North West Great Northern Layout

[NorthWestGN]

Had some time today to get the cork roadbed and track down for the Fruitvale passing siding and revised yard lead turnout, still playing with track plans…

Hoping to end up with a two track stub end yard to the right with one track allowing another turnout for a track, or two, to a potential sawmill and ore loading track roughly on the left where the Digitrax box is sitting…



And a photo just for fun using an area mountain photo backdrop.



Thanks for tuning in!
Brent

[NorthWestGN]

Took some time and yet again modified my Track Plan and Schematic:



Then I used the age old "layout some flex track and turnouts" track planning components to come up with an initial plan for the Fruitvale Yard and Industrial tracks... I think Lee, @wm3798 uses this  pre computer method as well... I'll have to mockup some buildings and roads before I commit to a final layout...



I'm having a little trouble finding information online for zinc ore concentrate loading facilities from truck to rail. This was quite an industry along this line post WWII and into the mid 1960's. The mines were at too high an elevation on the hillsides of the valley to get rail lines to them economically so the ore was brought down by truck then loaded in quite small covered hoppers as zinc ore is a very dense heavy product. I did find a "Gravel Ramp" photo in Salmo but I think this is more for loose rock and gravel loading into open hoppers or drop bottom gondolas... it would be a fun scratch build with the pivoting ramp perpendicular to the siding track...



Here's one of the Original zinc Hoppers that were repurposed by GN to carry and hold dry sand at locomotive facilities once this zinc business dried up, this one made it into BN's roster post merger, looks like another scratch building project, I'll repurpose some early mineral red covered hoppers I detailed years ago for this traffic for now...



Does anybody have any info or photos of facilities to show how they would have loaded loose, heavy zinc ore, possibly pelletized, from a truck into these small hatches? I assume an elevator and loading bin from a grate covered ground dump of some kind... this wasn't a huge business , nothing it seems was along this line. Most of the trains were 8 or 10 cars total including double door 40' boxcars and early bulkhead flat cars...

Thanks for tuning in!
Brent

[wm3798]

Dead sexy!   I'm really digging all the space efficient layouts that are popping up here.

Lee

[wazzou]

How do you plan to address the scenery on that Elevator spur?
It seems like the track above is awfully close to that spur at elevation.
I would shorten that spur and reposition the turnout further down that passing siding.

[NorthWestGN]

One of the drawbacks of the actual flex track and turnouts track planning system is the expense of cutting any flex track at this stage.... so a different kind of hangover has occurred...

The benchwork plywood base will have to be modified to accommodate the finished plan including buildings and leave room for a rocky ridge on the left between the industrial tracks and the new passing siding. On the right hand side will be a rocky gully with a small ridge for a scenic break between the line up to the passing siding and the stub ends of the 2 track yard...

I also moved the Beaver Falls bridge scene to the upper right hand corner so I'll have at least 1 square foot that isn't "sexy" or better known as space efficient...

My wife will be either alarmed or perplexed, or both, by the fact that my layout pics were considered "Dead Sexy!" @wm3798

Brent

[MVW]

Really digging the track plan. Echoing Lee, there's potential for a very high Fun/Space ratio.

Jim

[NorthWestGN]

Thanks Jim,

Space is always at a premium and the layouts in a basement multipurpose room so the footprint available was limited. The layout is on casters and rolls quite easily for now on the low ply (cheap) carpeting in this room. I also built it so that when I remove the work lamps the layout rolls right over top of my work bench and chair with the repurposed flat bed sheet acting as a curtain to the floor. Most of the time they're separated so I can have two messy areas...

I think this will be about it for track within the loop, I need some room for scenic separations. I really want myself and other operators to be able to envision this as a point to point layout, for visitors it'll go round and round with all the bells and whistles...

Brent

[NorthWestGN]

Bridge Plans Ahead:

One of the other reasons I chose to model the branch of the GN into BC was the Cover of the book that has so far been the Bible for this altered twice around layout plan:



Pretty Dramatic bridge scene and just the right size for a small layout.. Some scratch built trestle bents, a Micro Engineering 80' Plate Girder bridge kit and a length of ME Code 70 Bridge flex track along with some supporting trestle bent benchwork carpentry and I should have all I need...

I'm going to reverse the flow of Beaver Creek so the falls are visible from the outside edge of the layout rather than the inside of the curve in the front cover photo. Here's an overhead view from the back cover showing the walkway detail...



I'm still deciding on whether I move the walkway to the inside curve. A little online research brought a few photos of how it currently looks since it's abandonment in 1988...







And a photo of a page in the book showing the 3 different spans over Beaver Falls since the line was built. You can clearly see the tripled bents at each end of the girder span  in the bottom left photo as well. Two support the girder itself and the tallest one supports the timber approach to the girder..



The next step is the plans to build. I'll trace the rails from the top for an overhead plan, then an elevation plan. I downloaded a trestle plan scanned from the Denver & Rio Grande and available on the Grandt Line Products Website for the bents:

https://www.grandtline.com/tips-techniques/resource-gallery/

I'm using the Page 56 plan, with 6 vertical piles, second row on the left and happily when I printed it out at work to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 letter size page it came out almost exactly N Scale. I work at a printing company so I'll resize slightly and print / photocopy directly onto a synthetic polyester paper, "Synaps" in my neck of the woods and the PVA wood glue won't adhere to the sheet so I can build a bent jig right on top of the print. Synaps is a solid polyester sheet available in 5,8, 10, 12 and 14 thousandths of an inch thicknesses and you can colour copy directly onto it for waterproof scale signage by the way...

Thanks for tuning in!
Brent

[Tad_T]

That’s very cool.

I’m interested to see you build it.

[wazzou]

Here's a bridge I had on a previous layout and plan to try to incorporate into the next.

Not a triple bent, but 2/3rds of one. 

[NorthWestGN]

Nice bridge Bryan! Very close to what I'm going to build. Are you between layouts at the moment?

Any hobby shops in Washington that might have some ME Bridge Flex track on hand? I struck out at BC's only shop, Intercity Trains and ME itself is currently no stock. I could always ask IC to order through Walthers I guess, I'll check their website...

Thanks for the Inspirational photo!
Brent

[wazzou]

Nice bridge Bryan! Very close to what I'm going to build. Are you between layouts at the moment?

Any hobby shops in Washington that might have some ME Bridge Flex track on hand?

Thanks for the Inspirational photo!
Brent

Thank you.
Yes, in between at the moment.
I honestly can’t even say that I know where a Train Store may be in Washington any longer.

[nkalanaga]

PF&S Railway Supply north of Pasco?

Is Sunset Junction still in Spokane?

[wazzou]

PF&S Railway Supply north of Pasco?

Is Sunset Junction still in Spokane?

* Western Washington

[nkalanaga]

OK, no, I don't know of any stores in WESTERN Washington!  It's been at least 30 years since I was in western Washington, and before that it is was for short visits, and not shopping.

The only hobby shop I've ever been in west of the Cascades was The Hobbysmith in Portland, during the 1994 N Scale convention.