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This past weekend we finally added a new “Outer Loop” line to our Bear Creek & Marathon RR. We think we will initially call this the Santa Fe division, while the original main line will be Southern Pacific division. This adds an additional 207 feet of mainline track to our original 245 feet of Southern Pacific mainline, for a total of 452 feet of mainline.

This is a panorama shot (rather poorly pasted together) of the new loop:

It includes our version of the Horseshoe Curve, the “Cactus Curve,” on the northern section:

Coming out of the “Cactus Curve” onto the north main:

Amazingly, we added all 207 feet of roadbed and track over a 2 day period. Next step is to secure all rail joints after we do a final straightening on the straightaways. This line allows us to operate 2 long trains at once without concern of one overtaking another, plus we can operate them at two different speeds, since the lines are operated on two separate transformers, but connected to allow trains to pass from one line to another through the yards. When we have operated the new line and worked out any kinks, we will be able to run up to 4 trains simultaneously on the two routes. Cowabunga!

Well the experiments continue. We got one nice day of weather in Portland and I launched into action. I pulled out the PVC pipe I was using for track alignment and began placing the white Tuff Board 1″ X 2″ roadbed through the new Twin Peaks section of the Bearspaw Southern. As mentioned this will be the “Twin Peaks” area, but right now it is just twin piles of dirt.

Yes, I will paint the boards before putting down track and ballast to hide the white. I also used deck screws to hold the splines down to the supports in some critical locations. It would have been easier with a second set of hands, but over all it seemed to go fairly smoothly.

The Tuff Board was purchased at local home depot and yes it is an expensive way to do roadbed, but the ease of construction and the speed along with accuracy seemed worth it. I was able to do this much in one day.

There was no problem on the tangents and mild curves, but problems developed on the curves. The problem I encountered was in using an air staple gun seen in the picture on the curves. The impact caused the plastic-like board to break under the tension of the curve. A simpler and cheaper method is to only use three long splines with spacer blocks to hold apart for the same width but less money. I chose for quicker, more expensive, install with five solid-across 1 X 2 so that later step of painting and fill with ballast would be simpler.

The solution was to use deck screws on the curves. You can’t see them in the pictures but I put in screws laterally to hold the strips to each other, and that held the curves in place. I did pre-drill a tap hole before inserting the long deck screws and countersunk for the heads. The screws didn’t crack the board and seems to hold well. It just took a little more time. So far it seems to be pretty stable. You can still see my 8′ Hoola Hoop pipe circle laying inside the curve that I use to make sure my curves are larger than minimum radius.

The 1 X 2 (3/4″ x 1-1/2″) splined in 5 across strips seems to make a nice smooth roadbed. The roadbed is thus 3.75″ wide, about 1/2″ wider than standard ties. It is flexible in both directions so you can’t depend on it for as much strength as you would 2X wood. Using the spline technique, it goes together fairly easily using a bunch of clamps to secure the strips to each other. If you wanted the extra effect, it would be quite simple to supere elevate the outside edges of the curves. For my branch line through these mountains I didn’t take the trouble and kept it all flat.
Now to tackle the next steps of fence - tunnels, bridge work and earth shapes up to this track level. There will be open top cuts along the back wall and minimum tunnels. The roadbed will have to be painted, but I will wait for another stretch of good weather before I tackle that next step. It is still just an experiment, but I like the lay the flow develops smooth transitions into curves.

I have been making slow progress on the Twin Peaks area due to persistent rain. (nothing new for Oregon) I have managed to get out a couple of time and set some more concrete blocks to establish my curves and grade around South Peak. The pier blocks will be buried in back fill and hidden completely by rock wall face providing elevation and vertical scenery. Some of the blocks in this photo are just temporary, but the big ones are set in place to give a firm foundation to the mainline route.

The gray PVC pipe is also temporary to give me alignment of tangents and transition curves as well as sight elevations accurately. It will be replaced with Tuff Board used in “spline” fashion as soon as I get a stretch of better weather. The outdoor wood risers that I used to reach the final grade position may rot away, but by that time the Tuff Board spine will be firmly in place and solid fill underneath will keep the track in place for longer than I will be around. I anticipate a third level of track and mountains that will reach 3 to 4 feet high. Thought some of you would like to see the basic structure before the fill process. Next will be the roadbed.
The grade maximum on this segment is 2.75% The loop from the points that cross is about 35 feet. That equals 420 inches in mainline. 420 x .0275 = 11.5 inches. I have set the grade separation at 11.25 inches to allow a tiny amount of wiggle room. The curve diameter is a little more than 8′. The pipe circle (my giant “hoola-hoop") in the photo is temporary but insures that my curve is a little more than 8′ diameter. I figure anything over 3% would be asking for too much trouble on a fairly tight curve.
My back is killing me, but the purpose of this construction is to raise the scenery so I will be able to enjoy some scenery and not crawl on my knees to see it. Getting old is pain, believe me.
Here is the current view from the south end.

The track will tunnel through the fence at the north end in three places. One place is to the left of the gate and out of this view. If I ever get this part running I plan to extend farther to the right and around the waterfalls and ponds of the back yard. There is provision to run under a deck and into the basement of the house, but I might poop out before that gets done, so I am trying to take one section at a time. I have built larger layouts, but I want this one to be scenic and operator friendly. Large scale is great.

Purchased an older Delton Doozie.
This is the old model they don’t make anymore.
I wanted it to be battery power with onboard RC. I am making it trail car control for right now until I can find an onboard RC unit that will be reliable for it.

Contacted Harland, they do not build the same power truck anymore.
They don’t even have the old Doozie trail car for it anymore; they have completely redesigned the railcar.
So I tore it apart.

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This was my third time attending ECLSTS and it was the best so far. Less shopping then previous years but lots more fraternizing with old and new friends. It was also my first time up as president of the WVMGRS and decided to go up for three days. I headed up Thursday morning with new member, Mike Colella, tagging along. Mike is a professional photographer, garden railroad newbie, and also has a bit of the gift of gab . It made the 80 minute trip up to York go rather quickly. We got up to the fairgrounds, er, York Expo Center around 10:30 am. Construction of the club’s display was progressing slowly…. . There were major delays due to the construction of the not greatly conceived stream for the rail ferry. To back track a bit, I had originally signed up to be the event coordinator for the ECLSTS display. After chatting with another club member about some of his ideas for the display, I decided to bring him on as co-coordinator, thinking he would be helpful. Little did I know he would proceed to take over, making decisions without discussing them with me and refusing to make changes to the track plan I asked for. Well this stopped being fun and if your hobby can’t be fun, why bother? So, because of that and my need to focus on my upcoming display at the DC Home&Garden Show (DC H&G Show display), I decided to step away from that insanity and play a back seat role just helping with the display and focusing on fun and the model contest. I just chalked it up to lessons learned . We left the display construction around 4:30 with it mostly done (amazingly ) and went to check into the Holiday Inn Express (a decent hotel with a decent free breakfast). I wanted to wash up and rest for the big LSOL dinner at Hoss’s. I did not know what to expect of this event but it turned out to be pretty fun and we (club members) wound up having our own long table though I could have used a couple of brewskis (no booze at Hoss’s). Maybe I’ll have to check out the shindig at Hooters next year.

For pics of the WVMGRS display, check out Mike C.’s pics here - display pics

Friday at the show I spent most of the day socializing. I had made up buttons to hand out to club members and friends, old and new. They turned out to be a big hit -

I also chatted with some of the other modeler’s in the contest who were mostly a bunch of great guys. I wound up entering three entries -

my boxcab (Boxcab diesel) in the kitbashed self propelled category (locos, trolleys, rail trucks, etc.),

my 7/8’s scale rail truck (7/8’s Rail Truck) in the scratch built self propelled category and,

my new Silver Spring Station (Silver Spring Station) in scratch built structures.

Friday night I attended Larry Otis’s pizza party at the hotel and spent a bit of time chatting with the boyz from the shore (Paul Bottino and Cap’n Bob Johnson).

Saturday was more socializing and I attended two seminars. The first was on battery / RC systems given by my buddy Don Sweet (RCS of New England). The second was a two hour workshop given by the “jigstone lady", intended as a introduction to jigstone building systems. The class was fun as we put together a small shack. Roofing and painting was completed at home and its now a fishing shack by my little layout pond -

When I got out of the seminar, I found the results of the model contest and was rather pleased. My boxcab took first in the hotly contested kitbash contest (there were about 8 to 10 entries). My SS station took second and 7/8’s rail truck also picked up a second place ribbon.

The end of the show came about in two hours and display breakdown took about three. I managed to make it home by 9 pm.

Can’t wait to do it again next year!

-Brian