can't wait!!!

Rob, I cannot wait to follow your journey on this one! Your landscaping and imagination are inspiring!!!

I do, it will end up looking

I do, it will end up looking marvelous like the rest of the things you do! Thanks for sharing your work with the rest of us.

"have almost no idea what

   Hi Rob, You might have told us before but what role does this area play in the operations of the railroad? That will determine the near track scenery and perhaps even some farther from the right of way if it's an industrial or agricultural area. I like to work from a form follows function perspective when trying to decide how an area should look......DaveB

Oh Goody!

I always enjoy following along with your progress Rob, and am looking forward to doing the same in the town of Atherton.

Judging by the amount of track in the new area I'm guessing that it will be more industrial/commercial than commercial/residential.

Will there be a station here too?

Ohhhhh Yeah....!

Here he goes again...WooHoo!  

Following

:D

First Steps

Dave - you are right; I need a story and I am going to mull this over for the weekend.

In the mean time ("inertia is your enemy") I will get on with stuff I know is needed.

So the track work gets my normal treatment of a blast of rattle can earth brown. Unsophisticated but oh so effective.....

I got into a bit a trouble with this because for about an hour the whole house stank of acrylic spray  ("Sorry dear").
 

I also need a station so this shows the basic shell panels ready for door and window fitting before assembly:
 

This is a Quality Craft Models Marlinton station -  basically a standard C&O station design.
It's going together beautifully and is a very enjoyable kit to assemble.It's painted in standard Cornhill & Atherton real estate colors.

Rob Clark

Cornhill & Atherton RR

Very nice

I look forward to seeing progress on this. 

 ​

 ​

Atherton station takes shape and a question of placement

The station building is looking good. Some tidying up to do on wall joints, but only minor stuff.
The shingling of the roof comes next and that isn't a spectator sport.

However, I would appreciate views/opinions on a question about placement of the station..........

It probably looks better here (picture above) because the platform can parallel the track. However it ends up being right by that switch which goes to a few industries on the left and is also 'offset' to the left in terms of where inbound trains are going to stop.

Here, it has curved track in front of it, but is more logically placed regarding the stopping point of a train.
The fact that it's on a curve is only because the size of the room means I'm forced into it. In 'real life' this would be straight and mentally I can think it into a straight line .

So we have either:

1) Visually better but operationally marginal

2) Visually marginal but operationally better

3) Something else ?

Any thoughts folks .........

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Also a WiThrottle question

I also have a technical question.

I only recently got an iPhone because I am a selective dinosaur regarding new technology and only adopt it when it has some relevance to my life.

Anyway, that let to my discovery of the wonder of WiThrottle, which I installed this weekend.

It’s amazing and I can see me never picking up my PowerCab again. The ability to label buttons in Decoder Pro and show only what you need on the iPhone is great.

However I am having trouble running more than one train simultaneously.
With the PowerCab you switch between trains and each continues to run at whatever speed you left it at.

With the WiThrottle, as soon as I select another loco, my previous one stops.
I’m sure I must be missing something obvious and I must confess to not being one of life’s “operation manual scourers”.

Clues anyone?

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Depot on a curve

Not sure if it helps you but there are prototypes for having a depot on a curve. This one is in Manhattan, Kansas on the Union Pacific (obviously) in August 1965. 

 Picture from http://rr-fallenflags.org/up/up-mansta-ads.jpg - Manhattan, KS - 08/65 -(Otto Schmidt Photo) - {Dennis Schmidt Collection} 

This picture was taken less than a month before I started college in Manhattan at Kansas State University. I rode the train to and from here 1965 - 67. After that rail passenger service was so poor I flew to Kansas City and rode the bus to Manhattan. I always thought the train was the best way to go.

Station on the curve in the

Station on the curve in the mountains makes sense. There may have also been an operator there that conducted freight business for the town and having him on the curve would have given him a better view. If you are modeling the eastern united states the railroad could have been going through an established town and took the locations it could.

I like the curved location.

Station placement

I think I would go with the curve location myself, visually it might be less desirable, but only slightly so, from an operational standpoint it is better.

I Know I have moved and changed many things on my Rwy. after getting into operations. Things that where put in place because they were "pretty" were moved to accommodate the running of the trains. We all have walls that force us to lay things out in such a way as to make operating awkward in places, so any chance to alleviate some of that awkwardness is a good thing IMHO.

Here or there?

  The station could be on a curve, the passenger depot at Watsonville jct. was on a big  curve set back from the main line a bit with an asphalt "platform" between.  The station could also be on the straight by the turnout and the train would just stop there instead ( it's gonna stop where the station ends up). I'd look at it as an overall question of what the scene represents and how the town evolved.......DaveB

Lots of stations on curves

My vote goes for the Station on the curve. Looks much better to me and keeps it nicely clear of the turnout.  I'll come back to you on the Wi Throttle, just need to check a couple of things first.

Big picture

Rob: 

I have to agree with DaveB as a concept for your town-2-b would help set the stage. You have such a nice long space, with both corners, to create a small town or metropolis that some pencil to paper (or print of the space using the "Pano" feature of your new iPhone) would allow some ideas to flow for massing, layout, or forced perspective tricks to be explored. An enterprising member here may be inclined to do the same in SketchUp so different ideas and pov's (scenes) could be quickly tested. 

The question of a station on the curve, or behind a switch, would be a function of what might have transpired in history of your town so either could work, again, with the big picture in mind. 

Neil

Wi Throttle

Hi Rob

I use Wi Throttle on my Ipad and Engine Driver on my Android phone.  Wi Throttle has very few settings that you can change whereas Engine Driver has lots.  None of these however appear to affect the ability to run two trains at once.

I am running my system on Digitrax and Loco Net so there could be a distinctly remote possibility that NCE is different somehow.

Bottom line, you should be able to run two trains at once without one stopping.  However, just remember that us mere males aren't supposed to be able to multitask.

There are also some preference settings for JMRI WiThrottle but again I can't see why any of these would cause your problem.  Just so you know these are the way the preferences are set in my system:

1. Endstop  Enabled and time set at 10Sec

2.  F2 Always Momentary  Enabled

3. Allowed Controls:  Track Power , Turnouts, Routes and Consists all enabled.  NRMA format ticked.

Sorry I can't be of more help but if no one else here can give you an answer there is a WiThrottle website ( that doesn't help either)  but there is an email address for support.  The link is:

http://www.withrottle.com/WiThrottle/Home.html

On the curve

would be my vote...with the very unhelpful caveat that, to me, the station looks a little too long in that position.

It might just be a matter of shifting it's position a bit or the addition of balancing scenery to change this impression, however.

Easy to shorten in Photoshop...not so much in actuality. 

David Stewart

groundswell

Rob - it all looks very flat.  Is there a plan to include hills and such?

I like the station on the straightaway.  Add a little complication to your operation.  Prototypes for everything, to be sure, and so too I'm sure some mountain towns were built on a flat river bottom or wide spot between hills, but many more were built into the landscape as it stood.

Maybe the story is this - that the station stood there long before the siding was added.  Now is the time to consider roads, parking spots (or hitching posts) etc.

Galen

btw, that station at Manhattan is a real beauty!

Station on a Curve

Union Station - New London, CT.

On a curve since the New Haven RR days.

WiThrottle question

Thanks for the information Peter. I have the same preference settings as you described, but even after more tinkering - still no dice.

I didn't mention that it's actually WiThrottle Lite I'm using, but even so I haven't seen anything that would suggest it only can control one locomotive.
Logically the iPhone just acts as a dumb device connected to an instance of a  JMRI throttle. It seems that as soon as I release the locomotive address on WIThrottle, the JMRI throttle ceases to exist and the loco just coasts to a halt.
I'm going to forget about the iPhone/WiThrottle for a while and investigate more fully how JMRI throttles function. That should give me a clue as to what's going wrong.

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Atherton - raison d'être

I have been mentally wrestling about the historical background for Atherton and as with any problem, documenting it usually helps me think things through - usually to a conclusion that was blindingly obvious.

So let's take a 'walk' with just a few views traveling Westbound from Atherton Engine Terminal to establish the current feel and see what's occurring :

 This view  is looking from above the engine terminal towards Atherton Station. That's Spock's Gas and Oil sitting on it's own spur to the left of the sand house.
Dave S - I hope you agree that the station length looks ok from this angle. Ironically the station kit comes with three size options and I did consider the next size down, but decided against it a) because this version looks better andb) I think it needs to be bigger than Mortimer station since Atherton is a more important town.

  This view is looking back from the station Eastwards. The engine terminal is to the right, just ,off shot. The main continues on from Atherton into the tunnel mouth leading to the next town of Morocco. The tunnel is a dummy and ends about 10 inches inside the mountain top, but serves to make the place seem bigger. The caboose track (more of a stub) is to the right of the main and the crossover on the lower left is the engine escape for Eastbound Atherton arrivals coming from the direction of Mortimer.

 This is looking back from the West end of Atherton over Redpale creek, passed Vezmar mine and with Spangler gap in the far distance.

 
Spangler Gap and Mortimer just peeking in on the left.

 Mortimer - small town with tourist trade due to local mineral springs (thanks for that one DaveB).

 Passing through this tunnel the line descends Matrimony hill, through Branum pass, over Widows Veil trestle and onto the lower deck.

So, conclusions are that this is clearly a mountain area. My intention is that the lower deck can be set in the lowlands with opportunities for agricultural stuff anb lumber, but Atherton is logically a mining town. Vezmar mine is fully modeled  and other mines can exist in virtual format towards Morocco.

Even though I started off wanting to do something visually different, this makes little sense.  Atherton backdrop has to reflect similar scenery to the surrounding landscape. A mining supplies agent can have a warehouse and the town can have the usual people' orientated stuff like a drug store, cafe, garage, post office and saloons although not all need to be 3D modeled - or even seen!
So including the needs of the engine terminal we have at least:

• Mining supplies
• Mail
• Passengers
• Food stuffs alcohol, grocery items and general people gubbins
• Engineering supplies
• Coal
• Sand
• Oil and Gas

I had thoughts of having the tracks running  down the main street with the town buildings modeled as backdrop or relief items but I'm thinking this will be too cluttered. Mortimer worked because of its sparseness and the same approach should work here - "less is more".

Although leaning towards the corner position for the station (curved track locations look common enough)  I am keeping my mind open. I think I'll continue adding a few more buildings, shuffle things around and most importantly try some operations experiments to see how things flow when mixing, arriving and departing trains and local switching. That will be a fun exercise in its own right - especially if I can get WiThrottle to behave itself.

Galen - I know it looks flat at the moment but this impression will disappear. I'm not sure of the exact 'how' yet - but it most definitely will

So that's where we are - right direction? wrong direction? missed opportunities?
As always, your input is appreciated.

Rob Clark
Cornhill &Atherton RR

Don't forget building

Don't forget building supplies include everything that you would find in a big box store. Lots of it might arrive via a break bulk shipper and pass through your freight house but you should likely have a company that sells everything in your town with a siding. Could be like a ware house with an attached store. Your freight house would likely be handling at least a car a day to keep your town supplied. You could easily have 2 cars a day average as consumer goods for your town plus maybe a car every two weeks with lumber.

Rob, your layout is really developing nicely. I am really enjoying your build and the museum quality models you are sharing wth us.