Large Scale Central

Stepping out of the shadows

General Discussion
#21

Dick Friedman said:

I’ll say “thanks for joining in.” Are you near Casa Grande?

Thanks, good to be in.
Vail is 20 miles SE of Downtown Tucson.
I’m a mile off the pavement, in the foothills of the Rincons. My acre is nestled in a hillside. My closest neighbors are lower by 20’ or above and behind the bluff behind me. Not in a grid development, saw too many of those as a Navy brat, but not isolated either. I don’t have fences and I do get great views…

My layout is in the front yard, 2 years ago I pulled the tri oval from the driveway and reconfig’d as 2 return loops with a modest mainline between on the far side of that driveway. The land slopes so half of my track is elevated, the other half creates enough work keeping up with my critters and nature’s rains and wind.

Thanks to all for all the kind words of welcome.

John

#22

Welcome aboard!

#23

Nice, good to see you over here John. John has a pretty cool layout.

#24

John, Thanks for joining this ride. Seems as thou you already know a goodly number of the guys.

You 'll figure out the soreheads.

Stay tuned… Good things happen the start of the New Year around here…

#25

Thanks to old and new friends, I know most of us need pics, words can be misleading… well me fer sure.
All descriptions below the pic.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/totalwrecker/vis00.jpg)
The above is what you see arriving on the property.


This looks toward the ‘on the ground’ part.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/totalwrecker/visit10.jpg)
Tucson Junction, above.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/totalwrecker/visit08.jpg)

This is where Tucson belongs…

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/totalwrecker/visit01.jpg)

Looking back to the elevated half, above.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/totalwrecker/Transition.jpg)
Off the elevated and onto the dirt, above.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/totalwrecker/Grounded.jpg)
On the left is Wooden Mountain where the Total Wreck mine’s smelter and stamp mill will be erected should I live that long…

In the right hand corner is the return loop in the rock lined cut.

There is an actual mine called The Total Wreck, lead, molybedenum and magnisium… I’ve been through the hill several ways, all quite foolhardy, yep I was the man for that!

I hope these post. Well I learned how to post’em.

John

#26

Hi John

Good to hear another “desert rat” on the list! Even though we are at 3850 feet we are still desert, just at the other end of your desert!

#27

Thanks Doug,
I’m at 3107’ so I know similar conditions.
I’m a native Californian, I followed the nomads in my family to end up here. I guess I’m ready for when The Big one comes…

#28

I see this takes a little practice to add pics The above is my elevated to dirt transiton…

#29

As seen from my front porch.
The V and T W RR runs east from Tucson into the Empire Mountains. The Stamp mill and smelter never recovered enough gold to pay for itself. Lead and some silver kept it alive long enough for Molybendeum to become valuable in making steel…
The railroad hangs on as the mine played out and the secondary ore in the cribs lost what little value the dreams once held.
Enter Colossal Dave and his really Big Fossil and cave… (where I live we have Colossal Cave), we run Fan trips and freight runbys as well as the occassional actual freight supplying ghost town citizens.
Tucson is on the elevated portion to the left and the mine area on the ground to right. The Vail engine house is the mid point and where the fiction begins, the ore was brought out by wagon…

OK I think I’ve got it.
There’s remnants of the train-ing loop in the fore ground.
That’s a 2 train car barn in the middle behind the mine area. Engines live indoors…

Happy rails,
John

#30

John, in the background of that first picture, is that a couple of John Poole’s buildings?

#31

Nope, there’s one little tin whatzit that a friend gave me. The rest are mine. I did a facade of 4 storefronts with a boardwalk. I wanted to see how wood building wear… not very. Wind, rain and critters have removed most details.
Plans are for a tents for miners and a few communal buildings to occupy the far hill as the mine town.

John

#32

Missed this one on the first go-round. Welcome!

#33

I have two buildings in the early planning stages.

Since it is a boom town I figured they needed an undertaker.

I also have the molds for making cement “bricks.” Those make a building that won’t blow away and after a layer of masonry will pass for adobe. The next one will be a jail and also house a couple switches that power a couple sidings in an interchange yard.

Two projects for the new year!

#34

Looks good. Strange for us northeast folks seeing desert. When we get those long periods of rain makes me wish I lived in the desert.

#35

Shawn Viggiano said:

Looks good. Strange for us northeast folks seeing desert. When we get those long periods of rain makes me wish I lived in the desert.

When you see those Copper heads slither out from under his layout you won’t…:slight_smile:

#36

Like others… Hi John and we did the same thing as you did. Nice People here to. Noel & Jane

#37

On the desert we just keep our eyes open for rattlesnakes and scorpions. Especially keep your hands out of tunnels before you look!

#38

I’ve got 2 rattlesnakes. They really don’t want to hurt me as long as I treat them with the proper respect. I filmed my larger snake swallow a dove twice his size. Once his teeth were in the bird,he was commitited. I knealt 3 feet away and kept still. I swear he smiled when done.
I got rid of my tunnel.
Another evening late this summer I was taking pics of the layout and just happened to look down as the smaller snake was stretched out beside me. She was raiding critter burrows and hadn’t noticed me. We saw each other at the same time, I moved away and she went on. I was barefoot, just out to get a late evening shot.

Hi Noel, I’ve been a member here as long as back there, I just kept out of trouble here…
Bob the Benevolent helped put the old nickname to rest. Instead of awesomely clever peops thought I was a bad boy returned… besides I had to make sure our old pal Nick got out of the horsepital ok.

Ok more pics to follow.

John

#39

Add yourself to the collection of good folks here, John, welcome and enjoy the great company!
FYI My own L&S RR is a point to point, turn-of-century northeastern common carrier built on benchwork 39" high. We run small steam power, we are operation-centered and still under construction, just over 1/3 of the proposed trackage is now laid. An operators’ group meets here Sat mornings and we run more or less prototypically over the completed and connected sections of the railroad, which will be extended further next summer. The winter definitely interferes up here but we occupy ourselves with indoor jobe thru the cold months. April or May will see us outdoors again.

I belong to a Club - The Backyard Railroaders, and an Association - COGRA up here. You can check out our websites. Cheers!

#40

Nice work John.

Welcome to LSC.

I don’t think we will get to much snow video’s out of this Guy!