Guys,
I have wandered around here for a while and have been a purely modular modeler as I had no home space for a layout. If you have ever read any of my posts I always referred to my modeling area as "the dungeon". In actuality, it was the crawl space under the house that was just big enough to stoop into and set up in. It was not a really great place to do anything, much less modeling, but it was what I had so I used it. We just bought a new house and part of the decision process for the whole family was to have someplace daddy could use as a train room. We caught the front side of the sellers market and got way more for our house than we could ever imagine. This allowed us to move significantly further up the housing food chain than we had ever contemplated. I have ended up with a full on, only for my use(well mine and the HVAC unit), train room.
There is even a decent piece of space behind and right of the HVAC unit. It is easy for me to get back there but involves stepping over a piece of duct, But it is full height, 4 feet wide and as deep as the wall that is the stairs immediately behind the HVAC unit.
It is unfinished space. I want to finish it before I actually build a real layout. The SO has approved finishing it as long as it is finished at the same time as her craft room in another part of the basement. With the other interior things we want to do, as this whole house is builders tan with base carpet and linoleum, finishing the spaces in the basement is three or fours years away at minimum. With that being said I still want to run trains in my new space. Enter all the modules I have slapped together over the years. I wont go into the reasons I have so many modules, and why they are different, and what ever possessed me to build them this way, but suffice to say I have a few and when I slapped them all together I nearly had a full layout.
I lack two/three(depends on what I do to turn 180 degrees at the end of the Ntrak modules to the Blacksburg Junction module) major pieces to have a full loop of modules with what I already had. The NTrak module set is a four module set that is being constructed to resemble Cresson PA. Why? Another story I don't want to go into but I picked it and it is way to far along to change now, plus I have really grown to like the idea and until the room gets finished will act as a sort of yard for the module loop. Will it be an effective and useful yard? Nope, but it will suffice.
So there are four signature modules that have been in sort of simultaneous/ADHD driven development for years. The Blacksburg Junction module, which has been the setting for all of my 1920s New Haven modeling and pictures, will be used as is with electrical upgrades and scenery work.
The ADM Crossing module, depicting the ADM elevator in downtown Charlotte where the NS and CSX meet at grade will have a prominent spot at the room entry.
The left rear corner will have the Speedaire module that takes it's influence from the Speedaire and other industry spurs just north of Harrisburg, NC. There are more industries than I have modeled but I have a tanker transload for Mallard Creek Polymers and the box manufacturer that has a very active two track covered set of sidings.
And lastly, the NTrak set representing Cresson, PA.
The flyover is planned to be live and if I can get a train up to the bridge I will build a module that attaches and takes off a single track district for use in train shows this thing gets hauled to. Realistic in scope? not really. Fun to contemplate? Yup.
I have also decided that all other modules will be scenery only. No industry, no spurs, very little in way of buildings. Grade crossings and maybe the occasional house. There are some double track sections and some single track sections based on making what I already have work together. I have already built a couple of plywood top filler modules to connect the left side at the correct length. Front two of the following picture. Basic scenery will be all that is applied.
I took all the middle sections down to concentrate on the NTrak set and the two corner modules. I have managed to complete them and get them connected and some cork laid. I used some ME flex and put down some track to get the ball rolling. Like Ed mentioned, you can actually run without securing the track which got me to here:
And this first running train courtesy of a 30 year old MRC Tech II powerpack, alligator clips, and a couple of locos that have not been converted to DCC yet.
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I am excited to have space and the ability to take 15 minutes here and there to work on trains as I can leave everything where I am working and step in and out as I have time.
Ultimately the layout will be Southern Railway in Sheffield, AL circa 1975. I will use modelers license and have the L&N interchange from Florence still be active and the TVA facilities there still be heavy users of rail service. I will not model Sheffield yard as it is massive and could not be done justice in my space. I may do double decks with the helix in the hell hole behind the HVAC unit, but I am not sold on that yet. It could be two independent decks with the upper deck being the Ford/Reynolds aluminum branch that departs Sheffield yard from the east end as a point to point switching layout and the lower deck as a staging to staging layout from Norala junction to the giant coal transload west of Tuscumbia. THis is where the alternate history would have to be used as there was not a lot of operations in this area in the time frame. Why this area at this time? It is where I gained my love of trains and Southern Railway specifically as I used to spend my summers there with my grandparents who totally bought into the "take the boy and chase a train" form of entertainment. It was a truly formative piece of growing up and I want to model it. I will figure out how to make it operationally interesting.
If you have gotten this far thanks for reading!
