Snowy Soo

Winter Railroading.

Thursday 28 March 2013

Tentative track plan!


This plan was done in PowerPoint, which caused me to struggle a bit with the line curvatures. I realize some of those turnout shapes are screwy!


Greetings, 

Posted above is a tentative track plan. I don't have PhotoShop on my new computer and the old computer has all but died, so following the lead of Don Carman of the Conral Hagerstown Division, I did the track plan in PowerPoint, which worked not too badly. 

Some notes about this track plan:

  • It isn't to scale. The proportions are approximate but I have done a test fit of the track sections on the layout itself and everything will fit roughly as shown here. 
  • I realize the geometry of the curves isn't accurate. Particularly with the turnouts. I struggled with the  curved line function in PowerPoint. For this reason consider this as a rough-in plan, or more like a schematic.  
  • It strays from the prototype. This is done for many reasons. For example, I added the fictional Monarch Auto Parts because I wanted an industry that required boxcars. The real area I'm modelling has no such industry. 
  • The three-track staging yard is removable. The three tracks will be on a cassette that sits on top of the workbench, which is four inches below the layout height. That way if I need the workbench space for one of my woodworking projects, I can detach the staging yard and move it under the workbench. It will connect to the rest of the layout with a short piece of sectional track, in the same manner that modular layout sections are connected. I may knock the yard down to two tracks if three seems to take over too much of the space. I've heard many modellers say you can never have too much staging, so that's why I went with three long tracks. They will represent locations off the layout.
  • I may still add Polytainers. CP's map of industries along the spur is here. You can see I left a few out but I may add Polytainers to the open space on the west wall. I was worried the track plan was getting too crammed. Polytainers takes covered hoppers filled with plastic pellets, as does Korex.
  • Final note. I forgot to label it as such but the area near the yard office is a greatly chopped down version of CP's Lambton Yard, which runs (roughly) between Jane Street and Keele Streets. 
Next I'm adding the backdrop and laying track. I'd love to hear your input!

2 comments:

  1. Interesting. I think I'd stick closer to the prototype with all the spurs facing the same direction. You might try downloading AnyRail for designing the plan.

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