Allegheny Eastern: Clean Slate

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Downtown Average

I discovered that the revised trackage for the Average interchange wouldn't work. I had added a lengthy drill track, but it wasn't in the right place. While trying to get a cut of cars from the interchange to the yard I realized I had no where to go. The main culprit lay in this collection of turnouts...

Average: Bad Design

I had to fool around with things a while, but this modification seems to work. At least it seems to for the present....

Average: Revised Yard Throat

I've made up a few trains in the yard and switched the interchange without fouling the main or running out of room. The drill track can handle about ten 40' cars and a 2-8-0 locomtive. The industry lead for ACME Corporation is now east of here off the main stem. I added a turnout at the east end of the drill track, essentially creating a run around. The locomotive can now escape if need be. It also serves as an alternate route to the yard....

Average: ACME Corporation

With the yard redesigned I found I now had room to model the town of Average to some extent. It's main drag, Muir Street, parallels the tracks for its entire length. Most of the names are from businesses or people I knew in Philly. Muir Street itself is named for a friend and colleague from my Train Simulator days...

"Downtown" Average

The Studebaker dealer is named for a real one in Forsythe, Georgia. The photo was taken in March of 1955...

Zellner & Howard Studebaker

I just noticed I managed to misspell it on the trackplan 

Like the Studebaker dealership, I tried to incorporate things that were once common place but are now just memories. All of the service stations represent oil companies that no longer exist or merged into oblivion. Names like Flying "A", Sinclair and Cities Service were everywhere. Mobil still exists, but its Pegasus symbol is no longer as prominent as it was back in the day...

Mobil Gas Station Sign

I suppose now I'll have to add a Hudson dealer at Owertown.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

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Nothing big, just another small change to the plan. I repalced ACME Corporation with American Cartage...

It's a general LCL freight house / team track. Seemed like a more realistic way to use the space.

Also added a Hudson and a Ford dealer at Owertown. Not sure I'll actually model them, but I'd like to.

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Construction...Er...Reconstruction Begins

Having spent what seems an eternity on the track plan, I started to print it out full size. The first hardcopy was the town of Average and it's main drag, Muir Street. I printed 8.5" x 11" sections and taped them together. I know Kinko's will print my plan in 3' x 15' strips but on larger layouts it gets expensive pretty quick.

Anyhow, I laid the resulting 9' long drawing down in the long hallway in our home. I then grabbed a few odds and ends from the garage to check the scale of the drawing. I "mocked up" the area around the Studebaker dealer...

Average: "Mockup" of Muir Street

This is the most detailed track plan I've ever done and it was pretty cool to see it full size. It's ambitious, to say the least...

Average: 1:1 Scale

There were a few things I needed to learn based on this printout. For those who may use XTrackCAD some advice on the print settings...Best to print as many "tiles" as you can at the same time. I printed in batches and sometimes the ruler marks seem to change. It was as if the basepoint of the drawing had shifted. To get the most real estate out of each tile I suggest you make sure "Engineering Data" and "Ignore Page Margins" are NOT checked....

XTrackCAD Print Settings

Once I figured that out (sort of) I printed out the rest of the layout. Roughly 330 pages later (the trimming takes forever) I started assembling the tiles into cohesive strips. I split the layout into 4 basic areas. Average, Owertown and East End are separate sheets about 4' wide and over 12' long. The two 4' x 5' peninsulas, Quotidian and Alpha, are separate sheets.

Pile of Printouts

This time around I'm combining two ideas tested in previous incarnations. The styrospline road bed will be used again, much of it quite literally. The stuff is flexible enough that it can be reused and recurved if need be. A lot of four track roadbed will be split to make single track right of way. Rather than mount the styrofoam over open benchwork, I've decided to put a "top" on the "storage system" that supports the layout. The top isn't to lay track on, it serves more as a safety net for trains that happen to leave the track. The 600 scale foot drop to the concrete has cost some money in rolling stock and motive power. The top will reduce that plunge to mere inches. No more Kato Mikados vaporizing on impact. It will also help keep the mess of the layout construction out of the storage area, a concern that was recently brought to my attention by a certain female personage.

Once the top is installed all the paperwork gets glued down with wallpaper paste...Makes sense, right?

In other news...Now that I've acquired the AE's first 2-8-0 there is self-imposed moratorium on major purchases like locomotives, That, of course, does not apply in those cases where it would be stupid not to buy something. Still, it really doesn't make much sense to buy more trains until there's track to run them on.

Apart from that, I'm slowly acquiring bits and pieces for scenery and the like. Vehicles for the good people of my small towns are being purchased from fellow "Railwirian" who goes by the user name of Rasputen. I feel his resin vehicles are among the best available in N scale. Separately castings for the body and the interior/chassis allows "see thru" construction. This is done without the oversize window posts found on other cast vehicles. There is some flash that needs to be removed but once that's out of the way...

"See Thru" Vehicles

There's no "glass" in the window openings, but that's just fine with me. Maybe if I can find something clear enough to reveal the interior I'll install "windows". I think these models provide excellent craftmanship at an affordable price. In addition to the ones I already own I just ordered a small herd of 1950 Studebaker "Starlight" coupes for Zellner & Howard, the dealership in Average...

Muir Street: Studebaker Dealer

1950 Starlight Coupes

While we're talking about vehicles, another source I use is the E-Bay store Willmodels. The resin models are highly detailed and affordable. They lack the open windows but that's not a problem. Besides, where else can I get  trucks like these...

Muir Street: GMC Cab Over Moving Van and Semi

Just to be fair I do own Mini-Metals models, but they get rather expensive on a larger layout. I also have problems with the appearance of the N scale vehicles. The HO scale are absolutely beautiful but lose a lot in translation. I really don't feel the 1:160 models are worth the price, especially when compared to the resin products mentioned above.

This payday the top goes onto the benchwork and roadbed construction will start. I'm really anxious to get started.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad

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While laying out the full size print on the benchwork it was painfully obvious I missed something. The corner of the layout where the Average engine house is supposed to go ISN'T THERE! It's cut at a 45' angle.

WRONG!!!

I had to redesign the entire corner so I could spin the enginehouse 180'...

Corrected Drawing

Once I reprinted and trimmed the 54 pages that make up this one corner I was able to procede. Hope that doesn't happen again.