Railfan Trip, part 3

After Cottondale, the next stop on my trip was Chipley. The original depot is gone, but this freight house is still standing. It's been restored and is used for community events and markets. The whole station area is now a park, but you can still see remains of several tracks running through that indicate this was once a busy place.

After Chipley I headed west and stopped in DeFuniak Springs. They have a nicely restored depot, probably in the best shape of any along the line.

The depot has been turned into a local historical museum, and there were great finds for the modeler, including this old photo of the depot, showing additional freight houses around it.

Even better were these photos of local businesses. Even though I'm not modeling this town on my layout, these still offer some great ideas for buildings to add elsewhere.

My last stop and destination was Milton. I've posted photos of the Milton depot before, so this time I'll just show the swing bridge over the Blackwater River.

This bridge appears to be the same style as the one I photographed on the Apalachicola River, and I'm told a similar bridge was once located across Escambia Bay as well. This bridge is still operational--my wife (who's from Milton) tells me she remembers traveling down the river on their boat and blowing their horn to alert the bridge operater. He would come trotting out of a nearby shed and operate the bridge from the small structure in the middle. The bridge swings on the large pivot located under it's center. There's a working model of this bridge on the layout housed at the Milton depot.

That's all for my December railfan trip. As I mentioned before, there wasn't a lot remaining from the heyday of railroading, but I managed to find a few nuggets to inspire my modeling. In other news, my latest order of track and turnouts arrived yesterday, so if I get some free time this weekend I'm going to try to complete the entire mainline and get it wired up. We're thinking this could be our last weekend before the baby comes though, so there are lots of chores to do!

Prenatal Progress

Our baby is due any week now, so I've been trying to make as much progress as I can on the layout before I become a dad. All of the plywood subroadbed is now installed, except for the two town areas sitting in the middle of each helix. I've also completed the cork roadbed along the entire main line.

Here's a panorama shot of the entire layout except for the helixes on either end. The upper back level is now in place. Pensacola will be on the upper left and Tallahassee on the upper right. The upper train is passing through Milton after leaving the junction at Cottondale. The lower train is pulling through the yard at River Junction (Chattahoochee).


Here's a closeup showing the three levels. The cork roadbed is now in place along the mainline through Tallahassee and Pensacola.

This view looking toward the north helix shows Tallahassee on the upper left, Cottondale at center and Chattahoochee beneath. I've still got some weights and clamps in place to hold the freshly caulked roadbed.

Finally, here's a closeup of trains on the middle and lower levels. Actually, this could be one REALLY long train...

So I've made good progress. The next step is to order more track and switches so I can complete the mainline and then start wiring it up. Probably won't get all that done before the baby comes.

I've still got one more installment from my December railfan trip that I'll post soon. After that there may be a hiatus for awhile--I have a feeling fatherhood is going to keep me busy!