Howdy All--
Been making some progress over the last two weekends on the benchwork for my South Pennsylvania RR. What do you think?
(Click image for gallery)
http://www.south-penn-rr.com/SPRR/Progress_Sept_2008/index.html
I still have about 1/3 more benchwork to complete before the benchwork phase is essentially done. The legs in the photos are temporary. I will replacing them with more permanent brackets / legs (as appropriate). There will be two staging areas under the layout (not yet built). One under the large yard area in the main part of the room. The other under the long wall by the door, not yet fully completed (see the last several photos). There will also be one more staging area outside the layout room, in the foyer area, and I'm thinking about putting in one more staging area in a closet behind the mechanical room (the double folding doors in the photos). There will be a several-turn helix in the mechanical room, and a reverse loop on the other end of the layout in a closet with two branches. The first branch will continue back out onto the main layout-- a "turnback along the mountain route", while the other will follow a hidden (or partially hidden) route to the staging area under the layout near the door.
John
Jim- thanks for the heads-up. It works for me for some reason, but I edited my post and added the link to the gallery (http://www.south-penn-rr.com/SPRR/Progress_Sept_2008/index.html) if you would like to see the rest of the pictures.
Thanks also for the kind words!
OOops- forgot to answer your other questions-- Yes, the layout height (benchwork height) is 48 inches. My baseline height for the layout itself is 52 inches. That gives me some room to add features below the baseline and still be above the benchwork.
I am modeling in HO, that is correct.
I have been mulling over whether to use pink foam construction or more traditional wood risers & plywood. There are some areas where each method would be useful-- probably in the end it will be a combination of the two. I would like to try my hand at building spline roadbed. It seems like a lot of work and yet it also seems like it might really be worth it in the end. At least for the mainline runs. I may go for either plywood or foam in some areas.
I want to add a backdrop, so that's still to do. I'm thinking of about 30 inches, but have up to 48 inches if I want to go to the ceiling. I briefly thought about going above the ceiling and coving it at the ceiling edge for a smooth transition at the top. I may still do that but it seems like a lot of work. I am going to cove the corners for sure. I will mock-up the lighting valance and see how much work it is to cove the top and whether or not it seems worthwhile to do.
My goal is to use 48 inch day-light florescent lights around the layout for lighting. This may cause a problem for dimming however. If so, I've been thinking that I might add some christmas bulbs or "rope" lights on a separate circuit that I can dim. I might do something similar to that anyway if I have daylight "color" problems. If you have any ideas about the lighting, I'm all ears. That's an area I'm still researching and haven't completely determined how to proceed yet.
For scenicking I plan to use traditional plaster hardshell techniques. To build up the terrain contrours with paper/cardboard and/or pink foam, and then use wire screen as the "mesh" to hold the plaster. After that I'm planning to use the various techniques I've seen in WS's clinic DVD's though I may not specifically use their products. I'm going to be using Central Valley ties strips in the visible areas. Although I might supplement that a little with walthers or shinohara code 83 flex track in harder-to-see areas. In hidden areas I plan to use atlas code 100 track since I have a bunch of it left over from a previous project.
As far as "steam" goes-- I think it will probably work out that I get the benchwork finished-- hopefully can lay down a little track to play with-- and then the Thanksgiving / Christmas holidays will be upon us, so am likely not to get a lot of work time until after the first of the year (though I will be doing my best to sneak down whenever possible for an hour or two :) I am looking forward to my son (and newest arrival coming soon-- not sure yet if its a boy or girl) growing up and helping me with the layout. He's one-and-a-half now, so I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of "Thomas the Train" stuff-- but hey, that's fun too :)
Outstanding benchwork!
I don't remember your having mentioned it in your previous posts on this subject but your photos--the SW-type switcher and the PC electric--indicates that your railroad's orientation is circa the 1970s instead of in the late 19th or early 20th Centuries which was when this railroad would have been pushed to completion . . . . . had it been pushed to completion. I like that. Do you plan on freezing it in that era or might there be plans afoot to turn this into a 21st Century railroad?
I am always interested in the theory behind one's freelanced railroad. Unlike your South Penn which at least had a (theoretical) prototype my Seaboard and Western Virginia is completely freelanced although with a strong dependence on Appalachian coal haulers. Although my preference is for the transition era the quality--and availability--of N-Scale steam does not lend itself readily to modeling. Instead I vacilate between the post-transition era--approximately 1975 which will allow me to run short nosed SD40-2s as well as F7s running out their last mileage--and designing a now railroad. Both have a strong appeal but both have some problems. I hate to bind myself to a particular date dictated by my motive power roster but on the other hand if one models now one is faced with the problem of continuously updating one's fleet to reflect modern practices and "retiring" aging locomotives and rolling stock. I know you are just building your layout but what kind of operational designs might you have for the future?
Keep us posted!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Grampys Trains wrote:Hi John: Your layout is looking good! You've made a lot of progress. I have just one little suggestion. I used to use drywall screws, but I had enough heads break off that I changed to deck screws. Keep up the good work, and keep up posted.
Hmm, wasn't aware of that issue. I haven't had any break yet. The only oddity was finding a screw that didn't have any threads on it for some reason. I'll keep that in mind though. Thanks for the warning.
R. T. POTEET wrote:Outstanding benchwork!
Thanks! :)
The SW-1200 was introduced in 1956. My planned era for the railroad is late 50's/early 60's. I haven't pinned it down more than that yet. I want to run at the very tail-end of the steam era. I might stretch it a bit, if necessary. The electric in the photo is a bachman E33 (labelled for PC). I am going to relabel it for PRR (or SPRR). I haven't decided if I'm going to attempt to convert it (and her sisters) into E44's or not. I've studied them carefully and think that its possible to do a decent conversion-- the length will be slightly off, but otherwise it should be doable. Since its a what-if railroad, I could wave my modeler's license to gloss over that issue anyway. I also have a number of GG1's that would be fun to run. But I haven't decided if I want to electrify all or some of the South Penn yet so its still up in the air. And there is the additional point that if I run too much stuff I take away from the specific, individual flavor of the road.
My plan for motive power, electrics notwithstanding, is GP7/9's, SD7/9's, E & F units, and some steam. Haven't decided yet what steam power to use. I have a number of K4's and Mountains, and several 0-6-0's to use in the yards and locals.
The overall idea behind my version of the South Penn is a bridge railroad that is controlled by the Pennsy but somewhat absently, giving local SPRR mgmt more direct control over day-to-day and local policies. As long as they stay within the general PRR guidelines and make revenue, PRR mgmt doesn't scrutinize them too heavily as they are distracted elsewhere with other issues. In doing research for the South Penn, I ran across Bill Keppner's version of the South Penn and the back story he developed, which I read and enjoyed. I'm going to incorporate some of those ideas into the back story for my layout as well, though not so much as to be a direct copy. Here is a link to his version of the South Penn:
Bill Keppner's South Penn RR:
http://billandcindy1.home.comcast.net/~billandcindy1/sp.html
The Back Story (according to Bill Keppner):
http://billandcindy1.home.comcast.net/~billandcindy1/sphistory.html
There is another version of the South Penn RR by a modeler named Neil Schorr. This is the only link I could find online to his stuff. But he's also been written up a couple of times in Model Railroader, in the 90's, the references are on his page. I have the respective articles and I can say his work is marvelous! Much better than the pictures on the following link suggest:
http://www.hirailers.com/neal_schorr.htm
I am always interested in the theory behind one's freelanced railroad. Unlike your South Penn which at least had a (theoretical) prototype my Seaboard and Western Virginia is completely freelanced although with a strong dependence on Appalachian coal haulers. Although my preference is for the transition era the quality--and availability--of N-Scale steam does not lend itself readily to modeling.
My version of the South Penn is going to very much be a coal hauler. I haven't determined all the industries yet, but some of the specific ones I know I'm going to model are gravel & sand company, one or two large power-generating facilities, a paper company, a potato-chip company (my wife's request), several coke plants, several animal feed companies, one or more grain storage facilties (co-ops)-- the big red barn looking things-- a "modern" dairy farm, and a coal mine or two. There will be additional industries as well, possibly a furniture factory, metal fabricator facilities, fuel/oil storage facility, etc. And of course a number of railroad-related servicing areas as well.
The interchange with the West Broad Top Mountain RR, at Everett, will receive coal, logs and wood chips and return empties and supplies. Harrisburg & Pittsburgh will each supply cars (automobiles) and to deliver to the Carlisle interchange, along with other goods to exchange at other locations. Pittsburgh will also supply steel and receive scrap metal. There will be several passenger runs, a twice-daily (two in each direction) between Harrisburg & Pittsburgh, and an occasional (several days a week) between Carlisle and Everett (West Broad Top Mountain RR interchange). That one might even be a mixed-freight just to be interesting. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to model as much passenger traffic along the South Penn route as I would like. I will make up for it though by making what operations I do have more interesting, like switching cars in/out at Carlisle, turning RPO's, adding/removing baggage (Railway Express) cars at various points, and that sort of thing. Perhaps I could mix it up a little more with a through-express (all pullman service) and a local (mostly coaches). The good part about the passenger trains though is that they will look really nice from a railfan perspective.
Instead I vacilate between the post-transition era--approximately 1975 which will allow me to run short nosed SD40-2s as well as F7s running out their last mileage--and designing a now railroad. Both have a strong appeal but both have some problems. I hate to bind myself to a particular date dictated by my motive power roster but on the other hand if one models now one is faced with the problem of continuously updating one's fleet to reflect modern practices and "retiring" aging locomotives and rolling stock. I know you are just building your layout but what kind of operational designs might you have for the future?
I have enough motive power and rolling stock to move the railroad into the 70's / early 80's. I don't know if I want to do that-- yet, anyway. Perhaps down the line after I've had fun with the transition era it might be nice to move forward a little. But I have a lot to do, lots of scenicking and trees to make. I've got a ton of projects ahead of me before I have to worry about that. :)
Will do, its fun to get feedback from other modeler's. I don't know anybody local to share the hobby with.
R. T. POTEET wrote:I don't remember your having mentioned it in your previous posts on this subject but your photos--the SW-type switcher and the PC electric--indicates that your railroad's orientation is circa the 1970s
I don't remember your having mentioned it in your previous posts on this subject but your photos--the SW-type switcher and the PC electric--indicates that your railroad's orientation is circa the 1970s
Oh, and by the way, what you see in the photos is just stuff I had in storage elsewhere, not in the main train closet. I pulled it out to play with on the temporary layout. I have somewhere around 120 locos and 800-1000 cars to seed the layout with. Not all of them will get to run on the layout-- some are too modern, not modern enough, have wrong road-names, don't look right, etc. I have already culled a number of cars and locos that won't ever be right. I'm going to swap them somewhere or put them back up on ebay at some point. Not in a hurry.
It does look great. I think using all the methods to get the layout assembled is a smart thing to do. Like you said, each has its good and bad points. I'll be following your progress in the shadows to see how they all come together and any problems you encountered. I have 16' of board together so I can "play", but I need more. I built I-beams from 1/4" luan and 1x2s that are 4 1/2" tall and 8' long. I put a solid board at the ends and bridging every 16". They are extremely light and strong.
Unfortunately I let my wife temporarily store some (alot) stuff where the train will run. After 6 yrs I'm getting nervous she won't do anything with it.