Its been a while since I posted a progress update on my CNJ Bronx Terminal layout.
Over the last 6 weeks or so I have been working feverishly in an attempt to get the layout running before we take it to the NMRA Train Show in Hartford this July, where it will be set up and running in our Fast Tracks booth.
This week I finally got all the wiring completed and the layout is now fully operational. Yay!
Below is a bit of HD video of the layout running…
Clicking on the video above will take you to my site where the video is playable. Be sure to watch it in HD if you can.
You have some well designed and complicated track work. Did I mention beautifully done?
How many hours do you have invested?
The design must have been very time consuming. How were you able to be sure that such a complicated switch/crossover combination would work properly before you committed to building?
That is one incredible track laying job. From what I remember of original photos, you have duplicated the intricate track work of the original. I haven’t seen the rest of your layout (I’ll have to find it, I’ll run the video on my home computer.) I’m sure you have the engine house, did you include the liftout rail sections the CNJ used to get the motor cabs out of the house? I found that to be a facinating idea for a cramped terminal area along with the round warehouse.
An absolute triumph of hand-laid versus bubble-pack turnouts. I cringe at the thought of how much space would have to be added if ‘over the counter’ Atlas, Peco etc… were laid to the prototype’s track plan.
Don’t forget to give your model switchman a short-handled sledgehammer. It was sometimes needed to convince couplers to lock knuckles on the inner freight house track.
Chuck (Former resident of ‘Da Bronx,’ modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If you want to know more about the Bronx Terminal take a look at www.handlaidtrack.com, click on the logo of the “Bronx Terminal” at the bottom of the page.
Track plan was designed with a CAD program probably AUTOCAD.
Currently the layout is running, all the switch machines (30 Tortoises) are installed and controlled from DS-64’s with 32 routes programmed that are operated from a hand held DT-400IR throttle. There are no control panels on the layout.
The layout is built to scale from prototype drawings. Here is a shot of the origional…
All that complex trackwork was actually built and used for over 50 years. The terminal was home to the first diesel locomotive built and operated in North America, purchased in 1925 due to smoke ordnance laws for railroads operating within city limits.
It was served completely by water, no connection to an outside railroad. Cars were brought in on floats, 17 to 35 at a time (they brought 2 floats in at a time).
The terminal has an interesting backstory with many innovative solutions to space problems, such as the round freight house and complex trackwork to allow it to fit into the 2 acres available along the Harlem River.
I started researching the terminal about 10 years ago and did the initial CAD drawings then using Microstation, an older professional level 2D drafting system. Currently all the work is done using much more sophisticated 3D parametrically driven modeling software.
The layout will have its “official” unveiling at the NMRA Train Show next month in Hartford where it tp://www.bronx-termwill finally be operational. There is still lots left to do on it, so far only the trackwork is complete. I will be building the round freight house with one section that will have a complete interior. A float bridge, engine house, traveling crane, two stationary cranes and the elevated roadway will also be added.
Once all that is done, I will work on “The New Yard”, a small addi
This really is a great, complicated project! Excellent stuff! [bow]
Few questions:
1, How did you deal with triangles in the track, electrically speaking?
2. I can see (in video) one Ma&Pa boxcar, is it Funaro resin kit?
3. How did trucks go out from the freighthouse, via bridge? Are the tracks on an island, or on shore?
