Merry Christmas!!!! (and some quick updates)

Ah, almost 6 months since my last post... it's been a very difficult year around our household and families, but we're still here, grace abounds, and there's even time for a bit of modeling.

First off - Merry Christmas!!! 
This is a time of friends, family, holiday food, and hopefully some time off.  But there is the unexpected buried in all of that - the very concept of God cleaning up our mess, knowing we'd spit in His face and treat His child like trash.

I think C.S. Lewis often has expressed it best, such as this quote:
“Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

There are more wonderful quotes here:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/801500-mere-christianity
 

RGS Charter on the Cumbres and Toltec next fall
The C&TS is planning to reletter one of their locomotives and run an RGS recreation in September.  Should be amazing, and there's talk of some special visitors of RGS equipment from various other places.  Details are here -
http://www.coloradonewmexicosteamtrain.org/FriendsForum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=4152

Structures it is...
For one reason or another I've found it hard to work on the layout proper - I had a couple operating sessions early in 2016 (wonderful!), got good feedback, and proceeded to cut the mainline for a new turnout, and then got a ballasting bug and ended up painting and ballasting track on the entire layout.  Next up is static grass on some areas in and near the track, then cleaning and finishing trackwork to get things running again.  And, well, there it sits for the moment.

But, I also got a bug to curl up at my hobby desk upstairs, and start working through some structures.
I've always been a big fan of Banta Modelworks, and decided I'd tackle these Ridgway shop buildings -
http://www.bantamodelworks.com/BMW122.htm
 
Here's some of the results... adapting and adding a few detail tidbits per historical photos.  As you can see, I've added interiors and lighting to most of the buildings.  These aren't quite finished - I'll hopefully post the final results at some future point.

Dolores Flour and Feed Mill
Then, after digging through a lot of the RGS history books I have, I latched onto starting the strucures for my model of Dolores, beginning with the flour mill (which presentingly is just an empty spot beside the spur on the layout, with a little sign noting optimiscally that it's actually a mill - or will be).  So, I dug around and found this kit, which I purchased as a starting point - the LaserKit model of the Hitzeman Mill
http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm

But I'm adapting to look (mostly) like the prototype:

 My adaptation is based on a my needs for operation (like a large loading area), as well as some compromises on how far I go in adapting the base kit. So, here's the results so far... again it's not quite finished.

And operating session photos!
I'll finish with some photos from an op session back in January 2016.

Galloping Goose r#5 - runs for this year !!!

Reminder of the Dates to Ride the Galloping Goose and an invitation to check out our new webpage, http://gallopinggoose5.org as well as our new on-line gift shop.

View this email in your browser

Goose #5 Full Day Excursion Schedule 2016!   Please tell your friends that these dates are confirmed. New opportunities for rides are available. Some trips are originating from Cumbres Pass as part of the "Narrow Gauge Rendezvous"! NOTE:    The schedule shows Galloping Goose #5 trips as well as the Narrow Gauge Rendezvous which includes operations with  Goose #5, Goose #7, and D&RGW #315.   Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad August 24, 2016 to August 28, 2016 Date Departure Lunch Arrival Adult/Child Price Wednesday  August 24, 2016 Chama NM Osier CO Chama NM $109/$87 Thursday August 25, 2016 Chama NM Osier CO Antonito CO $109/$87 Friday August 26, 2016 Antonito Osier CO Cumbres CO 3 Day C&TS Rendezvous Ticket Saturday August 27, 2016 Cumbres Pass CO Big Horn CO Cumbres Pass CO 3 Day C&TS Rendezvous Ticket Sunday August 28, 2016 Cumbres Pass CO none Chama NM 3 Day C&TS Rendezvous Ticket Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad - "Fall Colors Special" September 28, 2016 to October 2, 2016 Date Departure Lunch Arrival Adult/Child Price Wednesday September 28, 2016 Chama NM Osier CO Antonito CO $109/$87 Thursday September 29, 2016 Antonito CO Osier CO Antonito CO $109/$87 Friday September 30, 2016 Antonito CO Osier CO Chama NM $109/$87 Saturday October 1, 2016 Chama NM Osier CO Chama NM $109/$87 Sunday October 2, 2016 Chama NM to Cumbres Pass CO none Cumbres Pass CO to Chama NM $54/$43   For tickets and information call or visit the railroad's website: Cumbres and Toltec Scenic RR  Call 1-888-286-2737  Chama, NM and Antonto, CO *Special Rendevzous Tickets available at CumbresToltec.com for rides on Goose #5, Goose #7, and Engine #315. and combination tickets available. Call C&TS and see details at: http://cumbrestoltec.com/narrow-gauge-rendezvous/ See new activity at Cumbres Pass! **Information about the Fall Color Special at: http://cumbrestoltec.com/galloping_goose_5/ Enjoy our new developing website and online store at Gallopinggoose5.org Your comments welcome, signed: Your website volunteer: Joe Beringer- (who can be reached here at jber@cox.net)

Raggs' RGS Telluride Depot kit (HO) - back in production for a short run!

Here's a post from kit manufacturer himself:

 

As Jim mentioned, he talked me into making a run of the HO Telluride Depot kits...provided we get at least 6 firm orders.  I've reloaded the depot information onto our web page where you can also follow a link with more photos and details.  www.raggstoriches.biz  The price will be $225 + $8/order for shipping (US).

 

After 6 orders are placed, I will notify all that the run is a sure thing and will continue to take orders until the end of September.  We will make 6 kits at a time filling orders as they mount up. 

 

As always, your credit card will not be charged until your kit is shipped.

 

By the way, Lori tells me we still have one extra Ridgway Depot kit from the run we made last spring if anyone is interested.  The price for the Ridgway Depot is $265.  Call if you want it.  570 376-2025 (Eastern time...and never after 9:00pm, right?)

 

She also wanted me to THANK all of you again that have felt charitable and have contributed to her fund raising for the American Cancer Society.  She works hard at fund raising and certainly appreciates your taking the time and making the contributions.  If you haven't contributed and would like to, there's a link on our main page: www.raggstoriches.biz

 

HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!

 

RAGGMAN

Save the Pandora Mill in Telluride?

The Pandora was one of the very last shippers on the Rio Grande Southern, and this mill is featured in numerous photos of the RGS in Telluride.  Just found out there's an effort to save the remains.

Check out the following video:

https://www.facebook.com/savepandoramill/videos/457587167766092/?video_source_=pages_finch_main_video

Ballast and static grass and ink - oh my.

I got the urge to work on track after the last 'test' operating session (which deserves it's own blog post, or several... ) and started looking for a way to paint ties and finally select & ballast the track.

And then I got to thinking about ground cover, and foams & static grass layers.  And quickly got overwhelmed with all the possible choices.

Ties - I finally found a Vellajo Game Color paint (Bonewhite) that is a nice pale tan, that sort of matches the untreated bleached-white of RGS ties.  So, I brushed / dry-brushed that on ALL of the ties, then layered on random ties w/ other colors.  Big improvement over the dark ties of the Peco & MicroEng flex track.

Ballast - so, that completed, I embarked on the task of finding something dark that resembles the dirt / earth / cinders / rock that makes up RGS ballast.  The RGS ballast is different by region, because they mostly used what was nearby.  For me, w/ light-colored ties, I wanted something dark, in either dark greys or dark / reddish / tan earth tones.

This deserves another series of photos and blog post(s), but briefly - I tried a LOT of options, trying to find local sand / paving sand / decomposed granite and other stuff.  Polymeric sand. Reptile sands as well.  And grout coloring.

Here's some earlier tests - none of these worked exactly, although that last one is close to what I'm using near Ophir.



And more testing -
 

The two strong colors, black and dark brown, where reptile sands; too uniform and too strong; I tried these:



There was the attempt at using Wedding Sand - great selection of colors, but it SPARKLED!  Sad...


And another attempt at using this Polymeric sand - a little salt-n-pepper, but not too bad.  Except it also SPARKLED!  Not as bad as the wedding sand, but still...



I even tried staining screened limestone (which is white) with a black alcohol india-ink wash, which appeared to mostly work, although it took time.  Screening after that into various sizes was REALLY dusty (prompting the teens nearby to ask for basement ventilation!).  It wasn't that bad... but still.

 

And finally some more testing - the red stuff is screened rust / orange oxide rock from a local stone supplier (they were ready for us modelers - had empty coffee cans ready and just sent me to the back lot; no charge!).  The limestone and oxides were from there.  The oxides I really liked, but for ballast (at least alone), the color was too strong, althought that's hard to tell from the photos.



The jury is still out - none of these ideas was quite right.

And then static grass... just put in a sizable order from Scenic Express.  My initial idea here is a base of light(ish) fine ground foam (this over mostly light-tan paint on the terrain), then 2mm grass in either very light green or tan, then layers of longer grasses, in either sage, light green, or perhaps a few darker greens.  I'm shooting for a late spring look - so, new growth of winter-dead stuff.