Philly & Scranton HO Trackplan

[Motley]

I'll second Jim's opinion. Much much better plan. That is going to be one awesome layout. I like long running mainlines myself.

You said you're already building the staging area. That's great.

When do you plan on start building the benchwork?

Will you post photos of your benchwork construction? It would be of help to alot of forum members.

This is an ambitious project that you are about to embark on, and I am sure everyone would love to see it develop into the great model rr it has the potential to be.

[otiscnj]

Jim, Motley, SP,

Thanks for your opinions. Per one of my earlier posts, as I'm currently 49, having just moved into our house, and getting married in about 2 weeks, the Philly & Scranton represents the culmination of many years personal lessons learned, advice, etc based on the similar experiences and such, of others, in terms of my interests/experiences/desires for maximum satisfaction from the hobby... I'd like to be able to have a balance between realistic scenery, that people familiar with a given location will be able to recognize, + not have to excessively reduce train length, given the number of places that have [my] highest level of interest, from an operational and scenic standpoint. I can live with the compromise of 'shorty' passenger cars, and earlier(ie longer serving) freight equipment, to maintain my other modeling desires.

In the past, I've either rushed things, ignoring some of the basics-with consequences, or not had a clear focus on what I was trying to model/achieve, resulting in continual building/rebuilding/refocusing, etc, efforts. Given these experiences, and the fact I'm not getting any younger, and the likely time/resources required, I'd like to take my time, this time, and do things right, from the start, so that the satisfaction will be there throughout the process, and in the end. Kind of like what that guy said in the Fram filter commercial in the 70's, 'you can pay me now, or pay me later.' (or put another way perhaps, 'know your audience,' and 'doing your homework, pays dividends, later.')

FWIW, I'm still not completely satisfied with the transition 'Tamaqua-ese' section of the RDG-Hazelton level of the plans, nor the D&H/O&W/NYS&W loop near Scranton/helix 1 area. As such, I'm thinking that I will continue to 'muddle thru,' and look to improve these areas.

At present, I have taken a few photos of a portion of the Philly peninsula, where the lower level will be for staging, however due to hardware/software/time issues haven't been able to post them yet. If at all posssible, I'm hoping to have at least 1-2 posted in the next week, or maybe 2.

Thanks for the coments & have a great weekend!!

Carl
aka Otiscnj

[otiscnj]

Operationally, there will be a focus on the following area:

1a.High speed, or limited stop, intercity passenger service, as a portion of the NEC.
1b.Haulage of anthracite and soft coal from, on-line and offline sources, collected, blocked, and dispatched at/to/from a small number of major unit train origins and destinations, thru operation of typical 1970-2000 style unit train operating principles.

2b.Local freight operations/coal collection runs in a few, but well modeled, prototypical locations.
2a.Some inclusion of commuter and bridge traffic, as I have a fondness for Silverliner II's and III's, + TOFC/COFC/stack trains, + perishable traffic, and other types of traffic suitable for such a prototype. Given the layout will have compressed yard space, and my in interest in 'block swapping' types of yard/freight traffic/operation, to achieve a suitable balance with both #1's above.

Rationale to operate 'fallen flag/freelance' and other foreign power, given my ecletic collection of motive power and equipment. Over time I will not be surprised if I thin my collection, or shift its focus, more along the lines of the modeled concept.

Probably employ a car-card, or tab/switchlist type of operation, when a op session occurs. At other times, I'd like to be able to just 'watch a train go around,' or operate 'solitaire', or such, given the design and size of the layout.

I'll also be happy if I can build the layout in such a way(probably in sections) such that I can operate/run trains, long before penisula/level/main track/siding/yard track is down-wired-ballasted-complete. I've been without a layout, more or less since late 2007, early 2008, in any serious sense. If its a piece of rolling stock, or a locomotive/engine, I bought over 99% of them to be 'runners,' not dust collectors. Also want to be able to move/recycle some or all of it, if I/we have to move, or downsize eventually, due to work/enconomy, and/or retirement.

[otiscnj]

Below is a photo of a portion of my staging yard. It will be connected to the main level by a 26-28" radius helix. Track lengths will range from about 6-15'. Photo shows a section of the staging yard, that contains 9-15' double ended staging tracks. The Philly freight yard (Port Richmond/Eastside) 8" directly above this.

In your experiences, is 8" an acceptable height for a below grade staging yard? Or could you get away with 6" of clearance?

[otiscnj]

It depends how deep it is, + whether it's accessible from both sides. I found 8" for a 2' wide staging yard, works for me. Previously, I used 6" clearance for a 1' wide staging yard. If I had access on both sides, 6" might be good enough, based on my experience.

Ideally, I'd have 'open staging,' but I haven't been able to figure out a way to do that yet, within the defined space I have, And keeping the scenic locations I want to model.

[otiscnj]

Happy New Year!

Spent some time in the basement over the last week +, and have been continuing to revise my design. My concern with previous designs mainly has been how long its going to take me to build what I've created in the CAD program I'm using, + maintaining 'decent' prototype fidelity.

Hope to post the revised track plan shortly, + some photos of my 'HO scale mock up of the Schuykill Haven, Port Clinton, and Scranton areas, in the next couple of days...

Stay tuned.

[otiscnj]

Here's the latest design for the Philadelphia & Scranton. I'm sinking the time into the design, because I don't want to be constantly rebuilding due to a bad initial plan.

Latest version is simpler in some regards. The plan is to build in the capacity to add an additional 2 levels on the Reading peninsula portion, to represent Fleetwood, and other portions of the East Penn, as well as the Bethlehem Union Station and Flourence or Atown yard(very scaled down version-open staging).

The current plan includes the proper dimension of the basement, with an additional portion of the basement allocated to the RR. This adds some flexibility to the plan.

I could use some ideas/comments/suggestions regarding the Hazelton and Wilkes-Barre portions of the layout. Ailse space is very [too] narrow in these areas, and I've tried to keep the min radius to 26". I want/expect to run trains in the 12-15' range, + shorter passenger trains. Tight curves will consequently be an issue. I'd like to avoid the use of multiple decks, or having tracks out of reach from aisles. Duck unders and gates/liftouts I'm also trying to avoid, as my experience is that they are problems, longer term.

Staging under Philly, and the Philly peninsula in general stays about the same, except for some lengthing, to allow perhaps more of a cityscape.

Thanks in advance for any ideas/comments/suggestions you may have. I've mocked up the Schuylkill Haven/Port Clinton area 1:1 for the model, and hope to post photos soon. Some locations have been mirrored/flipped/etc, to facilitate including that location on the layout.

Right photo is blurry/dark mock up a Port Clinton(ignore the enginehouse-that won't be there). Left photo is a mock up of Scranton. Engine facilities will be located near Tower 60(concrete in photo-to be replaced later).

Otis

[otiscnj]

A lot of stuff has been going on over the last several months, besides model railroading. I have continued to revise my designs, taking into account accumulated experiences with building previous layouts, etc.

1st photo: North end of Reading, where passenger and freight lines, join.
2nd photo: Schuykill Haven on left, Port Clinton on right.
3rd Photo: Tower 60 in front of box in distance. Taylor/Dunsmore, and the CNJ back track in foreground.