I’ve been following the Rice Harbor layout both in the magazine and the online extras. I’m considering starting a layout based on it this Spring (when the weather is nice and I can do my wood cutting outside.
I’m considering the following changes though,please tell me what you think:
I’m not going to make it so it can be put together two different ways, I’ll do it as the “pregnant 4x8”.
I’ll be relocating it from the South to New Jersey, it’s the area I live in.
Rather than have the one big warehouse in the middle act as two different warehouses, I’m thinking of putting a view block (double-sided backdrop) between those two buildings. That will make the layout seem bigger by hiding the other side. That way the who warehouses can use different construction, or I may turn the one facing away from the dock into some other industries like a lumber hard, diary, etc.
I’m considering hand-laying my track, it’ll be much cheaper than buying curved turnouts, and I’ve wanted to try my hand at it for a long time.
So where would you set it in Jersey - clearly not the Hudson River/Newark Bay area, which was pretty dense urban and industrial in the 1930s (assuming you keep the same time period).
It seems Southern Jersey might work, but did that area have car float service in the 1930s (yeah, you could just fake it). Small waterfront town with a small but active harbor and some industry during the depression - not sure. Bivalve? Maurice River? Maybe along the Atlantic Shore? Tom River, Atlantic Highlands, parts of Ocean City? around Cape May?
Also, I thought the reasoning for the “Big Warehouse” was specifically to avoid a traditional view-block of a big piece of styrene or wood panel backdrop (the warehouse serves that purpose) - no really good way to hide the view-block vertical panel edges on this sort of layout.
Sounds good to me. The view block sounds great. With that you can put more building flats, etc. I also have a 4x8 and the size is great for 1 or 2 people to operate.
This will work, but you lose some flexibility. If you have the space I would go with the original plan so you can try out a point to point.
I agree with this. Any plan should be set in the locale that interests you.
Also agree with this. It’ll change the flavor a bit, but that’s okay.
If you’re primary motivation is saving money, than I would skip it and use the RTR turnouts. There aren’t that many and you may find it frustrating. I suggest you try building a #4 turnout first and see how it goes, before you commit to this.
As long as you can get at all sides of the, “Pregnant 4x8,” during construction, it shouldn’t offer any problems. You might consider mounting it on casters so you can move it around for ease of access.
It’s always better to work with an area you know well. The Jersey Shore had a fair number of little dog-hole ports back when.
You might have one building at the end be two-sided, then extend the viewblock from it to the end of the table on the end that’s likely to be against a wall during operation. My own thought was that the warehouse was WAY oversize for the potential traffic - that dog-hole isn’t New York Harbor. A smaller warehouse, a fish market, a ship chandlery… None of them huge, all sized to the scale of the vessels they serve.
Since the back side is away from the water you can have a fair sample of the small-town businesses that once had rail service but now are either rubber-wheel territory or extinct (retail coal dealership, for example.)
I personally prefer to use flex for plain-jane track, with only specialwork hand laid. It isn’t difficult, but ‘just plain’ hand-laid track doesn’t cost much less than bargain flex. The real savings come where each tie supports four or more rails (counting points as rails.) Part of my thinking on this is influenced by layout size - mine fills a double garage and probably has as many total linear feet of rail on switch ties as your proposed layout has altogether.
However you decide to bounce this ball, have fun - and get wheels rolling as soon as there’s track for them to stand on, even if it’s only two lengths of flex on the first end curve.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with all deliberate speed)
i’m building a relatively small L-shaped shelf layout with hand laid track and turnouts. I also wanted live frogs to avoid trouble with the small wheel-base locos i’ll have to use.
I just finished building the last two turnouts and will now start running trains. I assume there will be problems and will learn a lot about track laying, but don’t have any plans to build any more turnouts. They all turned out better than expected.
Fortunately I joined a club layout to run trains on while i build my own.
Good thoughts on an interesting layout. One thought though on the backdrop. Rather than the traditional hardboard “backdrop” you might try the multiple double sided industry technique from an earlier issue of MR several years ago. Unlike the current warehouse design which is basically the same building, the opposite sides of several buildings can be differenet styles and material. The end results from either side looks like a large industrial area, but a completely different one depending on which side you’re on.
Other thoughts on this would be what if you transferred it to a Maine 2 footer, Great Lakes ferry or northwest lumber ports. I can picture doing a great lakes version where the car float becomes a modeled ferry on a cart and the warehouse becomes an elevator.
Cape May had a magnesium plant recovering it from seawater. It also has a ferry service to Cape Henlopin across Delaware bay for cars that could be the basis for rail traffic. The PRR had carfloat service from Norfolk across Chesepeake bay to the tip of the Delmarva peninsula.