Like I mentioned in my first entry, I had a design for a 25’x25’ double decked layout, featuring not only the entire TS run from Stockton to Turlock (excluding the Manteca Branch) but SP as well. It was a cool “mushroom design” and I’m still convinced that it would work – given the space of course. However, this is the space I ended up with:
There are two windows that I wasn’t concerned about blocking, but I wanted to make sure that I didn’t block the closet or entry door, and I wanted to have room for my workbench as well. This was it; my hobby space, and I needed to fit it all in. I didn’t want to use any lift out sections either. My N Scale switching layout had two drop down leaves on either end for staging that worked ok, but it introduces more maintenance especially in an area with fairly drastic temperature changes over the course of the year.
Once I figured out where I could build in the room, I realized that I had about 12’x7’ of usable floor space, with the potential of a small extension on the right side, near the window. All of a sudden I was wondering if I shouldn’t stick with N-Scale! I wasn’t going to give up, so I set about trying to narrow down what I would model, and how I would do it.
There are several scenes that I’ve always intended to model on the TS. Stockton, Summer Home, Escalon, Modesto, Foster Farms (my last post shows that I was obviously wrong about that!) and Turlock. Stockton was out, because unless I used the entire space for the yard (which might have been interesting) I couldn’t do it justice. Summer Home would be possible, but it’s a siding with a couple of packing houses, and I was looking for a lot of switching. Modesto might have been possible, but the curves that would have to be put on the main meant that it would have to stretch around at least two walls to do it any sort of justice. This left Foster Farms and Turlock, conveniently right next to one another on the same branch of the TS. Turlock also offers an interchange with SP, giving more operation potential, and I have lots of pictures of the old TS freight depot there, giving me a scratchbuilding project for the future.
I started to envision this layout as a sideways “E” shape, with the middle leg being Foster Farms and the right leg as Turlock. That left the right leg. I would need some sort of staging, representing points north on the line, but because space was at a premium, “on layout” staging would be preferable. I settled on Hatch as the natural location, because that’s where the TS splits, heading east to Turlock. At Hatch, there is a milling company that has four spurs, and could be used as a reasonable “on layout” staging yard. I set some requirements for myself:
- There would be staging on only one end of the layout. There was never a yard in Turlock, and trains would run out and back. Having staging on just one end would be prototypical.
- I wanted minimum 30” wide aisles. Even though this layout is designed to be operated by a crew of one I wanted that person (me!) to not be cramped when running trains.
- I would accept minimum 18” radius curves on the industrial tracks, and 24” elsewhere. Fortunately all this layout would see is four axle power.
- I would use #5 or greater turnouts.
- I wanted the layout height and depth to support reach-ins without standing on a stepstool or my toes, but I didn’t want to be looking at the roofs of my cars all the time.
So I started drawing and ended up with this:
Wow…was I proud of this plan! It looked good, it offered a lot of operation, and it would have worked – if I had about twice the space to build in. A lesson that I keep “learning” over and over again, is that even when using a template, it’s very easy to fudge turnout sizes and leads. What I found was that I could really only have two yard tracks, plus the main at Hatch, I was deluding myself about the radius of curve that would be needed to connect the main to the SP interchange – and further research revealed that was unrealistic anyway.
So I took a step back, in between my planning and construction and decided to do some more research. I was doing this on my iPad, and one of my apps on there is Trainz Simulator and I thought – I could “build” my layout in there! I could constrain the area to the size of my room, and lay the track and see how it all operates. It didn’t take very long, and I didn’t do any of the crazy scenery stuff, but I was able to run my future layout and work out quite a few bugs and operational issues well before I built a single piece of benchwork. When I found an issue, it was a simple matter to go in and fix it and try something else. Once I did that, I never actually drew a new track plan…I already knew what was going to work in the area.
There was still a problem. Both Hatch Milling and Foster Farms get the same sort of traffic: lots and lots of grain hoppers. I like hoppers and I have a whole bunch of Proto 2000 kits I’ve put together over the years. However, all of the pictures I’ve seen of TS trains of the era are a mix of cars, not predominately grain hoppers as they were in the UP era. I wanted to capture the flavor of the railroad and having an out of balance ratio of hoppers to everything else wouldn’t cut it, so my Hatch Milling/staging yard plan started to change.
I started working northward via Google Maps on the line, and came to a place that I’d never intended to model: Rogers Yard in Ceres, CA, just south of Modesto. The real TS would put trains together here, bound for Turlock or Manteca. Plus there’s a Post Foods plant there, which gives me another industry. There was space for industry that I could “selectively compress” closer: Stanislaus Farm Supply. That was when it all clicked together. My three scenes would be Rogers Yard, Foster Farms, and Turlock. Of course even that wasn’t quite set in stone…
From my original track plan to now, it looks like this:
Rogers Yard
Foster Farms (soon to be the home of many packing sheds)
Turlock
More changes are afoot however, but like any model railroad, it’s always a work in progress. Next I’ll dig into the construction of the layout.
