Small Layout Plans.

Phil,
That is a really nice conversion and it appears so very close to the original. Very nicely done! You have certainly captured the intent of the original author with his plan. Other than a slightly larger yard in the Boring Lumber Yard, your track layout is pretty much spot on.

I'm just as excited as the others at seeing this one come to life. It will be just as wonderful as all the other routes you have provided for our enjoyment.

Gary

That will make a great route someday when it's completed.

I'm going to assume that the connection to the outside world, i.e. a fiddle yard is on the upper left corner near the RR office? I think that would be the most logical place for the connection.

Is there going to be a possibility for passenger service as well? Many interurbans did that as well such as the North Shore and Milwaukee, or the extant Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend.

Hi John --

Connections to the outside world. I've placed a portal at the extreme top left so that AI trains can feed consists into the layout. There is a run round track so that the locomotive at the head of the AI can run round the consist and return to the portal. I've also added a ferry barge, a feature of most of my previous layouts. Using "The Hand Of God" (Edit Trains) this can act as a fiddle yard feeding and removing freight cars into and from the layout.

Passenger services. Yes. There will be a main passenger depot at the main terminus and smaller depots at the other yards.
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Thanks for all the comments. They are appreciated. They also make it impossible for me to wimp out now?

I'm revisiting the yards and industries at the terminus. I'd placed a number of buildings selected from the SAP_Old Industrial_Bldg series by msgsapper. The structures are individually excellent but they don't look quite right in this environment. I'll do a search of the DLS to see what else might work better. Alternatively I'll revert back to the built-in JR buildings.

I need to redo the track work. At the moment it looks too much like a normal freight yard. It should look like a street with rail tracks, where a train occasionally spots and picks up freight cars from the various factories.

Phil

Great news, Phil. It's fun to see your thoughts on how to put this all together. We get to see the creative genius at work, as he creates yet another stellar route.

Will you electrify the whole route or will some parts be only for steam engines or...[gasp]...diesel?

Gary

Gary --

Yes, the layout will be fully electrified. It's not a task I'm looking forward to. Placing the poles and then stringing the overhead wire from pole to pole on "Rivercide" was a grind. Surely there must be an easier way? A track spline that incorporates the wire with the poles perhaps?

There will also be facilities to support steam and diesel locomotives. The management is well aware that at some stage in the future the mercury arc rectifiers used to provide the DC power to the catenary will be prohibited for health and safety reasons. Hence the refuelling facilities. (Of course, most Interurban lines closed well before mercury became a H&S issue.)
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Progress -- the updated track plan:



This is the warehouse and downtown area of the main town:



Here I have reverted to the built-in JR industry buildings -- #1, 2, 4, 13, and 14. I've used them before on other layouts. They have a pleasing uniformity of colour and textures, have an interesting appearance, and a relatively low profile so that consists can still be see as they pass by the buildings.

And a more general view across to the other side of the baseboard:



It might be a tight squeeze getting through the walkway between the main industrial area in the foreground and the small town on the other side. But that's the way it's worked out. It's one of the difficulties when laying track on this type of circular layout -- getting the ends to meet, which involves the correct curvature and lengths of the track sections. I could go back and remake most of it, but ... . I'm pushing on as is.

Phil

Phil,
Great shots. It's all very interesting to watch the route come to life. Don't worry about the tight squeeze - we shall simply pull in our virtual stomachs and make it easily!

I tried fitting Railroad K, The Berkshire Valley Route, from the Atlas King Size Plan of HO Railroads into the scale 4 by 12 in TRS19 called for by the plans. There was no way. I ended up with something more like 6 by 15, and was barely fitting it onto a single baseboard, just to get enough headroom for the over-and-under part where the track reversed itself under a bridge, and to have a semi-proper track curvature on the ends. It's still not right, but it mostly looks like the plan in the book. So, your track plan looks just fine.

I'm already mentally plotting out switching moves for the industries. Love the progress!

Gary

Phil,

Great news on the portals. Interurban passenger service ranged from good sized terminals and stations to small bus-like shelters in the woods along with roadside passenger drop off.

You mentioned the tough part of placing wires. Yup they are blinding, literally, with the splines and spline points. Out of a bunch I've tried over the years, I found these to be really great and use them currently on my Gloucester Terminal Electric, aka George Fisher's Gloucester Terminal remastered and expanded.

Blackdiamond1964's

<kuid2:405066:158:1> BDW L&WV Line Side Pole #2
<kuid2:405066:90:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #4 Wire Spline
<kuid2:405066:138:2> BDW L&WV Trolley Pole #4
<kuid2:405066:136:2> BDW L&WV Trolley Pole #2
<kuid2:405066:89:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #3
<kuid2:405066:137:2> BDW L&WV Trolley Pole #3
<kuid2:405066:135:2> BDW L&WV Trolley Pole #1
<kuid2:405066:91:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #4
<kuid2:405066:87:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #2
<kuid2:405066:88:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #3 Wire Spline
<kuid2:405066:85:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #1
<kuid2:405066:86:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #2 Wire Spline
<kuid2:405066:84:1> BDW IRM Trolley Pole #1 Wire Spline

as well as those from Scott's former user name lvwrr if you are looking for regular power lines and telegraph poles.

<kuid2:535812:103:1> Laurel Line Pole #3
<kuid:535812:151> Laurel Line Pole #9
<kuid2:535812:104:1> Laurel Line Pole #4
<kuid2:535812:137:1> Laurel Line Pole #5
<kuid2:535812:118:2> Laurel Line Telegraph Pole #3
<kuid:535812:150> Laurel Line Pole #8
<kuid2:535812:116:2> Laurel Line Telegraph Pole #1
<kuid2:535812:117:2> Laurel Line Telegraph Pole #2
<kuid2:535812:119:2> Laurel Line Telegraph Pole #4
<kuid2:535812:120:2> Laurel Line Telegraph Pole #5
<kuid2:535812:101:1> Laurel Line Pole #1
<kuid2:535812:102:1> Laurel Line Pole #2
<kuid:535812:138> Laurel Line Pole #6
<kuid:535812:139> Laurel Line Pole #7
<kuid:535812:141> Laurel Line Telegraph Pole #6
<kuid:535812:105> Laurel Line Light Pole #1
<kuid:535812:106> Laurel Line Light Pole #2
<kuid:535812:107> Laurel Line Light Pole #3
<kuid:535812:108> Laurel Line Light Pole #4
<kuid:535812:109> Laurel Line Light Pole #5
<kuid:535812:110> Laurel Line Light Pole #6
<kuid:535812:111> Laurel Line Light Pole #7
<kuid:535812:112> Laurel Line Light Pole #8
<kuid:535812:113> Laurel Line Light Pole #9
<kuid:535812:114> Laurel Line Light Pole #10
<kuid:535812:115> Laurel Line Light Pole #11

The trolley poles and wires work well and are simply constructed, which is nice. I use the IRM poles a lot but have also used the other trolley poles as well. They can't be "connected" together, but the wires line up nicely because they're all at the right height.

Hi John --

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately it don't make it any easier. It still requires the positioning of the posts and then the threading of the wires. This is the fourth time I've gone through the agony of adding overhead catenary -- The Shortz & Kerliez, Bidye Traction, Rivercide (two versions) and now this, "The Wattz & Voltz Interurban". Each time I've promised it would be the last.
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Real life is going to intervene for a couple of days. The track is in place and wired. Most of the buildings are placed. There is still a couple of days work to texturing and adding vegetation. This is progress to date.

The main terminus, Wattz:



The other terminus, Voltz:



The log camp and dry sort yard:



Phil

Real life, really! Is there one when we're supposed to be Trainzing?

Sorry the catenary didn't work well. I know it's a pain the spline circles, alignment, and adjusting is awful. I ran into that on my small 7 mile Gloucester Terminal Electric route. Paul (paulzmay) made some tram poles that work okay. The system utilizes track-objects for the structures and a 20 m "wire" that is strung between the insulators. I found this system looks good, but it's also painful.

I wish you luck with this project. Great work so far Phil.

Phil,
Thanks for the screen shots and the progress report. It is looking really stellar. Great work as always!

Gary

The Wattz & Voltz Interurban.

Texturing completed:







If you are wondering about those oil drums at the base of some of the masts. They are filled with sand. In locations with on-street running Management was tired of trucks and cars damaging the masts. The drums are to provide protection.

Still to do -- vegetation and TurfFX.

Phil

Phil,
Yet another winner. It looks great! Is it also seasonal? Just curious.

Gary

Seasonal? But of course!

Autumn:



Winter:



Phil

Phil,
Spectacular shots, especially the winter one. Great work!!!

Gary

A classic C.J. Freezer plan from '60 Plans for Small Locations'. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet as I'm still having a lot of problems with sleepiness.

That's a nice plan, Annie, and I find it very tempting! I haven't seen it before but it's very reminiscent of other C J Freezer plans in packing a heck of a lot into a very small space. I don't think I've ever had the book you mentioned, but I did have Plans for Small Layouts which I lent many years ago to my son and have never got it back - I expect it's sheltering in one of his bookcases! He also gave up railway modelling "in the real world" some years ago and hasn't been active in Trainz for some time now - come to think of it, I haven't done a great deal either.
Ray

KotangaGirl said:

A classic C.J. Freezer plan from '60 Plans for Small Locations'. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet as I'm still having a lot of problems with sleepiness.

Click to expand...

Coincidentally I'm looking at one out of Track Plans - P25 "The Desirable Maximum". It's the one with the quay line dropping away from the side of the main terminus then runs parallel with the higher main lines along the back section. However it is proving challenging, even scaled as TT As we've said before I don't think good old Cyril (RIP) vetted the practicality of some of these plans both in terms of geometry and clearances. I have had to use a NEX retaining wall to separate the dock line but it will be restricted to short wheel base vehicles only on that section. There is also a reverse loop/fiddle yard under a fairly complex country section which will be getting swung out to the side. Our Trainz splines do not play nice with complex tracks above each other at different levels (or points in tunnels).

I don't seem to have a copy of P25 "The Desirable Maximum" Vern, but I can imagine it will be the usual C.J.F. trackwork knots pushed tightly into a confined space. I don't think good old Cyril gave his plans too much of a vetting as to their practicality and left it up to the end user to try and make something of them.

I think he was on far safer ground with his BLT designs like 'St Pirans' which are actually possible to build without too much adjusting of clearances. Then I freely admit that I'm a country railways type of modeller so I like this kind of thing.

I managed to find Desirable Maximum in 1974 fourth impression of Track Plans 2nd Edition.

It is certainly a challenging 20ft x 12ft layout.
Min. radius 1ft 10in !!

I can just see all those red rotating circles at each junction!

Good luck with it Vern.