It looks great to me, Spacemouse.
- Harry
That's a very creative solution. Unfortunately that's part of my old layout that I am saving and is a very narrow canyon.
The farthest place I could conceivably put a turnout is at the very bottom of that side of the drawing where the canyon opens up. It will have to be custom, but what the hay. I don't think I can create it with the software, but it is now officially in the plan. That should get within range of 8-10 cars. About max for those little engines anyway.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
steinjr SpaceMouse You know when you let thing set a bit you think of ways to solve the things that bother you. Today, those things were the 4 visible double slips. Well there all gone now, with no loss of functionality. Not so sure about the swap out of the double slip that used to lead to industries 3,7, 6 & 9 in the city. Are you sure you want to have that many industries on a shortish switchback ? Could you have those sidings come off the main somewhere else ? Stein
SpaceMouse You know when you let thing set a bit you think of ways to solve the things that bother you. Today, those things were the 4 visible double slips. Well there all gone now, with no loss of functionality.
You know when you let thing set a bit you think of ways to solve the things that bother you. Today, those things were the 4 visible double slips. Well there all gone now, with no loss of functionality.
Not so sure about the swap out of the double slip that used to lead to industries 3,7, 6 & 9 in the city. Are you sure you want to have that many industries on a shortish switchback ?
Could you have those sidings come off the main somewhere else ?
Stein
I've grown to like lay of the town. You are right. I'd have to plan my moves pretty carefully. That one was the one DSS that caused me the most pause.
dehusman SpaceMouseI like it. I can do a turnout in about an hour and it works far smoother than any commercial unit I've used. I'm at about $10 a unit now, and I haven't started on this layout yet. When you say you 'do" a turnout in an hour, is that a turnout in place, in the layout, wired, ties and rail painted or is that just the rail and PC tie assembly made?
SpaceMouseI like it. I can do a turnout in about an hour and it works far smoother than any commercial unit I've used. I'm at about $10 a unit now, and I haven't started on this layout yet.
When you say you 'do" a turnout in an hour, is that a turnout in place, in the layout, wired, ties and rail painted or is that just the rail and PC tie assembly made?
It probably takes me a good three hours more if you count the switch mechanism.
Regarding lengthening the siding, the only way I see to do it would be to move the "bottom" siding switch around the curve towards trains city and put the switch where the switch to the caboose track is. Then make the caboose track break off the siding instead of the main.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I also flipped the brewery and the freight house. Just feels better.
CPD95 Chip, How is that Fast Track turnout system? Seem to be a high initial payout, but it could pay for itself in the long run. Is it easy to work with?
Chip,
How is that Fast Track turnout system? Seem to be a high initial payout, but it could pay for itself in the long run. Is it easy to work with?
I like it. I can do a turnout in about an hour and it works far smoother than any commercial unit I've used. I'm at about $10 a unit now, and I haven't started on this layout yet.
rrinker Is that anything like the water of old Latrobe that's in Rolling Rock, or the mine runoff water that's in Yeungling? --Randy
Is that anything like the water of old Latrobe that's in Rolling Rock, or the mine runoff water that's in Yeungling?
--Randy
More like Brew 102, the beer of the LA aqueduct. In case you're wondering, this beer is frequently brought to parties by budget minded individuals and the next day when you open the fridge, the only beer left is 5 full Brew 102's and one that had been opened and put back.
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
So I have to come up with a Billboard Reefer for Bear Wiz since SP didn't have one.
Good Old Fashioned
Bear Wiz Beer
It's In the Water.
Chip, Mark forgot the very first user of ice reefers. BEER!!! Specifically, Budweiser.
With the Bear Wiz Brewery in town, you NEED that icing platform.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - serving Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo in the stand bar)
Last Chance Let me offer you a strong lean on the wonderful Kadee 148's They have saved me from 30+ years of chasing those copper spring peices forever.
Let me offer you a strong lean on the wonderful Kadee 148's They have saved me from 30+ years of chasing those copper spring peices forever.
Coincidentally, I acquired a package of #158s ("scale" head metal "whisker" couplers) last week since the LHS was short of #58s. I'll see how they work on the express boxcars I'm assembling. I still need to chase flying handgrabs, etc.
Mark
The drawing showing how the layout will fit in the room makes my knees and back feel better.
Regarding refrigerator cars... As I mentioned earlier, the CP/SP had 33 refrigerator cars and the UP 426 in 1895.............In the 1880s meat packers started having refrigerator cars built, particular Swift and Armour. Armour cars also carried produce.....In 1902 the SP purchased 150 cars to supplement Armour cars which served the bulk of western produce business......Other railroads had refrigerator car in the latter 19th century, notably the NYC, Missourri Pacific, the Wabash, D&RGW, ATSF etc. Here are some car fleet numbers as of 1900: ventilated cars - SP 804, UP 758; refrigerated cars - SP 188, UP 404. ...Both the SP and UP relied heavily on the Armour cars (I don't know how many).... Then came Pacific Fruit Express (refrigerated car company jointly owned by SP and UP) in 1906 that changed the entire picture. By 1907, PFE had 6,600 refrigerator cars......All this info is from the Thompson/Church/Jones book Pacific Fruit Express by Signature Press. Buy it!
tomikawaTT Re: Access to subterranean specialwork. Since you have a single site, right next to an aisleway, the quick and dirty solution is to make the terrain removeable. An alternative would be to mount the DSS on a removable domino, accessible through the fascia, which can be taken to the workbench for adjustment or repair. I would strongly suggest building it with Code 100 rail - bulletproof performance trumps prototype appearance when you can't see the trackwork anyway. Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with LOTS of subterranean specialwork)
Re: Access to subterranean specialwork. Since you have a single site, right next to an aisleway, the quick and dirty solution is to make the terrain removeable. An alternative would be to mount the DSS on a removable domino, accessible through the fascia, which can be taken to the workbench for adjustment or repair. I would strongly suggest building it with Code 100 rail - bulletproof performance trumps prototype appearance when you can't see the trackwork anyway.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with LOTS of subterranean specialwork)
Good ideas. The DSS is under a tall mountain and I can make a side access hatch that will have about 12" of clearance. I have an excess of code 83 so everyting back of the tunnels towards staging will be code 83. That should be bullet proof enough (I hope.)
Mark,
Here is the layout in relation to the rest of the basement.
And here is the layout with buildings, street, river, and trees.
I've been thinking about the ice platform. When I expand the layout I am probably going to jump to 1909. Did the SP have working refers by then?
This is a walk around layout. The only place it touches a wall is the grey spot in the upper right. Once I build the layout and storage under it. I can expand around the walls. I've left space for it.
The mine is pretty much done and only has a single track tipple. I have a Climax A that will be a dedicated switcher for the mine and local community. The TT is there to turn the engine running the mine turn and local passenger train. Theoretically, the distance from Rock Ridge to Train City is farther than prudent to run tender first. A second reason for that are is that I plan to hand lay it in code 55. I have a deranged notion that I might get a merit badge for it.
I have a really cool icing platform, but I only really had it there because I though I needed it. I can save a lot of grief by eliminating it.
Anyone else have an opinion on this?
I don't see any major blunders, but that is some crawl getting from one side of the layout to the other..
I think you have one too many turntables for a layout of this size. I'd remove the one at Rock Ridge and its related locomotive service facilities. Rock Ridge is so close to the other turntable. I'd also enlarge the Rock Ridge mine to serve at least two of the tracks adjacent to it.
Regarding your icing platform....During your period California overland produce shipments were principally fruits: peaches, pears, table grapes, but after 1885 oranges and lemons were shipped east to displace foreign fruit.
Cars owned by the CP/SP/O&C and the UP designed for hauling fruit were mostly ventilated box cars. In 1895, the CP and its subsidiary O&C had 155 baggage fruit cars (thus I presume some produce was shipped on passenger trains), the CP and SP had 447 and the UP had 728 freight fruit cars, and the SP had 33 and the UP had 426 refrigerator cars. So, the majority of cars carrying California produce would be non-refrigerated. (I'm not suggesting you eliminate the icing platform. I just thought you'd find this information interesting and of possible use.)
Dave H.
I can actually get 5 cars plus a caboose and 2-6-0, but that is splitting hairs. I see my options as putting a curved turnout in a tunnel or running a siding along the river. Neither excite me. I'm open to suggestions. I do have a long passing siding in Train City.
Dave N.
The couplers on the front are Kadee #5's--which are huge on an old-timer. But, if they don't work I don't have John's dino.
Here are the changes I've made from your suggestions. Perhaps the biggest change is Crandall's suggestion to make a wye out of the staging spurs. To do that I had to put a double slip in a tunnel--I figure that is about as dumb as I can get. I'll have to figure a scenery option that will make it very accessible.
I also moved the freight station away from Sacramento Staging and put it on the spur with the Bear Wiz Beer brewery. Not may favorite option, but it was the only one I could think of. I can semi justify it as being near the passenger station. Again, I'm open to suggestions.
Here it is.
And here is a detail of the Train City Yard.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
As long as your trains won't exceed about 2 ft in length (or at least the trains in one direction). So if you are planning more than about three or four 30-36 ft cars, an engine and a bobber cabose, you will have problem with the trains longer than they can clear.
They probably switched those one of two ways. Ran at the switch backed off a moment slack into the coupler, pin pulled and engineer stomps the hammer to get some space. While this is going on, the brakie on the car being cut off is throwing the brake wheel while another is tossing the switch between engine and car to be switched out.
A less dramatic switching would involve poling.
Or they probably simply went to far destination, turned around and switched those on the way back.
I saw the photgraphy and decided that what is built is built. My apologies for making a presumption that the train space was cleared and made ready.
You seem to have provided the necessary run around tracks near the vicinity of the industrial siding that are facing point switches, so that is good. How practical shoving moves are with 1890s style steam pilots I cannot say. A full size cardboard mockup would be useful to help judge how much access there is to the wye and other central track. For a more modern layout I think the staging tracks would be on the short side.
Dave Nelson
tomikawaTT Chip, I think you've got a plan! The only quibble I have (and, on a scale of 1 - 10 it's about a -3) is the location of the tipple at the upper left. The mine is fine, but the loadout should be somewhere close to the center of the spur.
Chip, I think you've got a plan!
The only quibble I have (and, on a scale of 1 - 10 it's about a -3) is the location of the tipple at the upper left. The mine is fine, but the loadout should be somewhere close to the center of the spur.
The original plan had the tipple aobut 18" in when I dragged and dropped Rock Ridge in place I chopped that off and turned the rails. I can get about 6-9" with no problem. That will have to do, I think.
The usual way to do that would involve a long, spindly trestle from the headframe to the top of the loading bin - dead level, if possible. Side-dump ore cars would be rolled out over the bin and dumped. 'Box on wheels' mine cars would require a more elaborate unloading system. In your era, conveyor belts would not be used. Motive power for each car would be 0-5-0, two each, attached to a sturdy miner.
I have the head and the tipple built, but I was waiting for the final location to build the tressel. I have a couple of those 0-5-0 carts. One for ore, one for slag and dirt.
(Actually saw that in the late 1950s, at a, 'Three men, two women and a dog,' coal mine in Kyushu.) I presume restaging will involve the Mighty Hand of God. Have you considered using sector plates to do away with some of the switches in Sacto and Carson City? Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I presume restaging will involve the Mighty Hand of God. Have you considered using sector plates to do away with some of the switches in Sacto and Carson City?
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Nice plan but you're killing me. Southern Pacific from Sacramento to Carson City? No Donner Pass, no Roseville Yard, no Emigrant Gap, no Donner Lake, no Norden, no "Big Hole" no Truckee, no 2 percent grade, no Nevada County Narrow Gauge, wrong route........fine, just go ahead a jab a knife into this old SP Man's heart. I feel dizzy....I think I'm gonna be sick............