Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

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Carson & ColoradoFan
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Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:06 pm

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Carson & ColoradoFan »

Hello Curtis,

I have looked over the route it looks wonderful! It would be a good route to work on. You are also a fine DEM Map maker!
. . . the Railroad that "began
nowhar, ended nowhar, an' stopped
all night to think it over . . ."

Jim Butler
Tonopah, Nevada
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TorenHynes
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Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:59 am
Location: Canada, Nova Scotia, Oyster Pond

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by TorenHynes »

Sounds very interesting.
Toren Hynes
"Proudly Canadian"
Hurricane Season is on!
Craig_ng
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Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:10 pm

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Craig_ng »

Started messing with the B&B files and right in the middle of relaying the track, adding sidings, and going nuts on reference material. I'm looking at recreating it right around 1880-1882 at the height of activity. Historically everything was in place, they were grading down to Benton, and the mines were going ape so there's plenty of structural opportunities.

As I don't yet know G-Max (I'm an AutoCAd person), I'm playing with a combination of CAD and Sketch-Up and both will crank out files G-Max can read. A few buildings have been started which will hopefully force me to learn how to deal with creating Trainz assets. The models are from a number of sources: The Gazzett, period images, and in the case of the mines I'll be working on, whatever sources I can! Belvidere is from a promotional map illustrating the Bodie Mines in 1880. I've no idea if it's accurate.
Belvidere Mine
Belvidere Mine
Belvidere Mine 1.jpg (16.48 KiB) Viewed 32959 times
Mono Mills General Store
Mono Mills General Store
Mono Mills General Store V3-2.jpg (14.64 KiB) Viewed 32959 times
Mono Mill
Mono Mill
Mono Mill Mk 2.jpg (18.77 KiB) Viewed 32959 times
Mono Mill Is based on the Gazzette Drawings. It still needs doors and windows and is intended to be as correct as possible from period images.

Should anyone be interested in mentoring or getting involved, I'm all ears and eager to learn.

Craig
Pencil
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Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Pencil »

Hi Craig,

It looks like you are making good progress! Your buildings are looking good, and I'm looking forward to seeing more as you complete it.
There is a model of the Mono Mill on the DLS (KUID 210518:7694:8), but I can't speak as to its accuracy.

Curtis
NormHart
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Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:22 am
Location: Calistoga, California

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by NormHart »

Ok, good! I am pleased to hear that you are continuing work on this route and look forward to more.
Craig_ng
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Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:10 pm

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Craig_ng »

The first steam boat on Mono Lake was "The Rocket". A little 35 footer that ended up being purchased by the railroad. Very little is known about her, the serial number, that it was built in San Francisco, operated on the Bay, was sold, disasembled and shipped to Mono, resold, and finally abandoned after a storm on the lake. It was known to be hauled out of the water for winter, and we have the names of the operators. It figured early on in the road's construction hauling supplies, rail, ties and whatnot to Warm Springs. It and a few barges also help a prominent spot in an early strike by white workers protesting the Chinamen hired by the road. The management hauled the Chinese workers to the safety of Pahoa Island with a few weeks supplies until the protesters gave in and accepted lower wages.
River Packet -Rocket- V2.jpg
River Packet -Rocket- V2.jpg (13.61 KiB) Viewed 32951 times
Needing a break from grading and landscaping (an endless expanse of sand and sage for most of the road's lower elevations around Mono Lake, broken in a handful of spots) I raided several drawings from the Sketch-up community and started modifying like crazy. The little 35' steam propellor (steam boat to you and I) resembles small steamers pretty closely that were on rivers, bays, and harbors in the in the latter half of the 1800's. Getting the triangles down has been a challenge, especially on the boiler and motor as the Sketch-up models were part-by-part complete internally. They've quite a ways to go yet for the detail models, the steamer's still at over 8600 triangles.

The Barge is based on the aft half of the ALMA (a surviving S.F. Bay Scow Schooner), with the gunnels cut away to create a flush deck. Barges like this were very common on both the rivers and San Francisco Bay during the period. It's length is 60', with about an 18' beam. It's at 894 triangles. These could have had decks or not. I chose a deck to simplify modeling and reduce the poly count though it probably would have been wide open. It's modeled to resemble typical scow barges fairly closely. The were flat floored to both ease construction and rest on the bottom during low tides....an ideal design for loading without the need for docks in primitive areas.

When I start learning G-MAX these will be included...after I get usage permissions from the Sketch-up modelers for the hull, boiler, and motor. A couple barges either in the water or hauled up on the beach as well as "The Rocket" will add much needed interest to Warm Springs. Both the Rocket and the barge would be at home on Andrew's Colusa & Lake too.

Back to landscaping, gradiing, and high altitude deserts.
Pencil
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Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Pencil »

Nice looking boats - they'd be an asset to any layout set in that time period!!
Craig_ng
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Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:10 pm

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Craig_ng »

Did a little more work on grading the line between Lime Kiln and Switchback 2. I have to keep in mind that the maximum grad noted was 3.8%. It's a tough one accomodating both the DTM and ROW!

Speaking of Lime Kiln: It was west of the spur about 3600 feet. There was a Wye and tail track to allow flats to be left for loading with sacks of processed lime. Most of the labor was in the form of local Paiute Indians who both demolished/mined tufa outcroppings and served as pack mules to get all the materials to the kiln and siding.

I mentioned the tufas, well for those who aren't familiar with them they are mounds and towers of mineral salts around the perimeter of Mono Lake caused by underground springs upwelling and mixing with the salt water of the lake itself. At the kiln, they were baking the resulting miner salts and turning it into lime for use in precious metal extraction up at the mills in Bodie, Aurora, and other camps.

As tho the Piutes, I'll probably have to come up with some sort of grass shelter, a wigwam of sorts that they used for field shelter well into the 20th century. I've seen no description of Lime Kiln mentioning any housing or sturctures of any sort beyond the kiln. As to the kiln itself, there's very few images available! I've also been scouring the internet for any BLM Archeological reports. There's nutin' mention on the web at all. No references to older docs in newer studies, nutin'! I'm about ready to contact the Archeology Departments at Sonoma State and Davis to see if they can turn something up or see if the Bodie Foundation or Save Mono Lake have anything or someone in the community that knows something. I've only been out around the kiln once, years ago before I had any interest in the B&B and even then, we were just passing through...there's a lot of nothing around there. Unfortunately I had no idea the kiln even existed at the time.

Attached is a Sketch-up model of Lime Kiln. The overal size is about right based on one tiny image with a human in it. A LOT of it's conjectural, what I think it looked like before it started crumbling and somewhat simplified to keep the triangle count down.
Lime Kiln1.jpg
Lime Kiln1.jpg (13.21 KiB) Viewed 32942 times
Once converted over to an asset, it will need some faint smoke coming out of the top from that deep slow burning charcoal fire inside under the lime.

Curtis, On the boat and barge,, do you know id underwater hull structures are needed? I can shave a lot of triangles off the bottom if they are not. Also, I need to raise the floor under the engine and boiler! Otherwise, it will show as flooded when I drop the hull down to a reasonable waterline.
Pencil
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Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Pencil »

Hi Craig,

I don't remember when parts started showing up underwater - I think it was TS2009. But the short anwser is yes, you do need something representing the hull underwater.

Neat job on the lime kiln. I seem to have an issue with creating things based on conjecture like that. I think I'm afraid as soon as I do, someone will come along with a photograph showing me to be so completely off base, it isn't even funny :)

Curtis
Craig_ng
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Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Craig_ng »

Curtis,

Thanks for the heads-up on underwater components. So much for that effort to reduce poly-count....maybe. I just may do it anyway as it will have a huge impact on this rich model.

Regarding Lime Kilm and modeling things semi conjecturally, I'm the same way with every modeling effort I've done in the past (at least outside the digital world. Some wag will come up with that data that was needed and show you wrong. What I hate is the guy who knew you were doing the work, knew you were doing the research, had nothing when asked, and held out.

What I don't mind are the "new" discoveries that pop up post model. On the stuff I do, it generally asks the questions that get the basic research started and causes those discoveries.

The Lime Kiln thing, I'm certain there is local info that's not made it to the internet, held either in private collections, attics, maybe even in archives. Nobody's yet focused attention on it I'll bet. For sure there's got to be modern non-digital images of the other sides. Maybe there's even a few from the 1920's or so. I'll not hold my breath for anything from the 1880's or 1890's. It was too remote geographically.

Craig
Craig_ng
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Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Craig_ng »

Insomnia hit last night so another structure started...The Mono Mills Engine House.

Basically this would be the primary engine house for the line, located down at Mono Mills which makes sense as the lumber activities were paramount for the line and weather during the winters wasn't nearly as bad as up at Bodie. Attached to the engine house was a small shop suitable for most repair and upkeep on a locomotive. Any major work was done at the V&T Shops.
Mono Mills Engine House.jpg
Mono Mills Engine House.jpg (11.7 KiB) Viewed 32924 times
The structure was reconstructed from 4 images and proportioned fairly accurately. Right now it's at just over 2050 triangles, the largest collection being in the windows. Obviously I'd like to reduce that count. It just occured to me, I'll want to deal with the lower ends of the house smokejack hoods over the loco smokestacks!

It's coming to the point where I'll need to start looking at conversion into an asset on these models. One more Engine House is needed up at Bodie which may be the next structure on the list. I'll also want to visit the boarding house at Mono, it's a fairly distinctive structure for which I've not seen anything close enough at the Download Station. It too might be something quite usable on Western 1800's era roads.

Craig H
NormHart
Posts: 274
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:22 am
Location: Calistoga, California

Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by NormHart »

You may already have this information but...

Locomotive Engines:
Road No. - #1
Name - (none listed)
Type - 2-6-0
Driver - 40
Builder - Baldwin
Bldr. No. - 3638
Date Blt - Aug. 1874
Aquired 1881 from Eureka and Palisade

Road No. - #2
Name - Inyo
Cyln. - 14x16
Type - 2-6-0
Driver - 36
Builder - Union Iron (Booth)
Bldr. No - 24
Date Blt. - 1881

Road No. - #3
Name - Mono
Cyln. - 14x16
Type - 2-6-0
Driver - 36
Builder - Union Iron (Booth)
Bldr. No. - 25
Date Blt. - 1881

Road No. #4
Name - Bodie
Cyln. - 12x18
Type - 0-4-2T
Driver - 36
Builder - Porter
Bldr. No. - 494
Date Blt. - May 1882

Roster of 12/31/1884
Locomotives - 4
Box cars - 1
Platform cars - 51
others - 8
Cabooses - 1

From Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History Vol IV pg. 153
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Carson & ColoradoFan
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Re: Bodie & Benton Ground Breaking

Post by Carson & ColoradoFan »

The name of the first locomotive is "Tybo"
. . . the Railroad that "began
nowhar, ended nowhar, an' stopped
all night to think it over . . ."

Jim Butler
Tonopah, Nevada
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