hi all:
as I continue brainstorming my train room, I’m thinking about a Ohio inspired plan. Are there any other Ohio track plans for a bedroom? Perhaps with a interchange or two, diamonds, and maybe a lift bridge for the Cleveland area? With a turntable, roundhouse, and a power plant in HO scale... ok I know that’s way too much railroad.
Currently thinking about modifying the Model Railroader Chester Branch trackplan and adding a second deck.
Outsailing86Perhaps with a interchange or two, diamonds, and maybe a lift bridge for the Cleveland area? With a turntable, roundhouse, and a power plant in HO scale...
You better start by knocking out some walls!
The interchanges, diamonds and bridge would take up the lay out, ( take a look at Richhotrain's lift bridge, and the area called Alton Junction) or the turntable, roundhouse and facilities that goes with it all would take up the lay out, or you could just do the power plant.
Of course, if the room was say....30 x 40, you could do it all, and have some mainline track.
Anyway, back to reality, I'll have to check out the Chester Branch, and see what your looking at. NOT that I'm a track planning expert, just curious!
Just checked out the Chester Branch..That is a busy lay out, you'd need the second deck to pull it off decent.
I wonder if anyone has actually built it.?
Mike.
My You Tube
Hi,
I never actually "followed" any kind of published track plan but, as you are doing, picking and choosing elements that I would like to see represented on a layout.
Ohio is one of the many states I would consider a "crossroads" since it seems so many east-west lines intersected with north-south lines reaching the Great Lakes:
Big Four crop by Edmund, on Flickr
I believe if you sketch the limitations of your room and try different concepts of benchwork and aisle space you can come up with a good plan on your own. Use the published plans as an inspiration but in the end make it your own design.
The now "classic" Armstrong book, Track Planning For Realistic Operation is still a valuable resource for layout design.
https://tinyurl.com/yxuwbbj2
This site:
http://railsandtrails.com/
has many topo maps, track diagrams and a few timetables, mostly in the Ohio and surrounding areas. Fostoria has always, and still is, a railroad "hotspot".
Good Luck, Ed
The PRR had 2 routes of interest. One line ran between columbus and toledo primarily hauling coal for lake steamers and one line from cleveland carrying iron ore primarily from cleveland. If You want something different try moving your thinking to the Monon in indiana. It ran to chicago at the north end and interchanged with just about everybody in hammond. A nice bedroom sized section could be the area around lafeyette where it ran in the street through the heart of the city. Could be a very unique layout. It would also require a lot of painting and decaling of engines. Diesels were black with gold lettering. The rest of the line was very rural. One wall could be lafayette and the opposite wall the interchanges in hammond
mbinsewi Outsailing86 Perhaps with a interchange or two, diamonds, and maybe a lift bridge for the Cleveland area? With a turntable, roundhouse, and a power plant in HO scale... You better start by knocking out some walls! The interchanges, diamonds and bridge would take up the lay out, ( take a look at Richhotrain's lift bridge, and the area called Alton Junction) or the turntable, roundhouse and facilities that goes with it all would take up the lay out, or you could just do the power plant. Of course, if the room was say....30 x 40, you could do it all, and have some mainline track.
Outsailing86 Perhaps with a interchange or two, diamonds, and maybe a lift bridge for the Cleveland area? With a turntable, roundhouse, and a power plant in HO scale...
30' x 40' ??? Surely you jest.
If I actually modeled the area from Alton Junction to Dearborn Station, I figure that I would need a 30' x 100' outbuilding. That way, I could include the 27 diamonds at Alton Junction, the PRR vertical lift bridge at 21st Street, the ATSF roundhouse at 18th Street, the two double track bascule bridges at 16th Street and Dearborn Station from 15th Street to 8th Street.
Actually, I could do it justice in my 33' x 60' basement but for one problem, and it has nagged me for 53 years now!
Alton Junction
Not a nice thing to say about the missus...
To the OP, I'd look at the Cleveland and Pittsburgh main line of different eras, or the BLE or PLE steel lines. The latter are steel hauls that have a short line feel but hit big cities.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction