As yet unnamed HO Gauge American/Canadian Layout

[brynna79]

Hi, 

I have just recently made a start on building the baseboards for a corner of the spare room that has some space.  Progress is somewhat slow with other parts of life being busy, but i managed to get two baseboard built and on the wall last week.  The layout is to comprise of 5 boards in a right hand L-shape, with a total length of 3.18m x 3.10m and board width of 610mm.  A copy of the board plan is shown below.  A small issue is that my measuring was a bit out and the length of board 3 is more like 0.81m rather than the 0.7 shown.  Obviously this needs to be the former so that the wall supports can be used.  I will have to try and use one of the spare pieces i have to make a bigger length.  

 

20220412_143725 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

First two boards in place - the under area is likely to be used to store our daughters toys and other undesirables in the future, which is why i ended up going for 1.1m height on the layout, the other reason being my 6'5" height and helping in that regard. 

 

20220714_191518 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

Underside of first two boards.  Boards are supported by a wall brace, with a sole leg per board being sufficient to carry the weight at the front. 

 

20220714_191531 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

Close up of the wall brace. 

 

20220714_191524 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

Next is to work on the remaining boards, this may take a few weeks and to start considering what industries i would like to see. 

 

Theme is north East States/Canada, with the majority of rolling stock I have acquired being Norfolk Southern Canadian National and CSX.  There is a pair of Vermont Railway locos on the roster as well, I am have thoughts of splitting between the Class 1's that i have and then having an connection to the VR line.  I have a big love of Canadian Railways, but managed to secure a good few NS locos recently.  I may switch these at some point as the layout develops.  All this while trying to keep the track plan simple as possible.  I have a around 10 turnouts for use, so will go with a much easier layout in that regard.  I think my intention is to have a grain feature at one end and then a mill at the other, with the in between curve made up of a few buildings etc...  I will try and hide some sidings to rear of each area.  Time will tell if I am trying to hard to fit stuff in. 

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by brynna79
spelling

[mdvle]

So for some of us that is about a 10' x 10' L shape layout with a width of about 2' - so a very good size for a layout and it will be interesting to see what you create.

 

Some random thoughts.

 

• perhaps a 3rd party diesel repair/overhaul facility - a potential excuse for your Vermont locos (and any other that catch your eye in the future)
• an interchange layout in a small town (or the outskirts of said town), and given the generic (as in nothing necessarily unique to a given railroad) nature of modern railroading you could alternative locos depending on your mood - interchange between CN and NS, or interchange Vermont and CN, etc.
• dedicate the layout to a single railroad and simply switch the industries, and vary which railroad serves the industries depending on your mood.
• have a track that "exits" the layout off the front where you can connect a cassette type system to hold your locos between sessions (so you don't need to handle them if switching between CN/NS/etc)
• of course the nature of modern railroading is that whichever railroad you are operating may have leased/borrowed a loco or 2 from another railroad so you can run with mixed loco consists - this is more likely between class I's or a short line may "borrow" a class I loco but it is unlikely you would see a class I using a shortline loco.
• don't forget a simple transload facility, for maybe plastic pellets for example, which just needs to be a track with a driveway next to it and perhaps some pipes/pumps on the ground - ideal for the front of the layout.

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by mdvle

[Traintresta]

I would agree that a transload facility is a great idea because of its versatility, and a ‘outside world connection’ is in my experience a must to help it feel like it’s got a reason, traffic comes and goes to and from somewhere else.  The cassette idea could be useful. 

[Regularity]

Not sure how much run-through power appears on VRS, but that’s always an option.

[brynna79]

On 18/07/2022 at 17:07, mdvle said:

So for some of us that is about a 10' x 10' L shape layout with a width of about 2' - so a very good size for a layout and it will be interesting to see what you create.

 

Some random thoughts.

 

• perhaps a 3rd party diesel repair/overhaul facility - a potential excuse for your Vermont locos (and any other that catch your eye in the future)
• an interchange layout in a small town (or the outskirts of said town), and given the generic (as in nothing necessarily unique to a given railroad) nature of modern railroading you could alternative locos depending on your mood - interchange between CN and NS, or interchange Vermont and CN, etc.
• dedicate the layout to a single railroad and simply switch the industries, and vary which railroad serves the industries depending on your mood.
• have a track that "exits" the layout off the front where you can connect a cassette type system to hold your locos between sessions (so you don't need to handle them if switching between CN/NS/etc)
• of course the nature of modern railroading is that whichever railroad you are operating may have leased/borrowed a loco or 2 from another railroad so you can run with mixed loco consists - this is more likely between class I's or a short line may "borrow" a class I loco but it is unlikely you would see a class I using a shortline loco.
• don't forget a simple transload facility, for maybe plastic pellets for example, which just needs to be a track with a driveway next to it and perhaps some pipes/pumps on the ground - ideal for the front of the layout.

 

Thanks for some very useful points. Correct it is a 10ft L-shape

 

I have a few kits that can be bashed into a repair/overhaul facility and as you have suggested this gives the ability to have guest locos around.  The interchange sounds good, i just need to figure out how to get that to fit in the scale I have - it may be that i concentrate on three main areas and then look to build a modular layout for other ideas at another point.   I definitely like the cassette idea and this works well as it would sit behind where the desk i use as my office is, while allowing access to the full layout still.  

 

I just wanted a bit of variety on the layout and really wanted a short line involved as well - FEC stuff is rare as hen's teeth (so is VR as well), but NE States is much more industrial and allows for a bit more diverse modelling than the flats of Florida... 

 

In my head i will be using the Rolling Mill for one end of the layout and then a grain facility at the other end.  I may run out of space with this, but the cassette idea really helps with the storage issues that may prevent a bit more detail. I alos want to make sure that less is more is adopted as well.... 

 

This is the rolling mill to fit one end - it is a big kit at 36", but I feel it will be a real eye opener and centerpiece for the layout, especially with its height. 

 

20220719_100822 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

I recently brought a chunk of supplies from Model Junction from the closing down sale pile they have. Most were 50% or less, so some will end up in the stash for another day - might be worth others taking a look. 

 

20220718_155835 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

Cheers

Edited July 20, 2022 by brynna79
Added pics

[brynna79]

21 hours ago, Regularity said:

Not sure how much run-through power appears on VRS, but that’s always an option.

I've seen some YouTube videos of CP and NS running through, but nothing significant.  More research is needed.  Hence why i was thinking of a small branch with a small industry for a part of the layout and a change over to mix up when i feel like it! 

[brynna79]

As mentioned above, I recently purchased a pair of Athearn Genesis SD70M-2 for the layout.  These being units 431 and 432 that have been with Vermont Railway since 2016.  I wanted to have some short line action on the layout and these to me were perfect as they were larger traction being used on a short line in what i consider to be a very scenic part of the world, while being close enough to model other Class 1 lines that i have a affinity for, including CN, CP, NS and CSX.  These came DCC Ready and i had a pair of Loksound chips spare (1x v4 and 1x v5) that seemed perfect for re-blowing with sound files from ESU.  This appealed to me further as aside form the ScaleTrains units I have (which are all GE), all other are Tsunami sound files and I wanted to see what EMD sounded like with the free to download files.  Said locos below - i really do like the red livery of these units and they do suit the EMD well. 

 

20220720_133014 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

The bigger issue with this was what speakers would be best suited to the unit, given the lack of space present in modern RTR locos.  Looking at pics available of the DCC Sound Fitted units, it appears that Tsunami provided a sugacube speaker housed in a premade housing from Athearn.  However, unlike ScaleTrains, this was not present with the Athearn unit.  Total space available was at the rear of the loco beneath the cooling area and was very limited.  At best a pair of sugacube speakers would fit this area, but would struggle with the housing to make them sound better.  I had a chat with Richard at Road and Rails and he suggested using a 26x14x7 speaker which was bass enhanced (https://www.roads-and-rails.co.uk/collections/4-ohm-speakers/products/26x14x7-bass-enhanced-dcc-sound-speaker-4-ohm) and a pair of these (one for each loco) was duly ordered.  

 

The 26x14x7 Bass Enhanced Speaker

20220718_092157 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

Limited Space in the cooler group housing

20220718_092803 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

Final positioning of the speaker - lets hope the contact pins remain reliable over the service life. 

20220718_092419 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

Completed installation of 432 prior to reattaching the shell. 

20220718_092750 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr

 

I must admit that i was really impressed with the performance of these speakers for the price and size of them and they handled the sound range really well.  I may now look to start replacing a number of my other ESU Sugacube speakers as a single one of these as far as I am concerned is markedly better than a pair of Sugacube speakers fitted as a pair.  I'll try and get a video for comparison against one of the other Soundtraxx EMD's that I have, but other than a number of CV tweaks, i am really impressed with the free sound file ESU have made available for these units when comparing to the Soundtraxx version as well especially now there is no need to replace the Athearn board to achieve this. 

 

Cheers

Edited July 20, 2022 by brynna79

[mdvle]

2 hours ago, brynna79 said:

The interchange sounds good, i just need to figure out how to get that to fit in the scale I have

 

An interchange doesn't need to be either big or fancy.  The recently shut down shortline where I am interchanged with CP and the interchange was simply a short siding where the freight cars could be dropped off/picked up from.

 

So for your shelf layout railroad A could enter the layout, drop off some cars, maybe pick up a couple, and leave and then railroad B could switch those cars.

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

5 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

An interchange doesn't need to be either big or fancy.  The recently shut down shortline where I am interchanged with CP and the interchange was simply a short siding where the freight cars could be dropped off/picked up from.

Here's a favourite YouTube video of mine, shows exactly that - CP Rail & Progressive Rail swap trains using a single spur.

 

"Less is more" - absolutely!! It just takes a leap of faith to put it into practice when it comes to layout planning. 😉