Track Planning for Adena

The photo for Wordless Wednesday #16 made me I realize I haven't talked much about the track plans for my Adena layout. There were a few posts about Pine Valley Yard mock ups early on, but nothing since. So far I have found designing a layout based on the NKP mainline through Adena and it's connecting Adena Branch difficult.

The biggest problem I'm facing is designing for the wye just west of the yard at Adena that begins the Adena branch and a bit further south another split for the AC&NA branchline at AC&NA Junction. Here's a labeled version of that Wordless Wednesday aerial photo of Adena.

The primary focus of my layout will be the Adena Branch with the marshaling yard at Adena and hopefully a version of the Pine Valley yard at Dillonvale where crews start their mine runs. Anything west of Adena and east of Dillonvale would be represented by a hidden staging yard. The AC&NA branch, another major source of coal traffic into and out of Adena, could also be represented by a hidden staging yard or possibly a visible short run to the yard where the Georgetown Prep Plant cleaned coal at Cadiz, OH. The Adena branch itself would be modeled as fully as possible, mostly on a second lower level, all the way to it's terminus in Neffs.

And there's the complexity, fitting a version of Adena with it's wye and junction with 4 functional ends. Luckily there's someone out there that has some experience with wyes and has written about them in print and online.

Dan Bourque wrote an awesome article in the 2013 Model Railroad Planning about handling wyes in layout design and also featured his own multiple level, multiple wye Dorchester & Dixiana layout. Some of those suggestions in his article and his website, appalachianrailroadmodeling.com, helped me draw up various ways to tackle Adena. Dan also has a layout plan for modeling Adena and the AC&NA branch in a 15' x 18' room. How cool is that! His treatment of the Adena wye is shown as one of four possible ways I've come up with.

The best location for the Adena wye in my basement is in or near the only unobstructed corner met by two long walls. All of the below designs are nestled into that corner with the branchline running along a wall or out in a peninsula. I don't use any track design software for ideas, I prefer pencil and paper for sketching out and refining ideas, so please excuse the crude photoshop drawings. Some are pretty rough with some horrific curve radius's used, but you get the idea.

Here's are several ways I could handle modeling the Adena wye.

Picking one that gives the best balance of scene compression, best functionality and ease of construction, and then fitting that in to the rest of a basement with other track plan options has been very difficult.

Hopefully later this week I can share a few of the different full design ideas I have for the Adena Railroad.

Wordless Wednesday #16

Adena, OH 5-11-1972 earthexplorer.usgs.gov

Wordless Wednesday #15

825 passing the Pine Valley Yard Office at Dillonvale, OH. 4-19-1957

NKP Caboose Colors

The photo for today's Wordless Wednesday is a really good example for the occasional debate that flares up on the Nickel Plate Road Yahoo Groups about the colors used on NKP cabooses. This typically centers on the incorrect use of white as the paint of choice for the stripe at the top containing the "High Speed Service" slogan when painting your models.

At first glance it does look white, but it is actually a light grey or aluminum if you compare the color used to paint the white "Nickel Plate Road" lettering just below the "not white" stripe.

Here are a couple more examples.

NKP Caboose 446 6-1964

NKP Caboose 1142 6-1964

NKP Caboose 1360 Chicago, IL April 6, 1957

The difference in the photo of #1360 shows that for sure a light, almost medium grey was used on that caboose.

With out this turning into a "is the dress white/gold or black/blue?" type of debate, I hope you can see a difference.

Wordless Wednesday #14

NKP Caboose 885 ex W&LE 0885, June 1964

Wordless Wednesday #13

713 on W&LE B&O interchange at Martins Ferry, OH 8-20-56

An eye opening experience

In the 25 years that I can call myself a model railroader, I've never had the opportunity to participate in any sort of a real operating session. I was a member of a local model railroad club in my teens where this could have been a possibility, but they just "ran" trains and bickered with one another mostly. I've read plenty of magazines, books, online forum posts and watched videos about op sessions, but I know its one thing to read about it and another to actually do it.

Well, a couple of Fridays ago I finally got my chance. My friend Tim Moran got me invited to a operating session of Jerry Jordak's Penn Central E&P Branch set in 1969.

More info can be found at
http://pc.smellycat.com/eriepitt/index.html

I was broken in as the engineer on a two man crew with Tim with a short switch job out of Moravia Yard to a near by concrete/aggregate plant. After that we took a local job to switch an industrial area in New Castle, PA on the Houston secondary track, we would later return with another local to work this area again.

Switching in New Castle, PA

Our power for those trips was a nice little Bowser sound equipped Pennsylvania S-12 (I think) renumbered for Penn Central as 8161. Here we are back at Moravia Yard with our PRR cabin.

PC ex PRR S-12 8161 at Moravia Yard engine terminal

Later I would run a few hot auto part freights across the layout out of and back into staging yards and a large coal train with some impressive Alco six axle power.

I didn't have much time to chat while working but I found everyone to be very nice and welcoming. Jerry, the host, was great and took time to show me around the layout and explain his vision and enough of the procedures before I joined in. I'm glad things were a bit more informal than I anticipated as the signaling system isn't in place yet and movements were mostly controlled verbally with a central dispatcher/tower operator. All these factors made my first operating session very relaxed and a complete blast!

Aside from learning a lot about running trains in an operating environment I tried to absorb all I could about the environment I was operating in and how that translates to layout design and the things I want to accomplish on my Adena Railroad plan.

1. I was very shocked to see how much time was spent working that industrial area in New Castle. I think Tim and I were there for almost and hour or so moving maybe 6 or 7 cars around. Initially looking at that area I would not have thought that could be possible. Sure having a two man crew slowed things down but I was still surprised at the passage of time doing what seemed to be a little job.
2. While Jerry's layout isn't large in it's current state (phase 1) it's size worked nicely for the 7 people that were there and kept everybody in what seemed to be the right amount of busy.
3. I felt a little longer mainline run would make running though freights not feel like a quick drive-by. I can't blame the layout completely for that as phase 2 will take care of that issue. I also did not have any of the through freights that made car drops at Moravia Yard which would have extended the run time feeling.
4.  An isolated operators aisle can be tricky to enter and exit and something I would try to avoid in my plans, although I understand why it was necessary in Jerry's plans. I'm still young and can stoop down to get under benchwork now but who knows in another 10 or 15 years.
5. My first experience with Digitrax wasn't as bad (I use NCE), but it was the wireless control that got my attention. It was really cool to not have to plug in your controller and worry about the cord. Definitely the way to go on a layout were walking around is required, even "small/medium" layouts.
6. Hidden staging didn't seem to be an inconvenience or problematic. I should say well built hidden staging like Jerry's didn't seem to be an inconvenience or problematic.
7. As I've seen on other layouts in my reading, small work areas are handy for the operators.

Hidden staging and operator work space.

I took a lot from my first operating session, most important that it really doesn't take that much railroad to entertain a small group of people.

One thing for sure, it has me taking a hard look at my plans.

Thanks again to everybody for having me that night.