Indiana Harbor Belt of Texas

[Rossford Yard]

Wyatt (Soo) and I spent another weekend on my new IHB layout.  He took some pix, and said if I started a thread, he would post them.

Since moving to a new house about March 1, we (mostly he in the benchwork phase) have made a lot of progress.  It's a 10 x 20 room, (actually a garage bay walled in and pumped with AC)

I designed a two level, U shaped (with liftout, its really a donut) layout which has several signature scenes/areas of the IHB represented. 

The lower level contains 20 staging tracks from 10-16' long.  It was installed using some unfinished cabinets from Lowes as the basic support.  It is up and running (see my bullet proof track thread over in N scale) after running a 6 axle loco and up to 10 cars of various makes forward and back at full throttle through the yard ladders.  While I couldn't keep BLMA spine cars on the track, everything else ran fine, after a few misc tweaks to the Peco turnouts I used.  The lower level and helix are code 80, since I bought a hundred pieces of Atlas flex and several Peco turnouts at an estate sale for $0.50 and $5.00 each respectively.  Probably more reliable anyway.

Upper level is mostly pencil lines on plywood right now.  It comes out of helix right into a pretty good reprentation of the Blue Island Junction.  It turns out we only had to scale it down about 30% and have devoted more space to such a scene that most would, and it sure looks realistic, even in pencil!  We used HO truss bridges, which turn out to be just a wee bit big for the huge bridges at Blue Island, and N double track fits nicely with some mods.

The layout loops around to the other side, where we have laid out a reasonable representation of Gibson Yard.  Yes, IHB switches more at Blue Island than Gibson (or, as we dub it "the Mel") which focues on autoracks, but the turntable, engine terminal and junction up to the steel mills, Kankakee Line, and NYC/CR/NS are just too much to pass up.  The roundhouse and major junction are the entry scene when you walk in the double doors.

At first, we feared we have given up too much switching, but have realistically depicted the interchange with IAIS, and a hint of the scrap yard, along with the 4 track CN/GT interchange for swithcing at Blue Island. 

We will also have:

*a slightly moved oil refinery near Gibson,
*a few wall flat industries along the IHB main (similar to their real life locations)
*  a short branch up to a grain elevator facility (using from last layout) 
* a small timesaver type industrial park in the corner opposite the west Gib yard lead, around the corner,
* Gibson itself will do some autorack transfers on the back tracks (a la the prototype) and in the front classification yard, make up some transfer trains and cuts for local industries.
*We are trying to find a way to effectively use the space over the helix as a huge steel mill to really give an IHB flair.  Long term plans include going into the spare bedroom next door, either for narrow staging representing the line north to lake front steel plants, or maybe, just modeling the steel plants themselves.  Real estate negotiations have begun with the GF.

I actually like the the switching of larger blocks of cars to fewer places will make for better ops than endless switching puzzles and cherry picking cars out of along line for single placement.  The above represent 6-7 potential switch jobs, but none should last more than 45 minutes, (unless held for traffic at Blue Island Junction, which I would only do for the nittiest of nitpickers )  I think most switch jobs last too long and most of us would prefer to 45 minute jobs to a single two hour job.

After this weekend, you (if Wyatt follows through!) see the upper level benchwork in place and some of the pencil lines, along with one of the HO bridges placed for and idea of the massive Blue Island consist.  If Wyatt doesn't post pix, well, I guess this was a waste of typing!

[soo]

  I told Jeff that when I got home and got some well deserved rest, that I would post pictures.

  So without any further wait,, TA DA!!!!!!

  This is level for the staging level. Cabinets were used to make the benchmark height. 1/2" ply with cork used for sub roadbed.


  Here is the helix area, you can see construction is just starting.


  Almost done with the helix. No dimensional lumber was used in the layout. I ripped all material from 3/4" plywood sheets.


  Here are the staging yards.


   
  There ya have the beginings of the layout.

  Adios Wyatt

[soo]

  The pictures continue....

  Here is the upper level benchwork for what is going to be the gibson yard area. I had a idea of using a cantilever brace for construction,,but I guess murphy and his brothers built this house. Because  the walls are that are not that straight or plumb. Which would result in caddywhompus benchwork, ask any one that knows me,,,,, I DON'T BUILD JACKED UP STUFF!!!  So I decided to insert legs to correct that issue, also used string lines to insure proper straightness. ( yes I am particular when it comes to something I build.)



   Here are a couple different views of the completed upper level.




  Here we have Jeff holding the lift out with all the pride of a new father!!!  LOL


  Progress is being made.

  Adios Wyatt

[Philip H]

Nicely done gentlemen!  Too bad you have to mess all that good plywood with scenery and track (!)

[Rossford Yard]

Should probably also add that one of the best layout design features for those of us with...ah..ample girth, is the aisles which are mostly five foot wide.  Over the years and layouts, I have learned that creature comfort is more important than one more track here or there. 

The entry bridge is only 3' wide for engineering reasons and because the turntable area right and helix and closet left sort of dictate that.   The other knob is a protrusion to model the overhead RI/Metra/IAIS line.  It will be a dummy line, but necessary to get the feel of the Blue Island crossing.

Also, no grades other than the helix.  Walls crooked and floor unlevel meant constant use of level rather than assuming legs should be cut to same lenth.

BTW, we could play "spot the differences" between the first batch and second batch of photos.  Anyone notice a small benchwork difference between the two.

BTW II, been a modeler for years, and still learning.  Accidently bought white instead of clear adhesive latex caulk and decided to use it on the first staging yard before running out and switching to clear.  First time I have glued rather than track nailed track, and it is a wonderfully quick techinque that is actually better at getting straight track, providing you push it all against a straight edge while waiting for it to dry.

[jsoflo]

That is a great start, I am very interested in following your progress, thanks for sharing,
my best,
jan

[GaryHinshaw]

Very nice.  I'm a big fan of 10x20 rooms with light blue walls for layout space.    Looking forward to seeing some gritty urban scenes come forth.

How are the two staging yards supposed to function?  Are they sequential, both accessed by the helix, or is there another connection to the one on the right (looking from the door)?

-Gary

P.S. I can't see any differences in the benchwork photos... 

[soo]

  Well I have two more picture for your veiwing pleasure. I had to place descriptions so ya'll would know what is trying to be accomplished.





  To all the enquiring minds,, the subtle benchwork change came in the form of,,,, the change in the helix frame. I chopped the corner and made it an angle instead. SOMEONE!!!!!!! did not like it.

  Adios till next time,, Wyatt

[MichaelWinicki]

Luv the shape of the layout.

That one spot looks pretty far away reach-wise. 

As I've found out, even at 6'3", over 24" away and things start getting a little dicey.

[GaryHinshaw]

That looks like a cool concept, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the operations here.  With something like 4 lines in the scene here, I get the impression that trains will be coming and going every which way.  Is it more straightforward than that?  For those of us not familiar with the prototype, how do these lines work together in the real world?

This will be fun to see develop.

-gfh

[Rossford Yard]

Gary,

Good question.  Blue Island is one of the busiest junctions in America, and most of that trackage follows the prototype so that on some nights I can enjoy a layout with a railfan perspective of many different trains going by the same spot (using some hidden trackage connections to let all the trains go the right way.

On ops nights, the basic pattern will be similar to my last layout - a variety of trains (on the IHB belt, all RR use it for transfer and some through trains) come up the helix from staging, run through the signature scene (sometimes waiting for the junction to clear) on the IHB main, and go to the yard which classifies cars for transfer trains (which go right back to staging) or the local industries and interchanges we have fit in the railroad.

So, ops will be pretty standard, with a little eye candy thrown in from other RR, an advantage of building a terminal/belt line type RR.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Zoinks. Chicago is such an awesome area... that's gonna be incredible.

[C855B]

Yeah, Blue Island is a spaghetti bowl, with trains going every which way. I really ought to dig into my slide collection and find the pics of a trio of IHB Centuries moving a cut around one of the transfer legs. '78 or '79, I think.

[Rossford Yard]

Are you thinking of the Belt Railway of Chicago Alcos?  Think IHB was almost all EMD.  Those C425 would be awesome for Atlas to do and would be my last wish list loco!

One other thing Wyatt's loose track photos bring to mind...selective angular compression.  Blue Island Xings are really at 13 degrees.  We tried the Atlas 11.25 degree crossings, went to 22.5 and ended up using 30 degrees to space the tracks out and run straight into each edge of the helix.  But, comparing to the little ground level photos in the books, it looks right.

Sent these photos to a few other MRR friends, and one wrote back to see if we used stud finders where the tracks appear as if they will puncture the wall, since he tried similar things and hit a 2 x 6 straight on.  We did locate studs, but the CSX tracks will likely be dummies, with the inside one hooking quickly back to the IHB for continuous running of CSX trains, if I want.

[C855B]

>Are you thinking of the Belt Railway of Chicago Alcos?

Of course I am. 33 years of memory fog. Yeah, that's the ticket.