Background – I grew up two hours from the nearest railroad and did not have a train set as a child. Sparked by a five year old grandson’s interest in trains the first layout was a 4x8 with two concentric loops of sectional track, a crossover and a 3 track stub end yard running Thomas and a $35 Bachmann train set from an LHS in Las Vegas. There were thoughts of slot cars running in the center.
Then a friend from work gave me Linn Westcott’s HO Railroad that Grows, the then current January 2007 issue of MRR and some old locos and rolling stock because he had switched to Marklin trains in a later era. Knowing nothing about easements, vertical radius, purpose, operations or these forums I went right to the end of the book and built the final version. Armed with two sheets of plywood from a work remodel project I was ready to add the 1x8 yard to the layout. While studying the book I decided that with some 'minor' adjustments the size of the yard could be doubled and include an engine terminal and the basic design of the current layout shown below was born. The area around the old control panel from 4x8 days will become the cross-section look into the coal mine.
West Division and the future site of the town of Hill Valley
East Division and the engine terminal at Thistle
The layout is a 5x16 comprised of two 5x8 sections hinged in the center, named West Division on the left and East Division on the right. There are folding legs and casters on the north fascia. The layout can be laid on its side, folded in half and rolled out the door. My wife and I live/work at a Boy Scout camp in central Utah and upon retirement the layout will leave when we do. It could be set up in a future garage anywhere and raised above the car for storage if needs be. At some point I also plan to display it at one of the three annual train shows held here in Utah. Following Byron Henderson’s suggestion a PaperMate CAD was used to draw the layout.
HVT - The Hill Valley and Thistle Railroad is a freelanced tourist railroad set in 1985 allowing both steam and diesel power. It is a 52 foot single track folded dog bone with three passing sidings. DCC comes from a Zephyr , Tortoises power turnouts, Digitrax detection and signaling are being installed and Wi-Fi throttles are now being used. An objective is automated running under JMRI with cameras on two opposing trains. The trains with video will be operated by layout visitors at controls modeled after a loco cab or remotely over the internet by grandchildren while the computer operates other trains. The layout will also include roads with Faller type cars, trucks and buses running automatically around the roadway.
The Roadway where Faller type cars, trucks and buses will cruise through the layout
Direction of Travel – By definition Eastbound is clockwise around the roundhouse. Traffic uses the right-hand track at Thistle Station and Roper Bypass and the left-hand track at Hill Valley Station. Passenger trains travel both eastbound and westbound but because of spur orientation freight trains are generally only eastbound.
Passenger Operations – Passenger trains and tourist trains serve Thistle Station, Hill Valley Station and the Mountain Dell Platform which serves both the Scout Camp and Clear Creek Mine. Trains could lay-over in pass-thru staging, perhaps to simulate off-layout stations.
Freight Operations – occurs in five areas and in the Roper Yard at interchanges with the UP and D&RGW on two double-end sidings.
1 – Clear Creek Mine spur tracks 1 and 2 – coal to engine terminal and UP interchange – SW7 mine shifter
2 – Hill Valley spurs
- Track 1 – Moab Sand and Gravel – sand to engine terminal and D&RGW interchange
- Cameron Cattle – meat to interchange & livestock from buffalo pasture & interchange
- Track 2 – Dusty Lumber – flat cars of lumber from UP interchange
- Track 3 – Ky Oil bulk plant – fuel from UP interchange and to engine terminal
3 – Thistle Engine Terminal spur – coal, cinders, sand and diesel fuel – cinders to ??
4 – Thistle Team Track and Freight Depot double ended spur – LCL freight in & out
5 – Buffalo pasture – livestock to Cameron Cattle and to/from interchange
Roper Yard – Consists of six tracks. The West Division has a 2% slope up to the bridge
1 – UP interchange and fiddle track
2 – D&RGW interchange and fiddle track
3 – Westbound pass-thru staging – holds 2 trains
4 – Eastbound pass-thru staging – holds 2 trains
5 – Roper Bypass – westbound mainline
6 – Roper Bypass – eastbound mainline
Car Forwarding – Have never been to an operating session as I have been unable to locate one within a reasonable distance, but did join the nearest club (a modular group), 75 miles away. Have been looking into switchlists vs. Car Cards and Waybills and CC/WB seems like it will work on this layout. Primary guest operators are age 8-12 but should be able to understand and use CC/WB. Limited staging will restrict the number of extra freight cars.
Questions and looking for your suggestions
1 - Ratio of passenger trains to freight – how often to run a passenger train? Schedule or sequence?
2 – How many Car Card Boxes and where to place them?
3 – Set out/Hold/Pickup 3 compartment box vs. one box for each spur or industry?
4 - How to carry the CC/WB ‘deck-of-cards’ to the next setout/pickup?
4b - Or would something else work better than CC/WB on this layout?
5 - Is there an advantage now to adding the short physical interchange tracks as shown in red? In the distant future they could possibly connect to an off-layout switching module.
6 - Is there an advantage to adding a double crossover between tracks 1&2 in the West Division for switching?
7 - How to integrate time-to-refuel procedures for steam and diesel locomotives?
8 – Am considering a view block on the south side of Track 6 on the West Division
9 - Anything you can see or think of !!!
It started as a roundy-round and thanks to info gleaned from these forums it now has some semblance of an era, locale, purpose, place names and soon should have operations.
Where do I go from here? Have been reading the new thread from SMassey about operations and wondering about adding something like that. Your thoughts and suggestion will be most welcome.
Thank you,
Dave
From Mt Pleasant, Utah, the home of the Hill Valley and Thistle Railroad where the Buffalo still roam and a Droid runs the trains
About the only thing I would do would be eliminate the crossing from the turntable to the 2-stall enginehouse. I would do when doing the plan because I wouldn't want to have to build the special trackwork. However, you have already built it so that knocks out that reason.
I would put the 2-stall enginehouse just to the left of the turntable (about 8 o'clock position), or between the round roundhouse and the coaling/ fueling/ sanding facilities.
Partly, I would want to avoid that crossing that blocks much of the length of the passing siding.
Maybe you have some operating or prototype reasons, or you want to keep layout area clear for your operatring roadway system...