Grand Trunk Southern

[shark_jj]

PHOTO TOUR #3

MAIN AISLE ETHANSBURG SIDE

I took this photo standing in the entranceway to the layout.  On the left you can see the mainline coming from Nathansville, through Gavinsport and then through this short wall into Ethansburg.  I didn’t remove this short section of wall since at the end of it where you can see the buildings starting there is a steel support post for the beam down the centre of the house.  In order to maintain my 18 inch minimum radius for the curve I tunneled through the wall.  On this side I chose to forego the tunnel portal approach and simply put tree up against the hole and surrounded it with backdrop.  I don’t think it gets really noticed as nobody has ever mentioned anything.  The small yard you see here supports the Proctor and Gamble plant.  As the mainline continues on to the right it will go up Clarion Hill and end up in Clarion Yard.



Looking south the mainline heads past the rear of the plant with the Clarion River to the right of the mains.  I thought this backdrop would work originally when I just had the mockups in place but as time has passed I am less sure.  I may change it out at some point.  The factory is under construction.  I acquired 3 small buildings from an estate and started to construct the other larger buildings to the same paint scheme and style and it is coming together slowly.  The roof on the large structure is not yet complete. 



This shows the plant looking north.  You can see the two entrances to the warehouse building.  The cars between buildings are pulp cars, the last open track to the right is for additives and takes covered hoppers.  All of the tanks in the chemical unloading area are just placeholders.  Currently the plant switcher is a very bright Genessee and Wyoming RS1.



In this final photo we see the mainline turning around the end of the peninsula and starting its climb up Clarion Hill.  You will notice all of those “solid” plastic fir trees on the outside edge of the curve.  When I first put scenery here I stuck to the tried and true model railroad truism “put your nicest trees in the foreground”.  I had 6 or 8 very nice Supertrees along here.  It was coming up to an Open House and I had my guys over on the Wednesday operating and then about 75 visitors on the Saturday.  By Saturday evening the number of Supertrees still standing was a big fat zero.  I put the plastic trees in and multiple operating sessions and and an Open House later, everyone one of them is still there.  Lesson learned.



Next up will be the Main Aisle Clarion Yard side.  Probably tomorrow, in a few hours we are having a 50th birthday bash for my oldest daughter and her husband.  Getting that set up is this afternoons priority.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think you are right Fredrick, we need to work both ends of the yard.  The problem is also compounded by the fact that the layout would operate most effectively with about 4 operators.  However there are 7 regulars in the group and I feel a need to keep everyone occupied and so I give in to the tendency to send trains out onto the main a little quicker than I really should so guys aren't sitting around.  Works great for the mainline guys, not so good for the Clarion Yard operator.  That is why last Saturday I was trying to limit it to 5 guys in the layout room and then dispatch accordingly.  It worked kinda so-so, I still need to slow down the pace of the mainline freights.

Make your mainline guys use Traincrew! https://traincrew.conrail1285.com/

That'll slow em down.

[CNR5529]

Make your mainline guys use Traincrew! https://traincrew.conrail1285.com/

That'll slow em down.

I actually brought this up at one previous ops session, only 2 of us ended up using it LOL.

I personally think it adds tremendously to the play value. But to put it politely, the reality is the range in operator capability spans the whole gamut, from those that can stomach working the yard to keep the railroad humming, to those that can handle a through train where the crew doesnt have to line a switch let alone set out a car. All a great bunch of guys, but adding apps and rules will undoubtedly result in all manner of chaos. I'm down for it!! 

[craigolio1]

I actually brought this up at one previous ops session, only 2 of us ended up using it LOL.

I personally think it adds tremendously to the play value. But to put it politely, the reality is the range in operator capability spans the those gamut, from those that can stomach working the yard to keep the railroad humming, to those that can handle a through train where the crew doesnt have to line a switch let alone set out a car. All a great bunch of guys, but adding apps and rules will undoubtedly result in all manner of chaos. I'm down for it!! 

You could phase something like that in. Start with something simple. Like a break pressure build timer or what ever that would be called. Easy. Eats time. Likely not stressful.

[shark_jj]

When it comes to operations the most valid point is the one made by Fredrick.  The individuals in my regular group run the full gamut of operating skills.  Not only do their skills run the gamut but their desire to do anything but "run trains" runs the gamut.  At the end of the day I want the guys to have fun and enjoy running the layout while prodding them towards as much prototypical operation as I can.  I take baby steps.  For this operating session I reprogrammed all 60 locomotives to have a top end of 50 scale mph and lined up the speed tables so that the number showing on the throttle reflected scale mph.  I then gave the guys instructions on what the acceptable speeds were in various parts of the layout.  It worked, they respected the speed limits and train speed slowed down and were more prototypical.  I'll keep trying things that I think they will accept that both enhances the operations and keeps it fun for them.

[shark_jj]

PHOTO TOUR #4

MAIN AISLE CLARION YARD SIDE

This photo shows the South entrance to Clarion Yard.  This large open area was going to hold a City scene and the engine terminal was going to be at the other end of the yard where the Power Plant is located.  I would lose the Power Plant which I wasn’t overally happy about.  About a year ago I laid out the engine terminal here, found it would fit and it has found a new home and the Power Plant stays.  The one issue I do have here is that the buildings in the foreground are hiding a couple of switches which are important in deciding what track you take in entering the yard.  Its only a couple  of inches but moving those industry tracks right to the edge of the fascia opens up the viewing of the switches, so once the Open House is done that will be a winter project.  Underneath the yard you can see the “hidden” trackage running from Nathansville to Gavinsport.  There is a hidden siding here which I use for the Turbo and a couple of track cleaning cars.



In this photo we see switches for this end of the yard.  There are 3 yards.  The Turbo is sitting on the Freight Main.  The track in front of it is the Passenger Main.  The 3 tracks immediately behind the Turbo are Arrival/Departure tracks used by through freights to exchange cars with the yard.  The next 4 tracks are Clarion Yard where cars for interchange or local service are stored and classified.  The next track up is a run around track which runs the length of the yard between the Classification yard and the Staging Yard.  The staging yard with 5 trains waiting for departure can be clearly seen.  This photo was taken just prior to the operating session.  In the past the engines were in the terminal and operators had to get their engines and their cabooses and place them on the trains.  It had caused a lot of congestion in the yard area and so for this session I preset the Staging Yard.  For the Open House, none of these engines will be on trains and it will just look like an extension of Clarion yard.   All of the buildings in Clarion are currently just placeholders.  With the exception of the industries I still have to decide on what I actually want this to look like. 



We are now at the North end of Clarion Yard.  The Power Plant is located here and this is a good view of the “daylighting” of the hidden trackage under the yard.  Opening the fascia for access to this track and visually seeing your train moving was one of my best decisions.  I do plan some type of scenic application on this trackage to get rid of the plywood look. 

[shark_jj]

PHOTO TOUR #5

GAVINSPORT AISLE

On the left we can see the area that I have been working on recently and have been posting about.  The track on the left is Clarion Hill and leads from Ethansburg up across the double bridge you can see centre right and continues on into Clarion Yard.  The small town on the right is Gavinsport and it is on the lower level.  The track from Nathansville arrives from the right and then goes through the wall and into Ethansburg.  This is the one area where my choice of backdrop was a little wonky.  I should have picked something a little lighter for that center section.  I still have to blend the foreground so I will see what I can achieve using trees to disguise the transitions.  Again we see that bright masking tape where I taped up instructions for the Gavinsport Local.  The building in the foreground needs to be finished and will become a horse barn on a little farm going into this area.  I built this back in 2000 when I was transitioning from HO Scale to N Scale as a proof of concept that I could work in the smaller scale. 



In this photo we can see the track layout in Gavinsport.  In the distance you can see the tunnel through the wall.  I’m hoping to have all the plywood in this town covered before the Open House. 

[shark_jj]

Lower Level staging has 14 tracks each of which is over 20 feet long.  There are two yards of 7 tracks joined by a return loop at the far end.  When coupled with the helix and the upper level trackage the entire layout becomes a loop. I can stage up to 28 trains from here.  I currently stage about 8 since 11 trains have been moved to the Upper Level staging tracks.  I am seriously considering some changes to this yard but moving slowly since I don’t want to take it out and then find I regret it.  Photos show the entire yard.



This photo shows the centre of the staging yards and underneath we can see the DCC Command Station setup. 





That concludes the layout tour.  The Grand Trunk Southern is still very much a work in progress.

[NorthWestGN]

Great layout tour John! Greatly impressed by both the backdrop integration with your scenery and the huge staging area in particular but everything looks well done...

Brent

[Tad_T]

Nice work, I really like your staging, as well.

Could you show how you have your reverse loop set up for that?

Thanks,

Tad

[shark_jj]

The reverse loop is located underneath the far end of the upper yard.  It is a simple 18 in radius loop joining the 7 track front yard and the 7 track rear yard.  Here are a couple of photos.  Ignore the E8's sitting on the benchwork, they are waiting for me to set the speed tables on their decoders.  Since you asked about the staging yards, I will share that I am pretty certain that I will rebuild the yard throats this winter.  I had decided on Lo Pro wheels as the standard and was finding that I was having a lot of derailment issues with the Peco Code 80 turnouts in the staging yard.  They are insulfrogs and the frogs are very sloppy particularly with LoPro wheels.  There have been threads on the Wire on adding shims to address this problem.   I was experiencing no problems on the visible parts of the layout which are Atlas Code 55 track and turnouts.  Quite separately my modelling buddy and I had discussed this and an article by Brian Morgan a number of years ago where he tested numerous types of trucks and wheels, and I had decided to completely change the trucks on all my freight cars, eliminating Atlas trucks and Unimate couplers.  I standardized on MicroTrains trucks, couplers and Mid Pro wheels.  This is about 80% complete and has reduced the derailments significantly, but not completely.  I am going to be doing some additional testing myself over the next couple of weeks before i finally commit to the changes. 

[Tad_T]

Thanks for pictures. 

That looks like a pretty versatile way to do that. Come into the opposite yard from the one you want to tie down your train, make the loop, and take the track that you need to be on and then your staged for the next session.

Thanks again,

Tad

[shark_jj]

Several weeks ago I posted on the Weekend Update about my realization that the shims on Peco Code 80 switches go on the guardrails and not on the frog as I previously thought.  That changed all of my thinking about the problems I was having with my staging yard throats.  I have run trains in and out of the staging yards over the last couple of weeks without a single derailment.  Here is a photo of where I put the shims.  There is also a couple of photos of my grandson installing them in the tight space between the two levels.  He and I retrofitted all 24 turnouts in staging in about 90 minutes or so. 

[shark_jj]

A few weeks back my wife decided that she wanted to replace the carpet in all 3 bedrooms.  Before all was said and done we had contracted to replace all of the interior doors on the main floor, replace all of the trim in the bedrooms, paint all 3 bedrooms, and replace the carpet.  In addition she found a new sofa and loveseat for the living room and that's on order.  Needless to say, the layout has been on the backburner.  I finally had a little bit of time this week and with the layout tour only a couple of weeks away, there were a couple of jobs I wanted to tackle.  Over the next few days, I'll post about them.  The first job was to finish off the backdrop scenery in the Gavinsport area and to deal with a problem which had shown up at the last operating session.  I only have a few 40 foot HiCubes so they don't run very often.  We ran one that night and as the train entered the tunnel portal between Gavinsport and Ethansburg, I heard a clunk and the train stopped dead.  The HiCube didn't clear the tunnel portal.  That was problem #1.  I used the same solution as the prototype and ground out the tunnel portal to fit the new taller cars. 

Problem #2 arose when I tried to paint the retaining wall on the left side of the portal.  This was a Woodland Scenics step down wall and it just would take the paint.  I could have tried washing it, but made the decision to tear it out and replace it with a rock wall. 

With these two problems solved I moved forward with the scenery.  Here are some photos showing the progress.

Photo showing the problem with the tunnel portal.



Photo showing the solution for the tunnel portal.



Retaining wall removed



New rock cast in place.



Second rock casting put in place to the right of the tunnel portal.



Colour added to the rock castings





 

[shark_jj]

With the plastering and rockwork done, I moved on to ground cover, trees, and shrubs.  I still have some more ground cover to add but it's getting there.