I am planning my new layout. I want a design that several people can operate and tries to emulate a specific era and prototype. This one depicts the Tonopah & Goldfield and the Bullfrog Goldfield from Goldfield to Beatty. The T&T and LV&T were also in the area. The BGRR and the LV&T were almost parallel from Beatty to Goldfield, a major reason for their troubles and early demise. These were very obscure Nevada shortlines that were built before WW1 and for the most part removed before WW2. Your thoughts about the design and operations are appreciated. - Nevin
Your plan has only three industries and two interchanges. Thats not going to make for a ton of action for one person, less for the number of people you’re wanting to keep busy. It would be a great layout for one, maybe two people to have a very relaxed and laid back ops session though.
I’m not familiar with the roads you mention, but if this track plan is an accurate representation then purhaps you should think about either some modelers license or a new prototype. I’m not trying to dissuade you, it’s just that I’m not sure that this meets your design criteria, thats all.
I like that you moved the TT and you can turnaround at both ends. I liked the staging at the lower left, but if you can get some up in the upper right…
There is an opportunity for an additional industry off the runaround at 12 o’clock to the upper right.
Unlike the V&T design the T&G is a more traditional model railroad in that the distance between Goldfield and Beatty was closer to 30 miles. The V&T design depicted only about 2.5 miles between Virginia City and the Crown Point trestle. It is close to being a diorama with much less selective compression. V&T engines really did back down the hill to be turned at the turntable half way from there and Gold Hill. The staging the V&T design is meant to be a fiddle yard with the equipment turned around by hand.
With the T&G design, freight and passenger trains on the T&G come from the north come out of the blue staging area, stop at Columbia depot (the combined BG/T&G passenger depot) and then proceed to the T&G yard to be turned around. BG trains ran from Goldfield to Beatty and then to Rhyolite. Rhyolite would be about 7-8 miles out of Beatty in the mountains and was the main mining reason for the railroad in the first place. BG trains actually backed up the hill to their yard in Rhyolite, there was no run-around track. There is certainly plenty of room, especially in Columbia and Wagner for more mining hoists and tipples. In the pictures, they are all over the place looking like oil derricks. I could easily add 2-4 more sidings for mines and be prototypical. If you want to see something amazing google Rhyolite NV and check out the old pictures compared with the current area. Thanks for the ideas. - Nevin
I like the plan, but you have time now to make it more interesting. It never hurts to have an off-the-beaten-path wobbly track down to a pallet factory or something…a place where you go for a break from the usual running back and forth, onto the turntable, and so on.
So, I say once again, with meaning and emphasis, that I would love to have what you depict. If you want to enrich it just a bit more while you have the time, you could tighten the curve to your Tonopah Staging at upper right, and add a siding or a short team track to one or both of the buildings you depict at the corner. In other words, I agree with the suggestions that you can afford to be creative still, and you have lots of space to get more “working” trackage in there without making it look like a cramped toy railroad on a 3’X6’.
I went back and added some more switching opportunites, especially in the Columbia area. Mostly they are ore tipples and mining related sidings. Every town had a team track or multiple team tracks, too so I added one of those to each of the sidings. I am trying to keep the minimum radius 24" as I would like to run some 80’ wood- sided passenger cars like the old MDC Pullman Palace cars. - Nevin
