Wellsville Addison & Galeton in 1:29: Shortline Road Switching Layout Outdoors

[TiogaTracks]

Thanks for some input from a different side of the garden railroading hobby!  That looks neat on several levels, especially the weathering.

The thing is, none of it would really work for my layout, and that’s really the reason I’m posting here instead of some garden railroad forum.  This is indoor model railroading ideas scaled up for outside.  I can’t really do switching effectively on live steam, as cool as it is.  Plus, my prototype shortline ditched steam as fast as they could in 1956/57, and I’m not a steam fan myself.

Scale is another persistent challenge.  Like you showed, scales get interesting, and vary a bunch, all on the same rails.  I try to stick to 1:29, but I have some stuff built to other scales.  If you just keep the most ridiculous contrasts away from each other, it kinda works.  For example, this 1:22.somethingorother EBT-style caboose coupled to a beautiful 1:32 scale N6 looks ridiculous!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

But, like you showed so well, such is the wild world of what some people oversimplify and just call “G scale.”

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

Hey @nkalanaga, I remember you asking about a Christmas tree in my loop at “Wellsboro Junction.”  I actually did that in a completely silly way! 🙃

While hiking through some family-owned woods as my brother looked for an indoor Christmas tree, I saw a Norway Spruce near our property line that would be a problem if it grew up anyway.  It looked nice, but was WAY too tall for an indoor tree.  But an outdoor tree…?  HMMM!

So I cut the top 2/3rds of it, got some help from my dad hauling it out of the woods, and as darkness fell, my folks helped me dig a 1-foot hole the size of the trunk, set the tree in it, and I covered the lowest branches with bags of unused medium ballast rock.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

3 months later, it’s not quite dead yet! 😄 Not sure what to do with it if it actually manages to put down new roots…

-Steven

[motofavorite]

I see. I only know a few live steam switching layouts. It's not impossible but it is involved.

[nkalanaga]

I hadn't thought about the cut tree surviving!  That could be a problem.  Or it might have just gotten enough water to stay green, without actually putting down roots.  It'll be interesting to see what happens.

For switching with live steam, they make RC steam locos that can be controlled as easily as an electric one, so the power shouldn't be a problem.  The cost might be!

[TiogaTracks]

The outdoor Penn Central and WAG layout is moving forward alongside a couple other gardening/landscaping projects.  I’m surveying to build the raised bed herb garden that will also host the second loop for the PC route.  Here is the track laid out as a mock-up of the final arrangement:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The anchor point of the entire railroad is Ansonia Junction, due to the wye having to be right beside my shed.  So while grading for the PC route, I’m going to do the “benchwork” for the WAG-PC interchange also.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The track plan as a whole has gotten a bit simpler, mostly because I’ve found model railroading under apple trees is a pain.  I already have to un-bend the rail on the short bridge at Wellsboro Junction after it took a direct hit from falling fruit!  So the new plan sacrifices some distance between scenes, and greatly condenses Galeton yard, in order to put only a short bit of the “balloon track” loop and some covered staging under the trees.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Listen to The Andrews Sisters, people, they knew what not to do in model railroading!

-Steven

[davefoxx]

Was that Shemp in The Andrews Sisters video?

DFF

[TiogaTracks]

I wish I knew!  I bet finding out what movie that appeared in could narrow it down.  Movies were usually the only time anyone made “music videos” in the ‘40s.

-Steven

[davefoxx]

Confirmed.   It is Shemp Howard with the Andrews Sisters in Private Buckaroo circa 1942.

/>
DFF

[TiogaTracks]

Stuff’s happening on the WAG (err, I guess it’s still the Penn Central for now).  Stone and (some) blocks are on hand, custom track pieces are bent, and it’s time to build.  Starting by re-building most of what I already did!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I’m tearing up about 2/3 of the Wellsboro Junction turnaround loop to add transitions to the curves.  On paper, all my rolling stock is built for the 8-foot diameter curves I use.  But in practice, the Accucraft K4s can only take those curves on the longest engine-tender spacing, and USA Trains’ heavyweight passenger cars “8’ diameter” description is an outright lie, due to their inflexible coupler design.  I can’t narrow the curves, but by easing the transition and adding separating straight track between S-bends, I’m hoping for better results.  You all on TRW taught me that.

Building custom curves in Large-scale is so much more work than cutting flextrack.  Here are the tools and supplies, most importantly some rail, a strip of Aristocraft USA ties, joiners, and screws:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Once I scrap the rail out of the junk track piece, I ran it through the bending tool, comparing often to my desired curvature.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

With the rail bent, I put it back in the ties and secure it with screws into the bottom of each rail, then cut the rails to length.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

With all the track pieces on hand, I started mocking up the revised track layout.  I decided to use some non-USA tie style track for the “siding,” partly because it’s all I had already in a wider curve radius, and partly to make this siding look a bit neglected.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Once I take apart the existing loop, I think I can put it back together with all 8’ diameter curves equipped with a smooth transition, and all other curves at least 10’ diameter.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I finally see this all coming together.  I see the light at the end of the planning tunnel.  Time to grab a shovel and make it happen!

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

Here’s the progress from the July 4 holiday weekend.  I turned the bricks supporting the small bridge on their side, raising the bridge up, and added more gravel to raise the entire loop.  I had to expand the area covered by edging and weed block to get the gravel to hold the slope there.  It will fit the surrounding terrain a lot better this way.  Plus, the loop has gone slightly egg-shaped to accommodate smoother curve transitions.

Work in progress:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Before:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

After:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Fine gravel followed by near scale sized ballast (young chicken grit) will complete the scene.  But first, I have a sidewalk to place for crews to walk on, a “siding” to lay to complete the turnaround loop, and a looooong tangent track to line and level!

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

Progress continues, thanks to a bit of a race against time.  I went ahead and bought potted herb plant starts to put in the raised bed… but I’m not ready to build it yet!  If I want this level, I need to carry the same elevation from the front yard all the way to the back.  I tried a laser level, even at night, and it won’t reach this 100’ distance.  So, construction continues the old-fashioned way.

Today I finally got the front yard loop (“Wellsboro Junction”) COMPLETELY lined and leveled.  A bubble level or phone level app on a flatcar shows only minimal momentary deviations from flat 0% grades.  After cutting one piece of track short to make the reverse loop line up perfectly at the switch, I can call this section ready to run.  I only need to apply conductive grease, tighten or install track joiner screws, and fill in the track with fine ballast.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Continuing down the line, I began laying out the heart of the layout: a track-for-track re-creation of the interchange at Ansonia, PA.  The railroad I’ve built so far is just glorified staging in my layout’s operations plan, so switching out Ansonia is key to any ops session.  I’ve leveled the ground with layers of dirt, busted up asphalt chunks, and gravel.  Outdoor grass-colored carpet is next.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

And I got some live miniature evergreens to start some scale forestry, along with a nice artificial deciduous tree.  Don’t think I can do one a day in this scale, and durable enough for outdoors!  I may stick to large aquarium plants and live dwarf trees.  I found these at Farmer Girl, an exotic plant nursery near the coast of Delaware.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

More exciting progress to come!  I want these herbs planted this week, so I better get back to work.

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

Things really moved quick this week!  I completed the grading to the big bridge to the herb garden, leveled ground & laid out tracks in Ansonia Junction, and started a forest!

I needed to squeeze this fill into a tight spot, so I rolled the still-attached sod back, filled in under it, and folded the sod back over on top.  A mix of gravel and larger chunks of asphalt made for a more stable subroadbed than dirt under the actual right-of-way.

In progress:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Complete except final grading!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

With that done, I had confirmed the final position for the Ansonia switch off the Penn Central Corning, NY - Jersey Shore, PA line.  So I went ahead and laid the tracks for the junction out, so I could find out where the spaces between tracks would be.  I had to custom bend and cut one more piece of track to connect the PC to the Wellsville Addison & Galeton, which will be laid using rougher-looking LGB rail.  Finally, I get to actually work on modeling the WAG, and not just PC!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Planting these live miniature evergreens was the goal.  To celebrate, I put some artificial greenery out also, and posed a short train on the mainline side of the Ansonia wye.  I already love the look, and can’t wait to keep building!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

With the finish line in sight on the Penn Central loop, I’m at the last call to revise the track plan before building the main part of the layout.  I’d love to hear input from all of you.

My end goal is road switching with random computer-generated switch lists.

The constraints:

• The Penn Central will have no industries, only staging.  I resisted this temptation MANY times, but it will remain a test track, a roundy-round, and a way to interchange staged cars onto the WAG.
• I want to stick to LGB standard track, with 8’ diameter curves.  I already have a lot of this, to change to another track brand would have to justify a very high price.
• I want to keep the footprint of the layout similar to what’s shown, so I have some open back yard.

Here’s the plan.  The dogbone on the left is the Penn Central, the rest is Wellsville Addison & Galeton territory.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I’ve tried to eliminate reverse curves and S-bends as much as possible.  If you think there are some I missed, let me know.  A few I couldn’t remove, so I bent the tracks as much as possible to smooth them out.

The PC loop is meant to be able to run longer, faster trains than the WAG.  Every curve on the PC has spiral transitions.  The WAG does not, and I plan to keep it that way.  Do you think I’ll regret that?

I have a question mark by the storage tracks in Galeton.  Their location isn’t final.  The spot shown is closest to the prototype location, but I’ve already deviated heavily from reality, so what’s one more compromise?


I guess that’s all.  Can’t wait to build this and make it the best I can!

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

I’m in full layout-building sprint mode this week, and loving it!  The first cinder blocks of the raised bed garden walls are in place to stay, the forests and fields around Ansonia Junction are springing to life, and progress continues grading the Penn Central line and it’s paralleling layout crew walkway.

I decided I was close enough on grading to decide a final height for the garden, so with a lot of minor adjustments, I got my 8 or so cinder blocks permanently installed and leveled.  I need around 70 more to finish this, but just making a start feels huge.  The rest should go pretty quickly.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I also got a bunch of both live and artificial plants to add to the scenery.  Various mosses and craft store floral section items complete my little chunks of forest and understory surrounding the Ansonia wye.  I need more tall trees, and I need the live evergreens to grow a bit, but I love the look.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I especially love the little ferns, cut from a craft store floral item.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Much more to come soon!

-Steven

[TiogaTracks]

It looks like I’ll fall short of my goal to get the whole loop running for this weekend, but the progress has been huge.  I need some daylight to show it all.  But, working with what light I had, I got a pretty darn good photo.

Beware the things that go *sound of a Leslie A200* in the night!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

-Steven