New beginnings


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History Archive of all previous posts from the beginning of time! 

Reality

I try to include family and friends in the life of Cuspidor and you’ll find references to them below.  I endeavour to fit them tongue-in-cheek into the most suitable positions, such as our dear friends Malcolm and Cathy who once treated us to a disastrous grand weekend tour in Derbyshire.  In the spirit of never letting a good turn go unpunished I conceived of them running the world’s worst bus tour company.  I enjoy creating little vignettes that bring the viewer into my strange little world.  Building Cuspidor is a long term retirement project and I will try to keep adding to the story. 

My World

The little known Rocky Mountain town of Cuspidor lies at an elevation of 8,639 feet somewhere between the Uncomphagre and San Juan ranges. It sits in the Rio Bozo valley amidst hard granite  cliffs.  It’s pretty hard to find nowadays as the valuable metals ran out in the fifties and people mostly just drifted away leaving what was a once prosperous town to just fade into obscurity. Diehard exploring types have been known to stumble across it when following the old abandoned narrow gauge railroad line through the brush or hiking along the Rio Bozo up to the fabled Plughole Falls.

Here we view it in 1932 at the end of the glory days but while the railroad still ran serving the almost played out gold, silver and lead mines.

The upper town of Cuspidor sits on a series of steep, narrow switchback roads reminiscent of Jerome AZ.  A fairly recent addition is the magnificent stone City Hall and Courthouse built in 1918, at great public expense, by over ambitious and short sighted city fathers.

Notable buildings include the Golden Cuspidor saloon and hotel up on the bluff, the aforementioned City Hall, Miss Anna’s Pleasure Palace, the Miner’s and Cattlemen’s Association Hall and a magnificent F W Woolworth store.  Dan Webb’s auto repairs does a good trade thanks to the awful roads and Miss Sarah’s little car is seen there rather frequently causing tongues to wag.  The Lady’s Temperance Group, if not protesting about miner’s and stockhands carousing and frequenting the saloon and Miss Anna’s on a Saturday night, often speculate that it’s about time young Dan did the right thing and popped the question.  There are still some tiny miner’s shacks in and around the town along with a few old shops that struggle to compete with a Woolworth’s that won’t stay long once they check the turnover at head office.  Below the town you can just see a corner of Wiggin Field where Captain JJ Wiggin valiantly tries to keep his old biplane flying with air circus shows and crop dusting duties.

Overlooking the picturesque Plughole Falls is Desport’s tiny diner where the occasional, intrepid tourist takes ham and eggs along with miners from the Rio Bozo Mine.  The poor chaps up at the Devil’s Drop goldmine don’t get down there too often.   Now and then you can see the Pritchard’s Intrepid Scenic Tours (PIST) charabanc approaching the view point, usually with their last passenger hurling herself out of the open window in a desperate attempt to escape.


The Cuspidor and Southern Railroad depot and yard bake in the summer sun and freeze in the winter along with everyone else (work in progress).  many mines and related mining industries keep the old line rattling on. Enjoy.

 My Musical Adventures

 My other hobby - only for the brave: https://barrykingsbeer.bandcamp.com/releases

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Tuesday, 16 December 2025

 Lighting panel and the Great Mine Siding Disaster!

Lighting panel with switches fitted ready for wiring - room for expansion too.

The switch panel will be placed on the side of the layout, just under the open tunnel beneath the town. It will control various building lights and eventually street lamps, if I can find some suitable period style ones. There'll be a stack of wiring to do so it'll be back under the layout for a bit, oh deep joy................

Doh!!

When I relaid the track that feeds the mine tipple, I did it by eye.  Oh dear, that was a mistake. When I came to put the bunker under the mine tipple it needed to sit right where the new track was laid..... Fortunately I had a spare yard of unused track lying around and surprisingly, taking out the existing track from the switch to the cliff and relaying a new section went very smoothly. The new track is now aligned properly and I've ballasted it and now have to wait for it to dry. Could have been worse!

The problem!

Digging out the track

Track pulled out, probably won't use that bit again!

New section went straight into the existing fishplates and then they were soldered to the rails.

Feeder wires replaced

Glue applied and now we weight. Geddit?

Trying out a location, don't think this will stay here

Ballast in and drying overnight. Job done. Phew!

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4 comments:

  1. Neal M.16 December 2025 at 01:55

    Great work on getting the track repositioned! That area looks terrific. I do like the panel to run your lights. Came out really nice and clean. I'm sure that area will be fun to operate! Thanks for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barry Kingsbeer16 December 2025 at 14:01

      Thanks Sir Neal Some progress is being made.....

      Delete
  2. John R.16 December 2025 at 12:33

    Congratulations on building the control panel which looks very good. I admire your initiative to pull out and replace the track to accommodate the bunker. Lesser men would have crumbled!😉

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barry Kingsbeer16 December 2025 at 14:02

    Thankyou Sir John, I nearly crumbled but there is an opportune time to make corrections and that's before things get any worse!

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