Thanks, Jeff. Yes, I've been through the sites you mentioned.
Right now I am working at correlating the .jpg photos on "gdlines.com" with the track plans that I've found. This has been really helpful for me.
I've also found some track plans with elevations. I'd like to find more elevation information, and am working that avenue too.
I've also rounded up:
- MR's Information Station pamphlet entitled "John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid"
- MR, Jan 1969, magazine with 12-page spread entitled "Local Passenger Train over
the Gorre & Daphetid". In the article, John Allen takes the reader through a
"trip" over the entire road with many photographs and descriptions.
- RMC, Jan 1972, magazine with John Allen's article, "25th Anniversary of the G & D
Line"
- MR, Jan 1989, magazine with John Allen and his G&D line recognized as one of the
"Legendary Layouts and the Men who built Them"
I've noticed that the photos on "gdlines.com" do not include the "MR" photos. I suspect that this may be due to copywrite issues.
Those are the photographs and publications that I've found so far. I see that Mr. Wescott's book about John Allen & the G&D has recently been re-printed. I hope to be able to purchase that soon. Also, I've found the construction drawings on "gdlines.com" to be a real help in showing the "bones" of the layout structure.
I'll continue correlating this information, and gleaning more from these websites (they do contain a lot of information that I have not mentioned).
I'm working on "translating" a .bmp track plan image that I've exported from "TrainPlayer" software into a draft drawing. I have been using a compass, scale and divider to then translate the drawing into a digital representation (with documented dimensions) using TrkCAD4 software. The .bmp file shows the "centers" for each curve, but there are many such "centers" and it's been a trial to correlate those center crosses with their respective curves. So far, I've transcribed the overall main line onto TrkCAD4. I haven't addressed any turnouts, sidings or the round houses and turntables yet. TrkCAD has also permitted me to convert the HO layout to N-scale (I haven't the room for HO-scale). So I've been able to reduce the layout from 27' X 32' to 15' X 23'.
I could never attempt to emulate Mr. Allen's floor to ceiling layout. With N-scale, I should be able to reduce all elevations roughly in half as well. So, that's where I'm at right now.
At this writing, I'm considering making a 1/3 scale mock-up of the N-scale layout to try to ensure that I really understand all that Mr. Allen's done before I determine whether it's practical to proceed further. With the N-scale layout's being 23' X 15', I believe that I can layout most of a 1/3-scale model onto a 4' X 8' OSB platform. I should be able to print out the 1/3-scale plan from XTrkCAD, and just tape the 8.5" X 11" pages onto the OSB.
I've never made a scale layout model before, but from what I've read it appears to be a wise course before considering taking on a project of this magnitude. This is probably more than you wanted to read, Jeff, but I didn't want to waste your time on guessing where I'm at so far.
Thank you for the references. I appreciate your time.
Dave