Protolanced Greenville & Northern Railway - GMU extension layout

[packers#1]

@Ed Kapuscinski looks exactly like what I’m wanting to do, except my base plate would go up under the turnout. I might just scale it back. Since I’ve only got six turnouts to do and I don’t want to have to wait on Shapeways and more slide switches, I’ll give it a go with rolling my own, but should that fail thanks for the link to @Lemosteam ‘s parts!

[davefoxx]

But then, in a similar vein, @Lemosteam designed a mount to help make things even easier.
http://www.keystonedetails.com/keystone-customs/2016/9/12/30pk-dpdt-switch-mnt-for-n-scale-atlas-c55-turnout?rq=switch

Whoa!  @Lemosteam for the win!

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@Ed Kapuscinski looks exactly like what I’m wanting to do, except my base plate would go up under the turnout. I might just scale it back. Since I’ve only got six turnouts to do and I don’t want to have to wait on Shapeways and more slide switches, I’ll give it a go with rolling my own, but should that fail thanks for the link to @Lemosteam ‘s parts!

In my experience the Atlas freight car box plastic was pretty perfect for the application. It's a pain to work with, but has the material properties you'll want.

[Lemosteam]

Thanks for the plugs.

I also offer these. They are magnetic, and the magnet contact can be used to power a frog. You can use your fingers in the points to throw, or use the included switch machine that attaches to the throwbar.

http://www.keystonedetails.com/keystone-customs/2021/2/6/4-pk-n-scale-atlas-custom-line-magnetic-turnout-actuator-672tc

[packers#1]

Got everything wired the weekend before Thanksgiving, and man did I forget a lot from the last layout I built  oh well, it’s been built and I’ll do better on the next one. Everything runs though! However, I came to an impasse in that I need the extension off the end built. But I haven’t made much progress to even ask what I should do because for Thanksgiving I went back home with Bridget for the holiday, and it’s the best season down here to be outside, so Sunday we finally took advantage of the good weather and not being busy for a change to go for a hike at Paris Mountain, where I PROPOSED and she said YES! So YAY! So needless to say, after getting everything wired I haven’t done much else.

Now, on to the impasse. I’m stuck on whether to just add a temporary bit of wood off the end to lay some track down on to make the run around usable, or do I go ahead and build a shelf to build up some more scenery on. Specifically I want to do a bridge scene and a block of stores and homes. Picture below of the space; I’m leaning towards just throw the wood up and focus on the layout first, then add those scenic elements once I’ve made more progress on the layout.

[davefoxx]

so Sunday we finally took advantage of the good weather and not being busy for a change to go for a hike at Paris Mountain, where I PROPOSED and she said YES! So YAY!

Congratulations!

DFF

[davefoxx]

Now, on to the impasse. I’m stuck on whether to just add a temporary bit of wood off the end to lay some track down on to make the run around usable, or do I go ahead and build a shelf to build up some more scenery on. Specifically I want to do a bridge scene and a block of stores and homes. Picture below of the space; I’m leaning towards just throw the wood up and focus on the layout first, then add those scenic elements once I’ve made more progress on the layout.

I believe you answered your own question.  That’s what I would do, too.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[packers#1]

I believe you answered your own question.  That’s what I would do, too.

Hope this helps,
DFF

Thanks DFF, ultimately I was more trying to see if anyone had experience where it was smarter to just go for the big shelf. Since no one piped up, I took the plunge and threw it together last night. I might extend it some more but for right now this is perfect for my needs.



I also, in thinking about the layout and my goals, have swapped the plastic film plant and the paper recycler. This will give me more spots for hoppers a la a corn syrup plant (some packaging films can take up to seven different compounds to make, so plenty of different hoppers), and the far end will have a much more smaller industrial look that would fit the older portion of the line.

And thank you for your congratulations!

[packers#1]

Been a minute since I’ve posted, but between a super busy holiday season with friends coming in, and then house cleaning and relaxing from an absolutely hectic 2021, I’ve gotten a few things done on the layout.

Anyone who has been around the Upstate knows we do things a little different in the ground department here…specifically red clay (ask me how great it is to install a fence during the rainy season with two dogs; go ahead, ask!) as such, rather than the standard brown cover, I mixed a decent red clay color; it might be a bit light but it’ll do if the subsequent coverings don’t work. I’ll be adding brown paint under a lot of the other ground cover, as there is typically some top soil. But this is a good base coat. I also sculptamolded in the turnout controls; definitely will do this differently the next layout. But overall I’m happy with this. I also have painted the track; I used acrylic paint and a brush because I’m now lost having come back into the hobby with no Polly Scale and no airbrush. That’ll be a future purchase somewhat soon!



I’ve also started on the unloading pad for the lumberyard. Not sure how big it’ll end up being, but this is a good start!


Happy new year to everyone!

[packers#1]

And now to JFRTM!

Here’s the local dropping the loads to be spotted on the main. We’ll go pull the empties first before spotting the loads.



Pulling an empty boxcar from the lumber company. Not sure what to call it; perhaps M.L. Building Supply (our labradoodle is named Milo and our Sheepadoodle is Lambeau) or Upstate Supply.



Picking up the empty boxcar at the paper recycling company after gathering the empty boxcar from the lumber yard. The paper recycler I’m leaning towards Foothills Recycling or Reclamation or something. The cars in the background are the loads from earlier; they will be hidden by the building and a wall of trees and brush. I’m not sure if I’ll be lowering the rear main a bit and having the trees somewhat see through to recreate a bit of the elevation difference from the area I’m protolancing from or if I’ll make it an impenetrable wall of foliage.



Finally, the crew is spotting the grain car full of malt for the brewery (off stage for now, if I ever want to expand this layout I’ll have the brewery and Safety Kleen around on an extension) and an off spot car for Sonoco. I’ll be upping the car spots at Sonoco to four to add some more operating potential. Similar to a corn syrup industry, each hopper carries a different type of plastic and has to go back in its slot if moved, and each hopper will go in a specific slot if the customer already has the hoses set up. Given different usage rates of plastic, each hopper will stay around for a different amount of time. There can be up to 7 different plastics in some film (it pays to have a fiancé who majored in packaging!) my work also uses plastic from hoppers, and we’ll have anywhere from 0 up to 6 hoppers off spot (but it’s usually more like 0 to 3), so that’s some of the inspiration as well.




Now for the G&N story. I think I’ve mentioned already how, in modern day, the area I’m freelancing was part of the Carolina Piedmont RR and Greenville and Northern, which were both operated under Railtex before the area I’m modeling was abandoned because of the lack of industry. Around the same time this happened, the Belton to Pelzer section of CSX was leased to Carolina Western Rail Services. So how I’m going to change the story is this:

Rather than Railtex managing the Greenville and Northern, CWRS managed it instead. When CSX leased the Belton to Pelzer section to CWRS, they instead included the entire line from Greenville to Belton, with the trackage rights to still run unit coal trains from Spartanburg to the Duke plant at Pelzer. CWRS also leased the line from River Jct to Mauldin (the section I’m modeling). Railtex still operates the Carolina Piedmont, as they had since 1990. Eventually, CSX struck a deal with CWRS to handle the rest of the local switching along the line from River Jct in Greenville to Spartanburg (a la Buckingham Branch’s deal), with CSX still running unit coal trains and then ethanol trains from Spartanburg to Pelzer.

[packers#1]

Didn’t get much of a chance this weekend to work on the layout, but the 5” of snow and subsequent sheet of ice gave me some time yesterday. Started with getting a bit of ground work in for scenery, then moved onto planning out some features.

First I mocked up the Sonoco film plant. It’s a little tall to me, so I’ll probably drop the height down another inch to inch and a half. The full building won’t be quite so long; the last bit of it by the end hopper will be a silo farm like in the prototype plant I’m basing this off of. https://goo.gl/maps/uN5ZwPiYw9RqMBDX9



I also started working on the hills and the overpass. These are going to be covered with trees and kudzu, and some of the base will be dug out with clay showing to really drive home the setting. I’m going back and forth on how much to compress Pleasantburg Dr by. In real life it’s 6 lanes, concrete median, and sidewalks each side. I’m going to shoot for four lanes and the median, possibly with sidewalks. The main thing to capture is the road overpass versus a perfect replica. The piece of corrugate over the hills is Pleasantburg Dr. The near hill will be adjusted as needed, but I’ll be sticking with the uphill road, a feature of the prototype. The flat land between the near hill and tracks will be dug into to make a narrow depression, to enhance the feel of hilly terrain.

[packers#1]

Wow it’s been a minute! I haven’t had much to post that’s photogenic until now, but I *finally* am running DCC and sound and I’m having an absolute BALL JFRTing man! With DC I was having fun switching cars, but good Lord I did not realize how much DCC was going to improve speed control and running speed. I’ve got a few spots on the track to work out, but overall this is definitely the best I’ve had a layout run that wasn’t made of snap track.

As for locomotives, thanks to a dishonest eBay seller who listed a DCC B&M Geep as the silver series when he’d swapped the shell onto an older chassis. Fortunately, I had already purchased a sound decoder from a member here, and so a quick Google and I found a silver series Amtrak GP38 for $74 + shipping at B360 hobbies. I also picked up a Conrail GP38-2 shell from another member here and so I’ve got that solved. I’ll be patching the Conrail shell for Norfolk Southern, and I’ve got the Amtrak shell and a GP38 undec shell to make a lessor locomotive and a Greenville and Northern loco. I also bought a gold series GP40 to eventually turn into either a G&N loco or an FEC loco to build a Trujillo and Sons shelf layout. Given how the FEC GP40’s have travelled around the country and there was a NECR Geep on the Carolina Piedmont for a while it’s not really that out there. But for now I’m just having fun running some trains! I’ll probably pivot to weathering some freight cars and building some structures for a bit before I pivot to scenery.