N Scale Interurban help/advice needed!

glip Jan 21, 2014

  1. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    So I'm getting back into the hobby after a 15 year hiatus... read so much MR when I was a teen instead of boozing it up and getting laid. I have a few nice pieces of transition era locomotives and some dilapidated rolling stock. I recently started reading about a local electric interurban railway called the Grand River Railway that had some nice little locos and also ran passenger service with doodlebug type cars. I live around the area that used to be served by this railway and also happen to love riding my bike down their old ROW. There's a fair bit of information about the road and some of the operations. I'm thinking about modelling a gravel pit and running the gravel loads up to a CP main line where they'd get picked up and run off to Toronto. I would eventually like to do a bit of the passenger since it's only 1 or 2 cars instead of longer normal trains. The GRR also served a whole whack of other industries and I see boxcars in the old pictures (and I have a few already) so I need to include this furniture company and I'd like to model the trestle and mill pond dam in that pic too.

    I have a CN budd car that I'll use in place of a GRR passenger car for now. I plan on scratch building a lot of the interurban cars but I have a CP switcher and a GP that I can use for now since the GRR was taken over by the CP diesels in 1961 this is pretty prototypical stuff. Anyway I've been putting around with Anyrail for a good part of the day and all I can seem to come up with is a mostly empty figure 8. I have decided that I have 120" by 42" I can certainly work with and might even be able to push it out to 48". All I can come with is a pretty boring layout so far. I'd love some ideas or even just a link to a few available layout plans of similar size that I can play around with. I'm not the world's most creative person but I'm great at reading prints and making something from those. Anyway thanks for your thoughts/etc. Cheers!

    figure-8-boring.jpg
     
  2. David K. Smith

    David K. Smith TrainBoard Supporter

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    I think the biggest advantage you have is being self-aware enough to know your planning limitations. (Your "boring" figure-8 would not serve your needs very well!) Have a look through this collection of plans. A number of them could be adapted for an Interurban railroad. But... think in terms of a smaller footprint. 120 by 42 or 48 is a beast of a layout to build. It would have to be an "island" layout with access to all sides owing to one's ability to reach into the space. I think you'd be much happier with a hollow core door and an extension (here is an example). It would be more interesting to look at and much easier to build!
     
  3. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    Yeah, the space is really pretty big so an island layout would work, I have about 8 by 14 feet of space at least but the more I think about it the more I'd rather build something smaller and denser... then I can really focus on detailling every part of it. My layout from my teens years were 40x48 and it was nice because I got them to reasonably built up in the few years before I moved and they didn't come with. They were 2x4 and plywood, which is something I'd like to move away from too, so HCD and insulation sheets are what I'm looking at now.

    Realistically anything modular in nature will make it easier to move since it's in a huge attic space and a plan like the one you linked would be more in line with the amount of equipment I have. Thanks for the link I'll play around with anyrail and see what I make.
     
  4. David K. Smith

    David K. Smith TrainBoard Supporter

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    Now you're really cooking with fire! Too many modelers want to fill all available space just for the sake of filling it, with little regard to what's more practical and also much more visually effective. Keep us posted on your progress.
     
  5. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    Well I've been putzing around with the plan you linked to and I like it a lot, I can model the gravel pit pretty well on the top of the layout and I can incorporate a prototypical flour mill as well as the trestle I wanted to. I still have a lot of open space since I took out a bit of the yards from your Cambridge Branch (Oddly enough the prototype for my layout runs through what's now called Cambridge!) but I was thinking putting those back in and modelling something like a furniture factory since there are a few around here that were served by this railway. There's also a scrap yard that still exists along what is now CP trackage but it used to be served by the prototype so I've put that in there since they're a lot of fun to model. I'm not sure if I can realistically divide the flour mill and the scrap yard or not but I'll try... we have a lot of big trees around here. On the top I plan to put a ridge along the north side where the gravel pit going to help with the scene division as well.

    layout-try-3.jpg
     
  6. David K. Smith

    David K. Smith TrainBoard Supporter

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    I think you're off to a good start. My suggestions: work on smoothing out the curves, and make them as broad as possible; lengthen the sidings for the gravel pit, as well as the shop and scrap yard sidings; and pull the track in from the edges of the layout so as to avoid possible catastrophe.

    Sort of like this--

    [​IMG]

    For added visual interest, I'd position the scrap yard and flour mill sidings vertically about an inch or so lower than the loop and the rest of the layout.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2014
  7. phantom

    phantom TrainBoard Member

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    I think those are all great plans to start with. When I start to plan a new layout, some times I look for things I want in my railroad and make a list. Weather it be a gravel pit or a station or yard that once existed or even one I saw on someone else layout. I have even taken segments of track plans and drawn them out on index cards and moved them around on a big piece of paper looking for that right look. You can even cut or scan and print seen's from popular MR. magazines. Then you can slide the pictures or drawings around really easily. I have built a few layouts this way. Did not start out with a track plan but threw arranging different pictures and track diagrams on cards I developed a good plan. You can kind of see how things fit together and what looks good and what will not work this way.
     
  8. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    I've been thinking about this all day and I think I'm going to try printing up the plan I have in anyrail tomorrow and work on getting it mocked up on a 4x8 of insulation over the few days before I head out of town. I figure the big sheet will give me enough extra foam to work with to build some hills.

    I like the idea of putting the mill and scrapyard lower than the shop/furniture part of town. I was also thinking of putting the gravel pit at a different elevation... so when I print out my plan and make some cardboard mock-up to see what it looks like in the flesh.

    I had to add a few inches to the layout to get 15" curves to play nicely and I think it still looks okay... up to 84x66 though. I added a lot of length to the gravel pit since I could and I think from the pictures I found it looks like they used 50' gondolas but I'll know more when a book I ordered comes.

    I checked out the LHS today and they only have code 80 atlas flex track and I'd rather go smaller on the rail. I have been wanting to try hand laying my own track and the people at fast tracks are only about an hour away. I think I will try laying the rail on my little trestle by hand since that's gonna be my first big project of the layout anyway and I want to scratch build the bridge so I think it kinda makes sense to lay the track by hand, especially since the ties are closer together and it curves, so it's not likely there's something premade for me to buy anyway.

    pink-insulation-version-3.jpg
     
  9. DrMb

    DrMb TrainBoard Member

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    Just as an aside, have you considered modelling the "alternate history" that CP Rail almost implemented with the dieselization of the line?
     
  10. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    I hadn't really thought of it but I do like the look of that 70 tonner in GRR livery... and it looks like there are some bachmann spectrums that are still floating around, might make a nice project to paint one up.
     
  11. DrMb

    DrMb TrainBoard Member

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    It's just a suggestion in case you find that scratch building the freight motors is a bigger headache than you anticipated.
     
  12. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    There are some folks on Shapeways doing freight motors. Right now we can get 40 ton GE steeplecabs, like the ones used on the North Shore, Sacramento Northern and many others. We can get North Shore line express box motors, soon I think we will have a Baldwin Westinghouse steeplecab, as well. Naturally there is an issue finding a way to power these small critters but I'm sure a solution will present itself.

    It all really depends on how much time you want to spend building the fleet. The suggestions made so far are all valid ones and certainly deserve consideration.

    Randy
     
  13. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    I'm trying to track down drawings for the balwin-westinghouse steeplecabs that were used on my prototype, I think I have a lead on some at a library in Toronto. One of the locomotives still exists but it's a 4 hour drive away. I've got that baldwin steeplecab on shapeways bookmarked, I admit I'm kind of excited to try building one up especially since it's designed around an easy-to-get chassis. Detailing the trolley poles and other stuff on the roof would be a lot of fun and I can still do that with the shapeways model or my own scratchbuilt. The only thing keeping me from ordering a 70 tonner to do the alternate future is a bit of financial restraint on my part, but I know it won't last long :)
     
  14. DrMb

    DrMb TrainBoard Member

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    On the plus side, you only have to worry about having enough money to buy up to 6, 70 tonners. ;)
     
  15. glip

    glip TrainBoard Member

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    So I bought some insulation and printed out a plan... looks pretty good to me. Stuck a couple pieces of code 80 flex that I have on to see what it's like with some cars. My RDC looks a bit funny on the curves but I dunno if I will use it at all on this layout.

    first-mockup.jpg


    I have also settled on doing the trackwork by hand with code 40so the atlas turnouts don't match up to the fast tracks (or proto 87) templates. I also made all the curves one of 3 radius sizes that match a fast tracks jig if I find I need one. I also decided to just add a 24x24 square to the layout instead of ripping a 6" strip off the one side so it's a bit wider than it was before.

    4th-fast-tracks-redux.jpg
    I think I'm going to make the gravel pit area the highest elevation on the layout and the scrap the lowest. Might have the interchange drop a 1/2" or so just 'cos.
     

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