So a bad turnout brought about an idea that has lengthened the railroad! Not more space, but a longer Doniphan branch has become the positive. I thought this would be a pretty good time to load some updates on here...so here are a few pics of what has happened this weekend so far.
We start with the turnout from the Hoxie mainline that connects the Jacksonville Northwestern branchline. This has a couple of lazy curves and makes its' way to the NLR staging tracks.
Here is a shot of the NLR staging yard looking east. The short curve piece will connect to trackage that will run to the Mopac engine servicing area and two bay engine house which will tie up the Hoxie/Jacksonville engines when they finish their runs.
A look to the west shows the end of the staging yard. The track will continue around the corner and stop at the edge for now (hopefully someday the CEO (Mrs.) of the land appropriations committee will approve a shallow shelf across the window).
Here is the entrance into the Bald Knob staging yard looking east. The trackage you see with the stick pins is the "new" and extended Doniphan lumber mill branch.
The Doniphan branch will now run almost three times as long as prior planning, not only encompassing the Doniphan lumber mill, but will now run into Searcy to switch boxcars, hoppers with plastics pellets, and chemical tankers at a manufacturing company.
Here is the new Searcy runaround track. I had three short ME turnouts and put them to use. They're small, but an engine pulling one of the Mopac passenger cars went through with no problem, so I opted to put them to use.
And here is the end of the Doniphan Branch in Searcy. Although the tracks are next to each other, in operating the railroad they'll be around 35 miles apart (best I can do with the space).
So that's where I am right now. I am not going to add any more track that isn't planned. I have to finish attaching both staging yards, glue the tracks down, and clean everything up. I've been lazy in that I haven't started on one structure yet...that's gonna change tomorrow as I have the holiday off and will start putting the Doniphan Lumber Mill together.
michael
