Help! I was reading a back issue, Great Model Railroads 1996, and I came across an article about Jack Wright’s SVR short line. As soon as I saw those 70 tonners and tiny rail, I fell in love. Now all I want is a little shortline of my own.
Here’s what I want: A layout equally balenced between switching and mainline ops, in a pleasent environment, small locos and easy to operate with a small crew. The loco roster would be switchers and small roadswitchers. The layout would be set in the fall somewhere in New England. Most of all, I want this layout to be fun! (and easy to complete somewhere in the near future.
Here’s what I currently have, which is a complete mess for pretty much anything.: A 12 by 22 behemeth in the unfinished basement, designed to be a large regional operating between Palmer, Ma, and Albany, NY. Roster consists of a C40-8, a SDP35, a U23B, a GP9M, and an Amtrak P40. The layout s also unsuitable for a regional, because of it’s 22-inch radius curves. It makes almost no sense and requires a lot of explaining to visiters.
EDIT: I don’t want to tear down, because of the $20a sheet of extruded foam used as the base. Do I need to sell over-large equipment? I could keep the GP9, and U23B, and possibly the SDP35.
Can somebody help? (ideas, tips, advice, anything?)
Shortlines give you the best of everythging. Keep your big engines for a stretch class one mainline that has an interchange with the shortline and you have two sorts on the interchange tracks.
I like that idea, but my mainline is pretty much a giant loop around a kidney-shaped table with a backdrop down the middle. I’m not sure how to construct another line without it either being a dummy track or a spaghetti bowl.
Do you think it’s plausable to completly reconstruct it, taking the foam off the table and re-mounting it on “dominoes”? That way I wouldn’t have to destroy it when I move eventually. I prefer an around the wall arangement, but this layout wasn’t really thought through when I built it a few years back.
Thanks! I’m not sure how my dad, (who helped me build the layout in the first placa and funded the benchwork and foam, a couple hundred dollers) would feel about this though… I think I will wait to tell him till I have a good track plan. Who knows, maybe I won’t destroy it after all…
If I do take it apart, I hope to keep my yard, it has 6 double ended tracks, and 3 spur tracks, plus the mainline. I think I will convert all my 2 finished sections to LDEs, and save the rest of the foam and lumber for more “dominoes” as I like the modular approach.
Thanks! If you have any more ideas, please post them!
I love 70 tonners! But getting a good one which runs well has been difficult. Their light weight and short wheelbase causes stalling on certain switches. The best 70 ton performer I have found is one of the newer single motor (they used to come with two) DCC ready locos by Bachmann Spectrum. After adding a LokSound Micro decoder the performance improved considerably, plus I had sound and better lighting.
If you want a reliable engine with great slow speed and good looks my recommendation would be a Proto 2000 switcher. They are good runners with or without decoders.
Thanks! I will probably use my SDP35 as my largest loco, pached, heavily weathered, most likely still in UP paint like it is now. My current layout is 12 by 20, but if I rebuild it will be modular so I can take it to train shows, ect. I will probably operate GP9s as most of my locos, although there will also be switchers. I will also keep my U23B, as it is my favorite loco I own.
You need to decide on a timeframe, location and style of road.
You need to think out a traffic pattern.
You can go for a yard or a couple of yards on the shortline OR
You can go for a long wiggle of line with several spurs served by rail OR
You can combine a yard with some line - or vice versa…
How profitable is your road? Is it dieing, staggering along, ambling along or growing?
Brakie’s threads talk some good sense about numbers of cars and traffic… you really need to consider these things.
You need to get your head round all these things to some degree and build a satisfactory (to you) picture. The reason for this is that you can get some way along on a project - even a shortline that you really love the idea of… and find that (a) it will only do a very small range of things that maintain your interest and/or (b) you find an old article on something else that interests you… and gives you a whole new direction to go off in…
Not that anyone here would ever have done anything like that [:-^]
Thanks. I was thinking the SDP would have it’s passenger unit removed and would be purchesed second-hand from UP when UP dumped them. This is a modern bridge line, and the track plan would be the yard, (I decided not to rebuild, just to change the operation and locos) and industries along the right of way. There is also a crossing of the Berkshires, which may require helpers. One of the main reasons I want to model a short line is train leingth, most class 1s don’t use 22-inch radius curves, 4% grades, or run 7 car trains.[:D]
I will try to up trains to at least 10 cars, but I only have about 15 active cars with no problems. I recently ran a train with 12 cars and 3 locos, and it string-lined at the summet of the pass, some of the cars were suspended above the rails, held up by the tension on their couplers, at 1 end, the 16 axles of the locos and 4% grade, and at the other end, the few cars, heavy caboose and grade.
Most of the locos will be “second hand” which explains why they can be older units in a modern shortline. There won’t be any passenger, except for 1 or 2 buisness cars. I also own a P40 and 3 amfleet coaches, which is currently being used as the re-routed Lake Shore Limited. (the Springfield Central RR runs from Albany to Palmer, MA along the route of the LSL.)
I may discontinue the LSL, but I am hesatent because of the equipment. If I don’t, I need to get some Viewliners for a prototypicly correct consist.
Dave,A lot of the more stable short lines are dumping their old trusty GP7/9 or GP8/10/16 rebuilds in favor of more “modern” locomotives such as GP38s,GP40s,GP38-2s and of course GP40-2s…Some has SD40Ts some sport SD45s or 6 axle GEs!
As you say it all depends on how strong the short line is and traffic hauled and potential traffic growth…Modern short lines are pose and ready for the continuing traffic growth and many has seen that growth in the number of cars they handle annually raise…
Another thing I’d ask for your shortline is whether you want to follow and emulate an existing route while using your own railroad like Springfield Central, or whether you want to model a line not operating during your era or a line that never existed.
Modeling a freelance road is difficult in New England if you do not want to directly follow an existing route because the region is already so saturated with rail lines that it is hard to imagine more being able to exist.
Tyler, I’m in the same boat as you. As you have seen from previous threads and forums, my plans have continually changed from modeling the Hoosac Tunnel Route to a small regional from Charlemont through Northampton on to Worcester and back to the Hoosac Tunnel Route. But as time passes, i’m seeing the need to plan simpler, plan smaller. So the obvious choice was a shortline. But how could I possibly find a plausible line in New England to resurrect from abandonment? I thought through many routes until I found one that struck me. Hopefully this might give you some ideas or might become a good discussion point in the thread (but not to hijack).
I haven’t come up with a name yet, but for now we’ll use Vermont Southern. The railroad would be set in the present day with perhaps a bit of espresso fed to projects in Providence, RI that are currently under construction.
The VS runs from Bellows Falls, VT to Gardner, MA over the B&M’s former Cheshire branch. Actually, recently a shortline operator did try to reopen this line, so it must have some potential (ST prevented).
Interchange at Bellows Falls with NECR, VRS, and B&M (BTW, my plan is for the B&M to still be alive in the modern day, however unplausible that is)
Interchange at Gardner, MA with B&M and PW. The PW junction is especially significant. Routing traffic from the former CV and Rutland goes via Gardner, increasing the travel length on PW, meaning that they would support moving traffic from the f
Yeah. After I planned it out, I found out that CSX pretty much paralells my route. (Conrail in my 1996/7 era) The train club I used t obelong to also ran paralell. I’m thinking of re-orginising my route, and possibly re-naming it.
I think that other than a couple free-lanced lines, I’m going to have reality mostly like it was back then; (no mergers that never happened, ect.) The only thing limiting my decision is that I need to find a large mountain range for my already-constructed pass to cross. I definetly want a New England line, but I’m not sure of the route.
thinking…thinking…
All right. I’ve got an idea. Near where I live, there’s an abandoned line. The farthest ends I know about are West Boylston, MA, the next town over from where I live, where it has been turned into a bike trail, then the next point I’ve found is in Clinton, where it crossed a valley on a huge bridge just below the dam, then it makes it’s way to Berlin, where it skirts the town, then it goes under Interstate 495, then I think it makes it’s way to Acton, MA, where is the farthest I’ve found it.
I don’t know what to call the RR yet, but my railroad bought these tracks right before they were abandoned, then resurected service. I just followed it with Google Maps and they join up with the MBTA tracks in Belmont![%-)] I guess they switch do different tracks to go to Acton, then they go up North or something. I don’t know yet.
What you are looking at are the Central Massachusetts Branch and the Maynard branch of the B&M.
The Central Massachusetts splits from the Fitchburg Main just west of Belmont at Clematis Brook, after which it crosses over the Fitchburg near I-95. From there it continues through Sudbury into Hudson. At Hudson, the Marlboro Branch crosses. This branch began at South Acton. However, the track from Maynard to Hudson was removed, creating two separate branches. These were the Maynard Branch, from SA to Maynard, and the Marlboro branch, from Hudson to Marlboro. Continuing west from Hudson, the CM used a significant tunnel to reach Clinton, MA where it first crossed the B&A and then later merged into the B&M line to Worcester. Soon enough, it split off again bound towards Ware, Barre. and eventually all the way to Northampton, MA. Because this route was so redundant of surrounding routes without accessing important centers of commerce, it was never very successful. Slowly by slowly it was cut back, with the parts cut earlier much harder to follow. I was able to track it to about Ware, after which it disappeared.
The Maynard branch stayed for a long while into the 1960’s as a storage point for Budd RDC units from SA.
You could probably build an interesting short line off of this route, and if it is not a big deal to you change the history that the railroad could not afford a tunnel to be built, justifying your pass. Keep in mind that most of the traffic coming from these resurrected lines would have to be from online industry, versus run-through, if you were intending to follow the prototype railroad economics. You could run commuter service into Boston with your Amtrak fleet pretty plausibly, as the MBTA has historically had shortages forcing Amtrak equipment to be used, especially when Amtrak had the operating contracts. Moreso, this could ju
