SP Jawbone Branch (Part 7) - Film & Construction Begins

A comment sent me to the following film footage of the Owenyo Branch with the 3203 working in Owenyo!  The narration is pretty close, other than the slight vague comment of the Owenyo Local working everyday.  As far as I know the job worked out three days and back the other three days with Sundays off.

Video clip from https://youtu.be/M-WwXFTCiiE

The full video is available at Classic Railroad Video for purchase: Desert Princess - The Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge

Construction Begins!

Owenyo #3 Section

Rough cutting plan for the Jawbone Branch (Jan 13, 2021)

Now that I have the basic materials for the layout, I started on Jan 22, 2021 marking track centers at the East end of Owenyo (Owenyo section #1). 

East Owenyo coming together in Sharpie marks on pink foam. Jan 22, 2021

 I'm keeping it at the full 4x8 sheet so I can mark the center points of the two wye curves at 24" radius.  They are 48.5" apart and 32.625" off the back edge of the foam.  This will allow the two 24" radii with a 1/4" easement on each curve at the wye switch.

At this stage I'm using very basic tools consisting of: 48" ruler, 24/18" square, flashlight and scale rule.  I'm making most of the marks with a standard Sharpie marker which is not leaving depressions in the foam.

SP 3259 sitting on foam where the future east leg of the wye will be. Jan 22, 2021.

To double check my measurements, I placed my Balboa SP 3259 Mk-5 with 120-C-2 tender on the east leg of the wye to check that it will fit comfortably.  I'll be temporarily putting down some flex track at the 24" radius to check that the engine will be able to operate comfortably on that radius before I finalize the layout and markings for the Owenyo wye.

SP F-70-3 60ft flat used to transfer the SPNG engines to the Bakersfield shops.

Another point I wanted to check was that the 60ft F-70-3 flatcar can fit on the transfer pit track, which it does with several inches to spare before the fouling point of the switch.  The NG track is marked with double cross marks.

The western edge of Owenyo #3 section with offset crane trackage to be splined in later

Owenyo #1 section also has the team track offset about 0.950" through the overhead transfer crane.  The tracks are marked out for 13ft centers.

Owenyo #2 Section

Owenyo #2 Section which is to be located just west of #1 Section

Next will come Owenyo #2 section, which has more of the loading platforms and a short stub spur off of the team track.  The track centers will hold across the joint between #1 and #2 sections.  The west switch of the siding (upper track) will be adjusted  to clear the frog to stay with the rest of the switch, probably moving west about 2", giving a bit more room for the lower team track headblocks.

In Closing

Looking forward to moving some of the other bookcases around in my shop and starting to work out the bracket supports for the Owenyo Yard.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 1) - Concept

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 2) - Researching and Changing of the Plan

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 3) - Consists and More Bartlett Research

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 4) - Freight Car Roster

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 5) - Pulling the Trigger (Buying the materials for the benchwork)

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 6) - Q&A Continuing Design Tweaks - Working out the logistics for the staging yards other details.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 7) - Film & Construction Begins - Historic movie film clip of Owenyo Local and starting construction of the layout.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 8) - Little Lake Grows - More research materials have surfaced for my modeling of Little Lake

Freight Symbols Over Tehachapi - Part 4 - SP Locals