The original Norfolk Southern; Edenton, 1948

[Iain]

Well, considering that I've a bunch of ME C40 flex and rail on the way, as well as bits of benchwork ordered, I reckon it's time to start this thread.

For starters, I am modeling the original Norfolk Southern in Edenton, North Carolina, c. late summer 1948.  I chose this because I get the end of passenger service, and a mix of steam and diesel.  I went with Edenton for location because it's big enough to be operationally interesting from a model railroad standpoint, but small enough I can represent it on a door and make it obvious what it is.

I'll be going with a 3' X 8' layout; however, I'm not actually going to use a door.  I've ordered aluminum bar to form the benchwork, and I'll use a 2" foam subroadbed.  The idea here is to make a layout that is very light, but still somewhat stronger than Ed's benchworkless endeavor.  The reason for this is portability; however, there is the side benefit that it will be much more stable than wood in North Carolina's environment.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Do you have a track plan yet?

[basementcalling]

I look forward to seeing more. Edenton was practically in my backyard when I was growing up.

[davefoxx]

John,

Glad to see you get started.  If you're modeling Edenton, are you going to model any of the five-mile long trestle across the Albemarle Sound?

DFF

[Iain]

I do not have a track plan; I have put together the Sanborn maps of the town and traced out the relevant bits.  I need to go from that to a track plan.  I do know I want to do the Edenton Peanut Co.

Alas, I don't believe I'll be doing the trestle.  I just don't have the space.

[davefoxx]

Maybe you could just imply the monster trestle with a track heading out over the Albemarle on a trestle that runs to the table's edge.  That could always be one way to allow for future expansion.

[Iain]

I have been thinking about that.

Before the big trestle was a little trestle over the creek (the name of which escapes me at the moment).

[Iain]

ME code 40 flex and rail arrived today.  I also ordered one piece of ME C55 flex with concrete ties to do a photo module based on the line out to Aurora. 

The rail will be for handlaid switches.

I'm waiting on the final part of my order from Granger before I can start building benchwork.

[Iain]

Been working on a map of the town.



Next up to design the layout; I'd like the 'centerpiece' to be the Edenton Peanut Factory, which was a really cool building.

[Iain]

Closeup detail showing Edenton Peanut Co. and then at the bottom of the map the train station.  What I'm likely to do is flip the station to the same side of the tracks as the peanut plant.

[Iain]

So far, the layout design I've come up with looks like this:



I do have an idea kicking around to have a line going off to the right for staging.  It just so happens that track would also be a nice place to represent the main line south, crossing Queen Annes Creek and then on to the main Albemarle Sound bridge.

It's going to be 3' X 6', so roughtly door size.  I want it to be slightly wider so that I can get broader curves, but also a bit shorter to fit into the trailer I have.