Seaboard Central 2.0

[sizemore]

I am going to lobby to give this area some flow.... Adding something would afford the loco tracks to extend out beyond the building. Something like this:



Humbly Submitted,
The S.

[davefoxx]

The S.,

I hear you.  Others have suggested this as well, so you're not alone or off-base.  But, I just don't want the loop to feel like it's in the backyard of the enginehouse, so I really don't want to close that gap . . . if that makes sense.

Thanks,
DFF

[Dave V]

Needs more pubes.

Seriously, Dave, I understand what you're doing.  The narrow neck helps isolate the loop so it doesn't look like an adjacent piece of land.  Kinda like the Ian Rice idea of having scenicked LDEs separated by less scenicked "twisty bits."

[Bendtracker1]

Since others are throwing out ideas for you, one thought occurred to me.
If you were to place one or two more turnouts on the tangent, after the loop turnout, you could lay one or two yard tracks where you could keep a small amount of cars stored.  This way it's not always the same train with the same cars on every run, it would broaden the variety that you would see.  Or did I hear you say something about two loops?

[davefoxx]

Needs more pubes.

Seriously, Dave, I understand what you're doing.  The narrow neck helps isolate the loop so it doesn't look like an adjacent piece of land.  Kinda like the Ian Rice idea of having scenicked LDEs separated by less scenicked "twisty bits."

Thanks, Dave, you've got the idea . . . well, except for that pubes suggestion. 

DFF

[davefoxx]

Since others are throwing out ideas for you, one thought occurred to me.
If you were to place one or two more turnouts on the tangent, after the loop turnout, you could lay one or two yard tracks where you could keep a small amount of cars stored.  This way it's not always the same train with the same cars on every run, it would broaden the variety that you would see.  Or did I hear you say something about two loops?

Allen,

I thought about it and have left that possibility open.  There's plenty of tangent track in which to install a turnout or two.  But, at this point, it doesn't bother me for the same train to come back to Aberdeen in another ops session.  But, once I begin operating this portion of the layout, I'm not against making whatever changes are necessary to improve operations.  We'll see.

The two loops was an idea for the other end of the A&R line on the shelf near the water heater.  I've since decided against that and will just use a two or three-track yard with a runaround to get the power to the other end of the train.  I reconsidered, because the AR1 (which could have been a PM42 for multiple auto-reversing sections) in Aberdeen was too far away to run feeders back to the other end of the layout.  At this point, I'm not going to invest in more auto-reversers for the A&R.  Besides, I need several more Hex Frog Juicers, and that will be hard enough on Mr. Wallet.

Thanks,
DFF

[Bendtracker1]

Allen,

I thought about it and have left that possibility open.  There's plenty of tangent track in which to install a turnout or two. 

That was kind of my thought, no need to do it right now, but for the future, leave it as an option.

[eric220]

Ack! Did you already order the AR1? If not, go with the OnGuard OG-AR. It's the same company that makes the PSX-AR, and it's only 6 bucks more than the AR1. I replaced my AR1s with them, and they've solved all the problems that I had with the AR1s. The advantage of the PSX, and the reason it costs more, is that it has an integrated stall motor decoder, so it can automatically throw the turnout as the train rolls past.

[davefoxx]

Yeah, Eric, I did, because it was cheaper and immediately available.  I was warned, so, if it gives me trouble, y'all can say, "I told you so."  That said, I received my order of track and the AR1 from MBK this afternoon.  A few hours later and . . .

"Look, Ma, no short circuit!"  Success!

DFF

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looks good!
It's a small section, so the AR-1 might not have the same problems eric220 and I had.

I think you mentioned before about building a hill/bluff in the center.
I'm sure you could make it look great, but I think that, given the small size, it'd have a Toy Train / She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain feel to it.

I was thinking that at least put a potential industry there and make the loop dual-purpose: sometimes you turn a train, sometimes you set & pick up cars.

So if you really want a hill, make one side the exposed face of a quarry.
Or, turn it into part of an industrial park with curved buildings & loading spots, like this area in Oakland, CA: https://goo.gl/maps/7G5gi

Some photos:







Or like what I did on a pair of curved modules:



Or what DKS and Chris333 did with their uber-awesome little inner-city layouts.

By varying the height and sizes of the buildings (and the crap on top like billboard / cellphone & water towers) you can create effect viewblocks as well as a real destination and disguised loop.

Winthrop might have called Plymouth, Mass the "City on a Hill," but I'll bet Dr. Dave and the rest of us will have no problem calling yours the "City on the Scrote" 

Food for thought.

[C855B]

That guard rail is a unique modeling opportunity.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Yeah, I really liked that detail, so I made sure to get a bunch of photos.
Here's the close up:





Most of the older Oakland industrial trackage has a guard rail (or two) around curves:





And the in-street trackage at the old Nabisco plant has them everywhere:





Not that Dave needs the guard rail on his loop, but a very cool detail.

Some other Oakland picts of curved trackage & industries to spark some ideas for the loop scenery:





Lots of great textures, colors & details.

Will be interesting to see what you do with the space!

[davefoxx]

M.C.,

Awesome pics.  Thanks for the inspiration.  What I plan to do is look to the prototype and see what the former Southern Ry. line had along this route to see if there's anything cool like these ideas to disguise the loop.

As for the auto-reverser, I appreciate your advice, but I decided that the AR1, which was only $23.99 at MBK (about 1/3rd the price of a PSX-AR!), was worth the risk for this small return loop.  If it craps out, as I told Eric, you can say, "I told you so." When I first fired up the layout after wiring up the loop/AR1, I set the adjustable trip current on the AR1 at the mid setting, as the instructions recommended, and it worked perfectly without any further adjustment needed.  So far, so good.

Thanks,
DFF

[chuck geiger]

Foxey - Remember the old Atlas straight track ahead book showed reverse loop wiring and I thought, this
could be the electric chair for model railroaders.

[davefoxx]

Winthrop might have called Plymouth, Mass the "City on a Hill," but I'll bet Dr. Dave and the rest of us will have no problem calling yours the "City on the Scrote"

Now that's just damn funny right there.