New Power for the Stockton & Copperopolis (?)

Great Northern 363 ABC crosses the Stanislaus River bridge during a test run following decoder programming.

The Stockton & Copperopolis is modernizing its motive power fleet with the acquisition of a used Great Northern ABA set? Is the S&C updating to the early 1950s? No, not really. A friend of mine who models the GN was over today and we were working on the programming of a new decoder in his locomotive. After the programming, we took the engine for a spin around the railroad to test it out. John Breau, the locomotive's owner, has a great GN-based railroad upon which I am privileged to operate now and then. The locomotive just looked so good, the company photographer had to record the event.

Wagon Bridge Completed!

The completed County bridge over the Stanislaus with a Moraga Springs Northern fruit train passing over the railroad bridge. In the distance is the small hamlet of Burnett's.

The new iron wagon bridge across the Stanislaus River has finally been completed. The bridge was constructed entirely from Evergreen styrene sheets and shapes. At the same time, the scenery around the river area was completed. The river is depicted in a low-water stage. California could suffer droughts for several years and the water level would drop.

Although the river is down, a young couple still finds it attractive enough for
boating.

Then, the snow pack in the Sierras would deepen due to a heavy winter and then the river would rise almost to the bottom of the trusses. I have photos of the bridges in both states, quite a difference in the water levels.

    

The spindly trusses were made from styrene angle,flat stock and round rod.

    A couple of sandbars were put in the river with their attendant buildup of grasses and driftwood. The water itself was made by pouring Magic Water into the river area. Along with the river valley, I built a road going from the new bridge back to Oakdale and scenicked the countryside between the two areas.

   The trees in the scene were made using sagebrush armatures covered with Woodland Scenics polyfiber and sprinkling on a mix of various leaf colors. Before I left California several years ago, I took a trip to Nevada to gather the sagebrush. Upon returning home, I found that the same sagebrush grew within a few miles from my house. Fortunately, I was going to Nevada anyway for a Virginia & Truckee Historical Society meeting.

Looking back from the bridge, Oakdale is just on the other side of the backdrop.

    

County Bridge Under Construction

This photograph was taken in 1888 when the bridge was five years old. This view looks south across the river into Oakdale. Enough detail could be obtained from this view to reasonably scale the model.

In 1883, the supervisors of Stanislaus County decided to spend $14,739 for a new iron bridge across the Stanislaus River just north of Oakdale. It was a spindly structure but apparently carried wagon, then auto traffic across the river well into the 20th century. Since the bridge is just upstream from the S&C railroad bridge, I felt that it had to be included in my model.
 

With the piers in place, the river valley can now be scenicked. The road runs along the top of the right-hand hill toward the bridge. In the left distance, bridge approaches will take the road just to the right of the freight cars spotted on the siding.

 Since I only had one good picture of the bridge, I had to estimate the dimensions and adjust them for the room I had on the railroad. The final length of each truss ended up at 76 scale feet and the roadway is 16 scale feet wide. Styrene shapes coupled with Central Valley bridge girders were used in the construction.
 

The cardboard hill had to be extended a bit to shape it properly for the bridge. Plaster cloth needs to be applied yet along with the rest of the scenery. The roadway also has to be attached to the top deck of the bridge.

The prototype supports for the bridge consisted of iron cassion piers filled with concrete. According to bridge pictures I found on line, these caissons were formed of sheet iron riveted into tubular sections running about four feet long. These were then riveted together to form the length of the pier needed. Sheets of iron were placed between the piers for stability and to prevent debris from catching on the piers. These were also formed of styrene parts. Archer rivet decals were used for the rivets and Bragdon weathering powder give the piers a slightly rusty appearance.
   Obviously, the bridge is not yet completed but enough is done so that the river valley can be scenicked. Once that is done, the bridge approaches will be built and everything installed.

Stanislaus River Bridged!

The Stanislaus River valley is now bridged. Basswood was used to build the various pieces of the bridge.

Seen from the south end, the curved trestle is apparent. This was not in the prototype but was necessary in my model so as to fit in the allowed space.

One project which I have been wanting to accomplish but kept putting off was the long bridge over the Stanislaus River just outside of Oakdale. I had made allowances for the bridge to be almost scale length which worked out to be about 8 actual feet long, obviously a laborious task. I finally decided to do it.
   The bridge is made up of two Howe truss bridges, each 140 feet long plus long trestle approaches on either end of the bridge. Fortunately, I have a period drawing showing the basic dimensions of the bridges plus the heights of the various trestle bents. Three period pictures also exist. The details of this work is in my blog of October 28, 2014.
 

Built in 1871, the prototype bridge spanned the river until replaced in the late
1890s.

 To erect the bridge was a bit more problematic. Short pieces of rail were soldered across the rails to keep them in gauge during the next steps of the process. I then cut the plywood pieces of subroadbed which left the flex track hanging in the air. The ties were removed and the bents, now assembled with stringers and ties, were inserted beneath the rails. Similarly, the two truss bridges and piers were also put in place. I had allowed for some slop between the bents and the wood supports in the benchwork. Wood shims were inserted to accurately level and the bridge.
   Before the assembly, the bottoms of the rails were coated with Barge cement which was allowed to dry. After the bridge assembly was in place, a small iron heated the rail, melting the cement and allowing the rail to bond with the bridge.
 

The upstream side of the center bridge pier. The gap between this part and the plywood will be filled with river bed before the water surface is installed.

One of the features of this bridge is that the upstream side of the center pier has a tapered section whose purpose is to deflect brush and timber from lodging in the pier. This was present in the prototype bridge so I added it into the model.
  The prototype also had some water barrels on the bridge. The Grandt Line barrels are about the right side so those will be used. Before I can finish the scenery in this area, though, the "Elevated Drive-Way" (as an old post card is titled) must be built.

Bridges and Boxcars

One of the finished trusses temporarily mounted on the piers. The finished bridge will be assembled on the layout.

The last few weeks have again been hectic with traveling to various events. The annual Virginia & Truckee RR Historical Society was held in Carson City Nevada at the first of October and was great as usual. It's the only place that I know where several early railroaders, both modelers and historians, gather. If you aren't a member, take a look at their website (www.vtrrhs.org). The society has a great quarterly magazine and publishes at least one book on the V&T each year.
 

Built in 1885, the wood structure lasted until the late 1890s. This view looks
 south into Oakdale

When I finally ended up at home, I decided to start construction on the Stanislaus River Bridge. This bridge was built in 1871 and allowed the S&C to enter Oakdale. It had two 140-foot wood Howe Truss bridges and several hundred feet of approach trestle. In amongst all the other things, I started on the two Howe trusses and managed to get them finished. It was not difficult work, just tedious. I started by making a jig so that the four sides needed would match and started cutting and gluing stripwood together. Making the metal tension rods took a little bit longer.
 

Each bay of the bridge had five tension rods at the joint. Mine were made from .015 inch music wire. Grandt Line NBW
castings cored .020 inches were used for the nuts at either end of the tension rod.

When the truss bridges were done, I started on the wood piers but then ran out of wood. I ordered a huge supply and, while waiting for it, started work on some Silver Crash Car Works boxcars. These are 28-foot cars and follow a Southern Pacific prototype, just perfect for the S&C. I purchased 20 of these a few years back and am just now getting to them. These managed to get finished except for paint. I'm waiting for the trucks to come in so I can paint everything together. This was not a great setback since the wood arrived in the interim. This allowed me to finish the two piers (the third pier is trestlework).

Ten boxcars await paint. The prototype of these cars was built to handle trade for the California Fast Freight Line, a traffic
expediter arrangement between the Central Pacific, SP, Union Pacific, C&NW and Rock Island.

   The jig for the trestles has been made so I will probably start putting the bents together next. More later after the paint arrives and/or the bents get built.

Bridges, Narrow Gauge and Building Flats

The last month has again been a hectic one. I had a spurt of energy that resulted in progress in three areas on the railroad. The first was my entrance to staging at the south end of Oakdale. It just went around a corner and into very visible staging tracks. I wanted to hide those a bit and give the illusion that the tracks were actually going somewhere. To that end, I set up a low view block and painted it a sky blue color. This shielded the bulk of the tracks but then I constructed some building flats that straddled the track and gives the impression that the trains are going between the buildings as they leave town.
 

The original tracks leaving Oakdale show cars lined up on supposedly hidden trackage.

The view block extends back to the opening in the wall for the staging tracks. The foreground area will eventually

be filled up with a roundhouse and turntable.

The finished flats with authentic Oakdale industries. Why doesn't the S&C have sidings to these plants? They were

served by the Santa Fe when it came to town around the turn of the century. Oh, well. They have interesting names.

   The second area of work centered around the future narrow gauge Stockton & Ione branch. I had to build a ramp for a quilt show in which my wife is involved so I designed it short enough so that there was enough plywood left over to provided benchwork for the S&I. While waiting for paint to dry on the background flats, I attached some supports, cut the plywood and temporarily installed it along the intended route of the line. Then I came to a pause when I realized the track layout I wanted was not really practical in the area I had.
 

The S&I takes off near the swinging gate on the right and proceeds over the sink toward the left. There will be a passing
siding near the right side of the photo.

After crossing the sink, the line reaches Ione City with its coal mine and depot.

Just past Ione will be the turntable and a small engine house. It will be a short run but should add some interest.

While I was mulling over the solution to that little problem, I decided to do some basic scenery around the Stanislaus River crossing. I started cutting cardboard strips and filling in the river valley with an outline. The model trestle will not be quite as long as the prototype (it will be two bents shorter) but it will a respectable length with approach trestling and two deck Howe truss bridges over the river itself. Just upstream of the railroad bridge will be a road bridge which I think looks really neat.
 

The prototype bridge at low water. This photo was taken from the road bridge. Oakdale is to the left.

Looking toward Oakdale, the light wood blocks will support the trestle bents. The temporary track support in the middle is about where the pier between the two deck trusses will be. The road bridge will be to the left of the railroad bridge.

Built in 1888, this bridge lasted well into the 20th century. I'm planning on using Central Valley bridge parts to make the structure.

I'm not sure how long my momentum will be kept up but I'm pleased with the progress I have made in a relatively short time.