Chip,
I like your plan, but you are missing the Town Talk Tunnel between GV & NC, which you could put where your track cross at bear rriver bridge.
As a native Californian who's spent many a moon in Grass Valley and the Sierra Nevada, it's been fun watching the development of your layout! Seeing picts of yr earlier work (was that "Mungo" in yr Rock Ridge? ), I think yr 1. going to do a fabulous job, worthly of the Golden State & 2. find that the Sierra Nevada has myriad scenic elements that you'll enjoy modeling, from craggy rock "castles" to waving yellow grass rolling over hills and around bigbig oaks that have more personality than Mark Twain (who also spent time up in the area).
I like that you've scaled it down to Navada City / Grass Valley for now. Connect the continuous loop and then the trip between the two can take as long as you want.
As far as operations, if my manditory 4th grade lessons on California history were true, then you don't have to worry about modeling mines. Yes there were some, but most of the mines were started as gold mines but then found silver and copper. Much gold mining was done by 2-3 man troughs (pour riverrock/sludge in and let the running water of the river separate the sludge from the gold flakes), which would involve "camps" at river / creek sides, as well as individuals panning for gold.
That means that in the main elements you need in Nevada City include: a bank that would weigh & pay the miners, a foundry for melting the gold flakes / nuggets right there so they could be transported in solid bar form, a saloon, hotel, blacksmith, stables (horses and donkeys), mining / panning outfitting store, etc. There would also be a camp / "chinatown" that would involve labor & laundry, since the Foreign Miner's Tax of the 1860s effectively banned Chinese from mining for gold, and there still were many living in the Sierra Nevada well into the early 1900s.
So you'd need all sorts of supplies coming into Grass Valley (which was the collection point for many different industries in the area), some of which would stay there, be emptied then filled for back down to Sacto, while other cars would need to be sorted for delivery up to Nevada City. Specialty mining equipment, cash for the bank to pay the miners, mail, kerosene and all the normal living stuff would need to make it up to NC, and priorities varied. Ice houses were a must: NC would have access to much ice during the winter, so I wouldn't be surprised if reefers didn't originate in NC, trip down to GV (or all the way to Sacto), and then come back up. NC didn't have much large livestock, while GV had more suitible grass ranges (hence the name). Fires were / are also a big danger in the summer and snow in the winter, so specialty cars for those as well.
Don't forget people! Miners, bankers, architects, surveyors, entertainers (NC still has a groovy & old theater!), speculators, writers and travellers moved between SF, Sacto & GV/NC quite a bit. There's got to be some pretty regular passenger service.
The main thing is that you don't have to model every industry or aspect of gold mining right there trackside: the hills & mountains went on & on, and much can be hinted at.
Don't know if that helps at all: I look at yr layout plan and can envision many different operations (and they can evolve through time, if you want as well: ie, get into the 1930s and quite a few WPA projects happened up there). I'd love to see what yr thinking for the rest "above" this section. Up to Truckee & Donner's Pass would be fun! but so would "down" into Sacto or even to Oakland / Alameda.
Cheers & keep up the great work!--Mark
M.C. Fujiwara
My YouTube Channel (How-to's, Layout progress videos)
Silicon Valley Free-moN
steinjr Wow, Chip! I am moved to latin: "per ardua ad astra!" - "through struggles to the stars". It *is* annoying to throw away stuff we have grown attached to and start over, but this design really looks clean and very promising as the basis for an 1890 layout! You can reuse your bench work, you have staging, two realistic looking towns without reach issues, tracks meandering along river, trestle, no turnouts or hard to maintain track in the hard to reach center of layout. Point to point layout this time ? Or will you add an option for continuous display running between the north end of Nevada City and the track from staging to Grass Valley ? Grin, Stein
Wow, Chip! I am moved to latin: "per ardua ad astra!" - "through struggles to the stars". It *is* annoying to throw away stuff we have grown attached to and start over, but this design really looks clean and very promising as the basis for an 1890 layout!
You can reuse your bench work, you have staging, two realistic looking towns without reach issues, tracks meandering along river, trestle, no turnouts or hard to maintain track in the hard to reach center of layout.
Point to point layout this time ? Or will you add an option for continuous display running between the north end of Nevada City and the track from staging to Grass Valley ?
Grin, Stein
I'm not settled on this as I have a few issues to work through. As I mentioned I have no operational plan. I know that the three major products exported from this area are timber, produce, and gold bullion. But from this sparse map, I have no idea how this is accomplished. I have equipment and structures for both logging and mining operations, but I have no idea how to place them.
I will probably connect Nevada City to the staging/GV line as you suggested.
There is also a matter of future expansion. This line was 28 miles long and you see all of it. Where do I go from here? I could go back to the SP main and go on up the line to Truckee, but then I have the same issues as my last layout design.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouse
NevinWAre you using Best's book as the source for the maps of Grass Valley and Nevada City?
I wish I was. Best's book is out of my budget for a week or so. The map I got came from Narrow Guage Nostalgia by George Turner. There's a chapter on the NCNG. they just have the basic stuff--maps, a history, a few pictures, and diagrams of specialized rail equipment.
Well here it is.
That towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City actually fit and in their proper orientation.
I have duplicated all tracks save one. All the buildings on the plans I have are on the layout with the exception of the Kidder Mansion. The engine house in Grass Valley is a single on my plan and a double on the plans in the book I have.
I am completely baffled as to the use of the sidings. Obviously industries are missing or the tracks are used to sort freight for towns and industries not show.
That's a roundabout way of saying I don't have an operation plan. If I go this route, I'm going to need more research to find out exactly what moved and how.