Flagstaff Model Railroad Club

Early this morning members of the Flagstaff Model RR Club performed the final updates to the N-scale diorama depicting the Riordan Lumber Mill. The diorama, located at Riordan Mansion in Flagstaff, shows the layout of buildings in and around the lumber mill as it existed in the early 1900’s, just southwest of downtown Flagstaff.

The final updates consisted of a variety of tasks, the focal point of which was the replacement of the “stand-in” model of the D.M. Riordan family home with a historically accurate model and the addition of the tombstone shaped stone wall surrounding the property. At the sawmill, over 120 rough-cut wood blocks that had represented stacks of drying lumber were replaced with custom made resin castings from Steve Wolcott at Pre-Size Model Specialties. Updates to the sawdust burner conveyor were made and several bicycles were added to the town, as they were a primary mode of transportation at that time.

Shown above from left are Club members Rich Metzner, Todd Pilcher, John Lovely, John Viggers and Larry Gibbs. Not shown, because he’s behind the camera, is member Phil Scandura who created the D.M. Riordan home model.

John Lovely clears excess plaster and ground cover from around the tracks to ensure the trains can make it safely through the crossing.

Rich Metzner and Todd Pilcher are installing the stone wall around the property.

There are 124 lumber stacks drying in the Arizona sun. Go ahead and count them!

Adding the finishing touches.

BEFORE – “Stand-In” Model

AFTER – Historically Accurate Model

The overall diorama with the protective acrylic cover in place.

A special thanks to everyone who helped with our work session today and to Riordan Mansion Manager Nikki Lober for her patience and support.

The MPL signal system has seen a few changes this week. Most obvious is the new intermediate signal at the base of the climb to Timber Creek, for northward movements through the “Mogollon” block. Meanwhile, the absolute signal at the Ogden tunnel portal has been removed – this means movement through staging is governed by signals at Control Point North Hill Valley.

Our “open house” mode has also been reprogrammed. The signals should no longer lock up at Stop when running bidirectionally without a dispatcher.

Well, it is now 2016, and as we prepare to start new projects this year, I thought it would be nice to review some ongoing projects from last year.   As you read in Phil’s post back in September, we were able to install the new buildings for Hill Valley, including the depot, before the county fair opened on Labor Day weekend.   This project included not only the new building arrangement, but revisions for track and roads as well.  This year, we will continue with detailing the roadways, add additional scenery such as trees and shrubs, install interior detail and lighting in the buildings, and add signs to buildings and building windows.

The new intermodal facility (left) has been roughed in with new plywood base and Homasote layer. The track has been installed, and necessary changes to turnouts for the new spurs completed.  Next will be paving the entire area and installing the overhead crane.  The paved surfaces will be painted and pavement markings added.  This facility has two tracks and will handle both trailers and containers.

Supporting our goal of adding industries that are indicative of Northern Arizona commerce, we now have a woodchip loading facility at Glenview (below).  The chip loader has capacity to load 4 cars on each of two tracks.

Another ongoing project is the upgrading of rolling stock and repainting to establish a roster of Mountain Pacific freight and passenger equipment.   Below is one of two bulkhead flat cars for handling tree-length logs.  These cars were originally Ambroid wood kits for a Northeastern U.S. protoype pulpwood car that had a center bulkhead and no stakes.  These cars were donated to the club, and had various areas of damage to the floors and bulkheads.  The floors were removed, white metal stake castings installed, bulkheads rebuilt, and grab iron and stirrup steps installed.

Freights cars are not the only rolling stock being upgraded.  The club is working to build a fleet of locomotives and cabooses decorated in a revised paint scheme for the Mountain Pacific.  These fleets will not be made up of random models, but will consist of groups of the same models to represent equipment bought in large lots from a single manufacturer such as is found on Class 1 railroads.  Below is an example of a CF7, and an International wide vision caboose.

 I will be adding more updates as the year progresses, as well as presenting status reports on our new projects.  Happy New Year!