Close to a Final Plan

[Dan M]

It has been many years since I have run any real train in HO scale with some sort of permanent layout. I have drawn up many plans and shared a few on here from time to time. I think I have come to the conclusion of modeling the PM as if it would have been built west from Almont to East Lansing instead of ending life in 1941 as a branch line.



The layout would be constructed in a 19 x 22' room, with a combination drywall / drop ceiling. 30" min radius on all but two cruves at the ends of the two peninsulas where that would be 28.5". Grades no more than 1.4% down to the staging yard under the main level. DCC by Digitrax and probably four power districts.

Operations would include six daily freights, two passenger trains, two locals, and two GTW trackage rights trains as needed between Pontiac and Port Huron. Leonard (crossing) would be the entry point for GTW trains.

Almont would have a small yard for the breaking up of trains for helper locomotives going west to E. Lansing and to change engines / crews out before heading to Port Huron (due to the distance from Wyoming Yard to PH, crews and engines were serviced here, rather than at Port Huron).

An industrial district and military depot would also be located in the vicinity of Almont. The plan shown is very basic and not all track on there is shown. Track will be moved and adjusted as needed, but this by far is the most likely plan I will follow. Staging yard will be under the main yard and I plan on having at least 7 tracks with stub staging / storage yard too. 8" separation for tracks under main layout. Foam board / plywood / and cork roadbed or truck topper tape roadbed (evaluating).

The switching of eras will be a challenge, but I think I can get buy with that for now. Steam will still run in the more modern times as passenger excursions. The military depot will be either a munitions facility or depot. That may have its own switcher and a small "bullpen" yard.

Signalling is not planned and I will run it a dark territory with the exception of the interlocker at Leonard Crossing. That is also the location of the GTW interchange and where GTW has access for trains from the PO&N line to Port Huron (auto and gravel trains).

Now that a rough final plan is in order, I will inventory all my older switches and figure out what I have to start with and how many more I will buy or try to build. Comments are more than welcome.

Dan

[AARR]

Dan - I've been following your plans for years with great interest. I'm looking forward for your updates and progress!

[odave]

Hi Dan:

I really like your concept and choice of area/prototypes. I wish I had the space you do

Some comments:

The industrial area in the upper right has some switchbacks. Switchback areas can be challenging or tedious or both . It looks like you've designed it well and can pull a car or two from each industry without having to clear another industry's cars first - but I'm not sure. You may want to game this area out to make sure the required moves are what you want.

You may also want to check reach in the upper-right corner for uncoupling and maintenance. The lower left corner by the roundhouse might present a reach problem too, but maybe you won't need to reach in there very often.

In the yard, it looks like any train departing to the west will need to travel up the lead to get out to the main. This may or may not be a problem depending on how you plan to operate the yard. If you were to add another crossover on this end of the yard just like you have on the east end, then a train could exit the yard directly to the main without requiring the lead to be clear. But it looks like the tradeoff would be rearranging the service area turnouts, which would make moves to/from service more complicated. Maybe a crossover to the main with curved turnouts? Again, this may not necessarily be a problem.

The switching of eras will be a challenge, but I think I can get buy with that for now. Steam will still run in the more modern times as passenger excursions.

That's my main solution

One other philosophy I have on this subject is extending the "layout as theater stage" metaphor. Just as a stage is "in character" during a play, it can be "out of character" when there no performance. So if I am not having an official operating session "in character" (late 1970s), my layout is running "out of character" and I can buy and run whatever equipment I want

Remember that unless you are building this for someone else or a contest or something, you are the only judge of it. We each set our own rules and goals on how accurate we want our layouts to be. I mean, it's not like there's some jack-booted era police that bust down your doors and confiscate your layout if you have some anachronisms. As long as you play by your own rules and are happy with the results, that's all that matters.

Your plan looks like it will be a lot of fun - keep posting updates!

[Dan M]

Thanks for the comments; the tracks are just "in" there to take up space and see how far I could get with a max radius greater than 30" (I know 28.5" is on the peninsulas). The west end of the yard and yard lead by the RH does need another crossover and I could put a 3 way, or a double slip in reduce any problems of drilling the yard from the west too. Reach is always an issue and I try to keep thing no more than 36" from the side and the edge of the layout there is more than that, but that is just the quick edge I put into the CAD and did not give reach much thought when doing this rough draft.

I did make the round house as big as I could to see what I could fit in there. Probably no more than six stalls in the RH and the engine terminal would get rearranged to make it more efficient for space and loco movement. (I may build that area of the layout first on cad after I design the staging area).

I think one can model a single town and represent a larger railroad "off line" as long as you have enough operations to justify it. Two other close towns were Flint and Port Huron for which I was considering doing a Belt Line for each of them. The only problem there was I could not realistically justify running my GTW colors on the line there in Port Huron (unless it was borrowed). One yard local / switcher, and two other locals could operate out of Almont as a turning point (say one from Holly to Almont and the other Port Huron to Almont) and return.

Now to assemble Pere Marquette's Huron Chief streamlined passenger train between Port Huron and Chicago. My PM E unit just needs some cars! (and the track, wiring, walls, lights, carpeting,etc.) This train would later be shortened to the "Spartan" and terminate in E. Lansing.

Some other things I am considering is wiring USB cameras for staging yards and using some sort of computer based control, but that is way down the road due to not having a clue how to do that. I only have one sound equipped loco (2-8-4) and I am hooked. So selling an extra P2K 0-8-0 PM #1409 may be in the works to get another sound decoder in the other 0-8-0 of the same number.

A lot of the other tweaks will be wider isles (not more than 28" width for 12" in length between layout parts), and adjusting reach, grade, and track locations for industry and switching. I want to model Almont as close as possible to the photos I have around the yard. Also I want to justify the switching industrial area there too. It is getting exciting now knowing the direction to go, now just to get the wood, lumber, drops ceilings, etc. going. Fun Fun Fun for winter work. Just get the cutting done before the two and three foot drifts surround my basement door!

Dan



And who knows what other proto-freelanced locos may end up on the line!