On to the layout design

No blog posts in June but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on the railroad.  I have, in fact, completed the design of the layout and set up layout operations in JMRI.  Before discussing operations let’s talk about the design and layout plan.

For many years I have been using a CAD program from 3rdPlanIt for all my layout design work.  Like many computer programs, and CAD programs in particular, 3rdPlanIt has a fairly steep learning curve.  But, having an electronics / computer background has helped me with the program because I’ve used other programs of this type at work.  The website if you’re interested in the program is http://www.trackplanning.com/  While I don’t use anywhere near the full capability of this software I find it provides me with the features I need.

But now, on to the design.  As mentioned in previous posts I’ll be building a model railroad set in south central Oregon featuring the Southern Pacific as it was in 1984.  In addition, the Burlington Northern will be featured as it operated over the SP line on trackage rights left over from the Great Northern era.  The area modeled will run from Klamath Falls to Chemult which will allow me to run trains from the SP, BN and Amtrak from one end of the railroad to the other.

This first image is the lower level part of the layout.  In the center of the room is a loop style staging yard representing Dunsmuir for Amtrak and the SP while one track will be BN staging in Bieber.  Trains will emerge from staging and enter Klamath Falls yard.  Amtrak will make a station stop at the depot before continuing on while SP manifest trains will stop in the yard to pick up and set out cars as required.  SP piggyback trains will only stop for a crew change while the BN trains will run through as they did their crew change at their own yard just beyond the modeled portion of the layout.  Proceeding past Klamath Falls we pass through the small towns of Modoc Point and Chiloquin before starting up the 3% grade through Calimus and up to Diamond Lake.

This next image is the upper level of the layout located directly above the one below.  Here we can see the track climbing up from Calimus, through Diamond Lake and Gilchrist Junction before coming into Chemult.  In Chemult the BN branches off to continue on its own track to Bend and beyond, while the SP tracks proceed on to Eugene and Portland.  Amtrak makes a station stop in Chemult but other than that it’s a pretty sleepy little community.  Finally the trains proceed into Oakridge / Bend staging and end their runs.

In my next post I’ll talk about operations and how the various spur tracks serve the industries that keep the main line humming with traffic.  Until then, cheers, and enjoy whatever railroading comes your way.

A little bit more history

As mentioned in my earlier blog post I will be creating a model railroad based on the Southern Pacific.  This railroad will be set in the year 1984 because that is the year my employment with the SP Transportation Company ended.  Seems there was this little corporate merger that was proposed called the Santa Fe Southern Pacific which was announced in December of 1983.  It was during the next few months that I was repeatedly told when the merger was completed the department I was working in would be closed down and all functions were to be taken over by the duplicate department run by the Santa Fe.  It was my desire to keep a steady paycheck coming in that encouraged me to seek other employment, which I did in the summer of 1984.  For more information on the SPSF merger see this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe-Southern_Pacific_merger

On my previous layout, the California, Oregon & Western, I designed a railroad that would run from Klamath Falls, Oregon to Alturas, California.  This railroad was a bit of alternative history in that I envisioned the SP had declared its Modoc Line connecting Oregon with Ogden, Utah and beyond to be unnecessary and had petitioned to abandon it.  Local shippers in the towns along the line appealed to the Interstate Commerce Commission to allow them to purchase or lease the portion of the line between Klamath Falls and Alturas in order to continue local rail service.  This appeal was granted and the CO&W came into being.  Details on the design and construction of this railroad were published in issue 42 of the Layout Design Special Interest Group.  Back issues should still be available from the LDSIG website.  Here is their link:

http://www.ldsig.org/

But enough about my previous layout, this blog is supposed to be about my new layout.  As previously discussed I designed the CO&W to allow for the possibility of moving it to a new location.  Only problem is my new train room is not the same size or shape as my old one.  So even though I can re-use sections of the old railroad, including most of the Klamath Falls yard, I will not be able to re-use 100% of the old layout as is.  What I can do, however, is take up most of the track and switches in the old staging yard and use them to build the staging yards in the new design.  That coupled with the almost complete re-use of Klamath Falls yard will put me that much more ahead of the game in building what is designed to become the Klamath Falls Subdivision of the Southern Pacific railroad.

And yes, it will be set in 1984 and there will be no reference to Shouldn’t Paint So Fast.

Dennis Drury May 20, 2012

Morning Epiphany

I love long showers, but not for the reason you might think.  Having just recently moved into a new home in another state I have a new train room.  Unfortunately, this train room does not have the same dimensions as my old one.  While the old room was 33x10 feet this one is a 20x20 foot square.  I did a little pre-planning when I designed the old layout and built it in sections that are bolted together, so it can be moved and reused.  Only issue is it can’t go back together in the same configuration.

So what to do now?  I’ve taken the first few months living here and just gone over tentative designs in my head.  While this has been a good exercise in the mechanics of planning, it hasn’t really gotten me anything that I would consider satisfying.  Maybe what I needed to do was take a step back and think long and hard about what characteristics I like in a model railroad.  This is where that long shower comes in.

Sometimes it seems like I have my greatest epiphanies in the shower.  Maybe it’s the continuous stream of hot water that relaxes the body and mind or not having other distractions to move the thought process away from where the mind wants to go, but today gave me one of those “aha” moments.  Perhaps I should explain in more detail.

I have always been a big fan of the Southern Pacific.  Maybe it’s because it’s the railroad I grew up with as a railfan and modeler or perhaps it’s because the SP gave me a steady paycheck for several years.  Regardless, every model railroad I’ve ever built has revolved around the SP in one form or another.  But with the move to this new home my mind started to wander.  I toyed with the idea of modeling the Yosemite Valley as a modern day short line, as well as building a Generic Western Railroad to just watch trains go round and round.  But in the end I found myself not being completely satisfied with either of those approaches.  Sure, the YV would have interchanged with the UP (SP) and BNSF (SF), and the GW would have had vestiges of the SP in there somewhere, but in my heart I think I’m more of a prototype modeler.

And that brings me back to my opening sentence.  As I said earlier I’ve been doodling track plans over the past few months.  Well it seems as if one of those doodles found a little recess in my mind where it could lurk until the time was right for it to pop out in all its glory and say “Hi, remember me?”  That became the genesis of the aha moment I mentioned earlier.  I now know the what, where and when of my soon to be built model railroad.  Yes, it will be the SP and yes it is based on a specific portion of that railroad, but if you want more details you’ll have to wait for an upcoming blog post.

Cheers, Dennis Drury