Names may have changed but still as exciting

 

All in all this has been a great experience trying recreate my railfan experiences from growing up in the 70s and 80s. Even though nothing has been built yet. Seeing the BN in the latter part of the rainbow period. The MILW going over to a short line, the UP transitioning from a light use branch line to bona fide main line with CP run through, then the rise of the MRL made for some wonderful railfan memories. One of the things that I think is remarkable is that in the merger mania of the last 50 years is the area surrounding my home town had 3 class 1 roads and a regional at the start of 1970. In 2020 it still has 3 Class 1s and a regional as well as a short line even though all the names have changed.For those who may be asking Bonner County Idaho had in:

1970

Great Northern  transcontinental route

Northern Pacific  transcontinental route

Milwaukee Road Metaline Falls branch

Spokane International mainline 

2020

BNSF northern transcontinental route

Union Pacifc Spokane Subdivision Mainline to Canada

Canadian Pacific run through agreement on UP

Montana Rail Link mainline

Pend Oreille Valley shortline

Upper Deck Track Plan

 

Well the train shed construction has been postponed once again. The builder had a death in the family. So we are pushed it back again.In the mean time I have the next draft of the upper deck. This entire deck is a single town (Sandpoint Idaho) along with exposed staging on the bottom wall. I have a 24x 32 foot space and still had to leave out several rail served industries in a town of 3800 at the time I model. I tried to avoid duck unders but just could not squeeze in what I wanted without them. It is tough trying to do three railroads all approaching and leaving town from different directions. Some large industries such as the LP Planing mill were served by all three of them. Try to keep things in generally the right order made it difficult if not impossible to eliminate the duck unders entirely. I thing I will say on those is that the upper deck is at 61 inches track level. The duck unders are at 3/4 inch plywood at 60 inches in height. I had the same heights in my previous house and that seemed to work. Aisles are 40 to 47 inches. The only exception is in front of the NP depot where it drops to 38 inches for about a 3 foot length. If anyone is wondering nothing is on most of the left wall because that wall has a window the entry door, and the HVAC unit taking up much of it. The HVAC is on the 10 foot ceiling about in the middle of the wall.

 

Again any feed back is appreciated.

Revised Lower DeckTrack Plan

 

I took a vacation day on my birthday last month. I took the day and went over to Metaline Falls and Ione to see what was left of the Milwaukee Road/Pend Oreille Valley Railroad short line. As a result I made some changes to my HO scale version of those areas. The main change was removing the POVA shops at Usk as these are interesting but to late for my era of interest. I got to see the foundation of the old engine house at Metaline Falls and added that. A few other things were rearranged in order to fit that change the track plan to a more closely math what was the arrangement of the prototype yard. Still not 100% accurate but it what I can fit in. I hope to post the upper deck track plan soon.

Delivery of material for Train Shed

 

They delivered the materials for my train shed the other day. For those who may be wondering the rear wheels of the truck actually came off the ground at one point. So the truck was entirely supported by the end of the tilt bed and the front wheels. This is going to be a post and beam type structure. It will be 24x44 feet. The train room will be 24x32 with the remaining 24X12 being storage. They say it will take 4 to 5 days to build once they start. The build has been rescheduled a couple of times due to weather and COVID issues with the builder's crew. They hope to start next week. They will build the main building then I will need to build the inside walls.Then there is electrical, HVAC, insulation drywall etc the I will complete. Hopefully the benchwork will start to go up by the end January.

On the mend with New Power

 

Have not posted lately as I have been dealing with some pretty serious health issues. I am on the mend finally. So I wanted to show my my latest. This was a birthday present last week. It is one of the just released Athearn Genesis F7s. This one in BN 710 a former Northern Pacific freight unit. This is why I model the 1970s. It was BN's rainbow period and where the former NP and GN transcontinental lines crossed made for great variety in the early years. You can see the wonderful detail Athearn is doing in the Genesis line.

 See what the mail man brought me last Tuesday. 

I have been waiting for many years for an accurate UP caboose. Kudos to Athearn for bringing these to us. These cars are remarkable. I can't wait to get something more than a 3 foot test track to check out the factory installed SoundCar decoder. Definitely will need more from next years release. They are doing CA9s as well as the CA8s.

 

 

 

Here is the lower deck track plan. 

Westbound from the helix we emerge at Dover, ID on the former GN mainline. First thing we encounter is the gravel pit. Next we come to the sawmill at Laclede, ID. 

Coming around to the other side of the peninsula we come into Newport, WA/Oldtown, ID. We have the Milwaukee and Great Northern depots right next to each other. Both buildings still stand to day but the MILW is a museum and the GN is an office building. 

Continuing north along the Pend Oreille River we come to Usk, WA. Usk is still a happening place railroad wise. Though the town only has a hundred or so people it has a paper mill, a sawmill and in the Pend Oreille Valley short line era, the company shops and main offices. Next we have the largest tunnel on the line then the Box Canyon Bridge over the Pend Oreille River before the lines enters Metaline Falls. 

Here at MF is the end of the line for the MILW branch or the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad short line. I intend to model the transition era between the MILW and the POVA. I am thinking I would alternate operating sessions between the MILW and the POVA. 

After Metaline Falls is the Winslow logging company branch. This line actually came from the Colville area 35 miles west of here and it was torn up 35 years before my era. However, It is located next to my office and am including it as sort of a diorama that happens to be attached to me main layout. At least that is how am I justifying a 30s era shay and logging camp on my 70s ere layout. I know it is out of place in space and time but it will look so cool when you first enter the door of the train room. Besides it's my railroad and I can do whatever I want.After all Model Railroading is Fun. Hey that is a catchy slogan I wonder if Model Railroader Magazine would want to use it.

By the way the track plan is from XTrakCAD. It is great and free track planning software. It had a bit of a learning curve but is superb once you learn it. Which really was not that hard thanks to their IO Groups page and of course You Tube. Next time I look at the upper deck which will be Sandpoint and those trademark NP and SI bridges.