best refference for hobby

July 14 More Decals

My friend and fellow Model Railroader Dan has an Alps printer that makes superior decals.  I ask him to make me some custom decals and I got them today.  I put the first set on my Drovers Caboose below.


I was raised in El Paso and when I married and went out on my own I ended up in Alamogordo New Mexico.  The New Mexico Mountains are full of railroad history as well as Billy the Kid and the Hole in the Wall Gang history.  

I'm particularly interested in the Southern Pacific's Logging Operation from the 20s, 30s and 40s era.  The SP had a logging operation based out of Alamogordo running up into the Sacramento Mountains to Cloudcroft at 9,500 feet.  When the SP shut down their logging operation in 1940 the road name was changed to Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railroad, it was purchased by Vanderbilt and the logging operation operated under the name of the Alamogordo Lumber Company.  The mountain railroad was shut down for good in 1947, passenger service had ended in 1938.  

The logging company operation was reopened by M.R. Prestridge using trucks on the newly constructed paved road to Cloudcroft that was finished in late 1947.  The Alamogordo Lumber Company (Prestridge Lumber) was sold to three local men in 1968 and the name was changed to La Luz Lumber.  La Luz Lumber closed down their lumber mill operation in 1971 under bankruptcy.  White Sands Forest Products reopened the mill and operated it until 2000 when the Tree Huggers closed it permanently.

In the logging era prime the railroad had 100 logging railroad cars, 5 Shays, 2 Heisler and 2 mallet locomotives. 

I have a 2-6-6-2 logger mallet, 5 Three Truck Shays, 6 old time coaches and 24 log cars with a four wheel logging caboose and the Drovers Caboose above.  



Dan sent me 52 decals for the Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railroad and the Cloudcroft Lumber Company.  I will now have that entire fleet running under those road names.



Two of the Shays were operated under the road name of Cloudcroft Lumber Company.  The mallets kept the SP road name and were used to move the finished lumber from the Lumber Mill in Alamogordo to El Paso, they were maintained by the El Paso SP facility.  The Shays and heislers were maintained by the Alamogordo Lumber Company in the Alamogordo Yards. 


                                          How's that for balance?