The first “Jerkwater” stop on the new railroad after leaving the Redding yards (not yet built) is the community of Canyon Creek.

Canyon Creek is a small quiet town of some 8-9 hundred souls about 5 miles south of Redding where the Shasta Pacific mainline turns north westward towards the coast. Activity levels around town are low except at 7:30 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon when the local mixed daily stops at the depot. We are here early on a sunny morning, July the 5th, 1939, to watch trains and snap a few pictures.

A birds eye view of town taken from an unknown hill.

Hmmm, looks like the junkyards inventory has spread a ways beyond the fence, town Fathers will probably have something to say about that.

Cujo seems to be alert and on the watch so i think I will give up on the idea of sneaking in there and looking for suicide knobs on the old car steering wheels.

The town hogs seem to have found a good spot down near the water tank.

Mr. Mello, a timber buyer from the city is waiting for a ride to the hotel. “High Pockets” Hansen is trying to explain to him that this is not the city, if your going to the hotel your going to have to walk.

I was around in back looking at this weird speeder when I caught #22 easing back down to the water tank to top off before the long pull up the mountain to Hayfork.

Number nine, a three truck Shay, eases into town with a turn of logs bound for the mill South of Redding. A good shot of the Grange Hall, supposed to be a dance their Saturday Night.

Long as I was here I thought I might as well get a shot of the town water tower, seems unusual for a small town like this.

Number nine is drifting on through town, that is one neat crew car, and # 22 is still at the water tank. It appears that Mr. Mello has given up and walked to the hotel just like High Pockets told him to.

The nine has left town so I walked up on the hill west of town and snapped this shot of 22 still at the water trough. When I said the town was quiet, that’s what I men’t nobody in sight anywhere.

Just a neat shot of the old hotel and #22’s nose. Think I will slip on into the Bell Tavern a little later and get some food and a cold brew.

Another birds eye view looking Northeast back toward Redding,

Hope you have enjoyed the picture tour, I sure had fun there this morning.

Rick

The “new” railroad is looking great! Beautiful photography of the old town. It’s good you are back to railroading and the story-telling :). I always look forward to these. Thanks very much for posting.

Rick,

Great job on the pictures, story and the new railroad!

Nice job on the building fronts and scenes. We done a few and sure make the R.R. look more interesting with out taking up a lot of space.

Like the detail.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Noel,

Yea flats, or semi-flats always add a lot of interest without gobbling up real estate which is precious on table top railroads.

I like those building facades and that yellow work caboose was really nice.

A good story, good photos and a lot of action in a tight space. well done.

Great job, Rick, loved the story!, but I’ll tell you why the town is quiet the morning after the 4th of July… because like my town, the idiots were up til 3am shooting off the loudest noisemakers they could muster, reminded me of my time with the field artillery in the Army, lol

Hey Rick, what is the width between the fence and the edge of the layout?

Well done, young man, well done indeed.

Mike Wlez said:

Hey Rick, what is the width between the fence and the edge of the layout?

The tables are 30 inches wide at that point, wide but never wide enough(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Thanks Rick, I have a raised layout next to my fence as well, but it’s 24" wide, and the wife mentioned a while ago that we should do some building fronts, yours turned out very nice. Are all of your structures scratch built?

Hi Mike,

Yea, they are all scratch built out of different materials I had on hand. I usually like to make them 2-6 inches deep, depending on available space, to give them a little depth, so to speak. The biggest thing for me is to make sure they are completely enclosed to keep Wasp’s etc. out, and to make sure they have screened ventilation ports.

You didn’t ask but all the lettering is done at a local sign shop, press on Vinyl, at a pretty reasonable price. The first couple I had done were a little pricey but as they learned that it was for a hobby rail road and they could fit the work in when they had a lull the costs per building became a bit better.

Rick

I missed this …new RR is looking great …nice work as always!

i like your use of flats!

it doubles the quantity of things, an observer sees, with a minimum of space “wasted”.