The Helnhoff - O' Georgia 2 1/2' gauge Ry.

[kyle creel]

Owners......

Werner Helnhoff & Patrick "Shortie" O'Georgia
Pronounced  "Verner Hel-n-hoff"..............
est 1907.......

Pronounced  "HELL 'N HALF -A- GEORGIA".......a southern colloquialism ......."I've searched 'Hell 'n half a Georgia' lookin for my keys"........


OK...Now that that's outta the way.....     whaaaaa...??.........

"It's like this - "JUDGIE WUDGIE"..     ..."the wife came in and said"...."You can't take down all the backdrop from this wall...       (meaning the Anvil Cloud section)..."It's sooo coool"..   ..."can't you build a part of the RR that goes along the wall like the one that's here now ??"....   ...."SURE I CAN...       .....BUT IT'LL HAVE TO BE ONLY 6-8 INCHES DEEP....AND I WON'T HAVE MUCH ROOM FOR BLDGS. OR ANYTHING BUT THE TRACKS.....       ....."That's OK, I think that's what you should do....draw a picture of it first for me to see"...

WHAAAAT THE F%$#     ....... OKAY !!..             ....."Sometimes things just happen to go your way"......

So here's the scoop....Gage had a mild seizure yesterday (Friday) evening.. ...he's fine....He will return to work (@KFC) tomorrow (Sunday) evening, the Good Lord has surely been with us.....so I stayed up most of the night on the couch in the living room (next to his room) so I could monitor him.....and just got to thinking about the way the RR plans are going, and that rascal JOHN W. ALLEN popped in again and said..... "Nice drawings-but I think you aren't truly applying yourself to the project"....         ...what??..... "With all the information and inspirational material in 'THE BOOK',...this is the best you can do?".....     ...

That got me to thinking, I MEAN REALLY THINKING...why am I doing a narrow gauge railroad in the G&D track plan when I've already built 3 of them and prooved to myself that it can be done....??.....   .....what am I really trying to accomplish ??....   .....back to THE BOOK......

"There's a little thing called imagination which must play an important part on any model railroad"...J.W.Allen...

So I added this to the fact that a railroad must have a purpose....

I looked closer at the Devils' Gulch & Helengon RR....it had a terminus @ Helengon, a stop at a mine, another stop after the mine at an interchange, and a third stop at some river piers....

So I decided to take that idea (Thanx JOHN) and make my RR a narrow gauge short line mining and fgt. operation....based loosley on the Gorre & Daphetid....

The RR transports raw ore from the I ME MINE; to be processed into a liquid which is an ODORIZER that's converted to a vapor and added to natural gas lines..     ....you know the FART SMELL of a gas leak....             it will be very simple...the ore (MYTHIUM) leaves the mine and goes to the processing bldg. in HELNHOFF, and after processing, the liquid MYTHIUM now called either "75% or 100% BS" leaves HELNHOFF and is taken (in tank cars) to the D&RGW interchange at O'GEORGIA...empties are picked up and brought back to HELNHOFF, the empty ore cars are then picked up and taken back up to the I ME MINE to begin the process over.....

KYLE CREEL
HELNHOFF-O'GEORGIA RY. 

[Larry C]

Kyle you're gonna whaaaaaaaaaat? Better to figure things out now than when the hammers start beating on the rails. Sooooo does that mean the abbreviation be something like "H-O-G Ry"? Sorry couldn't help myself.

[Jerry]

Are you sure it wasn't a dream? 

Good luck if that's the way your going.

Jerry

[kyle creel]

Thanx Larry C*., and thanx Jerry, ya'll are too kind...   ..thanx also to the window shoppers....ditto to ya'll....   .......

Larry C*,...I swear I had almost the same thought pass through my head ...  
I almost signed off......

KYLE CREEL
H-O Ry.
                ....great minds think alike.........

So here it is.....these are the 3 sections of backdrop Patrice wants me to save and use in the HELNHOFF-O'GEORGIA Ry.......

This one is above the O'georgia / desert / D&RGW interchange scene.......everything you see in this shot - including the benchwork will be gone ...   ..nothing but backdrop.....

This will be the backdrop for the upper right corner (in the drawing)....Woods' Ridge.....   ..and EVERYTHING but the trees and rocks will be GONE......

This shows how far down the wall the layout will go...just past the last tree on the far right....   ..but before the water tank....

The backdrop will continue on around the rest of the wall....but there will be NO RR....  

OK here's the track plan....it's not labeled yet ...but...HELNHOFF is the town in the center of the main portion, the I ME MINE is in the lower center on the upper level portion @ appx. 8" elev.....Woods' Ridge is in the upper right corner,...and the 'stop' called O'GEORGIA is on the far left side at the end of the 8"deep by 8'-4" long section with the 12" (56') TT and the D&RGW interchange......ALL TRAINS RUN COUNTERCLOCKWISE, and use the switchback at the upper left corner of the main layout to access O'GEORGIA and the I ME MINE.....Going to O'GEORGIA, you 'head in' and 'back out'...going to  the I ME MINE, you 'back in' and 'head out'       .....................


I really like the turn the project has taken  ...since Patrice offered her opinion and thoughts   .....Mark liked it also     ....so off we go ...the benchwork comes down this coming weekend....at last....  

All for now .....I know it's confusing and (maybe) frustrating trying to keep up with my 'scatter-brained ideas',          ...but it'll be worth it..........ya'll stay tuned......and thanx again for dropping by.....see ya...............          

KYLE CREEL
HELNHOFF-O'GEORGIA Ry.

[Larry C]

Looking forward to your new concept.

[Philip]

"H-O-G Ry"

A railroad you can kickstart! 

I looked closer at the Devils' Gulch & Helengon RR....it had a terminus @ Helengon, a stop at a mine, another stop after the mine at an interchange, and a third stop at some river piers....

I'm pretty sure there should be a tavern somewhere after the 2nd stop?

[Philip]

HA! Sometimes....

[kyle creel]

Thanx Larry C*., and thanx Phillip, also thanx to the passers' by.....   ....

I'm really intrigued with the possibilities Larry C*.; and I really do like the concept....

A 'kick-start RR'...         that's about right Phillip, it damn sure ain't starting off easy......

There are  2 watering holes on the layout Phillip.....HEI MOES' (hey-mos') a fine chinese food/saloon joint, and THE MINE SHAFT, both are walking distance from the jail house...       ...just in case OTIS (from Mayberry) shows up with "a SNOOT FULL"           .........

As I said "it ain't starting off easy".....

I'm now 72-1/2 years old, (that's not really THAT old) and my brain keeps crankin' out the possibilities- while the body says..."WTF"??...       ..........soooo I decided to try to simplify the furniture moving bit as much as I can....the three hardest pieces to move will stay put...I've also not been able to bring myself to demolish the one section of the current RR that contains the 2-stall roundhouse, the 3 track yard, and the TT......it sits conveniently above the 100+yr. old 5 drawer chest that I inherited from my great grandmother....my desk sits next to it, and the 2 drawer file cabinet is next to the desk....all 3 are going to have to stay put.....

This brings about a predicament...       ...if I do that.. ..then I really should rotate the layout to line up with the 6'-2" side along the "Anvil Cloud Wall"...that's not a problem,....I will however have to 'fill in' 24 inches of space between the two sections with a 'transition section'.........and I'll have to slightly re-design (reverse image) the track plan to allow "WOODS' RIDGE" to occupy the correct spot on the layout and match up with the backdrop.... I'm not re-doing the backdrop  ... so building the layout to facilitate the 'insertion' of "WOODS RIDGE" (it fits extremely well into the backdrop) into the layout scenery and track arrangement is paramount....

This means that the 8" deep by 8'- 4" 'shelf section' will now become 27" deep to match the 27" deep TT/Roundhouse section, and remain so till it meets up with the 3'-2" deep by 6'-2" long main section....          

It seems like one step forward, and one step SIDEWAYS      ...but I'm determined to do this right....It reminds me of the layout build in 2023 at the apartment, when I had only four months to build, scenic, and have running, a layout that was already on The 2023 NMRA National Convention Home Layout Tour, with almost all of the detail done for good measure... I just made it....by one day...         ..............

I don't have any deadlines this time, but I'm determined to get this right....   ...so I'll keep ya'll posted as it progresses....the demolition starts this weekend.........           ...thanx again for all the comments and suggestions, at this point anything is helpful and will be much appreciated......ya'll stay tuned......all for now.......see ya................          

KYLE CREEL
HELNHOFF-O'GEORGIA Ry. 

[Jerry]

"H-O-G Ry"

A railroad you can kickstart! 

I looked closer at the Devils' Gulch & Helengon RR....it had a terminus @ Helengon, a stop at a mine, another stop after the mine at an interchange, and a third stop at some river piers....

I'm pretty sure there should be a tavern somewhere after the 2nd stop?

No tavern I'm not riding the train to there!!!! 

Jerry

[Philip]

Sounds like a plan Kyle!

[friscomike]

Howdy Kyle, looks like you are still having fun. Good luck with the new direction.  Have fun, mike