I had a thought

Had an interesting thought the other night as I was going to bed thinking about ideas for industries and such on the new and improve PHI. Basically what I'm building is a rail serviced industrial park that uses car floats. And really... I'm ok with that. Yes it's completely outside the bounds of realism, but you know what I can rationalize most all of it, so I'm good. I get what I want. Lots of tight industrial switching, and a car float.

argh my brain

I have a basic bench work design, and a "main line" track plan for my "new" basement space. It's quite a bit bigger, and there can almost be some real train action if the switching crew has to go from the yard to the far flung industries on the opposite (east) end of the layout.

One concern so far is staging space. I'm using some difficult to get to wall space on the opposit side of the room as a staging yard that could be "on camera". The link between the two will be the car floats. Its kind of a short space though, so I had to cram a little to get suitable room for cars, and a switching lead long enough to work the yard. Even as it is with curved turnouts and some weird arranging, I'm not sure it'll be enough space, and I know I'll want the switch lead to be longer in the end. I'm considering doing some sort of hinged thing that comes down to extend the switch lead in front of a door, but that may be beyond the limits of my modeling to start. We'll see.

Now my problem is that my creativity seems to have fled. I'm got lots of space for industries but no idea what to put in them. There's a fair amount of wall space for backdrop industries as well as a good number of places for full fleged modeling. I have my industry list from verion 1 of the PHI, but I'm just not sure where to put them all. I'm kinda afraid I'm gonna end up with a bunch of straight sidings which is fine for generating trafic, but I do want it to be somewhat interesting. I've already had to abandon on cute piece of tight trackwork I liked. I just don't think I'm gonna find a place for it. I'll keep working on it, and hope my creativity returns. I really don't just wana slap industries down just to generate car loads, I'd like to have it make some kind of sense. It's just a matter of rationalizing it in my head I guess. My best bet is probably to place all the old industries I had thought up for the last version of this, and see where that leaves me.

I'll probably take a day or two away from the planning software just to think a little. Maybe re-fire the creative juices.

Look at all that...

I'm surprised at how much square footage of bench work I can fit into this space. I'm maintaining 36" aisles with 30" pinch points around some obstacles (structural support etc). One thing I've noticed is that since I'm running pure point to point with no reversing loops, it frees up a lot of space. I don't think I could cram a couple of 60" diameter loops in there anywhere, but with out them, there's tons of space.

New designs

I'm really excited about the new layout space (I.E. my basement. I'm playing with the room layout, and bench work designs as well as track plans and wow... it's oddly shaped and weird to work with compared to the linear space I was working in before (Garage) but it provides so much more space and possibilities. I'm gonna be playing with ideas for weeks. I already have a float yard and engine facility "sketched" out, and I'm really pleased with it thus far. Need to play with industries next. Going to be a couple of peninsulas, which is going to increase usable space so much. I may devide the peninsula down the milddle with a backdrop, letting me switch more industries that are against a back drop and "imaginary" rather than having a lot of buildings free standing.

Let's face it, I'm really more interested in switching than in modeling structures, and frankly for me, at least right now in my modeling careere, I'm more happy to have a siding to services a back drop industry rather than taking up space with buildings. I will have several free standing industires but I think most of the indsutries will be in backdrop. At the very least I'm going to play with both ideas and see how they work out.

It might even be possible by breaking up sight lines, and with the expanded layout to add a 3rd operator.

I really like the potential of all this. I'm even more excited than I was when I committed to starting this project.

Well that just changed everything

So, the wife and I went and ran on a near by model railroad of a guy we met doing work with a Frisco historical group. He happens to have a huge basement that has most of the Frisco's Northern Divsion from KC to Springfield modeled in it. We'd seen it once before but never run it. We finally had a chance to be in on one of his operating sessions. Wife had a blast, and so did I. I've run railroads before but never this formally. Even the club I belonged to was more demonstration operation than anything else. We played at local switching and such but we had not formal waybills or anything like that. The Frisco model was fairly informal as operating sessions go, but there were car cards and waybills, and verbal track warrants of a sort. It was a blast! I worked a local, while wife ran through freight and Kansas City Terminal transfer jobs all night. We both had a great deal of fun, as I'd hoped, and wife was very interested in the whole thing. This was wife's first time operating a model railroad. I think I've got the bug in her ear.

After the session the owner of the railroad was telling us how his wife had picked out a new house for them, so they could have a bigger basement for his trains, even one with plumbing for a toilet etc. And she found them a great house, even though she's not a big train person herself, it is near perfect for model railroading. Huge, and well laid out. And he's done an awesome job building in it. It's a great set up and we can't wait to get back their and operate again.

So we were talking about my plans for the railroad today and wife says, "you should use the basement". hmmm... Since my plan was for the garage, this is a big shift. We had discussed it years ago and she had resisted the basement, or at least any portion of it large enough to be worth while, which is why for the last couple of months I've been working on the idea of shelves in the garage. After talking today, it's clear that I misunderstood her a little, and she me, the last time we talked about it. She was enthusiastically in favor of me utilizing the whole basement for a railroad.  Well ok then.

So now, my old plan is out the window, and I'm starting from scratch. I have slightly less wall space to use but the upside is I can do peninsulas now where I couldn't before. There's also a laundry room and a bathroom I need to work around. the Laundry room needs to stay clear, but the wife had no problem with a lift out in front of the bathroom door, giving me even more usable space. 

So now, a new plan, totally new. I am, at this moment, going to be sticking with the Parks Harbor idea. I still like it, and it's still the kind of switching I want to do. I'm still not a huge fan of hidden staging yards and trains that magically appear. But it does give me some pause. There are now more possibilities. I could do something bigger. The Chicago Terminal or something from Detroit. Zug Island maybe. I could even try the Frisco Clinton Sub (the railroad I run a small section of in 1:1 scale) which was scandalously left out of the Frisco set up we ran the other night.

As of this moment I'm thinking along the lines of an expanding PHI. I still like the car float idea, and my existing design, in concept at least can be expanded to the broader strokes.

We'll see how it goes... I really liked my design, and I'm not sure how comfortable I'll be chaning it. I think it may be fore the better in the end though. We'll see how we progress.

Random Operational Thoughts

Just some various thoughts as they come to me.

In addition to the 3 working crews I talked about in my last post, I think the staff of the PHI will be fairly small. There will be a Train Master, who serves as the operational head of the railroad. He also fills the roll of Road Master (seeing to the track). Most of their track work would be contracted out, with the exception of the simplest repairs which would be handled by staff. The Train Master as operational head would also oversee maintenance of the locomotives and all that other stuff. He probably even fills in as working train crew if they're short. There is probably also a mechanic who doubles as a carman. Since they are isolated bad order cars would be a problem, and I think they'd have someone on staff (again assuming plenty of money for this operation) to take care of those problems. He probably also does light service on the locomotives with the heavy work again, being contracted out.

Since the PHI is an originating railroad for several customers, they would have a billing manger and probably an accounts clerk that handled payments from customers and disbursements to connecting railroads and so on. They would probably also serve as the customer service staff as well. Customer focus being important in such a small organization. There would be some sort of administrative staff, a president and his secretary, who might double as the railroad's receptionist. I'm thinking there might also be a customer service rep. Someone to act as full time liaison with the customers on the island. And perhaps a VP that over sees operations while the prez handles the political stuff. All and all though a very small staff.

Each operating crew would be made up of an engineer and a conductor, filling traditional rolls, with the conductor doubling as switchman. I would think in the past that PHI dabbled in remote operations, but especially with all the street running they do, and with working the car floats, it's best to just have two people. They also will have a third person at times on the crew that works the industries railroad East on the island. Referred to as "Apprentice Conductor" this would be someone who is learning the trade (new hires etc.). They would primarily serve as a head end switchman and a flagman due to all the street running that goes on, especially on the North Spur, which runs down the middle of an street in the industrial district of the island. (This third crew man wouldn't be "on camera" so to speak since there wouldn't be anything for him to do during operations sessions, I just like the touch).

Oh speaking of which, in railroad terms, the PHI runs West to East. Even though the model really runs from North-East to North-West, the railroad refferes to the carfloat yard as the West end of the railroad, and the industrial spurs being the East end. Trains traveling toward the carfloat yard are said to be moving west (no matter their actual physical direction) and trains moving away from the carfloat are said to be going East.

In terms of operational control, the crews are pretty much on their own. There is no dispatcher. When the two crews operating on the island need to interact, the carfloat yard conductor has primary authority. The industry switch conductor needs to call the float yard conductor for permission to use the runaround track or to enter the yard.

Since the runaround track also serves as the yard switching lead, the yard conductor controls it. During normal operations the switch at the west end of the runaround is kept on the diverging route, and the yard crew uses the north runaround track as their switch lead. This leaves the south runaround track open for the industry switch crew to use as a lead for switching the south spur or the Waste Transfer facility which is right past the south runaround track east end switch. (confused yet?). Most of the times the north spur won't need much of a switch lead, and the crossover from the south runaround to the north is usually kept on the diverging route so that the two switch crews are never trying to use the same track. When the industry crew needs to run around, they must call the yard conductor, who will then get his crew in the clear and give the industry crew permission to use the West End runaround switch.

I have no idea how prototypical any of this is, but I like the way it sounds. We'll see how it works in practice.

Roleplaying my railroad

So now that I'm firming up my track plan I'm thinking more and more about the operation and "history" of my railroad. I read a piece on the web about a larger model railroad (Kansas City Terminal if I'm not mistaken) that as part of their operating sessions handed out sheets that described how different crews from different railroads behaved. Such as "not in a hurry to finish the job" or "gurmpy" that kind of thing. I'm paraphrasing. The crews that got assigned those units to run had to try to behave like their prototype crew's reputation.

I really dig that idea. Adding in a human element to running the railroad. It is my intent to operate prototypically. That is to say that the locomotive will stop before a switch point before it's thrown as if the switchman was climbing down off and throwing it. It will also stop at crossing that need to be flagged to let the flagman off. That kind of thing. No lining all the switches all the way down the line then running straight through. They're all going to be ground throws, so of course the switchman has to walk from turnout to turnout.  I don't know that I'll go so far as to develop personalities for the crews (though it's a fun idea) but I will certainly have a "cast of characters' that work the railroad, at least in the abstract and may effect how operating sessions go.

So to that end I'm going to post a little about operations, then maybe a little about history.

So the PHI probably has 3 crews running at any given time. There's an interchange yard crew (off camera) which will switch the mainland carfloat yard, and handle interchange with the railroad that funnels them cars (since it's the "east coast" it might be CSX or an unnamed shortline) That crew won't be portrayed during operating sessions (assuming I ever get that formal about operating). There will be a receiving car float switch crew, which will work the car floats as they come in, sorting cars and arranging short trains to be taken out and switched to the industries. There will also then be an industry switch crew that takes the trains the carfloat yard crew makes up and switches them to the proper industries. Those two crews could be working simultaniously during an operating session.

Now really... in the real world would a railroad of this size have need for 3 crews like this? Probably not. The carfloat switching and industry switching would probably be handled by a single crew. But this will be one of many little nudges I give "reality" on this railroad. I'm assuming perfect circumstances. Plenty of money, plenty of traffic for the railroad and so on. So sure, two crews working the "in camera" end of the railroad is a stretch, but it's my railroad and I'll stretch reality where ever I please.

I'm pretty sure my operations will be based on switch lists. I'm certainly not going to do any car tagging system, and I'm not a big fan of the car card / waybill systems that are out there, though I do see the appeal of how they generate traffic.  I may experiment with that, but really I think for me a database generated switch list will be the best choice. It means more work for me, but it also gives me more control.  A list will be generated for incoming carfloats and where their cars are destined, it will then be up to the yard crew and the industry crew to get them in the right order and get them out to the customers.

Part of roleplaying the railroad will also be roleplaying the industries. What do they want? How often do they get cars, and what special demands do they make. Since the PHI is a small railroad, they must be customer focused, working to satisfy the whims of their clientele.

All of the above appeals to me for a verity of reasons, the top one being that it makes it possible for me to operate with 4 people. Even for a relatively small railroad I like the idea of having other operators. If it's just me, I can do all the jobs, if there's 2 or 3 or 4, there's still something to do. We'll see practically how that works out, but in theory I really like it.

PHI RR track plan

So here is a working track plan for the Parks Harbor Industrial Railroad. (The PHI) This is for me version 5.8 of the plan. 5th major revision, 8th version. Basically there's been a lot of noodling before this point. There are no labels or anything on this plan, just track. The gray bars in the lower left are streets for the industrial district that get's switched by the PHI. They're in there to show the number of crossings and my emphasis on street running operations. Without further ado:

The space represents my garage. it's 23 feet along the left side, and about 21 feet along the back, of which I'm using a 22X19 space along the walls, hopefully leaving enough room for cars in the garage. The grid is 6" squares (the small squares are 6 inches, the larger ones are a foot).  North in the world of the railroad points to the lower right corner (which is close to actual north in the house). The shelf along the left side is 2 foot wide, the shelf along the top is 1 foot wide and will have the staging yard (serviced by the carfloats) underneath. I haven't decided on a height yet, but I don't think it'll be too high, mostly to facilitate reaching.

So some things about the setup.

In the upper right corner, the West end of the railroad, is the railroads yard and float bridge. You can make out the carfloat there as well. A dual carfloat switching lead with a crossover (fairly prototypical) then two storage tracks (which may extend out onto a "pier" structure if I need more capacity). The short siding that runs east from the top yard track will be for engine service. There may or may not be an engine house, or perhaps the demolished remains of an engine house there. Moving railroad East from the yard is a curved turnout, and a run around. I could have just had the switching crew running around in the yard, but I really didn't want to have trains running backwards that far. Even though it's a very short trip, I wanted trains to pull forward out of the yard, then do their run around move. Run arounds are a necessity since there's a number of facing point sidings.

After the run around the "main line" splits in two. A North (right) and South (left) spur. the south spur immediately has a siding on it which will be the Municipal Waste container loading siding. It then continues on straight, serving 3 industries to the railroad east. One on a siding and two that share the end of the track. It stops before it crosses the third street.

The North (right) spur has two trailing point sidings right off the bat. The first one which leads back to 3 tracks is the Parks Polymer & Plastics plant, which is a major customer of the PHI and gets a lot of cars. The second that is at the right side is a team track that may have a bulk unloading set up as well for off site customers (thus increasing the diversity of traffic). The North Spur then emerges out onto a street (as yet unnamed) and runs down the side of the street switching various industries. This is baised loosly on the set up the Cross Harbor railroad had/has in Brooklyn NYC. The switching track for a lot of the industries runs right along first street), and in some areas right down the middle. There are several industries switched off there, and I've gone out of my way to include some track work that intrests me, like the crossing leading into the sidings, and the tight radius curve that goes out and crosses over to come in at an angle near the railroad West end of the North siding.

As the plan exists now the track at one time continued on down the middle of the street, but has been abandoned past the point it ends on the layout.  If the layout were ever to move and expand, more could be added past this point.

And well... that's it. Now that the track plan is out there, I'm going to be thinking more about operations and industries (or at least posting more about those).

As you can see it's busy. I really packed a lot of switching into the layout. It may very well be too much. It may be too tight, it may be too ambitious for my skill level. But I've really fallen in love with the design and I think it will give me all the things I'm looking for in a railroad that I can operate for a long time to come. I think with this design I could even have two crews working at once. One switching incoming and outgoing carfloats in the yard, and the other switching industries. That would be good should I ever have someone over to operate with. I could probably have as many as 4 operators, if each crew had a conductor and an engineer. I like that idea as well.

I haven't left a lot of room for scenery. And I know that. I'm less interested in modeling the city than I am in the switching operation. I do plan to put buildings in, but really they are more there to be car load destinations then they are to be models. Having said that of course, I am going to make a crack at landscaping and buildings simply to learn, and I hope to be able to add some interesting features. Everything on the South spur (except the one siding) will either be flats, or photo backgrounds. There isn't enough room to have back to back industries.

Is that the line I stepped over

I think I may have crossed the line of putting too much on the layout, but I'm not sure I'm going to fix it. There was one industry that I really wanted to have on the layout to generate car traffic, that is a Municiple Solid Waste Transfer station. It would recive mty solid waste 20' containers on flats and send out full containers on flats. Atlas has a model for this, 85' flats that hold 4 twenty foot containers. I like this 'cuse it's very modern, and very prototypcial.

A couple of problems with it is that 85' cars are gonna be tight on my 24" radius layout. And I've already filled up most if not all of the usuable industry space on the "west" end of the layout.

I did find a place to put it, it would be a straight sidding and it feeds directly into my curved run around trackage, which means the long cars would face a minum of tight turning. So that will probably work. But the location means that I can't model any of the industry itself, it would all be in backdrop. The only thing that would exist would be the sidding itself. I'm not sure how I feel about this. There are other places I could put the thing, but it would mean dropping an "existing" industry, and I also can't really put it at the "west" end of the layout since there are several food service places at that end, and really, who wants food prepaired next to a garbage dump. In addition, the way I have the layout set up, with tracks running down both edges of the shelf, means that industries in the "middle" are trapped. Since I think the transfer station would be too big to model whole, it would need to be at least partly in backdrop, but I don't really have a good place to do that. So where it is, turns out to be the best place for it, just not sure it's worth it.

I've come to the conclusion I want a verity of different kinds of cars on the layout, a few of each, for visual interst, and to make switching interesting too. At the moment I have: plastic pellet hoppers, flower hoppers, cement hoppers, box, reffer, chemical tank, food service tank, gon, and a team track that could accept other kinds of traffic. Do I need solid waste COFC traffic? well probably not, but it's something that's been part of the concept from the begining, and I'm kinda attached to the idea. It's really perfect in some ways, a populated island would have trash, and they'd need to get rid of it. If they don't want trash trucks driving over the causeway that connects the island to the mainland, bardge or rail float service are their choices. And since this is a model railroad, rail float seems like a good idea to me.

I'm gonna continue to noodle with the layout of things, I've been switching my cement distributor and lumber yard back and forth for a couple of days now, but I am kinda starting to get set in my ideas for this. I need to be careful of that, but at the same time it's also how the project will progress. I'll keep noodling and we'll see what happens. It may not change until I get to the point of physically testing cars and radii... at which point a bunch of stuff may change, who knows.

I've gone back in and modified my working design to be on 24" radius rather than 20 (with the exception of one piece of track work that is supposed to be really tight, and will remain 20") I've decided to stick with #5 frogs for most of the layout simply because of space requirements. #6's add so much to the yard ladder especially. I did use a couple of #6's where I had space for them on the "main line", but other than 5's are the word. I still plan to run 64 foot hoppers over this, but I feel much better about it than I did the other night.

I plan to do some experiments before I build in erest to see if I like the way these things look, but until I have the chance to do that, I'm happy and continuing to work on the current incarnation rather than starting over more or less from scratch.

Then again again

Boy redesigning with #6's is a pain.  Maybe I need some realworld tests to see how it looks?

Or maybe it's that I really like the 20" and #5 design I have.

Been reading

Been reading a lot on operations and layout design.

I've been going with a min radius of 20" and #5 turnouts to conserve space. I'm really happy with my design right now but I'm still concerned about over reaching. Also after reading a lot, I'm thinking more and more that I need to work with broader radii and #6 switches. I know that I could operate with 20" and #5s but I do want to have some 64 foot hoppers on the layout and I do want it to look good (even if operations is my primary concern). Yes a 20" radii may even be prototypical for a tight switching set up (I have no idea what degree turn that comes out to) but even so, reliability is important to me.

Using the broader radii may also help in cutting down the amount of "clutter" on the layout. That is to say it might keep me from cramming in all the track work possible.

I'm gonna have another go round with a 27" 'main line' and 24" yard radus, and #6 instead of 5s. We'll see how that goes and if I loose too much of what makes it interesting.

Third Street Industrial layout plan

Another online resource. A layout in Germany. I like the look of it and it's in a similar space to what I have (though I can't do a walk in style since I only get two walls to play with).

The Thrid Street Industrial, was in one of the Kalmbach shelf layout books I think.

http://www.westportterminal.de/wt.html

Model Railroad prototype operations resource

An interesting web site on prototypical operations and freight ops on a model railroad.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~trains/

Mostly here for my own future reference.

Mildly awesome

Yeah it's kinda cool.

And by that of course I mean AWWWWSOME

Logos

Now that I'm once again confident in my railroad's name, updated the logo a little.

Rearranged the lettering a little, and dropped the X from the reporting mark. It wasn't appropriate as Parks Harbor would be a Class III common carrier. I wasn't sure I'd like the old style font, but it's really kinda working for me. Might not mess with it all that much more.

The name is the thing

I'm having second thoughts about my railroad's name. PHI, Parks Harbor Industrial. Technially speaking this doesn't meet the definition of and "Industrial" railroad, which usually is owned by and serves a single customer. The Nerdy aspects of calling my RR PHI are way strong and I really want to keep the name (not only for nerd value but 'cuse I think it really rolls off the tongue, "Parks Harbor Industrial".

Yes it's my railroad, and I can call it whatever I want, but... this is the kinda thing that would nag me. I can make up unrealistc stories about freght loads and such all day long to justify rolling stock and customers on the railroad, but the name thing... I'm not so sure I can let that one go.

ETA: Found the site for the Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad. It meets the definition of an Industrial railroad but it serves other customers as well. That gives me some hope of mentally salvaging this name.

ETA: Found another shortline using the term "Industrial" in their name while not really meeting the definition. I think I'm back to liking my name again.

Filthy Lucre

As I was pondering all things railroading tonight, the money issues popped into my mind. I'm a couple of months (at least) from building anything, so it's really not a pressing issue, but still. My anxiety about over reaching goes this far too. My layout right now has 16 turnouts on it, and one lap turnout that is $50 by itself. each of the#5's I'm using is $25 bucks. That's a lot of cash even before I've got the rail to tie them together... or the $500 DCC set up to drive the whole thing.  Sigh. I'm really trying not to stress about this part of the "overreaching" issue, but it's not easy since money is an issue in general at this moment.

Tinkering with this and that

Been playing with this and that on the layout. Tinkering with the track plan a little as well as messing with ideas for the lower staging yard, that would be connected via car barges moved by hand from one level to the other. I realised after a half hour of tinkering that the staging yard could be a stub yard since the motive power could pull the cars off the barge, and just shove them onto storgaed tracks and switch them there. (I do plan to do some behind the scenes switching to organize trains in the staging yard). The engine never needs to run around the trains and can work a stub yard just fine. This increased my car capacity by several cars.

I've also been looking at buildings for the layout. I'm trying to get an idea if I can get structures that will work with the track plan I've set up. And so far so good.   I can see that buildings will be another significant expense for the project, and they'll fall even further down the line of things to do. I really am just trying to get an idea if it will work around normal model structures or if I need to move tracks around.

I'm still playing with names and such too. I'm really getting to like the Parks Harbor Industrial moniker. PHI is the greek character often used to represent the golden ratio  among other things. Nerdy and catchy? I'm all about that.  I'm leaning toward using PHIX as the reporting marks, mostly cues PHIR just doesn't seem as cool some how. Though as a "real" railroad, they don't really need the X on their mark. It might still be PHRR too.

I've also noodled with cab lettering:

That is the Greek Phi at the bottom, and it would make a nice and nerdy short hand for the railroad as well. We all need to have our in jokes.

Am I over reaching?

Been bouncing around the web just looking at railroad stuff and found a couple of neat sites. First is http://www.lancemindheim.com, Lance Mindheim's site. Lance also has business building shelf layouts and helping with layout design as a consultant. He had a shelf layout for modern switching in Model Railroader's "More Layout in Less Space" special edition. It was a CSX switching operation in Miami. I like that layout 'cuse its modern and it's street running and industrial switching.

It did give me pause thought. This layout, especially just the smaller part of it that was featured in the MR special edition is very sparse, to say the least. The author of the article, Mr. Mindheim himself, suggests that it can still be a satisfying experience with only 4 turnouts and several lengths of track. The idea is by modeling prototype operations even a sparse layout can provide very satisfying operations. And I can see how this would be true.

So here's my dilemma. I've whittled down what I started out with by quite a bit. it was pretty huge and probably beyond my reach. It's still pretty complex. Lots of turn outs and some pretty complicated track work. I still wonder if I'm going to fall into the not uncommon trap of over reaching, getting frustrated, and giving up. Somethings I am doing to help me get through is having all my track on one level, no elevation changes at all. and I'm using the design software so I know pretty much what is going to be needed. I've also made the plan less complicated than it was. Not to say that it isn't complicated, just less so.  There's a lot of track work to be done, and I'm hoping that I don't get frustrated working on it before I have an operational section. Once I get operating, the work will start to pay off.

But it's also going to be a learning experience. Though I have knowledge of most of the skills involved, I haven't put it into practice. The O Scale club I belonged to hand laid their track (which sucked btw, and I will never do. I looked great when it was finished but it was just too much darn work). So this will be my first time using flex track for a real layout. And doing all the other track work and stuff as well, turn outs and so on. I have a good idea of how I'll translate my computer track plan to reality, but I can also see it turning into a bit of a frustration as things (inevitably) don't work.

It's also all going to be new for me from literally the ground up. Bench work. road bed all that stuff. the one thing I'm not worried about is wiring. I have an idea of how I'm going to mount my track and what sub surface I'm going to use, but it will all be trial and error (educated trial and error, but trial and error none the less). Failure is an important less, as Mr. Mindheim points out in his blog. But it can lead to frustration, and that's not at all something I deal with well.

So... should I take on a smaller project first? something that I can get up and running relatively quickly and play with?  Maybe I should, but I'm really of two minds about it. I linked to a short blurb about Vince Lee's Erie 28th St. Terminal (it's in the summer featured content, probably will fall off eventually). It is a terminal layout built on two hollow core doors measuring 13' 4" by 2' 6". The funny thing is it's almost everything I like in a railroad. Carfloat, tight industrial switching, and it's an early 1900's NYC terminal railroad which I've already mentioned is really neat to me.

A couple things working against it are the era, I'm not really interested in that time period as much, and so any rolling stock and power I buy for it wouldn't move over to newer layouts I might or might not build in time. But I suppose I could fudge... freelance at 1960's style operation on the same layout.

On the other hand (again) I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with that set up for all that long. And that's the one thing that keeps bringing me back to my original project. I've spent a lot of time looking at that layout and I think the operation is complex enough to hold my interest once it's running. I'm not so sure a small layout like the above would. Part of my thing is that I'm in it primarily for the operations. Modeling and good scene (while interesting to me) is of much less importance. So a small layout, with a little operations, but lots of modeling potential is less interesting to me than a small layout crammed with track for switching.

Don't get me wrong I do want to do buildings and design some diorama style scenes on the layout, but operation for me is first and foremost. I may end up screwing myself not leaving enough space for buildings, but that's a mistake I'll take in stride. I am trying to plan around structures, but we'll see how successful I am.

This is what keeps bringing me back to my current design. It's long enough that I can get some real running in and do some switching. But I'm hoping it's easy enough as to not overly frustrate me, or to take a long time to get built. And there's also the issue of money. The track alone for my planned layout is going to be quite a bit, just 'cuse of the number of turnouts. I'm hoping I don't stymie myself by going beyond my budget before I even get started.

So anyway that's my dilemma, and something I'm sure I'll be worrying about for a while. Probably right up until, and even after I start of the bench work for my long shelf layout. Maybe I should cut my teeth on something smaller, or maybe I should just jump right in with what I've got.  Decisions decisions.

Steam in the modern era

So one of the little tidbits I'm trowing into my planning is some history for my little railroad that will allow me to have some steam operations, even in a modern day layout. I'll probably have a longer psudo history post later but for now I'll throw this out there.

In the early days of the railroad it was known as the Port Alice Railroad, Port Alice being the actual name of the city that hosts the Parks Harbor Industrial. Port Alice served several piers as well as terminal switching around the city during the height of the industrialization of the area in the first half of the 20th century. It also had a large car float operation used to move freight offloaded from ships birthed in the excellent Port Alice natural harbor space to the mainland and onto the class 1 rail network. It brought freight back from the mainland as well both for outgoing shipment as well as to serve the industries that developed around the Port Alice harbor.

Without going too indepth the story goes that as freight became containerized and required less transhipment the Port Alice area suffered some decline and finally closed down the harbor, though it still struggled along serving the industries based there. Finally it failed completely and was reorganized as the Parks Harbor RR to continue to serve industry. (I'll fill in that history later, but there will have to be some wand waving as it were and fairy dust to make it all work. In reality it probably wouldn't have developed like this in the first place, but as with all of this kind of thing, it just has to sound good to me).

So anyway, Parks Harbor Industrial Railroad takes over and for a verity of trumped up reasons flourshies in it's own way. But it also doesn't forget it's history. Thanks to the efforts of several retired Port Alice RR employees as well as the Port Alice Historical Society, and the Parks Harbor Industrial RR, they have saved one 0-6-0T switcher locomotive, that is being restored. Due to a grant it is being brought back up to operating condition. (I'm looking at the Bachman Spectrum 0-6-0T to play this roll, I've read that the Spectrum line is respectable as power and it's the only tank style switcher I can find that (non-brass) that doesn't look like a toy).

I've designed a track near my small engine house where the 0-6-0T could sit and be a diorama of restoration, and eventually I could have it operating on the layout. It even gives me the opportunity to run some sort of passenger excursion, however short, along the layout, and I dig that kind of special operations.

We'll see how that works out, but I like this kind of detail thrown in.  Oh and it will be lettered for the Port Alice Railroad, road number 500. Why? 'cuse i like that number.

Industries, Parks Polymer & Plastics (P3)

I'm starting to formalize my thinking about industries that are served by this railroad. I've been kicking around lots of ideas in my head and I'm going to start writing them down to see how they look on paper (so to speak).

Since I'm working with current era I don't get to do some of the cool stuff the old terminal railroads used to do. Freight houses, team tracks (at least not as much) and the like. Most modern rail traffic is bulk goods, which really doesn't translate very well to a small railroad like mine. That is to say, no Coal Drags weaving their way through my yards.

My first industry and one that I've been thinking about having on every railroad I've conceived of during this process is a plastics plant receiving 64' plastic pellet hoppers. This is based on an industry that is north of my real railroad serviced by the Kansas City Southern, on their Grandview spur. Frontier Bag, which produces plastic shopping style bags. They get switched one or two times a week from KCS' main line running through Grandview. They probably have 7 or 8 hoppers next to their building and another 5 or 6 on a siding on the other side of MO150 hwy. They just streach a hose out to them and unload them that way.

I like that kind of industry, 'cuse depending on how fast they go through their pellet cars, it could generate a lot of traffic. I specifically decided on 20" minimum radius curves instead of 18, to try to accommodate the larger cars. (64' or just shy of 9 inches scale). As a side note I really have no idea if 20" is too tight or not for a 64 foot car, but I'll do some tests to find out. I've seen different opinions online. My "main line" radius is 24 inches with easements, but once they enter switching territory it goes down to 20.  I may find once I start building that it's too tight to provide satisfying operation, and I'll have to rethink my whole scheme.

So anyway, an industry that receives plastic pellets in hoppers. I decided to take a step further and in my fictional history say that this industry, soon to be dubbed "Parks Polymer & Plastics" or P3, is a major customer of the Parks Harbor Industrial, and has been for some time. Lobbying to keep the car float operation going when it was fallen on hard times in the 80's. Parks as a family has been in my ficional east coast area for many years, and the harbor might just be named for the same family as now owns the plastics plant.

I also decided to expand the operation into more than just plastic pellets. The Parks plant occupies a significant portion of the south end of the railroad switching operations, they receive loads of plastic pellets, as well as tank cars of various chemicals, they also receive empty box cars for shipping out their finished products. I really have no idea how realistic that all is, but it sounds good in my head, and it gives me a verity of freight to switch with just one industry. There won't be much of the plant itself actually modeled (and buildings will probably come late in the process anyway.) but I do have my eye on one big Walthers model that can be the center piece of the rail operation anyway.

On the current plan it has a 4 track rail load/unload operation. One track for plastic pellet unloading, two short tracks for chemical unloading, and one track that runs into the building for out going product in box cars.

The layout of the rail ops for the plant fit nicely in to the curve at the base of the "L" of my layout that connects the carfloat yard with the switching area, and it gives me a big industry to switch and generate a lot of traffic. I'm still tweeking, but so far I like the way it's setting up.

So that's one industry. Now to think of some other modern industries that get one or two car loads at a time and would be in such a close industrial area.

Settling down on a name

So I'm still noodling around with track plans and such. At this point I've pretty much settled on one idea, and that is the cross harbor railroad, served by a car float with some industrial switching.

I'm kicking around two names, variations on each other:

Parks Harbor Railroad (reporting mark: PHRR or PHR)
or maybe, Parks Harbor Industrial Railroad (reporting mark PHIR or maybe just PHI)
(Just to be nerdy, I checked, and those marks are available at the moment)

I like the Parks Harbor Industrial name and I can think of some logos to go along with it. I do plan to detail my own engines, they won't be too fancy, but I want to give it a shot. Custom decals and all that.

I was thinking of a blue and white paint scheme, but I'm now more leaning toward the old Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway paint scheme, Blue over yellow, with a red stripe TSBY is now part of (Great Lakes Central, which just uses Blue and White).  The Army paint scheme isn't bad either, Red with yellow lettering and safety stripes.  I do like the blue and white scheme but I'm wondering about printing white decals for lettering.  I suppose I could always go white and blue, but then again how easy would that be to keep clean?

So, for this moment, today, We're going with the "Parks Harbor Industrial Railway" (or maybe railroad not sure). Car float operation and industrial/city switching. I'm to the point where I'm making small modifications to the track plan, and may try to post something some time soon.

Wait... what are we doing here again?

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.

A Rose by any other Name...

So what's in a name?

I'm a big one for names. There are certain things I like, and certain things I don't. To some it might be a trivial issue but the name of my fledgling railroad is important to me.

I really dig names like, "Cross Harbor Railroad", or "South Brooklyn Railway". They have... presence.

So what do I call mine?

In previous bouts of Railroad Hysteria, I've come up with several names baised on the idea of a railroad freelanced in my current location. "Raymore Terminal Railraod" RTR. things like that. So what do I call it this time?

Well that takes a step back to another big decision. I was thinking this time that I'd like to have a car float operation as a significant protion of my railroad. I like the idea of a car float. It gives a small railroad a source for it's cars. They don't just "appear" at an interchange track, or coming zooming out of a staging yard, they actually have a source. (Not that there's anything wrong with stating yards, but car floats seem somehow... cooler to me).

In my first couple of go'rounds with planning a car floating operation was the source of traffic.  As I had short bouts of sanity, I decided that perhaps that was too ambitious for me and went with a simple staging yard and interchange track set up.

So if I do a car float railroad, it would probably be an isolated railroad, serviced by car floats but with no other interchagnes. So after many attempts I came up with, "Malcolm Island Railroad" (Malcolm is the name of one of my uncles). MIRR. Not bad. While I was kicking this around I also stubled on "Parks Harbor Railraod" PHRR. (Parks is my maternal grandmother's name). "The Parks Harbor" sounds really good to me. I like that.

When I was thinking about a local industrial spur I didn't like any of my ideas from the last time around, and while I was just kicking names back and forth in my brain I stumbled across, "Peculiar, Raymore, and Eastern" PR&E. oooo... yeah that I like. (Peculiar and Raymore are towns where I live. Yes there is in fact a Peculiar Missouri, look it up). The PR&E also works because it would mythically run from an existing (but abandoned) ex-Frisco line that ran through Peculiar, and on eastern. If it was ever expanded it would connect with the active UP trackage that runs through Pleasant Hill, MO. I like that dose of realism... well semi-realism. the PR&E would also be neat 'cuse the ex-Frisco line that it would connect with is partly in use (though North of Peculiar) by the Belton, Grandview, and Kansas City excursion railroad I work with. So it would give me an excuse to model some of the BG&KC's equipment for the interchange operations. A definite bonus for me.

So now, which ever way I decide to jump, I've got names to start with. That isn't of course to say that I won't have a flash of inspiration and go with a new name at some future date, but for now, I have at very least working titles.

Planning at first blush

So, I've thought about railroads before, and kicked around various ideas. Our basment is furnished, but is kinda an odd shape. It would work but to do the kinds of things I would want, it would take up a great deal of the space. I'm not sure I'd be allowed to co-opt that much livable room. (Added to that continuing work to recover from a flood down there makes the space unusable for a little while.) We have a 3rd bedroom, but it's small. like 10X12 and the doors for entry and closet are in inconvenient places. If I was to do an around the walls layout, it would be troublesome. That leaves us with the garage. After a lot of back and forth with myself I'm settling on a 2' wide shelf along the long axis of the garage (about 23 feet, so about 21 feet of shelf). I was thinking of 3, and at one point even 4 food wide, but 2' will leave room for the car during winter and will probably be easier in building. Along the back wall I was thinking of a second shelf, anything from 4' to 1' wide. I've kinda settled on 1' wide, as it will leave plenty of usable garage space and room for cars. I was planning with a 4' wide shelf in mind for some time, but I realized that for a non-walkaround design 4' is a long way to lean for uncoupling etc.

There were several designs with various dimensions in mind, with various levels of success. I'm using some software I purchased on line, and so far I've been really enjoying just tinkering with layout ideas. Some have been terribly complex and probably way too ambitious. Others are just unrealistic in general ways.

As a side note the software I'm using is 3d PlanIt from Trackplanning.com It was a little bit more than some of the others (and after using it, I'm not sure it was worth the extra) but it has some very nice features and I've been enjoying using it over all. It's helped me overcome one of my big hurdles, just understanding what will fit in what kind of space. That is too say, "How much space does a 36" radius curve take up?!?"

After a lot of back and forth, and probably four major re-starts on the planning process I've settled on the garage space with a 21 foot, two foot wide shelf and a 18 foot, one foot wide shelf basically forming an L. I think this will work well for me. There won't be many broad sweeping curves, but that's not what I'm interested in anyway. This is going to be a pure switching layout and I think I can do good in that space.

So what kind of railroad do we want?

So now that I've determined that I want to forge ahead with a model railroad project of my own, the first question is: What kind of railroad do I want?

This is closely tied to: How much room do I have? And how much money can I spend?

In planning at least, the issue of space is more important... Can't fit a 40X30 railroad into a 10X12 room now can we. Money will certainly be an issue, but I can work with that issue later.

There is also the issue of skill. I've worked on other railroads, but I've never built one from the ground up. And while I might be familiar with most of the skills involved, it will be a learning experience for me, so I'd better at least try to keep my ambitions in line with that.

But of course on top of all that, I want it to be a satisfying railroad for me to use. I could make a loop with one passing siding. It would be easy, small, and cheep, but I would not really be interested in using it for more than a few minutes.

So the planning process will be a balancing act of all these factors, and I've no doubt I'll screw it up at some point. Most likely by going too far, rather than not far enough.

So... what d'ya want? eh?

I have no interest in a loop and watching trains go round and round. There's nothing wrong with that, if that's what you enjoy (and I know many people do). But that's not for me. Any railroad I build is likely to be a point to point railroad. If all of the above factors were not factors, I would have a large point to point railroad with long runs as well as lots of switching at it's terminuses, and probably along the way too. So, no loops. This is good from a space perspective as it makes narrow shelf layouts a distinct possibility.

Next what do I like? My favorite kind of railroading is dense urban switching, mostly modern (though there is something to be said for the old 0-6-0T trundling down 39th St in the midst of traffic). I also really enjoy street running. And I get a kick out of those old brick warehouses and other buildings that are built around the tracks, curved walls to accommodate sidings, trains running to the interior that kind of thing.

So an urban switching layout, maybe some street running (though that my challenge my modeling skill, I think it will be worth it.)

One other thing I'd like to throw in there is a car float operation. Car floats? you ask. Yeah, they're just neat. Growing up in Detroit, the Norfolk Western had a Car Ferry that ran across the river to Windsor with haz mat and over height cars until they improved the Port Huron crossings and the Ferries were no longer needed.

Several years ago I stumbled on the operations of the "Cross Harbor Railroad" in New York. (I dig that name a lot, I'll talk about my pension of naming things in a future post). Now known as NYNJ Rail LLC as of 2006, the Cross Harbor operates a Car Float (or Float Bridge) from New Jersey to Brooklyn NYC. They primarly move Haz Mat and over size loads to Brooklyn where they interchange both with the MTA (the NYC Subway, at one point they were the MTA's only connection to the revenue rail network) and with the freight arm of the Long Island Railroad. Though it has since changed hands, they are talking about expanding NYNJ Rails operations due to the demand for that kind of rail traffic.

Basically the Cross Harbor is everything I love about railroad. Tight, urban switching in an older area, street running, and even a car float. So why not model that? Oh I considered it. I'm not especially interested in modeling a prototype railroad. Mostly 'cuse my own sense of "correctness" would force me to do things in the model to be true to the prototype that probably wouldn't be fun. So I'm definitely going freelance rather than prototype, but that's not to say that I won't be throwing in several aspects of the Cross Harbor into my operation.

The only other active car float operation in the lower 48 (The Alaska Railroad is only connected to the rest of the rail network by a car float operation to Seattle WA, but that's a different kettle of fish) is the Bay Coast Railroad in Virgina. It operates a float operation across the Chesapeake Bay, from Norfolk to Cape Charles. That operation has been going continuously since 1885.  It's not quite as neat, no Urban Switching, but it is a short line railroad, the kind of thing I plan to model.

So that's what I want, a tight urban switching layout, maybe with a car float. Sounds doable right? Yeah actually it does. There might be some modeling challenges in there but that's ok. My biggest concern is getting good satisfying track work, that operates well, I can worry about what the buildings look like later. And in the end it's all intended as a learning experience anyway, so even a failure will provide some useful experience. Though I'd really rather have something I can play with a little huh?

Holy crap, would you look at this.

I haven't finished my post about how I love tight industrial switching, street running, and car float operations, but take my word for it, it's coming. I was reading about terminal switching in NYC last night, something I think is just neat, when I came across this: http://www.bronx-terminal.com

This guy has built a scale model of the Jersey Central Bronx freight terminal in HO. I would so love to do something like this but after reading about all the work he had to go through, I'll stick to something more at my level. But talk about insanely tight switching. According to his docs there are some 12" radii and #3 switch frogs on that setup. All the track work, turnouts, and crossings were hand made, I think it goes without saying. There's nothing you can get stock that will do that.

That is just so neat! (or more to the point fsck'n AWESOME)

It's worth it to take the time to read through his construction diary, starting here.

I would love to get my hands on that thing for a few hours just to watch the cars navigate those turnouts.

Adventures in Model Railroading

I'll start off by saying I've been interested in trains for as long as I can remember. I've always been fascinated with all aspects of railroading. I've never had my own model railroad, something I hope to rectify in the next year or so, and while I'm at it, document here.

I had some HO toy trains growing up, but for most of my childhood they were in boxes, or at best running short circles on the floor. When I was in High School I joined the Detroit Model Railroad club, an O Scale (2 rail) club in Holly MI. I loved O Scale, the detail and the extra size. Of course DMRRC owned it's own building so they had the space, and the resources of the club to pay for the larger and more expensive power and rolling stock. I was a member there for several years. and did quite a bit of work on the railroad, mostly electrical. I really enjoyed operating there, but for the most part we operated as a demonstration railroad and did little prototypical operation. Still it was fun.

Around the same time I was a member of the Blue Water Michigan Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. They ran charter trips a few times a year and owned a fleet of rolling stock. I worked trips usually in the snack car, and spent some weekends at the leased car shop the group had to store their passenger cars. This was my first dabble in 1:1 Scale Model Railroads. I did various maintenance on the rolling stock around the shops, and just generally enjoyed being around and up close with real trains.

Once I moved to Missouri I found the Belton Grandview, and Kansas City Railroad. A small excursion railroad near to where I live. This was a two footed jump into 1:1 Scale railroading. I've been with the group for 10 years now and I've done about everything including driving the trains, track work, and currently acting as president of the parent organization. I have a blast being involved with that group. The chance to work with real trains is just awesome.

The real world of railroading does have it's drawbacks though. Unless your BNSF, you don't really have the $$ to do what ever you want. So as much as I'd like to be switching freight all the time, we just don't have the resources to do it. Running back and forth over a couple of miles of track is still fun, but having more freedom in railroading is becoming more an more of an interest to me.

Which brings me back to having a model railroad. I've thought about it several times over the past few years. Every time I get the bug, I end up buying some books, and subscribing to Model Railroader but each time it fades. This time I'm trying to make it different. I would actually like to end up with something at the end of my mania.

And part of that is this blog. I want to make the extra effort of putting my thoughts in this format, both to organize them, and also to make sure that I continue to keep this in my active queue as it were.

So... Model Railroading. We'll see what comes, if nothing else it will be fun to think about.