Hi everyone,
I'm not sure how I was never aware of The Railwire before but, having having finally found it and spent the last week weeks browsing, the level of modeling on display is very impressive. I'm happy to be a part of it!
My layout has actually been referenced here once before (in Gary Hinshaw's outstanding
Tehachapi BC thread - that's how I found The Railwire, in fact), but I thought I would start a thread to give a little bit more info.
I'm modeling a line very near and dear to my heart, the Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Mountain District (Tehachapi Pass), in the mid-90s, when SP tunnel motors and ATSF warbonnets and bluebonnets still ruled the roost and the folks who would ultimately conspire to completely ruin the railfanning hobby by virtue of fitting every single train with four or five orange GEs hadn't even dreamt up their evil plan yet, let alone begun its implementation. I moved to Vegas from Kentucky back in 2003 and never saw Tehachapi in the SP days, but I wish I had, so I suppose that's why I chose this period to model.
Construction on the layout began in July 2013 after nearly two years of work on (and literally hundreds of revisions to) the track plan. The construction is a combination of single, double and, in a couple instances where required, triple decks. It lives in my 20x30ft (yes, climate controlled) garage in Henderson, a suburb of Vegas. The mainline run is just shy of 450ft from Mojave to Bakersfield (about 13.4 scale miles) and all trackage is Atlas c55/ME c40. All mainline turnouts are #10s; #7s for spurs, house tracks, industries, and yards. There is one helix (between Mojave and Cameron) and I hate it, but there was really no other option. Max grade is 2.1%, just like the real pass; minimum curve radius is 24in, very much unlike the real pass.
Since lots of people ask, the Tehachapi Loop is 29" radius on the main (inside track), which puts it about 70% to scale.
My primary interest is running multiple long trains over a long, twisting, grade-laden mainline while making meets, etc. Local/industry operations, just as on the real pass, will be fairly limited - the fruit packing plants at Edison, house tracks at Caliente, Bealville, Woodford, and Walong, Chemtool Inc. in Tehachapi (this wasn't here yet in the mid-90s, but I invoked modeler's license to include it as another stop for the locals), and the cement plant at Monolith. Helper pockets are in place at Bena and summit (Tehachapi, in this case) to allow for that operational possibility. Local and helper service should provide more than plenty to do for 3-4 crews who are so inclined during an operating session.
The layout will be fully CTC'd using JMRI and Rodney Black's wonderful CATS software. As of today, it's fully detected (73 detected blocks) and all 52 Tortii are in place providing position feedback to CATS as well as allowing for DS control where applicable. Signalling, save for 2 oddball signals which are currently being custom-built, is complete from Kern Jct. through Walong, a well as the control points at Cable, Cameron and W Mojave. I haven't done the math, but I figure it's 75-80% finished.
I plan to begin track weathering/ballasting over the next week. Scenery will be a mixture of pink foam and plaster cloth and certainly isn't too far away from starting at this point.
That's really about it. Again, I'm happy to be part of the group and able to share my layout build with those of you who might be interested.
Track Plan:
CATS Dispatcher Workstation:
Crappy iphone Panorama from this evening w/ signal approach lighting disabled:
