When I started out this post I thought about calling it the state of the layout but that seemed like too limiting a title. Thats why I am going with the annual report much like many businesses give their share holders. So here is the first ever annual report for the YPG Lines.
As we close out 2016 many milestones were accomplished even though no physical layout has been started. It has been about 2 years since I officially changed my focus from a protolanced Southern Pacific Railroad to modeling the Sunset Route. While I spent much of 2015 questioning this decision 2016 provided many to opertunities to help solidify this decision.
First and foremost Athearn announced they were rerunning the SP ore gons that were unique to this segment of railroad. In 2016 I also successfully 3d printed a preformed concrete electrical box that are located in the Yuma yard, as well as have been working to learn how to design structures for 3d printing.
The SPH&TS convention in Palm Springs was attended and much was learned about all aspects of the Yuma to Colton segment of the line. The biggest milestone is that the critical research has been completed and track planning has begun. I have examined all the photos in the Railroad section of the Historical Society collection and have gone through 35 of 70 boxes of their entire collection looking for photos thay may show railroad. Research will continue but will focus more on aesthetics of the area versus track planning.
In 2016 I also joined the local model railroad club which has two benefits, first it has introduced me to other modelers in the community, several of which have contacts within the community which I am trying to use for research. Second the club is in the process of designing a layout based on Yuma Arizona set 20 years earlier than my era. This has meant that I have been able to give the other member research I have uncovered in exchange for other information that they might have.
During 2016 I appeared twice on Model Rail Radio which allowed me to not only publicize my efforts, but to reach out to other modelers and bounce some track plan and layout design ideas off of them.
The final milestone for 2016 was the layout went from being a concept to having a name and getting its own Facebook page. The Southern Pacific YPG Lines was chosen to represent the areas being modeled. This layout will model the Yuma, Phoenix and Gila Subdivisions of the Southern Pacific so YPG for short. I felt this was more descriptive than calling it the Sunset Route because the modeled area will only be a small section of the sunset route and to call it a division would be a misnomer as the modeled areas include parts of two division, the Tucson Division and the Los Angelos Division (or depending on the year San Joaquin Division) and not a whole division. This need for a name came about because the Facebook page I created for the layout needed a strong name that invoked images of a class 1 railroad that was simpler than the title of this blog.
So where is the railroad headed in 2017?
The railroad was always intended to be built using the TOMA approach(even before MRH coined that term) and be built in phases with phase 1 being the Yuma area, phase 2 being the line from Colton to Araz, and Phase 3 being the Phoenix and Gila subs with the idea being that these last two parallel subdivisions could be added later as a second deck.
In 2017 I plan to finalize the track plan for phase 1 as well as start design work on phase 2 and 3. I am hoping to be able to start construction on phase 1 before the summer as it will be miserably hot and using power tools outside is not an enjoyable process.
I plan to finish the design work on a structure for my father's layout and possibly start construction on it so that he can display it at the 2018 GNRHS convention which is being held in my hometown. This structure is being worked on in a as time is available capacity and mainly serves as something to shift gears to when the YPG lines frustrates me to the point I need a break.
I am hoping to acquire the needed kits to build the Salt Creek Bridge along the Salton Sea and have that done in time for the 2017 SPH&TS Convention in Sonoma as I won my lodging and convention registration at the Palm Springs convention.
I also plan on starting on a locomotive model and posibly having that ready for the SPH&TS convention as well.
I plan to attempt to add a blog entry atleast once a month. Which is certainly more regularly than I have before.
So how do I plan to get there?
I am going to try and stick to the 15 minutes a day on the hobby and also use part of one of my nights off. Smaller projects or parts of projects can be accomplished in the 15 minutes with longer projects and design work being reserved for the night off.
All in all these seem like managable goals and hopefully will be easily obtained with other goals being picked up along the way. Overall the state of the railroad is good and we are a lot further along than we were two years ago.
Happy rails and see you in 2017
Morgan
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