ALLEGHENY & LACKAWANNA SOUTHERN

[Anonymous]

I WOULD LIKE TO TRY AND BUILD THIS LAYOUT IN N-SCALE FROM A FEBRUARY 1994 ISSUE OF M.R.R. BUT I'VE BEEN AWAY FROM MODELING FOR 20 YEARS. CAN ANYONE INFORM ME WHERE CAN I GET AN ACTUAL PLAN FOR THIS LAYOUT?

[Sperandeo]

Hello "protus,"

The Allegheny & Lackawanna Southern is the home layout of MODEL RAILROADER's "Workin' on the Railroad" columnist Lionel Strang. The track plan in the magazine was prepared from sketches Lionel provided, and I doubt if a more detailed plan exists. The plan in the magazine was drawn to scale, 3/8"=1'-0", so you can take measuremnts from it directly or use a copier to enlarge it to a larger scale.

In theory any HO layout can be built in N scale in a 54-percent smaller space, However, for a walk-in track plan like Lionel's you need to allow relatively more area for aisleways. I'd recommend that you use a minimum aisleway width of at least 24" and adjust the plan around that . If you have room for wider aisles, so much the better – I don't think you'll regret allowing space for comfortable access and operation.

Also notice that Lionel found space outside his main layout room for staging yards, which are very important for the railroad's operation.

Finally, the plan in the magazine doesn't include track elevations, something we now try to have in all our track plans. You can figure the elevations you'll need by taking elkins as your zero elevation and working from there to the places where tracks cross over and under each other. In N scale you should allow at least a 2" separation between track levels, and in some cases you may want more to allow for bridges or roadbed structure.

Lionel accepted some 4 percent grades because he's modeling mountain mining branches, but the good news is that when you make the aisles wider you'll probably gain enough length of run to make the grades a little easier.

Happy holidays,

Andy