Port Able and Pacific Trackplan

[PA&ERR]

Just thought some of you might be interested in my track plan.

Obviously, its not to scale, but it does give the general idea.

I'm working in the Port Tyler room right now (just laid 15 more feet of track) and the bridge in my avatar is the one at the bottom of the plan on the left hand side. Port Ty is "east" and Port Able is "west" so you are always facing "north" (more or less) when you look at the layout.

-George 

[fifedog]

I'm not sure what the PENNSY would do, but I'd find a way to run my engines around their train at the terminus of Port Able.  Further, can you claim the territory outside the L-shaped wall at Rocky Point?

Pleasant shematic though.

[PA&ERR]

Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately, the L shaped wall at Rocky Point is one half of a narrow hallway. However, I am planning to eventually cut a window into the wall at Rocky point to create a kind of window box view into that side of the layout.

There is a small run around at Port Able - right by the engine terminal - one side of which will contain the scale track. As I see it, the road power will pull the train all the way into the yard and a switcher will pull the train off the road power. The track arrangement is fairly close to that of the Seattle and North Coast's yard at Port Angeles WA which was my inspiration.

Thanx,

George

  

[BCSJ]

Hi George,

It looks like you have an interesting concept going here. 

Without knowing the scale (HO?) and room dimensions its a bit hard to comment on your plan. I'd suggest that perhaps a car float operation would have a bit more significant yard adjacent to it to queue up the cars going to the ferry.  You might also consider making the ferry not come from the center of the port tyler siding. What if you put a smallish yard area in the upper left and made the car ferry lead come off the yard ladder? That would seem to give much better access to the tracks on the Anabelle II (do I detect a John Allen fan?). Were you planning on using the car ferry as a sort of cassette based staging for the layout (allowing cars from the outside world to enter and leave your trackage domain)?

Have you thought about how the engines will get to the engine terminal from Port Able?

And while switching the paper mill, where do the cuts of cars going in and being pulled get swapped? Your plan shows a fairly short tail track going into the gray area but it doesn't seem  adequate for that task given your paper mill has three tracks going into it.

It's also a bit unclear what you have in mind for Port Able? Will this be a wharf for handling major vessels? Or just a yard area? If it's just a yard area perhaps putting it over by the car ferry might be a good idea?

Thanks for sharing!

Regards,

Charlie Comstock 

[PA&ERR]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the comments!

First, yes the Annebelle II is an allusion to the Gorre and Daphetied car ferry. My fiction goes that it was originally built for the G&D to replace the original Annebelle but the brass hats refused to accept it when they found out that the shipyard had put a diesel engine in it instead of the steam engine they specified!

Second, the scale is HO and overall, the layout measures about 11' x 27'.

My main inspiration for the layout was the Seattle and North Coast (the old Milwaukee Road 14th sub from Port Townsend to Port Angeles WA) Believe it or not, my trackage at Port Tyler is very similar to the trackage at Port Townsend! All they had there was a passing siding and a spur for the engine. The main yard (such as it was) was in Port Angeles (or Port Able on my layout) . I had much longer yard tracks in Port Able but then I read where the Milwaukee Road had to double its train (30 cars) out of the Port Angeles yard. I cut the size of my yard tracks nearly in half so I could duplicate this move with my planned 12 car trains.

As for switching Port Able, the mainline through the gray area (its a closet) can be used as a switch lead. Like its real world counter part, the Port Able and Pacific will only run one "mainline" train a day - from Port Able to Port Tyler and return. The other two "jobs" are switching the yard at Port Able and switching the carfloat (and industires) in Port Ty.

Like the Seatle and North Coast, all traffic will enter (and leave) the layout via the carferry. I've played with various ways of swapping out cars on "the other end" but, for now anyhow, it looks like that will be done by the faithful 0-5-0!

I've been toying with adding limited (very limited) passenger service in the form of a 1-2 car RDC trains once a day from Port Able to Port Tyler and return. If I do, I will add a short passing siding at Rocky Point.

Thanks,

George 

 

 

[BCSJ]

George,

Thanks for the explanations. I looks like the radius around rocky point must be in the 18" range if the room is 11' wide there and the edge of rocky point is about at the halfway mark. Even so that would leave less than 2' for the aisle behind rocky point and the tracks along the wall.

If I'm right about this, then I'd suggest leaving a good amount of room on the outside of the curve at Rocky Point for that passing siding as going below 18" radius in HO is inviting trouble.

Cool man,

Charlie Comstock

[PA&ERR]

Charlie,

Minimum radius is 24" throughout (except for a couple of yard tracks) which is a little tight, but then again, I won't be running 89' foot flats or SD70aces...

The curve going up to Rocky Point is actually 26".

-George

[Courage8]

Very cool track plan - with great scenery possibilities!  I also think the S&NC is great inspiration for a scale layout.  The large and intersting mills that offer lots of traffic possibilities, the very scenic surroundings - tracks beside the water, with high mountains in the background - and the car ferry interchange were made for modeling.  The Port Angeles (or Port Abel!) end of the line can be modeled well as a "shelf," because the tracks ran at the base of a wooded bluff topped by nice houses for several miles there.

I have one photo of the ITT Rayonier pulp mill that the S&NC served in eastern Port Angeles; I'll post it later.  It was a huge facility that employed about 600, but was closed and torn down ten or fifteen years ago. 

I'm looking forward to seeing photos when you get that far!

[Courage8]

George:

 The "Large Paper Mill" should be a lot of fun to model.  Any ideas how you'll do it?

[PA&ERR]

I'm planning on using the paper mill that was featured in MR's How To Build Realistic Layouts - Industries You Can Model as a starting point. With the space I have available (or lack thereof) it would be impossible to duplicate the Port Angeles mill(s) exactly - another reason I chose to freelance - so I'm just trying to give the impression of a large, generic paper mill.

I'll use back drop paintings (my brother-in-law is a commercial artist), low relief buildings and any other trick I can think of to pull it off.

-George

[Courage8]

I didn't see the Model Railroader version of a mill you refer to, but you've got a good strategy, I think!  I would also use building flats and backdrops to expand the space available.  Paper and pulp mills have interesting buildings that lend themselves to compressed layers if the perspective is controlled.  The scene can be dressed up with lots of conveyors, pipes, smoke and steam vent stacks, etc.  I used a combination of Walthers industrial buildings and scratchbuilt flats to recreate the old ITT mill, and filled in various tanks and vats made out of PVC pipe sections - cheap and easy, and a pretty good HO representation.  You can also print some details in color on cardstock with the computer - things like that odd orange ceramic tile that such mills often cover processing tanks with.

[Courage8]

It's neat that you're planning to add one or two RDCs - any ideas on a paint scheme?  BC Rail's "Caribou Coaches" on Vancouver Island have nice paint jobs; you could customize  some  "Olympic Coach Service" RDCs with  something flashy, if  you were so inclined . . . Using the RDCs  is a great idea - the "Port Tyler" to "Port Able" run is just the kind of thing they were built for (It's a shame the S&NC never did it!)

[PA&ERR]

The SNCT didn't have passenger service, but they did run occasional passenger excursions.

-George

[Courage8]

Hey, it's been half a lifetime since I've seen that observation, painted in the S&NC's favorite color (forest green, or whatever they might have called it).  They also had two streamlined coaches, in stainless steel with a forest green strip on them (I think they are visible in the photo you posted).  They had names like "Dungeness River" and "Mount Olympus," but I can't remember for sure.  The stainless silver with a green strip would make a nice livery for RDCs (my opinion, of course!)

[Courage8]

Any progress in the past week?  I hope you've had some time to work on the PA & P.