The above is the master plan. A double tracked mainline featuring rolling hills, a medium sized terminal, and 13"+ radius curves.

Givens & Druthers:
Canadian Southern: London-Detroit division
Scale: N
Gauge: std

Prototype: Freelanced Canadian National/Canadian Pacific in Southern Ontario

Era: 1945-1955
Region: Southern Ontario
Railroad: Canadian National/Canadian Pacific

Space: 10' x 9.8'
Localized in a small bedroom with a walk in closet

Governing Rolling Stock: Passenger cars and large steam

Relative Emphasis:

|___________________V__________________________|
Track/Operation .................................................. ..Scenic realism
|_______________V_____________________________|
Mainline Running .................................................. ........ Switching

Operation Priorities:
1: Ability to run passenger trains averaging 5' long
2: Ability to manage the yard while having minimal focus on two trains running the main
3: Steam engine mtc. terminal
4: Small switching locations for industry
5: bridge crossings for trains
6: water crossings for trains
7: junctions

Typical operating Crew: 1

Minimums and guidelines:
Minimum radius curve 13"
average radius curve 15"
minimum grade: 1.5%
max grade: 2%


Benchwork:
Latice frame made up of 2x2 and 1x3 spruce
layout is 34 inches high

Current semi-prototypical Locomotive roster:
Model Power Pacific (CP)
Kato Mikado (CP)
Con-Cor Santa-Fe (CP)
Broadway E8A (CP)
Kato RDC (CN)
Trueline RS10 (CN)
Bachmann Heavy Mountain (CN) (kitbashed to U1f class)
Bachmann Heavy Mountain (CN) x2
Bachmann Consolidation (CN)
Intermountain F7A (CN) x2
Intermountain F7B (CN)

Construction start date: June 20, 2009

Today is the first posting for layout progress... time for photos and to follow along!


I was able to recycle all the benchwork from the Pacific South Eastern layout I was working on previously. With some slight modifications I was on my way to laying down foam. As usual I over-estimated the size of the bench work and will be working on making edits to some of the 'additions' as it goes. I might have to lower the radius of the curves a bit on one of the outcroppings, but I think it will be worth it in the end...







Next step was to finish off my my station kit for the terminal so I could at least have some structures down to make sure everything fits. I'm going to be taking my time this time!

So I started construction on my Kibri station platforms:



This is a pretty easy kit to build, once the parts were painted, the basic model came together in about an hour and a half or so. Quite a few lil parts... but here is my photo walk through:









Now this is the hard part... those lil grey supports are what support the roof... and it's a royal pain to fit! I suggest not doing what I did...which was without the glue being 100% set, try and mount the roof to the supports... yea, very frustrating when the poles start falling off and deciding to go in different directions. I would also maybe suggest putting the pole supports into the roof, and then attaching the base after the glue has set there.











Thus a pretty decent lil station platform set. Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself. Just got some minor things to attach like the newsprint stands and the awnings, and it will be complete.

I then did a general mockup by placing the building where I would like them to end up...



And to end off... a picture of some locos hiding in the platforms. I got a video I need to upload of the pair of EMD's making noise. You'll notice the loco of the future (SD40-2) in frame... yea, it's not gonna be running on the layout often... shes from a pretty distant future compared to these old iron horses.





and I've reached my flickr upload limit for the month. So more images to come next month! The terminal should be well on its way to looking like something by then I hope.

Spent a good three hours working on the layout today. Since I've 'reached my upload limit' I can't put up any more photos for now...

anyways, I have had to put in a length of 3% grade into my layout to make some clearances work. I'm not happy about it, but I hope it does not end up being an issue later.

But I did lay down a good double track length of cork roadbed and did some painting.

The big news? The Turntable is in! But... I think one issue that I had with the last layout was the fact that I couldn't line up my roundhouse properly... and I think I figured out why... the union roundhouse is at a steeper angle for the 130' turntable.

So I think I'll have to be building the modern roundhouse. 9 stalls should do it!

I did start on a couple of other kits though... some walthers street shops.

Surely I can't be the first to comment here but it appears so. That's a lot of work you've put into that and it's great to finally see the plan start to take physical shape. If one of your main goals was to not have anything above a 2% grade, I would exhaust all other ideas before you give in to a 3%. I've found that even double stacks only require 2" of clearance. Lengthen a curve or raise one while you drop the other... something. Where is it on your plan that you've had to put in a 3% to make the clearances work?
Pictures... there are plenty of sites that you can upload pictures to and yours is the first I've heard of that limits you to 15 (15?) at a time. Try Photobucket or try uploading to our gallery right here! You can upload as many as you like as long as you keep the resolution and file sizes within the limits.

TrainNut Wrote:Surely I can't be the first to comment here but it appears so. That's a lot of work you've put into that and it's great to finally see the plan start to take physical shape. If one of your main goals was to not have anything above a 2% grade, I would exhaust all other ideas before you give in to a 3%. I've found that even double stacks only require 2" of clearance. Lengthen a curve or raise one while you drop the other... something. Where is it on your plan that you've had to put in a 3% to make the clearances work?
Pictures... there are plenty of sites that you can upload pictures to and yours is the first I've heard of that limits you to 15 (15?) at a time. Try Photobucket or try uploading to our gallery right here! You can upload as many as you like as long as you keep the resolution and file sizes within the limits.

actually flickr limits to 100mb


if you look at the plan, the turnback on the top right of the layout.... theres where the grade comes into question as I've modified the loops so that I can chop off some benchwork so I can reach better.

This layout is going to have some great mainline running!

Question: I notice you say spare bedroom, and in one of the photos I see a door - what are you doing for access to the room or closet? Duckunders/liftouts?

access to the room and closet are both duckunders yes. 3.5' ducks to be exact... a lil low, but I'm still nimble enough it's not gonna be an issue.

and I didn't finish my previous thought... the turnaround at the top right of the layout is where the 3% grade comes into play. it's a short increase for about 8" or so. I don't like it, but unfortuantley I already glued it down.... and it's in pretty tight! the 3% grade for this short lil distance is what gives me my 2" clearance.

Wow - really interesting plan! That will really give a lot of switching opportunities and long running trains. Neat design.

Excellent locale!

Just curious, can you not have the loop at the top right underneath the yard to gain enough distance for the elevation change instead of having the 2 ends of the layout beside each other?

by putting the return under the yard would mess up my storage and room space. that and I'd run into deeper issues with grades in the long run. But it could be something to take a closer look at...

Luke, that station looks great!! Nice job!! Looks like youve got things layed out nicely, cant wait to see them in there final place and this scene to start to come together

I'm pretty excited!

Aside from the fact that I had to go with a modern roundhouse for this to all work (theres an extra $150 I didn't plan on spending!) I'm pretty happy with how its coming together.

The yard is being modified a bit... I'm going to be doing the adjustments on the fly though... just working around the main line.

I plan to get the main finished this weekend, or at least pretty darn close to being finished. I'm about 10% of the way there right now after 4 hours...but in that 4 hours I've also been building kits and doing some touchups to the plan...

That whole lower section might get a revamp...

It might not cross over at all... which is disapointing, I'll have to see what happens when I get further...

I got the grades in place. I just don't have enough room to do what I wanted with 2% grades... so I upped it to 2.5% grades. it shouldn't be too bad as my last layout had 3% grades and the locos were doing just fine hauling stuff around.

Most of the mainline roadbed has been laid... I ran outa cork, as did my LHS, but I found two boxes of Woodland scenics roadbed in my closet from my last build (thats like 100 lengths of roadbed!!!) so I've got a mix of cork and woodland... its kinda strange, but whatever.

Now that the mainline roadbed is laid I'm starting to work on planning my sidings and spurs. I'll put in supporting photos much later tonight, but if you look at the plan posted in the original posting, I have this small area for a town in the lower right below the turnaround. I have a Walthers Santa-Fe depot w/freight house located here, and I also plan on putting some shops here. I'm trying to plan this town out... but got a few options to do it for the main lead into the town...

The first is that the lead comes off the far right side and heads into the town. Splits off into four tracks, crosses over alongside the other cross over, and then links up with the mainline again... it could also cross over, link with the main, then cross over the main, and go into my industrial district on the left side of the layout.... thus creating a branch line... but it would become a big jumble of track/junctions in the lower center. I'll take photos tonight and sketch what I'm thinking over the photos.



I'm also looking at what I wanna do with the main yard. Because of building placement I have had to move the mainline about 3 inches north. Also because of reach/walls I turned the turntable/roundhouse around so that the roundhouse faces the operator instead of away (why did I wanna face it away int he first place?) but I can only fit 8 stalls.... The Modern roundhouse and add-on stalls is sold in sets of 3... which gives me 9 stalls. I'm thinking I might put the extra stall in with the town on the lower right of the layout... or in the center below the junctions...

The problem I have there is.... do the add-on stalls include outer walls? should I buy two modern roundhouse addons, or just one, and buy another complete modern roundhouse kit?

I'm gonna go out and order my first BLMA kit this coming week... the new car lot kit that they just came out with. Any links on howto build a laser cut wood kit?

Got pretty far the last few days... and uploaded some pictures too!

So, things are getting interesting... I have a good portion of a single track of the main down now...making up about 25% of the mainline run. And the beautiful part? My Heavy Mountain and 3 passenger cars navigate it quite well! (even for being the inside track of 13" radius!) My Broadway Limited E8A doesn't like it too much... but I should probably clean the track a bit more.

Anyways, picture time! time to follow along!

First off, a lot of track bed has been laid... like the whole main line!!!







after that I started focusing on the junction... it's becoming a very busy place with a few turnouts populating the area...



After testing the fit of the junction and getting it as close to the trackbed as possible... I realized something didn't add up, but I got a plan to fix it... so I started to solder up the junction, file the edges and rail tops smooth, and wire it up...



Then once I ran the first main line lead to the junction.... all heck broke lose:



My error in lining up the trackbed proves to be a bigger error than originally anticipated... I'm gonna let the caulk for the lead track dry and then attack it later tonight... but I think what I'm going to have to do is just add some track bed pieces to the area around the junction. Chances are this will be in the middle of a town anyways, so I'd be laying down a sheet of track bed here anyways to keep the town on even height.

Hopefully I can have a full circuit within 10 days!

video time!!!!

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This is a video of the state of the layout before todays construction.

I also have started doing mods to my Bachmann mountain after the video too... I have dremeled off the cab to install a minature by eric Canadian cab... that I snapped.... I also realized that the cab is too big for the positioning on the loco itself... by about a 1/2 inch. Which means I got even more dremeling to do!

but this is just my test loco... I'll be buying another Heavy Mountain right away to do the real work too now that I'm learning what I have from building this one.