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MarkF
Engineer
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/07/2015 : 3:21:22 PM
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It's coming along nicely Vagel. I do love how your foreground scenery blends so well with your backdrops. Well done!
With regard to operations, are you holding regular op sessions now and if so, how are they going?
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| Mark |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 13362 |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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 Posted - 05/07/2015 : 5:18:05 PM
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Thanks, guys. Mark, I still haven't institute regular ops sessions, but they'll come in due time.
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Country: USA
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/07/2015 : 6:01:22 PM
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This is looking better all the time, Vagel. Congratulations and keep going!
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 4:31:18 PM
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Holy crap! It's been more than 60 days since my last update.
I've been preoccupied, as usual, with Scouting stuff this Summer, and right now I'm in the final throes of preparing and packing for a two-week backpacking trek at Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico. So, you get the picture ...
I bought a neat little digital camera to take on the trail, and what better way to test out its video capability than doing some rail fanning on the B&SGE. Here's the link to the youtube version (about 7 1/2 min):
https://youtu.be/FGCVPkQY3k0
Enjoy!!!
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Country: USA
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Tyson Rayles
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 4:56:51 PM
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"Holy crap! It's been more than 60 days since my last update."
We have been meaning to talk to you about that! 
Nice video! 
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| Mike |
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Country: USA
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MarkF
Engineer
Premium Member
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 5:53:37 PM
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Its good to hear from you Vagel! The video is nice. It gives a great overall view of your layout, which is looking great. Now, no more excuses. Let's get back to work. You have a lot of trees to make!
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| Mark |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 13362 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 6:06:12 PM
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Vagel Lives!! 
Nice video! We were beginning to wonder if you had fallen off the earth, into the earth, or on top of the earth. 
Glad to see that the B&SGE still lives, and that the Second Deputy Assistant All-Knowing is still around with a camera! 
Enjoy Philmont!
Pete
in Michigan
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Edited by - Orionvp17 on 07/20/2015 8:41:22 PM |
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chooch.42
Section Hand
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 6:30:19 PM
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Dandy video tour, Vagel ! Thanks for taking the time to put it together (am assuming it took more than one 'Take")...you have my thimble brain 'filling-in' the details, imagining the final results to come and enjoying the smell of coal smoke and the breeze in (what's left of) my hair. It's always nice to have a (self-imposed) challenge when the Summer's Adventures are done and it's Rail Season, again.
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 8:28:54 PM
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Very nice! I hope you'll do more videos.
Don
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 8:29:38 PM
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Very nice! I hope you'll do more videos.
Don
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bullbrauch
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 07/20/2015 : 9:04:12 PM
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Loved the video Vagel! Your layout is looking great.
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Brandan
Living in Colorado,
home of the Rio Grande |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 11/26/2015 : 1:08:11 PM
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Some of you may be aware from postings in the Crew Lounge that Don Reed passed away last weekend. As you know, Don was a great inspiration and generous with his time, knowledge, and modeling efforts in bringing my dream model railroad to life.
I'm happy that he was able to visit shortly after his recent bout with cancer several weeks ago for what I had no idea was to be the last time. Don will be far more than just "missed" in my heart and mind. I owe him so much.
I feel that I should pay him tribute in this forum by posting some photos of him at work and of his major contributions to the layout.
Frankly, this layout would still be on the drawing board were it not for Don's encouragement -- pestering would probably be a more accurate word -- to get started. Here is Don test fitting the very first part of the benchwork for what would become Cowans Gap in September 2008:
Here is what it looks like four years later:
Early in the benchwork phase of layout construction Don came up with the idea of "kits" based on diagrams that he had me develop on the computer. I would email a diagram and 1x4's cut to length and numbered would mysteriously appear on the porch of the layout room w/ a printout of my diagram keyed with those numbers. My task was to assemble them, and the next Wednesday when Don came by we would erect them on 2x3 legs. Here is what it looked like before Don arrived one Wednesday morning in 2008:
Don was a wizard with a saber saw, too. Here he is in mid-cut for a large chunk of plywood sub-roadbed on saw horses where the peninsula of Richmond Furnace, Richmond Hill, Springtown, and Dry Run would someday be:
Don also built, wired, and installed all of the control panels on the layout ...
... a task that involved under-the-layout work as much above:
Once he had to lie flat on his back to deal with a particularly irksome glitch, and I couldn't resist posting a "Wizard of Oz" analogous gag on the thread:
We had a lot of fun working on other important construction tasks, such as cutting and installing the outdoor carpet facia ...
... and the Resin Paper semi-hardshell scenery base material:
Of course we all know from his many projects shared in Craftsman's Corner and elsewhere that Don was a highly skilled structure modeler specializing in board-by-board construction, and the two major trestle scenes on the B&SGE are testimony to that. Here is Don posing with his kit-built trestle at Reed Ravine on the day we installed it:
This scene would evolve into a complex of roadway ramp and double timber overpass passing under the trestle, all of which he scratch-built from plans in the collection of old Model Railroader articles he kept carefully filed away in his apartment shelves:
My original intent for this area was to bridge the ravine with a simple steel deck truss I had salvaged from a boyhood train set, but Don would have none of it. Not satisfied with just this one timber trestle, he chivvied me into finding someplace for another one. Thinking I would "call his bluff," I proposed an "S" curve trestle with central straight-section on a steel deck girder passing over the standard gauge PRR. It combined two of my favorite prototype narrow gauge trestles -- the "S" curve trestle on the Ohio River & Western and long trestle passing over a Colorado state highway on the Rio Grande Southern. I showed him the pictures, and Don said, "OK, let's do it." Sheesh!
Here it was in service with some bents still to be fabricated and installed:
Don's cabinetry was also amazing. When we were taking our short-lived HOn3 modular group on the road, I needed something portable to hold the Digitraxx DCC system to allow for easy disconnecting from under the layout and look "1930s-ish" to go with the time frame both of the layout and the layout room itself. I had the wild idea of something that looked like the sounder box from a telegraph, et voila! ...
I will never forget the day that our HOn3 modular "processional" paraded it before the gathered dozens during setup for the Midwest Narrow Gauge Show and Br'er Magoun bowed down before it, nearly spilling his Moxie in the process ... one of many, many hilarious occasions in fellowship with Don Reed and our fellow narrow minded model railroaders.
Too much rolling stock to fit on the layout? No problem!
"Hey, Vagel. That empty wall needs something."
The B&SGE layout has come a long way in the seven-plus years since Don Reed said it was about time I got off the dime and did something about it. A lot of years remain until it can be called finished. They will be somewhat lonelier. Rest in Peace, Don Reed!
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Edited by - Vagel Keller on 11/26/2015 3:23:58 PM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 856 |
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Michael Hohn
Fireman
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Posted - 11/26/2015 : 1:11:35 PM
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Vagel,
That's a great photo of both of you.
Mike
________________________________
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Nobody living can ever stop me, as I go walking that freedom highway -- Woody Guthrie |
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Country: USA
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 11/26/2015 : 1:26:28 PM
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Thanks, Mike. I'm in the process of editing with more pictures and text, so stay tuned ...
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Country: USA
| Posts: 856 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/26/2015 : 2:53:41 PM
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A very nice tribute to a Great Guy, Vagel! Thanks!
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 5418 |
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