Category: Achievable Layouts For Others

So, the idea of fully removing his HO scale layout has been a roadblock for my friend and his dreams of modeling the area around Watsonville, CA in O scale.  However, a shelf in his layout space that was originally intended to be used as a second deck to the layout that never really fully materialized is available and continuing to draw inspiration from the same location, I sketched out a plan to fit that space.

The plan was roughly drawn, and then refined a bit.  It’s by no means as “whole” as the previous plan, but still offers some interesting challenges to a crew working at this location.

The main focus here is the moving of reefers into and out of packing houses along with other equipment that would serve those, like boxcars full of crates, gondolas of scrap lumber, possibly inbound ice to the ice house and reefers for icing. There is room for another small industry to the lower-right hand side (near the front edge of the shelf) possibly a team track, and a larger industry on a switchback near the back.  As I drew this, I envisioned a town along a branch that has a train coming in, working, moving left to right and leaving or interchanging with another railroad on the right hand side where additional cars could come from or go to connect to the outside world.

Once he saw this plan, Bill excitedly named a couple of changes.  The large industry with the switchback was deemed to be a good location for yet more packing houses, and the track I had envisioned as an interchange was deemed to be perfect as a lead to a not-modeled sugar beet processor.  

If I was to continue working on this plan, it would certainly get some adjusting to the tracks for Sunkist.  The curves there are wonky and I was having trouble with the CAD to straighten them out.  A few other adjustments could be made, but this plan has a good deal of operation potential in a single town, and could easily keep a crew of two or three people busy for an evening.

-Jeremy

How big is your layout?  Do you have a monster empire?  Probably not.  Most folks, if they can manage it, probably are dreaming about building a layout in a spare bedroom, or for those truly lucky to live in a place where the weather allows, maybe a garage.  Not all of us have room for the basement empire that takes over vast expanses of space.  Some of us, like me, even live in spaces where the layouts must be portable and share space when in use with other functions of the house, meaning that they’re less than permanent, be it a temporary or long-term arrangement.

Trevor Marshall has a whole blog dedicated to what he terms “Achievable Layouts”.  I would encourage anyone interested in the concept to visit and read the posts there. http://themodelrailwayshow.com/LayoutDesign/  Trevor’s own Port Rowan layout in S scale is, in my opinion, a fantastic look at what can be done, and the kind of modeling that can be done, in a relatively small space.

From time to time I try and help friends with layout designs.  Within the last few months, I was chatting with one of my friends named Bill, (I have lots of friends named Bill suddenly these days which isn’t bad).  Bill has an HO scale layout but my switch to Proto48 last year made him think about tearing down his layout and making a scale change as well.  The first argument against doing so was that he’d have to rebuild his benchwork.  My statement to him was, send me your dimensions and let me see what I can draw in O scale for you.  He then said that the layout would have to be based on the area around Watsonville, CA, and I quickly found some resources for the area (being a fan of pre-depression modeling, the resources that I focused on are primarily 1920’s and earlier).  A few days later, I emerald him the track plan and information shared here. You can click on the photos and get larger versions of these.

The layout is designed for probably two crews of two and an agent who is acting as the industry managers and statin agent / dispatcher.  If operated at scale speeds and time for pumping air into brakes, filling out paperwork, and making switching moves, this layout likely would take those two crews multiple hours to switch the industries.  Movers would include things like getting reefers to the ice house, moving cars into and out of the packing houses, and some of the other industries along the way.  The plan is drawn for Ow5 using Atlas track components, and it includes s spot to park locomotives (likely a SP 2-6-0 and because my friend models slightly later than I do, some early diesel switchers).  

I think that sharing layout plans like this is important. I would consider this to be an “achievable layout” because it’s already known that a more complicated HO scale layout fits in the space, and that prior layout could provide what is essentially a quick-start by donating it’s existing benchwork to the new plan. 

Once I’d shared this plan with Bill, he informed me that he may or may not decide to exit HO, but above the existing HO scale layout, there is a shelf that could be used for an O scale switching layout.  I’ll share that plan in another post soon.

-Jeremy