Way cool!!

Hello, Allen!

Watching

I'll be watching this closely.  Looks like a great layout, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about it, seeing photos, etc.

I'm curious:  What was your reason for moving your era forward to 1983?  I remember a Railfan & Railroad article about "The Little Rock" back in the day, so it'd be interesting to see how things changed in your world.  Since I model an ex-RI prototype, I've occasionally struggled with the temptation to backdate or create a what-if early 1980s RI.

Arkansas

Good to see modeling of an Arkansas route.  "Keep us posted!"

Joe

Thanks Y-it!

So far it's been working great and I hope it gets better as I get the new realignments completed.

Thanks Paul!

Nice see a familiar face here!

Glad to be here, us N scalers need to stick together 

Thanks Joe!

I tend to work in spurts, but will do my best to keep this blog up to date.

I ran across your blog the other night, gonna keep an eye on it as well.

That's a nice

layout schematic Allen.  I guess I didn't realize it was that spread out.   This should keep you busy for quite a while.

Yo! Allen!

glad to see your posting over here.

Rock on !

Nice Looking Layout

Thank you for having another N-scale layout to watch being designed & built.

John

Joe said: "Good to see

Greetings Joe!

Thanks for the kind words.

You can always jump to my Blogger Blog to get caught up to date until I get more posted on here.

In the beginning I wanted to be able to see other roads that I like run on the layout like some early CSX and NS, so I stretched things a bit. Now, after several years I've changed my mind and have actually tried to stay a little more prototypical.  Mainly it was that I just didn't want to see the flag fall.  If you were to take a close look today, all the foreign power that's on the layout now would have been found in 1980. 

There are only a handful of things that actually have changed (and will change) in my world.  I plan to paint a few units in the Blue and White, like a U30C and a SD40-2 and maybe a GP35.  I also own a couple of Atlas MP15DC's that are in Frisco that are on the property for testing and will be patched for The Rock while testing.

Other than that, one would be hard pressed to tell that it's set after 1980...

Hey Michael!

Thanks!

Hmmmm, thought I had posted that plan before?  I know theres a link to it on the blog.  Yeah, I don't plan on having it finished anytime soon, LOL.  So I'll be at it for awhile.  

Yo! Mike!

Glad to see yet another friend on here!

I'll have to look around a bit and try to find your postings.

Thanks

Thanks John

You're welcome.  

Welcome to the fun, Alan.

Thanks Peter!

Happy to be here and glad to see yet another friend on MRH.

Fantastic as always!

I will be following along with your progress here as well!

Thanks

Thanks Mig!

Video Tour, A bit outdated...

Thought I'd post a crappy IPhone video I took a few years.  Please bare in mind that over the past few months or so I've been realigning some of the right of way which is not reflected in this video.  Did this because after Oping the layout for the past four years or so I've decided that a few things needed to be changed.

The changes that have been made, have been posted to the blog and I'll add the links after the video.

First to be changed was Ruston, LA.  I removed one of the two sidings.

Part 1, Part 2

Second was DuBach, LA.  Here I lengthened the sidings, added one industry and then changed the spur to ARKLA so it came off the new industry and not the main.

Finally I threw a curve in the mainline between Calion, AR and El Dorado, AR and added two bridges to span the Ouachita River.

I have plans for more realignments in a few other areas, once these get done, hopefully by fall, I'll try to shoot a new video of all the changes.

Thanks for the great video Allen

The overall size of your railroad is overwhelming to me.  The track plan seems very believable and I really like all the diamonds.  Wish I didn't live so far away out here in Oregon.  It would sure be fun to operate with you.  Maybe someday, you never know.

Thanks Michael. I wish we

Thanks Michael.

I wish we were closer as well, then you could see your buildings in person, if I ever get around to getting them placed, LOL

If you're ever in the neighborhood or just passing through, please let me know, I would love to have you stop in. 

Over the last few months I've

Over the last few months I've been realigning some of the trackage after four years of Oping the layout. Some changes were made for scenery, some were made to ease operations.  The most recent change planned is due to derailments.  

Starting with this blog post is where I started in with the realignments a few months ago.

Tonight I started investigating the worst section of the layout.  Early on I used a couple sections of 11" radius snap tracks to curve the line through the backdrop between Haskell and Winnfield, followed by a curved turnout. This worked, but as I changed the type of trains I ran, mainly some Auto Racks and TOFC's,  the minor "S" curve began to rear it's ugly head and derailments started to increase.

Here's a couple of pics of the track from the Haskell side.

The two sections of 11" snap track can be seen starting just to the left of the SOO LINE hopper and ending just past the backdrop. 

And the a shot from the Winnfield side and the "S" curve.  The track next to the backdrop on the right, is the proposed location.

While it looks real tight, it's 11" and larger.  Most cars under 60' have no issues.  I think what I have proposed should work with a little bit of work. 

Here's the link to the latest blog post.

Well I had a chance to play

Well I had a chance to play with things a bit tonight and it looks like it won't be as bad as I had anticipated. The track is just loosely placed, but you can get an idea of what I have planned.

If I can cut the curved turnout in just past the existing turnout and tweak that small section of flex a bit, things should line up pretty good!




In Winnfield, I will have to move the 90° diamond to the right just a bit, remove the track with the insulated joiners. The track right next to the backdrop will not be there. The other track will be the lead into the yard. This should remove ANY "S" curves and give each track a bit larger radius.