SSSince the missus gave me the green light to start layout-building, I had to come up with a trackplan that would fit the available space in the corner of our bedroom. After fiddling around with some rough-drawn ideas as well as some proposals on the Atlas RightTrack Software (R),I finally found a workable solution in the N scale Carolina Central, a layout featured in Model Railroader magazine some time back. It was built on a hollow-core door, and featured an oval of track with the back part used as staging. The curves were a bit tight, but since it depicted a secondary line in the South, it fit well.
I wrote up a quick sketch on a piece of paper and presented it to the local Bureau of Land Management (a/k/a the wife). She readily agreed, and I immediately went out to find a cheap hollow-core door (hereinafter referred to as an HCD). Having found one in a local builder's salvage supply, I hauled it home, went out to the local mega-lumber yard to get additional lumber and hardware, and set about construction.
The door started to sag a bit, so I had to go back & attach 1x4s to each side to give it strength. With the addition of the side pieces, this gave me a width of 27 3/4" to work with. I then put a 1" piece of extruded foam on the door surface- I would have liked a 2" piece of foam, but none could be found, so I settled for the 1". (I can hear the whispers of "what was he thinking?" already, but it's working for me. :) )
I used Woodland Scenics foam roadbed and placed Atlas code 55 track & turnouts on top. The staging trackage in back gets Atlas code 80, while some sidings and all spurs get code 40 from Micro Engineering. Curves are at an 11" radiud on the main, with one curve of 9" in teh grain elevator spur. Why the tight curves? I'm modeling a fictitious secondary line of the Frisco, in the same vein as the real Ardmore & Arkinda Subdivision in southeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas. This means 4-axle diesels, no piggybacks, autoracks, or six-axle engines, plus slow speeds over track that's less-than-mainline quality. The locale meant I could use the N scale Walthers paper mill I bought some time back, as well as a Walthers grain elevator. Both the paper and poultry industries are active in the area in real life, so such choices are quite plausible.
I'm a believer in the KISS philosophy of electronics (Keep It Simple, Stupid), so good old-fashioned block wiring and cab control (using two MRC Tech II power packs and several Atlas Selectors) are being used. The rolling stock has a mix of Rapido and MT couplers, and I'm in the midst of converting to MT- some cars & locomotives have Accumates, and as long as they work, I'm sticking with them. Because of the smaller track, the MT plastic wheels are hitting the molded spike tops on the track, so conversion to low-profile wheels, expecially metal ones, is also underway. Motive power will be almost all Frisco (what else?), but I want to add a foreign locomotive for interchange purposes- I'm leaning toward either KCS or MP, haven't decided yet. One switcher I purchased from a friend of mine off of Trainboard.com (thanks, Hemi- in your honor, the loco is lettered for Simbieda Rail Leasing) and will be used as the paper mill switcher. |
