The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[C855B]

Parkinson's Law.

A MRR is never big enough, or, rather, train size tends to expand to exceed some critical capacity. Even at the 10% point in construction I have already exceeded yard and siding specs (15 feet) with "test" trains I keep on the layout. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wye the power and run it around the train.

[mcjaco]

I'd honestly add a baggage car to the original consist, and call it a day. It'd be a close enough approximation of what you're trying to model in the space. 

[wm3798]

Funny.  The whole train fit when it was N scale...

Lee

[davefoxx]

I'd honestly add a baggage car to the original consist, and call it a day. It'd be a close enough approximation of what you're trying to model in the space.

Matt,

I think you hit the nail on the head.  I may just even call it a day with what I've got.  An internet search last night did not find an acceptable baggage car.  The nice thing is that this consist is a number of cars where I picked up a piece here and a piece there over the last three years, so I literally had to lay out zero cash into this project this weekend to put the train together.  In fact, this is the first time that all of the cars have run together, because it took a lot of tweaking to get the Amtoobs to run reliably down to a 20" radius curve.  And even the Heritage Fleet cars had different style coupler systems, so it was a challenge to get them all to work together, especially with the diaphragms involved.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Looks like we are gonna need more layout 

Parkinson's Law.

A MRR is never big enough, or, rather, train size tends to expand to exceed some critical capacity. Even at the 10% point in construction I have already exceeded yard and siding specs (15 feet) with "test" trains I keep on the layout. 

Sadly, no, I don't want moar layout.  It takes me forever to build and maintain a layout.  I don't know how guys like @C855B or @seusscaboose do it.  The layout I have now (plus a mostly unscenicked extension to the A&R line to add a small three-track staging yard) is the max that I want.  Honestly, I have really come to appreciate short lines, and wish I could downsize to meet my model railroading goals.  So, the layout will not grow significantly from here.

Thanks,
DFF

[davefoxx]

Wye the power and run it around the train.

That's absolutely a possibility.  But, I prefer not to since it would put the consist backwards, which is not what Amtrak did in those days.  The Silver Star, once in Florida was split to run to Tampa and to Miami.  Northbound, the two trains were combined.  The consist had to be in a certain direction, or it would mess up the combination/separation in Florida.  I like the idea of just turning the whole train, since there was never any switching of the Silver Star in North Carolina.  I think I'll just need to keep the train length to five cars and figure out which cars to include.

Thanks,
DFF

[davefoxx]

Funny.  The whole train fit when it was N scale...

Lee

Not really, when I reduced the Seaboard Central 2.0 back to its original HCD size, the trains were not much longer, if at all, as compared to what I have now.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That's absolutely a possibility.  But, I prefer not to since it would put the consist backwards, which is not what Amtrak did in those days.  The Silver Star, once in Florida was split to run to Tampa and to Miami.  Northbound, the two trains were combined.  The consist had to be in a certain direction, or it would mess up the combination/separation in Florida.  I like the idea of just turning the whole train, since there was never any switching of the Silver Star in North Carolina.  I think I'll just need to keep the train length to five cars and figure out which cars to include.

Thanks,
DFF

Or you can wye it in a few pieces. Remember, the longer it takes, the more money ya makes!

[Point353]

I just happen to have another Amtrak Heritage Fleet coach that I omitted from the train in the pictures yesterday.  However, the 1980s consist shows that this coach would be plausible on the rear of the Silver Star in the Carolinas. 

But, here's the dilemma.  What is barely visible in the photo is that this train (one F40PH, two Amfleet coaches, one Amfleet lounge, one Heritage Fleet sleeper, and one Heritage Fleet coach max out the length of the the tail of the wye, if I want to be able to run the train in both directions on my layout.  I would actually prefer another sleeper rather than the third coach, since the Silver Star is an overnight train.  But, since five cars is the max to stay within the tail track's wye, I need to figure out the best version of the Silver Star in a mere five cars.  Originally, I thought I would have two sleepers, which is why I left the last coach off yesterday.  I also did want to add a baggage car, but I've run out of train length.  Thoughts?

Looking at the consist info in the previous link, only Amfleet coaches appeared to be in use during the 1980s era.
Adding a baggage car and a diner would be logical additions.
Is there any way you can extend the length of the tail track? With another folding section, perhaps?

[Missaberoad]

Or you can wye it in a few pieces. Remember, the longer it takes, the more money ya makes!

Not always, sometimes it pays better to get run miles behind you! 


Love the passenger train Dave! the more I see your layout the more it reminds me of the ones in MR when I was a kid (just with better detailed equipment)

[davefoxx]

Looking at the consist info in the previous link, only Amfleet coaches appeared to be in use during the 1980s era.
Adding a baggage car and a diner would be logical additions.
Is there any way you can extend the length of the tail track? With another folding section, perhaps?

It's funny that you say that.  I was thinking the other night about how I wished I had made the folding shelf include all of those yard tracks.  I've also come to realize that I generally do not fold the shelf and have just learned to make sure that I walk around it (rather than into it) to get to the other side of the layout.  If I remove the folding option, then I am not as severely limited in the length of the shelf.  I might be able to add another car length or two to each track.

I also briefly considered a return loop in lieu of the folding shelf, but then I was like, "A return loop next to a wye?  Oh, hell, no, I have enough problems with the reversing section as it is."

DFF

[davefoxx]

Or you can wye it in a few pieces. Remember, the longer it takes, the more money ya makes!

I'm not sure that's true for Amtrak trains, but, "Hahahahahahaha!!!"

[davefoxx]

Not always, sometimes it pays better to get run miles behind you! 


Love the passenger train Dave! the more I see your layout the more it reminds me of the ones in MR when I was a kid (just with better detailed equipment)

Thanks, Ryan!

[Dave V]

I just happen to have another Amtrak Heritage Fleet coach that I omitted from the train in the pictures yesterday.  However, the 1980s consist shows that this coach would be plausible on the rear of the Silver Star in the Carolinas.  So, I body-mounted couplers and added it to the train:



But, here's the dilemma.  What is barely visible in the photo is that this train (one F40PH, two Amfleet coaches, one Amfleet lounge, one Heritage Fleet sleeper, and one Heritage Fleet coach max out the length of the the tail of the wye, if I want to be able to run the train in both directions on my layout.  I would actually prefer another sleeper rather than the third coach, since the Silver Star is an overnight train.  But, since five cars is the max to stay within the tail track's wye, I need to figure out the best version of the Silver Star in a mere five cars.  Originally, I thought I would have two sleepers, which is why I left the last coach off yesterday.  Truthfully, no one that sees my layout on a regular basis would even notice the difference between a sleeper and a coach, so I could just call it done now.  I also did want to add a baggage car, but I've run out of train length.  Thoughts?

DFF

This is exactly what I ran into with my drop-leaf yard on the Juniata Division while I was living--ironically--in North Carolina.  My solution?  Doubling the size of the layout by adding the Enola Yard section.  Not sure that'll help you any though.  Sorry!