South Jersey, July 1944

[VonRyan]

Ah yes... I sometimes forget that historic homes always have historic timbers... and plumbing... and wiring... and roofing...  Ugh.

Carry on as needed!  The layout looks pretty cool!

Lee

We still have plenty of all those, except roofing. The cedar shakes went away over a decade ago. But we do have old iron piping for gas lighting still in the walls. It's not live, so I took the cap off the pipe in my bedroom and put a gas light fixture back on it.

Sweeet!

"No Sugar Added"

[VonRyan]

Here's what I hope is a reasonably accurate track plan of the layout segment I have.
I drew the benchwork as 18" deep even though it is actually 18-1/4" deep.

The track on the layout segment is all ME code 70, so the turnouts are all the ME #6 ones.




I purposely didn't draw in the three industrial spurs that extend into the corner as that area is completely open to be redesigned. Ideally I'd like to use that corner to model a nice chunk of New York Shipbuilding Corporation and some of it's complex track arrangements that should keep an operator busy for an hour or so. I just have to decide which features I like best to compress into that corner.

https://libimages1.princeton.edu/loris/figgy_prod%2Fd1%2Fd7%2F76%2Fd1d7764ab52245c984865889544b2c96%2Fintermediate_file.jp2/full/8542,/0/default.jpg

https://libimages1.princeton.edu/loris/figgy_prod%2F96%2F93%2F96%2F969396e6f6fe47128e2e44c1e8b04961%2Fintermediate_file.jp2/full/8508,/0/default.jpg

https://libimages1.princeton.edu/loris/figgy_prod%2F77%2F97%2F22%2F7797229993f24eab8ead95234d6a7171%2Fintermediate_file.jp2/full/8543,/0/default.jpg


And here's the skinny on the rest of the space:
> The left hand wall which is occupyied by the layout segment is 7' 4"
> The full length of the back wall is 13' 10"
> The right hand wall can be occupied up to 7' 6", possibly more if I convince my family to slide our ancient chest freezer over a bit.

I can go through the left hand wall to make a continuious main, and possibly some staging, but more on that later.

I was originally thinking of a C shaped layout, but to get more running space and more ops potential I'm thinking that an E shaped layout would be better. I'm thinking a minimum 36" isle width, so I have plenty of space to encroach upon once I add car-card boxes and turnout controls.

In my head the left hand wall is Camden/NYSB, and the right hand wall is Penns Grove and DuPont.
In between that (since I don't have nearly enough space to do the whole Penns Grove branch) I'll likely do Paulsboro and lump Repaupo and Bridgeport together and just refer to it as Coopers since that stop is pretty much between the two towns.

[VonRyan]

So between the layout space being a storage space once again and loosing my job back on July 3rd, there hasn't been any progress on the layout. But gosh darn it, all the talking that @David K. Smith and I have been doing about industries and complex track arrangements has me thingking about the layout again.

So at this point I'm thinking of taking the layout in a more industrial ops direction. I like the idea of having tight knit areas that make for interesting jobs during ops sessions, but that can also serve as stand-alone jobs when I'm by myself.

I'm also thinking that the overall length of my space may allow for two moderate peninsulas, or I may just stick with one nice complex peninsula.

In sticking with the basic E shape concept, the idea is this:
(Imagine you're looking at the longest wall)

> The left side of the layout will be two small industrial areas divided by the main line passing through.
> The center peninsula will be the main draw of the layout with a lot of track served industries and complex trackwprk packed in the one area.
> The right side of the layout will be more residential with a group of small industries on a sorta branch close to the fascia, and set back in the peninsula will be a turntable/roundhouse, fueling point, and a small yard.

The actual flow/shape of the layout probably won't be linear as I like the concept of a flowing fascia, especially when combined with black fascia paint, black valances, black ceilings, black under-layout skirting, and black flooring.

[nkalanaga]

If you can still go through the wall for staging, I'd do that.  An industrial area needs staging even more than a mainline-oriented layout, even if all it supplies is interchange traffic.

Or, for New Jersey, you could have the entire interchange on a car float.  If you have several barges, just swap them by hand.

[ChristianJDavis1]

So between the layout space being a storage space once again and loosing my job back on July 3rd, there hasn't been any progress on the layout. But gosh darn it, all the talking that @David K. Smith and I have been doing about industries and complex track arrangements has me thingking about the layout again.

So at this point I'm thinking of taking the layout in a more industrial ops direction. I like the idea of having tight knit areas that make for interesting jobs during ops sessions, but that can also serve as stand-alone jobs when I'm by myself.

I'm also thinking that the overall length of my space may allow for two moderate peninsulas, or I may just stick with one nice complex peninsula.

In sticking with the basic E shape concept, the idea is this:
(Imagine you're looking at the longest wall)

> The left side of the layout will be two small industrial areas divided by the main line passing through.
> The center peninsula will be the main draw of the layout with a lot of track served industries and complex trackwprk packed in the one area.
> The right side of the layout will be more residential with a group of small industries on a sorta branch close to the fascia, and set back in the peninsula will be a turntable/roundhouse, fueling point, and a small yard.

The actual flow/shape of the layout probably won't be linear as I like the concept of a flowing fascia, especially when combined with black fascia paint, black valances, black ceilings, black under-layout skirting, and black flooring.

Remember you have to include wide-radius curves and roundy-round capabilities for when I inevitably try to run anachronisms over your pike. "What do you mean the S1 never made it to Jersey?"

[VonRyan]

Remember you have to include wide-radius curves and roundy-round capabilities for when I inevitably try to run anachronisms over your pike. "What do you mean the S1 never made it to Jersey?"

The main should hopefully be accommodating to all your rolling short circuits.

[ChristianJDavis1]

The main should hopefully be accommodating to all your rolling short circuits.

Hey, you can thank me for always reminding you that you have track power.