Is there really anything wrong with a lifetime hobby? No not especially, since it is supposed to be a way for you to unwind, to relax and enjoy yourself. I have enjoyed writing stories since I was a teen. There is some potential that one day I could sell some of my creations in this arena, so there is a different scope to it than many hobbies. As far as I can see the model railroading hobby is not a cash vehicle. That is fine, I did not expect it to be.
If you are here following the first tow parts of this series of posts you know that the layout shown in Part 2 is radically different from where I am now. I chose to radically redesign my layout from a simple oval to a sweeping loop that will give life to upwards of seventy feet of rail.
If you look at the photos above you can attempt to get a feel by imagine yourself in the center of the arrangement. The first picture would be facing south. then you turn a quarter turn to the right to face west. Another quarter turn gets you facing north and looking at the longest side, which is 13 feet from cinder block wall to the wall on the opposite end. Another quarter turn gives you the east view which is about 7.5 feet.
Here is a video tour of the basic design: Alpine & Clinchport Railroad Basic Design It will open YouTube on top of this, but then you can return to finish the blog post.
My next move is to install the 50 some pieces of cork underlay I found at the 27th Annual Asheville, NC Train Show last weekend. I still may alter the track a bit, but I am relatively set on my design. Of course there will be spurs and yards to figure in but they will come as I go.
In one of the posts I mentioned I want to mimic the Copper Creek trestles near my mother’s hometown of Clinchport, VA. For those new visitors I will repost the photo.
In scale terms the upper aqueduct is the equivalent of my thirteen foot wall, which means I would have to do a lot of work to get it exact. I will compromise a little on the numbers and just make something similar looking for the layout on the longest or north side. I picked up several pieces at the Asheville show and found other odds and ends on a low bid eBay auction to make all this come together.
The picture above is from Google and I want to go over to visit my relatives nearby and make my own photos so I can get an idea what everything around looks like in the way of perspective. What kind of trees, how do the hills around it slope away, how deep is the creek running through and so on.
So that is where I am at this moment. I expected quite a bit of nasty winter weather this season to allow me to come along with this layout, but as of today we have not had much. On Sunday we are forecast to get as much snow as we have had all winter, so maybe I will get the time to do more. Come back for more on this blog soon!
Alpine & Clinchport Railroad 