The Little Rock Line

[Santa Fe Guy]

Great work Allen, they have come up a treat.
I hate counting how many trees I build but I still do it every time. Grrr
Rod.

[Bendtracker1]

Gorgeous.  Been a while since I visited the thread.

Thank you...

[Bendtracker1]

Great work Allen, they have come up a treat.
I hate counting how many trees I build but I still do it every time. Grrr
Rod.

Thanks Rod!
And to think I just got started with the trees.....ugh.

[soo]

Everything just looks right! The whole scene is put together well, kind of pulls you in.
Awesome job!
Y-it

[Bendtracker1]

Hmmm, it's been almost 18 months since I posted to my thread.
I did a little bit more scenery on the next town of Fordyce, AR and while working on the next building I tried making the roof look a little more detailed.
I thought about trying to paint it to give it a look of asphalt.  So while using Google Maps to find a pattern, I stumbled across an idea.  Instead of painting it, why not print it?

I found a suitable roof, did a print screen and then brought it into an editor and cleaned it up and sized it to fit.
I don't think it turned out too bad?



Shortly after getting the building to this point, my contractor told me he found the time to get the bathroom remodeled, so everything came to a screeching halt on the layout.  During the remodel the basement became a complete mess since things had to be moved out of the way for some plumbing, and the layout became a new storage shelf.

During this time,  I became interested in my rail photography again and wound up spending most of 2020 trackside since no one could go anywhere and it was a good way to keep my distance.  Soon after Fall the modeling bug surfaced again, but I first had to finish getting the basement back in order. The first thing I did was clear out a lot of crap that's been collecting in several corners of the basement to make some room.  Then I got the workbench organized, and tossed over 500 modeling magazines.  This gave me a lot of shelf space to reorganize things.

Once I got things cleaned up, the first project I wanted to tackle was the main staging yard.  After reducing the operations back to just a few trains, I really didn't need the huge staging yard that I built for out Bend Track modules.  The new plan was going to be real simple and basic.

This is what I had.


This is what I was shooting for.  With all the extra space, I thought about using all the old Walthers Cornerstone kits
I had on hand and use them for a 3D backdrop as well as maybe giving myself another switching area.


The more I doodled the more it changed.


Here is what I ended up with. 
This time I used all PECO C55 in the yard and the only thing that is original are the three tracks along the backdrop. 
I'll explain the reason for the change in the next post as well how I plan to use it.

[davefoxx]

Welcome back!  You’ve been missed ‘round here.

DFF

[Philip H]

I’ve been reading your blog - nice summary here.

Happy new year!

[Bendtracker1]

@davefoxx and @Phillip H
Thanks for the welcome and a wish for a better New Year.

[Bendtracker1]

The reason I rebuilt the yard was two fold.
One, it needed it.  The old Atlas snap turnouts were showing their age, they'd work most of the time.
Two, a few years ago I decided to downsize the Ops.  Got tired of staging 18-20 trains and then only have a small number of operators show up.
        So I just didn't need that big of a yard anymore.

A few years ago I had the pleasure to Op on Joe Atkinsons HO IAIS-The west end layout several times.  We got to chatting about his operations philosophy.
He ran ONE train on the layout as an out and back.  He runs at very prototypical speeds: 25mph max on the main and 12mph in the yard.
He uses a prototypical switch list and focuses on just that one train.
Yes he has other traffic if needed if more crews are available.

After several long informative phone calls, I noticed that his ops matched pretty much what they did on The Little Rock Line.
There was the Winnfield Local, 3 days south, 3 days north.  They had two manifests that ran both directions each day and that was basically it.

Since I wanted my focus on moving cars and not yard ops so much, I didn't need that much of a yard.
I planned to pre-stage the yard before each session by hand.
But to give a little bit of yard ops, I planned to have the crew move the power from the engine facility, grab the caboose and then let the crew tag it onto the end of the pre-staged cars at the beginning.  Likewise they'd swap out the cars on the two tracks before running back north and then they'd remove the caboose at the end of each session.
The Local runs south from Little Rock to Alexandria and back to Little Rock each session.
In this way the yard serves as both yards in a point to point manner.




The track marked SB is for the southbound cars and NB is for the northbound cars.
The running track is just that, an open track to allow the crews to get from one end to the other.
The car storage tracks is where I'll store cars that will go to the industrial tracks, when I get it built.
This came about because I had plenty of room and thought it might be nice to use buildings as a 3D backdrop and while they were there, I might as well lay tracks down so they can be served.
These won't be part of the overall operations, so you can look at it as a mini switching layout within the main layout, for those times you just want to mindlessly move cars around or let someone get their feet wet with ops.
The two green tracks along the backdrop is for the two manifest, one each direction if there is time to run them or if there are enough crews on hand.
The consist track is a place to store pre-consisted loco sets, which can then be rotated out for each session, thus allowing a different set of power each session.
Its also is a good way to keep track of servicing them.

So we'll see how things work out.

[wazzou]

Allen, I think you're going to want some sort of passing siding or runaround between the industrial lead and the industries above the consist storage track, correct?

[Bendtracker1]

Allen, I think you're going to want some sort of passing siding or runaround between the industrial lead and the industries above the consist storage track, correct?

You're right Bryan I do. 
At the moment until I figure out where and how the buildings and trackage will be laid out, I'm leaving myself options.
If I have turnouts facing both directions, then yes definitely, some sort of a run around will be needed.
One thing I thought about early on was that the switcher could sort cars from both ends of the car storage tracks and use the Running Track as a quasi run around,
probably not the best option, but it would work.
Otherwise I should have plenty of room to add one in between the lead and the industrial tracks.

[wazzou]

I mean, yeah, I understand you want to reduce the work in the yard, but I'm assuming there will still be an operator stationed there or work to be done on the regular.
If that is the case, I can already see where the operators in the industrial trackage and the yard will be fighting for space, left to right to throw switches.

[Bendtracker1]

As of the moment, I don't plan to have the industrial area part of each session.  That may come later?
Right now I'm planning to have it so if I want to just shove cars around I can, more or less like a self contained switching layout.
I'm planning on a two man crew for the local, so when the local is out of the yard, so are they and the yard will be wide open.
So a small run around would be better overall.

[Bendtracker1]

As of tonight I finished yard and engine facility.
The other night I started playing around with the facility, laying in some concrete pads.
No matter how I laid them out I always felt that it looked too modern and too large for what I was trying to portray.
I'm modeling in the last few years of The Rock, so this place isn't as bustling as it once was.

My first thought was to have just the pads and no shed or buildings around, but again, it always looked too modern whenever I'd stepped back
to get an overall view. So the other night after feeling stumped, I decided to see what Google had to say.

Keep in mind this nothing but an open staging yard. But I've decided to smear a little lipstick on the pig to see if I could make it a bit more presentable.
As far as operations go, there won't be much happening in the yard. Everything will be pre-staged before a session begins and the crew will grab a consist and attach them to the staged trains on one of the first two tracks. The closest thing to yard work might be having the crew or a switch crew grab a caboose and tack it on the end of the train before it leaves the yard.
Simple and basic.
Just enough yard work to give the crews the feel of some yard work.

The same goes for the engine facility as well, simple and basic, you might even say that it's only purpose is for esthetics.
So after looking on Google images for engine facilities, I came across images of Mike Confalone's Madrid yard facility and it really caught my eye.

It was simple, basic and practical. The first thing I noticed was the lack of concrete pads other than what the fuel racks and sand tower were mounted on.
All of the track was right on the ground and not surrounded by concrete.
The only thing I didn't favor was the two track engine shed as it was just a little more than what I wanted.

So I started looking around for a small shed, something in brick, then I found this kit which I happened
to have one in my stash.



It was brick, not too old and not too modern and it looked like it would fit the area nicely without dominating the scene.
So I started playing around with it.

Note: I removed some of the tracks with my image editor to get a better feel of what it would look like.
Left to Right: Fuel/ready track, switcher pocket, house/service track and finally a caboose track.
The industrial lead is still up in the air, but I will probably give it another bend so it kind of parallels the facility area.



Here's what I wound up with.

[packers#1]

Looks great Allen! I don’t think I’d bend the industrial lead, as that’s a nice little side area beside the shop. You could also scenic the track and area around it like it’s a RIP track for cars as well.