Track Plan

At last, here's the track plan. The area is approximately 8' x 12'. Minimum radius is 36". As you can see, this is purely a switching layout, representing a coastal Texas town at the end of a branch line. Railroad operations in the town are handled by the Gulf Harbor Terminal Railway. The "mainline" road has yet to be named...probably something like Texas Coast Railroad, etc.

The benchwork is already partially done. It will be "modular" with sections ranging from 3' to 4' in length. The sections are being built in our garage and will be bolted together in the "train room." The layout will be 45" high. The backdrop will be 1/4" hardboard, painted to represent sky but with no other detail. In practice, the only section that must be removable is the one at the far left, about 3' long, because it will be in front of a window, which must be accessible in the event it needs replacement or repair.

All of the track laid on my previous layout will be used, to be cut out of the original baseboard by a handheld jigsaw. As in many if not most layouts...and certainly all I've built...there will no doubt be some modifications to the original plan as construction progresses.

All track is within a 24" reach. A stepstool will be needed for completion of the scenery at the very back (a 36" maximum reach) but, once in place, access to that will seldom be needed.

Prior to assembling the sections in the train room, additional lighting will be installed, using plug-in flexible wall lamps.

Construction Begins

I realize I haven't posted my new track plan yet...coming soon, as soon as I take a digital photo of it. In the meantime, I moved the layout sections from our daughter and son-in-law's garage, where they had been kindly storing them, to our new residence and now I'm getting to work. I'm able to use the 1" x 4" lumber from the previous layout in a new configuration, and today I started the first section.

Cleaning Out Files

Over the years I've accumulated quite a bit of railroad research material, which I've organized in files. It includes a lot of photocopied stuff from Model Railroader issues that I didn't own; when we lived in Oregon for 25 years I worked in downtown Portland and spent many lunch hours at the main library going through their extensive collection of MR, which went back into the 1930s. Any article that looked useful I photocopied and filed.

A lot of it was useful at the time. For example, articles on Northwest railroads, equipment, structures and scenery were helpful when we were in that part of the country, because I've always preferred to model the region where I live. Now, in Texas, planning a Gulf coast port switching pike which will very probably be my final layout (which I hope to operate into my 80s, health permitting), I no longer have any need for such material. So I spent this afternoon thinning out my files, purging them of items I know I'll never use, such as very large track plans, plans for large locomotives, etc. There were scenery articles with methods that are long outdated. Articles on handlaying track with techniques I've long ago learned. Plans for electric locomotives, of all things! Ideas for making signs, now obsolete because of the computer and the Internet. You get the idea.

I also have a lot of magazines...mostly Model Railroader, but also quite a few issues of Railroad Model Craftsman, S Gaugian, S Gauge Herald and some copies of Trains. Fortunately, we have an extra-large garage where I've placed four old bookshelves, and the magazines are arranged by type and date for easy reference, especially when using the on-line Model Train Magazine Index. There's still plenty of room on the shelves, but I can see the time coming when I'm going to have to prune my collection. If for no other reason, my wife and I don't want our children to have the burden of getting rid of a bunch of "stuff" on our behalf years from now. And, seriously, will I ever read or refer to it again? So I will try to take a little time each month to go through the magazines and clip out and file what I need...or realistically might possbily need, such as plans for cars or structures...and dump the rest.

It's hard for me to part with books and magazines, but I also dislike clutter and I enjoy being organized.

However, I do wonder why I didn't start this process before we moved!

Track Plan and Related Thoughts

I pulled out a copy of 101 Track Plans (Kalmbach 1956, 1976 reprinting) from my bookshelf this morning before church and flipped through it as sort of a double-check of my track planning ideas. And I realized something about myself. I started reading Model Railroader in the 1950s when I was in grade school and I think that's why I'm more comfortable with the track plans from that era than with more modern planning concepts. Take the example of hidden staging, which virtually didn't exist in 1950s plans.

In a comment regarding one of my posts in September 2009, a gentleman named Darrell quite correctly pointed out that my plan lacked any kind of "off layout" staging. My response was...and still is...essentially that it's not important to me, and I prefer the use of card-order switching and "inbound" and "outbound" yard tracks, which I happily employed in my Idaho switching layout, a very 1950s viewpoint. Darrell's intent was to be helpful and I appreciate that, but I just don't feel the need for hidden staging or any similar device. I think the staging schemes and concepts are great...just not for me.

Now, I might feel differently if I had a layout that featured a lot of mainline running, but I really liked my small switching layout in Idaho and I plan to do something similar now.

Moved!

Two weeks ago today we moved to our home in an over-55 development, about 15 miles from where we'd been living. And now, 90 percent of the moving boxes have been unpacked and it's time to do some serious, final layout planning. The dimensions for the layout will be 7' 9" x 11' 9", so the plan I sketched out for an 8' x '12' area will work just fine. When my pencil scrawls have been redrawn into something legible, I'll post the new plan here.

In a nutshell, there will be fairly high track density, all within a 24" reach, with another 12" behind for scenery and background structures. Scenery, since this will represent a small to medium sized Texas Gulf coast port, will be all urban, though a small corner of a residential area will be represented, allowing at least a few trees.

I expect to be able to use all of the track I laid before, though much of it will be configured differently. More will be needed, of course. Also, there will be space for my small turntable and roundhouse.