Newbie saying hi and outlining my plans

Thanks for your welcome Darrell. Yes, I'll try to get hold of these two books. I have been collecting the odd publication from Kalmbach Publishing, but to date, I do not have the two you recommend.

The challenge is to understand what road names would run in the same prototypical line. I'm familiar with the Aussie road names, but you have a lots more to choose from. And I'm a bit scared of mixing too many freight cars of different companies. But, in the end, if you mix and match road names which aren't prototypical, and you're happy and enjoy it, who cares what others think, right?

I plan to have a switcher (say, EMDMP15DC), and 2 or 3 GP-35's or 38's. I'm starting to collect them and converting them to DCC. And of course a handful of freight cars. In HO I model 1960's Australian (in particular VR to the Aussie forum members reading this). This time around I wanted to look at a 1990's era. I'm interested in BNSF, so operating both BNSF and BN at the time of the merger? Just a thought.

I have decided on Peco code 55, which is easily available here locally, and I am begining to purchase track and turnouts, and plan to stock up over the next six months.

I will post my questions as I think of them. Most questions will probably relate to the day-to-day operations on US railroads and their companies, so go easy on me! Anyway I look forward to a long and happy association with n-Scale.net!

hoo roo, Steve

G'day Stevo... WELCOME!

If you have difficulty finding VR stuff in 'N', imagine my challenge modelling WAGR ... I would guess that VR is close to the most prevalent of the Aussie 'N' prototypes available.

WAGR stuff has been my goal since the early '70's, so I keep stashing away anything that has potential, and play freelance until I get to my big project.

Moving around with work has kept me from doing as much as I would have liked, but it hasn't stopped me from collecting stuff.

There are several other Aussies among us... off the top of my head; there's one other sandgrouper, two banana benders, one crow eater, two cockroaches, and one from the ACT.

Whilst certain roads own/operate in given corredores, it is not unusual to see a mix of names, as it depends more on the origin and destination of a given shipment... if you wanted a starting point for commonly seen combinations of roadnames, you could research which roads merged over the years.

Hi Stevo,

Not sure where you are in Vic, The hobby shops I visist are listed below, I have included details for you as well if it is any help??

I find these places really helpful and typically have what i want when i need it....

Branchline

490 Dorset Rd Croydon VIC 3136
ph: (03) 9723 1211 

 Rail-N-Thusiast

 Happy hunting....

Simpdogg

Stev I like the trackplan,

Myself personally I would look to maybe ad a loop down the track but all in all its a really nice tidy layout which will give you some great operational fun. The other thing I like about it is that its not cluttered like mine so you you can create some really effective lifelike scenery as well.

I look forward to seeing progress pics along the way.

My dad often visits trainworld in Brighton, I've not had the pleasure of going there yet.

Cheers

Simpdogg 

Steve

I don't know if it is any help, but here in New Zealand the local railway operator (ironically enough an Australian truck Company - Toll Holdings), has got into the habit of partially closing branch lines and renaming what is left (which usually terminates at an important industry such as a dairy factory) an 'Industrial Siding'.

The fact that said 'siding' can be several miles in length  is conveniently overlooked (or ignored!!).

It is at best a conceit, at worst a total manipulation of the facts and probably done for diverse financial and political reasons.

Perhaps this term could be applied to one of your 'extended sidings', though whether it would conform with US practice to do this, I cannot say.

Just a thought . . .

Komata

"TVR -serving the Northern Taranaki . . . ."

Always a pleasure to have another hobbyist aboard. I too play Train Simulator. Have you added the downloads for the Marias Pass section? There are a couple of new locos and a few added problems.

I think you'll discover that the folks on here are very helpful!

Good luck!--

Al

Evening all, it has been so long since I posted here at N-Scale.net. I have been extremely busy with family and work committments, an the construction of the new house is sloooowly progressing. I may have to reduce or revise my plan slightly as our house plans have changed. Perhaps, I should post the dimensions I have available to me and see what the members can come up with?

I have had limited success with DCC decoders. I have ordered and installed them in all my locos and only 1 in 2 actually work, and need replacing. I am positive I am not doing anything wrong. I buy a new decoder and it works! Perhaps I have been buying a bad batch or something.

Anyway, I thought I'd pop in to let you know I haven't disappeared and my N-scale layout is still 'on track'. 

First off, have you ever gone to railpictures.net?  I went and typed in Marias Pass in the search and got back over 180 fantastic shots covering multiple generations of the BN/BNSF route.  Here's a link to the exact search I did:

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?offset=0&where=search|-2|-2|-2||-2|Marias%20Pass|30|2||||||||-2|-2||-2|-2|||30|-2|-2||||||1||1||||&newsort=1

It does look like terrific scenery and has some shots of a small helper yard as well in Essex, Montana.  It's a great site to find images of areas you want to model.

Question regarding your new layout space:  Have you ever thought about building on multiple levels, having one yard at the end of one level, and another yard at the end of the level (both on the right side of your drawing)?  You could fit a helix into the area on the left hand side of your drawing.  Something about having a train disappear and reappear on a new level to me gives the impression of traveling much farther than it really did, giving you the ability to model two points ignoring the "inbetween."

even if it was just a 4-6" increase, and you split the shelf you had in half lengthwise with the front part being the lower level, and the back part being the upper, you could provide some visual separation of your two areas.  A larger helix and two complete levels would give you much more trackage and modeling space without taking up any more floorspace.  The helix could be contained in a mountain and the train would emerge from a tunnel on either level, which would fit very well with your locale and theme.

It's definitely more work when it comes to construction, but might give you what you're looking for (a point-to-point switching layout) with two distinctly separate areas without taking up any more space than you have to.