From the looks of it, they are readying for a freight special as the consists was waiting for an engine and a caboose, but it was quite the site to get up close and personal with some ..... pipe gone and idler flats!

D&RGW Idler Flat 6708

D&RGW Pipe Gon 1557 with load

First, a little apology.  Not sure why the last entry doubled.  I am not sure how to get rid of it so I will leave them both there.  If you know how I can remove it, let me know and there will only be one entry.  This one may be split into two parts, but maybe I'll be able to keep to the point.....

So over the pass we went.  Beautiful scenery; stopping to look at out the scenic vistas and ohh and ahh at the vast expanses of the mountains and....hey look...Over there.  Are those railroad tracks? 

Morning came at 6:30 over the mountain top, although it take about 2 more hours for the sun to actually grace our shabin.  We live in the shadow of three mountains, so when the sun reaches the valley of the San Luis basin, our humble little abode is still waiting for the first rays of sunlight to give us some warmth.  And then the magic question was asked," What should we do today?"  "Well," I said with a sly grin,"we could head south and see what lies to the  west a little..

If you have glanced at Part One, my family and I made it through RGS country and headed north towards Montrose. On the drive from Ridgway to Ft. Garland, I was forbidden to stop for anything other than gas.  Okay.... Two can play at that game, so we took the old Gunnison route and finally made it to Alamosa.  From there it is just a few short miles (okay 48) to our cabin in the sky (no, literally at an altitude of 10,500 feet).  Reaching our destination, the crew had no idea what was in store for them the next day.

After being cooped up in my home for months (literally been off my job since March 7th) I decided I had enough and would venture to my small humble shabin (shed/cabin) in Colorado.  Sitting round left me a lot of time to read about my favorite railroad and longed to see some of the real sites along the RGS right away. I planned several excursions and this is a little of what I was able to see.  I will try to give some new/ old photos as well.

We continue to march towards the end of June 2020, and the closing date on our new house. I'll have a very nice basement in which to build yet another layout. This will be, what, my 8th or 9th? I've lost track. Anyway in the past month I have been designing a number of different plans for the 12 by 16 foot space. That also includes an extra area off to the side that I will use for a workspace. It can also be used to house a part of the layout if I want. So here is what I have come up with so far.

Perhaps you already know this technique for unloading gondolas:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qrdaMq2tI

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeH_KT4lpbA

Well, it's that time again!  This week we will focus on Consolidations, along with other locomotives of the 2-?-0 variety (including 2-6-0 Moguls, 2-10-0 Decapods, and the rare 2-4-0).  My example for this week is actually one of my dad's locomotives that he gave me permission to use for this blog post.  It's an On30 Spectrum Consolidation that dad bought when the two of us began to develop an interest in narrow gauge.  Someday, it is

Speculating that I may need additional power due to the size of my projected layout, I am wondering if I can supply rail power beyond 50 feet using an older Troller Autopulse transformer (pictured) to help supplement the Digitrak Zypher I am using for this dcc layout. Running up to 10 engines over the various parts of the layout, can I supplement with this power pack or do I need to go to a DB 210 booster? 

I have two of these items and was using one on my old layout to provide power for lighted buildings and Tortoise switch machines.