Pinellas Park

Welcome to my latest venture: Pinellas Park, Fla.  This is a proto-freelanced switching layout based on what little I know of the CSX Clearwater Subdivision.

Pinellas Park is a real area between Clearwater and Largo (to the northwest) and St. Petersburg (to the southeast).  The CSX Clearwater Sub actually runs southeast along the western edge of the Pinellas Park boundary, where there are two spurs remaining albeit I do not know how active they are.  These are A&M Supply and Contech Engineering.  I am still finalising all of the industry types/names but one of the features is a transflo facility that is represented at the front, right side of the layout by two spurs adjacent to the main/loop.  This will allow me to run a good variety of freight cars using this area as an excuse to change things up and keep it fresh from time-to-time.

It is my intention to model a prototype based spur covering several customers in an imaginary industrial estate branching off of the main line.  I will be using local industry names to create a sense of the real location but the track plan has been designed to fit the available space, which, is only 8'x4'9" L-shape.  This will be set in the late 90's, a period when CSX still numbered some predecessor paint schemes and patch jobs and also happily coincides with a brief period when I lived just North of here between 96'-97'.  Rolling stock will be representative of the CSX roster at the time, with a GP30, GP38-2 and a SW1500 on the way.  I will of course model a slug set using a GP30 or 35 donor loco when one can be found.

The baseboards currently in use are the poor remains of a previous layout attempt, however, these will be replaced in the near future and at the moment I am proving the concept, testing the track plan and operations before I finalise the idea.  The thought is that the new baseboards will be built in such a way as to facilitate relocation and assembly when we eventually move house, so these will be built to an almost modular style, however, there is a second phase to this layout that would make it a U-shape.  This second phase will be contemplated once the concept has been proven further and a satisfactory plan put together and will also be built to facilitate relocation and possible re-arranging of the boards to fit a new space if necessary.

The attached photos show progress so far, tomorrow I will join all the track up using rail joiners, before wiring and testing with a CF7 that is temporarily resident until my new stock arrives.