Tuesday, January 30, 2007

So... How Are We Doing?

Well, it doesn't look like I'm making progress, but I am. The layout's slowly moving from "rough" to "trim" work -- from all the structural work such as benchwork, track, and wiring to scenery and structures. West San Jose now has the PG&E gas holder placed at the north end of the yard, just across the Alameda underpass. In Campbell, Campbell Ave. is starting to look like a main street with buildings going up on the north side of the street.

Gas holder, West San Jose; D. O. Curry Building, Campbell Ave., Campbell.

The Del Monte Plant 51 cannery building's in place (with warped roof over the platform), but the building's basically complete. It's located across the tracks from my layout's temporary West San Jose depot Compare the model photo with the photo at right from San Jose's Diridon Station a few years back.

Plant 51, West San Jose. Left photo from my model railroad; right taken at Diridon Station, 2001.

When I was growing up, my father took me hiking on Mount Tamalpais. Getting there, we'd avoid taking the touristy route along Highway 1, but would instead wind through residential neighborhoods on the ridge overlooking Mill Valley. I'd see all sorts of houses clinging to the hillside, sometimes up on stilts, sometimes dug into the hillside. For my Glenwood scene in the Santa Cruz mountains, I placed a similar building on the hillside overlooking the tracks and the new semaphore signal. It's not complete -- the stilts are temporarily in place, unpainted, and unglued, but with luck it'll hold on the hillside til I can get more time to work on it.

Here's a pair of overview shots to show progress: