Canton, Highlandtown and Fells Point - Compact layout

[wm3798]

I started laying out the plan on the foam last night, and placing a few structures around to get my head around some of the elevation changes.



So far, so good. 

I appreciate the concerns about the "model railroadiness" of the figure 8 going up and over, but ... 

It's a model railroad, so I'm okay with that.

The trains will be short, so I'm not worried about lugging a few cars up a grade, and I want the scenery to be crowded and full of ups and downs.

I'm really not worried about the few industries there are to switch... again, I want the trains to be short.  As it stands, I can switch about 10 cars, which is actually more than the little yard is likely to hold, and certainly longer than the passing siding will be.

Next step will be to dig around to find the last few turnouts I'll need to start building.

Lee

[tom mann]

I like it.   

[eric220]

Here's an illustration of what I had in mind.  All of the light green track is hidden.



I don't claim to be any authority on laying out industrial track, and this plan is missing a few crucial elements, like a runaround (except for the ballon loops), but it illustrates the idea.

[wm3798]

The Western Maryland layout left me quite an authority on the reasons NOT to use hidden tracks.  It's a lovely thought, though...

 

Lee

[eric220]

Keep in mind, that's just a rough draft. For instance, I was tring to see how much length I could get out of those yard tracks.  They could be starightnened out, or the yard might be moved to the upper part (blue track). With a little shifting around, you could also expose most of the lower return loop, reducing the hidden track to little more than a tunnel.

[wm3798]

One challenge with burying track is that it affects the elevation of the upper visible level.  If that's to be stable, and available for switch machines, or wire drops, you have to carefully plan where the tracks below will end up.  You also have to account for at least a 1/2" of material to carry the upper level over the lower, and you have to plan for access for the inevitable subterranean derailment.



As you can see by the photos, the layout is tucked into a corner, and only accessible from the front side, so hidden track would require some sort of lift out to provide access.  Non-starter.

Also, as a switching layout, I don't want to impede the location of switches and the things they need to work properly (slide switches, connecting rods, and stable subroadbed come to mind) by gaps in the earth needed for underground tracks.

And finally, by design, I want this to be a small, fun layout to build and run.  I'm not interested in repeating the sins of the WM, nor in creating a complex network of track that will support more traffic than I have a practical reason to run.

As David and Chris continue to demonstrate, less is often more.

That said, maybe I should cut this thing down by half!!

Lee

[eric220]

Fair enough.

[jpec]

+1...

Lee, is that building in the far corner a kitbash of a Life-Like hotel and a MP General Electric building?

Jeff

The Western Maryland layout left me quite an authority on the reasons NOT to use hidden tracks.  It's a lovely thought, though...

 

Lee

[wm3798]

Had too many marker lines going on, so I got out the gray paint and laid out the street grid.


Just needed to get a better visual.  The streets will not necessarily be stuck on 0" elevation, there will be some ups and downs in them, just as there are in the track work.



F'rinstance, I see this little block of buildings working their way up hill from right to left.  The White Tower would be at 0", and the green apartment house would be up at about 3/8"  The base under the White Tower are leftover from the old layout, and will be buried in the foam.  I might just move it to the higher corner to give it better visibility on the long side, but the massing seems to work better this way.



In this shot, you see the highest point on the railroad, which will be the tail track leading off to staging over my desk.  The foam block is 2"  The coal bunker is from the old power plant at the paper mill on the old layout.  I'm going to build a new one, but for reference, this will be elevated about 1" from what you see here.  the road will rise accordingly, leaving about 3/4" to an inch clearance for an underpass at the railroad.  It will cross the main loop as a grade crossing.  The loop track is rising from left to right behind the coal bunker at this point.



The switch on the bridge brings the two elevated industrial sidings off the branch line.  I'll have to see how to best blend all this together, but I can probably elevate the terrain under it about 3/4" to an inch to lessen the severity of the difference.  In fact, this whole area can rise at the same rate as the main loop track, with level terraces employed to provide foundations for the buildings.



I've put the big Brewery building at the center of the layout (as it SHOULD be!) by cutting off the back wall and wrapping it around the shelf support.  This trick immediately created the continuity I was looking for to spite the two section limitation of the space.  Again, I envision the adjoining streets rising as they approach the rear of the layout.  The Atlas stone arch bridge indicates roughly the level of the track as it passes through the shelf divider, maybe a bit high.  But the road will rise up so the arches provide clearance for an N scale tractor trailer to pass through.

And finally...



The beginnings of The Money Shot.  This shows the clearance at the crossover at 1.75".  I'll be using cork roadbed on the lower track, so I'll lose an 1/8", but as you can see, there's still plenty of room to roll pretty much anything under it that one might find on a 1960s era urban switching line.  Depending on the final bridge structures I select (or build!) I'll make minor adjustments up or down without much problem.

The next phase will be to cut the foam risers to establish the final grades and alignments, then I'll have to cut trenches to run my bus wires for track and structure lighting.

[pwnj]

That's looking great, Lee! Love that final shot!! 

[wazzou]

Nice visions Lee.

[Dave V]

That last shot is pure filth.  I may need a moment.

[MichaelWinicki]

I'm not interested in repeating the sins of the WM, nor in creating a complex network of track that will support more traffic than I have a practical reason to run.

As David and Chris continue to demonstrate, less is often more.

That said, maybe I should cut this thing down by half!!

Lee

Yep, until someone has a larger layout with lots of complicated trackwork, do they realize that it's not always a panacea of model railroading.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Important question: Gunther or National.

[chicken45]

Important question: Gunther or National.

I hope it's National!