Freelance 2012

[faraway]

The former small concrete road has been removed when the new buildings have been set into the ground. It did not lead to anywhere after the new buildings have been set. The wooden RR xing have been left and the former concrete road is still visible as a dirt road.
I did remove the blue foam under the building and put it on the cork layer. That ensures it sits on the ground and is not hovering like the former buildings.



The small road to the background industry starting behind the red van has been removed too while cleaning up the west industry. That road was to narrow to be prototypical. An attached smaller building (right to the red truck) has been removed too. A small spot of "nothing" is always welcome



First switch job in the cleaned up area

[jwb]

It occurs to me that wigwags can still be found here and there in that sort of territory. Here's one that Freericks missed on his list in the Southern California Locals book:    

[faraway]

It occurs to me that wigwags can still be found here and there in that sort of territory.....

Some bushes have been added
Here we go with a wigwag. The model matches the one on your photo quite well while the one at MALABAR yard is a different type.


and here the modern version. I can swap within a minute What do you want?

[Tyson Rayles]

Everything is looking great, I would go with the more modern signal myself.

[Steamtrains]

Looks excellent..!!

Does the wig-wag really wag..??

[jwb]

Actually, you can have the best of both worlds: the crossing of the tracks in front would have the pair of cantilever flashers, while the crossing of the industrial spur in back would have the pair of wig-wags. And don't foret the relay cases and battery boxes, as you see in my photo.

[faraway]

Actually, you can have the best of both worlds: the crossing of the tracks in front would have the pair of cantilever flashers, while the crossing of the industrial spur in back would have the pair of wig-wags. And don't foret the relay cases and battery boxes, as you see in my photo.

JWB, I did intentionally have only one pair of signals covering all three tracks. The distance between the two first and the third track in the background is far to short for a truck. It would be a trap. I assume/guess the prototype would have only one pair of signals in that case?


The relay box is the silver box at the lower right corner but I may choose a smaller one. The wigwag is a dummy only

[jwb]

Hard to say. Gates with the signals would make it more problematic, but remember that 53-foot trailers have only been around for 15 years or so, and the whole thing could have been planned with shorter trucks in mind. Also, there's such a thing as compression. . .

The relay box you have is a CTC signal relay box, 1940s and 50s prototype, mostly gone now and replaced with BLMA style boxes. The Details West 2-door relay case is mostly what you see with older style highway crossings.     Also note the rail lengths driven in to keep drunks, semis, etc from knocking the case over and putting the signals out.

[faraway]

...The Details West 2-door relay case is mostly what you see ....

Thank you done. Let's see how long they need to cross the pond

[faraway]

An old topic pops up again. The backdrop becomes much easier if the scenery is more uniform. The 1" high backdrop is a captured street view somewhere south of LA on a country road.



ps. I got the 500 pages photoshop elements book. It is well stored in the living room close to the couch waiting for a long and snowy winter evening

[faraway]

With all the UP units passing by we should not forget BNSF. They got a second pair of GP35u today. This new pair has the front lamps in the low nose that will look brighter when Kristal Klear becomes clear. All four units are former Kato SantaFe GP35. The short GP35u are a nice compromise to run a pair of engines on a small layout and BNSF did use a bunch of GP35u in SoCal long after 2000. That makes them a perfect match for me and the Kato drive is very smooth too

I did only BNSF decals, air condition etc. on the first pair. I was afraid to ruin the nose if the front light installation fails. Some month ago a German LHS told me the Kato GP35 is very well still available. That gave me the chance to give it a try on a second pair and have in worse case a backup pair.

[jwb]

Very well thought out, Reinhard. The Kato units, while well-detailed and excellent runners, were and are a pain in the neck to finish with all the fiddly parts, easy to lose. No wonder they're still around, and thank goodness the manufacturers quit doing things that way!

[faraway]

Whenever I do BNSF I need to do some switching with the most beautiful switcher I have. The Athearn shells reside on Atlas GP40 drives. They look and run wonderful.

[jwb]

Those are definitely Southern California power even now, on trains like the Irwindale and the San Jacinto, along with other B-Bs.

[faraway]

Those are definitely Southern California power even now, on trains like the Irwindale and the San Jacinto, along with other B-Bs.

It was a surprise to me when I saw the a GP60M pair running locals and switching industry over in the west coast forum (great photo at MALABAR with the unique shoving platform). There are some GP60M but standard cab GP60 are todays common switchers. BNSF is pushing down everything to locals and industry serving as they get bigger engines for the top road services. Only few Gensets in SoCal. They have more GenSets in Texas.

However, I do not use that long pairs to serve my industry. They feed the yard (2 * 2 GP35u, 2 GP38, 2 GP60M) and a single GP30 is the local switcher serving the industry. It is a system with some similarities to the LAJ.