Buffalo Canyon Mining Company in On30

Started by friscomike, January 30, 2025, 09:41:22 PM

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friscomike

Howdy folks,

The purpose of this topic is to chronicle the construction of the On30 Buffalo Canyon Mining Company layout and its structures. I will update the location of various structures and equipment posts here as I begin them.

This may help readers to skip parts they are not interested in. I am old and slow, but I hope you enjoy the trip. The chronicle includes the following areas.  It will take a while to populate the topics.


Buffalo Canyon Railroad Locos and Equipment

Have fun,
mike


friscomike

#1
Howdy folks,

Background

The Buffalo Canyon Mining Company (BCMC) passes through the small town of Quitaque (pronounced kitty-kway), Texas, the center of the railroad. The town lies directly south of Capcrock Canyon State Park and is a ranching, and farming area in West Texas. Quitaque is home to the Texas bison heard, thus the name for the railroad. The Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railroad Company originally built the line along with the Clarity tunnel, one of only three tunnels in Texas. Thus the facts end and the story of the BCMC begins.

The track that runs through Quitaque was laid in the 1870's and connected the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad (FWD) and the Quanah Acme and Pacific Railroad (QA&P/Frisco). The track was laid as narrow gauge because of the lower cost of construction and popularity in the 1870s. Since the FW&D and QA&P railroads were standard gauge, transfer tracks were laid on the FW&D in Turkey (home of Bob Wills, King of Western Swing) in the north and on the QA&P in Floydada in the south. The original railroad was abandoned after the first gold rush played out in the 1880's. Gold was rediscovered around 1892 and the need to ship the ore and gold necessitated the refurbishment of the railroad.

The Carl Anderson Development Corporation purchased the remnants of the railroad including track, facilities, and equipment to serve the resuscitated mining business of the region. Carl Anderson, being a tight-fisted developer with short arms and deep pockets, purchased used and cast-off equipment from the Colorado and Southern Railroad in the Rockies and from a few others around the region. It was cheap to ship the equipment down from Colorado to Quitaque via the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad which Carl liked.

Most of the fledgling railroad's equipment was nearing the end of its useful life, but enterprising railroad crews kept the equipment running and looking good, in some cases. Small locomotives and rolling stock suited the winding track in the canyon and beyond. During the good times, there were passenger and freight trains headed north and south at least three trips a week, so there was a train in Quitaque every day but Sunday.

The town of Quitaque had its glory days during the first gold strike, but the hard times of 1880-1895 left many of the buildings in poor condition. The once beautiful brick buildings were patched with adobe and most new construction was from wood and local limestone. Coal from Thurber, Texas heated Quitaque mining structures, homes, and businesses in the merciless panhandle winters. Oil was becoming the new gold in Texas, so shipping crude oil was becoming a good business for the railroad. The railroad won the mail contract which added more revenue to the company.
~~~~~~~~~~~

That should give you a little background of the BCMC and how it got its start. A description of the layout will follow in subsequent posts.

Have fun,
mike

elwoodblues

Mike,

looking forward to following along.  Thanks for the history lesson on the railroad.
Ron Newby
General Manager
Clearwater Valley Railroad Co.
www.cvry.ca

friscomike

#3
Howdy folks,

Here's information about the layout:

General Information
Name: Buffalo Canyon Mining Company
Scale: On30
Size: 15' X 13'
Prototype: None - layout is freelanced
Locale: Quitaque Texas (west Texas panhandle area)
Era: 1920's
Layout Type: Walkaround
Layout Height: 40″
Benchwork: 3 modules and boxed frame extensions with 2″ rigid foam
Roadbed: foam
Trackwork: Microengineering On30 plus hand laid
Turnouts: Microengineering No 5 plus hand laid
Minimum Curve Radius: 22″
Scenery: Rigid foam covered with latex paint and ground foam
Control: Digitrax DCC

Dave Meek's layout of Thunder Mesa Mining Company served as the inspiration for the layout. In fact, the basic track plan is one of his (pictured below). I modified it with return loops and staging. The return loops will be mountainous with mines.




The layout is to be built in three phases. Phase I is the town located in the center, Phase II is the return loops, and Phase III is the staging yard on the back side of the layout.




Well, that's the plan for now, but as we know, no plan survives first contact...

Have fun,
mike

Jerry

Glad you started this back p over here Mike.

Jerry
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." A. Lincoln

PRR Modeler

Interesting track plan Mike. Is it one out of MRR magizine? It looks familiar.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

friscomike

Howdy Curt, the basic plan is from Dave Meek.  I added the returns and staging area.  Have fun, mike

Rick

Dave, thanks for starting this thread here so we can continue following along as you progress.

friscomike

Howdy folks,

The first structure build is the Forks Creek station from Classic Miniatures. Joe Batson started the kit for Choctaw Lumber Company but decided it wasn't what he wanted for a logging layout. He had painted the structure green, which is the color I plan to use on the BCMC layout, so that saved me a step.

Here is the box and first glue-up:



The roof is not attached yet, but in place to test fit. I'll add roofing material and the chimney next. The kit comes with a corrugated iron roof, but I'd like to use a standing seam roof...if I can find it. So many boxes...



I made ten rafters for the roof using the laser. I may paint them white since there will not be a ceiling proper...

The room partition is from densely corrugated cardboard. The partition received the same wallpaper as the rest of the room. The second-floor door is a Tichy product. The photo shows the partition in place to test fit before glue makes them permanent. I also painted the paper corrugated roofing material provided in the kit. I searched high and low for standing seam roofing material and discovered my stock is in HO scale.

Here are a couple of shots showing the second floor in draft condition plus a roof rafter in place.



Second-floor partition and rafter test fit.



Have fun,
mike

Rick

Mike, looks good to me.
Is this an old build?
I'm getting forgetful and don't remember seeing this before.

friscomike

Howdy folks,

The Quitaque depot work continues.

Here are a few photos of the roof and rafters. While the edges darkened with the Old Oak Minwax, they are in the same family as the roof.

Here is a color test with the rafter. Half of the roof underside is yet to be finished. I used 3M transfer tape to attach the underside.



Here is the underside of the roof. The seam is where the room partition will go.



Finished the roof except for the ridge cap. The roofing is paper corrugated from Classic Miniatures. It was my first time using the material and it was not bad.

One side is finished and another prepped with 3M transfer tape.



That's it for now.

Have fun,
mike


friscomike

Quote from: Rick on January 31, 2025, 08:42:23 AMMike, looks good to me.
Is this an old build?
I'm getting forgetful and don't remember seeing this before.
Howdy Rick, 

Indeed it is part of the old build.  I'm trying to recreate the whole Buffalo Canyon Mining Company story here in the Modelers Forum.  I like the chronicle approach, so away we go.  

Have fun,
mike

friscomike

Howdy folks,

Here are the final photos of the Quitaque depot.  I'll finish the details when it is planted on the layout.

Interior view



Here is a final photo of the depot.


That's it for the Quitaque Depot.  Next up will be the Quitaque firehouse.

Have fun,
mike

Rick

I thought this might be an old build.
Final results look excellent!

PRR Modeler

Mike the build looks great. To me it screams back woods.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

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