Layout without a name... Conrail themed

[luis_lopes]

Hi all.

My name is Luis Lopes, and I am from Portugal. I am 32 (almost 33 years old).

I am starting to plan a layout, and I had a wonderfull help from from MC Fujiwara, Dave K. Smith and "Paulus". I am learning a lot from them.

I have something like 180 x 80 at the moment, and I am still at the planning phase.

Thank you.

[DKS]

Luis, one (of many) things that I find interesting is heavy industry. I could easily imagine having a layout of the size of yours completely dominated by factories. Here is something that comes to mind (you will recognize elements from previous plans):



The hidden tracks across the back are staging tracks. They connect to the mainline along the front (effectively making a twice-around plan, which is more exciting than a single roundy-round loop). Numbers in circles indicate track elevation in inches. The grade is a little over 2%. The tracks leading to the staging yard disappear under bridges at each end (a railroad bridge on the left, and a road bridge on the right). Over the staging tracks are a number of large buildings, with sidings that enter them.

I hope this spurs on some discussion and that more ideas emerge.

[luis_lopes]

David.

As I already stated, I loved your ideas. But can we do something more like the one that Dave Foxx is building? The idea is to have a train with a loco in front, six 50' cars and a caboose a maximum train lenght ( ok, I can go "wild" and put a train rolling with a bit more cars, but just for go around the layout) - Do you think this is possible?

I loved his track plan.

Thank you so much for the help.

[DKS]

Luis, it will need to be a condensed adaptation. Your available space is somewhat smaller than Dave's. I'll work on it.

[davefoxx]

DKS,

If it helps at all, the original Seaboard Central was a 55" x 102" HO layout.  Scaled down to N, it should be smaller than a HCD.

Remember this?  Chris333 posted it to my thread when we were designing my layout:

Hope this helps,
DFF

[luis_lopes]

Dave, this is really nice. Thank you.

I saw that a first plan you did, you could fit this into something 150 x 91. Well I have 180 x 80.



re you OK with this? I mean, I want a layout that could be almost looking as yours...

[davefoxx]

Doesn't bother me, Luis.  And why should it?  First, I'm flattered that you like what I did to MR's layout plan.  Second, as stated, it's not my original design, since I plagiarized Model Railroader's plan.  Third, you'll end up making it your own.  I look forward to following along and hope I can contribute some ideas to help you along.

This is probably the smaller plan you made reference to:



Dave

[Dave V]

Industrial Conrail...  I can't wait to see it! 

Conrail lasted from 1976 to 1999...  Which year(s) are you modeling?

I'm partial to early Conrail (pre-1981) because so much equipment then was still painted for the predecessor railroads that made up Conrail.

Nothing like a weathered blue GP9 running long hood forward with some beat up mill gons and cylindrical hoppers in tow weaving between industrial buildings.

[DKS]

Luis, this is about as close as I can get to Dave's original plan given the layout size you have.



I made a couple of adaptations, but I think it still tends to be track-heavy, and the minimum radius is 10 inches, which is pretty tight. It's a starting point, anyway.

[luis_lopes]

Hi David.

Yep, I must agree with you.

It's a bit too heavy, specialy on the front yard. Do you think we can cut on of the track of the yard, and add a run around track at the back, so that I can make a train stop there waiting for another train that comes in the reverse?

I am going to check if I can add some more 10 cm...

[luis_lopes]

During my research on the internet I found a small track plan from a book from Kalmbach that can also fit my needs, and perhaps can be used on the space I have.



I can't grow 10cm, but  I think with some fine tweaking I could fit this 6' x 3' (close to 180 x 90cm) into 180 x 80 cm...

What do you think?

Edit:

I found this layout built, at rthis website http://www.spookshow.net/layout5.html




And I think that this can be really cool to build. I was think about giving up on the grade of davefoxx's plan...

It's an oval of track, with a smart scenic divider (it's a hill, duh!), with a small three track yard and some industries that require switching.

I think this is the way to go!

[DKS]

[luis_lopes]

David!!!

This is it! Awsome!

You planned this using PECO or ATLAS code 55?

This is really what I want! Thank yo so much.

[davefoxx]

DKS,

I recommend making one change.  On what would be the turnout near the log pond in Luis' posted plan, change that from a left-hand turnout to a right-hand turnout to get rid of an awkward s-curve.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Yeah, Spookshow did a nice job on that layout, but he did catch some hell on the former Atlas forum for the color of his water.   

DFF