Expanding my S-Line

My outbuilding in Laurinburg was a bit less that 150 square feet. The new trainroom is about 800 square feet. This will mean that I'll only have two levels instead of four or five. It also means that I can model more territory. Here is what I plan on modeling now.

This now goes all of the way out to Morganton, so it will include the entire run of trains 60 and 61, the locals on the east end of the S-Line. There is also room for another siding west of Morganton. The next siding is Bridgewater, but in 1974 there was nothing there. The wood chipping plant that is there now was built in the 1980s. I will model Clinchcross instead, which includes the interchange with the Clinchfield Railroad (CRR). At this time it was part of the Family Lines System.

I have some rough plans for how this will fit in the basement. Below is the first level. The staging for Spencer/Salisbury is below this and connected with a double track helix which is partly under the stairs.

The open area on the left will be the garage/heavy workshop. I decided that the dispatcher's office will be upstairs, but will still have a half bath downstairs. You will notice that there are no duck-unders between the garage and the stairs, which will allow operators and visitors to easily enter through the garage, and make it easy to bring in groceries when the weather is unpleasant. There is one duck-under behind Barber, but it sill be little used.

The upper level starts at Newton and goes through Morganton and Clynchcross. The Asheville staging is stub end and open on the upper level.

I've also included a couple of branches in this plan. They include the lines from both Barber and Statesville to Moorseville Jct., and maybe a bit further towards Charlotte, and also the branch from Hickory Jct. to Lenoir, which had four scheduled trains in the 1974 employee timetable.

I have a contract to sell the house in Laurinburg, so I hope to start on the basement modification shortly after the new year.