thinking about scrapping the whole Casa Grande plan...

[Bremner]

Well, modeling Casa Grande in the 1980's appears to be a little more difficult then I originally planned. The signature building is (was) an art deco depot built in 1939 (burnt in 2009) and I can not locate a SPINS (Southern Pacific Industry Numbering System) for CG at all. I can buy a kit of a Southern Pacific Type 23 depot, or I have plans to scratch build one in styrene.

I am kicking around the idea of freelancing a new city on the Sunset Route. the idea that I have is to have a small yard on the west end of town and having a large switching area on both sides of the main. now here is where it gets fun, and not prototypical...all of the track will be based on 2 classic switching puzzles, but increased to hide their true nature, so when I want to  use them as a puzzle, I can scale back the number of cars that "fit" the sidings. The yard to the east will be an Inglenook, the main switching area will be a Timesaver, and the top siding in the west of the Timesaver will be another Inglenook pointing the opposite direction, at a grain silo to make it look more realistic. The run-around will have to be long enough for a pair of GP's and a pair of 50 foot cars and the liquid fertilizer plant will need to have a siding long enough to hold my  pair of early Atlas jumbo tank cars (just about 6 inches each). Unfortunately, I lost my copy of Atlas RTS, and they don't distribute it any more., so no track plan yet.....

My givens are simple, code 80 Atlas flex track since I have a dozen pieces, and Atlas custom line #6's so I can use my SD40-T2's...

What do you guys think?

[packers#1]

I know somewhere I read someone discourages using puzzles for switching areas on layouts b/c they don't look realistic and can get in the way of switching.
However, if you scale it up so that they aren't as difficult when running ops, I'd say go for it.

[Bremner]

guess you guys reall do not like the idea.....

[GaryHinshaw]

Do you have any hand-drawn sketches you could share?  It's a bit hard to picture otherwise, and I don't remember what the Timesaver and Inglenook look like.

[Philip H]

I'm not sure how using a switching puzzle to serve as the focal point for a switching layout would get in the way . . .

I like the concept of the two married - Inglenook and Timesaver, although the later may end up being a tad busy.  I've seen two inglenooks on opposite ends of a layout on Carl Arendt's old website (which is still being maintained by volunteers) so perhaps there's a plan there you could work from.

That said, our analysis would be greatly helped by knowing how much space you have, how often you intend to operate, and any other special considerations.

[cv_acr]

and I can not locate a SPINS (Southern Pacific Industry Numbering System) for CG at all.

Even without that, you must at least have some idea of the track arrangement, though photos, other maps and satellite/overhead imagery (great for at least getting overall orientations, although a lot changes in 30 years)?

[Bremner]

Even without that, you must at least have some idea of the track arrangement, though photos, other maps and satellite/overhead imagery (great for at least getting overall orientations, although a lot changes in 30 years)?

there has been a lot of changes in the last 4 years, the station burned down, industuries disapeared and changed, the main is now double tracked and all of the old SP signals are gone.....

[Bremner]

ok, whipped this up on a copy of RTS that I found....VERY crude.....

http://sopacincg.com/nooksaver.ral

[packers#1]

I see the left inglenook as a MoW yard, the other looks good as a grain elevator, although I'd swap it across the tracks so the building isn't in the way of the puzzle (or use the top edge as the reach-in side), and expand the timesaver a bit more so that you don't have to play the game if you don't want to

[Mr. G]

On the plus side, if no one knows exactly how it's supposed to be, it's really hard for people to criticize.

At least reconsider the switching puzzle idea.  I tried one years back after demolishing my layout for a move.  The result was fun for less time than it took to build.  Just sayin'.

[Bremner]

I posted a jpg over at http://sopacincg.com/thinking-about-scrapping-the-whole-casa-grande-plan/


I am still rebuilding what I had on this computer before a hardware failure (In other words, no photo manipulation programs installed yet)

[Ian MacMillan]

I can't stand time savers, but I like how you modified the two in that drawing.

I'm a protofreelancer on my layout and I like it. It allows me to put the layout where I want it but it also has a back story as to why it is there, which helps to make things more plausible.