The "Barge Yard" Ttrak module - another off the wall concept

[randgust]

I did make a lot of progress on this this weekend.    At least a lot of sawdust.

Chris333 and I are working on the Porter project, and I mentioned to him I'm a very tactile builder; I'm not sure exactly how things work out until I start working with actual material.  Boy is that true here.   As I'm translating this concept into some material, I'm getting blitzed by both the possibilities and the restrictions..... what looks good on paper or a 2D view gets rapidly complicated.

1)  The vertical distances on the adapter module ("East Hickory") between Ross Run and this idea to do on a Single are really stunning.  This is a tough one to design.  The Ross Run 21x42 logging module was never intended to interface with Ttrak, this is a push, big time.  And the logging line  is up there a good 6" above rail height of a normal Ttrak module rail height.  I'd stuck in a module connection track on the lowest level for no good reason, and now I'm stuck with it.
2)  The design of the existing Hickory Bridge module that is intended to come off the Barge Yard curve at a 90-degree angle governs just about everything on the top edge; finding out that road trestle went right up to the bridge pier in the one photo was kind of a stunner (it was all fill in my mind).   By the time I figure that all in for a transition.....well, that really binds things up but good.   
3)  I'm rapidly running out of room to put in a decent barge spot with a 100-foot plus barge here, in the river....  AND
4)  The vertical drop between railhead height and river height already established by Hickory Bridge makes this a much tougher design to fit on a 14 5/8" width, sloping DOWN into the river edge down from the track height.  The prototype was up there quite a ways though on that trestle.
5)  As the Hickory Bridge was a highway/rail bridge, the road has to go somewhere on this module.  That eats space too in all directions.
6)  And I'm still bound and determined to make this a usable T-trak module on its own, another curse.

I can amuse myself for a bit here getting all the jumper wires in the se-track Peco turnouts and figuring out the geometry on that trestle curve, but I can already see I'm stuffing 4 pounds of concept on a 3-pound plate.

One thing for sure, a lot of stripwood is going to have to die.   And this is going to take a long time to build.

[randgust]

Betcha thought I gave up on this on.   Nope, just other distractions, it got literally shelved.   Makes a good midwinter project though.

So far the track (Peco) geometry is working, got the 'main line' tracks laid, now trying to figure out that curved trestle with the road and turnout in the middle of it.  That violates every single engineering principle known to man, a grade crossing on a deck trestle on a shared bridge approach, with a turnout on it.  This is the view from the east side, looking west, with the railroad curving to the bridge entrance and the road to the left, also on a trestle.  This must be a later shot because there's no evidence of the barge yard 'turnout' that I can see, that shows on the valuation map.
http://www.randgust.com/West%20Hickory%20east%20end%20trestle.jpg
If you look close you can see boxcars across the river on the PRR main line, depot behind them.

And the entire 'bargeworks' is up on trestlework, except for the launch skids.  Look at this again.
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A4YLMWMO5U36BG8W
   You can see two flatcars up on the tracks, one being unloaded, another behind the steam/smoke cloud.  Gravity was their friend, all the way to the river.

So given the Ttrak limitations, one of the key issues is top of rail to where the river level should be.   Hmmmmm.  Wonder what the real one was.  I sorta winged it with the Hickory Bridge module, came out well...but this is more precise as the 'drop' from track level to work deck to launching skids in the photos is going to look weird if I'm not close.  Take a look at the old photo, the track is the highest spot same as road level, vertical 'slide off' flatcars to the work deck, another 'slide off' of the boats into the river itself.

So.... how to do that?   I fell back to the historic USGS maps from 1926 to discover there was a geodetic survey marker at the west end of the original bridge.  Huh!   And there is a current river water level gauge there today, with specific 'bottom of river and average depth' elevation measurements averaging 5.5' of water normal flow.

OK, so what's the difference, assuming the marker is more or less where the road/rail height was....    Calculator time.     Took a little wrestling, but the answer from known river bottom to top of rail to N scale and back again is...... 2.4 inches.   River top to top of rail 2.1.  Unreal   Almost precisely the available vertical distance of a Ttrak module if you're building UP from plywood to rail height.   How do you get that lucky????

I'm still not sure this is going to work, but one design issue after another is slowly coming together.

Wiring is next, and of course I way overcomplicate it, as I want to be able to use it as a 'yard' AND a "normal" T-trak module main line, in both DCC and DC, with the Peco electrofrogs crossover.....jumper power from the HV, it's own input DC power plug, and PowerPole connectors for Ttrak.

[randgust]

So..... here's the compromise I reached, in the flesh, compare the actual ICC valmap against the track plan.... and fitting this on a 'double' as well as modifying it to a Ttrak standard.

The curve feeds into the "Hickory Bridge" module, by design, if I can ever display it that way.  Many of you have seen that one at Altoona.

Progress:

Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard01.jpg

Compare to ValMap: 

Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard02.jpg

I absolutely love the construction of a turnout on a trestle where the 'main' is the sharp diverging route.  And the entire mess is on a dual road/rail bridge.   That violates every law of railroad engineering that exists.  But that single-lane rail bridge survived as a highway bridge until like 2002, I drove over it many times.

No, I'm not doing concrete ties.  I' prime them gray and then hit them with tie stain, when I get further along with scenery.  And I paint the rails pretty early.

And those of you that have seen my Ttrak modules know that I only use Kato as end connectors.   On this one, all the turnouts are Peco, the curves are Atlas sectional.  The track up on the wood blocks will all be wood trestle.

[randgust]

Slowly moving forward, but some progress to report....

All the rockwork (cork layers) is in.   Even today, on Rt. 62 at West Hickory, the vertical rock wall along the highway on the east side is known as 'the narrows' because the river slope is so vertical.  Back in the 20's it was a barely passable single-lane dirt road.

Also been working slowly on all the trestlework for the bridge approach and the barge yard trestle.    And determining that yes, I really will be able to fit in 2 100' x 20' wood barges, one floating, one under construction.

I'd thought that as soon as steel barge construction started, this business was gone for good.  Lately I've found two incredible things about this barge yard.   First, they actually built a steamboat hull here, it wasn't outfiitted, but it was a genuine full wood hull steamship, built in 1910, named "Panther" and was 124 feet long, burned in 1930 and sank.    That rings a bell, because that's the maximum length that W&D could cut a beam to in the Endeavor sawmill, by extending the portable carriages, and I've found several photos of long log and timber beam handling.

And another article way later, in "Pit and Quarry" describing a new river dredging operation for gravel in West Hickory, and they made their own wood barges at the barge works, and this is 1926, past my modeling era, and said they built 125-foot long all-wood barges at the barge works all from local lumber.  So I didn't think that a 'wooden barge yard' and the tracks to it may have lasted that long, but now I'm actually sure they did.   And photos show, continuous single wood beams on those barges, 100+ feet long.   Amazing.

The one photo of the 25-ton Shay on the barge trestle also had something I was puzzled about, what looked to be a wood flatcar lettered "HVR(R)" unloading timbers on top.   I didn't think HVRR had any home-owned cars, but a "Poors Manual of Railroads" search discovered they owned six at one time.   I have reports that conflict with that, but hey.   So that also confirms they had their own flats to transport those long squared timbers between the mill and the barge yard.   You'd need three flatcars to do a 124' side beam.   I already had one 'Bachmann old timer' truss rod flat I'd modified, so I got two more, and can outfit for a three-car beam transport load.

I've been skeptical about if all this could be stuffed on a Ttrak double, but it looks like it's working so far.

And if you're wondering how you can get a 120' clear wood beam for a barge, check out the Hearts Content Scenic area, which is the only remaining 300-400 year old forest of white pine and hemlock that W&D decided NOT to ever log and donated instead.   It's the eastern equivalent to California Redwoods.

[KSTXFLID]

And if you're wondering how you can get a 120' clear wood beam for a barge, check out the Hearts Content Scenic area, which is the only remaining 300-400 year old forest of white pine and hemlock that W&D decided NOT to ever log and donated instead.   It's the eastern equivalent to California Redwoods.

Thank you for sharing. Never heard of it before.

[randgust]

Still plugging along.   Got all the base scenery in along with the rockwork, now to do some basic ground cover UNDER all the trestlework, and to extend the trestlework over the scenery for the 'shipways', the build deck and the skids to the water.   It's tight, for sure, but I still think this will work.

As a functioning T-trak module, this is one of the strangest yet.   I'm not sure I've seen anybody try this.  Remember the 'main line' tracks didn't exist in the prototype, the 'main line' of the Hickory Valley was the hard turn over the swamp to the bridge approach over the river (Hickory Bridge module).   The other two tracks?   Well, that's imaginary.  And I wanted to de-emphasize those as much as I could.  So in that area on the east bank, the hillside is incredibly vertically steep, known as 'the narrows', and even the 1920's dirt road was blasted through about a mile of rock, and it's not much better today.

If the HVRR needed more track space for interchange/storage, this would have been about the only place to put it, as long as you didn't mind some digging to pull it off.

So for 'stand alone' HVRR, its turning into a 2-track cinder-ballast storage track yard, as there was no room in West Hickory anyway, real operational problem.   For a T-trak configuration, it's still the usual 2-track main line, but the viewing from the 'front' leaves the two tracks almost hidden and below behind the rock cliff and beside the road.   I've never seen a module where it's a deliberate attempt to hide the "main line" unless you were doing a city scene/tunnel.  Normal viewing from the 'hillside' would be looking down into the scene toward the barge build area, so it is completely backwards, by design, from a normal T-trak module approach.   Viewer focus remains on the barge yard scene, not the two tracks passing in front.

So the 'it's backward?' reaction is by design, literally.

[randgust]

OK, so here's the progress shots.

All of the basic scenery profiles are done, base turf.   No trees or bushes yet.   Where you see 'leaf color' will be all relatively thick trees.

The wood trestles, erection deck, one barge under construction and one finished devoured multiple bags of Northeastern stripwood.   The barges scale out 100 x 20, found newspaper stories confirming that standard dimension.

Water bottom has yet to be painted, and water will be one of the last things poured.   Note that the Ttrak tracks are in the 'back', the 'front' is the panel, and yes, the two Ttrak tracks are semi-hidden, the prototype didn't have them, the emphasis is on the yard, not the tracks.   I just wanted more utility of the module.   And that curved deck feeds right into the end of the 'Hickory Bridge' module that many of you have seen at Altoona over the years, per prototype.

Track has to be ballasted here too.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard03sm.jpg



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard04sm.jpg

I took it outside to photo, removed the extraneous background stuff.   More shots to come.

[randgust]

OK, more shots.    This is from the 'normal' side, i.e. where you'd see it in a Ttrak setup.

As this entire module can be run off 'local' power from the Hickory Valley layout, or from Ttrak power, or split, presented an interesting issue with doing the BWWB vs. BWBW controls on the wiring, and isolating the crossover.   The little plug on the far end is for local power, and there's a Moulex plug to pick up control from the Hickory Valley modules as well as an option.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard05sm.jpg

The high unloading trestle is one of the great features, as you're handling 100' long cut timbers usually from 3 flatcars.   HVRR had 6 shorties with truss rods to handle those beams, almost identical to the Bachmann old timers, this is one of my rebuilds.   The scenery challenge on this was making the trestle to fit the scenery, the trestle had to stay removable until the scenery UNDER it was done.
There's no unloading crane.  Gravity material drop sideways from the cars, down those slides to the cutting deck, to the cribbing, to the water.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard06sm.jpg

Here's the 'approach' trestle.  That curve feeds directly into the "Hickory Bridge" module you've all seen at Altoona, that's the prototype here, where the dual road/rail bridge had the intersection, a trestle of its own with this wild crossing and turnout, and then right onto the bridge.

Oh, I cheated big time on the water.  That's the creek behind my house.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/BargeYard07sm.jpg

[MK]

@randgust Randy, you bringing that to Altoona in a few months?  Inquiring minds want to know!   

[randgust]

I don't know if it will be 'done' or not, it's operational now anyway.

I have a scheduling conflict that weekend that hasn't worked itself out yet.  50-50.

I've taken up with the Iron City group as well, they will likely be up at Erie, PA in November, for a Ttrak setup.

[randgust]

What's hit me this week, not a bad thing, is working on the module backdrops.   If you've seen "Hickory Bridge", "Thompson",  or any of my other modules, I've photographed the actual areas in the Allegheny valley and used those for distant backdrops.   I paint the skyboard, then cut the sky out of the prints with an Xacto knife, using just the 'ground elements'.  And i use Photoshop to flop and reverse images horizontally so they can be glued up and line up and color matched.   Lather, rinse, repeat.  And by this time I've got quite the collection of photos.

So here, I've got a real challenge.  The "Barge Yard' edges up to Hickory Bridge.   The "East Hickory" single adapter edges up to the original "Ross Run" logging module of the Hickory Valley, which is substantially higher by about a good four inches.   The skyboard slopes down, but dealing with that elevation difference in the skyboards and a reasonable backdrop of river valley trees and water, well, that's now a challenge.   I did Hickory Bridge first before I got really good on Photoshop, and that background is actually quite dark on the right hand side.   On Ross Run, it's on top of the plateau, with clear-cut timber and a rather hazy light blue-green cast on the left side.   So I've having to color adjust and brightness adjust everything, test, compare, print, revise, print, revise.... to make all these transitions without a jarring visual edge somewhere.

Then after you get that far, I start working on the treelines, to blend them in against the backdrops.    This shot of Thompson probably illustrates it best on the whole scenic treatment that will be repeated here....

Link:  http://www.randgust.com/THOMMOD26.jpg

That is before the water was poured on Thompson but you can see that tree density over the 'leaf area' defines the look.   When I'm done the entire 'leaf section' is buried under green, visible only looking vertically into the trees and around the edges.  All the historic photos I have of the Barge Yard still show a lot of trees, surprisingly, but the native trees in the river valley are Silver Maples, which are relatively worthless for timber use, and even by 1900, second growth had come back pretty well from the original 1820-50 first cut in the valley.