So I talked a little bit about the kinds of railroads I'm thinking about in my last post about names.
I've spent a great deal of time already playing with different designs and leafing through the Walthers HO resource book (catalog) day dreaming about possibilities. Which, in the end is really kinda the point of this. To just enjoy the creative process and to divert my attention on to fun things. The design software has been very nice, and has allowed me to endlessly noodle with layouts and ideas.
My over arching idea remains a tightly packed, urban, switching layout. Probably some street running as well. tight radius, short trains and probably nothing much bigger than an MP15AC or maybe a GP-35 as motive power. This does a few things, not the least of which is allow me to pack as much switching as I can into my limited space. It also lets me indulge some things I love to look at in real railroads, like I've talked about earlier. Switching around buildings and so on.
So after all this I've got two concepts that are standing out.
First is the Peculiar, Raymore, and Eastern (The P,R and E). This would be a former Frisco/BN freight spur, that was bought out when BN abandoned the Harrisonville Branch (former Frisco Clinton Sub) and set up as a small industrial railroad to switch several industries in the area. (The reality of course is that the only tracks that ran through the area were abnondoned and 1934 (Was the old Leaky Roof, aka the Kansas City Clinton and Springfield) and there really are no industries in this area that would require that kind of rail service. But it's my railroad, and I can push reality how ever I want.) There would be a staging yard that would represent the Belton, Grandview & Kansas City (and the rest of the world) which runs a small section of the Clinton Sub as an excursion railroad (and as it happens has no freight operation). There would be interchange trackage, then my switching layout.
The advantages of this are that the layout ideas would be a little simpler to model than my other idea (below), and that it would give me the opportunity to add some real world stuff to my layout. Some of the down sides to it are that I'm pushing reality a little because there is no real street running in this area, and the kinds of buildings I'm intersted in modeling are much too old for what I'm talking about. I can over come that of course, but it would stick out in my mind.
My other concept, the one I started with, went away from, and have now returned to, is the Parks Harbor Railroad (PHRR). This is a mythical island (on the east coast) that has a strong industrial area that is serviced by a car float operation and an industrial switching operation. I can throw in all kinds of little history and such to justify the operation that in the real world probably wouldn't exist.
Basically it would be a carfloat and small yard, that would then service my switching layout, which is kinda interchangeable between the two ideas. The car float would serve as a "cassette" that would be moved between the layout, and a hidden staging yard, probably built beneath the main layout. There are a couple of big advantages to this in my thinking: First the cars actually have a source. A loaded car float appears and needs to be switched. (and I dig car float operations). Next, and to me this is a big one, there can be two crews working. One crew can be drilling the car floats, while another is taking the cars and switching industries. While this is possible on the other layout concept, it's not nearly as easy as it is here. Also, and very much related, there is more switch work to be done "in camera" in this. Since it's not a staging yard, the car float yard can actually legitimately be switched during operation sessions. Though I plan for this to be a solo effort most of the time, the idea of being able to have two crews to involve visitors appeals to me as well. It also allows me to expand the length of sessions a little, by having multiple car floats ready to go, they can be unloaded, switched, re-loaded, then replaced with a fresh one, giving more work for both yard crew and industry jobs. And though I kinda touch on this above, the car float yard would be modeled, where as a staging yard would probably be just that. It gives me more space on layout, by moving the staging to a hidden area with out requiring a helix that I don't have room for anyway. (Yes there are ways to hide staging yards that don't involve a helix but I"m not sure I'm ready to tackle those yet.) This idea also allows me to more "legitimately" use old brick buildings and tight switching, much more prevalent out east than it is in the wide open spaces of Missouri (though, there was plenty of that kind of thing in the west bottoms back in the day).
The disadvantages are that it's more ambitious, and so runs the risk of being too much for my first effort. Also it does require more resources since the hidden staging yard will add more bench and track work, etc. It also adds the complication of modeling a working car float, but I really have no idea how hard that is, I know it's been pulled off else where.
My current working design is of the Parks Harbor car float operation. I've toned it down (in size and complexity) from several of the early designs I was working on, but it still looks pretty satisfying to me on paper. I'm continuing to tinker, and probably will do so for the foreseeable future. (Again that is kinda the point). I'm setting myself the goal of actually making moves toward construction in the spring, but we'll see how that goes. Either way both competing railroads (as it were) have been fit into the same benchwork plan, so which ever way I eventually jump, I can at least start with that.
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