should have waited a few minutes before posting; I just found a photo of the track plan in close to the finaly layout condition.
Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Sorry I don't have a track plan on my PC. I started to do it with Anyrail but wound up doing it on mylar with plastic lead (the old fashioned way?). I have also changed the plan as I built it but not drastically, just made realistic adjustments from my 'visualization on paper'. I did use cardboard to form the land shapes and covered it with plaster cloth and plaster paper towels and then used Sculpy? for the final rock detailing. The attached photo is a test area on another part of the layout that I used to try the different materials, some of the cardboard and gauze are visible.
My layout is about 18' x 22' and is mostly at 49-56 inches high. I will try to post a photo of the track plan. I am currently sidelined with building and detailing some structures.
I'm a bad boy, I didn't give Farella his props either. Is that cardboard for the landforms?
Even without this big interchange I may still have an excuse for running 4 track mainline, at least for a good portion of the upper deck (Cleveland to Alliance)
Maybe I'll just design it for 4 tracks for each railroad and model some of the tracks as pulled up. You know just ballast where the other tracks would have been. That way IF I decide to go great guns it would simply be a matter of laying in the extra track. Well that and purchasing the track...
I just thought of the extra motive power and car requirements to keep this realistic. I am nuts! At least I'm not modeling Conrail or the late 40's. Good googly moogly how many passenger trains ran through here in the late 40's? This interchange was less than 10 miles from Cleveland Union which also hosted the Shaker Rapid tranisit trains (which I wopuld also like to model) I'm also not including the nearby NKP and EL tracks other than short interchange tracks which run into staging right away.
Speaking of staging, I hope my planned 40x2 foot yard area is big enough to support the mess I'm creating though I may be able to run it to 50 or more feet IF I can get some of the useless junk out of the basement. Read that as the wifes stuff.
Hey if you're going to dream then dream big! This will likely be the last model railroad I ever build so I can take my time and do it right.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
farrellaa:Do you have a track plan and/or a web site you can share? Your picture shows a lot of thought and creativity. The track and the river running parallel as in the picture look very cool.
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown
ruderunner Assuming I can design this and make it work would it just be sensory overload? Simply too much to take in?
Assuming I can design this and make it work would it just be sensory overload? Simply too much to take in?
It may provoke sensory overload, but only in a good way. IMHO, a 4-track mainline sweeping down one side of the layout is a sensory overload that I would like to experience. Go for it and post photos !
Rich
Alton Junction
I need to find a good track map from the early 70's to see what was in place at the time. Right now I have a late 40's and early 80's maps and there is a large difference in what was in place.
Having the NYC Big4 lines make a loop through staging is the plan and my modeled PRR mainline would be one big branch off that continuous loop. Currently drawn as 2 tracks for each railroad (per the 80's map) in a 2x10 area with the change that the PRR tracks are north of the NYC tracks, flopped from the prototype. Just need lots of crossovers and double slips to make all the tracks work. I'll have probably a 2x20 foot area to lay this out in not counting staging. I may be able to widen this to a full 36" but I need to figure out what effect this has on the other side of the aisle.
Scenery could be low relief and a tree line along the backdrop.
I model the NYC and have always loved the 4 track mainline along the Hudson River in New York where I grew up. Not having the space on my layout I went for the allusion using 2 tracks but along the Hudson and feel like I accomplished what I wanted. As was mentioned earlier, you need scenery to convey the image. I haven't finished my layout (not even close) but have enough to get the feel I wanted.
bob
which is why the best option there would probably be hand-laid ...
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
A 4-track mainline would look awesome, but start counting the number of turnouts and crossovers to get from each of those tracks into the yard or staging area. Ouch
2-track mainlines can be planned to appear as a 4-track mainline.
For Example: A 1-track mainline with a dogbone on each end will appear as a 2-track mainline provided there is no reverse loop-design at each dogbone-end into 1-track in the middle of the layout. Therefore, a 2-track mainline's parallel tracks would yield a 4-track mainline in the middle of the layout.
This is a time-honored planning technique on a Pennsy Horseshoe Curve layout where the majority of the layout is a 2-track mainline except for the Horseshoe Curve.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Hmmh, not an easy decision! Just tracks does not look that good - a little scenery always adds to that railroad feeling we want to capture.
I don´t think you lose much of the effect of "big time railroading", if you narrow the line down to, say, 6 tracks.
Why do they have to look so good on a layout?
After deciding to move the location of a steel mill on my layout I'm left with a modelers dream of having extra space for something else. Well this could become a nightmare actually. Originally I was going to model a steel mill in Cleveland and have a very condensed version of the PRR NYC Big 4 tracks just east of town. Then after a railfan trip I decided that the mill would be better off farther down the main (Steubenville) which was an area I wasn't sure what to do with. I was thinking of using the vacant mill propety for more switching in the downtown area (Cleveland Flats)
But those dang 4 track mains keep creeping into my head.
So now I'm thinking of using a portion of the vacant mill property for extra switching and expanding the PRR NYC Big4 interchange. Egad 4 PRR tracks, 4 NYC tracks and the Big4 line splitting off, am I nuts? 12 tracks? Well yes it's utterly impractical on a 24" wide shelf. But an ocean of tracks that isn't a yard is something you don't see everyday, and I "could" go 30" wide and...
My (maybe) saving grace here is that I'm modeling the PC so maybe some of those tracks went away during the merger and I can get down to 7 or 9 tracks which would leave a little room for scenery. Another advantage is that the NYC and Big4 would simply make a short run into and out of staging since they aren't really part of the mainline I'm modeling.
Decisions decisions.