Aerial Views and Expansion Progress - May 2, 2014

Changing Plans

The nice thing about plans on paper is that they are easy to change.

Last Friday's post on Knott's Calico Mine Train inspired me to go back and take another look at the expansion plans I have for the TMMC, and especially at the corner Calico section. To be honest, I was never fully satisfied with the plans for that corner and taking a fresh look at Calico had me wanting to incorporate more of the look and feel of the Knott's original in my layout. To that end, I spent a couple of days figuring things out and now have a revised plan for the Thunder Mesa expansion.

The upper lefthand corner has been completely reworked with a much more spectacular presentation of Calico Mountain, its waterfalls and dramatic trestle. Now trains will pass in and out of the mountain on multiple levels, much like the Knott's attraction, and a reverse loop will send them back toward Thunder Mesa. Gone are the engine shed and turntable once planned for this corner, but the long spur up to Big Thunder Mine still remains.

On the left is the old version of Calico with its engine shed and turntable. A functional scene but not one that really captures what I'm going for. On the right is the updated plan for Calico, a scene with much more bang for the buck and the added interest of a reverse loop. I was sorry to loose the engine house but it's easy to pretend those facilities are just over on the other side of the mountain somewhere.

I've had to give up a wee bit of aisle space with this new scheme but the trade off in scenic potential should be more than worth it. A 3% grade still brings trains up to Calico, and the natural bridge, balancing rocks, deep canyon and Indian pueblo are largely unchanged. I did change the size of the Calico section from 3'x4' to 6'x4', and this in turn now makes the canyon section 5'x3' instead of 8'x3'. It just seemed to make more sense to have two medium sized sections.

Construction has officially begun on the Calico section, with the benchwork already completed and the 1/2" plywood sub-roadbed well underway. And that bring us to this month's aerial views.

Last month: April 4, 2014.

Today: May 2, 2014. 

Here you can see the new 6' length of the Calico section and the beginning of the 3% grade.  A cutout in the benchwork marks the future location of Natural Bridge. Calico Mountain will occupy most of the far corner and should make a nice balance with Baxter's Butte.

In the next section of benchwork, the scenery will plunge dramatically as the trains cross Bright Angel Canyon on their way up to Calico. With any luck I'll be able to get that built later this month and can start looking forward to running trains through the new sections. Stay tuned! Thanks for checking in, folks. Adios for now!

A Grand Plan for the Thunder Mesa Mining Co.

At long last, here is the "Grand Plan" for the expanding TMMC. This should give a good idea as to where the layout is headed, and help to make sense of the construction updates I'll be posting. I've been thinking "out loud" about this expansion here on the blog for awhile. Some things I thought might be included, or had planned to include in the past have ended up on the cutting room floor, while other possibilities I hadn't considered found their way into the plan as it was being drawn.

Click the image for a much larger version.  Grid spacing is 12".  Overall size is 11'x8'.

The layout will operate as a simple point to point design, with ore trains coming down from the mines at Calico, headed for the mill and an interchange with the Santa Fe, Denver and Carolwood at Thunder Mesa. A daily mixed train will head up-grade in the opposite direction, carrying freight, supplies, passengers and mail from Thunder Mesa to the far-flung mining camps. An excursion train or two will also be on the schedule, taking wide-eyed tourists for a ride through "Nature's Wonderland." Continuous loop running will still be possible using the hidden cut-off track below Thunder Mesa.

It's funny, but for the longest time I had thought of Thunder Mesa as being way out in the boonies, near the end of the line and far, far from the SFD & C interchange (which was originally to be located in another town called Grizzly Flats. That town still exists in the make-believe world of Thunder Mesa, but it's aways north now and off the layout). While creating this plan I discovered it made a lot more sense to have the interchange be in Thunder Mesa itself, with the ore trains serving the "mines above" much like the real-world Gilpin Tram once did in Colorado. Once this decision was reached, the entire plan and operating scenario fell into place.

Another idea that got rejected was the On18 tram from Calico. As fascinating and fun as I think it might have been to run those tiny trains, there just wasn't enough room for it and the On30 mainline I wanted to build. So now, the On30 line climbs a steady 3% grade up to Calico and on to what had once been planned as an On18 right of way. (I still might build a separate On18 module in the future. Time will tell!)

The layout is being constructed in three separable sections as illustrated below.

The Thunder Mesa section is roughly 4'x8' and is more than half complete at this point.

The 3'x4' Calico section is the future home of an engine facility with a 36' turntable. Down below, open caves will provide views into more of Rainbow Caverns.

The Canyon section is 8' long and drops the base of the layout about 14" to provide adequate depth for the dramatic vertical scenery planned here.

The good news is that nearly all of the scenic elements I wanted to include have made it into this final version of the plan. Heading up-grade from Rainbow Caverns, trains cross Natural Bridge, a breathtaking and precarious sandstone span. That leads into Balancing Rock Canyon, a land of strange hoodoos that seem to teeter and sway as the trains rumble past. Just beyond, Indian Pueblos sit atop a high mesa overlooking the grandeur of Bright Angel Canyon. A pair of spidery bridges span the canyon itself, the longest and highest being a scale 120' and some 94 scale feet above the churning rapids of the Rio Del Barranco far below (On the backdrop, I'll do my best to replicate the views of Disneyland's Grand Canyon Diorama). Then it's on to the Calico mining districts where the line makes a graceful curve below the overhanging alcove of Calico Mt. before winding to its end near Big Thunder Mine.

For those who may be interested, I draw my plans out by hand in pencil on 1/8"x 1/8" blue-line grid paper at a scale of 1/8" = 1". The completed drawing is then scanned to a digital file and colors and graphics are added in Adobe Photoshop.

And there you have it, a Grand Plan for Thunder Mesa that should keep me busy working on the railroad for quite some time to come. Thanks for checking in. Adios for now!