Well, Credit this magazine for luring me into this hobby. Now in a matter of 2 weeks I have aquired 3 Engines, (SP SD), (South West Chief F3A), and Best off allThe Burlington F3A-F3B, from the late 1940’s, You know the one that pulled the Zephyr along the West Coast. Well, yes I did buy the entire 11 car Consist as well, Heck I can imagine myself in the rear gondola playing cards in the private poker game. My layout will be themed on the Lower Sacramento Delta, Towards Concord ca 1948.
On my base of 14’x8’ working area Layout I plan to include the following. The Standard double track long oval using most of said base. Plus:
A Dock/Slip with 1 freighter on one side and Auxilliary boats on (a dredger & Barges) on the other, Juting into one of the corners. A nice girder bridge spanning it will be part of it. Dock Faciltiies including pre-container cranes & equipment. At the very end of the Slip there will be Flood control Aparatus as I deem that two branches of the Sacramento river system acutally merge just on the other side of the Controll aparatus. So Two significant rivers will be snaking on the layout. Well that’s the SW quadrant
Towards the NW Quardant will be the Edge of a small Town, with an Airfield. I was toying with the Idea of Drive-In Theater. But they take up way too much space, and is not of the Era. The Airflield will include a plane on “take off” plus some smaller hangers and a “AIR LINE” call it Concord Air Transit, operating out of It.
Towards the NE Quadrant the land will begin to undulate and surprise a double tunnel will be created for the double rails. a bit before the tunnel entance there will be swich available to auxilliary line that will run outside in the foreground on the "Rugged&n
Forgot to say that I ran a train store out of Rail equipment, for N stuff. Okay I took pity and let them retain ONE of everything. I have not bought Plastic Models of structures. I think I am going to model those myself using balsa wood, maginifyer and shap blade.
Oh, yes for some reason I have a particular love for TANK CARS. All kinds of them. Not too fond of flat cars (extra expense of putting things on them, But yes give me DUPONT or GLAXO or hell even a TANKARD OF MOUNTAIN DEW
You might want to start with something a little smaller to get your feet wet but it sounds like a great idea for a railroad…Does the guy at the hobby shop call you by your first name and send you a Christmas card?..Cox 47
I’m with Cox 47 about easing in a bite at a time. You could even do like the prototype years ago and build to serve a specific area/market today, expand to the next town once you are stable and grow accordingly as experience dictates. Back in the early 70’s, my Grandfather & I replaced his 120sqft 0-27 layout with slightly more space consumed with a spagetti bowl of N scale. Long trains, lots of horses, tricky trackwork, inaccessable tunnels…and a total misunderstanding of track components and small elec. engines that boggled our capabilities. Talk about hindsight being better that foresight !
Well, the store did stencil my name on parking stall #3.
Actually You know in the first week, I had Two Engines. and made a nice oval with a Kato double track quick build. I ran it all weekend and tested a crossing switch, and put a few spur lines All this on bare hardwood floors, so a temporary rig it was at best. But Enough of the OVAL:
I went back to the store and bought the Zephyr and Burlington engine. Plus about 150’ of simple tract, and 6 more switches. and Boy I am glad I am in N-scale. I realize that some N hardware is not prototypical, but a 14x8 layout gets you a great railroad.
Incidentally I love the Kato Double track, but the set is too pricey to replicate a huge oval, so I went to my local hobby store and bought enough balsa wood to mount the rails in the “correct and matching” Kato Configuration, saving me about 200$ in railstock purchases.
Now I need a name for My railroad. (I own the rail, leased to UP,Burlington,SF… He He)
Rob
P.S. I measured the Speed of the Zephyr Flat out, 210 mph, a little high for the times ehh??
I don’t mean balsa wood as the structural base of layout. Only as a 4’’ base for the double rail long oval. Balsa is easy to work with and hollow. and I dont want to Indent the Polystyrene to create the base as you will see below. I will only use it to mount the outside oval.
I am using four panels of 2" polystyrene 8x7 as a base, each framed by 2"x1/2" 8 foot polished pine, with underwire support across the narrow side every 2 feet(placed in between clear two layers 2’’ packing tape. (not too tight just enough to keep it from deforming too much)
because I want to be able to tear down my set and transport it, Most of the terrain features will be modular. some of the more delicate such as the Docks/Pier diorama mounted on balsa wood.
NOW FOR THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART NAMING THE RAILROAD.
Some backround. The Freelance railroad I am modeling consists of two recently merged companies. The more western company was the Berkley,Concord & Modesto Railroad, Whose primary revenue consisted of passenger traffic, & Freight (wheat & Corn, for the Whosesale market and milling plant about the Concord area.) It owned some Slips and shore facifilites on the Lower sacramento Delta. The Eastern Portion was named the Central Sierra Railroad. It was primarily a Freight operation with consists of Coal,Bauxite,Cattle,timber,and Oil. It also operated a modest passenger service From Modesto direct to Sacramento. The Merger was proposed by B,C&M as they wanted to utilize off hour lines for freight revenue. The Central Sierra looked forward to a Passenger route to Eastern Bay area to compete with other Railroads. It was however Mr H.J. Duqueskene the Construction Division Chief of B,C&M that really propelled it to prominence. The Excellent quality of Bridge spans he built held up very well during two floods in 1946 1948. With many of their bridges a total loss, the Upac, ATSF & SP were forced to lease rights from the new entity.
The names suggested by the rival Presidents of pre-merger period.
The way I see it is, if you’ve got the money and time, go for it!. But keep in mind that some times newbie model railroaders that jump into the hobby and go crazy usually don’t last but a year or two before they burn out. I know because it happened to me when I first got into it back in the 1980s…
Sounds like a very ambitious project you have set out before you. Good luck.
As to a name, I like to use geographic terms, like most railroads do. Since you are piecing together a merger, how about THE SACRAMENTO CENTRAL. Since it will have a regional flair, you can lease any older equipment you would like from the neighboring CLASS 1’s.
As to the Burn out factor, yes, if I were to try to do modeling and terrain layouts & structures every evening, it would be a chore rather than a hobby. I am only going to build the basic bare layout for now and take my time with the rest. (although I am eager to build the Merchant ship) I am good scratch builder so other than trying to carve a realistc looking Open cowling Wright Radial engine for a DC-3 under repair, not too much daunts me. I just wish I have enought space to justify a Lockheed Constellation at a larger Airfield.
Sacramento Central, Hmm. Another consideration.
Incidentally has anyone used the business side of rough Sand Paper as trackbed pathing. It might be too Tan for most but, for Dry areas (which mine is not).
Apologies to those reading this thread looking to see if there is in fact a real railroad I am building and not in my imagination. I present the Evidence, PICS. and yes the mail man did plop his delivery about the same time I was doing this.
it’s very crude draft but you get the Idea
This is a view from one corner of the test layout,
A view towards the future freighter dock slip. and you can see a SF engine pulling a short consist near the water hazard place to give you reference.
Here is a view along the shorter leg of the regtangle lookingt to toward the Harbor, along with the leading edge of a Zephyr Engine & cars.
Some notes: on what i’ve learned from the test
I will have to reduce by layout size by 1 foot to 13’ length. the 8’ wide seems to work.
As I suspected, the blue area shown should be max size for the harbor as any more jutting will grab too land. After all, there will two rivers will be merging closeby grabbing more land towards the center.
The first priority is giving ridigity to the 4 Bases. That foam is unruly, but fortunately easily painted. used a jigsaw with a fine blade with guides to trim some excess, will trim more shortly
That’s all for now, as I said Will post future updates on the “N-scale” thread.
