Here is a sketch of an idea I have. This would be an operations-oriented layout, depicting the Chessie System of the 70s along the Ohio river West of Cincinnati to the Indiana border. The room is about 32'x14'6" where it sort of sneaks into the adjacent room a bit. I really can't take much more real estate than this. Any suggestions, comments, concerns would be appreciated.
thanks,
Randy
How about some color so we can tell what's track, what's view block, and what's benchwork?
Also, your grid doesn't show up very well -- maybe darken the image a little.
Once we can see your image clearly, we can give you some better help. My first impression is that the yard tracks in the lower right may be too short to do you much good and everything runs very close to the edge.
Also, be forewarned: if you ask for advice, you're going to get it. Try to accept it in the spirit in which it is offered and don't get upset if someone is blunt.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
C&OCheviot ....along the Ohio river West of Cincinnati to the Indiana border. The room is about 32'x14'6"....... Randy
....along the Ohio river West of Cincinnati to the Indiana border. The room is about 32'x14'6".......
Uhhhh...isn't that about 10 miles? You have a lot of space for modeling 10 miles. If your intent is to spread out the layout to avoid selective compression issues, I understand. Just checking to see if that's what you meant.
- Douglas
Sorry about the sketch. I did it in AutoCAD, and the only way I could get it on here was to print it out and take a picture of the paper! I tried to convert the files with no luck. I've never printed from AutoCAD in color, so I'll try that, and if all else fails I'll go old-school again and go over it with colored markers or something.
I'm all about blunt advice, bring it on. I'd rather hear it now than during a finished layout visit! LOL
The yard in the lower right is about 8' long. Tracks are often about two or three inches from the edge in my sketch, where should they be?
Thanks!
Since it looks like you have the room, I would try to rework the end staging yards into multiple track return loops.
Good luck
Paul
It's about twenty miles. There is a lot of industry going on in that twenty miles. I'd love to extend the layout farther geographically. I said the Indiana border, but I actually had thoughts of having Brookville, IN be one end, at the Owens-Corning plant to be specific.
This is one of my questions though, how much distance can a layout of this size portray? I really don't know. As you travel along the river on this route, there is one rail and barge-served industry after another. It seems like a very good modeling subject, with lots of switching opportunities.
I appreciate any input.
hi Randy,
you have quite some space, though from a previous thread i had the impression the width of space was 16 feet.
This plan could be a case of going to the drawing board to soon. You might have lots of knowledge you didn't share till yet however. My first concern is about the trains you would like to run. You described the stretch of tracks along the river as one huge industrial area, so the emphasis of your plan could be on switching operations along the river. You mentioned the 70's so the freight cars you will use are about 70 ft long maximum, so #6 turnouts and a 24" minimum radius are required.
You choose a point to point system, which indicates you will probably not doing a lot of running through at full speed. The question behind it, is about the minimum radius. Could you accept a 24" radius so a different foot print could be chosen. When running passenger trains, with long 89 ft coaches) I would also go for a 30(+) radius, through staging would then have my preference or having some kind of a continuous run; whether it is a concealed oval or a loop-to-loop configuration.
You could make me understand your plan better if indications of the use of tracks are given. Is the yard at the top meant for staging? Is the yard at the bottom meant for classification? Where do you envision the river? And of course information about train-length and the number of future operators are welcome, just like the information about the balance between scenery and railroad.
Long time ago Model Railroader Magazine invited a group from the Mid West to build a project layout modeling scenes along the Mississippi. It was set in autumn, merely double-tracked with a single track portion over a long huge bridge. The layout was used for shows, so having trains run unattended was an important issue. My rendering with separate staging, open to the remainder of the basement and a lift out:
The first draft you made is a great start, no lift-outs and you will be able to walk with your trains. I am looking forward to see the next drafts.
Smile
C&OCheviot It's about twenty miles. There is a lot of industry going on in that twenty miles. I'd love to extend the layout farther geographically. I said the Indiana border, but I actually had thoughts of having Brookville, IN be one end, at the Owens-Corning plant to be specific. This is one of my questions though, how much distance can a layout of this size portray? I really don't know. As you travel along the river on this route, there is one rail and barge-served industry after another. It seems like a very good modeling subject, with lots of switching opportunities. I appreciate any input.
A layout of any size can portray any distance you want. I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. Frankly, I like the idea of using more space to model a short distance. I think many modelers would try to cram more distance into your space, so I was caught by surprise.
It sounds like a really good concept, with barge served industries along the river along a 20 mile stretch.
it might be helpful to label some industires or give some description of what the various sidings and spurs are suppose to represent., and also an overall feel for how you want to operate the layout. Is this section of track heavy with switching? (you imply as much) Does it see a lot of through traffic that you want to model? (in which case, you may want some staging tracks) . Things like that.
You might want to look at the Tennessee, Carolina & Coast track plan in the data base (also the June 2012 issue). Similar room size, general shape. Has some clever design elements as discussed in the article.
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
http://www.railsandtrails.com/TC/CCCStL/1950c-system/index.html
That is a link to an older map of the area I'm modeling. I thought to do from Riverside yard to the Indiana border, or maybe on to Brookville, which isn't shown on this map but the tracks are still there. Near Valley Junction where the Whitewater bridge is shown, the tracks continue to Brookville, IN.
Riverside Yard could be staging. There is one passenger through train still running in the mid-70s on these tracks. I'm still working on figuring out what exactly the freight traffic was like at that time. Not all the industrial spurs are shown on this map, but it helps give you an idea of what I'm talking about hopefully. It would be a heavy switching railroad with a lot of river transfer locations. There used to be an oil refinery, the three tracks shown at Valley Junction, and a gravel operation also near there. Owens-Corning in Brookville, and Cincinnati Incorporated in Harrison are two major industrial customers. Operations is my focus, and I hope to create something that could keep at least four or five operators busy, more would be even better, but I'm not sure about the room. A multi-deck plan is not out of the question either. I want to keep the tracks fairly close to their original configuration but obviously some artistic license will be needed.
You have to scroll down to PAGE 20 on that pull-down menu at the top of the page to see the map I'm talking about, sorry about that. I thought it would link directly to that page.
I often wonder what ever happens to the layouts discussed in posts like these, so i thought I'd share a photo ten years later from a recent op session on this one.
Untitled by RSeiler308, on Flickr