# RGS train and some other photos (lots of photos)



## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

I finished lettering and weathering the freight cars for our Rio Grande Southern (RGS) trainset yesterday and today I ran the inaugural RGS train. Below are some photos of the run, along with some other photos of the layout:

First the RGS train:
















































And here are some other layout photos I took this afternoon:


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## Tom Parkins (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nicely done. Love those low angle shots among the trees. But thanks for stepping back and giving us the broad view too. This looks like a rr I would like to see in person. 

Thanks for the effort to photograph and share. 

Tom


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## Dave Crocker (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice to see the K-27 running with a consist.
How well did LGB scale the K-28, have you taken any measurements?
They look good together.


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Dave,

I hoped you would see this posting and see your old K-27 working on our layout. She looks great and runs nicely.

I'm not sure about the scaling of the K-28 as I've never taken any measurements. But it does look good with the K-27. It also looks nice with the KISS K-36. Along with your K-27, the LGB K-28 and KISS K-36 are billed as being 1:22.5.

For scale comparison, here's a photo I have of all three K class locos, plus an LGB mogul (#315):










And here is a link to a large photo (too large to post here) of all four locos in the roundhouse:

Locos in the Roundhouse


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Now is this in your back yard??


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## tmejia (Jan 2, 2008)

Matt,I enjoyed the pictures. 

That large picture "Locos in the Roundhouse" is simply

*Beautiful!!!*

Tommy








Rio Gracie


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By NTCGRR on 25 Jun 2012 04:11 PM 
Now is this in your back yard?? 
Maybe the back yard, maybe the front yard. No real boundaries, other then slopes


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By tmejia on 25 Jun 2012 04:21 PM 
Matt,I enjoyed the pictures. 

That large picture "Locos in the Roundhouse" is simply

*Beautiful!!!*

Tommy








Rio Gracie

Thanks Tommy,

If you or anyone else would like to see more large photos of our layout, including large versions of the RGS train run, here is a link:

Large Photos


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## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

Matt,
Fantastic work and photos. Glad to see you're getting away from that Dangerous & Rapidly Getting Worse equipment and coming over to the Really Good Stuff.


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By rhyman on 25 Jun 2012 06:11 PM 
Glad to see you're getting away from that Dangerous & Rapidly Getting Worse equipment and coming over to the Really Good Stuff.










We'll always be a D&RGW layout first...note the lack of RGS style trestles. But I like the RGS. So it just makes sense to have some RGS equipment. Got a Goose #5 too.

Funny thing is, I only weather the RGS equipment. So maybe not "Really Good Stuff"


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Good lookin' stuff. Do I detect a kitbashed Bachmann 2-8-0 in #461? Looks great! Just make sure you guys got a good fire line around your place, eh? This state is crazy right now! 

Later, 

K


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By East Broad Top on 25 Jun 2012 10:41 PM 
Good lookin' stuff. Do I detect a kitbashed Bachmann 2-8-0 in #461? Looks great! Just make sure you guys got a good fire line around your place, eh? This state is crazy right now! 

Later, 

K 
Dave Crocker made the K-27 (yes from a Bachmann 2-8-0). I purchased it from Dave as he was looking to concentrate more on 1:20.3. I added a few details and converted it to Airwire. But the K-27 is still pretty much as Dave made it.


Crazy sure is right. The whole state is pretty bad right now.

And locally there are three big ones. The one in Mancos (Weber Fire), the one south of Durango (State Line Fire), and the closest one to us (Little Sand Fire). 

Almost exactly ten years ago the Missionary Ridge Fire came through our property. Thankfully it came through at night when the winds died down. It was mostly a creeping fire that burned the pine needles on the ground. Some trees burned and sadly lots of smaller trees were destroyed, but all in all we were very lucky as a few acres above us was completely destroyed as the winds increased the next day and the fire took out everything. Our local volunteer fire department (Upper Pine) protected the structures with foam. They had 2 fire trucks stationed at our place. A few precision helicopter drops of retardant during the afternoon also helped.

The Missionary Ridge fire should help our immediate area since a lot of the forest was destroyed. So if a fire got really close it wouldn't be a true forest fire, but more of a brush fire. Out here, brush fires are a little easier to fight then forest fires.

Currently, the Little Sand Fire is the closest fire. It is northeast of us. But thanks to the prevailing southwest winds it is not really considered a major threat to our area at this time. It is more of a nuisance since the smoke gets really bad in the early morning. But the winds clear it out by noon. I think this morning smoke may keep up until we get the summer monsoons which usually don't start until mid to late July.

I'm just hoping no new fires sprout up to our immediate south. The Missionary Ridge fire started to our southwest, exactly in line with the prevailing winds. So you almost knew that one was going to reach us, which it did.


Here's a photo (looking west) showing some of the smoke plume sunset during the first day of the Weber fire. I haven't seen any smoke from that fire here since the first day.










You can't really tell too well in that photo, but the hillside across the lake was completely burned during the Missionary Ridge fire. Little to no pine trees survived. 10 years latter gamble oaks and a few aspens are coming back. But the pines will take about 70 years to come back fully.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Great photos.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

My freight crew wants to ask yours, how they like switching out cars in the yard with the coal chute and a turntable lead track? We don't see a lead to the right of the roundhouse for a pulling loco, we suppose cars can always get a shove off from a housed loco..... but it's still a minimum of 2 locos to switch, from their perspective. 
They also noted that few grates will get shook with the boom car parked there. 

We all vote for the self propelled 0-5-0 big hook to switch this yard! 

Note; We wouldn't be so serious if it didn't look so real. 

Thanks for sharing. 
Happy Rails 
John


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 26 Jun 2012 10:03 AM 
My freight crew wants to ask yours, how they like switching out cars in the yard with the coal chute and a turntable lead track?
It is surprisingly easy. I use an LGB D&RGW #50 diesel as the switcher. You know that cute little 0-4-0 with the side rods.

It can couple to one car and will fit on the turntable with that car. I'm using the turntable as multiple switch tracks. 

#50 will set up a consist, and then the big steam power comes out of the roundhouse to pull the train. Fun to do, and couldn't be easier using onboard battery power. There is a lot of electronics crammed under #50s hood. The best thing is I don't have to worry about polarity on the turntable.

But you are right about the crane blocking the ash pit. I'll have to talk to the yard boss about that positioning


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## alecescolme (Dec 20, 2010)

Excellent photos as usual! 
I always enjoy seeing pictures of your RR. 

Alec


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Our hats are off to you for having such a fine turntable that foregoes the usual balancing. 
Humbly yours, 
The V and TW crew.


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

A switching shot. #50 backing a flat car onto the yard tracks. Oops, looks like I forgot to remove some rain cover boxes in the background of this photo




















Below are some mine photos.

The mine train was finally converted to battery power this year. Big improvement in running this train now. The first two ore cars contain the battery and electronics. Some photos of the electronics can be seen in *this link*

That is our abandoned line in the background of the mine photos. Sort of like the Silverton Northern. It's a good place to put obsolete equipment


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## jmill24 (Jan 11, 2008)

Matt, thanks for the great peek and pics. I just started collecting some narrow gauge and love it............................Jim


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