Well its hard to believe we are halfway through the year already, in fact more than half. I wanted to get to this topic last month but had too many other topics I felt were more important to get out there. So at 7 months through this year where are we in regards to our goals? Well I have changed them so many times due to life events that I am no longer sure which ones were active goals and which one have been put on hiatus for the time being. The one goal I am proudest of, and do remember, is my goal for the blog. To date I have managed to publish atleast one blog post a month. Some months have been leaner than others but the minimum monthly post has been accomplished so far. So instead of setting a bunch of goals that are likely to change with the next curveball life throws at me lets just look at progress made so far.
Layout design
The track plan for the million dollar layout is almost complete and ready to share. Just a few things need to be done to clean up the CAD drawing so it is easier to understand. This may mean that the drawing will show square corners where I intend for rounded ones to be but this is the limitation of using a freeware CAD program. I have developed some track charts which might come in useful for other purposes later.
Promotion of layout
Promotion of the layout concept has been very good. Although the Facebook page likes appears to have plateaued the blog posts do get considerable attention mostly due to crossposting on Facebook in various groups depending on subject matter of the post. I appeared on Model Rail Radio for the third time, however my daughter felt the segment had gone on too long and interrupted. The most recent step in promotion is that the YPG Lines now has a logo. While this logo may change over time this is an important step in promoting my layout plan.
Research update
Research has been slow recently, having realized that I know very little about the Phoenix and Gila subs other than what is there today I started looking for information. A SPINS book for the Phoenix Sub was located at the California State Railroad Museum, however although they are from the same year, this book contains less information than the Yuma book and whole portions of the sub seem to be left off. One thing I learned from the SPINS book is that the Palo Verdi Nuclear Plant was rail served. This begs the question just what type of cars/loads does a nuclear power plant recieve/ship? So as of now I am in search of a more detailed SPINS book for the Phoenix sub and any SPINS Book for the Gila sub (preferably 1981).
Recently I also had the opportunity to visit the SPH&TS archives to do some research. While this trip was somewhat disappointing I still manged to come away with some useful information about the Phoenix sub in 1981 so the trip wasnt a complete waste. I also learned recently on Facebook that 1981 was the peak of SP sugar beet opperations and that every subsequent year saw a decline. This news now firmly cements the layouts main era on 1981 however El Centro staging may need to be revisited as the capacity may need to increase to accurately reflect the number of beet trains to and from the valley.
Fleet update
Recently I decided to go through and organize my rolling stock collection in an attempt to save space. Much of my rolling stock was still in the boxes from two moves ago (almost 10 years) and these boxes and the packing materials were starting to show their age. I also used this opertunity to sort through scale vehicles and structure kits. The plan is to acquire Freight Crates from Fast Tracks and get rid of all the kit boxes. This of course means that the cars and locomotives have to be sorted by length so the appropriate freight crates can be acquired. The rolling stock was sorted into three categories, upgrades and minor repairs, major repairs, and unbuilt kits. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the number of unbuilt kits in my inventory. So as soon as I am done organizing the room my work table is in so that I can get all the kit boxes off of it I plan to start on the upgrading of cars to meet a set of standards I am developing which will include metal wheels and scale Kadee couplers as well as a reweigh. At this time I will also contemplate some additional details and a basic weathering job. Remember most of these are old blue box kits, so they are filler cars I want them to blend in not call attention to them. After I get done with cars I will probably start tackling locomotives and these will definately get a detail upgrade as well as decoders and lights, the jury is still out on sound however.
Club layout update
From what I hear the Yuma Model Railroaders new layout is coming together nicely and we should be able to run trains soon. Due to life I havent been able to get to any work sessions since mid July but at that time we had both helixes in and most of the lower level staging yard trackage in.
Revised goals
I am no longer planning to attend the SPH&TS convention this year as the logistics of me getting there were getting too complicated. So I am no longer trying to get a model done for that convention. I am however going to try and get a model done for the 2018 GNRHS convention in my hometown as even if I cant attend my dad as a convention organizer can make sure it gets there. I am also contemplating attending the NMRA national in Kansas City next year however I think that would be with out models. So right now the priorities are the GN model and upgrading and repairing my fleet of cars and locomotives. Any layout construction I want to do will need to be at the club as we will need to get that layout finished quickly so that people dont loose interest, and we can possibly have some community events.
Well its time to get back to the journey that is model railroading.
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