Update

Salado Jct is now mounted on the wall, awaiting backdrop painting, rewiring, re-scenicking and re-structuring.  Management has decided to change up one of the non-rail-served industries, due to budget constraints.  Stay tuned for progress photos!

Salado Jct Moving!!

The Salado Junction is moving to a new home, closer to its namesake and prototype location.  The move should take about a week or so, with setup and testing finished in a weekend.  The ownership hopes to return to operations by Veteran's Day weekend in mid-November. 

Some operational details

The Salado Jct RR currently serves two 'online' customers, a food distributor and a transshipping warehouse. There is also a team track, which usually sees lumber on flats, various liquids in tank cars, and the occasional hopper and gondola, in addition to the typical box cars.  The SJRR is a short spur, only a few miles long, and the prototype connects to the ex-Southern Pacific mainline out of Kirby Yard in San Antonio.  Motive power is usually an unpatched SP MP15AC, though on occasion, a new UP NRE Genset makes an appearance if its available.

Time for scenery

The SJRR is now mounted on the wall on shelf brackets.  Rail height is about 52", just below armpit level.  This is very comfortable for operating and observing trains, but not so much for working on the layout.  However, a small step stool makes scenery much easier.  The structures are mostly complete, with one still in need of paint, another which needs a foundation, and a non-rail-served industry not complete.

Two structures complete and one very out-of-scale mockup

A close up of the unweathered food processor and corn syrup tank

The transloading warehouse built and painted; also some relief in the base can be seen in the foreground

Progress Report

The Salado Junction has seen significant progress.  The benchwork has been painted, track has been installed and test run, and a couple structures have been built.  Detailing these will take a long time, but at least there's something there to suggest a theme, time and place. 

The next step will be to start on the scenery...

Here are a couple reference photos for what the area modeled looks like:

Operational Details

The Salado Jct RR currently serves two 'online' customers, a food distributor and a transshipping warehouse. There is also a team track, which usually sees lumber on flats, various liquids in tank cars, and the occasional hopper and gondola, in addition to the typical box cars.  The SJRR is a short spur, only a few miles long, and the prototype connects to the ex-Southern Pacific mainline out of Kirby Yard in San Antonio.  Motive power is usually an older UP GP-15 and an unpatched SP MP15AC, though on occasion, a new UP NRE Genset makes an appearance if its available.

The prototype Salado Jct spur, seen crossing N WW White Rd.

Welcome to the Salado Junction

Salado Jct RR Benchwork

This blog is intended to chronicle the development of the Salado Junction model railroad layout.  It is an HO scale proto-freelanced layout, depicting a present and near-present day industrial spur in San Antonio, TX.  Online research using Google/Bing/Yahoo mapping services, has shown the prototype line is indeed active.  The hope is to allow readers to follow along as the layout is constructed, scenicked and operated.