2010 March 30

Dave “Planman” Smithey rang me on Sunday and suggested that my idea of having the staging separated from the mainline running was good, and that with a bit of tinkering the main could do a double loop around the layout room using a “folded figure 8”.

I still liked the idea of the mainline being relatively flat with no or little grades, but know that to get extra distance there may have to be some grades to get above (or below) the mainline when it crosses. I had hoped to keep the eastern wall of the room to just two tracks (mainline at datum and branchline slowly climbing) as this will be the best for scenery etc in a narrow 400mm wide scene, but with a “folded figure 8” there will be three tracks to cope with.

The question now is:
“Do I sacrifice mainline running for scenic potential?”

For the branch not much has changed, apart from putting the timber/lumber mill a quarter way up the hill, and the grain silos three quarters up the hill.

Doing this alphabetically (with the junction at “B”)
A Main yard (Olmstead?)
B Junction
C Lumber mill
D Passing siding
E Grain silos
F Branch terminus

This will allow two trains to work the branch, the uphill train starting at A with empty lumber cars, empty grain cars (for E) and other cars for industries at F ( John Deere distributor and Weyerhaeuser Paper?).

The downhill train will start at F and collect loaded grain cars at E, cross the uphill train at D and collect any loaded lumber cars at C and continue to B and A.