David Masten's blog

Fun Fun Fun... well not always, but interesting nonetheless.

First a quick update on the GDP progress - It looks like my Big Boy is going back to Athearn. Out of the last 4 loco purchases I made (2 PCM HO SD7's for the club, an Athearn Challenger and Athearn Big Boy for my layout) two ended up going back to the manufacturer. PCM will pick up the shipping costs, as best as I can tell Athearn won't. Considering how many locos I would buy from Athearn since Big Boys and Challengers are the main power on the road, I have to start wondering if I should reconsider what I am modeling.

It has been a while since I posted anything. There are two reasons for the lack of posting. I have managed to get way behind at work, so I'm putting in a lot of hours there. Then the second reason is progress has been a bit slower than I expected. No big deal I'm mostly having fun. So anyway, as I posted recently in the forum, I am finishing up the staging area, and last week saw the first trains departing the staging yard and going around the oval and reversing loops that get any train heading in any direction to either helix.

Well, took lots of photos, and I now have a means to get those photos from the camera to my computer. Now I need to work on taking good photos that are worth moving from camera to computer.

Here are two anyway.

The last few weeks have been a flurry of building. Unfortunately, I'm now stuck. I ran out of a some necessary supplies and the LHS hours of operation are such that I can't buy anything during the week. Sigh.

A few more weeks have gone by, and this time I actually have some accomplishments. The first section of benchwork is in place and track is being put down.

Here at the GDP Lines, procrastination is job #1. Despite that, I have started making some progress. I spent a good deal of time figuring out how to clear out the furniture in the spare room, and decided that the smaller spare room would have to be the train room. I lost a bit of space, and had to go back to the drawing board.

Another few weeks with no visible progress on the GDP Lines, in fact the spare bedroom still has the bed and dresser in it. However, I have been learning a lot and getting a lot of the planning and "systems engineering" of the layout done.

As the U.S. entered WWII, the government decided to create a War Planning Board to direct industry in strategic areas. This was not necessarily popular amongst all the captains of industry. Particularly unpopular with GDP Lines management was the decision to concentrate on steam engines rather than diesels. The GDP had begun its dieselization in the 30's with the acquisition of E-units for its passenger trains, and NW-units for the yards.

I was hoping to put up blog posts a bit more frequently, but reality does get int the way from time to time.

My main interest in model railroading is modeling the movement of goods from place to place. My first whack at operational givens and druthers is: