February 1st, 2009

With this update, I've reached a milestone in my construction, I've finally finished painting all the backdrops! I thought this task would never be complete. And now that it is, I can breathe a sigh of relief. One thing I learned from this is I should have done the backdrops before I did any subroadbed or track laying. It would have made the whole process a bit easier.
Anyhow, now that the backdrops were complete, I started installing more of the subroadbed for the upper level. Instead of continuing the subroadbed from Bridgeport, I started at the hole coming from the upper level staging, and am working my way back to Bridgeport. The area along the "long" wall of the trainroom will be Walker Canyon, so the track will be curving back and fourth along this area and will cross the Walker River a few times.. I'll also have a passing siding starting at the top of the canyon and ending just before the town of Bridgeport.
March 1st is fast approching, and I'm trying to make my goal of completing the main line by then, so this month should have quite a few updates. I just hope I don't get burnt out by then!

The last 2 flourescent lights have been installed. As I write this, they are wired up and working great.

The completed backdrop ends. I'm pretty happy with how the PVC pipe turned out.

Lower level with be North Bishop, the upper level will be the town of Bridgeport.

Looking back at the completed backdrops. It's a huge load off my chest now that they are completed.

One more view. It's almost time for track!

Here is the hole thru the wall that leads to the upper level staging yard. This is the sharpest curve on the main line at 20". This area is also the bottom end of Walker Canyon, and will eventually have the Walker river and a tunnel located here.

Looking back the other way from the previous picture, this will be the top of Walker Canyon, and the passing siding will start here, about where the far side of the flextrack is.

This curve is located at Sonora Jct. It's a nice big 30/31" radius. This area will also be about 2" higher than the bottom of Walker Canyon, since I wanted the feeling of going downhill in the canyon. California State Route 108 will cross the tracks here also.

Here is a Google Earth picture grab of the area. On my layout, the tracks will be located just above U.S. Route 395 and will follow the curve of the road and cross CA State Route 108 just below the stream

All material on The Owens Valley Subdivision website is Copyright 2007-2009 by Michael Stoner. None of the material (including text and photographs) on this web site may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission.