PRR/Conrail Juniata Division Engineering Report

[Dave V]

Here's what DFF is proposing:

@davefoxx, @eric220, I've been letting this really sink in.  And, I've been making inroads into dropping anchor here in Colorado Springs.  I really think that this particular arrangement is optimal and doable.  The compromise is, of course, a stub-ended staging yard, but let's honest...  Unless I go to a completely around-the-walls plan, the only option I have to get the staging capacity the Middle Division would need is stub-ended.  Using a #7 or #10 turnout off the main should help alleviate problems in long back-up moves and--since is just staging--I'd lay that 1 foot wide shelf with Unitrack (minimally scenicked with some weeds, ballast, and cinder).  The rest of the layout would be laid with my now-robust stockpile of code 55 track.  I may not have enough flex, but I plan to lay the centers of curves with sectional 55 in order to remove any and all kinks.

This still leaves an abbreviated Enola, so at best I would capture the diesel house, pit tracks, cabin pimple, and a handful of class tracks, so at that point Enola becomes another scenic feature rather than real operational interest.  I can, however, simulate power changes there, so that's something.

This weekend I'll see if my wife's willing to help me re-orient the existing JD by 180 degrees to start the process.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

This is great news. Now less chit chat and more work 

[davefoxx]

This weekend I'll see if my wife's willing to help me re-orient the existing JD by 180 degrees to start the process.

Yay!  Glad you're back!

Sincerely,
The N Scale JD Foamers

[chicken45]

So if you do put down roots...what would "the big one" be? Would you do more doors or something more permanent?

[eric220]

Excellent! I was actually feeling kind of guilty, scared that DFF and I scared you off of the project. Looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.

[Rich_S]

Of course, there's always Penn Central...

Now you're speaking my language  I was 7 when the P-company and Central merged, so there I have a very limited memory of the P-company, but I grew up with the Penn Central. Of course the Penn Central I remember was endless trains that had GP38's, SD40's, SD45's and C630's as power. The PC was also starting to use GP40's on Truc-Trains. You usually only saw GP7's and GP9's on local jobs. Conrail continued the GP40 four axle tradition on the Trail Van's. Oh those were the days...

[Rich_S]

Dave, How difficult would it be to put the JD on casters? To free up floor space you could do something like this,



Then when you wanted to take photo's or video of the layout simply roll it away from the wall a few feet? You have to forgive me, my memory is not as good as it use to be I can't remember if your train room has carpeting and the height of your son's layout?  Having both layouts on casters might help as long as your train room does not have deep pile carpeting? Also if your son's layout sits lower, you could extend the blue staging section over his layout. When he wants to work on his layout, just pull it out from under the JD staging yard section. Something to think about and it's good to see trains rolling again on the Juniata Division 

[Dave V]

Putting it on casters is a non-starter on several counts...

1)   The room is carpeted.  Not deep pile, but with decent padding underneath.  I did this so that I could resell the house quickly if necessary and more importantly to make it more comfortable to stand and work (I had spinal fusion surgery 3 years ago).  Casters + carpet = frustration.

2)  I store stuff under the layout that has nowhere else to go.

3)  Moving a layout with trains on it never ends well.  On a good day it can take me up to 30 minutes to properly populate the layout with trains from their boxes, so not worth removing them either.  But even a slight bump of the JD now on its telescoping legs and I typically knock some trains over.

4)  The torque applied to the layout joints while moving the layout would cause significant problems over time.

Thanks for the idea, but if it got too crowded in there I'd just evict my son's layout and send it to his room.

[Dave V]

Okay, looks like this weekend is a wash for layout work...

The first thing is I'd forgotten (I don't know how) that this weekend is the All Colorado Beer Festival, so yeah...  Saturday night is spoken for!  The other thing is we've been needing to replace our deck due to rot (yes, even in Colorado) and the deck guy just bumped us up to next week.  So when I'm not stumbling from beer counter to beer counter with my pretzel necklace I'll be removing everything from the top of and out under the deck.  We also need to dig up and move our garden because the new deck will be an extra 2' farther out.

Even the G scale Rio Grande Southern will suffer some temporary track and roadbed removal during this process.

[chicken45]

...So when I'm not stumbling from beer counter to beer counter with my pretzel necklace I'll be removing everything from the top of and out under the deck.

I'd like to see a photo of this, please, when it happens.

[Bsklarski]

I like it. I think it will be manageable for you. If you scroll back alot of pages ago you will see that is pretty much the track plan I suggested Now you need some of those Paragon Cenntipedes

[OldEastRR]

Is it possible to put racks on the walls so you can hang sections of layout? What I'm thinking of is sections that can be slid/inserted and bolted onto the rack arms. This would make them portable for moving to a new house or incorporating into a larger layout. Bridging a doorway temporarily for a session would also be feasible (for connecting two permanent sections of the layout). That would be the only section that needs detachable wiring/track connections. The other rack sections would have fixed track and electrical joints, like a single layout. The tracks and wiring between each section would be cut only when the whole layout is being dismantled or moved. This eliminates lots of track gaps and bulky wire connectors.
Obviously these would be narrow sections, but you can put a lot of detail into an 8-12" wide layout section.

[Dave V]

At the very least I was thinking of mounting the staging yard on shelf brackets, so yeah, that's an idea.

I may graduate away from the telescoping folding legs and put the JD on a real set of rigid legs.  It would also allow me to get a better viewing height.

[davefoxx]

Dave,

As you may recall, the Virginia Central's 12" x 80" Yard-on-a-Shelf was mounted on two shelf brackets.  They worked great, and there was minimal damage to the walls.  Like you, I had freshly painted walls, so matching the paint was no problem and did not require repainting the entire room when the Virginia Central was decommissioned.

DFF

[Dave V]

I saw this Howard Fogg painting on the Pennsylvania Railroad Facebook page and I saw exactly what I want to reproduce on the newer portion of the JD.



As for the other side, after watching the evolution of ScrewySqrl's layout I began to wonder if even the engine terminal portion of Enola is worth attempting.  I *could* pull a Todd Treaster and add more scenic running....or I could approach Huntingdon again.  Dunno.  All I know for sure is that for the side on the inside of the "U" I want it to look like the scene above.