A Tension Dephasit Layout Project

[lashedup]

Ok, bear with me as this will be long (go get a good beer or two if you don't already have one)... 


So. I've always wanted a basement layout at home but haven't had the space for the last 13 years. I grew up with a basement layout that was all O scale lionel stuff. My dad was a train buff and not only did I spend a lot of time playing around in the basement, we also lived a 1/4 mile from the CB&Q triple track 30 minutes outside Chicago. So a lot of my memories revolve around the end of the CB&Q and Burlington Northern and eventually BNSF.  My dad was also a member at the Elmhurst Model Railroad club and I spent hours following trains around that layout when I was young. Then teenage years came and I spent most of it chasing cars and girls (more chasing than catching on the girl front but such is life).

Eventually settled down and had kids and got the bug to look at model railroading again (about 15 years ago). I was still buying occasional Model Railroader magazines to see what's going on in the hobby and would also railfan from time to time, but I was largely coming back in cold. Long story short, I met Bill Denton and Mike Skibbe through some local shows and I always loved the smaller N scale stuff. These guys were working on Modutrak stuff in N scale and I offered to pitch in and help build a module or two. That turned into six or more modules (!) that helped to throw me in the deep end of getting back into model railroading, but also working in N scale. I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and I've met some great people along the way. Railwire has been a part of it for years now and I've always enjoyed the crew here for the great modeling, excellent advice and time people are willing to spend helping others. Tom and John have done great stuff to keep all this going over the years and running a forum is a tough love job. 

Anyway, I sold my company two years ago and spent a year in transition (interesting experience for sure). I spent last year with the family and kids reconnecting and it was awesome to disconnect from everything and just relax for the first time in 15 years. So I have some free time these days. I also moved into a house with a larger basement area and more importantly a space or two that is my own to muck with. Part of what needed to happen though was that anything I wanted to keep from our office that we were closing, needed to fit in the basement or garage. 15 years of office ownership means you collect a LOT of stuff. While we sold, donated, gave away and junked a ton of stuff, there were a large number of things that I was on the fence about keeping. Plus I had to close the office down quickly over a two month period and then turnaround and move into the house 3 weeks after that - not much time to figure out where to put everything.

So before we moved into the new house I spent a LOT of late nights working on the basement space to make basic improvements and to have space to move the remaining office items I wanted to keep. This is the first photo I have after initial cleanup. I had pulled a ton of dead wire out of the ceiling and had to install some lights down there as there were literally two single bulb pull chain lights in the whole space. The floor was disgusting and the walls were a patch quilt of different paint and materials to coverup what was behind it. That's also a do-it-yourself framed in bathroom in the corner complete with shower unit on blocks (that opens up to the other part of the basement). That will have to get fixed another time. The house was built in the 1920's and had some settling issues over the years, so additional posts were put in to help stop the sinking (joy). The house has boiler/radiator heat and forced air conditioning, so I have more pipes criss crossing the ceiling than normal as well.



After cleanup of the floor which required washing it three times and prepping for paint I ended up here:



Given the tight time frame I had, it forced me to try and make the quickest improvements I could. So I added electric around the room, framed out the upper areas and then ripped 3/8 sanded plywood into 6 inch strips and screwed them into the framing to give the appearance of a shiplap-type wall covering. I then painted it all ceiling white to brighten things up. This wall covering gives me the ability to screw nearly anything into it, plus if I booger a board up, I can simply replace it and not have to worry about repairing drywall:



I had a bunch of cheap home depot cabinets at the office that I needed to remove before we moved out and a LOT of tools that needed to come home with me, so I installed some of the cabinets in the basement and brought home the stainless roll-around table we had at work. Also installed some LED lighting under the cabinet:



After we moved into the house and I brought everything in that needed to be stored, this is where things were at:



I also started to frame in the posts as that is where I am going to cantilever part of the layout from. All of it is framed in such a way that it can very easily be removed with no permanent damage. I like the idea of having everything in one room. The beer fridge is here, tools are here, project desks and more and the ability to work on something at the desk and pick it up and move it to the layout quickly is great. The circular saw will move to the garage with the car tools and table saw and that should keep that mess out there. I have heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, so climate control is all taken care of.

So let's talk about the layout part next...

[lashedup]

What to build...

So I'll start out with some givens:

• I will readily admit that I like a lot of different prototype and model railroad stuff and enjoy the challenges of doing a variety of things.
• I have a lot of different equipment I've collected over the years and I'm not married to just one railroad or time period.
• I love mountain scenery, desert west scenery with red rock outcroppings and I love the feel of properly done urban scenes.
• I have a crush on Lance Mindheim's Florida and California layouts as I've spent a lot of time in both locals and there is something cool about the simplicity of a switching layout and the palm trees and raw scenes.
• I feel like I've done quite a bit of midwestern-style scenery with modutrak and I'd like to do something different.
• I took over the reigns of an N scale website (www.model160.com) recently, and I need a variety of scenes to use as projects to feature regularly - so this "layout" will cover many different geographic areas
• Operations are not forefront at this stage, but I do want to leave myself room to do a switching area to play in

So I have a wide open palette and after noodling a many different things over the last year, I've decided on two areas that I'm going to build for sure - Cascade Tunnel and Sullivan's Curve in the Cajon Pass area. The rest will be fluid and I have some ideas but will look for input as well.

With the space I have to work with, this is where the current track plan is at (and even this is very fluid):



So, the grey tracks are lower level staging and helix (which I may or may not build, sorting that out) and the green tracks are mainline.  So let's separate the mainline out:



The right side of the room is all up for grabs. I roughed in benchwork in yellow/beige to give an idea of work area to play with.  So let's talk about the left side which would be Cajon/Sullivan's Curve. First here is a primer of the area I'm talking about in real life:

So here is a google view laid next to the area I'm talking about modeling:



I tried to compress what I could into the space and still try and capture the sweeping curves. There is some trickiness as the turnaround would be underneath and if something derails it will be a nuisance to deal with, but not impossible since this is elevated a bit off the ground. Also one of the tracks will return to staging or be an entrance from staging.  This necessitates having a transition on the opposite end though with a turnout leading out of the Cajon section and into the Cascade Tunnel area to bring trains back on the main from staging:



 I'm still working on the best way to make that all work. I can have auto-throw turnouts for trains entering as that is fairly easy. Then manual throw to proceed down that track to get back down to staging via the single track sullivan's curve main.

- - - - -

Next part is the Cascade Tunnel part including Nason Creek Trestle (Matt Donnelly photo credit) which flows into Gaynor tunnel:



And then leading into the eastern portal of the Cascade Tunnel:




Beyond Cascade tunnel I need to decide how to handle the turn around peninsula:



These things are typically tough to make look good as the turn is on the outside. It makes taking photos tough as the aisle often shows. I've been thinking of curving the backdrop to create smaller scenes (or one larger) of some other iconic area. I have to deal with the tunnel exit from Cascade either via another tunnel portal or a highway overpass.

The rest is a straight shot through to a turnaround loop and back. I could keep it single track or have some double track in there. Thought about some urban scenery in that stretch and I'll toss those ideas around later. 

So yeah, I'm building a lot of different stuff and swimming against the stream of one theme, one railroad one purpose.

More updates in a bit...

[jpwisc]

That looks like a dynamic plan. This should be a fun build to watch!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awesome.

Quick first thought: some of the happiest modeler I know actually have multiple disconnected layouts. One to scratch one itch (or supply projects for one publication) and one for another.

I can think of nothing cooler than Cascade tunnel on one side of the room and the port of Fort Pierce on the other.

[Chris333]

Cut gaps in your track 

[lashedup]

Scratching an itch is a good way to describe it Ed. I’m stoked for the first time in a while and having fun again.  Plus this will give me a variety of different things to work on all at the same time. Plus I think some collective input will fun.

I’ll mind the gaps Chris. 😜

I’ll do another update tomorrow on initial construction and staging. 

[nkalanaga]

As long as you're freelancing the route, El Cajon and Cascade Tunnel isn't an unlikely combination.  Before irrigation parts of eastern Washington looked almost that desolate!

[SirTainly]

You've done a cracking job on preparing the room, and Cascade tunnel is a great thing to model. Looking forward to seeing more!

[lashedup]

Not sure if you guys have seen this before, but the eastern portal to the Cascade Tunnel has doors that close with a ventilation system that charges the tunnel and blows it out the western portal. I'm hoping to animate all of that and may even work sound into that specific area. Should be fun!

[Cajonpassfan]

As long as you're freelancing the route, El Cajon and Cascade Tunnel isn't an unlikely combination.  Before irrigation parts of eastern Washington looked almost that desolate!

Umm, guys, please, you're killing me: it's not *El* Cajon, just plain Cajon. El Cajon is outside of San Diego, and has no trains I know of.
Cajon on the other hand... Well here is Sullivan's curve on my Cajon layout

Otto K.
Cajonpassfan

[nkalanaga]

Lashedup:  Those doors were what killed the GN's electrics.  Once the diesels could run through the tunnel safely, there was no need for the electrics.

Today, the BNSF would probably like to have the electrics back, because it takes time to ventilate the tunnel, which limits the number of trains they can run!

They've changed the doors at sometime.  The "original" doors, in 1967, opened vertically, like a garage door, or a warehouse roll-up door.

[unittrain]

I'm going to enjoy watching progress on this. You have done some amazing work with Modutrak.

[glakedylan]

More updates in a bit...

just wondering out loud here. the turnout (wye) within the red circle: since the outside line already diverges from the two inner lines, why not use a regular (left) turnout as to remove slight S curve that may result in problems, especially with location?
having the straight part of that turnout leading to the diverging outside line would still allow for a fairly gentle curve around that 180°-ish turn.

sincerely
Gary

[p51]

Looks interesting.
I've ridden trains through Cascade Tunnel and railfanned at each end of it several times.

[lashedup]

just wondering out loud here. the turnout (wye) within the red circle: since the outside line already diverges from the two inner lines, why not use a regular (left) turnout as to remove slight S curve that may result in problems, especially with location?
having the straight part of that turnout leading to the diverging outside line would still allow for a fairly gentle curve around that 180°-ish turn.

sincerely
Gary

Good point Gary and something I've been thinking about including potentially using a curved turnout instead. Still sorting out the best solution.

Umm, guys, please, you're killing me: it's not *El* Cajon, just plain Cajon. El Cajon is outside of San Diego, and has no trains I know of.
Cajon on the other hand... Well here is Sullivan's curve on my Cajon layout

Otto K.
Cajonpassfan

Yep, my bad. Not sure where I crossed signals on that one, but I've tried to correct it.