Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Ok! Lets try this again.
After many months of negotiating, (begging and pleading that is,) the CFO of the railroad has granted me rights to the garage part of our basement for the layout. Overall size of the area I could use is 23x28ft. But due to needing access along the walls and such for maintanence and access from the driveway/backyard, I have developed a plan that is 17x23ft overall. There is access aisles of 3ft on each side except the top above Selma where there is a five foot aisle and part of that has my worktable in it. I am using a refinement of a plan that I have been working on for several years while waiting to start the layout. This will be number eight in a series of layouts starting way back in 1974. This is also the longest I have gone without one. The plan can be run as a point to point, point to loop, or loop to loop, where the loops are the staging yards. The operations will be governed by a windows based program of waybill generation, custom written by a friend of mine several years ago. These plans were drawn using Xtrkcad, a free download from sillub software at; http://www.sillub.com
I will explain each level in turn. The attached plans are in order of the discussion.
I have based this layout on a prototype RR, the Alabama Central that actually was based just northwest of Jasper, Al. until the mid 1930's. Jasper is also just northwest of Birmingham, Al. The prototype died during the depression era when the coal seam that was its only source of revenue played out. When the mines near Parrish closed so did the railroad.
However in my world the RR found new sources of revenue and expanded into a regional power. They expanded in all directions but set up main HQ in Selma, Al. my hometown. All names of the towns are real places in central Al. where I grew up and still live today.
The lowest levels are the two staging yards that make up the Browns staging and the Prattville staging. Browns handles traffic to the south, while Prattville handles traffic to the north. Browns also serves as the origination point for the GM&O interchange train that runs into Burnsville and Selma. Except for a short section over a creek, the entire Browns/Prattville area is hidden. All turnouts are accessible from the sides and there is enough vertical difference in the levels to allow for soldering irons, needlenoses etc. for any trackwork needed after the sections are covered. These will be the majority of the remote controlled turnouts on the layout.
The next level is the Selma division, which is the main level. There are several small communities along the mainline and I have taken the "liberty" of moving part of the Alabama River about five miles north of is current course between Selma and Montgomery, to allow for a barge dump for output from the mine. This is located in Fulton, which also got moved a little. The main yard is located in Selma, along with facilities for the care and feeding of steam locos. Occasional diesels come on the property via the GM&O and SRR but there are no facilities for them. The Alabama Central is a steam powered road. Burnsville is actually a junction between the lines from the staging yards, the branchline to Maplesville and the "run & hide" track for the Crescent Limited. The Crescent is a daily train that comes into Selma, gets serviced, the diner and RPO gets exchanged and the observation car gets turned. The train then pulls out in the opposite direction from how it came in and dives back into the hidden track for it until the next run where the process is repeated. Burnsville also has minor facilities for locos and a small engine house. Small locos no bigger than 2-8-0's are allowed up the branchline. Burnsville will be a very busy place as its also the location of the L&N interchange which takes cars eastward. The two Black circles located in the plans are the basement columns for this part of the basement. The entrance to the layout is a pivoting section on heavy casters attached to main benchwork by heavy duty hinges. It will swing out to allow entry, with just a minor duckunder. The track for Maplesville is almost 5ft off the floor here.
Jones is located on the branchline and is the site of the mine. I used a nolix to make the climb up to Jones from Burnsville. I tried designing in a helix but the grade would have been worse. I also wanted to have more of the nolix exposed but due to the location of the mine, Jones and the Mill villiage that is Jones proper, I found I had to cover it. I may change it at a later date, and play with the plan to see what I come up with scenically. This area is heavily forrested. The name of the mine comes from a small area just south of Plantersville that not only had some coal but was also the site of a small POW camp during the minor dissagreement of the 1860's. Just out from Jones is Mulberry where more industry is located, which brings us to Planterville. When planning a layout I use not only a trackplanning form for focus but any pieces parts from "commercial" trackplans from magazines, layout books and the like. Plantersville is a variation on a plan designed by Linn Westcott many years ago for a small switching layout. My version is slightly bigger. Since this area of the state is heavily forrested, except for the industrial areas and the townsites, scenery is mostly trees.
After leaving Plantersville we come to Stanton. A small community where the Frisco interchanges with the AC. The Frisco helps forward traffic to and from the west. The last section will be located above Jones and represents the end of the Railroad in the small town of Maplesville. There is a small turntable here for turning the 2-8-0's, & 4-6-0's that will make the branch their home. Maplesville is not really separate from the Jones sub, its just eaiser to see the plan, since its located directly above Jones along the outer wall.
I hope I haven't bored you with this long dissertation and explantion. I hope you enjoyed it.
After many months of negotiating, (begging and pleading that is,) the CFO of the railroad has granted me rights to the garage part of our basement for the layout. Overall size of the area I could use is 23x28ft. But due to needing access along the walls and such for maintanence and access from the driveway/backyard, I have developed a plan that is 17x23ft overall. There is access aisles of 3ft on each side except the top above Selma where there is a five foot aisle and part of that has my worktable in it. I am using a refinement of a plan that I have been working on for several years while waiting to start the layout. This will be number eight in a series of layouts starting way back in 1974. This is also the longest I have gone without one. The plan can be run as a point to point, point to loop, or loop to loop, where the loops are the staging yards. The operations will be governed by a windows based program of waybill generation, custom written by a friend of mine several years ago. These plans were drawn using Xtrkcad, a free download from sillub software at; http://www.sillub.com
I will explain each level in turn. The attached plans are in order of the discussion.
I have based this layout on a prototype RR, the Alabama Central that actually was based just northwest of Jasper, Al. until the mid 1930's. Jasper is also just northwest of Birmingham, Al. The prototype died during the depression era when the coal seam that was its only source of revenue played out. When the mines near Parrish closed so did the railroad.
However in my world the RR found new sources of revenue and expanded into a regional power. They expanded in all directions but set up main HQ in Selma, Al. my hometown. All names of the towns are real places in central Al. where I grew up and still live today.
The lowest levels are the two staging yards that make up the Browns staging and the Prattville staging. Browns handles traffic to the south, while Prattville handles traffic to the north. Browns also serves as the origination point for the GM&O interchange train that runs into Burnsville and Selma. Except for a short section over a creek, the entire Browns/Prattville area is hidden. All turnouts are accessible from the sides and there is enough vertical difference in the levels to allow for soldering irons, needlenoses etc. for any trackwork needed after the sections are covered. These will be the majority of the remote controlled turnouts on the layout.
The next level is the Selma division, which is the main level. There are several small communities along the mainline and I have taken the "liberty" of moving part of the Alabama River about five miles north of is current course between Selma and Montgomery, to allow for a barge dump for output from the mine. This is located in Fulton, which also got moved a little. The main yard is located in Selma, along with facilities for the care and feeding of steam locos. Occasional diesels come on the property via the GM&O and SRR but there are no facilities for them. The Alabama Central is a steam powered road. Burnsville is actually a junction between the lines from the staging yards, the branchline to Maplesville and the "run & hide" track for the Crescent Limited. The Crescent is a daily train that comes into Selma, gets serviced, the diner and RPO gets exchanged and the observation car gets turned. The train then pulls out in the opposite direction from how it came in and dives back into the hidden track for it until the next run where the process is repeated. Burnsville also has minor facilities for locos and a small engine house. Small locos no bigger than 2-8-0's are allowed up the branchline. Burnsville will be a very busy place as its also the location of the L&N interchange which takes cars eastward. The two Black circles located in the plans are the basement columns for this part of the basement. The entrance to the layout is a pivoting section on heavy casters attached to main benchwork by heavy duty hinges. It will swing out to allow entry, with just a minor duckunder. The track for Maplesville is almost 5ft off the floor here.
Jones is located on the branchline and is the site of the mine. I used a nolix to make the climb up to Jones from Burnsville. I tried designing in a helix but the grade would have been worse. I also wanted to have more of the nolix exposed but due to the location of the mine, Jones and the Mill villiage that is Jones proper, I found I had to cover it. I may change it at a later date, and play with the plan to see what I come up with scenically. This area is heavily forrested. The name of the mine comes from a small area just south of Plantersville that not only had some coal but was also the site of a small POW camp during the minor dissagreement of the 1860's. Just out from Jones is Mulberry where more industry is located, which brings us to Planterville. When planning a layout I use not only a trackplanning form for focus but any pieces parts from "commercial" trackplans from magazines, layout books and the like. Plantersville is a variation on a plan designed by Linn Westcott many years ago for a small switching layout. My version is slightly bigger. Since this area of the state is heavily forrested, except for the industrial areas and the townsites, scenery is mostly trees.
After leaving Plantersville we come to Stanton. A small community where the Frisco interchanges with the AC. The Frisco helps forward traffic to and from the west. The last section will be located above Jones and represents the end of the Railroad in the small town of Maplesville. There is a small turntable here for turning the 2-8-0's, & 4-6-0's that will make the branch their home. Maplesville is not really separate from the Jones sub, its just eaiser to see the plan, since its located directly above Jones along the outer wall.
I hope I haven't bored you with this long dissertation and explantion. I hope you enjoyed it.
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