Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (16) Lum
Jerry Riggins of AZ, today's YM for Ogden at work. The Ogden roundhouse, one of 4 Walthers 6 stall kits, is at the end of this bench under the Cheyenne Steam Yard, as is the still unpainted brass Ogden coal tower. The main staging is around the far corner.
I imported 1,000 24 inch T8 steel fluorescent light fixtures from China. We used only about 400 of them. Don't go any place else if you need some. I'll make you a real deal.
Capture Date: Apr 12, 2019 10:20 AM•Views: 125
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (17) Lum
This is the only change in my original as drawn plan (AutoSketch and 3rdPlanIt) for the layout. Every layout needs a duck-under. Originally this aisle was to be open, but I added its lid to make the Sherman Hill bench above it wider to model the east side of Sherman Hill with the Harriman Cutoff spaced adequately far from the #1 and #2 mains.
Without scenery yet, this view is just after leaving Ogden eastbound toward Cheyenne 485 miles away, and Echo, Utah is just ahead.
Here we cut out the level bench top and raised it to make the desired grade. Once we go to Echo we reverted to level plywood. Elsewhere we use spline road bed.
Note the curved back drop for this lower level bench. The space behind the curve opens on the back to provide a front opening waist level wire tray for the upper level bench. We have such wire trays on all benches, upper and lower, although the lower ones below the lower tracks have square cross sections.
Capture Date: Apr 12, 2019 10:21 AM•Views: 125
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (24) Lum
Steve Menker (red shirt) talks to Martin Booker, with Phil Kline of Arizona looks on. Steve has been to 3 or 4 invitationals, and is working Rock Springs here. Rock Springs, WY does have a yard, but not on the layout. We left it with no yard to leave room for 20 industries to switch. Arrivals and departures to/from RS go through the Green River yard just an aisle away. That makes the Rock Springs a road switching job as the RS operator has to continually run back and forth to GR to get cars to or from RS.
Capture Date: Apr 12, 2019 10:32 AM•Views: 115
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (25) Lum
Same photo at Rock Springs, essentially. Who is in the blue shirt?
Capture Date: Apr 12, 2019 10:32 AM•Views: 108
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (26) Lum
Martin Booker deep inside the Rock Springs Aisle.
Rock Springs is about 55 feet long and covers most of the benches on either side of this aisle. There is another crossover on the mains across the aisle and further behind the camera in this view, so any runaround moves have to be planned carefully if you need to get on the other end of a string of cars to push it onto a given spur.
Note the white phone for connection to the Dispatcher. This is one of 8 on the lower level, and the upper level also has 8 to a separate DS phone. Also see part of the third level OSL "hidden" track just visible on the right. The hidden track OSL is 186 feet long up to the "Portland" staging yard at the end. This yard has 9 stub tracks, each long enough for a 30 car train with caboose and engine. There is a 10th track that continues past the end of the stub tracks into a large turning loop to facilitate loading pre-staged trains in the the 9 stubs, especially the City of Portland passenger train.
Capture Date: Apr 12, 2019 10:33 AM•Views: 120
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (27) Lum
Bob Ellis, the Superintendent of Passenger Operations for the Wyoming Division busy at his desk during the session. Bob manages as many as 10 or 12 passenger trains on the Wyoming Division including 2 City Trains (Cities of LA, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Portland). Each of these four run E and W at least once per his timetable across the entire 1,008 foot main. He also makes up mixed trains that have long runs.
On non operating days, this is Lenny Wyatt's desk, and Lenny runs his 3D Printer here, making numerous custom items for the layout.
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 09:55 AM•Views: 110
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Chuck Hakkarinen May 10, 2019 11:50 AM
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In addition to the four City Streamliners, the passenger train schedule includes numbers 17&18 (remnants of the Portland Rose), 27&28 (remnants of the San Francisco Overland), and unnamed mail and express trains 5, 6, 7, & 8. |
Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (28) Lum
Steve Schiffman works near the West yard limits of Laramie on the upper level. Laramie extends froomjust to his right all the way down and around the end of that bench to about where Laramie YM Dick Zeren is working, probably spotting or pulling cars from the Laramie Tie Treating Plant. At the near end of that bench are the twin east portals of Hermosa Tunnels (#1) on the west slope of Sherman Hill. Dale Junction is just out of the photo to the left of the tunnels, and the summit of Sherman Hill is approximately across the far left aisle on the left most bench.
Evanston, WY is on the lower level, and it is yet to have scenery added. The huge mountain in the lower right foreground of the lower level has the 5,941 foot Aspen Tunnel, #2 finished in 1901, and the 6,706 foot long Altamont tunnel, #3 of 1949. This mountain has the epoxy foam terrain and real Wyoming dirt from the area, but has yet to have the sagebrush, trees and grass "planted."
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 09:59 AM•Views: 121
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (29) Lum
John Stravino balances his cell phone and throttle on his clipboard, and he is probably driving a passenger train on the lower level.
On the upper level bench on the far left can be seen the Sherman Station fronting tracks #1 and #2. Separated from #1 and #2, Track #3, the Harriman Cutoff runs through the cuts past the Harriman, WY coal tower and a few white line shacks.
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 09:59 AM•Views: 121
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (30) Lum
Again shifting across on the mezzanine we see the other half, well nearly half, of the upper level, with a good view of Rawlins on the left bench and Sinclair Refinery shown on the backdrop just past Rawlins.
This view demonstrates how difficult--impossible??--it is to photograph the whole layout. The lower level is always mostly hidden by eiter the upper level or the mezzanine. On the center lower aisle lower level can be seen the front part of about 1/2 of Rock Springs. As the tracks sweep around the end cap in front of the main helix, they transition into the east end of the Green River yard. Green River is the 4th major yard manned by a YM and Classification Foreman.
The small helix is in the right lower corner. Both helices are double tracked, and the small one has a third single track turning loop for the passenger trains.
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 10:00 AM•Views: 120
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (31) Lum
This is a bit better angle to see Rawlins on the far left, and the center Harriman Siding is clearly seen here with no train on any of the 3 tracks.
Note how the 3 tracks on the right hand edge of the right bench make up a staging yard for passenger train storage "east of Cheyenne." These 3 tracks connect to a 4th one that leads to the turning loop on the top of the small helix--it can be clearly seen on the previous photo. The passenger train staging for "west of Ogden" is part of the main staging below on the small lower level, and the bottom turn of the small helix also has a turning loop on it for passenger trains.
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 10:00 AM•Views: 116
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (32) Lum
Proud as I am of Allen's scenery, I am ashamed of my closeup photography of it. This is shot at ISO 500, f/5, and at 1/100 sec with only room lights. Only the rock is in focus, because of the limited depth of field. This was the first closeup of the scenery. With long range photography of the benches only with no scenery, I have never seen a serious depth of field problem. For deep shots of scene, I have started to use Helicon for focus stacking. For this type of shot I need more depth of field. But that would require a higher ISO (already too high) and/or a slower shutter speed (already at the reasonable slowest advisable for hand held). My small f/number (f/5) which corresponds to a large aperture size, results in a shallow depth of field. I need to shoot at f/11 or f/16 or even higher. But for that I need more light. My friends at my local store for everything, Amazon, are sending me a 2 stand set of umbrella reflectors with a 500 watt LED bulb in each.
If this does not work, I'll have to use Helicon.
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 01:54 PM•Views: 119
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Fifth Invitational 0411_13 2019 (51)
The crew for the Fifth Invitational Meet.
Capture Date: Apr 13, 2019 03:51 PM•Views: 143
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Chuck Hakkarinen May 10, 2019 11:58 AM
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Well, most of the crew. Chuck Hakkarinen (Belmont, CA) had to leave about one hour before this photo was taken to catch his flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport back to the San Francisco Bay Area. |
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