So you thought this train would never come in.  Well, ran into a lot of wet leaves on the uphill grade and the coal in the tender was like Alabama swell belly.  Management sells the good coal and we get this "dirt".  Anyway, this post is not to tell you of the completion of the perfect track plan that will never have to be adjusted.  It is to tell you what has been done.

Continued the cleaning out of the storage room - some of the VHS tapes went into the trash.  Almost all of the film camera equipment and materials have been sold which freed up more of the storage room.  Doug Barry helped in disassembly of the "L" guider from the old layout and this wood will be used on the new layout.  Some HO engines and cars that are not time appropriate for my friends or myself have been passed onto eBay selling.  The shelving in the downstairs bath was completed and some G scale locos were put on display.

Comments on the lower level plan in the closet, which includes the yard, were provided by Keith Stillman and Dick Munnikhuysen - make sure there is aisle space.  

This plan is bad on two counts:

1.  A lot of aisle space is eaten up trying to put the turntable directly across from the yard.
2.  Reach to hand throw switches on the yard ladder is bad - reaching over tracks.




























This plan is better but the turntable still has not been located.  Bob Warren, Paul Dolkos and Doug Barry have all counseled "get cutting wood/buikding".  An excess 12" diameter turntable from a visit at Tony Koester's is providing the impetus to locate it on the layout at the end of the closet.  In the future I'll try to get plan photos that are easier to read.


Talked to Dan after Paul Dolkos's comment about "don't see the theme" and came up with "MINERALS".  So, in addition to the American Cyanamid plant at Piney River, VA, the Olin Mathieson plant at Saltville, VA, will serve as prototype inspiration for two major customers in the layout room. And it has since been discovered that the type of chemicals Olin Mathieson sold could have been used at the American Cyanamid plant. 

One of the "wet leaves" delays was reading about a now defunct short line in Kentucky.  One of the authors worked for the line and the book included an interesting description of switching a distillery.  Talking and emails with the book's co-author gave me incentive to look into including this.  With the location of the modeled portion of the V&T Rwy being in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennesse and Jack Daniel being located in Lynchburg, TN, in the dry county of Moore, the V&T may just have another major customer.

And there is still the connecting lines/branches/interchanges of coal and wood as well as a few local small businesses.

I started looking at space consideration in the closet.  Brackets for the lower level were put in place and shelving laid across the get a feel for aisle vs depth of layout.  This mess is a result of beginning to pull out and get an idea of track and switches on-hand.  Several sheet of plywood and Homasote have been purchased.  The screw-in connectors that go in the recessed lighting have been procured and initial information on track lighting obtained.  

From the last posting "FOR THE NEXT TIME" there is still much to do.

NEW:  FOR THE NEXT TIME

There is a 100 inch long piece of serpentine track from the old layout now in the basement for the checking of trains on different grades with specific locos.  ADDED: Set up Digitrax power supply to power test trains. Still need to do this.  It would REALLY help me to know if there is any advantage to use AC versus DC to power the Digitrax - your thoughts are solicited.

Drawing up scale drawings of track arrangement.  Still need to do this.

Establishing a line diagram for the modeled right-of-way and an "operating scenario".  Still need to do this.

Identifying the lighting for the train room and closet [probably fluorescent  or LED track lighting].  ADDED: Review electric current ratings supplied to the rooms.  Lighting identified but much work remains.

Clean out the train room that is currently totally full [this is from both Doug Barry and Steve Robbins - even the wife suggested a POD but it doesn't provide the humidity control that a lot of the "stuff" needs but some of it is going into the shed].

Thanks for reading - and Best of the Holidays to all.

Well, it's been under three months [just barely] since the last post.  And there has been action, but not as much as desired in the layout area.  The motorcycle was sold and what does this have to do with the V&T Railway? inquiring minds want to know.  It frees up space in the shed which provides more space for things in the basement to get moved into the shed which in turns provides more space in the part of the country to be served by the V&T Rwy.  Then in mid May Will, the younger son, come up to be the lead contractor for installation of the vertical supports in the closet AND the bath.  Why the bath?  I hear those gears grinding - well added some shelving to display some of the "G" scale "narry" gauge.    


Here Will is measuring to locate the vertical supports and then getting a level line so the three supports will be even and level.                                                                                                                                

This next photo shows how we got the supports in the closet to match the height in the trainroom - just punched a hole in the wall about where the track will be placed.  The yard located in the closet will be the widest area supported off the wall and it could be as wide as two feet so double channel was used along that one wall and the end wall.  Since the spacing of the slots in the double channel is 1 1/4 inch and the single slot is 1 inch, a key slot level was established at the height for the yard and that level brought through the wall and around the three walls in the closet [in the closet, two walls to have double slot, the other wall and all walls in the train room have the single slot].  
 

 
This photo shows establishing the height for the single slot support based on the adjorning double slot support.

The double slot brackets have two holes in them for screwing the wood benchwork to the brackets as shown below:






















Since the single slot brackets have no method for attaching the benchwork, there needed to be a "magical" answer.  Will suggested a pipe bracket but Chris Schieck suggested cutting angle into little brackets, drilling appropriate holes [intuitively obvious]  I decided that pop rivets would be a quick. solid and easy method to attach the little bracket to the single slot bracket.

Looks like its going to work.

From the last posting "FOR THE NEXT TIME" there is still much to do.

NEW:  FOR THE NEXT TIME

There is a 100 inch long piece of serpentine track from the old layout now in the basement for the checking of trains on different grades with specific locos.  ADDED: Set up Digitrax power supply to power test trains.

Installation of the wall shelving in the closet - uprights completed.

Drawing up scale drawings of track arrangement.

Establishing a line diagram for the modeled right-of-way and an "operating scenario".

Identifying the lighting for the train room and closet [probably fluorescent  or LED track lighting].  ADDED: Review electric current ratings supplied to the rooms.

Thanks for reading.  Comments and questions appreciated.

Except for failure to do posting, both planning and work have progressed in the past 3+ months.  On the planning side, received comments from a couple of you on the last post of layout plan. Mike Garber copied the pencil plans from the blob, marked them up and sent his thoughts and questions as an attachment to an email.  Thanks Mike, that made it very easy to respond.  And am sorry that some of you could not see all the information easily but am focusing on planning/building layout, not a blog.  However, have not reduced the file size for the photos of the penciled track plan as much as before, again took some time to try to enhance the photos and presented them in a large format to try to make it easier to view.

Also received a number of ideas from Bob Warren.  Most folks I have talked to prefer and are more comfortable with a single level layout and Bob is one of them.  With every track plan for the layout, he included a discussion specific layout plan, thoughts on operations and a line diagram:

 

I first asked for input on the yard in the closet and got the following:
  

Next came working on the entire area for a two level layout.  One of the things he tried to do is to increase the length of the run for the nolex by starting it at the far end of the closet instead of at the wall between the closet and train room. 

The first two plans were "B" and "C", the upper level the same for both of them.  Shown in order below are "B" [lower level], the alternate lower level "C" and finally upper level for both "B" and "C":

Next came the another two level design:

And another two level design:

And then a 1 1/2 level design with single end staging:

While the yard design was detailed and scaled out, much of the other plans were more of just the concept nature.  He certainly put more in the design than track arrangement by providing the discussion and line diagram.  The description of operation and line diagram has provided some pretty neat ideas even if my initial build remains little changed from the plan in the last post.

I have continued to gather ideas in the form of photographs of construction methods as well as both photos and emailed electronic documents of operating documentation like card cards, waybills, schedules, etc.  Below are photos of Seth Gartner's beautiful New York Central Piney Fork Branch that show what I have in mind for the nolex:

After looking at the construction Keith Stillman used for his upper level [using double slot wall shelving]:

and seeing Chris Artale's storage shelves in his garage using single slot wall shelving on 32" centers, have decided to go with the single slot wall shelving on 16" centers in the train room and double slot in the closet [the yard in the closet is going to be considerably deeper than any place in the train room that is against the wall].  And have also adopted Chris's suggestion of having the vertical supports tall enough to have a storage shelf both above and below the layout.

About a month ago I moved lots of stuff away from the walls in the train room and younger son, Will, came up from Williamsburg and we got "water level" marks in both the train room and closet and vertical supports in place in the train room.  I got the ceiling painted, some shelving in place at both the lower and upper levels.  

 
Recognizing that there is a desire to put as much operation/track into the limited space and also to provide realistic information for planning, I cluttered up more of the basement with a two level mock-up.  The large box provides a 10 inch height, the cardboard is 12 inches deep over the lower level in these photos and the lip is 2 1/2 inches high.  V & T Rwy track standards were derived from the mockup which provided information as to the closest that a track can be to a vertical surface and closet track spacing [1 1/2 inch and 2 1/4 but 2 1/2 inch better, respectively].   

FOR THE NEXT TIME

There is a 100 inch long piece of serpentine track from the old layout now in the basement for the checking of trains on different grades with specific locos.

Installation of the wall shelving in the closet.

Drawing up scale drawings of track arrangement.

Establishing a line diagram for the modeled right-of-way and an "operating senario".

Identifying the lighting for the train room and closet [probably fluorescent  or LED track lighting].

Thanks for reading.  Comments and questions appreciated.

Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving that all are in good health.

A while back Keith Stillman suggested and then spent hours helping me set up the "Follow By Email" where one enters their email and when a new post is made an announcement is automatically sent out to the recipient.  Those of you who signed up, please let me know if you got the email for this post.

Just because its been three months since the last post it doesn't mean that nothing has been done.  Besides hitting another big "0" the day after Thanksgiving:

1. Doug Berry came over to help by challenging my plans, reviewing the space and sketching out my general plans on graph paper.  He also held his tongue upon seeing the amount of train stuff in the layout area.  A valuable lesson for me was use pencil and paper to capture ideas and the computer program "paint" to show others the track plan.  While "paint" is relatively simple to use and can provide better visibility of the plan than a pencil sketch, I found myself more focused on the mechanics of moving track segments than "designing" the plan.  He left me with the challenge of working out the details for the yard.

2.  Got some track spacing dimensions from Keith Stillman on his E&P and with additional input from others, set yard track spacing at 2 1/2 inches.  Worked on a yard design and shipped pencil sketches to Bob Warren who gave good feedback.  

3. Cynthia and I have been doing some clean-up in the storage room to make that space more accessible. 

4.  I have begun separating the layout era, 1950's, specific cars from the other [almost always 1970's and newer era] cars as a start on cleaning up the train room and closet.

5.  Reviewed the plan with my sons who asked about methods of attachment of the shelves to the walls.  Initial plans are the twin track uprights [such as Rubbermaid] that accommodate twin track brackets at 1 1/1 inch increments.


6.  Sketched up the overall plan [see below] and look to you to provide input.  PLEASE REVIEW THE SKETCH AND PROVIDE COMMENTS.

Key dimensions:

Lower level 48", upper level 58" resulting in a 2.7% grade between the two.  This assumes that about three feet at each end of the grade to transition between grade and level.

Lower level main room shelf depth: 2' east and west walls, 1 1/2 ' south wall

Upper level main room shelf depth: 1' south and east walls, 1 1/2' west wall

"Blob" 3' 9" to 5' X 7' 9" of "Mushroom" design.

There are three "Foreign Railroad" [two in the closet and one under the upper end of the "No-Lex"] which provide interchange and/or run-through possibilities and/or branch lines.

 A single 12" manual turntable serves the yard.  The yard has main line, passing siding and an A-D track and 5 classification tracks.  The drill track connects to the A-D track and the ladder for the five classification tracks.

One or two yard operators, depending on session, with 3-4 operators in the main room.  The closet is an "intermediate" staging area with scenery and an operating yard.  The main room operators stay out of the closet - only observing their train go through on the upper level or run between the yard and the blob/mushroom on the lower level.  One more person/dispatcher handles staging in the storage room. 

Only the upper level crosses the door to the main room.

                                                                LOWER  LEVEL

                                                                UPPER  LEVEL
                                                                  

Next is to receive some comments  FROM   YOU  and to post the design using "paint" to make the track arrangement and fascia edge clearer.  Also, will be working on the 3D model to look at spacing of the levels and shelf depth.





   

One item brought back from Atlanta was defining the route.

The Route of the 
Virginia & Tennessee Railway    











There is insufficient space for a division point yard with associated engine facilities so the desired yard will be in Kingsport, TN, and serve the industries in the area plus the line down to Johnson City, TN, and up to coal and logging country through Gate City and Appalachia, VA.  

"Druthers" to be modeled [not all may make the final cut]:

Yard with minimum service facilities
Chemical industry [wood products based - Tennessee Chemical]
Titanium processing [American Cyanamid]
Coal and lumber
Interchanges with other railroads 
Blocks of insulated box and refrigerated box cars
Clay products [brick, pipe]
Misc small shippers/receivers
Limited passenger service
A "Y" would be nice 


The plan last posted, July 12, 2013, had the advantage of having the yard along the long open wall and still having enough distance for a 2.5% grade going to the upper level, the yard at 42" height and the upper level at the door at about 54" height.  But the problem with that plan is there would probably be nearly as many trains crossing the door at 42" as exiting the other end of the yard.  The other end of the yard would have a lot of traffic with two lines, one the 42" level and another using the "Nolix" [around the room helix] to get to the Top Level.  That plan would constitute more crossing the door at the 42" level than I hoped.  This has led to doing an elevation drawing to better see what is going where [see below].  Included in the elevation drawing is a "vertical curve" of about two and a half feet [one car length for each percent of grade] at each end of the grade.


Elevation of July 12, 2013, plan.  Going from left to right is like entering at the door and following around clockwise.  The grade going up is the "Nolex".


















Next is to investigate moving the yard so the lower level crossing of the door would rarely occur.  Possibilities include putting the yard in the closet along one of the 12' walls [leaving 6" to 10" shelf on the opposite side] and possibly having the yard at an elevation between the upper and lower levels.  Maximum number of operators in the closet would be two, operators would run their train in to the yard from outside of the closet.

Mid July was the NMRA National convention in Atlanta which I attended for the first time.  Started the trip on Friday before the convention and returned Thursday before it ended with "training" both going down and returning.  Stops included:

The stuffed and mounted steam
engines in Saltville, VA, and the little
industrial 25 ton GE in Glade Spring.

                                                                                                                 

On Saturday the state park and NS had
trains stopped for people to walk through
Natural Tunnel and photograph NS
heritage and Operation Lifesaver units.

and late that afternoon visited some
old stomping grounds, the SRy and
L&N stations in Knoxville, TN.

Sunday at the TVRM got to ride SRy 630 for the first time in over 30 years.  Didn't that bring back some memories!!  Back then worked it B-ham to Alexandria and Front Royal and return.  Not only did we use it for the public trips but took it on one political campaign and even to Warrenton to a coming out for two debutantes that was called the "Great Train Party".
 

 In Atlanta focused on layout design and operation special interest groups.  

On the Layout Design Tour we were able to get to four layouts which demonstrated various construction and layout techniques including an in progress N scale layout with a helix of over two dozen turns.  The Layout Design Boot-camp provided some new thoughts and the consulting sessions helped me to realize that I needed to clarify my concepts.  There were dozens of clinics available but attended only a few, among them were eastern logging cars, the NF&G railroad and associated logging lines and a fascinating presentation on SRy annual reports.  Failed to win anything in the silent auction, a good thing as have enough already, and saw a fascinating Gn15 layout in the contest room that takes up all of 2' X 4'.  While this little layout was a inspiration to build something, it will not serve as a diversion from building the V&T.  Also saw George Gaige's b&w model photos.  He won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  Congratulations George!   

Also got to operate on a great N scale layout and a wonderful N&W HO layout [photo].   On both nights got to operate with a long lost old friend from Oak Ridge who related that he had ridden the Shay powered Brimstone when he was 12 and they did a flying switch with a load of people.  Thanks to the work and hospitality of many, this was a great convention for me.


 

On the way back home stopped at the Southeastern Railway Museum with its many displays including this easy to fire Savannah and Atlanta #750 pacific

and finally finding the power for the Piedmont & Northern which is using the right-of-way originally used by the original P&N electric line.

All in all, it was a great balance between prototype and modeling railroads beautifully complimenting each other.


Reflecting on lessons learned from the "boot-camp" and LDSig consultations was to refresh myself on some of the material I already have, also more specifically define my line [such things as division yards, industries, interchanges, marshaling yards, etc], then list the signature elements to be modeled and see which ones I can reasonably fit in the space.  Methods of obtaining the grade between the two levels was discussed, horizontal and vertical easements, as well as "maximize long-term challenge, not puzzle complexity".  Where there are small spaces remember "overlapping" functions making sure there is runaround, switching leads and industry track alongside one another. 

With recovery from the trip, correcting lots of computer issues generated while trying to download some software for Proto Rail and getting this report posted behind me, it is time to start acting on the LD lessons learned.