Darrell Cowles TP Rules

I had promised to show more of the Texas Western Model Railroad layout and this time I will take a trip to Colorado and New Mexico for a little narrow gauge.  The standard gauge interchanged with the narrow gauge at Alamosa and much of the track there is 3-rail as it was in the prototype.  

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From Alamosa we traveled up and over an 7' tall mountain range, through Big Horn, through Red Mountain, and into Cumbres.  

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Okay, for those of you that are knowledgeable about all things narrow gauge, I know you are going "They went through where to where?"  Hey, modeler's license and that is the shape of the building we had to work with, sorry for rearranging geography, the new layout will be much closer to actual geography.  Heading out of Cumbres, we pass Windy Point, and down into Chama, NM.  

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Tracks out of Chama went to staging for Durango and Farmington with a return loop.  We are lucky enough to have several accomplished modelers in our club and even one MMR who has worked on much of the spectacular rock formations and scenery in the narrow gauge.  Chama is laid out as it was in about 1950ish and has the correct track layout for the time.  There seems to be a checker tournament on the back dock, but apparently the locals have seen all this before.

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So, after dropping off cars in the yard and turning the locomotive on the wye at the edge of town, your train heads back out for the climb up to Cumbres again.  Crossing the Rio Animas river we even pass Juke's tree on the right.  

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If you had decided to take the other leg of the wye at Cumbres Pass, you would find your train headed into RGS territory and cross the three-way stub switch as you proceed into town.  Jobs were hard to come by and labor was cheap in the mountains, so the yard worker in charge of topping off the tender of #20 is thankful to have a job to do.  

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Later, after #20 has picked up a train it heads into Ophir Loop as it approaches Ophir.  

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I hope you enjoyed the tour of the narrow gauge portion of the Texas Western Model Railroad Club.  It is tragic that all of this beautiful scenery is now gone and the layout has been taken down.  We do have a wonderful new building leased and have completed the track plan for the next version of the Texas Western.  With the skill level of our membership, we will build even better than before.

 

 

 

Reply 0
arthurhouston

I Have Video

Made a tape in June 2013 will edit it and post on You Tube. Looking forward to the new and better TWRR.

Reply 0
Norman46

Wow!

The LPPs in the first and fourth photos are some of the best I have seen. Where did you find them?
Norman Modeling L&N in HO circa 1953 We don't stop playing with trains because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing with trains. Webmaster for http://www.locallocomodelrr.org
Reply 0
herronp

I really wish we could stop with the acronyms!!

LPP's????????????

Peter

BTW.............Great looking Narrow Gauge modeling!!!!!

Reply 0
Geared Steam

I hate acronyms as well

I believe he might be referring to the little people.

-Dean

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein

http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/

[two_truckin_sig_zps05ee1ff6%2B%25281%2529]

Reply 0
Darrell Cowles TP Rules

The LPPs?

I am going to surmise that you are referring to the "Little Plastic People"...correct?  The figures that are in Photo 1 are some Preisler figures are part of an entourage of figures that I have had for a while, and use in photos when needed.  I rubbed them down with some graphite from a pencil to create shadows and then did a bit of highlight detail with a 000 brush.  The figures in Photo #4 are Preisler as well, I believe and were part of the scene that MMR Joe Batson built of the Chama Station. 

Thank you all for the nice comments on the layout.  As I said the club is VERY fortunate to have several talented modelers that have shared their talents and taught many of us to at least be better modelers.  We are sad t lose this layout, but excited to be starting a new one with the experience we now have.

Reply 0
Verne Niner

Beautiful work

What a fine looking layout...it's sad to see such an investment of time and talent go away, but the new opportunity to build something even better is always a compelling goal. Thank you for sharing the photos!

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Darrell Cowles TP Rules

Thank you

After looking at your Sonora Grande railroad, the compliment means even more.  You have a beautiful, creative, and well-done railroad also!  Nice details and some sense of whimsy also!

Reply 0
Norman46

Sorry

The iPad has made me a lazy typist. I just assumed everyone understood LPP = Little Plastic People. I'll use the verbose form in the future.
Norman Modeling L&N in HO circa 1953 We don't stop playing with trains because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing with trains. Webmaster for http://www.locallocomodelrr.org
Reply 0
herronp

Sorry, but I'm just figuring out IMHO!!

WTFO,

Peter

Reply 0
valeamor

excellent

wow , so many experience there in model train ,,good work , thank for the picture .

Pascal

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