The Raft River branch departs from the 8th Subdivision main at Cedar.  It descends via a helix to Cedar Creek canyon, then disappears again under part of Milton to finally emerge as a narrow scene on a lower deck where the town proper is located.  Previous blog entries describe other locales on the layout, so I'll limit the discussion here to the bottom deck portion of the branch.

So my next scratchbuilding project....the Morton Salt plant in Chicago. Its not technically on Goose Island but close enough. Looking at the pictures, I don't think it will be that difficult to build. And I have the perfect spot for it.

I've been messing around with my Bachmann On30 4-6-0 lately. It runs dead quiet backwards but it's a growly old thing when moving forward. So I took it upon myself to take her apart to see what makes her tick. Here's what I found:

I suppose I shoulda' taken a pic when I had it open but, oh well.

Coming soon to the layout: Bowser PRR "yellowball" hoppers, a Peoria & Eastern 50ft boxcar, PC boom truck, and an Atlas Virginian Trainmaster when released. Just received: a three-pack of Accurail PRR 50ft boxcars

And the only operational loco at the moment!  I used to have an Athearn GP35...  but it was having issues so I decided to recycle it...  to the 99% alcohol bath, to be reborn anew at some point in time! :-)

But...  let not the fate of an ill fated loco darken the coming in this world of a new loco!

I have been working on HLCX 3857 for a number of years, on and off, mostly because I needed parts to continue the work, or was afraid to install those fragile 0605 SMD LEDs (headlights), or their smaller counterpart, 0402 (ditchlights)!

It's been a quiet summer on Laurel Creek, at least as far as the layout goes (other stuff, hoo-boy!). I am tired of looking at pink foam, so the odd minutes I have found for modeling have gone toward getting ready for landscaping. The main geological feature of the LT&SS is Medium Creek, which divides the layout horizontally:

Assembled, painted and weathered a GHQ Log Loader kit recently...