Lee University

Layout Potpourri, February 2006 (Cont.)

In the center section, I took the side high guard rails from a accidentally crushed Warren Bridge like that seen in the background here, and cut off about an inch from the floor side of the railing. I then glued the upper siderails upside-down beneath the side indentation of the Atlas girders and again added a balsa walkway  skirt to the section. I hoped to simulate some kind of Deck Truss Bridge.

So the finished structure may not be exactly prototypical, but the effect is a little less “toy train-ish” than what was there originally. From a distance, it has the scenic imprint I wanted.

I thought I would take a moment and explain the origin of this windmill, as it might look vaguely familiar. You’ve probably seen the Life-Like Brand SceneMaster Farm set? The one that contains a stake truck, a red tractor, a few animals, and in some perverse marketing faux pas, two figures who appear to be a “farmwife” and a “farmhand” of two definitely diverse nationalities! ( This seems a situational coupling conspicuously inspired by those raunchy Romance Novel covers in the local drugstore!?! Think of the “literary-inspired” layout possibilities, however - “Peyton Place” Railroad...or “Guess Who’s coming to the Dining Car” Railroad, or perhaps, “Cat on a Hot Tin Caboose Roof” Railway...!?!...) The farm set also contains a windmill that is all of 2 and a half inches high! (Obviously if “Farmhand” and “Farmwife” rode the tractor beneath the blades in a strong wind, both would be sliced and diced into farmland giblets! Not necessarily a “layout scene” to inspire delighted squeals of “Ooooo, how cute!” from guests...)

Well, anyway, this is THAT windmill! With the addition of strip wood from a billboard kit to extend the height, cardstock strips as side braces, Walthers plastic pipe and some left over walkway flooring, Voile’, a pretty good looking TALL windmill, if I do say so myself. Plus, now farm people out “tractor cruising” are safe from  decapitation! . . .

Before I answer the Mantua GP-20 Model question, here’s some history, courtesy of Wikipedia, of the railroad it represents: First announced on December 23, 1983, the Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad (SPSF) was intended to be formed as part of the merger between the parent companies of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads. The holding company, the Santa Fe–Southern Pacific Corporation, controlled all the rail and non-rail assets of the former Santa Fe Industries and Southern Pacific Company, and it was intended that the two railroads would be merged. They were confident enough that this would be approved that they began repainting locomotives into a new unified paint scheme. The merger was opposed by the Justice Department in 1985 and denied in a 4–1 vote by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) on July 24, 1986, who ruled that such a merger included too many duplicate routes and was therefore monopolistic. The Commission denied SPSF's appeal (again in a 4–1 vote) on June 30, 1987. The SPSF locomotive livery featured the Santa Fe's Yellowbonnet with a red stripe on the locomotive's nose; the remainder of the locomotive body was painted in Southern Pacific's Bloody Nose Red with a black roof and black extending down to the lower part of the locomotive's radiator grills. In large block letters within the red  portion of the sides was either "SP" (for Southern Pacific-owned locomotives) or "SF" (for Santa Fe-owned locomotives). The lettering was positioned on the locomotive sides so that the other half of the lettering could be added after the merger became official. One locomotive was painted with the full SPSF lettering to show what the unified paint scheme would look like after the merger was complete. This paint scheme, combining yellow, red and black, has come to be called the Kodachrome paint scheme due to the colors' resemblance to those on the boxes that Kodak used to package its Kodachrome slide film (which was heavily used by railfans of the time). After the ICC's denial, railfans joked that SPSF really stood for "Shouldn't Paint So Fast". Approximately twenty percent (20%) of the respective motive power fleets had been painted in this fashion at the time of merger denial. Even though the two railroads made an effort to repaint locomotives back into their standard paint schemes after the merger was denied, the occasional Kodachrome-painted locomotive still operates in lease service today.

Now that you know this history, you’ve no doubt spotted the problem in Mantua’s representation. To be accurate, the “SF” should be toward the front of the right side of the engine and to the rear of the left side of the engine. As you can see on the trailing GP-20 on my track, there’s no room to insert “SP” in front of the “SF”. But of course, in this instance, we’re talking “playing with toy trains” and in my little made-up world, I can accept this small inaccuracy. I’m just happy to have the SPSF represented in my manifest in any form whatsoever.

Trains:  Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

Page 1 - Box Canyon Layout
Page 2 - Any Time, Any Spring Disclaimer
Page 3 - Starting Over, December 2003
Page 4 - March, 2004
Page 5 - June, 2004
Page 8 - Layout Design
Page 9 - August, 2004
Page 11 - January, 2005
Page 16 – January, 2005 Redux
Page 17 – First Day of Summer, 2005
Page 20 – August, 2005
Page 21 - In the Farmland, February 2006
Page 23 - Layout Potpourri, February 2006
Page 25 - In the Cornfields, 2006
Page 27 - July, 2006
Page 30 – November, 2006
Page 33 - MARCH, 2007 – A Break In The Action