John Colombo's NKP Layout

[jdcolombo]

Hi everyone.

Though some of you have seen snippets of my layout in photos and videos I've posted of my sound installations, I thought I'd try to start a thread here with some more photos and a bit more complete coverage of the layout.

The layout is set in 1957 in northern Ohio, and is a combination of prototype and free-lance modeling.  The prototype part is the motive power and a couple of iconic structures of the Nickel Plate Road.  The free-lance part is the track arrangements and industries at the towns I've chosen to include.  These towns are (from west to east) Fostoria, Maple Grove, Bellevue (where the NKP's main classification yard was, along with the roundhouse and engine terminal facilities), Lorain and Rocky River.  I also have a large steel mill scene, inspired by National Tube in South Lorain.

Here is a track diagram (this was made using Atlas' right track software six years and three computers ago; I no longer have the original software or the files, but this track plan is pretty accurate despite a couple of in-construction changes).  The room is approximately 25' x 13' (the grid lines are 3" apart on the track diagram):

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The basic operational scheme is pretty simple.  There are five mainline trains (four freights and one passenger train) that operate in each direction.  These trains leave their respective staging yards and travel to Bellevue, where cars are switched out for local destinations and cars added for off-line destinations (the off-line destinations are Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis to the west; Cleveland and Buffalo to the east).  Power and cabooses are swapped out at Bellevue, and the trains continue on the rest of the layout, terminating in the opposite staging yard.

In addition to the mainline trains, there are two locals (one for Lorain and Rocky River, the other for Fostoria and Maple Grove) and a switch job for the steel mill.  An operating session lasts three hours, and requires 7 operators (two for the mainline trains; two for Bellevue Yard; two for the locals; and one for the steel mill).  Since I don't yet have any signals, I do dispatching by yelling across the room (OK - not very dignified, but effective!).

Here are a few photos of Bellevue Yard, and then I'll post some additional messages with photos from the other layout scenes.

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John C.

[Spades]

John

Nicely done, look forward to seeing more post.

[jdcolombo]

At Lorain, there is a station (yes, I know I need some crossing gates here; on my list!), a freight house and several industries, including a food distributor (I needed a place to park some of my reefers!), a milling company, and a couple of manufacturing industries.  There is also an interchange with the B&O.  Some photos:

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John C.

[svedblen]

The yard and engine house scene - impressive! Massive! 

[central.vermont]

VERY nice layout John!!!!!! I've always wondered what the rest of it looked like and I must say I'm impressed.  A couple of questions though, it looks like you must duck under to get into your layout right? So where do you do this and is any of it view-able from the outside edges of what you have drawn.

Jon

[jdcolombo]

The duck-under is about 8" wide at the doorway into the room; the rest of the layout is around the walls except for the center peninsula.  So you can't really see any of the layout from outside the edges on the track plan (the peninsula has a high backdrop that separates the two sides; you'll see the backdrop in the upcoming photos of the steel mill scene).

John C.

[jdcolombo]

Next after Lorain is the steel mill scene:

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[jdcolombo]

After the steel mill is the town of Rocky River:

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[jdcolombo]

Another major feature of the layout is the Rocky River Viaduct.  The scene is still under construction (I need to paint or do something else with the backdrop here), but here's a shot of that scene as it currently stands:

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And here is a farm scene in-between Bellevue and Lorain, followed by the grain elevator at Maple Grove:

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The final town, Fostoria, is still mostly plywood plains.  Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have photos of the completed Rocky River Viaduct scene and Fostoria.  Then comes time to add details - things like figures, railroad crossing signs/gates, signals, etc.  Still a lot of workin' on the railroad to be done!

John C.

[seusscaboose]

I've always lived your Bellevue roundhouse and terminal

Very hot!

It's ways nice to see a sceniced layout


Have you considered the Blair Lines station for Rocky River?

Eric

[nscaler711]

Looks good, John.
I am jealous! 
So I have an idea for your shadows on your back drop, if you are able to, move the lights so that they shine more on the backdrop, and angle them forwards to the viewer it should move the shadows away from the backdrop. Should hypothetically anyways.
If that makes Any sense at all.

[jdcolombo]

Looks good, John.
I am jealous! 
So I have an idea for your shadows on your back drop, if you are able to, move the lights so that they shine more on the backdrop, and angle them forwards to the viewer it should move the shadows away from the backdrop. Should hypothetically anyways.
If that makes Any sense at all.

Yes, the lighting is all track lighting, so it is very adjustable.  I'll try some different things to get rid of the shadows next time I'm taking photos.  Thanks!

John C.

[Philip H]

@jdcolombo that viaduct is fabulous. Did you take photos of the build?

[MichaelWinicki]

Very nice John!

Luv the yard!  Magnetic uncoupling?

What sort of car originate/depart system do you use?

[jdcolombo]

@jdcolombo that viaduct is fabulous. Did you take photos of the build?

Nope.  I built that in 1995, before I owned a digital camera or even thought about taking photos of what I was doing.  It was part of my first layout, which I tore down in 2003 so we could finish the basement.  This layout was started in summer of 2010, and in-between I had a much smaller layout in a spare bedroom.  It's a combination of the Micro Engineering Tall Viaduct and scratchbuilding using Plastruct shapes.   I used photos of the real viaduct as a guide, but it is considerably shorter than the real thing - the real viaduct is 700' long; this one scales out to about 330'. 

John C.