This photo shows the area north of Davis. It took a couple of goes, but I finally got the road edges looking the way I wanted. Now I have to finish the road surface. The farther gravelled area is where the stock pens and loading chute will be located. The closer gravelled area is where livestock cars will be 'bedded'. Before livestock was loaded into stock cars, the floor was covered with a layer of (typically) straw or sand, to a depth of about 10cm (4"). I still have to add a pile of sand for the bedding, and scatter around some old straw, representing straw that was cleaned out of cars before new bedding was added.
I am especially grateful to my friend Gordon, from Texas, for his help with my mini-project on livestock movements. Livestock movement once played a big part on the (real) GC&SF, which even advertised itself as "The cattle route of Texas", and Gordon has happily shared his first-hand knowledge of and experience in that business with me. Thanks for all the help Gordon.
Although it's hard to see, this next photo shows the low hill and quarry located between Davis and Dougherty. I still have a lot more work to do on the quarry, and I'm not entirely happy with the way it's looking at present. The photo also shows the new fascia panel that I have installed here, which incorporates two cut-outs to house CCTV monitors covering the continuous run staging tracks that sit directly below the visible trackage at this point. When the terrain behind the fascia is further developed, I will cut the top of the fascia away to match the profile behind.
The final photo shows the south end of Dougherty, and the small rise that will eventually screen the view across to the quarry at Big Canyon (where the various bottles and tools are sitting). I've started work on the road that will cross the tracks here leading to both the depot (between the tracks, just to the left of the grey area) and the team track area (the gravelled surface at the foot of the hill).
I doubt that I'll get time to do much more work on the layout before Christmas, but with luck I should be able to get some work done between Christmas and New Year.
Thanks for looking. And please have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.
Ron
