@ Ken

Give us some clues!  What era and location?  What is this railroad to be called? Inquiring minds want to know?

Den

Details, Details!

Yes, please elaborate! I'm curious about how big your old layout was, and how big you're planning your new layout to be. Do you have a track plan you can post?

I'm in the stage where I'm fantasizing about my "dream" layout, but I'm thinking the track plan I have in mind might be too much for me to bite off. So I'm naturally curious about what others are doing.

Answers

The old layout wen around 3 walls of a 11'x13' bedroom.  The new one is designed to fit along one of those walls, and to be a single scene:

The prototype is the Danville &^ Western Ry., a subsidiary of Southern Ry.  Stuart was the end of the line, and this scene is pretty close to scale.  It's full width, and compressed about 15% in length.  Here's a map of the prototype in 1917:

While I eventually hope to build a giant layout modeling the entire 75 mile D&W, for now this is all that I want to tackle.  Hopefully, if/when I do build a larger layout, I'll be able to reuse this as a portion of it.

Lucky you

When I restarted recently, I didn't have any locos or rolling stock. My initial budget was £1,000 ($1620) but I ended up spending over £1,500 ($2,430) before I got to where I am now! 

I have roughly the same amount of space.

 "Stuart was the end of the

Nice little area, kinda reminds me of Peterboro NH.  I see a turntable for turning the locos but no run around track to get on the other end of the trains, was there more track off scene? ...........DaveB 

No runaround

The main line goes east (right, on the plan above), and there was a siding a few miles away.  However, as far as I've been able to tell, the usual move was to pull in, cut the engine off, then drop the train by.  The track comes down into Stuart, so the train would roll by gravity once the brakes were released.  I'm not sure why there was no runaround track, but I don't think there ever was.  The only thing I can think is that the original plan was to continue the railroad further west into the Blue Ridge mountains, but a lack of money meant that Stuart was as far as the line went.

For my purposes, it's nice because the entire layout can be built with only four turnouts, and it's still got some good operating potential.  I could have left the scene completely to scale, but I wanted access to the turntable for a little extra fun.

Turntable

Hey Ken, What are the details on the turntable?  How long was it?  Do you have any photos?  Cheers, Rene'

Another question about the turntable and more...

Prototype info

We're in totally different ballparks, Den!  I believe the turntable was 66' long, and there's no room at all for something like 130', let along 90'.  Since the motive power is to be a mix of small 2-8-0s and 4-6-0s, a small turntable is all that's needed.

Here's a photo:

And a little bit of data:

I'm not sure.  There wasn't much in Stuart, to be honest, and as far as I can tell the track arrangement was never changed all that much.  It only lasted from 1903 to 1942, so there's only a 39 year span where Stuart was both standard gauge and in service.  My plan is to model ca. 1940, when I suspect that business wasn't exactly booming (since the line was abandoned in '42), but that should let me keep things prototypical in terms of train length, cars handled, etc.

You are so lucky to have a photo!

Not to mention the ICC report.  We didn't have the ICC in Canada, and so, no such report! 

Help to orient us in the photo, please.  Are the kids in the foreground sitting on the main?  Do you reckon that track in the right background is the runoff trestle?

Do I read it right, that the runoff trestle was used as a coal trestle for company use?  If so, there's another car spot.

Rene

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@ Ken

i happened to have a very small Peco turn table sold for N scale that I was going to modify for On30 Porters.  Would you like me to measure it out in HO scale feet?  I can do that after church today.

Den

Round & round the turntable we go!

Say what you want about an overbearing government, sometimes there are advantages!  For those who didn't know, the reason for the ICC valuation documents was to document the value of all the railroads in the country for tax purposes, and to figure out what the government would owe after returning control following WW1 (not that they got paid what they were due, but that's a different discussion).  All of those documents are public record, and available in the National Archives in MD.

The photographer in on or close to the main line, looking across the turntable toward the river.  In terms of the layout, the photographer is against the backdrop, looking out toward the aisle.

Exactly.  The ICC valuation documents also have drawings of the trestle, so I can build a VERY accurate model of it as it existed in 1917.

That's my thought as well.  Thanks for pointing it out, as I cannot remember if I planned for that when I designed the track plan posted above.  I need to double check, and ensure that I leave myself room for a locomotive and coal hopper east of the turntable lead.

Thanks, Den, but I'm going to be scratchbuilding the turntable.  One of the nice things about a small layout is that I can realistically decide to scratchbuild the majority of it.  Having accurate documents more or less compels me to build everything as accurately as possible, as well - it's a bit of a double edged sword.

LED lights

Thanks for the link, Joe.  The prices are certainly better than http://www.hitlights.com, though as it happens they have a Halloween sale going and I managed to get a great deal on all the lights I needed.  $29 for a waterproof 5 meter RGB strip, complete with power supply, controller, and remote control.  I bought 4 - two for the layout, and two for my kitchen, along with another super-high intensity white LED strip (10' for $45).

@ Ken turntable

I checked the little Peco turntable.  It won't work for your needs anyway. The pit is 42.5 feet across.  Adding the lip is 45.5 feet.  In case anyone is interested that turntable is way too short for HOn3 2-8-0s.  However, it is just right for an On30 Porter with or without tender.   Lots of room.

By the way Ken, you mention a time period of 1940.  What motive power do you plan to use and how many?  From your statements I don't see new motive power switching the area.  It would probably something well used and handed down. 

Den

Roster

The D&W had a small roster.  Here's the complete standard gauge roster by date:

The five locomotives in service in 1940, #s 20-24 were purchased new by the D&W.  By 1940, they were close to 35 years old, and definitely well used, but also well cared for based on the photos I've seen.  The fact that they lasted another decade (and then went on to serve other railroads as well) suggests that they were far from worn out in my era.

The Bachmann low-driver 4-6-0 and MDC 2-8-0 are almost perfect for the 1940 roster, and I have several of each on hand.  I actually have enough to model everything from #s16-77, and I eventually plan to do so, but for the moment a single locomotive will suffice.