Rock Ridge and Train Caity II--Version 20


SpaceMouse

SpaceMouse

Fun Lover
Hi Guys,

I thought I had settled on a plan, although I never quite was happy with it. Anyway, this is where we left it.

RockRidge19f.jpg


I had two problems with it. The operators space was small and there was a lot to do in that area. Maybe 3 people would have shared the area. Also, when leaving Rock Ridge, you go down into a tunnel to get over the mountains to Virginia City which is up.

The limiting factor is I was trying to save Tater Mountain from the original Rock Ridge and Train City.

Rock Ridge and Train City II--Revision 20

You can't tell from the drawing, but this is a very vertical layout. It climbs 20" from point B to point C. There are high canyon walls and tall trees 18-30". There are lots of trestles. Except for the passing sidings/runarounds/ A/D tracks which are flat, mainline grade is 2%. The long logging switchbacks are 4%.

rockridge20a.jpg


Detail

rockridge20b.jpg


There is not nearly as much switching in Version 20 as there was in Version 19, but there are more varied types of trains. A person bringing down logs will not interfere with a person switching Rock Ridge who will not interfere with the person working Train City Yard and Industries.

Version 19 was mostly town, Version 20 will tall trees on every wall. This fits my dream of a tall trees/small steam layout, where Version 19 only hinted at it.

A stream runs along in front of the lower track from B to Train City. Water shed from Rock Ridge flows under the track and along the front track to the canyon where it drops into the creek by the lower track.

There is a long tunnel from lower left to upper right A to A, basically from Train City to Rock Ridge.

Problems: There are several reach issues. In the Rock Ridge corner, there is the town, which once built may need occasional dusting. In the canyon corner, where the logging line goes to staging, the track can be cleaned/cleared from the staging side.

But there are turnouts at D that are 33" from the edge of the table. They are key, and will have to be worked via remote. Service will have to be done via a hanging platform like that in MicroMark--which I'll need anyway to work around the tall trees.

The mainline has a minimum 22" radius turns and #5 turnouts. The sidings have #4s. There are several places where turn radii get to 12" but they are logging runs with geared steam. The lumber mill also has tight turns, but the switcher is a Heisler that Randell "Rock" Ridge bought, found out it couldn't haul the timber loads he expected, and was relegated to switching when he couldn't sell it.

Power is small steam. 2-8-0, 2-6-2, 4-4-0, 4-6-0, etc. and geared. Rolling stock mostly 36' old time, log cars, and wooden ore gondolas. The gondolas will get use in many functions.

The railroad is still the 4R (Rock Ridge Railroad) but it no longer leases trackage rights from the SP.

This is a "first draft" of the new concept. I expect a lot of constructive criticism from you guys.
 
Chip--

Whoa, you really DID inherit a basement, didn't you, LOL? Looks good. Just curious, or maybe I missed it--it's HO, right? Reason I asked, is that I remember you talking about N in some of your other posts. I know you'll probably have geared steam on your logging branch, but is the mainline going to be steam or diesel?

Nice layout plan. It'll be interesting to see the progress.

Tom :D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
TWhite said:
Chip--

Whoa, you really DID inherit a basement, didn't you, LOL? Looks good. Just curious, or maybe I missed it--it's HO, right? Reason I asked, is that I remember you talking about N in some of your other posts. I know you'll probably have geared steam on your logging branch, but is the mainline going to be steam or diesel?

Nice layout plan. It'll be interesting to see the progress.

Tom :D
Click to expand...

My voyage into N-scale is to put a loop in my office.

The layout is set in 1909 so it will be small steam.
 
Here is version 21. You'll see most of the problems brought up by you guys are gone--with the
exception of the long tunnel. Everything is smoother in the cities. I lost a classification track and the last
one is smallish.

Problems: Have to switchback to get to the caboose track beneath the turntable in Train City.
Engine services is also tight in Train City.

Note: The pipe in Rock Ridge is actually round and slants. It is not as close to the track as it looks.

Rockridge21a.jpg
 
Looks good Chip. I can see one problem. The long industry tracks just above the stock yard, and no real run off room opposite the switch to get to them. You'll need an empty industry to switch those two down there.
 
Thanks Josh,

I was beginning to think this was more of a blog...

You are right, the team track/freight house needs to be empty to switch the brewery.

I made a couple more refinements. I gave the sawmill/lumber yard an extra two city blocks. It is still a small operation, but on a layout
I still wanted it to look pretty big.

I also combined the yard ladder with the runaround. This gives me an extra food on each yard track. Makes it almost useful. I also added
back the double slip so that the track to the sawmill can double as the yard lead. It was a win-win move.

Now if I can only figure out how to get some of the run from Train City to Rock Ridge exposed without crowding the
scene with too many tracks.

rockridge21c.jpg
 
I kind of hate to throw this in here but I've never seen a stockyard with one track. There's always one for loads and one for empties. I'm not sure how you squeeze another track in here but you have a lot of switching moves to get loads and empties back to the yard unless you add anther track.
 
UP2CSX said:
I kind of hate to throw this in here but I've never seen a stockyard with one track. There's always one for loads and one for empties. I'm not sure how you squeeze another track in here but you have a lot of switching moves to get loads and empties back to the yard unless you add anther track.
Click to expand...

It's not that kind of stock yard. It's a holding area for cross country shipments. They are required to get a rest from travel every 20 hours or so. So the empty would sit with the cattle while they eat, etc.

Now there is one smallish ranch, but they only ship a couple times a year.

The triangle shaped pen is for horses used for delivering the beer.
 
SpaceMouse said:
It's not that kind of stock yard. It's a holding area for cross country shipments. They are required to get a rest from travel every 20 hours or so. So the empty would sit with the cattle while they eat, etc.
Click to expand...

Ah, I get it now. Those are technically resting pens so the stockyard designation confused me. Another little niggle though. Most railroads didn't use stub end sidings for this because it required too many moves. We had two of these pens near my home in Ohio and they were served by a double ended siding. The train pulled in, the drovers unloaded the stock from one car to one pen, pulled forward and unloaded the next car, and continued until all the cars were empty. The engine was usually serviced or changed and the stock cars would be cleaned out and new bedding, food and water was added. Your siding would require that the drover's caboose be cut off first or there woudn't be enough room for even one stock car at the pen. I don't kow if you're having trains that only have one or two stock cars in the consist or you'd run solid blocks. If it's more than one or two, I'd try to make that siding double ended.
 
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