Track Plan I - Levels 1 & 2

See my Givens and Druthers (Part I and Part II) for the space I have available and my goals with this layout design. I found out that there isn't room in a 9-1/2 foot wide space to have a peninsula with a blob on the end with an 18" radius. That leaves an around the room design. I've operated on other layouts that had duck-unders and movable bridges, and I'm not getting any younger, so I don't want any tracks across the door.

That leaves an around the room design going back and forth. To represent almost 50 miles of railroad I need to use multiple levels. I saw a clinic at the Hub City MER/NMRA convention about using narrow shelves for a layout and how this can avoid many of the problems associated with multi-deck layouts. This will require modification at two stations, Barber and Statesville, because the wyes at those locations are important to operations.

It looks like this will have four or five visible levels. The top level, which is above head height,is the west staging yard, representing Oyama Yard in Hickory, NC. I'm calling this Level 0.

West Staging Yard

Modeled Area - Update

After starting construction, I decided that have a shelf devoted to only one train a day in each direction wasn't a good use of space. Also, I have a bunch of the Fox Valley Models Siverside coal gons on order. I dropped the portions of the C&NW branch to Gastonia, and filled in the missing section of the S-Line through Claremont and Catawba.

See the previous post for more details.

Trains in the Trainhouse!

Okay, no trains yet, but at least the first piece of the layout.

Operations I - Sample Train Orders

I don't have any trains in the train house yet, but I'm already thinking about operations. I occasionally buy train order from E-bay. These are Southern Ry. orders in areas close to my layout, but I haven't found any issued on the S-line in North Carolina yet. A recent order included a set of related orders issued at Severe Yard in Knoxville, TN. These orders are all on the Knoxville to Harriman line of the Tennessee Division. I'll start off with a list of the stations on this line. Sevier to Harriman is Westbound.

Miles from             Station                       Siding   Other
Knoxville
    0.0             West End Sevier Yard            -         yard
                     (East End Two Tracks)
    3.8                    Beverly Block
                     (West End Two Tracks)
    2.3                        Coster                          -          yard
    4.6                     Black Oak                      -            56
    8.2                        Powell                        104        10
   13.4                      Heiskell                        -            45
   15.6                 Chestnut Ridge                 -             -
   19.9                   East Siding                     116       160
   20.9                     Clinton                           -          yard
   24.6                      Laurel                           71          5
   33.6                      Poplar                           55          7
   35.6                  Oliver Springs                   -           15
   36.1               L. & N. Jct., Tenn.                -            -
   41.5                       Blair                            115         50
   46.0                   De Armond                       51         -
   50.5                     Harriman                         -           30
   51.5                 Harriman Jct.                       -         170

Layout Construction III - Backdrop & Valance

My backdrops are made using aluminum flashing. This is available in various widths in fifty foot rolls. That long enough to all around the train house with no joints. Here's the finished backdrop with the framing for the valance.

Backdrop and Valance Frame