After years of indoctrination by well-known authors in the Model Railroad hobby print, the concept of railroading “beyond the basement” is pretty well established. And there are some terrific layouts out there that demonstrate the principle pretty well. But today I’d like to talk to all those “other guys” who’s railroads extend to edge of the layout and no further. Actually, its okay if your railroad does connect to “somewhere else” as long as one end of it terminates on your layout.
My Question For Today:
– So how about it? Do you have a terminus you’d like to tell us about?
That’s it, really simple. Tell us about the end of your line.
(And if you are one of those “Beyond the basement types”, you can tell us about your railroads too
As usual, I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and comments!
I want to add a curved switch to my layout so that the outside divergent goes off to a straight spur going right off the edge of the layout. WHere it will go who knows? Maybe someday when I have mroe space, It will go right to another section of a larger layout. I want it there “just cuz” or “to make people ask questions”.
One thing is for sure there will be NO POWER to that sur so if it happens to get switched on, my locos wont get lost in the grand abyss that ends inthe floor…
Seeing as how my layout is a point to point it has what, technically, can be called 2 dead ends—one is an interchange with CN and the other end ends–hah! – at the end of a spur that used to go over a bridge—which no longer exists…
I haven’t got an end of the line yet. The move earlier this year dismantled the layout and I don’t have the next one built yet. The old one was point ti point with interchange tracks at each end.
My layout really IS the end of the line. It represents the Gulf of Mexico terminus of the Santa Fe on Galveston Island, Texas.
Reached by a two mile long causeway. The prototype:
My model:
This is the end of the line for all Santa Fe trains on my layout. Santa Fe’s Trexas Chief ends its southbound run here in the evening, and departs as a new train northbound to Chicago in the morning. A mail and express arrived southbound in the morning and its opposite number leavbes north in the evening. (Not built yet- computer mockup of the terminal depot…)
I plan two merchandise freights inbound daily and two outbound, plus a local that runs alternate days in and out.
Plus grain extras to the export terminal-
Occasional cotton nextras in season to the terminal compress. (onkly background so far)
Strings of special sulphur gondolas to the sulphur export terminal
Outbound solid trains of bananas when the once a week “banana boat” d
Ok, I’ll bite. My layout goes from an interchange/fiddle yard “beyond the basement” (actually beyond the spare room in my case) to an end of the line terminal. I model a semi proto-lanced Southern branch in the Carolina piedmont. I say “proto-lanced” because it’s inspired by several real SR branches that once existed, though I model none exactly. In each case the branch ran through a couple of small towns to a mill town at the end of the line. Typical small town industries of the 50s (lumber, gas & oil, pulpwood, and cotton mill). In each of these towns on the real branches, the railroad just, well, ends. No hidden portals, bridges to disguise the backdrop or anything.
In these small towns to me the railroad represents the connection to the outside world. The world comes to you on the railroad. Yet it also represents the dream of going somewhere. Not just a station stop for passing through, but a place to dream.
This is the A. N. Bradford coal mine, the end of the (freelanced) D&RGW narrow-gauge ‘Bradford Branch’. The swing bridge to the rear-left leads to a staging yard running along the wall, but will eventually lead to the other ‘end of the line’ - the junction town of ‘Bradford, CO’, where the branch joins the mainline. The mainline itself will extend ‘beyond the garage’ in both directions out of the town, looping around to a staging yard at the back. Locomotives will run tender-first out of the mine, before being turned on the turntable that will be at Bradford, if needed.
Operationally, the mine is served by four trains per ‘week’ - a passenger run on Monday, followed by a supply train. Tuesday sees the ‘empties run’, which brings in empty gondolas and takes out the empty supply cars. Fridays see a coal train picking up the week’s output, followed by another passenger run to bring the miners home.
My Valley RR really does have two ends: it ties into the NH’s Shore Line in Old Saybrook and into the “Air Line” in Middletown. Each is represented by a short stub of track which runs across the layout. Passenger trains diverge onto one of the two routes, and freights can spot cars for other trains to pick up.
Having an ‘end of the line’ on our model railroads is a necessary evil. Different modelers use different techniques for modeling it, as the reason for your inquiry.
I faced the same problem when designing my track plan. I also like to just rail fan on my layout once in a while, as well as operating it in a realistic manner, and hosting operating sessions. So my main line forms a roundy-round run, going around the room twice before it gets back to the same place. The end of the line for my RR, for both directions, is an interchange yard. One for the west end, and another for the east end. About mid way between the two ends where the interchange yard is, is my Division Point yard, and a train length away is a port with a car float connection.
Now back to the ‘end of the line’ which are the interchanges. The west interchange is one double ended siding, and the east interchange is another double ended siding, both physically in the same small three track looking yard. Each track can hold one train of average length or the equivalent number of cars. The third siding can be used as either a run around for switching either track, and / or a through running track. Now, these interchange tracks can be used as either an interchange, or a staging track for a full train. Currently I am using one of each.
So in a nutshell, my RR runs between two interchanges, which are the ends of the line for my railroad.
I’m primarily a scenery and railfanning guy, so continuous running is really my preference. However, I did model an end-of-the line station for my subways, with a pair of stub-end tracks. I named it South Ferry, after the station at the southern tip of Manhattan in the New York City system. It’s an appropriate name, because nearby on the surface, there will be a car float terminal. This is what I call Phase 2B of my layout, because Phase 2 got to be too much. It’s planned, and most of the benchwork is there, but there’s not even a good drawing of the car float terminal yet.
That’s an end-of-the-line, too, but at the same time it points to a wider world on the other side of the imaginary body of water I call Moose Bay. The float itself will be one of those operational “alpha and omega” things. It’s a load of cars that need to be pulled, switched and made into trains to go elsewhere, and then another load needs to be gathered, assembled and pushed onto the float for the return trip.
And then, there’s Phase 3. It’s planned as a long, narrow extension of the layout, with a single track running down to the end. There will be a small turntable to reverse small engines or trolleys. There will be a few small industries, but it’s not going to be railroad-intensive.
I’ve got no plans after Phase 3. I suppose that will be it. The end of the line.
The Baltimore and Ohio Georgetown Branch ended in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
I am modeling the 13 mile line as best I can in my available space.
Located on the Metropolitan Subdivision of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad the Georgetown Branch line was started 1892. By 1910 the line was completed to Georgetown with regular service starting in July of that year.
The Georgetown Branch parts from the Baltimore & Ohio main line in Silver Spring, Maryland. The branch runs 13 miles to Georgetown located in Washington D.C.
The branch served as a minor freight spur carrying coal, building materials, flour and other goods to local outlets in Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Georgetown.
The ruling grade was 1.51 percent for a short distance near the Dalcarlia Tunnel. The tunnel passed under the Great Falls conduit that carries water from Great Falls on the upper Potomac River to the water treatment plants just inside the Washington D.C. line.
The branch was home to several unique features such as the Rock Creek Trestle that was 1400 feet long when it was first built in 1892.
The line also passed under a large office building creating a second tunnel on the branch. The Air Rights Building was built in the early 60’s.
The branch was in operation until 1985. It has since been been converted to a hiking and biking trail. A complete history of the branch and trail can be found at the Capitol Crescent Trail Web Site.
My railroad is a short line that runs from an interchange with a class 1 railroad to a port. The mainline ends at the waters edge (edge of bench work). If a train dosn’t stop it pluges 470 scale feet of very clear water an lands on a soft bottom (rug). I have had this happen only once when I was working on an electrical problem and when the track got power the last thing I saw was the local switcher plunging over the end. The padded rug save it. There now is a very strong stop there now.
Well, the basis for my layout (currently in the planning stages, with much rolling stock already on hand) is the Gainesville Northwestern, which connected and interchanged with Southern Railway in Gainesville, GA, and ran up into the foothills. It split about halfway, one branch went on to serve a copper mine where it ended, the other up to a logging/lumber mill and ended there as well. So, it actually terminates twice, in two separate places, in addition to interchange at the third. My profile photo shows a builders photo for one of their locos.
My ‘work in (very slow) progress’ layout stands with one foot planted firmly in each camp.
The major ‘actor,’ the Japan National Railway, is a mostly-hidden loop, partially single track, with a variety of staging yards to support the prototype’s incredibly dense traffic. Only two stations will be visible once the scenery goes in.
The secondary route, the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo (Wealth River Valley Iron Road) is almost a pure point-to-point. The low end interchanges with the JNR at the latter’s larger station (Tomikawa.) The high end terminates at a large colliery roughly based on one that once operated in Fukuoka-ken. There is a loads out/empties in connection between the colliery and a hidden interchange in the Netherworld, but the connection is made by elevator.
Even though there is a closed mainline loop, nothing is intended to orbit the railroad. Every train operates from a point in staging to either Tomikawa (EMU and local freights terminate) or another point in staging.
If I ever get to the point that I can make the two narrow(er) gauge feeders operational, they will be purely point-to-point, with modeled termini.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - eventually)
After unearthing my long forgotten, but not lost treasure, a HON3 WMC D&RGW T-12 brass loco, if have been playing with the thought to give this little beauty a place to go to work. Being short of space (and even more important, cash) I have finally come up with a plan following the classic British “terminus to fiddle-yard design”. Guess what it is called!
It´ll be the beginning of a hopefully much larger system, should my job situation improve one day - but it will remain a point-to-point layout!
My layout could best be described as a point-to-loop-to-loop-to-point. One point is the main yard and engine facilities in the city of Selma, Al. The railroad winds around to the junction at Burnsville, Al. Here the trains will go down one of two lines that lead to two looped staging yards, one representing northwest around to south traffic, while the other, larger looped staging represents northeast around to southeast traffic. Also at Burnsville is the branchline junction, which winds up and over the main level almost twice to end at a small town which only has a stock yard, team track and a small station.
The further up the branch you go, smaller and smaller locos are required to reach the end of the line. There will be a small TT to turn the locos here for the return trip down.
I call this layout my last layout that I will ever have. (This is #8 if anyone is counting.)[;)] I started it about 4 years ago. I plan to have the trackwork finished within 2 years, and completely debugged before any scenery is done.
Currently the staging and main levels are complete, and except for the staging loops, all track is handlaid with code 83 and code 70. The turnouts were all built in place.
My layout is a folded point to reversing loop. The reversing loop is enclosed in a tunnel, so I use it for staging. The polarity reversing switch on the loop has a center off position, so I can park a train in there and pretend it has ventured off to a more distant location, then bring it back via another tunnel opening and sure enough, it’s pointed the other direction.
The “point” end of the layout represents a fictional town of Butte Creek, Oregon. The main line does stop at the edge, and I pretend that Ashland is further down the pike. The Butte Creek yard has a turntable, so I can do some switching and get the locomotive pointed the other way.
However…
Last spring I got married and my new wife actually and sincerely asked, “Do you wish you had more space for your trains?” [:|]
She and I just moved to a new house - it’s larger, cuter (her term), and closer to work. I now have significantly more space for my layout. [:D] I disassembled and brought the whole thing with me, so it will be fairly quick to get things back to where they were before. Given more space, I’m planning to add the town of Ashland. It will connect where the track used to just stop and it will have a loop, too, so I can run trains more or less continuously if I want (I suspect that in a few years my infant grand daughter will appreciate that she doesn’t have to wait for switching operations). It will also give me another place to stage a train.
Even with the addition of another loop, I’ll be pretending that the track actually continues on to another Oregon town, because it is rare that a prototype main line reaches a town and just ends (I assume that there are examples, but I know of only one).
Here’s my track plan as it was in its old location (it had a furnace in the middle). The town of Ashland will be a new piece added at the bottom, making the layout an L shape:
