post" on this missive the next thing on the "do" list is a laying couple of sticks of flex up to the west bridge approach at Afton.

Also rekindled are the 3D printing projects. @GaryHinshaw needed a handful of searchlight heads, so I cleaned-up and adjusted the Photon, bought Anycubic's wash and cure machine on sale, and have been keeping it busy with signal stuff. Once I'm satisfied with QC on those, next are bridge piers for the Mojave River crossings in Afton Canyon, plus structure for one of the two through plate girder spans.

Still not all-fired enthused about rejoining life at this point, but the calendar (and approaching cold weather) pretty much put a damper on our escaping things.   So I guess we'll hide in the studio/layout building until the storm passes.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Great to see that you could get out Mike.
Us in Melbourne (population over 5 Million) are locked down to a 5k radius from our home and only allowed out to exercise for two hours a day.
No visitors at all and only essential shopping for food.
When you go out you must wear a mask or face a A$200+ fine. If you go out of the 5k radius you can cop a A$5000.00 fine, or have people to your home same fine, and plenty have.
We have not seen our four Grandchildren since the end of March.
Thank goodness for our hobbies, it is the only thing keeping us sane.
We are over it.
Keep up the good work on the RR.
Hoping 2021 is better for everybody.
Rod.