Beginnings

The earliest photo's of my HO scale inspired Placerville branch are shared here. Originally slatted as a garage build and even getting as far as installing insulation in the portion I thought I would take over, was suddenly changed when my wife bought a new car and I foresaw nothing but an endless series of mishaps between building my railroad adjacent to a newly acquired auto. My second choice, suggested by my wife actually, was to build out a room underneath the back porch. I know it sounds crazy and my friend Phil Gulley who helped me along the way thought so too.

The under porch area with 2x6 studs going up

The area had been used as a open storage and work room. We started with studs on the open face.

Front entrance opening

The door behind leads to a small wine cellar, which eventually will share the space with my modeling room.

View from inside (as it were) facing north

The photo above shows the interior. To the left a full concrete brick wall, a partial wall is in front, with the open face towards my backyard to the right. Note the ceiling is 2 and 4 by's in a square pattern. Above that is plywood and above that is a vinyl or metal covering which is surprisingly keeps water out. This was something I worried about constantly. But in the 4 years that I've been building water leakage from above has never been a problem.

Opposite view looking south toward entrance

More construction photos next time.