Missouri Pacific Arkansas Division, Hoxie Sub-Jacksonville Industrial Park

[davefoxx]

Also, the track that leads to staging upper right, would that be better with a right turnout to lessen the S curve there and to ease into the curve better?

What DKS has done is prototypically put the mainline (higher speed) through the straight route of the turnout and the lesser speed staging lead through the curved side of the turnout.  That S-curve will be minor and, if installed properly with some transitions in the curves, should not cause a problem.  I'd leave it as designed.

DFF

[wazzou]

What DKS has done is prototypically put the mainline (higher speed) through the straight route of the turnout and the lesser speed staging lead through the curved side of the turnout.  That S-curve will be minor and, if installed properly with some transitions in the curves, should not cause a problem.  I'd leave it as designed.

DFF

Agreed.

[MichaelT]

What DKS has done is prototypically put the mainline (higher speed) through the straight route of the turnout and the lesser speed staging lead through the curved side of the turnout.  That S-curve will be minor and, if installed properly with some transitions in the curves, should not cause a problem.  I'd leave it as designed.
DFF

Ahh, that's why I like reading you guys...y'all are on top of your crafts! thanks.

[MichaelT]

Before I start gluing stuff down, I wanted to get a little more advice on this project. I tried to link a google maps page of the shortline here in town.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=34.868609,-92.125726&spn=0.03345,0.052314&t=m&z=15

Coming off the wye (which only has the north or right leg connected, the branch goes west to Warehouse row (two warehouses for general freight and aluminum products for one company) , then jogs north to the box company (siding by itself), plastics industry, chemical producer (the two sidings close to each other), and then goes another 1/4 mile and ends (track that used to go to the air base has been pulled). I'm adding the cabinet company at the end of the branchline where the industry was but did not have rail access (I'm taking builders license and adding that myself).

So here's my thought. Adapting the plan that David listed currently there is the double mainline, and I'm wondering if that is necessary to resemble this branch? Yes it's small (only 2.8 miles in length from the mainline), but even when Mopac owned the line it was not much different now than it was then. It was busier when Mopac ran it than now which will help with operations (two locals per day; north and south; instead of one every three days).

Between this branchline and the NLR yard (west staging) there aren't any industries (about 9 miles) although with the space one could be added.

I guess what I'm asking is from some of you more experienced guys, would you plan this any differently, or keep the current plan and make the industries match the sidings? I know it's not going to be spot on, but I'm trying to decide how close to keep it so when people are here watching or operating they might see something noticeable.

A second query for the morning. I'm a little hesitant about putting the flex curves together (in the past haven't been that good at keeping soldered flex curves in gauge), so I'm wondering about using sectional track (kato, tomix, etc) for the curves and then the flex for the rest? I've seen that some use sectional track for their curves so wanted to ask what cautions were to using different brands of track and getting them to mate up to the Atlas or each other?

Getting these last few little snippits resolved and I'll be ready to dive back in and getting this layout project going. I've been running trains the last few evenings while working on other projects (a few small home projects, couple things at church, and end of year stuff with work) and with them out of the way I'll have tonight and much of tomorrow to make some progress.

[MichaelT]

So I've spent some time reading through many threads on here, and taking an objective inventory of my skills, time, and what I would like to accomplish for now, I decided that (once again) I was trying to do too much and that was going to lead to frustration and pulling things up again.

So, fiddling around with a few ideas after spending some time studying the google map I scaled things down to the small, short industrial branch line that the Jacksonville & Northwestern actually is. I'm still going to continue the east and west staging tracks on the 96" shelf, but this will be a workable little branch line that is part of the larger Mopac network. The plus side to this is I can paint and decal the two non dec GP9's I have and put them in Arkansas Midland colors (the railroad that owns the Jacksonville & Northwestern branch now) and run ops from a couple of switch lists that I found near the parked engine a couple years ago.

The bottom loop is a nice 38" curve and I plan to elevate the outside rail; I think it was Dave Foxx who posted how to do that in his thread. All turnouts are now #6 Atlas c80 manual throw turnouts and I can reach everything on the layout. I've run all five DCC engines that I currently have, and they all are running well even on one set of feeders, so I'm betting they'll run even better once I get things glued down and some more feeders soldered in.

The structures on the diagram are not actual, just all I saw in the any rail program. Tomorrow will be roadbed, gluing track down, and setting hills and ridges through the middle of the peninsula. We'll have six industries to work on the loop, and two or three along the tracks to staging. Also the passenger locals will have one station stop in the loop and a stop at each staging section, then return at the end of the day.

So even though there's not a lot of physical progress, a lot of questions have been answered and the track is still on the foam (which is a huge plus at this point).

Happy New Year everyone!!

[MichaelT]

Here are a few pictures of how things actually look so far. Will be cleaning up and installing roadbed tomorrow. Buildings are not the exact buildings that will end up in those spots, just using some for visual effect.

[MichaelT]

A little bit of progress today;

Got a 1/2" layer of foam on the layout to bring the foam up to 2" total, and glued the roadbed down (it's drying as I type). Might even start putting track down later this evening if the mood strikes. Had my good friend Larry stop by and he helped with the roadbed between our trips to Lowe's and Wal Mart today picking up the foam and some 75% off Christmas lights and decorations for next year.

Also started looking for some designs for my train show HCD layout. I've been scouring through David Smith's layout design pages to see what strikes. The idea is for something pretty simple that can run through the show and have minimal problems. With it being an HCD layout I'm going to consider using Kato unitrack or possibly Atlas true track.

[MichaelT]

Small bits of oops fixed last night. In gluing down the roadbed for some reason (Murphy I guess) when I put the track back down it didn't line up in some places. So instead of pulling the roadbed back up I pulled my Dremel with cutting disk out and hacheted some short pieces of flex to make up for the goofs. The larger curve (west, bottom of picture) is 19" sectional track and I think I'm going to keep it that way. I'm also going to cut up some masking tape and super elevate that curve. The two smaller curves (east, top of picture) on either side of the turnout I'm going to cut flex and lay it there to smooth out the flow of that 180.

In laying the masking tape down on the roadbed, how far into where the track will lay should I go? Just to the rail? Outside the rail? Also, how many pieces of tape should I put on top of each other? I've read through Dave Foxx's posts about it but didn't see where there was a specific number, just layering the pieces with 1" step ups.

[davefoxx]

Michael,

In my case, I tried to get the strips of tape under the outside rail, but if you plan ahead and mock it up, it isn't critical whether it's under the rail or the outside edge of the ties.  Just determine the amount of superelevation that you like.  Because my exact memory of how I did it is fuzzy, I went back into the Seaboard Central thread and thankfully found my post on superelevation:

I also laid down six layers of masking tape cut to about 1/8"-1/4" wide strips to create some superelevation in the curved track.  At each end, I held back about 1/2" on each successive layer (in a stairstep manner) to create some vertical easements.

DFF

[MichaelT]

Thanks for digging that up Dave; I knew it was in there but wasn't sure where.

michael

[MichaelT]

I'm to the point of gluing track down, but one thing comes into play. On the larger loop I can extend the passing siding completely around the loop to give more runaround/storage capacity during ops. It wouldn't crowd anything that I can see, just moving one industry a little bit.

One of my downfalls; making too many changes during this process.

Also, I figured adding a 48" x 10" section to the end of the 96"x24" staging would give me enough room to setup a 15" curve to turn trains back, extending the loop for continuous running times. Not sure I'll make that extension right now, but keeping that in my back pocket for awhile.

[davefoxx]

One of my downfalls; making too many changes during this process.

I say don't sweat making changes.  Go back through my thread and you'll see how many times I have pulled something up and redone it.  Numerous times.  With the exception of the loss of some inexpensive cork roadbed, I can reuse the track, so I don't hesitate to make changes in the interest of improving operations or increasing realism.  This is why I generally don't work from a track plan, because the plan generally evolves as I build the layout.  One could argue that more planning should have been done, but I believe that (1) sometimes you won't find issues until you actually run some trains and improvements are discovered during operations, and (2) I would never get started construction if I merely tried to plan for every problem, i.e., analysis paralysis.

The track plan I have on my thread is essentially following along with the construction.

DFF

[MichaelT]

I say don't sweat making changes.  Go back through my thread and you'll see how many times I have pulled something up and redone it.  Numerous times.  With the exception of the loss of some inexpensive cork roadbed, I can reuse the track, so I don't hesitate to make changes in the interest of improving operations or increasing realism.  This is why I generally don't work from a track plan, because the plan generally evolves as I build the layout.  One could argue that more planning should have been done, but I believe that (1) sometimes you won't find issues until you actually run some trains and improvements are discovered during operations, and (2) I would never get started construction if I merely tried to plan for every problem, i.e., analysis paralysis.

The track plan I have on my thread is essentially following along with the construction.

DFF

that makes sense Dave, thanks. I guess my biggest problem in the past has been when I get to a certain point and get blocked, I pull everything up and start over. I think this time I'm going to keep what I have and as you suggest make small changes that might improve operations or the overall layout. I did add the extended siding on the big loop this afternoon (roadbed) and starting to glue down track tonight.

We had some family over for Christmas who couldn't make it on Christmas day because they were sickly, so that took most of the days activities once they got here.

[MichaelT]

One thing I am doing with this project is taking my time. I've gotten about ten feet of flex and three turnouts glued down and stick pins holding, soldered feeder wires to rail joiners in two spots so far, and that's probably where I'll stop for the night. I don't want to get in a rush and get a piece of flex or a turnout misaligned to the roadbed.

So far what I'm liking about this is that the continuous loop doesn't look crowded with track. It's quite simple, only six industries to work in the 40x82 space, but I think will give a nice look for freight or passenger trains to run the loop. That will give me some more room for the town side of Jacksonville and some open spaces for small hills, a rock ridge line, and I might even decide to model a portion of Bayou Meto creek that runs real close to the Jacksonville Industrial park.

[MichaelT]

Got the mainline track glued down today AND...after conferring with Dave Foxx put in some super elevation on the large west curve...looks cool watching the train lean into the curve as it goes around!

Going to glue a few turnouts on the inner track, but probably won't get all the sidings installed tonight. Dinner is almost ready and might just crash on the couch for awhile.