I know, it's been a while since I posted. That's not to say I haven't been thinking about model railroading. I actually think about it all the time.
To catch up and sum up with a "state of the union", I'm still in armchair modeling mode. The number one reason for that is that I'm finding out the easy way rather than the hard way that a lot of my ideas just won't work in the space that I have. The easy way is to discover this on paper or on computer; the hard way is by buying and building stuff to discover it doesn't work the way you planned.
If you have followed this blog at all or have at least gone back to the beginning, you can see that my initial interest was in passenger operations in the late 1940's and early 1950's, focused in the Cleveland area.
If you read any Lance Mindheim or Mike Cougill, you will constantly be reminded that you should follow your original interests in railroading/model railroading, don't try to bite off more than you can chew, build small projects to completion, and don't try to stuff too much into a scene, and the list goes on. I'm happy to report that I haven't learned any of those principles the hard way.
That being said, I am really tired of being in armchair mode.
The One Module Challenge
MRH is running a "One Module" challenge for the second year. Here is the rules page from the online magazine:
I've seen this posted in their magazine since the August 2016 issue. It just dawned on my that with all the time I've been spending on AnyRail designing stuff, it wouldn't take much for me to submit an entry to MRH. Notice I said "submit an entry" to MRH... I never said anything about submitting a winning entry to MRH...
My First Idea for a Starter Module
Given the rules of the contest and that the layout is restricted to a 10' x 14' room, In my mind this is just screaming to be done in N scale. I really don't know anything about N scale because other than at model railroad shows, I've never really seen an N scale layout in action. Most of what you see in N Scale at the train shows is pretty much just toy trains on an oval, with the possible exception of a few well done N-Trak modulars.
Getting right to it, here is my initial attempt at the first module for the contest submission. This is an N Scale module on a 2' x 8' table and the theme is passenger switching operations. All turnouts (12 of them) are #8 and the curves in N scale are minimum 36" radius (quite broad in N scale). There is of course some selective compression going on here but it actually is fairly close to prototype dimensions. The actual prototype of the area represented is about 2000' long, or about 12 1/2' in N scale if I wanted to model it to scale. In HO scale, 2000' would be just under 23' modeled to scale.
Keep in mind this is the main module, the idea here is that there will initially be temporary staging added to both ends to allow an operator the ability to have a place to enter and exit trains being operated on the module. Future modules would connect to actual yards and industrial areas.
If anyone is familiar with the former Akron Union Station in Akron Ohio, this is what it looked like after the Union Station building was built in 1950. The Erie station to the left of it was there first, being built in 1947. Prior to 1947, the Akron Union Station was about a half mile further north (railroad east) or off the right side of the module.
One key takeaway here is that this probably would not be very interesting to actually model as Akron Ohio on a model railroad. By the time the Union Station was built, there were only a few trains stopping in Akron at all on any of the lines. It would be far more interesting to use this module as a "stand in" for a much larger and busier passenger terminal such as Cleveland or Cincinnati, ala Chuck Hitchcock style in his Argentine layout which used a much smaller station as a stand-in for Kansas City Union Station. This module could also easily be anywhere else in the country, for instance it could be AT&SF and Union Pacific with separate stations sharing the same area.
Erie used their station exclusively and the line through Akron was part of their main line from New York to Chicago. PRR & B&O both used the Union Station on shared trackage through this part of town. B&O also had their Valley Station to the north of this location, which was used on the Valley Line that ran from Cleveland to Akron until the early 1960's. B&O used Union Station for trains running on the New York-Chicago mainline, which this line was part of. For the PRR though, Akron was not on their mainline and in 1952 only one PRR train (the Akronite between Pittsburgh and Akron) ran through Akron at all. Passengers wishing to travel via PRR could either take the Akronite to Pittsburgh or take a 40 minute Greyhound bus trip (the terminal was attached to the Union Station on the west side of the tracks) up to Hudson which was on the Cleveland-Pittsburgh mainline and had more through trains that stopped there on their way to and from Cleveland & New York.
What is just off the north (right) end of the module is an area affectionately known to Akron railroaders as the "Akron Diamond". This was where the PRR/B&O tracks crossed over the Erie line, essentially flip-flopping the track arrangement so that the Erie ran on the east side of the right of way instead of the west side as depicted here. Movements through the diamond were controlled by JO Tower, which is an interesting little piece of Akron railroad history in itself. The diamonds actually were sharp enough of a crossing that they had movable frogs and were controlled by the JO Tower interlocking. The "Diamonds" are in my mind an essential operational element to modeling this area because of how movements would have to be controlled at the crossing point.
Operationally the starter module when connected to staging at both ends would allow one or more operators the ability to operate trains terminating/originating here, as well as through trains and trains requiring sleeper/diner/lounge car switchouts at this station. Through freights, whether they be local or long distance, could also be routed through the module as static traffic because there are bypass tracks for through trains to use to get around any passenger trains stopped at a platform. Mail & express cars could be spotted at the sidings, although the prototype has a separate express/REA terminal just off the north end of the module that had access to both ends by both B&O/PRR and Erie. Even just working head end consist switching on a parked passenger train would be challenging enough to keep a single operator busy and could be done with a minimal amount of off-board staging.
For the contest, I plan on roughing in the rest of the layout in the room representing construction of a full layout in stages.
After that? Maybe my own 13' x 27' space is just screaming to be done in N scale as well...
To catch up and sum up with a "state of the union", I'm still in armchair modeling mode. The number one reason for that is that I'm finding out the easy way rather than the hard way that a lot of my ideas just won't work in the space that I have. The easy way is to discover this on paper or on computer; the hard way is by buying and building stuff to discover it doesn't work the way you planned.
If you have followed this blog at all or have at least gone back to the beginning, you can see that my initial interest was in passenger operations in the late 1940's and early 1950's, focused in the Cleveland area.
If you read any Lance Mindheim or Mike Cougill, you will constantly be reminded that you should follow your original interests in railroading/model railroading, don't try to bite off more than you can chew, build small projects to completion, and don't try to stuff too much into a scene, and the list goes on. I'm happy to report that I haven't learned any of those principles the hard way.
That being said, I am really tired of being in armchair mode.
The One Module Challenge
MRH is running a "One Module" challenge for the second year. Here is the rules page from the online magazine:
I've seen this posted in their magazine since the August 2016 issue. It just dawned on my that with all the time I've been spending on AnyRail designing stuff, it wouldn't take much for me to submit an entry to MRH. Notice I said "submit an entry" to MRH... I never said anything about submitting a winning entry to MRH...
My First Idea for a Starter Module
Given the rules of the contest and that the layout is restricted to a 10' x 14' room, In my mind this is just screaming to be done in N scale. I really don't know anything about N scale because other than at model railroad shows, I've never really seen an N scale layout in action. Most of what you see in N Scale at the train shows is pretty much just toy trains on an oval, with the possible exception of a few well done N-Trak modulars.
Getting right to it, here is my initial attempt at the first module for the contest submission. This is an N Scale module on a 2' x 8' table and the theme is passenger switching operations. All turnouts (12 of them) are #8 and the curves in N scale are minimum 36" radius (quite broad in N scale). There is of course some selective compression going on here but it actually is fairly close to prototype dimensions. The actual prototype of the area represented is about 2000' long, or about 12 1/2' in N scale if I wanted to model it to scale. In HO scale, 2000' would be just under 23' modeled to scale.
Keep in mind this is the main module, the idea here is that there will initially be temporary staging added to both ends to allow an operator the ability to have a place to enter and exit trains being operated on the module. Future modules would connect to actual yards and industrial areas.
If anyone is familiar with the former Akron Union Station in Akron Ohio, this is what it looked like after the Union Station building was built in 1950. The Erie station to the left of it was there first, being built in 1947. Prior to 1947, the Akron Union Station was about a half mile further north (railroad east) or off the right side of the module.
One key takeaway here is that this probably would not be very interesting to actually model as Akron Ohio on a model railroad. By the time the Union Station was built, there were only a few trains stopping in Akron at all on any of the lines. It would be far more interesting to use this module as a "stand in" for a much larger and busier passenger terminal such as Cleveland or Cincinnati, ala Chuck Hitchcock style in his Argentine layout which used a much smaller station as a stand-in for Kansas City Union Station. This module could also easily be anywhere else in the country, for instance it could be AT&SF and Union Pacific with separate stations sharing the same area.
Erie used their station exclusively and the line through Akron was part of their main line from New York to Chicago. PRR & B&O both used the Union Station on shared trackage through this part of town. B&O also had their Valley Station to the north of this location, which was used on the Valley Line that ran from Cleveland to Akron until the early 1960's. B&O used Union Station for trains running on the New York-Chicago mainline, which this line was part of. For the PRR though, Akron was not on their mainline and in 1952 only one PRR train (the Akronite between Pittsburgh and Akron) ran through Akron at all. Passengers wishing to travel via PRR could either take the Akronite to Pittsburgh or take a 40 minute Greyhound bus trip (the terminal was attached to the Union Station on the west side of the tracks) up to Hudson which was on the Cleveland-Pittsburgh mainline and had more through trains that stopped there on their way to and from Cleveland & New York.
What is just off the north (right) end of the module is an area affectionately known to Akron railroaders as the "Akron Diamond". This was where the PRR/B&O tracks crossed over the Erie line, essentially flip-flopping the track arrangement so that the Erie ran on the east side of the right of way instead of the west side as depicted here. Movements through the diamond were controlled by JO Tower, which is an interesting little piece of Akron railroad history in itself. The diamonds actually were sharp enough of a crossing that they had movable frogs and were controlled by the JO Tower interlocking. The "Diamonds" are in my mind an essential operational element to modeling this area because of how movements would have to be controlled at the crossing point.
Operationally the starter module when connected to staging at both ends would allow one or more operators the ability to operate trains terminating/originating here, as well as through trains and trains requiring sleeper/diner/lounge car switchouts at this station. Through freights, whether they be local or long distance, could also be routed through the module as static traffic because there are bypass tracks for through trains to use to get around any passenger trains stopped at a platform. Mail & express cars could be spotted at the sidings, although the prototype has a separate express/REA terminal just off the north end of the module that had access to both ends by both B&O/PRR and Erie. Even just working head end consist switching on a parked passenger train would be challenging enough to keep a single operator busy and could be done with a minimal amount of off-board staging.
For the contest, I plan on roughing in the rest of the layout in the room representing construction of a full layout in stages.
After that? Maybe my own 13' x 27' space is just screaming to be done in N scale as well...
