Illinois Central/Canadian National in N scale

[nscalemike]

Overall, I think it looks pretty good.  Yard design is nice, but that tailpiece looks like it's going to get in the way, maybe even get broken.  I'm guessing you're going for realistic operation, allowing the locomotive to cut off and get around the cars.  Have you considered using a transfer table instead?

The tail track will be removable, either fold down or over.  It will only be in place when needed.

[nscalemike]

Will begin the dismantel of the current layout in the next 48 hours or so I think.  So I think this is the last opportunity to try and change my mind about the rebuild.  I hope I learned enough from a good size layout build to not make the same mistakes again and I think I will be happy with the new plan as well.  I know it always looks different in real life than it does on paper though.

I have always constructed my benchwork in some fashion of the open grid concept.  On the new layout, I believe I want something more basic.  I am thinking of installing shelf brackets on each stud, decking the brackets with 1/2" or 3/4" plywood, topped by 2" of foam.  The mainline will then sit on approximately 1/4" cork while the sidings are on 1/8" cork.  Rail height about 57" off the ground. 

Can anyone provide any thoughts on this benchwork?  Too tall, noise level associated with the foam, plywood thickness, etc?  I am 5'10" or so and looking for eye level type view, short enough though that it is easy to reach for ops. 

Also, any other thoughts on the layout plan?

Thanks, Mike

[GaryHinshaw]

Hi Mike, I don't have any good reasons to dissuade you from dismantling - do what your instincts tell you here  and go for it.

RE the benchwork: so far I'm pretty happy with 58" on my Loop shelf, and the rest of my upper deck is between 58 and 65", which is starting to get up there, but they're all narrow shelves.  FWIW, I have noticed a tendency to want to stand on a step stool to get a birds-eye view now and then, but it's easy enough to do, and the eye level view does have a lot to offer, especially on a slow roll-by.

Your construction method sounds reasonable.  I would go with 3/4" ply underneath for better support.  I think cork over foam should be decent sound-wise.  I had a test module made that way and I don't recall the sound being annoying.  YMMV.

Cheers,
Gary

[nscalemike]

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had a great holiday season!   I spent much of my free time over the last couple of weeks making progress to the new layout.  To date, the entire old layout is removed and disposed of.  I ended up saving all but 2 turnouts but I lost a majority of the flex track.  I'd consider that acceptable.  I also constructed about 90% of the new benchwork.  It is very simple, around the walls with shelf brackets, decked with 1/2" OSB, followed by 2" foam and ceiling tile.  I still need to construct the center staging yard benchwork, the removable doorway piece and the light shelf. 

Here's some photos so far:


That last of the old layout went up in flames the day after Christmas


Leaving me with a messy but empty layout room


The shelf brackets went up first, one on each stud


Next, the OSB was applied


Then the foam, followed by the ceiling tiles.

The final height is just shy of 56 1/2" to the top of the rail, which seems to be really good on the 12" deep shelf.

Also, what is shaping up to be the final plan:


There will likely by minor changes here and there with final industry placement and what not.  I also think the staging yard will end up being mostly stub end tracks due to space limits, but that will be worked out down the road.  I added a small yard and house track to the interchange area, and this will help the local on the way to the town.

Thanks,
Mike

[Bendtracker1]

  To date, the entire old layout is removed and disposed of. 
Here's some photos so far:


That last of the old layout went up in flames the day after Christmas

Oh my!  What the neighbors must think of you? 

Lookin' good Mike!

Keep us posted.

[nscalemike]

Oh my!  What the neighbors must think of you? 

Lookin' good Mike!

Keep us posted.

Oh yes, the nice advantage to not living in the city!  That is actually my neighbors burn pile.  He lets me use it so I don't ruin my grass and in exchange I burn what he has back there too.  15 months of construction eliminated to a pile of ash in 15 minutes!

[Philip H]

Mike,
I like it.  I like it a lot in fact.

[conrailthomas519]

WoW!!! Up in smoke! Thanks for the idea! Love the pic....Lol I was going to put mine in the garbage!

[eric220]

Oh, the humanity!

[conrailthomas519]

 So it will go down in flames.... well maybe my former NS/ Conrail Middle division will follow, along with the MESS that I'm making by tearing down a wall of plaster and lathe, so I may enlarge my layout.

[nscalemike]

Yes,  when your parents said "Don't play with fire" they really meant it!!  Too bad I never really listened!      My trash probably would have taken everything, especially if I broke it down into pieces but I was too lazy to do that and didn't feel like trying to explain the concept of a model railroad helix to them either. 

Thanks for the comments and encouragement!  Here is a sneak peek at whats been happening and whats to come in the next few days:


Monday after work I put down the 1:1 scale printout track plan on about 3/4 of the layout.  A step that doesn't directly show progress but very important for making the track laying go faster.


One of the two rural scene on the new layout,  pleased that the curves are not quite as sharp as what I feared.

I then started tracing the plan onto the ceiling tiles with a tracer wheel from the craft store.  I am only tracing the section that I am working on at that time, then immediately highlight it with a sharpie. 

That gave me my next major milestone.  The first piece of track was laid on Tuesday: 


Started my weekend today and have a few hours on each of the next two days to get work done.  My goal this weekend is to continue the trackwork and install the backdrop. 

Thanks again!
Mike

[nscalemike]

Just finally getting a chance to update from the past weekend.  I made some progress but not with everything that I wanted.  I am still waiting on the backdrop to be installed.  Every day the weather is nice I've been busy and when I have time its been too nasty to get it cut.  Hopefully in the next day or two and before it snows on Thursday I'll get it cut and start installing it!

That hasn't stopped everything though.  Trackwork has continued in town and I have four of the industries finished.


This is the furtherest left area I have.  That curved track to the edge is the scrap yard


Looking down the main.  The angled left track is industry, then the car storage track, the main, passing siding, and finally the right spur is the chemical transloading site


And finally, the furtherest right area.  In the distance you can see the plan and where the main is.  Up front is the area labeled 'candy factory' on the plan.  This is also the first variation from the plan.  I found I could add a second right hand curved turnout after the one in the plan.  So I did and it gave me another spot at this plant for about 2 cars.  I also elevated the back spur by 1".  It's a 4% grade up, but it's just to spot the cars there som 4 cars pushed up max.  A little elevation variety and will help to hide the tight main curves along the back.  The main will run through a cut there.  I may also change the industry too, but I'm not sure to what just yet.    (Sorry for the poor pics, I think a setting was changed and I didn't notice until I uploaded to the computer.)

The trackwork is about to come to an end for the time being.  I have on order all the switch machines for the mainline turnouts.  Those will be powered, but all the industry spurs will be manual.  I don't want to lay the powered turnouts until I have the machines to ensure the holes are all drilled right.  I also don't want to lay the track up to those turnouts incase they need to be adjusted slightly.  I ordered them from BLWNSCALE last Thursday, hoping they'd be here by Wednesday at the latest so I can work on them during my days off, but so far I haven't heard anything from them 

I also want to think about installing some facia.  I have the general idea of where it needs to be and if I get it up I can install the switch controls and can stop getting ceiling tile dust all over me every time I work on the layout!

Thats it for now. 

Thanks, Mike

[nscalemike]

Wow, it's been a while since an update.  Unfortunately this isn't much of an update today either.  Work has been progessing nicely but somewhat slow during the last 4-5 weeks.  I have all the track work along the long wall town installed, and working around the left wall.  I have also been running some trains around the town too.  I think I like what I have there and it should be fun to operate on. 

When I made it around to the left wall, I started to become concerned about the grain elevator I had in the rear corner.  It's a long reach and kinda tucked out of the way in the corner.  I also put the 1:1 plan for the interchange yard on the door wall.  Something about this area never really has set well with me.  There was a time initially that I thought I liked the plan, but as I have looked over it on the layout over the last several weeks I really felt uneasy about it.  First, the three lines coming from the staging yard bothered me.  I felt it would become a scenery nightmare.  Next, I was having a hard time picturing a smooth operation flow of the interchange itself.  Finally, I began thinking that adding in an operating interchange would once again over complicate my solo operations.

So, over the last few days I again sat at the computer tossing ideas around.  I stumbled upon Mark Lestico's Cascade Subdivision layout page again and recalled really liking the plan (http://www.macrodyn.com/ldsig/wiki/index.php?title=Cascade_Subdivision_-_N_-_Mark_Lestico).  Clearly, I do not have the space that he has and cannot model much of the area but he has several towns along the plan which were reasonably sized.  I took a portion of his Springfield town, and recreated a mirror image of it, arriving at this:



The industries will be different and I plan to use to two stub tracks along the wall as an interchange yard and not an industry.  This also gives me an extra passing siding if needed for through trains to meet.

I gained some things and I lost some things with this revision.  First, I lost the working interchange.  I feel I can accept that because I did replace the paper mill area (which I did not have room for) with a stub end interchange track.  This tracks disappears under the highway overpass in the corner.  Second, I gained a second independant operating area.  I consider this a good thing.  If I host a guest or two, now I have two towns that can be switched.  When I am by myself, I can run one local one day and the other local another day.  I also removed the storage track and the LPG facility from the left wall, replacing it with one single elevator in the center.  I may end up removing the other two industries as well, but for now they are staying since that trackage is already installed. 

I also changed the staging yard to a stub ended design, more so due to space limitations.  It looks open on the plan but in real life it is much smaller of an area and the yard can't be extended any further.  I have even considering making the staging yard one large transfer table, so each track could be the same length of approximately 9' and eliminating the ladder.  I haven't ruled it out, but I am worried it will prove to be troublesome to maintain. 

Still hoping to get some pics of the progress posted soon.  Until then though, I'd love to hear any thoughts on the proposed changes!

Thanks,
Mike

[MichaelWinicki]

I like the changes Mike.

I think they all improved the plan... especially cleaning up the interchange area and making the staging yard stub-ended.

Also you realized that there could have been "reach" issues.  I see some awfully packed trackplans where tracks are well beyond 24" away... And things start getting a bit hairy when you have to further than that.

[GaryHinshaw]

Great to see some new activity here.  I agree that the changes you have indicated are for the better.  It seems like you still have a working interchange in the lower right, no?  Have you actually mocked up the staging yard yet?  As you noted, the space you have seems smaller in person than in the plan (ain't that always the truth...) and I'm wondering if the aisles are going to seem too cramped.  The bottom one especially is only 24", which is difficult for more than one person.  But if you're mostly solo, it should be fine.

I still keep thinking this space calls for something like a nolix instead of a center aisle, but I understand that comes with all kinds of new issues, none the least of which is the need for a continuous grade, which does not exactly shout "midwestern", and no easy way to have continuous running.  But, for what it's worth, you could get a 12" separation with 2.2% around three walls, then have open space in the middle of the room. You could then have deeper scenes on each shelf if you wanted.   I picture a flat stub-end staging just to the right of the door, then starting to climb counter-clockwise from there.   You could then have a another flat shelf above staging for a good sized town. 

I just throw it out there to make you "question your faith".     I like the flow of things in this plan though.  Keep us posted!

-Gary