The Evolution of My Track Plan

As I'm sure was the case with many people in their first model railroad experience, I began with a circle of track. In my case, it was long enough ago that what ran around that track at great speed was a wind-up engine. I have fond memories of that experience. Since a circle of track is not very prototypical for a real functioning railroad, something was needed to help the illusion of a real railroad setting. I remember placing a paper-mache tunnel over the track. It was only a few inches of make-believe mountain, but it served an important function. It hid the rest of the world, helping you to see the remaining track as a believeable portion of a complete railroad. In designing my track plan, I decided that the illusion created by a tunnel should play an important part. By expanding the tunnel to cover most of the loop of track and leaving only a short segment showing between two tunnel portals, a short believeable piece of main line would be created. Then, I would model a complete branch line, connecting it to the main line with a junction on the short piece of main line. Access to the rest of the world is through that junction. (A sea-port might take the place of the junction and serve the same function) In the hidden portion of the loop, storage tracks can hold trains to be brought out "on stage" as needed.

In an effort to get the most railroad in a given space, most track plans put track around the walls of a room. Even though it is more wasteful of space, I decided on an "island-type" layout because it increases angles for viewing and photography. Photographs of turn-of-the-century railroading led me to model this period, with its small equipment, sharp curves, steep grades and wooden bridges. No trucks yet; only horses and wagons served in transportation along with the railroads. I wanted a design that was convincing as a scene with no unprotypical looping of track just to get more operation in a given space. I began with sketches like these to experiment with table shapes and track designs...

It occurred to me that the addition of another short tunnel on the visable portion of the main line might give more strength to the tunnel illusion...a tunnel, both ends of which were visible...helping you believe that the two original portals also led to places in the distance.

Here is another more elaborate sketch incorporating that feature.

You can see from these designs that I find the switchback to be an interesting feature. I decided to have a limit of 4.25% in grade and, after testing my locomotives, I settled on a 12 inch minimum radius for curves on the branch line. This would limit equipment to short cars and short trains. The sharpest curves on the Uintah Railway in Colorado were of similar radius, and my model locomotives can negotiate them, so I get more railroad action in a given space by allowing such sharp curves. The final plan, which is being built, is in two parts. The first portion is being built in a 15 x 17 foot room in two moveable sections. When completed, the railroad will be moved to larger quarters and the second portion added. Here is the first portion which includes Harrington Junction and goes through the town of Ridgeback.

The main line (shown in green) includes the junction and an"on-scene" tunnel. After leaving Harrington Junction, the branch line (shown in orange) goes around Harrington Hairpin Curve (12 and 16 inch radius') and up a 2.75% grade behind Bilger Rock and crosses over the main line before entering a tunnel. After crossing the main line again two times and going through two more tunnels it emerges to curve around (13 inch rad.) and head up the gulch into Ridgeback. From this point an elaborate switchback carries the track up 80 feet of vertical rise before it goes into the tunnel at the end of line on its way to Redrock. A temporary Fiddle yard in this tunnel will represent Red Rock and Gold Creek which will be modeled on the second portion to be built later. Now that you have seen the basic track diagram, here is the complete plan with added secondary trackage (shown in blue).

The added trackage includes several features in Ridgeback; a turning wye, a yard, a storage track and a spur track which extends over to the Black Creek Mine on the mountain behind Harrington Junction. Another spur serves the coal and sand bins at the engine service facility. A couple of areas are shown in dotted-lines. These are removeable dioramas which were built to take to model contests. One is of the Ridgeback Engine Service Facility and the other of the Black Creek Mine. You will find that my table shapes sometimes influence the track design and vice versa. In the Ridgeback area, notice how the corners of the table happen to be directly in line with the ends of the three tangent tracks. Which came first, the table or the track? Certain angles found in the table shapes are born out of the track plan itself. Later, I'll mention some other relationships which effected the design of the tables and walkways. Here is my 1/8th size planning model of this portion of the railroad:

Now, here is the remainder of the plan for future expansion.

After passing through Red Rock, the line takes a circuitous path on a 3.25% grade until it crosses Ramten Gulch on a high timber viaduct. Then the line proceeds up through Rascher Pass and on to Gold Creek, the end of the line. Gold Creek is a 28 inch vertical rise from Harrington Junction. The Ramten Gulch Viaduct will be the focal point of this extension to the track plan. The bridge will be built early as a diorama to be installed when this expansion is built. The dotted lines on the drawing show the diorama location. This photo shows the diorama base upon which I plan to build the bridge.

And here are a couple of photos of the 1/8th size planning model of the future expansion plan with the original portion so that you can see the viewing possibilities.

I said that I would return to the subject of table shape design. This sketch shows how elements in various areas of table shapes are reflected in the design of the walkway areas. Table shapes from the earlier construction become walkway areas in the future expansion, and vice versa.