Montana prototype/freelance - N Scale

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi all

I’m starting my new layout, bench work has begun and I am taking a module approach to this build, not the kind that can be changed around like FreeMo but just so I can take a section and build it on the bench.

Railroad will be set in Montana/Washington in the Modern Era and will have a little bit of operational aspects but I mainly like doing scenic work so the operations will suit the Industries I build that suit the layout, these will include: Coal (a mine with unit trains but no power station, that will be off layout) Timber, both sawmill and a lumber Co, Grain Elevators, produce, Gas and Oil plants.

As for the Era, when I say Modern I mean @ 1977 - 1990’s not current day, I like the older narrow Engines like SD40-s and B30-7’s etc, I have a lot of BN and CNW Engines along with a few others of the same era, no wide cab 6 axles here, mainly 4 axle’s and local Engines like RS1’s, SW1500 etc. I do like variety on the layout so you will see a lot of different road names.

Below is the plan I have draw up, the shape is locked in but the track will change as I’m still not 100% with some of it.

Plan V13

Track foot print is 8’ 10" X 9’ 10" (2700mm X 3000mm) with the top level at 54" and the lower staging at 42" (a 12" gap for the staging should be ok) Staging will be Sheridan and Decker Mine at the end and will have scenery. On the plans below the grid is 6" (150mm).

As mentioned I have made a decision to do the bench work in modules, a couple of reasons, I can remove a module to work on it at the bench and also if I need the area for any reason I can remove the sections that stick out into the Garage and still be able to do a bit of switching on Module A and B.

Why Montana?, well there is plenty of Coal, Fuel, Grain, Timber etc among other commodities and it reminds me of home i

2

Your yard might be better if you open end the ladder and just provide a runaround at the front, you would then have more yard space for cars and if you rin it to the edge, you could imply an even larger yard.

3

Hi, a good thought, that might just work but I would still need to link up the rear as the cars go in the front and out the back, engine shed is in and out same door but not cars, I will draw you idea and see how it works, in the mean time below is what I am trying to model, I would like to have a couple of through tracks, a couple of storage tracks, then a car repair shed with two bays and one bay for engines and a refueling track, I also need to store a shunter in this location, like an RS1 or SW1500 as an example that will work this yard. With operations I plan to have the cars arrive here and be dropped by trains as per a schedule set up in JMRI, this will be one role on the layout and all cars will be serviced depending on usage so should offer some variety and give an oppertunity ro rotate cars on and off the layout.

Anyway, any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.

The black box over the picture indicates the buildings I want to model including a turntable, repair shed and Machine shop, yard office and fueling area/ diesel tank

4

Ok, I have come up with this

Also painted the facia and added my NCE panel, I will use one of the engine tracks to do the programing on.

Thats it for a while, long weekend was great but back to work now so not as much progress.

Thanks for looking and please comment.

5

I understand what you are trying to do, it is just you don’t have the room, switches take up alot of room. I ran into this problem and I have alot more room than you, so unless you want a foldup extention on the end, I don’t think you will be happy with the outcome if you want to accually switch the yard.

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hi, thanks for the feedback

i might be asking too much for the space, I will print off this section 1:1 and have a look at it in full size, as long as I can get one car and one engine in the shed I think that will do with one storage track or siding and I only need one main line as the next straight module “c” will only have a single main so I can concentrate on scenery.

7

What is the square on the bottom?

8

Looking on google, you are really modeling the engine shops not car shops.

The bright white building next to the yard looks like the service track. The building with all the roof vents is the repair shed for the locomotives. If you haven’t bought the turn table you could do with a smaller one, the real one is only about 90 ft long (about 1 engine).

I can’t tell whether the long building going away from the yard is being used as a car shop or was a backshop. It doesn’t look like its being used at all. There are no cars queued up to be worked on and there are no cars in the parking lots (no cars =no workers=no work)

Look at the car shops at Havelock, NE (BNSF), Palestine, TX (UP) or GBW Railcar in Omaha, NE (Private) to see an active railcar repair facility.

What you are really modeling appears the be the MRL engine shops and that doesn’t appear to be that active either, since there aren’t a lot of engines queued up. Look at Union Pacific, Hinkle OR to see what an active shop looks like. The two track long white building is the service track, the big building with the vents on the roof is the shop and the ready tracks are to the left. Note there are engines queued up on

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Just for giggles, you can go to https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer Historic Aerials and look at older aerial photos and topo maps. They have several back to 1996 and one in 1948. The '48 photo shows the full roundhouse.

If you search for “Livingston, MT railroad images” you will get some pictures of the shops when they were active and a couple shots of the interior of the new shop (the one with the white roof and the vents).

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Accually the turntable looks like a relic from a bygone age in the photo.

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Pretty much all turntables are relics from the steam era.

If you go to the Historic Aerials site and look at the 1948 era photo you can seet he whole roundhouse structure that was there before the diesel shop.

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looked at the site but had trouble fiquring out what to do quickly

13

Hi guys

thanks for the info, it is an engine shop, always has been. Main car shops were in Laurel, Helena and Missoula but I only have space for one repair yard so Livingstone will do all repairs. Have a look at this link on the History of the yard, in the 70’s it was one of the biggest in the country with the BN coal train boom. and this is the era I’m modelling so with a little compression and a bit of freelance I will try and capture the era. A good idea of setting the building into the backdrop, and once I remove a few switches and track it should start to look like it will be both operational and good to scene.

thanks again, not being from the area is hard and i am only going off what I can research so having people fill in the gaps is great!

Also good link on the historic photos.

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Had a bit of time this weekend to make some changes to the track plan and also do some more work to Module C.

Entire room and track plan:

Module A - Livingston

Module D - Lead into Billings

Module E - Billings

Module F - Huntley

Module C has legs.

Comments Welcome

Have a great week.