Photos ...

The "two Bills" (Bill Murpy on far left, Bill Decker in the middle rear) work the first train of the night, the Siskiyou Line East, rolling through Roseburg and picking up water cars.

We had a two-person crew in Roseburg running the yard this session. Guest Terry Shellenberger (middle) brought a RailPro battery-powered GP38-2 in SP scarlet and grey, so we used that as the yard goat. Seasoned Roseburg yard operator Jeff Shultz (far right) helped by directing the yard operation.

Meanwhile, down at Coos Bay on the lower deck, Rodger Cook (middle distance) and Cam Cotrill (right front) prepare to run the Coos Bay Hauler East from Coos Bay to Eugene. Cam is the helper operator, and Rodger is the front end crew - both engineer and conductor.

A bit later in the session, the Seagull West runs out of Eugene to Roseburg. Here it's in Cottage Grove, picking up water cars before going over Rice Hill grade and dropping down into Roseburg. That's conductor Jerry Sheffield in the middle foreground and my grandson Bobby Thurman in the blue shirt in the background. Bobby is the engineer on this run.

Checking back with Rodger and Cam on the Coos Bay Hauler East, they've gotten their orders and are climbing through Remote, OR on their way to Camas Valley siding where dispatch wants them to wait for the sister train Coos Bay Hauler West to meet them.

 

Later in the session while activity in Roseburg yard continues unabated, my grandson Bobby (blue T-shirt) is busy at the throttle watching his train out of Eugene roll into Cottage Grove behind the camerman (me, Joe Fugate). On the far left, that's Jordan Dobson's back, and of course we have Jeff Shultz and Terry Shellenberger in the middle behind Bobby and Jordan intently working Roseburg yard.

The session as a whole went okay, but I tried some new loco wheel cleaner and as the session wore on, a number of locos got balky and we had to bad order them. It's almost as if the layout knew this was it - last run.

As the final ceremony of the night, I removed the first screw from the staging yard benchwork, which is where dismantling will start.

So that's it - thus ends 26 years of Siskiyou Line 1. Dismantling begins in earnest once the March issue of MRH has been released in a couple weeks.

A Sad day, but a bright future

Joe,

It has been a great treat to see your layout through the media you produce. I have the video series plus a few of the books. Your layout has been an inspiration to many, and I am sure going forward your new layout will be just as inspirational. I look forward to seeing the many great articles here in MRH as you construct your next layout. 

Thanks again and good luck on the future layout,

was ...

I was going to post, but I thought I'd wait for Joe to move his pictures into the first spot.

Seriously zJoe, it's the end of an era, and I'm glad that I was able to partake in it, if only vicariously through TMTV and MRH.

It's a big step you are taking, and I wish you all the best with the many transitions that are coming your way!

Yep ...

Good luck designing and

building your new railroad. I'm going to enjoy your journey here on the forum and on TMTV.     John

A special day

Joe, Thank you for sharing these photos from your last op session.
For years I have wanted to see in person and operate on your layout, but that will never happen now.
But I was able to send one of my operations crew who got to visit you some years ago.
The videos also started a long distant friendship with you and Patty.

I wish you all the best for the new layout.

Siskiyou Line Tribute

Joe,

It was your Siskiyou Line that drew me to become a subscriber to MRH. What a great layout. To me it was a model of a railroad instead of just a ordinary model railroad. Your layout had a purpose. It performed work similar to the prototype. I rank your Siskiyou Line right up there with Alan McClelland's Virginia and Ohio and Eric Brooman's Utah Belt. Two of my all time favorites.

As others have posted it indeed is sad to say farewell to the current version but at the same time I am really excited to see the new version take shape. I hope you can devote a lot of time to the development and construction of version 2. You have a large fan base that is anxious to see what you can come up with utilizing newer products and techniques that weren't around when you started the original.

Please continue to keep us updated on your progress.  If I may offer a suggestion, start a monthly layout update. Last year I started a monthly layout update on my Seaboard Central YouTube channel. Each month I try to tackle a few projects to keep my layout moving forward and to keep me motivated. There is always something that needs to be done and somehow I manage to complete four or five projects each time even with my busy schedule working on the prototype. You could post your updates here and maybe even once a quarter put out a progress update in MRH or TMTV. I am sure it would be a major hit. Who knows maybe someone else will see your Siskiyou Line for the first time and become a subscriber to MRH or a member to TMTV just so they can see more of your work.

Regards,

Tim Garland

Congrats on the next chapter.

Congrats on the next chapter. Your Siskiyou was a launch pad for my layout with its design and building techniques. 

Mike

I can't lie...

Randy

Sad

but exciting at the same time.  The Siskiyou Line and your videos, Joe, were my introduction back into model railroading after my hiatus.  Now as you embark on your new Siskiyou Line using TOMA, I'll be following along as I begin construction of my own TOMA.

Hard to see it come down

Like many I have followed the SIskiyou Line through the videos, magazines, books and TMTV. It's hard to imagine it coming down, but exciting to know a new version is on the way. Coincidentally, I will be beginning the tear down of my own layout in the coming months in preparation for a move later this spring. And since the new home for the WN will be a year or two in the making, the TOMA approach might be just the thing in the meantime. Thanks for sharing the Siskiyou Line with us all Joe.

All good things....

How exciting

How exciting, I know I am a total weirdo but the creativity and imagination involved with building something is better than... (you complete that one)

I look at this move with not a lick of sorrow. This layout has been documented in full and can be re-lived with its many DVDs. Many of which I have here.

I look forward to seeing years and years worth of modeling insight, being built into something awesome.
Just think of what George Selios could do in a do-over.

Looking forward

Definitely looking forward to seeing how 2.0 takes shape!

Mike in CO

Sad yet happy?

Sad: A layout is coming down, one that so much work went into.

Happy: That you're doing so to build a different version that might make you happier in the long run.

I'm always saddened, to the point I would feel for a real RR abandonment, when I hear of a layout coming down. I guess I think of my own layout, and it simply frightens me at the very idea of taking it apart as I've put so much work into it. I think that's where my primal feelings come from with any layout coming down. That, and I'd never be able to tell my wife and was dismantling what so much work and money went into, in favor of starting over. Nope, she'd lose her mind, then tell me I'm quite insane if I think I'm starting this process over again. I sure wouldn't want to do that.

That said, there are plenty in the hobby who enjoy building, running for a while, then starting over. I know a guy who had (just found out in past tense) a really good N scale layout that'd been in several publications, and he just one day decided to call it quits and is apparently building a new one (but in all fairness, this guy can really build quickly). Many sell off everything and start over with an entirely new concept. I just can't understand that, but you're not doing a new concept, just a new version of the previous concept, right?

Think of the more famous layouts we've read about in the past in magazines like MR and RMC and when you heard they were no more. I for one start to think, "someone should have saved that" as if it were a real railroad line that someone yanked up.

Good luck, Joe!

Overall gain in learnings

How long?

Sounds good, and you make some excellent points. I'm glad to hear you're recycling a lot, and I agree it'll make you work go faster that way! How long do you anticipate for the initial build, to where you can run trains?

Five days

In the TMTV studio we had trains up and running on our first 2' X 7' "Start Small, Think Big" TOMA module in just five days, with two people doing most of the work.  That was one day to build the three pre-fab benchwork sections, another day to lay track, and three days to install Tortoise switch machines and wire up the track.

http://trainmasters.tv/videos/2017-01-3

Expected timeline

I'm expecting to take a couple months dismantling layout to the point I have space to work on some modules.

Then I'm expecting to build 4 modules that encompass the new Dillard area, and I'm expecting that to take about three-to-four months from start to the "plywood pacific" stage where I could hook them all up and run some trains in and out of staging, and switch the mill facility. Most of the time in this stage will be building the turnouts using my poor-mans-jig system described in the Sep 2011 MRH.

So it will be this summer-fall.

Once I get the four modules to train-running stage with flat top staging, then I will take them back into the work area one at a time and finish them to semi-done scenery stage (no gaps in the benchwork and the "messy stuff is done" - the ballasting, dirt, and static grass applied). Also, during this stage I will get the lower quadrant signals operational. I will also get any grade crossing signals working.

I will then re-assemble the modules back out in the train room and apply the bushes and trees, build the structures, and apply any final scenic details like figures, trash cans, etc.

I'm expecting getting all four modules to totally finished will take a couple years. Then it's on to building the 4 or so modules that make up Roseburg yard - another 2-3 year project.

All told, I'm thinking Dillard + Roseburg completely done and fully operational (including signals) will take about 5 years, at which time I'm expecting we will likely move.

Modules?

Interesting how you mention modules in your construction, was this for ease of constrction or do you intend it to be moveable if needed later on?

I went modular when building my own On30 layout. That way I could build it outside (the layout room was never in an unfinished state and cutting wood in there with the carpet would have been a dumb move) on my partially-covered deck in the summer time (2014). I did this for ease of construction outside (I don't have any open interior areas for such a project without moving the cars out of the garage and the weather was decent when I did the benchwork as it only took a weekend and a little bit). Also, I built it that way so I could bolt the sections together, place track over that, then the scenery over all that. That way if I ever had to move, I wouldn't have to destroy the layout. I'd just yank one turnout that overlaps one seam, unsolder one end of another turnout that is right on another seam, and cut through the flex track section over the remaining seam.

How big will the finished layout be? Do you have a track plan yet, or general idea of one?

SL2 uses TOMA

Quick.....

And when you do move, you can have something up and running quickly, whilst still being able to deal with more important matters associated with moving.

The right reasons

It's good to see a great layout come down for the right reasons. You weren't a club being evicted, you didn't get transferred to a new job 2500 miles away, you didn't have a natural disaster damage your home. This is the ultimate chance for the question, "What would I do different if I got to start over". 

Looking forward to the new TOMA plan and thank you for everything you showed us on the old layout. 

Re-Using Track on the SL2

I'm curious about your techniques for re-using your flex track . . . I'm assuming you meant sections previously painted and ballasted?

Jeff