+- (https://bigbluetrains.com)
+-- Forum: Branchline (https://bigbluetrains.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=45)
+--- Forum: Layouts (https://bigbluetrains.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=46)
+--- Thread: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout (/showthread.php?tid=3774)
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Harry - 03-26-2012
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - clearwater - 03-26-2012
congratulations!
T3homas
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 03-28-2012
Many thanks 8-)
Well, while the exhibition was such a big success and due to some other reasons, I've decided to start with the second phase earlier as planed.
Today, we'll start with the benchwork for the next extension of the layout in my hobby room. Topton will be placed left of the window as shown before and we'll build to new modules between Topton and Nantahala Valley. In the corner, I'll place a furniture factory as a new industry to be served by the Southern.
I'll show you the new progress as soon as possible :-)
Bye, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 03-30-2012
Hello,
the benchwork for the second phase is done.
The old benchwork was extended to the left wall up to the edge of the window bay. Left of the window, I build a separate section to hold Topton.
While moving Topton to the area left of the window, I won some space to add "Graham County Junction" between the fiddle yard and "Nantahala Valley".
Next I'll build a new module box to fit into the corner. While the footprint of my house isn't square, the corner meassures out as 80° angle.
In front of the window, I'll add a removable section with only 6 inches. On exhibitions, "Topton" will be mounted directly to the new "Midland Furniture" module without this section. As you can see by the name of the new module, I'll place a big furniture factory into the corner of the module to genereate some more freight traffic.
Here's are some photos of the actual status. Once the module box is done, I can start with the tracks which are already here.
![[Image: super_9i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Room/super_9.jpg)
![[Image: super_8i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Room/super_8.jpg)
![[Image: super_7i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Room/super_7.jpg)
Click thumbs to enlarge :-)
Bye, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Tyson Rayles - 03-30-2012
Good to see expansion underway Gerd!
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 04-10-2012
Good morning,
last week, we build the new module and I also got the tracks in place. The curve has a 24" radius. A bigger one wasn't possible.
I also start work on the furniture factory. This week, we'll build the bridge for the window bay to get Topton connected to the rest of the layout.
Here're some pics.
![[Image: Fur_1i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Furniture/Fur_1.jpg)
![[Image: Fur_4i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Furniture/Fur_4.jpg)
![[Image: Fur_6i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Furniture/Fur_6.jpg)
![[Image: Fur_7i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Furniture/Fur_7.jpg)
Click on thumbs to enlarge...
Bye, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Harry - 04-10-2012
good work Gerd
(trinkst du ne Sekt beim Arbeit??
hock: )
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 04-11-2012
Hello Harry,
(nein es ist kein Sekt sondern Wein... Leider waren die Weingläser alle in der Spülmaschine weswegen ein Sektglas herhalten mußte)
Some people will remember the layout plan in the first post. Meanwhile, many changes happened to my layout. So I'Ve a new one for you. Not as colorfull and nice as the first one, but it will give you a feeling for the layout over all.
The upper and left leg of the layout are done or actually under construction. The right leg leading into the room will be added later and represents the Graham County Rairload. I'm not 100% sure with the layout plan at this division, maybe I'll do some changes over here while building the modules.
You'll find the names of the modules in green and also all freight spures with car capacity in black.
Bye, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - modelsof1900 - 04-11-2012
Gerd, very good looking extensions!
I think, a few of tracks could need modifications so that you will have more lenght for a few more cars on tracks. Do you see there a chance?
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 04-11-2012
Hi Bernhard,
The track length are set particularly for my layout. The Graham County RR will run only 3-car-trains and the Southern trains are limited to 5 cars.
I don't have more room for longer trains or tracks. I know that this is very short for US american railroads, but it works perfect for my layout and concept.
It all began with Topton and most oft the Southern modules are already done, so changes would call for a complete rebuild. And even in N-scale, 3.6x3.6 meters isn't big.
At least, I don't need endless trains. I like it to run short local trains and switching cars. And the layout will give me enough action to play. There's a total of more than 50 cars per week to handle and 7 train jobs per day. That's okay for me. One job can keep you busy for 20 to 25 minutes.
If I like to run longer trains, I'll go to FREMO-meets :-)
Cheers, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Tyson Rayles - 04-11-2012
Gerd I think you said in a previous post that you were not trying to be an exact copy of the real railroad but I thought I would throw this out there anyway
. To more closely match the real routes of the Southern and the GCRR the fiddle yard should be Bryson City, the passing siding that says BC yard is where Topton belongs, the Nantahala Valley/Gorge is in the right place and Robbinsville is in the right place and Murphy belongs where Topton is now. The Southern worked from Bryson City west to Murphy on the night shift and from Bryson City east to Waynesville on the day shift so even thought it was the Murphy branch which was from Asheville west to Murphy the area you picked never had the cars in the train from Bryson City to Asheville. What this means is you are actually pretty close on the size of your trains. The Southern normally had about 5-10 cars when it left Bryson City and the GCRR usually only had 1-3 cars. Motive power for the Southern was usually a matched set of 2 Geeps and either the 3 truck shay or a SW-12 for the GCRR. The Southern had a baywindow caboose with no cupula (because of the tunnel at Marble maybe) and the GCRR had a traditional style wood caboose. From the late 40's on most of the traffic for the Southern was pulpwood. In the last years of the branch they had several pulpwood yards, a feed customer and two pallet companys and one furniture company. That said only the pulpwood yards were regular customers with the pallet companies and the feed company being on again and off again and the furniture company maybe once a month or so.
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 04-12-2012
Hello Mike,
you're right, I'm not going to build a model of the real think. My home layout is just inspired and based on the real thing.
But I always like your comments and hints to prototype details in operation and industries along the tracks.
Well the details about Bryson City as yard are good to know. That shows me, that I'm not so far away with my operation concept.
But my train schedule is very large instead of the real one. It's designed to run several trains per day and serve neral every industry. The model schedule is made to keep trains running and to show action all over the layout on shows and conventions. And at least - just to have fun !!! And that's the main part of this hobby for my opinion.
Here're some details about the train schedule for each day.
Each day has round about 10 outbound and 10 inbound freight cars to be handeled. Due to the short runaround track in Topton, I need several freight trains to handle them.
Job 1 :
A locomotive with coach and baggage will stay at Topton over night. In the morning, the train crew will pick up 2-3 outbound freight cars from Topton to form a mixed local and run them to Bryson City (Fiddle Yard)
Job 2 : (in the future when the GCRR-division is added)
The Shay in Robbinsville will collect 3 outbound cars to make the run down to the interchange. The cars are parked at the interchange track. The Shay will wait for the Southern freight train.
Job 3 :
A short freight train (4-5 cars) starts at Bryson City with cars for Robbinsville and others. The train will serve the GCRR interchange and continue to Topton. On it's trip back to Bryson City, he will collect more outbound cars (up to 4-5 per train, pending on car length).
Job 4 : (in the future when the GCRR-division is added)
The Shay will pick up the new cars for Robbinsville and bring them up the hill to there final destinations. The Shay is than parked at the loco shed for the next day.
Job 5 :
A noon mixed local starts at Bryson City with 3-4 freight cars and a combine, runs to Topton and back by serving the industries at Topton.
Job 6 :
An afternoon freight train is used on demand to deliver freight cars or to collect remaining outbound cars of the day.
Job 7:
The evening passenger will run to Topton and stay here until the next morning.
That's for now - I'll show you the new window bridge in a new post.
Cheers, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 04-12-2012
Okay...
yesterday we made the new window bridge element to get Topton connected to the rest of the layout.
It's not a big deal, but I added some electrical features to one of the fixture boards. Here I installed two spring contacts to supply the lift out element with track power. This way, I don't need wires on this element and can easily lift it out if needed. To prevent dead trains running into the gap, I added a switch that will turn of the track power on all modules left of the joint between Woods Furniture and Nantahala Valley. If the bridge element is in place, the switch is closed and the track power is running.
Here're some pics.
![[Image: Bridge_1i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Bridge/Bridge_1.jpg)
![[Image: Bridge_3i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Bridge/Bridge_3.jpg)
![[Image: Bridge_5i.jpg]](http://www.gerds-modellbahn.de/SOU/Anlage/Bridge/Bridge_5.jpg)
Click pics to unlarge.
Today I'll add the tracks and fix some issues to get the expanded layout into working condition.
Cheers, Gerd
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - clearwater - 04-12-2012
Waldbahner Wrote:Okay...
yesterday we made the new window bridge element to get Topton connected to the rest of the layout.
It's not a big deal, ... If the bridge element is in place, the switch is closed and the track power is running.
very nice!
Thomas
Re: My "Southern Rwy & Graham County RR" layout - Waldbahner - 04-13-2012
Good morning !!
The tracks are laid and the switch mechanism on the new turnout is also installed.
Now it was time to run the first train !!!
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grmJvxFoqxI&feature=g-upl&context=G2771a93AUAAAAAAAAAA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grmJvxFo ... AAAAAAAAAA</a><!-- m -->
Bye, Gerd