Since I consider it a very important scene on the railroad I've decided to branch this off into it's own separate blog chapter. I bring you the "Clark Viaduct" which crosses "Niner Creek" and then trains will the enter the darkness of the "Dunakin Tunnel" with all of it taking place in "Meek's Canyon" I'll leave it to the amateur sleuths to figure out the names but it's not hard, all are just tributes to friends I cherish who are well known here.

With a hobby, as well as with life in general, sometimes it helps to take a step back and look where you're going and where you've been. My pike, The Blackwater and Blue Ridge Railroad has become the most fully realized railroad project I've ever done. After a forced hiatus from the hobby where the little line sat dormant for around two years, construction began again in earnest. Now, save for two more pieces of flextrack and roadbed which I need to purchase, the trackplan is done. From "Furlow" to "Fugate" trains can traverse the entire line.

This concerns my "after the fact" prototype so I'm assuming it might be of interest to some model rails.
 I find interest in how things are named and in my part of the country at least, a lot of things are their old "Indian names" especially rivers.

What does that have to do with model railroading? Well not much but I was just reminded of a story about him that I may have shared on this forum before but I thought I'd share it again today.

Well, I made it to the end... of the room. The picture below shows the benchwork and early start to what will be the last visible portion of my little line. There will be  some limited staging located in the closet and the board with the level on it is just set in place in order to establish where the hole needs to be punched through the backdrop and the wall behind it. This area is where the coal mine is to be located. I have the necessary flex and turnouts for it and the actual trackplan itself will be worked out "on the fly".

OK, so this is probably "old hat" to most, I know it's been around since before I was born but it's so easy to photo detail things that I thought I'd post it here. I always take pics of my pike construction anyway. The first picture is just the tools of the trade. WS latex rubber is easy enough for me to get at Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon so that's what I use though I'm sure there's other stuff out there. The rocks are plentiful here on my rural lot. I cleaned them up with a hose first and then came behind with a spray bottle and a toothbrush.

It's a somewhat momentous day for me. After medical issues sidelined me from the hobby for awhile, I experienced a serious downturn in my creativity and consequently my passion for the hobby. As most of you that keep up with my doings here know, my creativity has returned with a vengeance. Even so, the time of inactivity took it's toll on my little pike largely in the form of it becoming a piling place for all manner of disorganized junk.

The Blackwater and Blue Ridge Railroad is a fictional railroad line that exist only in the eccentric creative corners of my mind. You could ascertain by the name that the locale is Appalachia but it could just as easily be located "somewhere west". Time frame is loosely in the first part of the 1900's, more specifically maybe 1925 to 1935. It is a railroad that is lost both in space, and in time. At it's heart, it's a logging railroad, but mining has played a large part in it's recent prosperity.

I wrote this last night in a thread where the "art of model railroading" was brought forth and discussed because of the title of a new book. Upon reading it and re-reading it, I've decided it belongs here in my blog because it really puts forth my philosophy on model railroading these days, especially pertaining to the Black N' Blue. I was going to address some of this when I wrote the fictional history of my pike up and I may yet repeat myself since my wife and kids tell me how good I am at doing that.

Just had my left hand and arm done a few days ago. My right is not near as bad as my left is or was. I am now wearing a brace on it when I sleep but it probably will need surgery too. Scenery is no real issue but structures and rolling stock are. Hopefully that will change as even though I don't need many more structures for my little pike, I'm going to need at least a dozen or more Tichy wooden ore cars. I don't think RTR will do for the look and feel I want for the Black N' Blue unless someone knows of  RTR cars out there I don't.