American Outline N Scale Model Railroads

ALL IS REVEALED !

Starting in April there will be a new service, a new train and a new route into Las Rocas !

Earlier this month we at the Las Rocas And Shriver Canyon Examiner reported on the rumors surrounding the launch of a brand new concept train

Now we can reveal exclusively that in a new collaboration between the Union Pacific Railroad and the ES&LRR  a brand new concept train will commence running from Denver to Las Rocas  called "The Boyle Canyon Flyer"

 Seen above on a test run she is motoring across Angel Bridge

 She will be the second train to be given the official name of "Flyer"  the first being of course the railroads oldest and its establishiming service "The Gibbings Canyon Flyer"

Both trains are aimed not at the traveling public but at the vacationing public.  The new Flyer will cover the miles between the Rockies twin cities in record time  and in record luxury.  Being all Pullman she will offer clients the very Highest standards of service, efficiency and cuisine in specially air-conditioned, streamlined cars with large windows and every luxury.

"The Boyle Canyon Flyer " Cruising through Brenner Pass 

The distinctive yellow cars of the Gibbings Canyon Flyer as a mighty "J" Class leads her Eastwards out of Las Rocas.

 "Old Rivals"

 In 1934 these two iconic trains raced each other from  the drawing board to the iron road, each claiming to have won the race,   Now in Boyle County they  have settled their differences and serve the vacationing public together.  The Union Pacific's eartwhile M10,000 now christened "The Boyle Canyon Flyer"  brings in the tourists to Las Rocas and the former Pioneer Zephyr now named "The Silver Shadow"  whisks the tourists to fantastic scenes in the Rocky Mountains in Boyle County.

ELSEWHERE  In Boyle County >>>>

One of the ES&LRR's mighty J class stands quietly  on a test run on the preserved Tourist line "Clearwater RR"

J Class leading the Gibbings Canyon Flyer At Speed passing the Essex Ghost Town

Canyon Class "Grand Canyon" Passing Joshua Creek 

 Again on the Clearwater RR An old timer ambles along, a far cry from the drama and speed of the modern locomotives of Boyle County!

 At Rest with a period old time train Locomotive #2 stands quietly at Thunderbird Lake Depot

The year is 1935  The newcomer on the Railroad scene in the USA is the ES&LRR, in only a few years this late rival to the transcontinental railroad industry has turned the West Upside down by forging alliances with such giants as the Mighty Pennsylvania Rail Road and its arch rival  the New York Central System whilst sitting comfortably as the Cuckoo in the nest of the  still somewhat startled Santa Fe and signing running rights agreements with The Southern Pacific Lines!  Now it would seem that more maneuverings are afoot as the fledgling Class One Railroad still seeks to secure itself from any  takeover plots by its larger, richer and more powerful neighbors... Life is never peaceful for a young Cuckoo in the nest!

Why do I say this?  Well because  of a series of posters that have mysteriously been printed in periodicals this Spring:-

Is there significance in that the Blue lettering is that used by the ES&LRR?

Taken together it would suggest a proposed new Union Pacific Service using its revolutionary Streamliner Trains... Perhaps.

It has certainly set minds racing in Santa-Fe offices and tongues wagging in Boyle County!

The shot above shows  Canyon Class  locomotive "Grand Canyon" at full speed, a truly majestic sight!  The Canyon Class were developed from Union Pacific's "Challenger" Class locomotives, have conversations moved forward toward jointly run trains from just locomotive design co-operation?

Check out the new Black&White photos in the "ES&LRR in its time" Page.

When the PRR and ES&LRR decided to jointly run the New York to LA Luxury train "The Western  Senator" it was decided to jointly purchase a small fleet of powerful J Class locomotives to handle the service West of Chicago.

Conversations with the Southern Pacific Lines took longer to produce any tangible results but when eventually in the 1950's the beautiful Mountain Daylight trains arrived they were revealed as truly stunning creations!

Tail car of the  modern Gibbings Canyon Flyer  in its distinctive yellow scheme.  Some observers have been quick to link the Yellow of this the oldest train on the ES&LRR books with the yellow in the Union Pacific Posters.

 Two of the restored original cars of the Gibbings Canyon Flyer

No one was available for comment at Union Pacific Railroad Offices and the same "No Comment" was all that Boyle County Conglomerated's press spokesperson was prepared to say in public though he did suggest off the record  that a press conference may be called next week to "showcase some pretty dramatic announcements"   as he put it.

Rest Assured that this august journal shall do its utmost to fully appraise you of future developments as we hear of them!

Railroading has not always been the near scientific enterprise that it is today.  With our modern high speed trains computer controlled signaling and auto route determination all under Central Train Control we forget that it used to be a case of more off the rails than on !  And that's just the Models ! LOL

The 12 inch to the foot scale was a dangerous place a hundred and fifty years ago!

 Chief Clearwater stands calmly listening to the panic that ebbs and flows round him!

 All the talk and gesticulating in the world aint gonna get this Iron Horse back on the rails!

 Even a second Engine aint gonna lift that there kettle back on the tracks by itself!

"Enough!"  Exclaims the Chief . 

Just get the crowbars and lift it back on the tracks!

The HO Scale Clearwater RR is a far cry from the DCC sound equipped world above it in modern day N scale Las Rocas in Model terms as well as setting and scale!

Down here Flexitrack exists alongside Hornby points and Bachmann set-track.  Down here it is not unusual for locomotives to jump the tracks... just as they did 150 years ago!

 And when this genuine derail happened it was so realistic I felt it had to be "dressed" and used!

Whist a Santa-Fe "Northern" is being turned ready to act as helper to the Eastbound Californian in half an hour, the Mountain Daylight is setting off for LA with its pampered passengers.

Above in all it's Art Deco glory is the newest biggest building on the Layout.  The Stoneguard Hotel  Conference Center and Concert Hall.  Named after my Eldest Son Jamie "The Bear" who heads up the Rock Band "Stoneguard" .  

Just to the right of the New Hotel, First Street is closed just now while the fire department contain a blaze in the old hotel there next to the used car lot.  This is definitely "The Wrong side of the Tracks" !

 Here we are just to the left of the new Hotel.     A Canyon Class leads her train into the Station Avoidance line  While the Daylight glides out on her way  Westward .

Here the new development of Down Town Las Rocas can be seen, even ten years before non of these high rise were here and the tower cranes in the distance tell us that the rapid expansion is no where near over yet a ways!

  The building is not officially opened and there is Graffiti on it already!

To the left it reads "Clearwater revival " and to the right someone else has added " Give Us Our Lands Back"  and is a reminder that there are younger educated members of the local Nation who are increasingly calling for the restitution of what was stolen from their ancestors.

 The garden and Marque are popular venues and provide a magnificent view over the station Throat and Round House.

MODEL NOTES

The Hotel is in fact a CD storage rack.  To make a multistory structure in N scale is really easy.  First find your structure.  You will need to shop around, {I found this chrome plated one in a Charity shop}  The spaces for single CD's is right for a one floor height of a window.  So now go on line and find adverts for architects and interior designers.  You will find they show off all sorts of room settings from bedrooms through boardrooms to open plan offices and restaurants.  Copy the pics and carefully stitch them together .  Now re-size to suite the height of the slot and stretch or shrink the image to the correct length of the cd slot.   The tedious part is doing as many as one needs to for a hotel this size!!!!!!!

Make sure you change colors between floors and interject some conference rooms as well as a restaurant or two for a hotel.  

Next get some thin plastic sheeting {overhead projector sheet blanks are good} apply some appropriate glue to a good number of the rear sections between floors and apply the sheeting to the rear of all the building then stick each strip of pics  to the plastic at  its position with clear plastic tape.

You now have a multi floor office or hotel structure!   You may use a CD Stand like this one for low relief or a free-standing unit as a whole building.

Remember that a good convincing roof is important if it is to be seen.  {Mine being way out of sight is unimportant}

Well my friends thats all for now....

Be happy in your Model Railroading!

Now:-

Why Not Join the site and add your profile and tell us in a blog about your Empire?

Pete

Welcome to the latest edition of the Las Rocas Examiner!

In this issue we take a look at the areas of Boyle County that wise men do not venture uninvited!

Some folks think that Boyle County exists in a pototective bubble that gives it immunity from hardship and pain, but that is not the case, indeed it is very far from the case!

True the first railroad in the county was built by far sighted native peoples and for a few short years it would seem that the Clear Water Rail Road was going to be a shining beacon illuming the road ahead through the dark days of the Wild West.

But all too soon there was talk of Gold and into the area hundreds of prospectors flooded.  The Essex mine was started and as luck would have it struck a seam of gold.

Any hope of Boyle County developing in a peacefull harmonius manner was blasted into nothing but wind blown dust by the first blast of gunpowder...

Today it stands as a dark decaying stain in the sun baked desert, but center of this picture lies the engine house of The Essex Mine to the left the rusting remains of one of the narrow gauge locomotives used on the Mine's own railroad system.  To the right the garish red of an old Whore-House.

Swallowed by the Essex Torrance & Rosarito  RailRoad  The Clearwater Railroad ceased to be controlled by the native peoples who slipped swiftly into the role of an under-culture fit only to work in the areas the incommers would not.

The prosperous and proud  Native village at Thunderbird Lake declined to an insanitary Pueblo in a few short decades

While a town swiftly grew up around the mine and the fledgling railroad

Further from the more unsavory saloons and brothels it tried to call itself Joshua Creek, but most folks knew it as Essex.

Dave Spitz General Store sold the guns and Norm Eales ran the Funeral Parlour and  burried them that purchased the guns.

But there was only the one seam of Gold and The Essex Folded despite all its lofty dreams

The old Depot soon closed as the Santa Fe Railroad who was renting the ET&RR moved their focus to a new site and called it Las Rocas .

 Essex town struggled on for a while but Las Rocas soon had home grown saloons, brothels and Banks

 And Essex became a ghost town.

The county built a neat little red brick school house to "pacify"  the Native peoples and granted them the shores of Thunderbird Lake as their own reservation.

And the proud people of the Pueblo care for it as best they can

But always the ghost town looms in the distance reminding them of the savage days of their fall from nobility to servitude.

But some mining still carries on in Boyle Canyon

Matt & Ralph's mine struggles to carry on the old traditions of more hope than judgment!

But lets close on a sunlight afternoon on the high prairies with a gaily painted wood burner steaming along in blissful ignorance of the sad years ahead!

 The Majority of these shots were taken my Stephen Marsh for which thanks are due, others were by myself and Phil.

I should point out that Dave Spitz is NOT in reality a retailer of Guns!  but Rev Norman Easles can provide a very appropriate funeral service , so not everything on the Railroad is fantasy!

I truist you enjoyed this trip into the history of the lines that make up Boyle County Railroads Conglomerated.

More to follow soon!

Pete

Greetings!  

Welcome to the new format of the Las Rocas Examiner!

From now on each time there is new edition I'll simply send you a single theme picture and the link to the site here so you can log on and catch up on all that's new!  The idea is so that you are not encumbered by a large slow to download pictre e-mail Always remember to check the pages as you'll often find other updates there as well!

This issue is devoted to the photography of Stephen Marsh and is solely  composed of shots he chose to take so there is no real theme to this edition.

We start on my study Layout which is set in the 1920's in the Rocky Mountains and depicts San Miguel, a rough mining town on the SMR&JCR the Branch line from Las Rocas that also swallowed up the old ET&RR . Here you see an overview of the township which is clustered around the Turntable and Depot.

Laid with all Kato Track this is a simple DC layout with manual turnouts and no signals.  The track plan is a folded figure of '8' with the roundhouse and yard in the center of one of the loops. and a Native American village  and small early oil field in the center of the other loop.

 {ABOVE}

The sole surviving ET&RR locomotive "Cornell Chris Dann" stands on the turntable at San Miguel.

{ABOVE}

Looking left we see the Roundhouse itself and a Gas Railmotor. In the center back ground a Consolidation Class and the lines Oil fired Cab forward await further duties.

Aside from Oil coal  the line also carries lumber  down to the main line at Las Rocas.

San Miguel Depot unchanged since its earliest days under the ET&RR is a simple adobe mud-brick structure with a wood platform of sorts.

I trust you enjoyed this into glimpse times past.

Now down stairs to the main DCC layout:-

To the Right of Las Rocas Union Station lies the Roundhouse 

Here you can see the "Dannville Flyer"  on the viaduct passing the Roundhouse.  The large Orange structure is the Shriver Sand & Gravel companies establishment which is destined to be radically up-graded and improved in the next few months.

 A "J"Class stands ready on the right while a Santa Fe Heavy Mountain Class is being turned on the turntable.  Due to the relatively calm weather conditions Las Rocas actually has no Covered Roundhouse as such at this place, though the heavy repair sheds which are not modeled do have several covered roads for maintainence work.

Here we are at the rear of the Roundhouse  looking along "First Street" not the most smart part of town and just now in the grip of an emergency as fire and police battle a blazing fire!

First Street in the back ground is reached from the Worman Junction  grade crossing here

Another unusual view this time looking down the throat of Las Rocas Union Station a massive Canyon Class high speed articulated locomotive is fighting to get the East Bound Gibbings Canyon flyer moving once more.

A Santa-Fe transcontinental express is being serviced on Track 7 in Las Rocas Union Station.

 The Silver Shadow Service is about to depart from Track 3 in this unusual shot.  The Gibbings Canyon Flyer stands ready on track One  to the left and the  cars of the Mountain Daylight  sit engine less on on Track 4

 The Silver Shadow again, this time cruising along picturesque Brenner Pass.

In the next shot there's a flurry of activity in the Coach Yard.  The Super-Chief is on her way and she's running late due to an overheated beating in her Staff dorm and lounge car.  Her conductor's radioed ahead and the stand by  staff dorm /lounge car, stationed here in Las Rocas just for such eventualities is being taken out to be added on once the "Train of the Stars" draws in for her scheduled service stop.

 In the next shot the elderly Yard Goat quietly shifts a way car past the glittering ranks of the lines observation cars in the Yard.

and we also see him crossing high above one of his "Brothers" working the Canyon line far below the main.

The Canyon Class "Boyle Canyon" at speed in Brenner Pass

 "Giant in the Pass" Here the Agnes Robinson Limited is speeding Westwards behind the powerful articuled.

In "Passing Continents"  we see the powerful apex of American steam design in the form of the Canyon Class as she meets the sleek lines of the revolutionary German high speed diesel rail car "The Flying Hamburger".  The German unit was purchased in 1951 from German Federal Railways and is run as a tourist special in the summer months, augmenting the service of "The Silver Shadow" which utilizes one of the Pioneer Zephyr  rail car train sets.  Thus the ES&LRR proudly maintains  the two great initiators of internal engined rail-car trains.

And  I thought I'd show you the whole Canyon Wall as it is now.  From Angel Bridge to the left in light concrete to the blue girders of Phyls Bridge on the right.

 A close up of the aggressively Art Deco lines on the German Railcar.

Stunningly different the Silver Shadow is still very much a child of the Art Deco movement.

Model Notes:-  The Flying Hamburger is a lovely Kato model complete with authentic articulation.  You will note I have given her a moderately dirty exhaust, it is to be remembered that this is  a unit dating from 1934!  Before the Pioneer Zephyr even and from all the photos I've seen she was indeed quite a "dirty runner"
The Pioneer Zephyr is of course the exception that proves the rule!  A Con-Cor model that works wonderfully!!!  {The rule being that in general Con-Cor units are far from reliable!}    As she is nearing a year old I will not mind too much that fitting of a DCC chip will violate her makers guarantee! Typical of that firm to make a model DCC chip ready AND add that warning!  
In the first Section the Hudson is actually a Con-Cor shell but with a Kato motor fitted.  She pulls fantastically and I shall be sorry to see her go if I cannot get a sound Chip in her tender!
The Yard goat looks pretty doesn't she?  I love the look of her but she's a sad Model-power unit with very poor pulling power indeed!  She along with other beauties will need to go to finance the chipping of the likes of the Zephyr as there is no point at all trying to make her DCC compatible.

This was built a few years ago and is based on the old Concourse of Chicago Union Station

It now serves as the concourse of Las Rocas.

 The Gibbings Canyon Flyer pauses for a service break late one afternoon.

The car stewards have closed their doors and the conductor calls out one last All-Aboard!

Before the streamliner resumes her journey Eastwards.

 "Night Boarding"

Nothing can compare with the gleaming silver cars reflecting the Station lights, the hurried excitement of finding your car, the welcoming smile of your car steward and  the hiss of escaping steam.

Las Rocas Union Station At Night

The Second Section of the Super Chief Westbound is on track 7 while track 3 hosts the Westbound Gibbings Canyon Flyer. The Dannvil Flyer stands at track 8 in darkness awaiting its first duty of the next day.

The last two passengers for the Super-Chief make their way to their cars, they better hurry as the Super-Chief waits for no one!

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