Yes, I said "Howdy!" I'm from Austin, Texas, and after a 26 or 27 year break from model railroading, I've been inspired to get back into it. I'm switching from H0 scale to N scale. I haven't drawn out any layout plans yet, but I have a vacant 10' x 11' room in the back that hasn't been used since 2004. This room is my new "train room." I've started my benchwork which is nearly complete. It's a free-standing classic 10' x 8' U shape, 3' deep. I have one locomotive to my name, two cabooses, and zero rolling stock. I have the M2 Kato Master layout, and a Digitrax Chief DCC starter kit to start out with. I'm hoping to have a multi-level design (elevation up to 7" or 10"), but haven't thought of a theme or location to model after. The Loco that I have is a DMIR 2-10-2, but I have dreams of tressle bridges and mountains. I may go out and get one of John Armstrong's layout books for inspiration. I'm still stumped on reversing loops in layouts. I hear there are auto-reversers, but don't quite grasp how they work. I don't plan for the layout to be in analog DC...DCC only. Anyway, I'm here to learn from ya'll. Yes, I said, "ya'll".
Welcome to TrainBoard! And also, welcome back to a great hobby! It is truly interesting how many have been returning to this pastime during the past year and plenty of newbies, too!
Welcome aboard, Tx! If you want mountains and trestles, I can give plenty of ideas. Steam or diesel? Any fav railroads? Any fav locales? When I think mountains and trestles, several things immediately come to mind. 1. Mullan Pass (NP/BN/MRL) west of Helena, MT. 2 big trestles, plenty of mountains all around, manned helpers and a big tunnel. Still sees heavy traffic and manned helpers. 2. Marias Pass (GN/BN/BNSF) Shelby-Whitefish, MT. Monster trestles, inaccessible terrain, tunnels, manned helper ops, double track mainlines thru much of it. Still sees heavy traffic on BNSF and is a vital link in their "Highline". 3. Pipestone Pass (MILW) Piedmont-Butte, MT. Several large trestles, tunnels, rugged mountains, electrification, manned helpers, Little Joes and Boxcabs, need I say more? PP was abandoned in 1980, and pulled up a few years later. 4. Homestake Pass (NP/BN) Whitehall-Butte, MT. Just north of Pipestone Pass, large trestles, winding curves, rugged terrain. BN mothballed it in the 80's and the ROW still exists to this day. 5. Snoqualmie Pass (MILW) Tacoma-S. Cle Elum, WA. Large trestles, rugged terrain, electrification, Boxcabs and Bipolars, tunnels, a large lakeside run, snowsheds. Snoqualmie was abandoned in 1980, and pulled up a few years later. 6. St Paul Pass (MILW) St Regis, MT-Alberton ID. One of the most spectacular railroad passes ever built. Numerous tunnels, monster steel trestles, incomparable scenery, rugged mountains, electrification, Little Joes, Boxcabs, so much more. SPP was abandoned in 1980, and pulled up a few years later. 7. Saddle Mountains grade (MILW) Beverly-Kittitas, WA. High desert, arid eastern WA. Tunnel, the monster Beverly Bridge spanning the mighty Colunbia River, winding curves, inaccessible, more MILW Electrification. The line of the Saddles was abandoned in 1980, and pulled up a few years later. 8. D&RGW. I leave it last, as it was not well known for trestles, but for tunnels. Ridiculous amounts of tunnels. I can go on, but the Moffat Route (Denver-Bond-Craig, CO) was pierced with 55 tunnels at one time, including North America's highest railroad pass (Rollins Pass, 11,660'). About 50 tunnels still exist in daily use on this route alone. Numerous trains still use this route daily. Tennessee Pass (Pueblo-Minturn, CO) was noted for its grueling 3% grade, spectacular rugged scenery tunnels, and manned helpers. It was mothballed in 1997. Soldier Summit (Helper-Salt Lake City, UT) was noted for twin tunnels, a steep winding grade, rugged mountains, unmistakable landmarks (Castle Gate), manned helpers and still sees heavy traffic. Just some western lines for inspiration, I have pics of many of the ones listed. The eastern guys are not left out, but I'm not an eastern RR guru. I'll leave that to the experts.
Hi HemiAdda2d, I had posted on a different forum that I wanted to model my RR after MoPac due to the highway here in Austin named after the railroad (which is now owned and operated by Union Pacific). The closest train town to Austin would be Temple, Texas (about 50 miles north of Austin). There's a good sized UP yard there, but nothing special. The terrain here in Texas is pretty flat, but I guess I could get creative and put some western-looking cliffs in the layout. I see UP trains run through Austin, but that's about it. There's a condo downtown named "The Rail Yard", but I haven't figured out if there was actually a rail yard in that location in the past. Austin has a unique history. In downtown you can still see some of the rails that were here from the early 1900's where trolly's used to run (like what they have in San Francisco). Right now the rails are all covered in pavement...funny because they've been trying to pass a light-rail bill here for the past 10 years. It finally passed in 2008, and they have a commuter rail that runs from a small town up north to downtown as an experiment which is sparsely used (our fine tax dollars at work). There's also an Amtrak commuter train that runs from San Antonio through Austin to Dallas, but that's about it. I haven't looked through Google maps very closely to see how many tracks run through Austin, but there aint much that I can see. Because my room is small, I'll need a couple of levels of track to make a fun layout for operations. I'll be using my tax refund to purchase most of what I need to get started. So until then, I'll have my thinking cap on. Also, I've been contimplating using Kato Unitrack for the entire layout, but the more and more I think about it, Atlas has flextrack and more options for turnouts than Kato. This may cause some debate, because Kato is a great product, but I'm leaning towards using Atlas track. I do like Kato's remote turnouts better than under-the-table switchers, though. The wife and I really like steam, but I also wouldn't mind a modern era layout, watching three or four diesel engines pulling 75 cars (if the layout allows for it, which it probably won't). Anyway, thanks for giving me something to think about!
Hemi- Actually the west end is Avery, Idaho. Alberton is east of St. Regis. At one time I looked at modeling this, but compressing it, so much was lost... txtrainguy- We do have some Mopac fans here. I'm sure they'd be helpful. Whatever you choose, it sounds like this will be a fun project and it is nice to read your wife is a steam fan!
Howdy from Corpus Christi. Here are some TEXAS layout ideas... Not necessarily fitting any of your needs or desires, and I design mostly in N scale. But maybe they will give you some ideas... Missouri Pacific in San Antonio in the 1950s. HO around the walls with outside staging. simplified schematic of prototype MoPac in San Antonio I have done 2 of 3 of Austin but I don't them loaded to railimages where I am pull them up right away. Right now I am doing Santa Fe in Galveston around the walls inb a spare bedroom in N scale. long-winded design discussion taking many pages... http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=88991&highlight=island+seaport Welcome to trainboard. And Happy Railroading.
Here are two Austin Missouri Pacific layouts. ca 1970 L-shaped on two walls with MoPac Expressway, Amtrak depot. Main scenic focus- Colorado River bridge. ca1950 around-the-walls. When MoPac had a branch off the main that ran to a downtown station. Austin MoPac ca.1950 This was designed for a teenager who I believe built at least part of it in N scale. There is a fantastic N-scale etched brass kit for the 1880-something MoPac downtown Austin depot. Hope these inspire some ideas.
Howdy from another fellow Texas from Big D!!! You can do a lot with that space in n-scale...hope it all comes together for ya. There isn't dramatic mountain railroading in Texas, but there are plenty places for scenic variety and trestles....many rivers, bluffs, pineywoods, hill country, Palo Duro Canyon, (which doesn't directly tangle with any railroads, but it could in your world!) etc. It might take a little modelers license but you could make it happen.
Hi Doug & Kenneth! Thanks for the tips and the howdies. That's the first time I've seen any Austin Mopac layouts. I see the last layout you're showing has Bergstrom AFB (before it turned into the Bergstrom International Airport), and Ben White Blvd (also known as 290W and Hwy 71). That's awesome! If I may ask, what program did you use to produce these layouts? Or did you get them from an archive somewhere? I'm currently tinkering around with AnyRail and 3rd PlanIt. I like 3rd PlanIt; however, the track libraries in both of these programs seem to be a little outdated. I know Kato currently has some new wye turnouts that just came out. And they are missing some 3-way turnouts. I bought the book "Building a Model Railroad Step by Step Second Edition by David Popp" and used his benchwork ideas to create mine but with different height and width dimensions. This weekend I plan on going out and staining it. This is L-girder benchwork designed to be removable if I should ever relocate the layout to a different room or move. These are basically just supports for an open-grid layout (essentially, I'll be placing the frame which will hold 1/4" plywood on top). I don't know if I'll be using subroadbed yet or not. Probably not, since I'll want some hidden track on the lower level used for staging. This is my layout room (so far). The height of the benchwork is only about 29" (will be around 32" once the frames are placed ontop). I don't plan on doing much standing, and I anticipate that I'll be the only operator. I'm also getting some inspiration from the below layout design, but on a smaller scale (removing one of the turntables and shortening the yards). I don't think this layout has ever been modeled, but it came in top-ten in 2004 on railroad-mania.com (I hope this doesn't infringe on any copyright by posting this here). I may be able to tie this in with the Hill Country (I'm actually from Dripping Springs outside of Austin, "The Gateway to the Hillcountry"). And you're right, it'll probably have to be fictional, but I'll probably use some local industries and names. The left side is the lower level, and the right side is the upper level (about a 7" incline). So everyone knows, I am a novice when it comes to model railroads. I'm not going to spend time building a beginner layout - if I'm going to build a layout, I'm going to build a freaking layout! So I'll definitely be learning from my mistakes.
I drew/constructed them in a 10 year old Photoshop Limited Edition program. The program came bundled with a special video and graphics card for a computer I bought for TV editing. My old computer burned up last June and the bundled program which loaded with old graphics card and 32-bit system would not load into new 64-bit computer, so I lost it. I drew a grid in Photoshop, constructed track elements on a "layer" above the grid, then deleted the grid layer and painted scenery etc on a layer below the track.
Speaking of the "MoPac" Highway, this was on the cover of the official Texas state roadmap that was issued in 1977. This is a little more recent photo.
I was 7 years old at the time and probably saw it in the glove compartment of my dad's old blue Dodge. I can vaguely see the MoPac blue wings on the front of the engine. I take that route to and from work downtown almost every day. Every once in a while I'll see a UP freight train, but don't think any passenger trains go that route anymore (at least none that I've seen). By the way, I grew up in the Ft. Bend area. Have been in the Austin area for the past 13 years now.
The Amtrak Texas Eagle runs down the MoPac daily, once in each direction. North bound around 9:30 AM and south bound around 6:30 PM. The photo above was taken from the back end of the north bound. Here is a shot coming into Austin over Town Lake. Here is the official time table.
Yep, that's Austin alright. It's missing a few towers in the skyline, and Town Lake is now called Lady Bird Lake. This photo must have been taken right after they finished the 360 Tower. The times explain why I never see it. Maybe I'll have to catch a ride somewhere...never been on an Amtrak before.
