More progress on the track plan

As I play around with it, right now I'm leaning toward some variation on a lap-with-branch configuration.

Here's the latest version, including a simplified version of the Gumstump & Snowshoe-inspired shelf layout at the end of the Staffer branch (the yellow rectangle). I've routed the branch to the left, around the inside of the left-hand loop, to get enough altitude. The mainline is pretty flat, with just a half inch or so of elevation on the back side to provide a little separation from Lockwood Yard. The branch climbs a three percent grade to cross over the main, then continues on a modest grade to Stauffer.

For posterity, here are a few AnyRail "sketches"on of earlier versions:

There is a door at the lower right; the gray rectangle is an existing book case. I wanted to make sure there was enough clearance to get to the door. With this one, the branch comes off the "wrong" end of the yard -- a train made up in Lockwood yard would have to back out of the yard to the left before taking the branch. Or, I could say that branchline trains need to circle the lap before proceeding up the branch, giving those trains a much longer run.

In this version, I've had the branch come off the mainline, so that branchline jobs would exit the yard to the north (left), run 15 or 20 feet on the mainline, then take the branch near the upper right hand corner of the layout. Shorter branch, but maybe makes more sense operationally.

First effort at a more detailed design for the Lockwood yard. Spur tracks in the Town of Lockwood area would serve local industries. There's another industry track at the right (south) end of the yard. The track at the lower left is a switching lead and engine storage pocket. I might try to fit a turntable in somewhere. [Edit: The yard arrangement will need to be changed a fair amount to fit the latest revision of the overall plan.)

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Side-Tracked

The other day, as my wife and I were rearranging some furniture in the living room, she made the comment that it might be fun to put a small train display on a side table where she normally displays some potted plants. She had in mind my Lockwood & San Emigdio On30 diorama, which she's watched me work on the last several months -- but of course, the suggestion got me thinking in other directions. Since the purpose, at least in part, will be to entertain the grandkids when they come to visit, it makes sense to have a continuous lap. Since the tabletop is only about 25 by 54 inches, that limits me to a 10 or maybe 11 inch radius, a bit more if I overlap the tabletop a few inches. I'm thinking On30, so that's too tight for any of the equipment I currently own. There are some people doing wonderful work in On30 building mini- and micro-layouts with these kinds of curves and smaller, using the Bachmann 0-4-0 and 0-4-2 Porters, Davenport gas-mechanicals, and other small switc...

Side-Tracked, Continued

I was cleaning my garage the other day and pulled out a 30x60 inch layout I started some years back in HOn30, but abandoned pretty quickly. The trains were just too small for me, and there wasn't a lot of equipment available -- there's no equivalent of Bachmann's relatively cheap and plentiful ready-to-run On30 cars and locomotives, and only a few kits. I'm kind of taking this as a sign from the fates. The overall size of the old, partly built layout is in the upper range of what I was thinking about doing in On30. The curve of N scale track at the left end in the photo is 12 inch radius, and the right end is 13 inches, both in the range of what I was considering. The rest of the track plan doesn't translate so well -- the plan drawn on the board has a passing siding on the front side that would have been short in HOn30 and would have been all but useless in On30. The upper level branchline track has a 9 inch curve, which is probably too tight for anything but an 0-...

The Palo Verde & Pacific

I came across a few old slides of my former layout (late '80s-early '90s), the Palo Verde & Pacific. Here a a few shots for the historical record. The locomotive is a first-run Atlas/Kato RSD 4/5. The signal you see in two of the photos is a scratchbuilt LED signal actuated by a homemade Twin-T detector.

Bakersfield & Ventura Model Railroad

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