New route idea- Detroit Union Railroad Need some help

[vonhammer_87]

Well for my first route, I was thinking about modeling the layout of the Detroit Model Railroad Club in Holly, Michigan, of which I am a member. The club is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and as a tribute i was going to model the route in Trainz, prototypically. The layout itself is O scale and theres about 4,000 feet of hand laid track. And over the next few years will be adding about 2,000 more. Theres even a branch line and a operating narrow gage. The layout is set in the transposition era.

What I need is some help getting started. The layout runs west-east with the double track mainline from the fictional town of Dorrence (named after the first club president). Dorrence has a passenger station as well as a freight yard and engine service facilities, Dorrence is also home to the Dorrence Manufacturing Company, an automotive manufacturing complex. From Dorrence one proceeds past the Dorrence Signal Bridge by Nichols Crossing, Pearson's Farm, and finally to Walkerville. From Walkerville one heads on down to Detroit (which is actually in the basement, and currently under construction. Theres been temporary track there for 15 yrs and just now starting to build permanent bench work). In Detroit there will be a large passenger terminal and freight yard as well as several industries.

To exit Detroit one can take the reverse loop to come up the east bound on the double track or proceed west bound up the single track main. The single track runs from East Detroit up to Kettington where there's the branch line interchange, and from Kettington to the Power Plant the from the power plant to Aretha where the branch line crosses the main, then Maguire and from Maguire one can either proceed to terminate in Summit Yard or proceed through the diamond and up the mountain to Beck.

I've included a few pictures of the layout, and what I need help with is getting started, and weather to start in Summit or Dorrence. The layout can be run either as a loop (for open houses) or as a point-to-point.

Dorrence

Walkerville, Maguire (upper part)

Dorrence Station

Beck

 

[rjhowie]

Very impressive!

 

[vonhammer_87]

I've been a member since December, been wanting to do this. I'll be posting pics of the route in trainz when i get started on it

 

[bl4882]

Web site

That model railroad is a thing of beauty. I chased down the Web site. It is located here http://www.dmrrc.org/index.html.

If the layout is in O scale and planned for 6000 feet of track it must be in a building the size of a football stadium!

Some fine modelling going on there. Hope to see your electronic version of it soon.

Bernie

 

[vonhammer_87]

That it is, and the building that were in is the old Holly movie theater, and we've been in that building for about 36yrs. The nice thing about the building is that floor is sloping so at the back the building there's plenty of head room. The layout area itself is about 26' x 110'.

I just have to get motivated to start it, and I want to start with Dorrence and the Dorrence Freight yard, however I am not very good at laying out yards, and would appreciate help in signaling as well

 

[JIb228]

If I know ant thing of DMRC, and if its any thing like Chi Town then it might be very hard to do. I live about 15 min from Holly, yet have never been to the DMRC. Even though I have friends who are members. You might know James, or Rob. I tried doing Chi Town, Paul G's O scale layout that is in Comrace and that was a pain because of all the hidden yards and all the tunnels.

 

[vonhammer_87]

It's not quite what's at Chi-town, all though I haven't been there yet. Been meaning to, but haven't had the time. But There's not a lot of hidden yards, just hidden trackage. My major issue right now is trying to figure out how i want to layout prototypical. For operations the route runs east-west from Chicago to St. Louis.

 

[JCitron]

It's not quite what's at Chi-town, all though I haven't been there yet. Been meaning to, but haven't had the time. But There's not a lot of hidden yards, just hidden trackage. My major issue right now is trying to figure out how i want to layout prototypical. For operations the route runs east-west from Chicago to St. Louis.

This is quite an undertaking, and is very doable in Trainz.

You might want use actual DEM files and stich them together instead of trying to landscape everything manually. This will not only save you time, but also give you the route lines to follow. I recommend purchasing GeoPhil's (Roland Ziegler) TranzDEM. This program allows the import of DEM files from the USGS, and outputting them in Trainz-ready format.

Regarding yards... These are not easy to make, or so I think. You might try Google Earth and Bing Maps (Bird's Eye view) to get an idea what the yard ladders look like. I went as far as to take a schematic drawing from a modelrailroad plan, and load it into Trainz as a basemap. I then traced over the trackplan with my tracks. When I had everything in place, I deleted the basemap afterwards.

John

 

[vonhammer_87]

You might want use actual DEM files and stich them together instead of trying to landscape everything manually. This will not only save you time, but also give you the route lines to follow. I recommend purchasing GeoPhil's (Roland Ziegler) TranzDEM. This program allows the import of DEM files from the USGS, and outputting them in Trainz-ready format.

Actually, what Iim planning on doing, is using similar layouts or moduals that are available on the DLS (such as the Union Station one by zxt Kuid: 36654:20005) And merging them in with the existing route. I will be doing some stuff on my own of course, and landscaping where necceseary, but thats what im doing for now.

Regarding yards... These are not easy to make, or so I think. You might try Google Earth and Bing Maps (Bird's Eye view) to get an idea what the yard ladders look like. I went as far as to take a schematic drawing from a modelrailroad plan, and load it into Trainz as a basemap. I then traced over the trackplan with my tracks. When I had everything in place, I deleted the basemap afterwards.

Not a bad idea, i was acutally thinking about sketching out the route on graphpaper first using the trackplan that was in the Feb. 1995 issue of Model Railroader when they did an article on the club. Alots changed since then, but i know whats there now.

 

[JCitron]

Actually, what Iim planning on doing, is using similar layouts or moduals that are available on the DLS (such as the Union Station one by zxt Kuid: 36654:20005) And merging them in with the existing route. I will be doing some stuff on my own of course, and landscaping where necceseary, but thats what im doing for now.



Not a bad idea, i was acutally thinking about sketching out the route on graphpaper first using the trackplan that was in the Feb. 1995 issue of Model Railroader when they did an article on the club. Alots changed since then, but i know whats there now.

I wish you luck on your project! This looks like it'll be quite a challenge. Check on the DLS for the UM or UMR series of layouts. These are U-Make modules that can be bolted together like a model railroad.

Personally I have found when importing other people's routes, that it's sometimes difficult to get them to blend in without completely stripping them down to almost the bare grid. The other issue that comes up is elevation because there's no way to raise and lower elevation without building 'tween' boards to blend in. I'm not saying it can't be done, but this has been my experience because this is what I did as I built my route, which is 90% my work, 10% merger.

The sketch is a great idea. You can take that one step further and scan it into your computer, and place it on an object called a basemap. With the basemap, you put that on your route baseboard, and lay your track over it. When you're done, remove the basemap, and you're good to go from there.

The basemap image, though has to be 1000 x 1000 in order to work properly. This works out be just bigger than 1 baseboard of 720 x 720. You can use multiple basemaps - they're even called Basemap A, B, C, etc. so you can cut the image up and split it over the different basemaps.

Anyway, I'll let you play around with this, and ask questions.

John

 

[vonhammer_87]

I wish you luck on your project! This looks like it'll be quite a challenge. Check on the DLS for the UM or UMR series of layouts. These are U-Make modules that can be bolted together like a model railroad.

Personally I have found when importing other people's routes, that it's sometimes difficult to get them to blend in without completely stripping them down to almost the bare grid. The other issue that comes up is elevation because there's no way to raise and lower elevation without building 'tween' boards to blend in. I'm not saying it can't be done, but this has been my experience because this is what I did as I built my route, which is 90% my work, 10% merger.

I plan on keeping basically just the tracks and streets etc, and retexturing the layout so it looks seamless.

The sketch is a great idea. You can take that one step further and scan it into your computer, and place it on an object called a basemap. With the basemap, you put that on your route baseboard, and lay your track over it. When you're done, remove the basemap, and you're good to go from there.

The basemap image, though has to be 1000 x 1000 in order to work properly. This works out be just bigger than 1 baseboard of 720 x 720. You can use multiple basemaps - they're even called Basemap A, B, C, etc. so you can cut the image up and split it over the different basemaps.

Hmm, I'll have to check that out, does it matter what the scale of the drawing is?

 

[vonhammer_87]

well ive been working on getting the main yard at least somewhat automated and would like someone to take a look at it. i can send the cdp file of the route