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The Diamond River Valley Railway Co.
The Diamond River Valley Railway Co. founded in 1964 as a subsiduary of the Santa Fe Railway Co exists to serve the trackage that was demoted to branch line status after the Santa Fe completed the Holliday Tunnel. The tunnel was built to assist the railroad with navigation through the mountains and to speed up its service between the east coast and the Midwest.
The modeled section of the railroad starts from the west in Diamond River. A small yard, but a busy junction with the branch line that runs traffic to Cliffside. On route are smaller towns that used to be served by the Santa Fe until the tunnel was opened in late 1967 Pinecrest is the first of two modeled towns; the largest industries in town are the meat packing plant and Hillside Distributors. A short hop down the track takes you to Placer where you will find Wilson Plumbing and Schafer Industries. Schafer industries manufactures large generators and at least once a week an over sized load is required between Placer and Diamond River.
Back on the main line we leave Diamond River heading east, we skirt Pinecrest and duct into the new Holliday Tunnel. 3.5 miles later we emerge on the outskirts of Bend. The main line hugs the banks of the Oneapee River as we round the curve and cross for the second time on a combination thru girder and truss bridge.
Once across the river we coast down to Wheeler Junction and the top of the grade. (this is also the end of the modeled portion to date so I will pick it up later as I construct more of the history).
Over view of Diamond River Yard and the industrial area in the rear. The yard consists of (left to right) Passenger siding, Main line, A/D track, two storage tracks and a run around. The industrial tracks in the rear are fed from a connection with the yard and the branch line just to the bottom left of this picture.
West end of the yard at Diamond River. Main line track is code 83 flex with all other being hand laid code 70. All turnouts are handlaid in place. I use the Fast Track templates and glue down the ties in place to the template. I cut back on the amount of PC ties cause I'm cheap. the turnouts come out fantastic; I have even modified some of the paper templates to fit my specific needs. For instance; a curved 14 degree crossing. (see below)
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A curved crossing is a lot harder to build than a turnout. You did a good job!
Enjoy it.
Wolfgang
www.westportterminal.de/
Cadmaster,
Thanks for the post. I especially like the description of the line's history and reason for being. Looking forward to more postings of your progress.
Don
SP in HO scale: 1950's."
That's some really nice track work Cadmaster and the curved crossing is great work also! keep the photos coming on the progress of your RR.
Dan
NARROW gauge MINDED
AND PROUD OF IT
Thanks to all of you for the compliments. I will post as the layout grows. It is really great to see work form everyone on this site. It builds a lot of confidence in ones abilities.
Neil.
I agree with Wolfgang - crossings are harder than turnouts.
There is a great article in NMRA's November publication "Scalerails". (I just got mine today) on building crossings with no gaps. The gaps are the killers in building crossings because it makes the rail pieces so short and hard to keep in line. The gap-less scheme isolates the guard rails from running rails so there is no conductor between any opposing pair of rails. It looks very good but I haven't tried it yet.
second thoughts -- I have now re-read the article a coupleof times and drawn my own diagrams and my enthusiasm has faded.
The gap-less feature depends on having the guard rails isolated from the runnihg rails and the article says "make the flangeways ... wide enought so th backside of the axle/wheel sets cannot touch the inside guardrails anywhere."
But that's what guardrails are for - to press against the backs of the wheels to keep them running true. I think that if the flangeways are wide enough so the wheels do not touch they might as well be left off - or you will need wider wheels than is common.
Looks to me like this is not as great as I first thought.
Back to gaps
Artarms
Artarms
Three things if you will.
1. Before I read your text, I was looking at the pictures, and said dang - that looks hand done. Cheers for me, I'm getting better at this! But really, the above views are key, the way the rails don't run perfectly straight. That's a prototype look that something like ME flex would have a hard time duplicating, which raises a question - from a modeler's perspective, what's best - tie plates and detail, or a grander view?
2. The fast tracks templates are more flexible than they seem, I'd agree with that. What PC ties did you remove; have you noticed any performance hit, and did you really save money? After buying the jigs, the turnout cross ties seem to go a long way.
3. Cork. You are hand laying on cork - from what I've read, and tested, this seems a no-no - I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Great stuff overall!
Modeling the Central Vemont
www.garbo.org/MRR
Neil, come on over to my house and help me lay track! You should probably tell the story of how you decided to make a few changes to your layout after operating on others'! It would make a great article for submission to MRH.
Paul
but it also looks like quite a reach to those back industrial tracks. How far is it?
Dave
N-Scaler still trying to figure out what he's going to model
1 the pictures do not do the actuall too much justice. I see what you are refering too as "the rails don't run perfectly straight". This I think is somewhat in the camera only. My handlaid track is not perfectly straight, and I had no intention of it being perfectly straight, but it does not look like the picture shows. I think this picture is a little clearer. My camera is just a cheap digital with not many settings.
2 I use no more than 4-5 PC ties in a #6 TO. As yoiu can see here 4 PC ties on this #5 right around the frog, then one more for the throw bar. The turnout is very rigid an I have had no issues. on a #6 I use a 5th tie about half way between the frog and head block, that takes away any potential flesing inthe stock rails. I have been on your blog and I think you are doing a fantastic job with your turnouts. The jigs are great, and I considered going that route, I have been hand laying for a while and just did not want to go to the bench to build mine. I prefer to actually lay in place.
3 I used to think the same. in fact my previous layout was all homabed from California Roadbed Co. the only difference that I see at this point is that I am not as finacially strapped, not as fustrated from being told story upon story about why the product has not shipped yet, but my credit card has been charged. But seriously, Norm Stenzil who was featured in a Great Model Railroads video lays his in exactly the same manor. Right down onto cork. His has been down for close to four years on his present layout and not sure how long on the one that was featured in the video. There honestly has been no issues with spiking into the cork that I did not experience spiking into Homasote. I am not saying everyone is wrong, but this is what I plan to use from here on out. If I run into an issue down the road I will pass it on. After all; if youare spiking into the wood tie and not destroying the tie in the process that is truly what should be holding the rail in place, not the roadbed.
Neil.
Neil.