It's been a long time since I posted here, and a long time since I have had any time for the hobby. Anyway, here is an update on recent events on the Estrella & Sonora Grande.

 
There's a lot of activity in the village of San Lorenzo as 0-4-0T #3, the Rattler, works its way up the branch line to Soledad with loads of coke destined for the boilers at the ore concentrator.

 This is a new scene I created today using on of my favorite models, a derelict Boulder Valley Models boxcar turned into a maintenance shed. It looks like a young bear has come down from the mountains in search of food.

 What do you do with a hungry bear?

 A new coke plant has been set up in San Lorenzo, replacing the plant in Apache Wells that was destroyed in the final tall tale from the records of the E&SG.

 Workers are busy loading cooled coke into cars for shipment to the smelter in Sonora Grande.

 There's a new FRIJOLENE plant in San Lorenzo, too...strategically located between the station and the town, where its aroma can combine with the coke plant across the tracks to create a purely noxious fume! This plant was hastily constructed after the previous plant exploded before it was completed. (In case you haven't noticed, there seem to be a lot of explosions and other calamities on the E&SG!)

A high note of the month was a visit from los Arizona On30 Desperados...Travis Handschug and Dave Meek. it Was great to enjoy talking trains, running some and eating great barbecue. My kind of day!

That's all for now...over the holidays I will be finishing the locomotive facility, and taking pictures and shooting videos of the finished layout before dismantling it in February. [:-