I'm back with a new N-scale Door plan

[ScrewySqrl]

I'm back once again building my n-scale track on a door.  After struggling with spaghetti bowls (which was pointed out by many people here) i've come up with a much simpler plan.

 


Specs:
80" x 30" Hollow core door with 2" foam cover.
Atlas Code 80 track
Atlas Standard (#4) turnouts
Min radius 11"

Freelanced, Based on the original Norfolk & Southern Railway

Era: 1955-1975

DC.

 

This is downtown "Piney Plains" a fictional city in North Carolina serviced by the Norfolk Southern, with interchange with the ACL/SAL (and thus SCL) and Southern, with occasional Amtrak service.

 My engines to be used will be a Kato RSC-2 re-shelled with an AS-16 from Shapeways, to emulate a Baldwin AS-416 (almost all of the AS-416s made were used by Norfolk Southern 17 of the 25 built), An Atlas GP-38-2 with grey NS paint, a Lifelike GP-20 that will be painted up to be a GP-18, and Fox Modern NS Heritage N/S loco (AC-44W GEVO - out of place for era,  but Rule #1, and it has the right paint job  ) .  Will also be occasionally visited by my 40-year-old Bachmann U36B SCL #1776 Bicentennial.  Occasional 'heritage steam' might show up, too.

Rolling stock will be Boxcars, Closed hoppers (better to pretend its wood chips one run, corn the next, and pellets the one after that), Reefers, and tankers, with a few Intermodal cars thrown in (treated like boxcars).  Passenger trains will also show up when I just want to watch 'em roll.  As designed only 1 train will go on the main at a time, but the yard can be switched while another train runs.

Industries are typical North Carolina industries of the era.  The Interchange will have a backdrop industry of a Textile Mill/Clothing Manufacturer(Burlington Coat Factory is after Burlington, NC) .  Also present: Tobacco, the #1 industry in the era (Mine will be based on Durham's American Tobacco), Furniture (High Point still holds the worlds largest furniture design conference), Chemicals (Research Triangle Park), a Grain Elevator + mill (Based on the Cargill plant in Raleigh), a pier (like Morehead City), and a processed food factory (seen in Wilmington).  all industries can take almost any type of car.  The city name ("Piney Plains') is a residential street in Cary, only a few blocks from the Amtrak station, which always seemed like a great name for a Model Railroad layout.

My plan for this is to use the Super-nook yard (currently 8-5-5, but eventually 9-5-5 capacity) to build a 9 car train from 14 cars in the yard (using 1 suit of cards + joker), plus caboose. where each car goes will be determined by a six-sided die or a 4 sided die for Reefers.

My room is such that the long side will be against a wall, as will the right side (though I have about 6 inches clearance on the right side  to at least work with), so no real scenic divider is available, though the downtown building will operate sort of as one.  I do hope to have a bit of fun with the 'serious downtown' on the right and the 'wrong side of the tracks' version on the left

 

thoughts?

[ScrewySqrl]

no comment at all?    

[Kisatchie]

no comment at all?    

Give it time... people are at work, you know.


Hmm... except for Kiz...

[Dave V]

Operations-wise it looks like it should be a lot of fun.  My only criticism would be that it looks a bit rigid geometry-wise...  Can any of the straight track be replaced with flex track to have some more natural curves?

[wazzou]

Two things stand out to me.  I'm never fond of a layout that doesn't have a way to work the yard without fouling the mainline.
Secondly, the left hand turnout's throwbar and points at the top right near the pier could be a problem, but probably can be addressed.
 

[eja]

How do passengers get to the Passenger station without walking across the track ??

[ScrewySqrl]

Two things stand out to me.  I'm never fond of a layout that doesn't have a way to work the yard without fouling the mainline.

Yard is workable without touching the main, so thats a plus.  where did you think it was fouling the main?  Yellow is the yard (plus the pink caboose track), red is the main.  the fuel/sand/oil is the end of the yard lead doing double duty on the small plan

Secondly, the left hand turnout's throwbar and points at the top right near the pier could be a problem, but probably can be addressed.

The actual pier I'm using is a bit thinner than what is drawn (It holds 1 track and one line of crates instead of 2), and the huge atlas throwbar is all on land

How do passengers get to the Passenger station without walking across the track ??

The area between the yard and the station will be a parking lot, so people access the station from that side.

[Kentuckian]

Operations-wise it looks like it should be a lot of fun.  My only criticism would be that it looks a bit rigid geometry-wise...  Can any of the straight track be replaced with flex track to have some more natural curves?

This.  I'm digging it, but can you have a little smaller radius and twist the plan so that the long straightaways aren't parallel with the table edges?

[eja]

Freelanced, Based on the original Norfolk & Southern Railway

Era: 1955-1975

DC.

That is going to be a really occasional Amtrak in 1955  Why not an NS or SCL passenger train?  It would give you more time period flexibility for your other rolling stock.

[ScrewySqrl]

Can any of the straight track be replaced with flex track to have some more natural curves?

This.  I'm digging it, but can you have a little smaller radius and twist the plan so that the long straightaways aren't parallel with the table edges?

  I'm open to suggestions from either of you . I'm generally not great with flex track (can never trim it well nor hold it in place well), but I could replace the long backstretch with a single piece of straight flex, but I'm open to suggestions on how/where to make the curves you both suggest!

That is going to be a really occasional Amtrak in 1955  Why not an NS or SCL passenger train?  It would give you more time period flexibility for your other rolling stock.

  Obviously I'll have ACL/SAL/Southern passenger service as well.   Rainbow-era Amtrak is just another railroad that will show up.  as for NS passengers, the original Norfolk Southern ceased all passenger traffic by 1950, even before it fully dieselized.

[ScrewySqrl]

guess there is nothing left to do but start building

[John]

I would consider connecting the caboose track to the main on the left side, and make another track caboose storage

[davefoxx]

I would consider connecting the caboose track to the main on the left side, and make another track caboose storage

I like this idea.  The connected track:
1) becomes a freight bypass of the passenger station,
2) creates another passing siding for the track plan, which is a good thing,
3) can also be your arrival/departure track for the yard, which is missing in your current plan, and
4) unless you're always planning to run your freights counter-clockwise around the layout, a runaround on that side of the layout would be a plus.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[ScrewySqrl]

would consider connecting the caboose track to the main on the left side, and make another track caboose storage

I like this idea.  The connected track:
1) becomes a freight bypass of the passenger station,
2) creates another passing siding for the track plan, which is a good thing,
3) can also be your arrival/departure track for the yard, which is missing in your current plan, and
4) unless you're always planning to run your freights counter-clockwise around the layout, a runaround on that side of the layout would be a plus.

Hope this helps,
DFF

For that the best place is the 19" curve in the lower left, coming into the longest yard track
that would look something like this:



I had to eliminate the full caboose spur, because the short strait was too close to the bumper.  The new Caboose track location adds a new switching rule that once the 9 car train complete, the third yard spur must be cleared so the caboose track is accessible, the switch to the caboose track can be fouled while building a train, however.  The A/D spur  can also remain fouled.  Road power will add a caboose if going counter-clockwise, the switcher if going clockwise.  And vice versa for detaching (clockwise: swtxher, counter clockwise, road power).  Road power adds because to add the caboose, we have to go out onto the main.  The yard office moved to keep an excuse for the shorter spurs (the real reason, of course, being I want the extra switching challenge in the yard  )

[MichaelWinicki]

I like all the action with the plan... You have a little "off the layout" stuff with the interchange.

But that upper area, the alignment of the purple line... it just looks too 3-rail-ish to me, and not how it would come off looking in the real world.