Illinois Central/Canadian National in N scale

[DKS]

One way to still have a branch is to nix the large industry on the right.  And instead have a curved turnout coming off the main going to the staging yard in the upper right corner...

An even easier way is to simply pretend the staging yard connection doesn't exist, and use it only for roundy sessions.

Or... for a physically real challenge, make the room access bridge functional, and leave it down for ops.

[Philip H]

An even easier way is to simply pretend the staging yard connection doesn't exist, and use it only for roundy sessions.

Or... for a physically real challenge, make the room access bridge functional, and leave it down for ops.

This!

[Specter3]

Ohhh this gets better and better. Move the switch for the right staging lead to the edge of the lower town and run it on the far side of the creek like mentioned before. The line to the top town runs closer to the edge on this side of the creek. Make the switch look like it used to be a crossing of two competeing roads at grade that merged and gave up redundant trackage. The line to the top town is a former main but now branch that serves the grain elevator town. Reverse the switch for the industry in the lower left corner and that will be the real end of the branch line. When doing ops you can store unused rolling stock on the left staging lead just like real railroads do. They would need to be old and beat up though and would simply disappear into the woods. This would be really neat.

[DKS]

[MichaelWinicki]

Hmm... That's pretty cool Dave.

[nscalemike]

So much good stuff to think about here.  My feelings are leaning towards one of the two latest versions by DKS:

We don't think there is getting to be too much?

Anyone want to throw out some ops ideas?

I really appreciate the feedback and the conversation here guys!

Mike

[Bendtracker1]

I really like the junction on the right side in the second plan but I think I would keep the industry by the safe the way it's drawn in the first plan.

[MichaelWinicki]

I like the last one.

The junction is terrific.

I don't think it's too much.  You still have a lot of places that are scenery heavy.

Operations?

All depends on how you want to treat the upper town/industrial complex.  Would you treat it as a branch or as a continuous run thing?

But really you've got a ton of operating potential– heck I could see at least 4 different locals being run during a typical ops session... Add a couple through-freights and you've got a couple hours worth of fun!

[nscalemike]

Operations?

All depends on how you want to treat the upper town/industrial complex.  Would you treat it as a branch or as a continuous run thing?

But really you've got a ton of operating potential– heck I could see at least 4 different locals being run during a typical ops session... Add a couple through-freights and you've got a couple hours worth of fun!

Michael,

Assuming the pick is the last one can you identify the locals.  This is where I really start to struggle.   You mentioned 4 locals at least.    I see one for the bottom town, one for the river industry, one for the top town but I may be way off base here.  Also, where would you originate them from?  As far as branch or continous run, I don't know.  To operate by myself it will be branch I would think.  To operate with others I would probably like to include through trains from staging to staging.  On occasion I may find myself with a through train as well.  Couple of hours of fun I can certainly see.  I just don't understand the set up of operations.  I can follow the car cards/switch lists/etc and enjoy that, but the development of those is a skill I don't have.

Mike

[MichaelWinicki]

Here are my quick thoughts...

You could mix up the order the locals from session to session.

Local 1- coming out of the left hand side of staging, it would switch out the industry on the left and would proceed to the town and switch out most of the industries there. 

Local 2 (dedicated to the feed mill complex)- Coming out of the right hand side of staging, it would proceed around the layout and enter the branch.  Depending upon how you wanted to deal with it, this local could either switch out the feed mill complex OR you would station a switcher in this town and the switcher would deal with the feed mill. 

Local 3- Coming out of the right hand side of staging, it would proceed to the bottom town and switch out the large industry.  If you wanted more fun, leave an industry or two unswitched from Local 1 and have Local 3 switch them out.

Local 4- Coming out of the right hand side of staging, it would proceed around the layout and enter the branch.  It would either switch out all the industries that weren't part of the feed mill complex OR you could have a locally stationed switcher handle it.   One thing to consider about leaving a switcher at the upper town is that either local could leave extra cars on one of the double-ended tracks so that throughout the session the switcher could make a double run to say the feed mill complex or the interchange track (on the premise the connecting road has a couple different trains pick up and drop off cars during the day). 

[nscalemike]

David,

Is it possible to move the crossing up about a foot to create a bit more seperation from that and the industry behind it.  The turnout from the staging main to the layout main does not need to be there.  I think I would model it with the old switch laying next to the track, fresh ballast where they recently took the switch out and closed the crossing.  That leaves one switch going through the crossing, and into the branch.  Does this make sense, would it work, and would it look good?  Also, can you flip the safe industry back to the original orientation?

I am going to review the suggestions on the ops plans overnight.  Before I pull the plug I want to know how this is going to operate and make sure I am comfortable with that aspect as well. 

More to come soon. . . .

Mike

[DKS]

[Specter3]

I would look at tucking the large industry further down before I moved the crossing up. Your idea of removing the switch leading to the crossing is good. In fact removing the crossing altogether and having it laying on the side of the embankment with dead track on either side and no switch is what I was shooting for in my original post. The only reason I said turn the safe industry around is to run ops without the duckunder in place as some others mentioned. Can you move it far enough around that there is a short lead that can be worked with the duckunder removed? Again playing on the last thing on the branch idea.

[DKS]

I would look at tucking the large industry further down before I moved the crossing up. Your idea of removing the switch leading to the crossing is good. In fact removing the crossing altogether and having it laying on the side of the embankment with dead track on either side and no switch is what I was shooting for in my original post. The only reason I said turn the safe industry around is to run ops without the duckunder in place as some others mentioned. Can you move it far enough around that there is a short lead that can be worked with the duckunder removed? Again playing on the last thing on the branch idea.

I actually did both, move the crossing up a little, and the industry down. Neither one can go much further.

Moving the safe industry up is a lot harder because of the geometry of the two curved lines. A really long curved switch would be about the only good solution--the standard Atlas curved switch is too tight, and squeezing a #10 or even a #7 in there literally puts a kink in the nice smooth arcs.

(A thought: as a joke, make the industry by the safe a safe manufacturer. Yuk, yuk.)

[Specter3]

Ahh the beat me to the punch response that makes me look like I'm blind. No problem. That is what I get for dealing with kids getting ready for school while I try and compose a post.