Chair-Borne!

I injured my back somehow last week. That has curtailed my layout work, but I was able to catch up on some writing and design projects. CHAIR-BORNE!  (for you former paratroopers.) 

I wrote three articles that seem to have been accepted by the editors. So hopefully we will see them pop up in the magazines at some point. One of the articles was for a new magazine for me, a non-model railroad magazine.There is quite along lead time from article submission to publishing, so it could be a while.

I did shoot some new photos for the articles including this shot of Battery Schaefer. Prior to the layout expansion, this shot was obscured by trees. Now, the trees are no longer in the way and we can get a look at a train coming north past the battery.

Another project I could do from my chair-borne position was a track plan design. A model railroad club in Ogden, Utah obtained access to a store for a semi-permanent layout. Some of their members asked me if I could help with the layout design. They wanted something that featured scenes from the local area, had crowd pleasing features, but also allowed interesting operation. They had sketched out a basic foot print for the layout, so all I had to do was fill it in.

I have rail fanned this area several times so I was familiar with some of the signature scenes. On one trip we caught a UP steam train heading up Weber Canyon. I did a short youtube video on that along with some help from Brian and Jake.

I came up with a rough draft plan. We will see how it evolves and if they use any of my ideas.