Amoskeag Northern - Simonds Industrial Branch

[Catt]

I like that blue building if for no other reason than it actually looks big enough to warrant rail service

[Ian MacMillan]

It.

Returns.

[wazzou]

It.

Returns.

HO still, or N?

[Ian MacMillan]

HO still, or N?

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[Ed Kapuscinski]

N scale. @Ian MacMillan saw the light, and by light, I mean @scaletrains SD40-2s.

[bbussey]

WOW ... Back to N! 

[Ian MacMillan]

And the Santa Fe Dash 8 is just a one off...my son Cody is obsessed with Santa Fe for some reason...that and SP Daylights...

The only funny thing about it is how Cody says Santa Fe like he's introducing the Foo Fighters on SNL...

[John]

You making it modular to allow moving?

[Ian MacMillan]

You making it modular to allow moving?

Not really but will be able to be moved when necessary.

Will be able to work on some projects for it though while I'm off in some places for work.

[Ian MacMillan]

Its a work in progress, but it allows for some really long trains as well as switching. I've got 3 plans (well 4 ones a slight change) that I am bouncing around. The first one adds quite a bit of interest in that it has a lot going on around the station. CR, Guilford, Amtrak and a short line all come in here and you have operations similar to how the Springfield Amtrak station works in the 90s and today. The layout is pretty much representing one city. The bottom half of the layout is RR west, and contains 3 major switching areas in the form of 2 large warehouses and 1 C&D facility.

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The 2nd plan splits the room into City and Mountain. CR and Guilford come in from the top left, go through the city and then the layout transitions into the mountain region via a view block to the bottom part of the layout. Loses a lot of switching and mainly focuses on long trains through scenes. You also lose operational interest in the loss of a lot of passenger and shortline interactions.

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This is pretty much a combo of both. You still lose a lot of operations around the station, but you get some of the industrial switching back and the mainline is significantly extended. As the mainline goes out onto the peninsula it turns back via hidden trackage, only to reappear out of a tunnel on the bottom right and you are now in a mountain scene where the track meanders along the terrain before going back into staging.

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[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like option 3. It tells both parts of the Boston Line "story": mountains and urbanization.

And *****, "winding through the hills" isn't really what you want to do. Some gentle curves will likely do the job.
At least, that's what it seems like to me: https://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/galleries/conrails-boston-line

[garethashenden]

Western Massachusetts is pretty hilly, especially on the B&A. That's where the 2-8-4 earned it name after all.

[chessie system fan]

Whichever plan you choose, I recommend giving yourself at least a little space between the tracks and the isle.  This is both for derailments not turning into disasters but also for realistic scene design/photo options.

[Ian MacMillan]

Whichever plan you choose, I recommend giving yourself at least a little space between the tracks and the isle.  This is both for derailments not turning into disasters but also for realistic scene design/photo options.

Theres a lot of space, that's a 24" grid and the stuff right at the edge is hidden protected track.

Western Massachusetts is pretty hilly, especially on the B&A. That's where the 2-8-4 earned it name after all.

This isnt MA

[Ian MacMillan]

A bit more tweaking and I think this is the general concept of what I am doing with. I eliminated the peninsula as while it adds to the run length it really kind of clutters the room and additionally was causing some concern if it was a bit too much work wise. Currently I have a few things in flux that causes the next year to really be up in the air, the current status is standby to standby, but that could change in a moment's notice. So, with that, on the right side of the layout I'm planning to put a 2' view block separating the "city" and "mountain" side of the layout.  Additionally, you could always add the peninsula back in with minimal changes to the "main" layout in the future.  I sill want to tweak the mountain trackage a tad, but the physical layout of the benchwork is finalized.

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