Illinois Central/Canadian National in N scale

[Specter3]

Congrats on the baby. First thing to do is make sure the spousal unit stays content. As long as the baby is alive at the end of the day everything else is fine. As the primary caregiver to both my daughters after birth (7&9 now) i know exactly how hard it is to care for small children. Fortunately for you it is only one. One baby can be cared for with one arm, wether  it is holding it, feeding it, or keeping it from jumping off the porch, one baby is a one hand operation for a lot of the time. That allows for the second hand to be engaged in something more interesting. If you strap on a snugli(trade name, i think) you can do nap time and model time at the same time. Babies love to sleep on you. Strap them there, and you can get a lot done. I had my first in a snugli out at the airport working at 6 weeks old(ran my own business, had something come up). You will quickly forget about achieving stuff with deadlines(kids dont care what needs to be done when they are wet or hungry) but you can get it done eventually. If you work and she does not expect to be handed the kid when you walk in and to have her vanish for a bit. This is normal. Do not question it. Unless you are responsible for very needy, valuable objects that create toxic waste and continuously try and kill themselves all day long you will not understand what the stay at home parent goes through. Add in post partem depression and it is a recipe for very unhappy people. Head that off at the pass by being proactive and creating quiet restfull time for the lady and it will pay off. It doesnt have to be long, 30 min is fine, but take that 30 min, park the kid in a snugli on your chest and waggle a shiny object in one hand while you hobby with the other. As they get a little older and can focus more than a few inches away moving objects like trains are very interesting. Add sound such as horns and whistles and sing some railroad inspired songs and you got it covered. It also works very well towards training(pun, ha!) them to like what you like to do. Worked very well with my older daughter. You only have about 5-6 months before they become mobile and then it all changes again. But i will tell you those secrets later. Keep momma happy and everything else will fall into place. And oh yeah, I like the new plan as well. It offers quite a bit and I am sure you could work a second operator into the mix. Pull a Mindheim and make them the brakeman and switch like the prototype!

[nscalemike]

Gary, I really thought about the prototype thing, probably more my thing.  But can't to that this time because I don't have the prototype background now and no time to do the research.  That being said, several scenes will have the flavor of some local places.  I have some ideas for that.

Michael,  I agree the other plan has a ton of merit to it.  I do like it and would consider it again but just not at this time.  The biggest thing is the long term project part.  This is a long term project, but I don't know how long.  We are certainly not in our last house, and I can easily see a move in about 5 years or so.  (No not sectional, it won't be moved with me)  Part of this is to get to the scenery stage sooner rather than later too.  My first thought was strictly the industrial aspect and then I was kinda encouraged to incorporate the staging again for the just in case times.  I agree, a few more turnouts and a few more flex tracks won't add much and then I won't regret not having it.  All of that plan would be a bit much I think though.  We'll see!

Specter, Thanks for the tips, and the one about carrying the baby and playing with trains one handed is exactly what I had in mind.  Mom needs nap time, quite time or whatever, me and the kid will go to the train room and play trains!

Thanks to everyone else too for the good wishes.  Oh, and by the way, the due date is in 25 days . . . . gotta go get to work!

Mike

[DKS]

Something to think about... to compress construction time a little, how about making bigger structures, and fewer of them. Perhaps expand the "negative space", which would also give the eye a pleasant resting place. I took the liberty of "spicing up" some of the areas for a bit of added interest. Just something to ponder...

[nscalemike]

David,

You are just in time,  started cleaning the old stuff up today to get ready for the new layout.  And, like always, you have a very nice plan.  I would like to see a couple things if possible.  The 6 track staging needs to be reduced to 4, but stretch them out a bit more.  I'd like to have 7-8' if possible.  Eliminating the first two turnouts should buy at least a foot I think.  With the smaller space needed for staging, can you push the road and backdrop buildings back another inch or two to allow a bit more room along the track?  I like the two abandoned spurs into the buildings and it does have much smoother flow to it. 

The bottom switching area I don't know for sure about yet.  On the one hand it is something different and I would never have thought of it.  On the other hand it seems a bit out of place to me for even an urban midwest setting.  I don't see using the wye feature in it, as there is no place to turn the loco on the other end of the line.  My initial thought was to eliminate the bottom left turnout of the wye and making it an abandoned mainline with another crossing at the very bottom.  I have to think on this a bit more for building/scenery ideas.  Suggestions welcome also. 

It looks as drawn there is 8 rail served industries.  It appears this could also be operated as a point to point, starting at the short staging track and running out two the second area and back.  In that case #9 could still be the left side of the doorway, #10 could be the right side, and #11 could be a team track along the road on the very top of the wye.  It looks like about 7 of those could handle more than 1 car. 

This feels more of a mainline town then the branch line.  I am interested but undecided at this time.  Going to sleep on it and see what ideas may be floating around come the morning. 

I hope to have some new bench work going in by tomorrow afternoon.  Either plan uses basically the same footprint.

[Bendtracker1]

David's latest plan is somewhat intriguing.
But I would consider changing a couple of things;
I might be tempted to add a siding from the lift-out section to somewhere before to the river so the local would have some place to duck into to clear the mainline, or a place to off-spot cars for the industries if needed.

I would also say reduce the staging yard to four tracks and increase the length.

I do like the feel of the area above the safe.  It still give the feeling of tracks winding through a downtown area as you had drawn on your latest plan which was to the left of the doorway.  Seeing a train snaking through buildings would look very sharp along with a possibility of having some street running.

In Davids last plan, the buildings above the safe would also help camouflage the tracks leading into the left end of the staging yard if they were taller.

Both of these last two plans have some very good possibilities.

[DKS]

To be honest, I did this just for kicks, which is probably why the wye portion doesn't seem to fit--it's influenced heavily by northeast American industrial areas. Midwest/Canadian is foreign to me, so I'll fall back on familiar territory. I'll give it a tweak if there is genuine interest in the design.

[mcjaco]

I'm not feeling the latest version.  It doesn't feel "midwest" central Illinois to me.  More urban.

[DKS]

I'm not feeling the latest version.  It doesn't feel "midwest" central Illinois to me.  More urban.

Urban midwest central Illinois, maybe? Like I said, that's not an area I "feel" myself, so maybe others should do the tweaking.

FWIW:

[mcjaco]

DKS, totally get it.  I liked the first plans.  They reminded me of my friends long gone HO layout based in Nebraska which I helped build: http://kbhrr.com/.  Basically two towns modeled.  One of a large grain elevator and a couple of smaller industries, and the other with an ethanol plant, scrap yard, lumber yard, etc.  I wish he had a better layout plan on the website.  But it's very close to what I think is being laid out here. 

[Bendtracker1]

Urban midwest central Illinois, maybe? Like I said, that's not an area I "feel" myself, so maybe others should do the tweaking.

FWIW:

David, one thing that might help you "Feel it" would be to reduce the size of the buildings on the stubby peninsula and increase the number of them [if the space allows], which there looks to be plenty of space to fatten the stub's width a bit if needed.
Keep the buildings limited to one or two story buildings with one exception, a mill or an elevator.  Almost every town along the UP through NE is laid out like this, all shorter buildings and one towering mill or elevator.

I like the mods you did with the siding in the lower town.

[Specter3]

I agree on the building size comment. Just not that large of stuff out there. I also like the dead line crossing the live one there. I would probably put another dead line out where the river and road is on the right side crossing at grade. When you poke around on any of the map programs it is amazing how many dead roadbeds you find crisscrossing the areas where people have been for a long time. No track, just a weedy roadbed with a rusting crossover cut out and laying in some weeds. Maybe a decrepit semaphore or watchman's shack as well.

[DKS]

[nscalemike]

So this blob town seems a bit more small town midwest now I think.  Matter of fact, the first thing that came to mind when I saw it was Watseka, IL.  Google has it at 5000 people, there is a grain elevator right smack in the middle of town, with the UP/Rail America crossing on the opposite street corner.  All the rail activity looks to take place in about a 2500' X 2500' square right in the middle of town.  There is a few other spurs, most of which have long been grown over. I don't know how to put the map link, but pull it up and you'll see what I mean. 

David, could you email that file?

Mike

P.S.  Any suggestions on where I can get enough ties do simulate the two abandoned turnouts on the top area.  I thought I would pull some ties free from flex track and replace those with turnout length ties and then run flex up to it for the spurs to show the switch points and frog was removed but everything else stayed put. 

[Bendtracker1]

That looks better David!

Also by having shorter building and the main against the wall it will be easier to access the turnouts and track.

Mike, don't forget to add that one single flashing red stop light dangling in the breeze on one intersection!

[DKS]

So this blob town seems a bit more small town midwest now I think.  Matter of fact, the first thing that came to mind when I saw it was Watseka, IL.  Google has it at 5000 people, there is a grain elevator right smack in the middle of town, with the UP/Rail America crossing on the opposite street corner.  All the rail activity looks to take place in about a 2500' X 2500' square right in the middle of town.  There is a few other spurs, most of which have long been grown over. I don't know how to put the map link, but pull it up and you'll see what I mean.

Holy crap, it has the crossing, the curved connection between the two lines, the elevator smack in the middle, the other sidings just a little ways away, and a meandering river nearby... who knew?

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Watseka,+IL&hl=en&ll=40.77572,-87.73724&spn=0.004014,0.009398&sll=40.07304,-74.724323&sspn=8.304393,19.248047&t=h&hnear=Watseka,+Iroquois,+Illinois&z=18