Southern Pacific Switching Layout

[Mike Kieran]

Brakie has a point though. A lot of shortlines would not have an engine house and save money by eschewing with an enginehouse. Like Brakie says, a diesel can be left out in the cold and plugged in to an engine block heater. I think that a steam engine would need to be stored indoors during cold weather because firing up a steam engine takes long enough without frozen water in the tubes. I've been around boilers that have been started from a dead cold and watched pipes burst in the process.

In the first drawing, I got rid of the enginehouse and decided to use a caboose on blocks for the crew lounge/railroad office. I have the drill track 22 inches long because that's the length of an EMD Switcher plus 2 50 foot cars (6 inches + 16 inches). A smaller switch engine plus 2 cars would be less space. If you use 40 foot cars, remember that each car is actually 6.5 inches long.

I've added a rough sketch of the highway overpass and ramp to fill out the scenery along the backdrop on the left side of the layout. The engine would reside under the overpass when it's not in use.



In the second drawing, I added a small yard on the right side (tracks D & E).