Freelanced New England Themed L shape layout

[nuno81291]

Greetings fellow 

I submit to the all mighty asshats my latest plan for my future layout. I am currently in an apartment but moving to a new house I am buying. I am a professional musician and my dream is to have a wall of my home studio be a vignette of various N/E inspired scenes. I made a 3x6 roundy round that I grew tired of quickly and decided I need to have the ability to get hands on with my own solo ops sessions. Here are some of my requirements/thoughts that went into the current carnation of the track plan:

I want it to be DC, with only one cab. I belong to an N scale club in the area and I have all the interaction there I want, I don't plan to invite anyone over to run trains (call me antisocial).

I wanted continuous running. I have an affinity for Amtrak and long passenger gear so the diameter of the turn back loops are about 2.5'. I wanted to disguise these, one side a mountain with a brawa cable car/rural scene and the other a raised city block.

I wanted a small support yard to help with ops for my industrial district. The plan for the district is derived from "Third Street" which should help explain the grade/bridge there.

I wanted a long bridge scene over a river.

I wanted a couple of things to be continuously animated to give interest during solo ops or while the layout is in "dummy mode", these include a small Kato portram/modern LRV loop on the city end (the return loop for this is hidden under the raised city block). As well as an ode to the Seashore Trolley museum with a single loop in the rural area by the smaller passenger station that will host a bachmann peter witt. The last dummy feature is the Brawa aerial tramway (which I have modified to reverse with arduino rather than run in circles) aka more prototypical of aerial tram operation versus a gondola (I am a ski lift buff).

I also wanted a larger passenger terminal in the city area.

I plan to generally have traffic moving counter-clockwise except for special moves needed to get into the yard etc.

I did not want much hidden trackage ala hidden staging or multiple levels for simplicity sake.

Is there anything you all would recommend to change in this track plan? I realize I don't have a yard lead and plan to just foul the main (again solo running without desire to have multiple trains moving at the same time, I will just hold the commuter/amtrak train in the station while yard moves are made).

Attached is a photo of the plan and my anyrail file.



also it will all be code 55 (I have most of the track and turnouts on hand) with all manual ground throws (slide switch style)

I will only put up non-working signaling stands, I don't care to have that feature but do desire the look and feel of lineside equipment/signaling towers.

I hope I covered all of my desires enough to paint a clear picture of what I am trying to accomplish. The plan is 28 feet long.

Mike
http://www.filedropper.com/keepitsimpleyoufool30

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like it. Are you considering Clustefucksville and Industrial Town the same place? You have a great opportunity there for a nice, big, continuous scene that would be really kick a$$.

[nuno81291]

I like it. Are you considering Clustefucksville and Industrial Town the same place? You have a great opportunity there for a nice, big, continuous scene that would be really kick a$$.

Yes Sir! The idea is to make it look like a medium size city scene towards the left that turns into the industrial district (with an urban/edge of the city feel).

I want the real divide to be the bridge/river scene sort of inspired by the bridge in Haverhill MA. Except it breaks quickly to 'northern woods/rural town'.

I realize this may not be prototypical but it really is just a collage of a few major scenes I would like to see.

How about the track plan? Anything worth changing? Crossover location? diesel facility?

Wolfgang's Third Street shot of a 44 tonner going down a steep grade, street running to an industry under a train overpass made me fall in love.

I put the three area names just to clarify their purposes, I will try to scenic it (including backdrop) as seamlessly as possible.

Thank you

[coosvalley]

Wolfgang's Third Street shot of a 44 tonner going down a steep grade, street running to an industry under a train overpass made me fall in love.

Would you mind telling me what you are talking about?...Sounds interesting!..

[DKS]

Would you mind telling me what you are talking about?

http://www.westportterminal.de/thirdstreet.html

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/752

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/6300/title/street-running/cat/752

[Baronjutter]

As a big fan of street running, damn, that's an awesome layout. HO I assume though?

[coosvalley]

Ahhh, yes, I have seen that, very cool,...thanks guys.....If 44 tonners, grades, and street track are your thing,  look into this railroad......

http://imagestorage.nerail.org/photos/2010/01/02/201001020000138263.jpg

http://imagestorage.nerail.org/photos/2010/01/01/201001012355107886.jpg

http://imagestorage.nerail.org/photos/2010/01/01/201001012349107366.jpg

The C&C pre-85-ish was a really neat operation, very unlike what it is today, which is still kinda cool....not much is online, but there are lots of good books to study for this cool line...

[nuno81291]

Coos: I am actually quite familiar with the CC. That is what inspired my search for a track plan with some similar features. At one point I posted a layout thread that focused on strictly (nearly to the foot) modelling LaValley's supply which of course is one of the current end points for CC. On a research visit I met a yard attendent who was a former engineer for C&C and he had tons of information that helped. Infact I thought 44's were ugly as sin before I saw them navigating some of the tight/steep/street trackage that was formerly in service on that line. I also took particular interest into the Coy paper mfg and the other paper mfg (name is escaping me at the moment). The historic aspect of the CC is very much a big part of what went into my choice of industries/third street plan.

Thank you!

And in regards to the plan, I just got into the house (currently in P&S) and I realized I had a major Foobie on my hands. I mis-measured the space available (D'OH!) and I will have to reconfigure for roughly a 15x24 foot L shape versus the longer 28 foot. It is funny because I used to be a general contractor and you think us in the business would get measuring right. Perhaps I was measuring with my mind and not my eyes, haha. 

Regards

[nuno81291]

Okay guys, after much thought this is what I would like to allocate to the space I have. I started to get the feeling that I may have been over ambitious for what I could realistically finish (in a couple years mind you, music is damn time consuming!)

Here it is. I shuffled some things around. I realize there isnt a dedicated yard lead. Same rule applies as above, I will just hold trains while any mainline fouling move is made. I added a passing siding for the freight yard (if nothing else to allow a larger freight/through freight to sit while amtrak passes). I added some class tracks to store loads/empties used in switching my Third street. I scrapped the scrap yard (hah) and moved the lumber to its place and the freight depot to the lumbers previous location. I added 2 crossovers. I moved the diesel facility (I realize a small shortline may not have one, but for instance the C&C did have a 3 bay engine house/small yard so I will model this with the pike stuff 2 bay house and sand/fuel pad off that y switch. Also a decent place to keep some of my motive power.

Any suggestions? I realize trying to work in a yard lead would make this far more useful for not fouling the main. When in solo ops mode (the only ops mode I plan to have...) I do not plan to have the amtrak pass often. or the local connecting passenger (based on a shortline) I will draft up a timetable for these, as well as seasonal extra (i.e. fall foliage/excursion trains). The only freight moves I plan for are: either B/M or MEC bringing in Loads/removing empties from my small yard (obviously no offstage staging, so say they just go out to the mountain and that constitutes an exit). The local (I need to make my own shortline name I am thinking...the CFVR, ClusterFville Railroad? reporting CFRX haha) will take loads from the yard and spot them at appropriate industries (I need to make some surespots, maybe the freight depot's 2nd track gets a crane?/team track) as well as picking up the empties to prepare for the BM/MEC.

So I submit to the great board of 's. What changes would you make?

Thanks very much.

http://www.filedropper.com/newplan

[packers#1]

If you want somewhere for the B&M/MEC to hide in the tunnel you could add a passing track there and create an access hatch in the benchwork so you could get back there if something goes wrong (i.e. something derails). Also, as to the yard lead, if there will only be a couple of passenger trains to clear for then I would be tempted to leave them as part of your ops plan, but rather than just holding the trains while you switch, make it so that you have to have the mainline clear 5 or 10 minutes before the train is due. That would add a little bit of extra play to the ops scheme I think. Otherwise nice plan!

[nuno81291]

If you want somewhere for the B&M/MEC to hide in the tunnel you could add a passing track there and create an access hatch in the benchwork so you could get back there if something goes wrong (i.e. something derails). Also, as to the yard lead, if there will only be a couple of passenger trains to clear for then I would be tempted to leave them as part of your ops plan, but rather than just holding the trains while you switch, make it so that you have to have the mainline clear 5 or 10 minutes before the train is due. That would add a little bit of extra play to the ops scheme I think. Otherwise nice plan!

So say an outer passing track (or perhaps inner for better access) in the mountain? That sounds like a good idea and can surely be a "hidden staging" of sorts. And yes I do agree fouling the main can be built into the ops plan especially with timetables and clearing the main in time for the local/thru passenger service.

Thanks for the feedback!

[packers#1]

So say an outer passing track (or perhaps inner for better access) in the mountain? That sounds like a good idea and can surely be a "hidden staging" of sorts. And yes I do agree fouling the main can be built into the ops plan especially with timetables and clearing the main in time for the local/thru passenger service.

Thanks for the feedback!

One on the inside was my thinking, precisely for the reason you mentioned, access. Looking forward to seeing this plan brought to life!

[Ian MacMillan]

I'm having some confusion with the LRV line. Does not seem to fit to my New England eyes.

[coosvalley]

I'm with Ian on that...... LRV? In New England?..Maybe trolleys, but I think you'd be better off with an industry in this space....

Also, and you can call me Tony K. for this, but some staging is recommended.....I had a 2 track staging yard under my background industries, great place to hide it....I see you "could" do the same here.....though, in my shortline world, it was more car storage than staging...

Anywho, food for though, and I'd love to see pics of whatever you build!!!!

[nuno81291]

Ian: are you talking about the city side LRV or the mountain side? The inspiration is Boston ala green line for a small tight LRV turn back loop (like Lechmere etc). Again I am a traction junkie so being able to have that just going on in the back would add some visual action. The mountain side is based on a scenic/historic museum i.e. Seashore Trolley Museum. Again just to add some action (and traction!)