Monthly Archives: June 2015
Sedona and Wyoming . . .
About 1:30 Jan and I headed for a train day in Cornville, AZ. We were going to visit the Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad in the small town of Cornville.
Located in a fairly non-descript warehouse type building, there’s no sign of what’s inside.
The only giveaway is the mailbox.
Located in a 50’ x 75’ building built just for this purpose, it is geo-thermal heated and cooled via ten 180’ deep wells under the building. Right next door is a 30’ x 36’ shop where all the woodworking and metal working is done, keeping all the dust and fumes away from the trains.
We were warmly greeted by Verryl Fosnight, the owner and head engineer of the Wyoming Division Railroad, who spent over an hour showing us around and explaining the layout.
The layout depicts the 485 mile Union Pacific route between Cheyenne, WY and Ogden, UT in the year 1957, and is built on 3 different levels, with the top two levels for operating and bottom hidden level for staging the trains and simulating other destinations, like Chicago, California, and Oregon. Using 1957 as the year of operating allows them to authentically run both steam and diesel locomotives on the railroad.
As you can see from the above diagram, the layout folds back and forth on itself several times, allowing the depiction of the many towns and industries along the route. It also isolates the operators from each other’s view, allowing for more prototypical operation.
And overhead catwalk lets you look down on the layout, giving a better view of the overall operation.
This is one of two helices on the layout. A helix is basically a spiral staircase for trains, enabling them to move up or down between the 3 levels.
And this is one of 3 turntables used to move engines into the roundhouse for either maintenance or storage. In addition, it can also be used to turn an engine completely around.
These control boards allow the operators to remotely control the many switches in the train yard.
The towns and industries on the layout mirror the actual ones found along the real route.
As of 4/15 the benchwork, track, and the DCC control system are all up and working, and they have regular operating sessions once a month. About 1/2 half the buildings are done, and then the actual scenery comes next.
Verryl just recently got his website up, and much more info can be found here:
Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad
Sheldon would be so jealous.
Finally leaving the Wyoming Division, we drove toward Sedona on AZ179, a route we’ve never taken before, and in our opinion, much more scenic than the usual route coming in from Cottonwood on 89A.
Our main reason going to Sedona was to have dinner at the Szechuan Restaurant. We had been jonsing for Chinese since we left Prescott and our favorite Beijing Garden, so we thought we’d give this place a try.
The Yelp review gave this place only 3 1/2 stars, but looking at the reviews, it showed a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews, and some 1 and 2 star reviews, complaining about how they thought the martini’s were too expensive, or they didn’t like the sushi.
Our review would give it 5 stars. Everything was delicious.
We both got the Dinner Special, which gave us Hot and Sour Soup as well as an appetizer plate.
Jan got the Sesame Chicken, with white rice,
and I got the Orange Sauce Chicken with fried rice.
Note all the peppers on mine. I finally found a place that doesn’t wimp out when I tell them I want it extra, extra, extra, extra spicy. Mine also had pieces of grilled orange peel in it. Probably the best Orange Chicken I’ve ever had.
And because we had soup and appetizers, and the entrée portion was so large, we both had plenty to take home.
It would be nice to go back, but I don’t know if we’ll have time before we leave here next Monday.
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Thought for the Day:
It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem. — Malcolm Forbes
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Trains and Cranes . . .
First off, we want to wish our daughter-in-law Linda a very Happy Birthday, Looking forward to seeing ya’ll in a couple of months.
About 1pm I drove over to the park office and extended our stay until Monday, the 6th so we won’t be traveling on the 4th of July weekend. And by the time we leave here Monday morning, the high is supposed to only be in the double digits, the very high double digits, but double digits, nevertheless,
One thing we learned to do here, or at least Jan has learned, is to unlock the rig door before the sun starts hitting it in the early afternoon. Otherwise the door expands, and it’s very, very hard to get it unlocked and open.
About 3pm I called the Wyoming Division Model Railroad over in Cornville, AZ to schedule a visit for tomorrow afternoon.
Modeling the entire Union Pacific route from Cheyenne, WY to Ogden, UT, it has over 45,000 feet of HO gauge track. That’s almost 9 miles.
You can read a newspaper article about it here.
http://srr.stparchive.com/Archive/SRR/SRR08152012p05.php
Afterwards we may drive on over to Sedona for a look around. We visited here several years ago with Nick and Terry, but it’ll be nice to see it again.
About 4pm we drove into to have dinner at Hog Wild BBQ, a great favorite local place of ours, with really good ribs and pulled pork.
As usual I got the big Sampler Platter, of which I only end up eating about a third.
Then the rest of it comes home as a later meal for both of us.
And all you have to do is park in the lot,
and the great smells from the smoker just overwhelm you.
I’m kind of tempted to just hitch it up to the truck and take it home.
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Ever try to win a prize for a child or grandchild on one of those crane or claw machines and wondered why it’s so dang hard to win something.
That’s because it’s programmed that way, and and in more ways than you think.
Ever grab a prize and start moving it to the opening,and then have the claw open slightly and drop the prize? That’s because it’s set to do that.
Actually the machine can be programmed directly for a wanted profit level. For example if it’s set for 50% profit level, the machine will only operate at full strength and work correctly 1 out of every 23 times
Or you can just let your grandchild climb inside and get his own prize like this.
I’m sure Landon would give it a try.
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Thought for the Day:
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. — Mark Twain
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