The mountain railway layout construction

[ryeguyisme]

I've been kicking myself in the pants for a while for not having a layout for my exquisite HO collection. I have a huge christmas lionel lionel layout for those who remember that project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsnTUTvCmqU


From as far back as I can remember I've drawn all sorts of plans for layouts that some will never see the light of day or the spacing and measurements were way off.

I've designed double track thinking that would be my favorite route to go but that limited the things I could do in space(I would need twice more room just for routing traffic) I've designed and built layouts with 4%+ grades that an IHC mogul would simply slip hauling it's own butt up the grade.

So I sat down and made a list of bare essentials that I want in a first layout

-mountains with grades not too steep(2%)

-a triple over and under track plan with bridges(a simple over and under looked way too cliche for my tastes)

-one or two sidings for 2 train operation

-22 inch radius MINIMUM on the mainline(it's bad enough I'm diving into brass but I want to run them too I always modify my steam to make it run within my parameters)

-bridges, tunnels and narrow gauge

-giving a sort of freelance rio grande/colorado look

and I added them up and thought of a layout that my father built when I was living in new hampshire, he had taken a plan from a layout planning book and altered it to include ideas and inspiration from John Allen's, Malcolm Furlow and John Olsen and squeeze it all into a 5 x 10 foot layout with tall mountains and narrow gauge, with bridges tunnels and just a maze of track but it all came together.

The layout was only partially built and when I was 5 years of age  my mother decided she wanted to move to connecticut(big mistake in my opinion) and the house was sold and my father didn't  build the layout so it could be moved so he salvaged what he could off of it and left it behind, I only saw it once a year later and the family that lived there hadn't done a thing to it, it just sat there collecting dust empty and vacant, i don't know whats become of it but I've decided to rebuild it to my specifications and make it so it can be moved.

he had made it so it was a 21 inch minimum radius so I went with 22 inches took out a reverse loop and made that one loop  go straight off to a possible extension, adjusted the track grade and switching arrangement. Did some measurements and made a plan:


basically a rough draft, had to be built longer to 10 feet

so i started construction and built 2 5x5 foot pieces from wood used to ship corvette hoods. The wood was perfect for it and most of all "FREE"



then I started cutting out pieces for the trackwork out of half inch plywood and began to construct the basic foundation for the layout at the same time making it so it can separate



I figure I wanted some original looking bridges and I was short on cash to buy an atlas through truss(was saving for a brass DRGW Mountain) so I decided to scratchbash a bridge to look just like the atlas one







I put it on the layout to see how it'd look and I liked it:



I worked away and started laying track and figured out the bridge wasn't wide enough so I ended up buying a an atlas through truss anyways, I'll use the smaller one for narrow gauge.

and so I laid the track all the way around eventually laying the golden spike on a siding

and after one week I got this far:





the first run around with a spectrum 2-8-0 proved my track flawless which never happened to me before, but I guess taking my time laying track has helped out

I shall post more as progress continues

opinion and advice welcome

-Ryan

[ryeguyisme]

that mountain piece you see in the last 3 photos is actually a piece salvaged from the original layout

[Nathan Jahreis]

Very nice, can't wait to see the finished product.
When I got my layout going I was very "un-planning" all I did was had a 4x8 sheet of plywood, green paint, green sawdust, and plastered on the hills and such. Mine is not the best.  I was and still am a newbie so your layout I am quite jealous of. Good luck

[jonathan]

Ryan,

First, thanks for sharing!  I wish more folks would post pics and stories about their layouts.  I appreciate it.

I like your track plan.  While split in two so you can move it (good idea), it still looks large.  Will it be difficult to move to it's permanent location. Will that be far away?

I didn't see any track feeders.  Just curious about it.  Perhaps, like me, you first laid the track to make sure it works, and added track feeders later, in convenient locations, so scenery will hide the connections.

In fact, I've become a little obsessed with feeders.  I still add feeders, occasionally, in easy to reach locations, you know, just in case.

Hope you plan to post a video of one of your brass projects running around the layout.  Again, thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Doneldon]

Rye-

Nice piece of work! And you're making very rapid progress, too. I, for one, am impressed.

I recognize the basic form of your layout. I almost used the same concept for the layout I built for my grandson but ended up with something a little more conventional: double-track mainline with a little yard, a small engine terminal, the obligatory mountain with tunnel and waterfall, several sidings and spurs, and a town above one end making it easy to look like there's a major through terminal below. If that sounds like a lot of track on a 4x8, it is, but he loves it and he can use it for a switching puzzle, to just run trains, or to operate with set-outs and pick-ups and so on. At 11 he's not deeply into operations yet, but he's starting to check that out. It's quite interesting to watch how his use/play with the layout changes as he gets older and less entertained by trains going around and around.
                                                                       -- D

[J3a-614]

Like the others, I have to say this is a nice-looking layout in progress.  Those bridges look hefty enough for the big power you plan to run.  

The combination of the layout as you have it and the power you hope to run on it suggest to me not the Rio Grande as such, but some real heavy-duty shortlines in Utah, specifically the Utah Railway and the Bingham and Garfield.  

The Utah hauled coal, and in the steam age ran with 2-10-2s and 2-8-8-0s of UP design.  The Bingham and Grarfield was owned by a copper company, and its power included 9 0-8-8-0s.  This was in addition to the copper mining road power, which included scads of 0-4-0s and 0-6-0s, plus 2-8-0s and the like on the B&G itself.

http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/USHS_Shipler&CISOBOX1=Bingham+and+Garfield+Railway

http://www.utahrails.net/bingham/kcc-steam.php

The B&G was replaced by an unnamed electric railroad in the late 1940s.

Below is a link to some discussion on this road--and the interesting item that they ordered a pair of 2-8-8-4s that were to be an add-on to the B&O EM-1 order, but never actually got them.

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31701&p=160815&hilit=bingham+%26+garfield#p160815

Material on the Utah Railway; a lot in that first little link (including a roster and employee timetables), have fun exploring:

http://www.utahrails.net/utah-ry/utah-ry-index.php

http://www.carbon-utgenweb.com/railroad.html

http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/USHS_Shipler&CISOBOX1=Utah+Railroad+Company

[jward]

i like your track plan. great use of spcae, i am assuming this is a 4x8?

keep up the good work.

[ryeguyisme]

i like your track plan. great use of spcae, i am assuming this is a 4x8?

keep up the good work.

it's a 5x10 for generous curves and more space


and thanks to all with the input,

J3a: it isn't exactly to prototype, since i do ALOT of freelance but I will have DRGW brass steam chugging around those steep cliffs, but didn't the DRGW have routes through Utah?
There is a project floating in my head to convert my spectrum 2-6-6-2 to look more DRGW-ish giving it some L-131 characteristics(even tho 131's had a bigger wheelbase)

Jonny-> the track feeders need to be done soon for sure, every three or so feet , I won't have any blocks so feeders should be relatively easy

and now for some of todays progress:









some of my inspiration to do this project along with what my dad has done before is Tom White's Yuba Sub river pass, I've seen a lot doing some of my DRGW research, would like to be able to email him or talk to him sometime because some of the things he's done is amazing:



now the area where a trestle is going in is where I left off:




you can make out where I'm putting a river in to flow underneath the trestle and on the other side of the tracks is going to be another cliffside mountain look, it'll look alot  like the royal gorge on the DRGW Route:






ALSO for those interested in my locomotive endeavors, monday, I had acquired enough funding to purchase a DRGW M-78 mountain, and its on its way here as we speak via UPS from Caboose Hobbies in Denver. I am so glad to be able to get one of the locomotives I've been drooling to have for a while:

^there she is, she going to have her maiden voyage on this layout I'm building now, I am hoping she likes 22 inch radius or she'll have to experience a big overhaul in the Rye Guy Shops where she'll be renumbered to '51' and given the road specialty(tender booster truck, reefer roof hatches, etc.)

I loved being able to purchase that now I'm working towards an M-75 I've been eyeballing for a few months from a particular seller


will post more as I continue, thanks guys!

-Rye Guy

[ryeguyisme]

Today was kind of slow due to some cleaning I didn't want to do but I figure I'd do something small, so why not put the trestle in?

Here's the original trestle piece from the original layout that I've kept laying around for 16-17 years, so since I didn't want to go through the time to make stripwood I decided why not just use the old bridge since it's already falling apart on me


So I took it apart tie by tie and each individual track spike, sanded the ties down(there was some gross green paint on some of them, don't ask; you tell me what a 4 year old me is doing with a bottle of spray paint  )

and so I sectioned off the track and did measurements, and ironic, I didn't have to realigned the trestle beams I only had to cut them a quarter inch shorter.

Then tie by tie I started relaying the trestle plucking the atlas ties out as I go and super glues works wonders gluing the ties down, spiking the track and then gluing the spikes for additional reinforcement

and then the final piece installed:



next step I'm working on is getting the trestle pieces underneath fitted and glued in:

[jward]

impressive. i especially like to see how somebody else is essentially handlaying the track on that trestle. does the super glue really provide that much reinforcement? i've never thought of using it but might try it out on switchpoints.

[ryeguyisme]

It generally depends on what super glue you're using and the surface, super glue works  wonders on scuffed up applications(sandpapered/filed) so it has something to grab on to and reinforce itself. I do not recommend the use out the gel super glue as its hit or miss when it comes to sticking power and it's a different kind of messy. For the bridge I had to be generous with the amount used, so far i used half of a 0.11 oz tube on the bridge making sure when I glued the ties down and the spikes down I give it a little soaking to give the wood a better consistency almost like turning it into plastic. Gluing down the spikes makes it stick to the rail as well as the wood for more reinforcement.

the original bridge track spikes had a mind of their own for being constructed in 1990, spikes popped out and the bridge would have basically disintegrated had I not preserved it all these years and rebuilt it.


George Selios of Fine Scale Miniatures, and the Franklin & South Manchester uses super glue on most of his buildings, one could say it speeds up modeling time by a third the time it would take to build a single corner of a structure


It dries clear and blends in with a slight shine(unless you use too much then it goops and gives off a white haze.



I would handlay track if not for the time consumption, and money involved(most of my track came free, so can't beat that)



My father came down last night to look at his idea re-fruit itself and he loved it-->> now to get him back into the hobby now that one of his vettes is working

[ryeguyisme]

more progress photos:








I'm using Portland cement, it's my favorite to use since it doesn't emit dust like my experience with plaster...can never get plaster to set right... but i have more cement than plaster and I'm not worried about the weight, I just want it to be durable

[ryeguyisme]

[jward]

if i may ask how did you come up with the track plan? it resembles a single track version of the granite gorge & northern, from the atlas plan books with modifications. how steep are the grades?

[ryeguyisme]

if i may ask how did you come up with the track plan? it resembles a single track version of the granite gorge & northern, from the atlas plan books with modifications. how steep are the grades?

i think the original came from one of the atlas books and was modified extensively(i haven't even put the narrow gauge in yet D: )

the curves are 22 inches and the grade is no more than 2% and my tallest locomotive just makes under the bridge by about 2mm which isn't much clearance but I won't be using any real tall equipment anyways. I love this layout due to the fact that when you look at it from 6 different angles it looks like entirely different part of the line, it would be hard to get bored of this track plan and it's not too short tracking so the train takes a while to get to a same point again and it's not too long either for continuous run with about 7 planned bridges and a few tunnels

the elevations and terrain is alot different from the original plan and it's topography