Delaware & Hudson - Champlain Division

[bdennis]

Philip,
In terms of build. There are some pictures on my Blog.
http://dh2ndsub.blogspot.com.au/

All parts are etched brass.
A good friend of mine Vic Fitzpatrick already had etchings for the search light and the single mast units (ie the ones with only 3 search lights) that I adapted for the D&H. Then, with the help of some really good technical drawings that are to scale from Dominic Bourgeois in the US (who is a guru on the D&H) I was able to get the main mast parts etched locally from brass. Then it was a matter of assembly.

The main mast has a brass "C" chanel rod sandwitched between the 2 brass stechings to give it strength.

Im really happy with the way they have come up.

Regards
Brendan.

[basementcalling]

What about eliminating one blob (the most useless space on a layout for scenery and operating according to John Armstrong) by cutting the center peninsula, and then taking either the left or right peninsula and making them J shaped. The center peninsula would still be there, but extend the length of the peninsula you bend, but instead of 3 turnback curves at the end of peninsulas you would only have 2 180 degree curves to scenic.

[bdennis]

Hello, thanks for the suggestion. I am currently looking at removing a peninsula and seeing how that will work.

My key is long runs between towns and removing 1 blob will probably help on that front.

[S Class]

Tony,
Am in Melbourne and will be at the Melb N scale convention in 2 weeks time.. You coming?

Regards
Brendan

Sweet also in Melbourne (but that doesn't mean much, this city is spread out)

Unfortunately I'll have to say no to the convention because I didn't realise how much it cost and when I had to be registered by so my understanding is I've missed the boat, just means more money to waste on HO Aussie stuff I guess.

[bdennis]

Well the convention is now completed and Im really happy with the way the layout ran.
See my blog for updates.
http://dh2ndsub.blogspot.com.au/

I met a few N scale'ers from the US being John Benny, Jim Yonkins and Craig Martyn (aka Craig from BLMA).
Thanks for coming all the way to Melbourne for the convention..

[bdennis]

I have been busy working on the isle widths and floor plan for the new layout with a few friends and have come up with the below revised isle plan.

As my trains will be 2 x 6 axle loco's + 20 x 50ft cars + a caboose the runs between towns need to be longer than my earlier versions of my plan.
As you can see we have thrown out the old idea and started fresh and eliminated the need for a duck under.


This picture has the dimensions in mm


I have only just started on the track plan so that is to come.
The aim is to have the main town / yard along the top long wall and then at least 2 if not 3 towns that are on each end of the main yard / around the room..
Then once the train arrives at the end town, it will either go into staging and down down to the lower / hidden level that will run the perimeter of the room, or return to the main town once the switching is complete.

[Philip H]

I like the benchwork layout being done first - it will do a great job  of keeping in check the tendency to stuff more track in (as will your standard train length).  You've got good generous aisles (by American standards anyway), though that 780 mm aisle between Cobilskill and the back wall may become a choke point during operations if you don't stage trains correctly.  The yard an Oneonta looks well laid out and smoothe to run - Ed will be right over to find all the ways it can get buggered for ya! 

[conrail98]

My only comment on the yard is if you can flip it and have the lead not be on the same end as the turnback blob, your road and yard crews will love you. Otherwise, from experience, that will become an overly congested area quickly. Otherwise, it looks well laid out,

Phil

[bdennis]

Have been looking info the floor plan and the location to be modelled for my new D&H layout.

I have now changed locations and centred the main yard at Whitehall, NY on the D&H in the Champlain div and then south to the Saratogo Div.

Here are the updated plans.
But first a few pieces of info.
All dimensions are in millimeters.
All dimension boxes are 100mm square.
The min radius is 413mm (or 16 inches)
The max grade is 2%.
All track is Atlas code 55 with #7's for the main line turnouts and #5's everywhere else (including staging).
The layout will be managed via a dispatchers panel running CTC via JMRI over Digitrax Loconet
Where there appear to be tracks not connected at the ends of Whitehall and Fort Edward, these are abandoned track and are not connected.
Staging is down grade and 300mm below the main deck (rail to rail)
The shed is 7600mm x 5800mm in size.

Im not completely happy with the yard at Whitehall so things may change there.

Firstly the main deck.


Then the staging.


The shed has a workshop / crew room outside of the main room.
The trains will be a max of 2 x 6 axle loco's + 20 x 50ft Box cars and 1 caboose.
The industries will be mainly paper mills, with some LPG, interchange, coal, Cement (all typical for the area) plus through trains from the CP heading South and through trains from the South heading for the CP.

The time period is 1968 to 1984. (roughly).
A operating session will either be early 70's with mostly Alco and GE or late 70's into early 80's with EMD's, Alco and GE.

All comments welcome!

[MichaelWinicki]

Luv the local!  Offers some great scenery options!

Plan looks like it offers a lot of mainline... maybe more than what is necessary, especially when it comes to aisle width.

It looks like the aisles are even narrower than in the previous version.  You've got many places where the aisle-way shrinks to almost 27".  That's narrow, and potentially makes for uncomfortable operating sessions– I don't know, maybe folks are a lot smaller in your neck of the woods!    And if you're going to have any sort of "stuff" on the fascia (throttle holders, push-buttons, knobs, schematics) the aisle becomes that much narrower.

If it were me I would ditch one of the peninsula's and create more people room.

[bdennis]

Michael,
Thanks for the comments.
The fascia will be kept as clean as possible.
All turnout switches will be rececssed to remove the posibility to hitting the switches as a person walks past.
Car card boxes will also be recessed in some way to again not use up isle space.

I agree that some locations are tight, however, the current group of modelers are all slender and we currently operate at a number of local layouts where these isle widths are common. Due to my location it will mainly be me operating the layout with only4 to 6 sessions a year where a full compliment of crew will be on hand.

Thanks.
Brendan

[3DTrains]

I like the plans you've come up with thus far, but 27", especially at the yard (skinny operators or not) is a potential headache. I'm a rail (6'-4"/175lbs), but after operating on several pikes I would not be comfortable with anything less than 40" at a yard, and no less than 30" elsewhere (maybe a 26"~28" pinch point) - unless of course you wish to send a different message to your operating crew!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like this! I was just up in that area for the first time a few months ago, and was astonished by how pretty it is.

My only concern is that the real Plattsburgh has some real curve to it (where the station is), and it's very straight in your plan.

[GaryHinshaw]

I like this plan, but I have to echo the above comments about aisle width.  27.5" is indeed enough room for two people to pass each other, but I think it's too narrow to have as the standard aisle width in a walk-around plan that is nothing but aisles.  Of course, you're the boss, and if you've operated on pikes like this with no problem, then go for it. 

But if you are willing to rejigger things, one possibility would be to relocate Plattsburgh to the side wall, where Port Kent is.  The space-hogging turn-back from staging could then be put in the lower left corner, the Saratoga Springs peninsula could be moved closer to the door, and all the aisles could be correspondingly widened.  You could run a little stub-end branch along the bottom wall if you wanted something there (maybe relocate Port Kent there), but the main point of my suggestion is to gain aisle width by relocating the turn-back by the door.

Cheers,
Gary

[bdennis]

Gents,
Thanks for the comments.
I ahve taken on board the suggestion to move the return loop and thus opened up the isle widths.

Here is the revised version of the main deck.


Here is the revised version of Staging


All suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Regards
Brendan.