Newbie - District 22 - Downtown L.A. (A table top railway)

[jonte]

Please could anybody help?

I need to disguise the end of a siding on the scenic part of my layout which, for reasons of expediency, require the use of part of the fiddle yard area for most of its length.
A number of ideas present themelves, however, most are gleaned from buildings that stood in the 'Rat Hole' are of LA. For reasons of accuracy, with a little modeller's license thrown in for good measure, I would prefer to adopt with some amendments, premises from my chosen subject of 'The Patch'.

To this end I've chosen this:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/Patch_Photos/Pages/Prototype.html#6">http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/P ... ype.html#6</a><!-- m -->

In real life, it was served to the side and rear, however, for my purposes, I should like to use those rather generous arches (or one of them to be more precise) for the purpose.
I have a half completed Wills bridge kit that might, with some judicious fudging, fit the bill and I'm dying to model those fire escapes with some bits of wire and offcuts of rail, suitably weathered of course.

What's the general concensus of opinion? Is it plausible?

Any and all advice welcome.

Jonte

[P5se Camelback]

I like the idea! It seems totally plausible to me!

What a great building! Lot's of fun detail!

[jonte]

I like the idea! It seems totally plausible to me!

What a great building! Lot's of fun detail!

Well, if it's good enough for you, sir.......

Thanks Bil.

Jonte

[P5se Camelback]

Pfffffffft!

Who am I? Don't place too much weight on what I say. I'm not any kind of an authority on "The Patch," or any other part of L.A.!

I lived out there for a few years but spent most of my time with my head buried in medical and regulatory agency books ... I had to learn about all that medical stuff and FDA and European medical equipment requirements very quickly ... I was designing a ventilator and some operating room equipment - I literally had no time for much of anything else!

I never even saw a train or train tracks the whole time I lived out there! :oops:

I lived in Redondo Beach and only went to the beach a couple of times in several years ... I had to focus! :!:

I just like the building!
It's very "railroady!"

[jonte]

Pfffffffft!

Who am I? Don't place too much weight on what I say. I'm not any kind of an authority on "The Patch," or any other part of L.A.!

[/align]

Perhaps, but you're still an experienced hand in all things 'railroady' and I'm sure you'd be the first to spot an implausibility........ therefore your wisdom is deeply appreciated.

Jonte

[Russ Bellinis]

The prototype would probably not run a locomotive through a building due to the exhaust smoke. There are some buildings in the LA area with tracks running into them. but generally they use empty freight cars as idlers to push loads in or pull empties out, or vice versa. What is quite common in LA are two or three story buildings like that one with a second one of similar height & design across the street or across the tracks with an enclosed pedestrian bridge spanning the space between on the second or third story depending on how much clearance is needed. You could do a second building next to the first with a pedestrian bridge over the tracks running between the buildings. The pedestrian bridge would tend to hide the entrance and exit of the train from the modeled scene

[jonte]

The prototype would probably not run a locomotive through a building due to the exhaust smoke. There are some buildings in the LA area with tracks running into them. but generally they use empty freight cars as idlers to push loads in or pull empties out, or vice versa. What is quite common in LA are two or three story buildings like that one with a second one of similar height & design across the street or across the tracks with an enclosed pedestrian bridge spanning the space between on the second or third story depending on how much clearance is needed. You could do a second building next to the first with a pedestrian bridge over the tracks running between the buildings. The pedestrian bridge would tend to hide the entrance and exit of the train from the modeled scene

That's extremely helpful, Russ Bellinis, thank you. If you've been following this drivel thinly disguised as a 'blog', you'll know that the mainline and an adjacent track (the one I had earmarked for the entry into the archway) has only a 6' way between them. Because of this, I'd have to put both rails appearing from under the arch - I'd had plans of widening the arch (of the bridge kit I was going to use as a basis for this project) to accomodate them - not really what I wanted admittedly, but thought that the bonus would be that the lead into the fiddle yard would be hidden. However, in light of what you've said, that rather scuppers my plan somewhat. Funnily enough, that very thought had already occurred to me so I thought perhaps I would be pushing the envelope here. When Bil supported my idea, my plan was then only to have the siding disappearing into the arch, not the entry onto the layout for the mainline too - which he'd probably have frowned upon as well .

I shall just have to give this a little more thought, but I sincerely thank you for preventing me from compromising my project at such an early stage in proceedings and preventing yet another false start.

Jonte

[Russ Bellinis]

I think I may have lost track of what you are trying to accomplish. As I mentioned in another thread on modeling LA, we are pretty much at the end of the line for all railroads coming into So Cal. There are very few places where there is double track in L.A. except where the mainline of a railroad enters L.A., or for the provision of a run around track on a switching lead.

[jonte]

I think I may have lost track of what you are trying to accomplish. As I mentioned in another thread on modeling LA, we are pretty much at the end of the line for all railroads coming into So Cal. There are very few places where there is double track in L.A. except where the mainline of a railroad enters L.A., or for the provision of a run around track on a switching lead.

Hi Russ.

Thanks for your maintained interest and apologies for confusing you.

I reckon your confusion stems in part from my ineloquent wafflings but in the main probably my mention of a 6' way (together with the term 'mainline'), which in the UK usually denotes mainline running as it probably does in the USA. What I actually have, is a 'mainline' or feed from the fiddle yard into the proposed industrial area I'm modelling, with a siding running alongside. The feed or 'mainline' and the 'siding running alongside' are joined at each end by a set of turnouts arranged to form two sets of crossovers, in effect, creating a runround loop. Trying to be clever, I decided to reduce the distance between the two sets of facing crossovers in an attempt to form a prototypical 6' distance between them (regrettably, this handfisted attempt just exacerbated the problems already experienced with the Peco items used and rather than go into further detail here, suffice it to say I cried, "Help!" in the form of a post on the Technical Forum page under the heading ' suitability of Peco Code 75 for Railroading' or words to that effect).

Anyway, getting back to the point in hand, one end of the 'siding running alongside' in the direction of the fiddle yard (its the broken line with the capital letter 'A' marked next to it on the CAD drawing provided), requires some form of screening due to a severe lack of planning which left insufficient room on the scenic section for a full length siding. To surmount this, I've had to use the fiddle yard for the purpose.
As a picture paints a thousand words, and to save confusing you further, please may I direct to the following link where I have prepared a technical drawing of my proposed plan using the very latest in railway modelling design programmes, a system so advanced that it allows you to produce a design even when your machine is switched off; bizarrely, it's also one of the cheapest systems around and extremely hard to beat for user friendliness as even the biggest fool like me can use it. So, without further ado, here it is:    

When I saw the building we were discussing, I immediately hit on the idea of using one of the arches seen at the front of the building as an entrance to the service point for box cars; this would then provide me with that much desired screen to hide the fact that I'd simply run out of length to accomodate any items of stock on the scenic side. Problem was/is, that because the feed is immediately alongside, there was just no way that an end wall of any substance could be placed between the tracks due to their close proximity. I then thought about widening the arch to enable both tracks to appear from 'inside' said building, which would also screen the entrance of the 'mainline' onto and exit from the scenic portion of the layout, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

I'd reached this point of procrastination, when you quite correctly pointed out, for reasons given, the fact that rather than 'entering' a building, it would be more in keeping to have it running 'between' buildings, even parts of the same building which could theoretically be joined by an overhead walkway for pedestrians crossing from one part of the building to the other. At this point, I admitted defeat, and withdrew to come up with a 'better' idea.

However, I don't believe all is lost with my proposed venture, and here's why: Let's say the building has been split in two by my fictional railroad as proposed. The architect concerned, rather than ruin the lines of his proud edifice with an ungainly gantry, cannily decided to connect his adjacent structures with an overhead walkway sympathetically designed to fit in by using the same materials and features used in the construction of the buildings it served - hence the rather generous arch below. In this way, despite appearing to do so, the locomotive did not physically enter the building, the receiving and dispatching of goods being executed from a 'service hatch' complete with shuttered door to the side of the building, but within the 'arch' adjacent to the 'siding running alongside' the 'mainline'.

Provided you or anybody else haven't the lost the will to live and are still following all this, do you think I might have cracked it?

Answers on a postcard please

Thanks again for looking in.

Jonte

[Russ Bellinis]

I had not thought of using an arch bridge between buildings for the train to go under. I think it would work. I don't know of any such building in L.A. now or in the past, but they used to build some pretty ornate buildings before the simple concrete tilt up became the rage.

[jonte]

I had not thought of using an arch bridge between buildings for the train to go under. I think it would work. I don't know of any such building in L.A. now or in the past, but they used to build some pretty ornate buildings before the simple concrete tilt up became the rage.

Hi Russ

I've attached this to give you an idea of what I have in mind:

   

CAD drawn again, this time using the 'back of envelope type sketch' option on Photoshop. Think I'm eventually getting the hang of this technology stuff; perhaps there's even some hope of me of understanding the basics of DCC

Anyway, it might just help.

Best wishes,

Jonte

[jonte]

Let's try that again, this time the right way round :?:

   

[jonte]

Let's try that again, this time the right way round :?:

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

And to refresh your memories, here's the real thing:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/Patch_Photos/Pages/Prototype.html#6">http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/P ... ype.html#6</a><!-- m -->

Jonte

[jonte]

In keeping with the proportions of the prototype building, I may reduce the arches either side of the main arch. I think this would still work bearing in mind that the main arch is just a covered elevated walkway - in my mind anyway - and thus a feature?

Anyway, enuff of this sitting in front of the computer; time to get some uninterrupted modelling done now my wife has returned to work following her brief period of leave. Hopefully, will have something to show you a little later; I shaln't reveal at this stage what I'm up to - okay then, it's track related :o - but it follows on from my recent farcical attempt to make my own track, itself followed up by my total b*llsing up of quality Peco turnouts and thus a hasty plea for advice in the technical forum This time, however, I'm not going to get to hett up if all goes awry, as there's a plan 6 c) ii) (linked closely to an impending birthday ).

Thought I'd just include this little refresher about my inherent lack of dexterity with all things permanent way, by the way, in case some of you had got to thinking I am actually Iain Rice

See ya later.

Jonte.

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm not sure that a covered walkway would be two stories tall. I think you should consider making it two separate buidings with a single level walkway between them.