Central Railroad of New England in N scale

[mdltrn]

Greetings fellow modelers,

I'd like to share a few posts with you of a 4x10 N scale layout that features many of the trains found in New England. The focus will really be on modeling particular trains with accurate power and equipment. However, those trains need a place to operate so.....

The concept:
The layout will be used to feature rotating 30-minute(ish) mini operating sessions inspired by prototype scenarios and locations. Granted, each scenario requires a certain level of imagination from the user, but I use some visual guides as reminders, such as a sign atop the layout that states the basics (RRs, location, direction, etc.)
Scenario 1:  Pan Am Southern Freight Main Line at Gardner, MA featuring interchange traffic the Providence & Worcester RR's Gardner Branch.
Scenario 2:  New England Central Palmer Subdivision at Brattleboro, VT featuring NECR road trains, Pan Am Southern, and Amtrak Vermonter.
Scenario 3:  Amtrak's Springfield Line between New Haven, CT and Springfield, MA featuring Amtrak, Connecticut Southern and Pan Am Southern.
Scenario 4:  CSX Boston Line at Palmer, MA featuring CSX, New England Central, Massachusetts Central and Amtrak.
Scenario 5:  Pan Am Freight Main Line at Dover, NH Featuring Pan Am (or Guilford), New Hampshire Northcoast, and Amtrak Downeaster.

The Layout:
To do this in only 40 square feet, I've developed a free-lanced layout featuring a few representative New England scenes including rural, farm, suburb and city. Non of these scenes are based on prototypes but rather are more of a potpourri of my favorite features of New England railroading. I also wanted to keep the layout somewhat generic so I could run different railroads over the same segment of track and not have it tied to a specific scene (a la Pan Am Southern/Hoosac Tunnel or CSX/Palmer diamond). The track plan features a main line, a controlled siding, a branch line (with hidden staging yard), and small visible yard and non-controlled siding.

Track plan:


This layout is mostly built now but I plan to share a few photos of the construction and highlight some of the other features in future posts.

Cheers,
Dave

[peteski]

That sounds interesting Dave (especially since I live in that part of the country).

[mdltrn]

 Here is a schematic diagram I generated in AutoCAD for the control panel. The layout will use Walthers Turnout Control and NCE Pro Cab/Smart Booster 5 amp.


Here is the actual control panel with a few changes since the AutoCAD drawing above. Its a little dusty from assembly and not all the track occupancy lights (TOLs) are hooked up yet, but I'm happy with the results.


Initial layout of 'the guts' of the electrical system. Top left is the NCE SB5, top middle Miniatronics Power Distribution Block, top mid right Lenz LB101 block detection, top right 12V power supply, bottom left NCE DCC Circuit Breaker, bottom middle Walthers Turnout Control power distribution block

[mdltrn]

This will be the farm/rural side of the layout. Note the 1-turn helix on the right (partially hidden) which acts as a staging area and allows full trains to disappear from view before reappearing on the city/suburban side of the layout.


This will be the city/suburb side of the layout with a small yard (far left) and interchange track (near left)


Here is the transition from suburb to farm area. Note the signal logic panels atop the backdrop ready for installation in a cabinet below the layout.

[mdltrn]

Here is a better look at the helix and the interchange staging yard, both of which will be hidden by the scenery and backdrop. Access to the interchange staging is through the top of the backdrop (lift out panels) and on the end of the layout with the control panel.


Closer view of the yard featuring turnouts made with the Fast Tracks jigs and materials.


Overview of the city side of the layout. Note the helix in the bottom part of the image

[mdltrn]

Mock up of the farm area


Getting things roughed-in


Overview of the farm area. Note the helix is not covered with pink foam that now forms Fall Mountain.

[DMU-Fan]

This looks like a really cool small(ish) layout! Glad to see another present day (or close to it) modeler. Do you have a track plan to share?

[mdltrn]

This looks like a really cool small(ish) layout! Glad to see another present day (or close to it) modeler. Do you have a track plan to share?

Thank you @DMU-Fan. I do have a rough track plan in AutoCAD. After looking at it now, it needs a little clean-up. I'll get something posted up soon.

[mdltrn]

That sounds interesting Dave (especially since I live in that part of the country).

Thanks @peteski

[mdltrn]

There is a helix under that mountain somewhere....
Mock up of a small business called Fall Mountain Excavating and Rigging


Signal system is up and running

[mdltrn]

PAS 22K makes its way over the West River bridge

[mdltrn]

Overview of the Rural/Farm side


Progress of the farm scene. Not sure I'm 100% sold on the stone wall yet.

[mdltrn]

This looks like a really cool small(ish) layout! Glad to see another present day (or close to it) modeler. Do you have a track plan to share?

@DMU-Fan I finally got a track plan up in the original post.

[Specter3]

Really smart looking setup. I like the helix for staging. Great scenes that dont look cramped. After seeing the title I was a little let down that is was modern CNE and not 1920 CNE. But your layout and you are doing a nice job with it.

[mdltrn]

City side backdrop and rough scenery installed, trains running