1950 PRR Switching Layout Design


SpaceMouse

Fun Lover
Here it is, my 30" x 96" shelf/switching layout from a single LDE. I took this from 1938 aerial photos, 1916,1930 & 1950 Sanborn maps, selectively compressed it some, and fudged a little to make it work.

Indiana02.gif


Operations

Notes

1) Everything backs in from the wye about two miles to the left of the layout.

2) I'm assuming that staging will extend the leads.

Ops

Passenger Service comes once a day and the passenger track must be clear when it arrives.

Freight arrives once a day. A switcher will break down the train and build the train for pick up. The freight engine drops cars and picks up cars. The switcher moves them. I don't have a good place for the cabin. Theoretically, it would have been dropped off the layout.

There are two "sorts" of cars. One that is set out on the visible layout. One that is to the south of the layout. The industries that are south of town are a lumber yard, a tire manufacturing plant, a glass manufacturer, a brewery, etc. There are two switchers in the "yard." One switches the visible area, and the other takes the other sort to staging.

Outgoing trains are made up of outgoing shipments of both visible and staged industries.

What am I missing? What is implausible?
 
I wanted to start by saying that the track plan is strictly from the prototype. I wanted to keep that is much as possible to that plan. The only piece of track I added is I extended the siding along Stewart's Hardware to make a small runaround. Nowhere in the prototype was one provided. In fact, the only way an engine could make a runaround move was the one crossover you see and the point where the two tracks merged a quarter mile south.

IndianaMap01.gif


So here are my fudges. The tractor supply is on the other side of an alley beyond the feed supply. The flour mill is on the other side of the alley from the produce supply. The grocery warehose was on the other side of the street just south of Stewart's Hardware.

The trackwork between the station and the freight station was present in 1950, but not used. However, the prototype had a quarter mile of dual track to sort and switch. I didn't have that kind of space so I needed to restore the old track.

Oh yeah, the engine house was on the lower of the three tracks not the upper.

Of course, the layout has compressed space.

The only way to turn the train was the wye. And since the photos I have of the era shows the trains backed in, I asuumed they all did. At least this why I am doing it this way on my layout.

IndiianaStewartsHardwarePRR.gif


Indianahoodlebug1940.gif
 
I'm quite impressed with your adherence to the protoype at this astounding level! If done correctly, by finding photos of each building in that area, and scratchbuilding them, you could easily win an NMRA contest right there. Great work! Let's see it to completion now. ;)
 
Also, you could start on the road to becoming an NMRA "Master Model Railroader" if you tackle this layout with the NMRA guidelines in mind, keep up the good work!
 
Chip, the one thing I can see being an issue is the switch in the middle of the road, otherwise, awesome!
 
I'm quite impressed with your adherence to the protoype at this astounding level! If done correctly, by finding photos of each building in that area, and scratchbuilding them, you could easily win an NMRA contest right there. Great work! Let's see it to completion now. ;)

That's the rub. I have not been able to find any photos, except what you see and one other. Most of buildings are gone.

What are the NMRA guidelines? Where can they be found.
 
Chip, the one thing I can see being an issue is the switch in the middle of the road, otherwise, awesome!

Someone suggested that since I have to use the staging area for a lead, I might as well scenic it and put the staging behind Buchannan's Grocery. That siding in front of the Hardware store also serves the Grocery which I moved across the street.

IF I do it that way, I can put a crossover on that new sceniced lead and make my moves using that and eliminate the turnout in the street. IT will be like the prototype were I can get only one car in or out at a time and there will be lots of cars to get in there.
 



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