Starting the plan

I'm still working on the track plan for the road, but I do have one thing in, my staging yard. I've opted to go for a fiddle type yard instead of a traditional ladder type. Using two 5-track, 6' 6" sliding drawers, allows me to use 4 tracks per drawer (Middle track will be the through/dispatch track) giving me 52' of storage space. (I may use more if the benchwork on that wall exceeds 14" wide) And the 6' 6" length allows me to have multiple short trains per storage track, and long double-headed mixed freights.

Here is the picture of the proposed yard:

I'm going to have the leads as a helix under two peninsulas on each side of the room, and they will probably connect to the main via a hidden spur inside a tunnel.

There's more to come! ;)

Part 1: A Railroad Overview.

The GC&WRR is supposed to be a freelanced narrow gauge sub-division of the D&RGW (Denver & Rio Grande Western) aaallllll the way up in Montana. I have 3 ideas in mind to cram as much mainline run, industry spurs, and scenery into a tiny 9’x16’space. I have also settled on a name for my railroad, the GC&WRR, short for Grizzly Creek & Western Railroad.

One is a single-level multi lap layout, going around the walls and with 2 or 3 peninsulas going into the room, 1 or 2 for some extra mainline, and one for an engine terminal. Another is also a multi lap, single level, but instead of having peninsulas, it will have an S-shape to it. Starting at the upper right corner of the room, going all the way to the upper left corner, then it snakes across the room to the bottom right corner and straight across the wall to the bottom left.

The result is something that looks like an “S” from above. A good example of what I am talking about can be found on page 240 (140?) of Track Planning for Realistic Operation – Third Edition by John Armstrong. The third is a simple multi-deck layout, but I’m not so sure about that, since I have a cousin that is interested in trains who is 6 years old and about 3½ feet tall, that won't even be able to see over the 48” tall benchwork of the first level without a stool to begin with. Not to mention, I don’t have space for a helix, making a nolix, a must. I’ve tried cramming most of the nolix into the corners of the room, but the program I am using to design my layout (XTrkCAD) kept screwing up the elevations every time I place a new piece of track. So I think I will stick to a single deck with a lighting valence, in place of a second level.

But my problem is that I am not an “Ops Session” type person. I am a “Little train, big scenery” kind of person. So my layout isn’t going to be like one big scene, but a few small ones, separated by tunnels. It won’t be much of problem scenery wise since my layout is going to be based in the Montana Rockies. I am thinking about getting better looking scenery by having it extending down to the floor, like on John Allen’s Gorre & Daphetid (Pronounced “Gory and Defeated”) RR. One scene I KNOW I have to have is a huge trestle going over a gorge. Preferably scratch built out of 3/16” balsa wood. Oh, I can freaking see it now, a trestle 2 feet (Real feet) tall, or a scale 174ft tall. Yeah…

I am planning to use Digitrax DCC to control my layout, though I may use NCE, we’ll see how much I like it, since I’ll be able to try it out at the Amherst Railway Society Train show. But I have heard good things about both, so they seem “neck & neck” for my choice.

My rolling stock will mostly consist of Blackstone Models locomotives and rolling stock, MMI (Mountain Model Imports) locomotives, and MTL (Micro Trains Line) rolling stock. I even have a Blackstone weathered B2/3 stock car in the mail that should be here today or tomorrow.

Alright, that’s all for now.

What is the Grizzly Creek & Western?

The Grizzly Creek & Western Railroad (GC&WRR) is exactly what it's name implies, a railroad. An HOn3 model railroad, that is. This blog has been made to document the progress of the design and construction of the road. That is about it for this...