Personally,I don't have a problem with the open staging concept; however, I am in the process of re-designing the staging yards. There will be a backdrop between the two staging yards so that when you walk into the room you are only going to see half of the layout. It is not until you walk around the peninsula that one realizes there is more to the layout than meets the eye.
Cool revision. I agree this has alot more to do so your enjoyment will be more. Lookin forward to your next revision. I always find it neat to see how others attack a problem. Makes me glad to have the experience here to draw from as I complete my plan.
New Starting Point Okay, I must confess that I was not totally satisfied with some aspects of the previous plans. Since then I have played around with different configurations of bench work and track layout. I have flipped plans, looked at smaller configurations, etc. I am happy with the new starting point pictured below. Some key points: Hidden staging and view block: Not sure what I am going to use as a view block. The logical choice would be a tunnel with removable top but there are no tunnels on the SLWC. I am thinking since we have the Wichita Mountain range, I might simulate that. Positioning that feature would not be totally accurate with the where the line runs, but all I am trying to achieve is capturing the flavor of the SLWC. Sapulpa: Paragon Industries (pipe manufacturing) will be represented. Oklahoma City: With previous versions the most I could fit for the Greenhill Materials rock unit train was 10 hoppers. As previously stated, this unit train is 50-60 cars in real life and delivers to OKC and returns to Owasso through Tulsa. I have incorporated a reversing loop for this purpose (might as well use the auto reverser I already have) and now will be able to handle more than the 10 hoppers for the unit train plus making it easier to deliver to OKC and return to Tulsa without having to unrealistically travel around the layout or make other switching moves. Lawton/Ft. Sill: The grain elevator and bulk oil transload services will remain. Snyder: The end of the line. Not sure what industries I will model for Snyder. I will take a trip there and see what I can fit in. To Altus: What I plan for this section of track is not prototypical, but I want to represent trackage rights to Altus and a possible means of expansion. The track will rise here and pass across a plate girder bridge, allowing trains to pass underneath. I think I will have enough room for this but I will play with this aspect as track laying progresses; it might change. The new starting point:
Looks really good. With the reverse loop will you be able to set up a "empties in/ loads out" system by going opposite directions through the loop?
The way the Greenhill Materials unit train operates (utilizes rapid discharge hoppers) is it leaves the quarry and travels to OKC and passes over a pit and unloads and travels back to Owasso through Tulsa. In OKC at Oklahoma Construction Materials, they utilize a conveyor to load the rock from the pit into trucks for delivery or staging various piles in their yard. I'll have a unit train ready in the staging yard to simulate coming from Owasso and going to OKC and then just rotate them. In real life they only do this twice a week.
At Snyder, you have some grain elevators as well as interchange with Grainbelt's ex-Frisco line out of Enid. And of course, BNSF continiues on thry Altus to Quanaih. Would be a nice place to have, say, a BNSF power consist rolling thru up from Quanah to OKC.
It's funny that you say that about Snyder because that's what I had planned. I sent an e-mail to the GM of SLWC outlining what I was going to model and some specific questions. He replied with answers out to the side of my original questions and when it came to Snyder and my questions of operations there about grain facilities, his answer was a "no" with no other comment. Go figure!
IIRC, those elevators are west of the crossing diamond in Snyder, which is off of SLWC track. However, we as model railroaders can alter certain things in the Real World, and use modeler's license to make things happen that you wouldn't see otherwise. In this case, have SLWC serve those elevators. Hey, who's to say BNSF may NOT let SLWC have the whole shebang into Quanah in the future? Now, if you can find an N scale chopnose Geep to paint & decal in Farmrail colors, you'd be in tall cotton.
I like the first plan that was posted on the thread. My only suggestion would be a reversing connection on the "bubble" to the upper right of the plan to complement the yard. But I like to sit back and just let trains run and would appreciate the luxury of turning trains around. But, that's just me. Overall, I like all the plans. Well thought out. I am sure whatever comes from it will be good.
Wouldn't we all?! I've wanted a good chop nose GP9 in Farmrail colors for years. ARE YOU LISTENING ATLAS? Atlas needs to do a run of chop nose GP9's for shortlines. They'd sell out an be a hit. They'd not be able to keep them on the shelves. But I'm not the product manager. Sorry to go off on a tyrade . I like your revision on your plan and it's good that you've progressed through the last couple of revisions and stayed true to what you want. It's amazing to me that we can start with something and after we revise it a few times and simplify the layout it becomes even better than our first plan. My only suggestions are to lengthen your sidings if you can at all at Lawton and Sapulpa so you can have nice long strings of hoppers there when the grain season is in full swing. That would also allow you to use Sapulpa as a passing siding in a pinch. I agree you should have the elevators at Snyder as well so you've got a reason to switch there. What if the track to Altus went under a bridge on the main instead of over? You could do a plate girder bridge with your railroad name on it for visual effect and you could split the difference on the grades so the mainline rises slightly and the track to Altus dips down a bit. I like the mountain range/hill idea to be the view block for staging. I'm planning to use a rolling hill lined with trees to block my staging as well. The thought is that there would be small gaps in the hills and trees so there is a buisy mainline "over the hills". I think of it as something that a railfan can look at and go "look at the trains over the hill--what's going on over there?" And modelling rolling hills fits right in with your plan. The backdrop could have the mountains (like mount Scott at Ft Sill in Lawton) and rolling hills in the background. They're actually doing an article about using this method in the new Model Railroader I think. Good luck with your additional research. I'm really enjoying watching your progress. Amd if you get any pictures of those Farmrail Geeps, make sure you post them up!
A chopnosed Geep, period, would be nice. The decals, however, were once offered by Oddballs Decals out of Kansas. Don't know if they're still offered anymore, as he's dropped some roads off his list. Odd you should mention Farmrail- I found an old Model Railroader from the 1990s which had a trackplan for an HO scale Grainbelt (FMRC subsidiary) layout. Grainbelt (reporting marks GNBC) operates the former Frisco from Enid south to Davidson, and crosses the SLWC at Snyder. Uses four-axle EMDs, most painted in FMRC colors. Exceptions are one former Iowa Interstate GP38 (still in IAIS colors), some grey & black Geeps, and one ex-IC diesel. A side note- Mike Corley modeled this part of the Frisco (Snyder north) as the Manitou & Snyder, basing it on the Frisco of the 1930s. Lotsa small steamers, including some Russian Decapods.
Hey I really like this one. I was born in Stillwater, and I'm not too far from Paragon right now. Will you be adding the Tulsa-Sapulpa short line? www.tsurailway.com Jody
Hey guys, just got my power back on after almost a week due to the "winter wallop". It looks like a tornado has swept through town with all the ice-ladened trees that have come down. We had to "shelter" at my parents at night but like I said we now have power. The down side is now the generator for the water treatment plant has failed and we may face water issues now. I'm pretty tired right now and I will try to look at some of the latest responses and answer them sometime tomorrow. I have a lot of tree clean up to do so time here will be limited.
That's what I'm planning with Snyder and being in tall cotton would be a good thing.:tb-biggrin: I'm in the process of lengthening those sidings. I may just go with rolling hills but I did think modelling Mt. Scott with its road spiralling to the top and the observation point would be kind of cool. Even though in real life you can't see the SLWC from there, it could be a place for railfans to watch from on the layout.:tb-cool: I'm also working out the details of the trackage rights to Altus as suggested by you. I think this is a good idea. I hadn't thought to but it might be in the realm of possibilities.
I had a feeling you'd be nailed with power outages- that storm made things rough from roughly I-35 west in Oklahoma. We just had the snow here (and lots of it), and fortunately vary few outages. Hope things get back to normal out your way soon.
Well, most of the tree damage from the ice storm has been cleaned up but today is a snow day (not as bad as the east coast). Yet, it was one of those days where you didn't want to get out so I tinkered around some more with the plan. Comments welcomed.
