My Ho Scale South Plains Layout


nephthyr

nephthyr

Member
Hi All,

My layout is now four months into construction and I'm about 2/3's of the way with the benchwork. Its an uneven U shape, 23' x 8'. The track plan is about 90% fixed, I might move a few things to accomodate train length and for clearance purposes.

The layout at a glance:
Linear shelf
Walk around
Switching layout
HO Scale
1976 era
Santa Fe in Lubbock county, Texas (South Plains)
Atlas code 83 flex track
#6 turnouts
24" min curve radius
Digitrax DCC system
Car card and waybill system
Designed for 3 operators, possible 4th can be accomodated.
The layout is designed and built for operation.

Based on David Barrow's construction methods, modular with modules being 18" wide by 48" in length. There's 8 of them with two special corner modules, 36" by 24" with a cut out.
One operator will work the small yard and the other two will perform switching of the two small towns.

Here's a link to the track plan: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FP8QuRko7aw/SZ430kKKFAI/AAAAAAAAADE/cbY4N2DH1PQ/s1600-h/layout.gif Click the plan for a larger size version.

For more info and photos, check my blog at: http://trevorcharlesmiller.blogspot.com/
 
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yeah lots of switching opportunities. thats one thing i really want to incorporate into my layout is alot of switches. i currently have a couple with a couple more on the way in the mail. you my friend might need more than that tho....lol
 
Other than pick up cars at one yard and drop them at the other yard, what else does your railroad do? If you built it as a switching puzzle, it's good for that, but it seems like some a few more industries and less yard trackage would make operations more interesting.
 
As you are well aware, real trains dont chase their tails, so a loop is a ridiculous idea on a layout designed for realistic operation. Instead, trains are a vital link in the transportation network, transporting goods, raw materials and people from a source to a destination. In this sense, I've designed my layout to mimick that transfer between source and destination.

What my layout lacks is hidden staging to pose as a source and destination for trains. This is circumvented by using the small yard as an originating source for local trains and using hand staging prior to operating sessions. The layout will have about 14 local online industries, each receiving and shipping goods.

The yard is used to classify trains according to destination much like the prototype. There are basically 5 destinations for any car on the layout:
1. Mesa Yard, which lies to the east (left) of the small yard. Mesa yard is a large classification yard on the Santa Fe system. So any car routed for any destination not on the layout itself but on the Santa Fe will be routed via Mesa.
2. The Burlington Northern interchange. The town on the far right (west) of the line has an interchange with the Burlington Northern, any car with a destination on the BN line will be routed to the BN interchange track.
3. Either of the two small towns on the layout. These destinations will be switched by the local's crew.
4. Industries in the Yard area, these are backdrop flats along the northern most siding / spur.

Prior to an operating session I'll remove the cars from the BN interchange that were left there the previous session and replace them with new cars, imitating new cars destined for online industries on the layout from the BN. I'll also do the same for the cars in the small yard area that are from Mesa Yard. This is how cars will get onto and off the layout. At the end of every session, the two locals will be ready to depart and do set outs and pick ups in the two small towns, switching the local industries there.

At the start of the session the two locals will depart one, after the other for the local towns to perform their switching jobs. The yard operator will classify all outbound and incoming cars into blocks for the various destinations. As the locals arrive, the yard operator will continue classifying and blocking the cars until the two locals are again ready.

At this point the session can either end, or operators can take a short break while the layout is restaged, again by hand. Thus operation can continue indefinitely. In effect the layout is one large switching puzzle, but isn't that what realistic operation is?

Sure I am missing mainline action with fast thru freights and hot drags, but given the limited space I think I have a decent layout that provides realistic operation for up to four operators. It might not be perfect but at least it will be fun!

As to your comment regarding less yard, go read Tony Koesters books on operation, as well as his articles in Model Railroader, you'll find he states that you can never have enough yard space. I tend to agree with him. My railroad is based heavily on the principles of Tony Koester and David Barrow. These are people who have been building and operating layouts for longer than I have been alive, surely they must know a thing or two, and using their advice can only be beneficial.
 
I guess I would have understood your layout better if you indicated the location of the industries and the two small towns. It's hard to see where you can get much of anything but track when you've got six tracks in 18" of space. I am well aware of Tony Koester and his work, since he's a year older than me. Tony is a great advocate of yards but also space for scenery, as the layout plan for the AM at http://kc.pennsyrr.com/layouts/koester/design.php shows. However, it's you layout and you may take or leave any of my suggestions as you desire.
 
Fair enough, my track plan should be more detailed, I'll be adding more detail as I get time. You are correct in assuming that there is in fact very little space in the yard section, those industries will unfortunately be nothing more than backdrop flats. Some might have problems with that but this is a sacrifice I'm willing to make in order to achieve the type of operation I envision. Most of the buildings on the layout will be low relief structures anyway, with a few of them like the grain elevator, feed mill and aggregates plant being partial to full structures.

I appreciate your suggestions and comments very much. My main goal for this layout is purely to have 3-4 operators running trains in a semi realistic fashion in a neatly detailed setting that adds to the enjoyment. Some prefer to model a highly accurate version of the prototype while others just want to sit back and watch their prize collection of locos and cars go by in a loop. Every layout attempts to achieve different things, and in so doing one has to make sacrifices given various resource (time, space, etc...) constraints.
 
My new SD45's arrived today and since I have some time off from work I decided to shoot a few pics of the layout to post here. Its still very much under contruction, I'm 2/3's of the way laying track.

Here's an overall shot of the layout so far, I've shortened the one side of the layout because of time / budget and space constraints.
View attachment 15314

Here's a shot of the track in Industry Yard.
View attachment 15315

Engine servicing facility. Yes, I know the track is dangerously close to the front of the layout. I plan to add a clear acrylic / perspex sheet as a barrier when I attach the fascia.
View attachment 15316

CF7 working the yard. At the back is the federal cold storage facility which is essentially a backdrop flat.
View attachment 15317
 
SD45's pulling a string of empty hoppers into town while a pair of GP35's on the point of a Westbound local wait patiently for the main to clear. In the back, a CF7 works the yard.

View attachment 15318

Gotta love the Santa Fe!
 
Ahhhh! Linear. Flat. Switching. Shelf layout. My kind of trackplan, although an around the walls with staging has merit too IMO.

May I suggest you designate a couple of tracks as interchange tracks so you have the illusion of cars coming onto and leaving this section of railroad?
 
Initially my plan was to do just that, but I have decided to add staging in addition to still having an interchange with the BN. Now the interchange will act as another industry to be switched by locals.

The beauty of having staging on either end of the layout is that I can now run through freights, stopping in Industry Yard to set out and pick up cars withe the locals actually distributing those cars to the industries themselves.

I need to seriously update my track plan...
 
Completed some industries this past week. Here they are:

Bulk Oil dealer - Walthers McGRaw Oil kit. Pretty much complete, just needs decals and weathering. I did quite a bit of painting on this one, the bottom quarter of each tank and the roofs and loading platforms were all painted black. I then used an acrylic wash to get mortar between the bricks using a technique from a Jeff WIlson book and finally brush painted the piping silver. I'm very happy with the results on this one.

View attachment 15376

Kit - bashed this backdrop flat from a bunch of leftover parts from Walthers kits. I painted the doors brown and used the same brown to paint angled Evergreen styrene and used that as a border. I like how it turned out. Still needs decals and weathering.

View attachment 15377
 
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