Hello dear fellows, as I am a fan of the N&W RR and the Appalachian Coal road I try to model something like this in my tiny place of 12'5" x 9' 2". As my Children like to run trains too, it must be a circular layout to let the trains run and have fun. I am too a fan of the pictures of Mr O.Winston, so I would like to model some sceneries which reflect the flair of the N&W in the rural areas - single track main line operation! - As a second important part, there should be a coal camp be modeled. The time period to be modeled is 1940-1958... Sooo - that is a lot of things for that tiny place...but I think I have a nice solution for all of that. Look here The grey areas are staging and the blue parts can be folded to the wall to keep the doorway clear. Some features of the plan are: Turnouts #8 on main line and passing siding Turnouts #6 on yard and secondary line minimum radius 30" on main line and 24" on other tracks passing siding length 8' 10" passenger train of 7 pulmann coaches or freight train of 12 40' box cars or 17 55ton coal cars possible make-up track of 7' 9" length coal camp - Tipple with a capacity of 10 55ton USRA coal cars (serviced twice a day ) staging yard with car capacities (without loco) of 8'3" - track I 14x40' box cars or 19x55t coal cars + cab 7'6" - track II 12x40' box cars or 16x55t coal cars + cab 7'1" - track III like track II 5 different industries 1. feed & supply grocery 2. creamery incl. ice house 3. brewery 4. interchange with another class 1 Line (multi industry) 5. coal tipple served by the Wolff Creek Railroad Comments are welcomed greetings from a german fan of US-Railroading Winfried
As I mentioned in the thread title - the Wolff Creek Rail Road plan is still in progress. So here is my second variant - extended the station area by additional two stubb tracks - unfortunatley loosing the engine service track an one industrie. What do you think is the better version in terms of prototypical flair and operational potentials? Additionaly I rounded the edges of the layout which seems to be more pleasant to look at. Greetings from Winfried
Hi Winfried, the pictures taken by O.W. Link of the N&W are awesome. I quite like your layout plan, a very few remarks however. Your little ones might like a completely double tracked version even more, though i do understand your choice very well. If you would like more operation i would think about a 15" or 18" feet wide peninsula, with an industrial area on it. Like the one Andy Sperandeo has designed on his San Jacinto District of the ATSF (from the awesome and amazing webside by Byron Henderson: layout vision). The radius required to get onto this addition might turn out pretty tight. Personally i would limit the number of new spurs to one. The balance on your plan between mainline operation (parade strecke) and switching seems right to me, just like the way you added staging.The swing-up gate at the room entrance is a surprising novelty to me. I assume the door opens outwards? Have fun with your plan and the build Smile Paul
Thanks Paul for your comments. The peninsula will result in very tight curvatures and I want to run some brass locos too. Additionally the room has some other functions too, so the peninsula is not makable . Yes, the door opens outwards, that is very good isn't it The idea of only 1 additional spur is very good, because in the actual plan the yard action intended by 2 additional spurs destroys the feeling of a small town in an appalachian hollow. So I will erase one of the spurs --- hehe, this results in 1 turnout less to build -- remark: all turnouts in the scenery are handlaid and allready build up, inspite of those in red colour. And here it is. The third version of the Wolff Creek Railroad (WCRR) plan, which is a subsidary of N&W RY (in my head only)... Now we all can see the Wolff Creek not only at the bridge, but also as the restricting factor for the station yard. Remark: the hight lines represent approx. 2" vertikal shift of the landscape, so the bridge crosses the hollow of the Wolff Creek at a higth of prototypical aprox. 48,5'. Greeting Winfried
Winfried- Welcome to TrainBoard! All three versions of your plan look good to me. It is interesting how ideas keep evolving and will be even more interesting to see it as construction progresses.
So here I am again with another revision of the plan... What has changed...: 1. the radius and easement in the storage area eliminating one S-curve in that part 2. the street run scene slightly changed 3. major change in turnout configuration in the area of the city. The turnouts are now configured to ease the handling of the interchange cars from the yard tracks into the interchange yard an vise versa. I'm now convinced to get some real operation sessions together. What do you think about my last changes?! Greetings from rainy city of Aachen in germany scopewime
Hi Scopewine, i have only one concern, the tracks are very close to the walls. You will not have much space for the transition to the backdrop. Otherwise a great plan, nice to operate both with friends and with the kids. Smile Paul
Just like everybody knows... as long as you do not start to build, you will keep on making plans... so here is my newest baby... This is basically a 2 level layout on 9'x11,5' room size. There is one track of continous running, but mainly the layout consists of a branch line in the appalachians. The plan is derived from a scatch on appalachian coal railroading (North fork) and comprises 5 coal loading facilities, 3 stations and one agricultural loading point. The trackwork has a minimum radius of 20" at the peninsula. I will run as biggest engine a L1s Mikado (Interstate like). Bigger engines will be kept on the continous run and the station an the first station of the branchline. Some of the loader sidings will be "week" so that only small engines (light 2-8-0 or smaller) can service these tracks. The plan has a wye, 4tracks of hidden staging and can handle trains up to 15 Gla-two-bay hoppers and a cab up to the final station of the branchline. The branchline together with one round of the coninous loop results in ca. 72' of main line trackage. What do you think, is this plan worth to be build? Greetings from good old germany scopewime
Welcome to Trainboard! Your first plan was nice, but your second seems to have more of that appalachian flavor to it. Sacrificing the turntable and roundhouse adds a lot of room for train running, which will help your kids stay interested, too! Keep on planning, that's part of the fun!
if you are able to make the track a different color than other lines it would be very helpful i find it difficult to translate all the lines into what is what. just a thought FWIW welcome! respectfully Gary L Lake Dillensnyder
Just another Version of the Topic Getting down to my motivation base I noted once more my goals I want to reach with the layout: - run as long trains as possible - run trains just for fun - get american flair - do coal mining operation in the appalchian - get some N&W rooster run - keep the inner part of my room free (for fitness, crosstrainer etc.) - do some switching and operation So here is the main obstacle (you does not have it): - the room is only 12'5" by 9'2" big But now I have found a solution to my problems. Look these two plans: Upper level lower level (about 5,6" lower, to easily access the cars in the lower deck tracks at the layout edges) The trackage runs 3 times around the room, till one turn is finished. I have 3 stagging tracks of more than 13' length and the pssing siding has almost 14,5' length. The complete turn of 105' main line will take a passenger train at 50 mph speed about 120sec. The longest trains may consist of a hefty N&W 4-8-2 mountain K1 a caboose and about 22 40' box cars. That is a train size I am eager to run on my layout. Do you think that the grade of 2,8% is to steep. With this layout I can go down to 2,1%, but I planned it this way to access the train cars in the staging tracks easily. Thank you all for any comment and a happy new year to all of us scopewime
I think any grade under 3% is manageable, and from what I can tell in your plan, the majority of it won't be visible, so that makes it entirely feasible Also your point about being able to easily reach the staged trains is a good one-there's nothing worse than having a derailment that you can't reach! You could always form a compromise with your grades and have a 2-2.5% grade visible and a 2.5-3% grade where the track is hidden-thus keeping things easy on the eye while still descending to your desired height Hope this helps! Cheers
Hi Scopewine, a great plan again. A train stuck on a grade could be better out in the open. So my steepest grade would never be in the underground world. Steamers were not always the best pullers; some experimenting might be needed. Smile Paul
Hi,I, too, have a similar sized space of just 16'x10' and have struggled to balance operation against ease of access and construction.I realise that multi-level plans are popular in popular but can be a problematic to maintain and build and there are other methods of hiding storagesidings behind view blockers. In this case a simple folded figure of eight with one loop hidden behind a block would provide both a reasonable runbut also access to hidden sidings.Although long trains appeal in theory, I find that in limited spaces they are counter-productive and I limit my passenger workings to just sevencoaches and fifteen goods. Whilst this may seem too short, it is appropriate on secondary lines which are merely feeders for the mainline andas Scopewime is using nothing larger than a K1 (or ist K2?) then this would be OK.My favourite small layout plan is the winner of the Model Railroader's 'Small Layout' contest in April '04 Railroadin' Down in Georgia, it is designedfor just 8'x8' and uses two levels but a larger room would remove the need for bi-level benchwork - I have done just this and the result provides plenty of operation and I am able to transport the layout in modules to exhibitions, the latter would be almost impossible with a bi-level plan.MfgTim
Hello all together, so Tim has made a important point. As I mentioned the grades are difficult concerning opertion safety and buildng complexity. So I present the other plan I already had made, which represents a 8 and has got some staging tracks in the hidden background. I sacrified abaut 4 box cars in train length and still have longer trains to run. Actually this layout has a small portion of HOn3 trackage to. You may find it as a mine trackage in the right upper corner. So today I ordered the shelf supports for this plan and I will start to build this layout soon. scopewime
Just to explain some "hidden" details of the plan. On the right sight is placed the fiddle yard for the HOn3 trackage and some mysterios looking rectangular boxes. Those Boxes will be removable tracks to exchange or turn locos (without the need of a turn table). With this application I am able to simulate traffic which comes back with the same train (passenger sevices) or a changed train (freight) but with an engine already seen on the layout. The storage capacity of this layout will be... let's count: 1 train consisting of loco + 18x40' box + caboose 2 trains consisting of loco + 19x40' box + caboose 1 train consisting of loco + 1-2 package + 3-4 heavy weight passenger cars a possible 5th train will be stored somewhere on the several industry spurs (there will be space for at least 8 55t hoppers at the mine site) on the display area. Its loco + cab will be some where on service track. So the whole Layout will have a capacity of at least 4 complete trains which will be far enough to get my staff (2 children an myself) busy. scopewime
Sooo.... Hello everybody... yes, here is coming just the next plan... I just thought about the hidden tracks in the background of the previous plan... and I thought, I would not get a good result concerning the backdrop hight vs. accessibility to the staging. So I just contemplated once more on my goals: - Continous run (my daughter just checks every plan for that feature) - descent length of trains - possibility to create some West Virginian rural atmosphere - coal mine - train/engine presentation - some possibilities to operate (without switching puzzles) - time to spend building the layout (not very much) And during thinking I read some articles about the manageable size of a layout. The conclusing of all that, was the plan above. It is more or less a linear switching shelf layout with two long run arounds (stations), a small yard, a few industries, an interchange with the N&W. The layout can be operated as Piont-to-Point (leaving out the trestle lift out) or as a continuous run with the trestle in place. All in all I find this last plan the most pleasing (hmmm....that happens more than one time already....) to my expectations and possibilities. German greetings "Liebe Grüße" to all of you scopewime
As long as I do not start to build my layout I still can do some new plans... And here it comes the newest!! the freshest!! the most apealing Wolff Creek & Algoma Railroad plan ever! What has happend? I just returned to a folded 8 design pattern to create 3 depot areas. One is a greater depot with a small yard. The second is a very rural station somewhere in the backwoods serving a coal loader site on the lower level. The third is the hidden (still accessible from above but hidden by a "scenic fence" which will be about 4" high) yard for three complete trains. What do you think about this newest idea from the ingenious engineers of the Wolff Creek & Algoma Railroad Liebe Grüße from germany scopewime
