Hi
I would like you to review my layout plan and give me your thoughts on my layout and trackplan. I am modelling Tower 17 Rosenberg and BNSF Galveston-UP Glidden-UP Galveston routes from Rosenberg to Galveston.
The sketches and planning notes are in my blog http://rosenberg-meet.blogspot.com
Thank you
Jimmy Low
Well, Jimmy - you have sure picked an interesting prototype location.
You design seems is a little too big for a quick n’ easy critique, apart from the obvious comment that turnouts sketched in by hand the way you have sketched them in will deceive you when it comes to how much you can fit into an area.
I’d recommend using a ruler to draw thin pencil help lines when drawing turnouts - like 7 units ahead for each unit to the side for a #7 turnout, and using a compass to draw curve radius help lines.
What kind of train lengths are you envisioning here ? Remember that a cut of just ten 50’ cars takes about 37" (3 feet) in 1:160 scale, while a cut of ten 89’ cars takes about 66" (5’ 6").
Good luck with your design!
Smile,
Stein
Here is a rough sketch of some of the key elements of your plan, so you can get a rough idea of what might fit:
What I have done is essensially to try to fit what I assume would be pretty tight, but probably doable curves for 89’ equipment in N scale (13* radius - about the equivalent of 13 x 1.83 = 24" radius in H0 scale).
The equivalent of what in H0 would be wide (30-32" radius) curves should in N scale be some-where around 16-17" radius curves.
For a consist of two engines and twenty 89’ cars, you would need layout staging tracks, yard tracks and passing sidings of about 20 x 89 (foot) x 12 (inches/foot) / 160 (scale factor) = 133" (11 feet) for the cars, plus a bit for the engines - say train lengths of about 12 feet for a ballpark figure.
Stein
Tusen Takk!
What you be the ideal height for the double deck layout? How many inches from floor to the base of the upper deck and from floor to base of lower deck?
My height is 175cm and shrinking as I age. Typically Malaysians are about 165-170cm.
Where would you recommend as an alternative location for Tower 17 if I want to lengthen the trackage from Tower 17 to Virginia Point while allowing UP Glidden to meet UP Galveston at the scenic divider?
Thks
Jimmy
Hmmm - conceptually your layout seems to be like this:
The orange line is the BNSF Galveston sub from Searle (Staging) to Rosenberg to Algoa to Virginia Point to BNSF West Yard in Galveston (visible end of line)
The blue line is UP Glidden sub going from San Antonio (staging) to Houston (“sorta staging”), crossing the BNSF Galveston sub at Rosenberg.
The green line is the UP Galveston sub from Houston (“sorta staging”) by way of Virginia Point to Galveston (visible end of line).
You are trying to model four scenes from two major railroads, with long trains, in a medium sized room. The scenes are:
Sorry, but I think you are just trying to cover way too much for one small to medium sized layout, especially when you also want fairly long trains.
One key problems is that you don’t have enough run length for UP trains between Rosenberg and Virginia Point and that the end of the line at Galveston is too short.
The same UP train will be blocking both locations at the same time, and won’t fit into the yard at Galveston.
You need a way of increasing run length between Rosenberg and Virginia Pt (for both RRs) and a way of representing Galveston by staging - preferably the same staging that represents Searles and San Antonio …
Instead of trying to model half of the lines in Houston, I’d suggest picking one aspect and run with it. Perhaps even a part of one aspect. It’s nice to think about doing something so large but with limited space the compromises will get so great you won’t have any fun with it. Now if you had a huge warehouse to use that would be a different story.
I live on the north side of Houston about 10 minutes away from Lloyd yard in Spring. I’d love to model many aspects around here but practicality would dictate that I only pick a section a few miles long. This is assuming I even do model this location. I’d include the wye in Spring, the cement plant west of it, parts of the yard south of the wye, the auto facilities south of the yard and maybe a couple of random industries here and there. We are only talking about an area that is a few real miles long yet there is alot to include that takes up space very quickly.
There is a gentleman here who is modelling Galveston and the island aspect alone takes up a whole room. I suggest picking a smaller area and then having fun with it.
Ah gotcha. I got confused by seeing the general map layout of the lines south of Houston. I was thinking that was a bit too much. If you are focusing on just the tower area as your focal point, everything else can be represented pretty easily by hidden staging and creative scenery.
No problem, Fred.
Stein was just trying to capture the key points from my Prototype Research notes. But in essence, 2 focal points are Tower 17 Rosenberg and Galveston Island (scaled down version).
Your comments still welcomed.
Spent a little time looking at the Rosenberg area at http://maps.live.com.
Direct link to area just west of crossing: http://tinyurl.com/6kgj4p
You see interchange tracks between the two RRs - the UP has a some extra storage tracks of some kind just west of Tower 17.
Tower and actual crossing: http://tinyurl.com/576caz
Fairly typical scene east of tower: http://tinyurl.com/5wl3aj BNSF double track mainline at bottow, separated from UP single track mainline by a little grass, some bushes and some trees.
http://tinyurl.com/68kezo - point where the BNSF mainline narrows to single track again, and curves away south of Houston, while the UP Glidden continues northeast towards Houston:
http://tinyurl.com/5rvea3 - BNSF Galveston sub passing Houston Southwest Airport.
http://tinyurl.com/5wmqod - first significant online industry I’ve seen on the BNSF Galveston sub this far - just NW of Alvin.
http://tinyurl.com/6f4hyf - second industry NW of Alvin - an oil refinery, it looks like ?
http://tinyurl.com/5ztqrh - faily big industry on the western edge of Alvin.
http://tinyurl.com/5737t7 - wye junction at Alvin,
http://tinyurl.com/6zt9p3 - wye junction at Algoa
IMO - not a whole lot of interesting landscapes or industries from Rosenberg down the BNSF sub towards Virginia Point.
http://tinyurl.com/6kx7dc - overview of Galveston Island
One thing you might want to consider when it comes to modelling where BNSF and UP cross is the ballast. I can tell whose line it is just by looking at the color of the balast. BNSF has a pinker ballast due to high levels of Feldspar in it while UP’s is more gray/white. I cross each line on my way to work and they each intersect although not at grade very near by here. The difference in ballast color is obvious.
[quote user=“steinjr”]
Spent a little time looking at the Rosenberg area at http://maps.live.com.
Direct link to area just west of crossing: http://tinyurl.com/6kgj4p
You see interchange tracks between the two RRs - the UP has a some extra storage tracks of some kind just west of Tower 17.
Tower and actual crossing: http://tinyurl.com/576caz
Fairly typical scene east of tower: http://tinyurl.com/5wl3aj BNSF double track mainline at bottow, separated from UP single track mainline by a little grass, some bushes and some trees.
http://tinyurl.com/68kezo - point where the BNSF mainline narrows to single track again, and curves away south of Houston, while the UP Glidden continues northeast towards Houston:
http://tinyurl.com/5rvea3 - BNSF Galveston sub passing Houston Southwest Airport.
http://tinyurl.com/5wmqod - first significant online industry I’ve seen on the BNSF Galveston sub this far - just NW of Alvin.
http://tinyurl.com/6f4hyf - second industry NW of Alvin - an oil refinery, it looks like ?
http://tinyurl.com/5ztqrh - faily big industry on the western edge of Alvin.
http://tinyurl.com/5737t7 - wye junction at Alvin,
http://tinyurl.com/6zt9p3 - wye junction at Algoa
IMO - not a whole lot of interesting landscapes or industries from Rosenberg down the BNSF sub towards Virginia Point.
http://tinyurl.com/6kx7dc - overview of Galveston Isla
Fred, this is VERY important piece of info. Thank you. I will check out Woodland Scenic for the right color.
As I develop the plan and choose the materials, pls keep an eye on them so that if I go off tangent from the real Rosenberg, you can pull me back 
Stein
Since you done lots of research on my layout and have a pretty good idea what I want, here’s my challenge for you, if you want to take it (this message will not self-destruct)
a. For the given space 10.5ft x 7ft, show me tha track work for a double decker. I will take away the lower deck staging yard and make full use of it. There will still be staging yard but smaller.
b. If you have the whole room to work on (I will need to negotiate with the other “land owner”, how you will design my Rosenberg Meet?
Thks.
This challenge is open to others too. So help yourself
Sorry - no can do. My design instincts are not necessarily utterly horrible for one layer H0 scale, fairly flat layouts, and I can do general research and provide general type critique for a N scale layout too.
But I just don’t have enough experience with N scale and inclines/multi-deck layouts to do usable room size designs in N scale.
Better see if you can find someone else to help you design your layout. Might be a good idea to check out some of the pros if you would like a ready to build design - like Lance Mindheim or Byron Henderson.
Smile,
Stein
Although Rosenberg is a bit of a drive from here and I never have a reason to go down there, I’d be willing to make a special “railfan” trip sometime if there are ever any pictures that you’d like taken of any certain areas.
I’ll try to take some close up pictures of each type of ballast for you but I’m not sure how well the differences will turn up in pictures. One way to find out I guess. It is very obvious in person.
Here’s a picture of an HO scale ballast which is pretty close from what I can tell. It’s the bottom track. It is from Az Rock and Mineral. Woodland Scenics doesn’t have anything even close to BNSF’s color. For N scale it’s part # is 1171.
http://www.rrscenery.com/1172combo.html
Their UP ballast looks nothing like the UP ballast here. The standard Woodland Scenics fine Gray Blend ballast would probably be fine.
If you want to get the UP into the picture you are leaving out the part where the UP actually operates over the BNSF, from Alvin to Algoa. Here’s a thought:
Green = BNSF
Blue = UP/MP
Red = SP
Lt. Blue = backdrops
Dave H.