The Ascent to the Stone Arches

 Made more progress this weekend than I expected. We’ve been having a yard sale on Friday and Saturday, so that cut into my weekend morning routine of early layout work before everyone else gets out of bed.

First thing accomplished was the installation of a switch and all the track for the chemical plant. This is the first industry “north” of staging before you get to the rolling mill and electric furnace on the opposite side of the peninsula.

Next was adjusting the approaches and setting the final grade for the stone arch bridge. I need to enclose the staging access track behind it, then I can paint behind the bridge, fasten it to the base and get track laid on it. 

Finally, I turned an idea into reality. On previous layouts, I borrowed a friend’s method of mounting ground throws at the front edge of the layout. I wanted to go a step further and mount the ground throws to the fascia. I found wooden oval plaques (3”x 5”) at the craft store and cut them in half lengthwise and drilled two holes so they could be mounted to the fascia. Here is how it turned out. Should work well. They’ll protect the ground throws from getting bumped into, but won’t inflict pain on operaters who might bump into them.

A Plethora of Peninsula Progress

Since the last update, benchwork construction has resumed and the basic peninsula framework has been completed. Also, the staging track work is completed all the way to the false wall in which the lower level begins (working railroad north)

Also, the radial benchwork at the end of the peninsula has been completed for both the lower and upper levels. Temporary fascia will be installed to prevent injury (ouch!).

All of the staging-level track work is complete and is now progressing at the lowest visible part of the layout as the main track proceeds from staging to the classification yard at Charleston, WV. The goal is to be able to have trains running between staging and a functional classification yard by the end of 2021. Backdrop installation will go far to “tidy up” the room.

Benchwork Progress

First train through the wall! The beefy little Atlas S4 took the first train to the end of the current progress. It took 22 cars up the 1.5% grade with no trouble. 

Saturday night, I installed the lower level benchwork over staging level to the left of the HVAC. If you refer back to the track plans, the ends of the four coal yard tracks will peek out from behind the HVAC blower by a foot or two. There is room for another industry to the left, but I may leave this alone to be a scenic area.

 Lower level benchwork is now complete in a counter clockwise direction from the classification yard, engine service tracks and coal yard. The next part will be to raise the stone viaduct up about 5-1/2 inches to meet the benchwork height. Speaking of the stone viaduct, it has been temporarily set in place again to determine the height difference. The main track to/from staging is now in place behind it, which will be hidden beneath the Elk River. 

Beyond raising the viaduct, I’m going to have to decide whether to start building the false wall for the peninsula or start on putting plywood down on the lower level benchwork and lay track in the classification yard.

Plotting and Execution

 I love it when a plan comes together!

Last night I fastened down two 8’ sheets of plywood cut down to 30” width. This morning, I plotted out the track plan from the XTrackCAD plan and made a couple of minor adjustments.

view of Watt St Yard at Charleston looking North. Cars are drilled from the south end, but all tracks are accessible from the north end. Potential “escape route” if the A/D tracks get full.

North end looking back. The N&W boxcar is spotted at East Side Printing. To the left, at the front of the layout, is the. Caboose track, off of the thoroughfare/ overflow track, will be accessed mostly from the other end.

View of the north end of the yard.

The curve to the right goes to the RIP tracks over the work bench. The two stub tracks at center-right are MoW/storage tracks. The track left of the storage tracks will go through the wall to a chemical plant on the Hillsdale Spur. The main track in red also goes through the wall to a helix up to the upper level.

City Bakery to the left where the covered hopper is spotted.

Benchwork

After several months of tackling other household projects and some basement finishing, I’ve finally been able to start construction of the layout!

One of the first things I did was to start preliminary design of a suspended loop for the upper level to ascend into staging. Why a loop vs a helix? The upper benchwork height will be 61” at the “northern” end and I cannot place overhead staging higher than 72”due to ductwork. If I partially hide a track on the upper level I can build staging in a separate room without overhead obstacles and the upper level drops to 57”, maximizing scenic space. This may potentially add extra run to the layout and potentially be able to model a little bit more of the KY&N north of Grantsville. I started by establishing the center point and then protracting the circle so the loop would provide a track radius of 36”. Later, I used a plumb bob to mark reference points on the floor joints above.

Drawing outer limits of the lower level helix and upper level loop.

I reused old sections of 3/4” plywood cut into curved panels and fastened them to the floor joists so that the all thread suspending the upper level loop has a firm structure to be bolted to.

Plywood support for suspending the upper benchwork and loop.

Finally, I started building the first level benchwork as well as lower staging access and staging yard.

Lower level benchwork in progress.

Access to staging narrow shelf construction.

Entrance to lower level staging.

Lower level staging benchwork progress.

Setting the Benchmark! (Or at least the height)

Pending the sale of our old house, I am getting close to starting benchwork construction. First, new electrical in basement needs finished, then new lighting. I’ve made some more changes to my track plan and now have two different plans to go with depending on the benchwork height considerations.

I have been experimenting with heights for several days now with a temporary set up in the basement. I may have settled on something that might work. The bottom level would have the main classification yard and staging, with the middle and upper levels having the rest of the mainline run. In the attached pictures, the heights are set at 28”, 45” and 62”, with about 14” between levels using 1x4 framework.

If I use 1x3 lumber, I can buy a couple inches and drop the top deck down 1-2 inches as well as adding to the space between levels. I stand 5’-11” and 62” at the top (30” deep) is quite comfortable if most of the track work is kept within 24” from the face. I may still make more adjustments, but I think I’m really close to settling on the standard benchwork heights (variations of elevation around the layout, of course).

My reach at the 62 inch height

Reaching into the lower level

Updated Locomotive Roster

The things you do when you can't start building a layout just yet.... you think about your locomotive roster a little bit too much.

I had been dissatisfied with the old locomotive roster, which put most of the locomotives in a three-digit series of some kind. After adjusting the overall, system-wide mileage for the KY&N, I realized that I actually needed to increase the size of the overall locomotive roster. Once the roster was adjusted for size, it no longer made since to keep the whole roster in three digits. I only have a handful of units numbered, so I may as well make the change.

After going through several versions of the roster inspired by the Chessie System, Chicago and North Western and the Southern Railway, I settled on this new roster.

Like many roads in the 1970's the oldest first generation locomotives were at or near the end of their service lives. Many of the F units are on the dead line, some of which would be   A large contingent of GP7's and GP9's which effectively ended the steam era on the KY&N continue to soldier on after 20 plus years on the job, nearing the necessity for a significant rebuild program. A large order of new GP40-2's is on the horizon, which will eventually cause the retirement of most of the ALCO's on the roster by 1980.