Finally Done!

An overall view of the saloon. The side nearest the camera and the roof will be clear acrylic so visitors can see into the structure.

 Some projects seem to last forever. My California Grand Palace saloon was one of these (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-work-in-progress.html). There was a lot of different things to do and, after adding in the electronics, a lot MORE things to do. It is now, however, ready to be installed on the railroad.

The pool table offers an interesting distraction to patrons. 
Note the spittoon and it surrounding area of "misses." No 
model spittoons were found so I had mine 3D printed.

     

The bar includes a free lunch counter. Note the beer mugs on
the bar.

As mentioned before, the building is constructed with clear acrylic plastic walls. Evergreen styrene siding is glued to the outside while wallpaper is applied on the inside. In both pieces, cutouts were made for window locations. Using my laser printer simplified this process immensely. The interior was built of styrene with Grandt Line (now San Juan Details) and Tichy trim pieces.

     One of the factors taking a great length of time was the interior detail. There's an awful lot of tables and chairs which had to be assembled and glued down, not to mention the figures. There are 98 of them, all of which had to be painted. Seated figures are a lot harder to come by, it seems, especially ones who are playing cards. I did find enough, though.

A view from the audience's perspective with the ads of local business on the curtain as was the custom in the 1800s.

     Once mounted on the railroad, the saloon will have lights plus a sound track included a featured singing. The curtain will rise and fall when needed.

     

A Visitor on the S&C

The Western and Atlantic's General coasts through Farmington.

 Last week, the Stockton & Copperopolis had a nifty new visitor running through town. It was George Bogatiuk's model of the Western & Atlantic's General. As most of you probably know, the General was one of the locomotives which took part in the Andrews Raid of 1862 otherwise known as "The Great Locomotive Chase." George was in town on business and stopped by to show me the locomotive. It ended up running over the railroad from Oakdale to Stockton and back and it is a very nice-running engine. George started with a Bachmann 4-4-0, added new domes, smokestack, headlamp and other modifications to recreate the locomotive's appearance in 1862. Of course, the engine has a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 TSU 1100 decoder in it with a current keeper and it sounds very nice. 

     For those of you who might not know, George works for Soundtraxx and frequently puts on clinics at various model railroad functions such as the Railroad Protoype Modelers' meet in St. Louis last weekend. He has just gotten interested in Civil War-era railroading and the General is a great first locomotive.