Reference pages

Saturday, March 5, 2016

The branch end at Santa Rosalia

My layout represents a mythical Southern Pacific branch line, diverging from the main line of the Coast Route south of Oceano, and extending out to the mouth of the Santa Maria River and the branch terminus town of Santa Rosalia.To see a map depiction of this locale, please consult my previous post on that (at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/01/layout-design-locale.html ). In several following posts, I have described parts of the construction of this town, for example one early stage (a post from 2014 that is at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/01/constructing-santa-rosalia-backdrop_29.html ), and a series of posts describing the assembly of the fine American Model Builders kit for an SP Common Standard No. 22 depot for Santa Rosalia (see Post 4 in that series, with links to prior parts, at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/05/sp-depot-santa-rosalia-part-4.html ).
     As time passed, I was able to complete my plans for how the town of Santa Rosalia would be arranged, and could then add the final piece of benchwork (the post is at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/07/constructing-santa-rosalia-final.html ). That plywood and Homasote piece was intended to support the full tail track at the end of the branch. Although tracklaying in Santa Rosalia had begun some time back (as described at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/05/flash-tracklayers-enter-santa-rosalia.html ), I was now in a position to extend the track all the way to the end of the branch.
     As I showed in the post just cited, a three-way switch was planned to accommodate both the siding that will provide a run-around, and also the final industrial spur in Santa Rosalia. This Peco switch is turning out to be a topic in itself, but I will defer description of that adventure to a future post. What is now completed is the last piece of main track on the branch.
     As shown below, this track lies right in front of the depot. The unfinished edge in the foreground is the edge of the Santa Rosalia benchwork. The fishing boat basin is at upper right (see:http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-fishing-boat-for-my-santa-rosalia.html  ).


The paper strips laid in place in the right foreground will be used as templates to cut styrene sheet for the roadway to be located there. This will be Willow Lake Road, which runs past the depot. You can also see the three-way Peco switch at left, not yet wired.
     At the left back of the photo above is a building flat, which is the “Ocean Shore Seafood” fish cannery, the kitbashing of which I described in a previous post (you can see it at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/05/kitbashing-santa-rosalia-cannery.html ). In the rather aerial perspective of the photo above, you can see that the cannery is not quite a true building flat, but does have a narrow roof segment, though that is not too evident at normal viewing height.
     Although I have several industrial and other secondary tracks still to install here and in others of my towns, the track shown in the photo above is the last main track to be installed on the layout. I’m far from done, but it is fun to continue to make progress.
Tony Thompson

1 comment:

  1. I like how the scene is coming along. I was just thinking about your boat basin. I don't know whether you like animation but if your fishing boat in the boat basin rocked gently about 10 times a minute that could be cool.

    ReplyDelete