# Starting with an old module....



## Essex (Nov 29, 2012)

I have been trying to jump start this layout for a while. Whenever I stop, it gets covered with junk and tools etc. I have a defunct shelf layout along one wall, an old 4 foot long HO club module on a section of L girder benchwork, and some equipment buried in a chest in a corner buried under more junk. The module has a loop of HOn30 track. I want to combine all of these bits into a layout.
The only thing I’ve been able to do lately is to erect a couple of buildings and do some scenery on the module. The latest creation is an outhouse next to the narrow gage track on a cliff overlooking the standard gage main line, with a nearby rusted out 1930 Packard buried in the mud near a culvert that runs under the tracks. At the opposite end of the culvert is a newer car that has also gotten stuck in the mud on the dirt road that parallels the tracks. I want to add some water or at least make the mud look wet.
I built the Jordan white metal Packard (well, just the rear half of it!), the plaster culverts, the dirt road and the outhouse. The basic mountain, including the trestle and the loop of HOn30 track, was built by another club member. I somehow inherited the module and hauled it to lots of shows in the back seat of my Datsun (I had to take the rear door off to get it in and out!). I re-did a lot of the ground cover scenery, added some rock outcroppings, and put in a new back drop. The original sky was painted on peg board (talk about a hole in the ozone!).
The module originally had two standard gage tracks crossing it, but when a lot of members started adding a third siding track, I did too. That’s also when I built the dirt road along the front. It helps to catch derailed trains!
I built a rail bus for the HOn30 track. It looks awful but it ran (too fast though) last time I checked. I used to borrow a nice Flying Zoo steam loco to run at shows. One time it derailed and dumped two hoppers loaded with tooth picks onto the HO mainline below, right in the path of an approaching train. We didn’t have headsets and I couldn’t figure out who had the mainline remote control, so I just yelled fruitlessly. Fortunately a bright kid watching the show stepped up and blocked the mainline train with his gut so it didn’t hit the concrete floor when it derailed. Smart kid.
There are a couple of buildings on the shelf layout (it never did run) but they are lost in a forest of broken table lamps and other projects. I have a track plan that is designed for mainline running. There are two reversing loops which allow the train to change direction at will so as to disguise (sort of) the fact that it is just going around in circles. When I feel like I’ve arrived, I’ll stop to switch some sidings.
I have a big convoluted theme in my head for this road. Like a lot of places, the area where I live (Monterey Bay, California) had a lot of little railroads with big plans. Those roads are gone and their future plans did not work out but I want to rectify that in miniature (in a twisted way that suits my purpose anyway!) 
When I get it all worked out so I can explain it better I’ll post the detailed story here. For now, let’s just say that history worked out differently on my layout and these several roads banded together and the mercury being mined in the New Idria area of California was shipped by rail to the port at Moss Landing for shipment up the coast to San Francisco. Hey, it could’ve happened (I think)!
















































































The photo with the blue car driving on the narrow gage track was taken before the outhouse was installed. I was demonstrating to somebody how the Packard could have ended up in the pond below! 

I plan to incorporate and expand the HOn30 rail road to serve the mercury and asbestos mining in the area east of the Pinnacles.


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## Essex (Nov 29, 2012)

I forgot to post the track plan:


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

American Pickers would dig the old Packard out and sell it. 
I just watched an episode where someone buried an Indian motorcycle and 50/60 years later they went to the house where it was supposed to be an hand dug up the backyard looking for it. 

Nice modeling Essex. :thumbsup:
I don't see a pond though, are you going to add some water there?
Is there water there and I am not seeing it?

Edit, never mind I reread your post.
Speed reading again, got to hit the sack soon.


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## Essex (Nov 29, 2012)

Didn't them pickers know that Indian burial grounds are sacred? Sorry.

The pickers would get a surprise if they pulled this car out since I cut it in half before I built it. I have the rest of the parts and I reckon I ought to sprinkle some around a little. 

I spent weeks digging up a Model T buried in the bank of a creek bed back in about '75. It was just pure rust but the diamond pattern running board with the Ford script was clear enough. You could just pull off little pieces of it with your fingers. There were gears and other lumps of rust laying all around

I envision a little water on the Packard side and maybe just gloss clear on the Ford side. Never poured "water" before so whatever I try I gotta practice first. 

I have no idea what I will ultimately want to put around the outhouse. Probably just rail-roady or mining junk but you never know. Might even want a cattle pen.

One thing I want to make for the scenery is gnarly old oak trees. I gathered some Oak twigs the other day but what to do for foilage?


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## mckinnell (Jun 7, 2014)

American pickers might Big Ed, but, i really wound not want to be the one to clean that mess out, and, what a smell, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, he he he he, great scenic spot their Essex my friend...

Best regards to all......Tom..


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## Hutch (Dec 19, 2012)

I absolutely love this section you've built. That is something to aspire to. Thanks for posting.

My wife said it was freaking awesome.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Interesting track plan for continuous running trains.

Nagging Don hastens to point out that you have a
reverse loop in the left section that will require
an Isolated section, a reverse loop controller if you are DCC and a
series of switches if you will be running DC.

Really fine work on that module.

Dib


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## Essex (Nov 29, 2012)

Thanks everybody for all the great comments and helpful info! It's very inspiring. I have a ton of junk to clean out of the area so I _need_ inspiration!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Now that you mentioned it that is a funny place for an outhouse, there is nothing else there.









How about digging into the mountain side and add a old mine entrance. Make it look like it has been out of service for a long time.
You add timber to the entrance, add a tent and a fire ring ( add a flickering LED for the fire:thumbsup and some old prospectors cooking rabbit meat. 
Shouldn't be hard to fill the area with old mining boxes/crates (dynamite?) barrels, shovels, pickaxe and whatever?. 
Don't forget some pack mules? 


Just a thought. :smokin:


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## Essex (Nov 29, 2012)

Thanks for the great ideas! I would like it to be about mining. I have some "junk" from a coal bin kit like a uh um (okay I don't know what anything is called) but there is some machinery and tools, and there's a scale etc. I don't know exactly how I will incorporate the HOn30 track into the larger track plan (except that it would be a mining railroad) but in the meantime, I at least might add some tools and ties etc. I can always change it later but the spot looks naked now. The ledge is only accessible by the narrow gage. There's no road or trail. A mining company would build an outhouse out there I think.

I like the idea of prospectors camped out there. At this point the rails look defunct and they will be for awhile! Mules and miners could follow the rail bed okey. I've got a herd of sheep higher up the slope. They might have roast mutton.


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