Playa Desnuda Branch of the Pacific Electric

[johnb]

It's summer,  and it is just about the time for my modeling to go on hiatus. As some of you know, I live in Central Arizona, and I have difficulty staying in my garage with this heat. Even as I write this at 8:15 at night, it is still 105°F. This time of year, I switch my free time to something that I can do in the cool, air conditioning.

Last month, my wife said that I could go out and buy a new loco for my birthday, and I knew that I wanted something that was tiger striped. I quickly found three candidates, an old brass Baldwin S12 like Wolf's, a BLI NW2, and an Atlas VO-1000. After mulling it over for a week, asking friends for advice, I came to the decision that the VO-1000 was the best option for me.

Friday I placed an order for a new, 2003 run of an Atlas  VO-1000 in SP tiger stripes. Talked to another friend and we are working on designing trolley pole stands, I still have Pacific Electric freight locomotive decals, and I am feeling  like a kid waiting for Christmas.

I had the USPS text me all of the tracking of the package from the East Coast,  and I got the text that my locomotive was sitting in the mailbox. As soon as I get home, I ran joyfully to the mailbox, came into the house, and started to open it up. At this point the antici....pation is killing me. Then my heart sunk, it was black and white, did the store send me the last run? Nope, it was a New York Central loco. My wife asked if I accidentally ordered the wrong loco, nope, the invoice clearly says Southern Pacific. So, I called the store, and they are sending me a call tag and they will be sending me the correct loco as soon as the NYC unit is returned.



I waited this long,  what's 2 more weeks?

[eja]

Why would you not keep he NYC loco?

[ChristianJDavis1]

Why would you not keep he NYC loco?

Southern Pacific would be easier than NYC to re-letter to Pacific Electric, assuming one can get the factory lettering off without the paint.

[johnb]

Why would you not keep he NYC loco?

the Pacific Electric leased SP locos and they simply patched the lettering. Also, the Southern Pacific purchased their Baldwin switchers before WWII, they had the curved step gaurds. The NYC got theirs after WWII, and there were no step guards. I am going to be remembering it to match the second group of VO-1000's, 1320-1324 were 10" longer than 1325-1329, the second group matches the Atlas model.

[johnb]

[johnb]

A crappy cell phone video that was poorly edited...

[johnb]

I am starting to learn how much flexibility that the new yard truly is, and I still need to add the staging track and replace a switch that will not hold gauge. It really has even more potential that I haven’t fully discovered.

The crossover in the yard and the one leading into the yard has proven a huge benefit for building up an outbound train. It also allows for additional storage during an ops session.

I have also learned that it is also easier to switch out Playa Desnuda Shell separately from the other four companies. Doing so made the ops run so much smoother. After I swap out the switch and wire the rest of it, the yard will really come alive.

[johnb]

can't believe that I am seriously considering this...a few months back I had the privilege of operating Rick Watson's incredible layout, and I have realized that The Playa Desnuda Branch (N) is limited in operation possibilities. I am seriously thinking about scrapping the layout and rebuilding it with shorter sidings and making it more difficult the switch on purpose. I plan to re-use my structures, as much track as I can salvage, and build a more switching friendly layout with better trackwork and electrical. The wall that the current layout is on is slightly longer than 12 feet, and the shelf is 16 inches...now comes the fun part of designing a new layout...