The No Progress Report 05.17.13

I was thinking this morning, it has been a while since I have worked on the layout.  I have performed some freight car and locomotive maintenance  but actual work on the layout .... nothing.  I went back in the blog archives to find it has been nearly 2 1/2 months since I last worked on it. 

I continue to debate tearing it down to build the ROCK 2.0.  I think I have only found one person that is for the project.  Everyone else is against it.  While they find the 2.0 plan viable, they have a hard time tearing down the old.  I never knew there was such an interest in the ROCK until I began talks about 2.0.  As for me, I don't care about all the work I put into the old layout.  I consider it all part of the learning process.  I built it once, I can build it again. 

I really would like to build a layout representing the prototype.  The ROCK's sand operations are so interesting!  Decisions....decisions....

The ROCK: Illinois Division Published (Privately)

Shortly after I began construction on my layout, my good friend Larry Keller was tearing his beloved Peconic Railroad down.  He moved to a new house and quickly started construction on a much larger Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad.  Larry had the Peconic layout for years.  It was decided by myself and my friend Marcus to pay tribute to his layout for all the work and dedication he had provided to us over the years.  We thought the best way would be a photo book tribute.  During his last two operating sessions, we snapped over 400 photos of the layout.  We never clued Larry in on our project, but simply told him we wanted to preserve history by photographing the layout.

Marcus composed the text and I arranged the photos and book layout.  I created the project in iPhoto on the Mac.  The results were phenomenal!  We were both astonished by the quality of the book.  Larry was taken back by our gift that was presented to him at the ROCK's first operating session.  I stated to Larry, one day I will have a book on the ROCK.  Well, the day is coming.  I've started work on my own memory book of the Rock Island: Illinois Division.

Rock Island Sand Train on the Move

Here are some videos I took of a unit Rock Island Sand Train from Ottawa to Silvis.  It departed Ottawa with 25 cars or so and picked up another 10 at Bureau Junction.  It was a monster by the time it arrived in Silvis.

RI Sand Extra by LaSalle, IL


RI Sand Extra into Bureau, IL


RI Sand Extra by Downtown Bureau Junction


RI Sand Extra by West Bureau Junction


RI Sand Extra by Rock Island, IL