Delaware & Hudson - Champlain Division

[bdennis]

All,
I thought I would share the work Im undertaking in planning a new layout.
The space I have is in a purpose built 10.5 meter by 6 meter shed. The first 3 meters of the she is occupied by a workshop and the remaining 7.5 x 6 meters is all railway rooom.

I model the Delaware & Hudson in N scale and am planing on building my second and some what larger layout than the one I have now.

The shed is ready and is a steel frame shed and is now fully lined and painted.

Here are some rough track plans for the mainly single level (staging under the main level) layout.

I plan on running trains that are up to 22 50ft cars, 2 x 6 axle loco's and a caboose.
The layout will be in the period of 1968 to 1985.
This will enable me to use both first generation RS2, RS3, S2 and S4's all the way through to the Alco C424's and GP38-2 and GP39-2's.

All measurements are metric and each square is 100mm.


The track plan shown is rough so there is a lot of work to do in planing each town.


While each town will be given a real location on the D&H, the track layout will be freelance to best make the layout suited to operations.

[davefoxx]

A great start.  I look forward to seeing your layout come to fruition.  If it were me, especially if you plan on having several people operate the layout at a time, I would consider losing one peninsula, so you can expand your aisles.  They look tight with sections of 700 to 900 cm.  (That's only 28" to 36" for those of us here in the U.S.)

DFF

[Stourbridge Lion]

Look forward to following this one!!!   

[MichaelWinicki]

A great start.  I look forward to seeing your layout come to fruition.  If it were me, especially if you plan on having several people operate the layout at a time, I would consider losing one peninsula, so you can expand your aisles.  They look tight with sections of 700 to 900 cm.  (That's only 28" to 36" for those of us here in the U.S.)

DFF

Great point on the aisle-width Dave. 

Wider = Much better.  Or should I say much more comfortable operating the pike.

[bdennis]

Dave,
Thanks for the comment. I am mindful of the widths and am trying to limit the traffic (people) in those locations and not have towns on either side of the isle at the same time.
I agree that 700mm (28") is tight in that one location. I think one fix would be to reduce the size of the ends of the two other peninsula's and thus give more space.

[GaryHinshaw]

I don't mean this in a negative way at all, but this strikes me as a very ambitious, but also somewhat generic plan.   It's ambitious in the sense that you have a very large space, and the active layout area is almost completely covered with track; but generic in the sense that the footprint is entirely linear peninsulas with turn-backs, which don't readily betray any specific geography.

If you have a large crew and plan switching-intensive ops, then this is great.  But as Dave suggests, I'd be tempted to remove one peninsula, and let the remainder of the plan "float" a little bit, with an eye towards capturing some specific scenes more faithfully.  (You have an excellent prototype to emulate!)  I'm thinking of something along the lines of the NEB&W layout.  Even with 75% of the turnouts you have, you could still have some very intensive operating sessions.

Regardless, I look forward to seeing your progress.

-Gary

[Philip H]

Where's that dead horse?  I think you need to remove the cement plant peninsula, shorten the other two so they are 900 to 1000cm from teh crossing benchwork, and move them towards each other to create an aisle thats about 1200cm wide.  do that and you'll preserve the most iconic scenes from your prototype, give yourself plenty of operating potential, and still have room for more horizontally enhanced modelers to come by.

[bdennis]

Gents,
Thanks for the feedback.

Gary,
Yes at this point it is a generic plan and very rough at that. The track plan is only a very first pass.
They key primary plan for the layout will be operations with a JMRI CTC Panel and a despatcher.
Thanks for the link re the NEW&W. I agree the rounded lines look great and less clinical.
I will study the plan and try and work things into it.

Phil,
Thanks for the tips. Per Garry, I will have a play with things and make it more fluid.

In terms of Iconic scenes.. I do want to add a number but the challenge is that they are each end of the system and were used a different times.
To name a few.
Lake Champlain
Under Sturrucca Viaduct
The reverse moves to go around the Tunnel on the old Erie from Binghamton.
Little Sturucca
Nicholson Viaduct
Oneonta
Unique stations
D&H specific Signals (I have that covered)
just to name a few.

Please keep the feedback coming.

[peteski]

Bdennis,  for the last few years I have been part of the construction crew of a large multi-level N scale layout which happens to be located in the same area you're modeling. The owner of that layout, Rand Hoven, has a blog.  http://albanysusquehanna.blogspot.com/2008/04/plan.html He hasn't been updating it too frequently but it might give you some ideas.  He will also operate it form a CTC panel in JMRI.

The layout is supposed to be part Tour de Chooch this year, so if you happen to be in the New England area during that weekend, you could visit it in person and talk with Rand. Rand grew up around the area he is modeling.

[bdennis]

Peteski,
Thanks for the link. I will have a read.

In terms of visiting.. I would love to, however, the Pacific Ocean and the span of the continent of the USA stands between me and New York State.. (I live in Australia and model the D&H from a distance). I hope to 1 day visit the US and New York State..

[LIRR]

The multiple peninsulas provide a nice, long mainline run, which is why I wouldn’t eliminate one of them. But I operate alone mostly, so aisle widths aren’t that much of a concern for me. What I would do, is eliminate either town 2 or town 3 to provide a longer run (of a train-length at least) between the two. My original plan also had a town on each side of the same peninsula. I laid a track thru one of them as a temporary measure to get trains running, figured I’d go back and build the town once I acquired more switches and/or other areas were all set with track work and wiring. Needless to say, I never did go back and build the town. It quickly became apparent I had plenty to work on and plenty of operational potential without this town. Now I have a scenic, uninterrupted run of about 3 to 4 train lengths along one side. Good luck. Looking forward to photos.   

[bdennis]

All,
Just thought I would provide an update.
While planing the next version of the D&H, I have been working to complete the signaling install on my current version of the D&H Second Sub.
Here are a few pics of the signals installed.
The D&H had two types of Dual mast signals.




While the colours have not come out well in the pics, they do look nice in person.

[S Class]

Peteski,
Thanks for the link. I will have a read.

In terms of visiting.. I would love to, however, the Pacific Ocean and the span of the continent of the USA stands between me and New York State.. (I live in Australia and model the D&H from a distance). I hope to 1 day visit the US and New York State..

Another Aussie, excellent we're slowly gaining control muhahahaha!

Where are you based out of, if you don't mind me asking?

[bdennis]

Tony,
Am in Melbourne and will be at the Melb N scale convention in 2 weeks time.. You coming?

Regards
Brendan

[Philip H]

All,
Just thought I would provide an update.
While planing the next version of the D&H, I have been working to complete the signaling install on my current version of the D&H Second Sub.
Here are a few pics of the signals installed.
The D&H had two types of Dual mast signals.

Those are outstanding!  How'd you put them together?