Youtube Rendition

So a few moments ago while I was searching for another particular image, I ran into this very interesting Youtube presentation I had never seen. And it incorporated a turntable scene as I had done to the original Atlas plan

HO Scale Train Layout, Central Midland (modified)

This trackplan is largely based on John Armstrong’s design, commissioned for Atlas Model RR, “The Central Midland”, plan #HO-29. But mine is in the ‘reverse image’ of the original,

....and modified in a couple of significant manners. Basically 10’x12’, plus.

Many model RRs are condensed versions of actual prototype RRs. This RR is not one of those. Rather it is a very condensed version of as-large-a-number of different scenes as one might find on a wide variety of model RRs. Per some of the ‘backdrop signs ’posted in the photos, it was intended that the trains would travel through a mountainous scene, thru the rolling foothills of farmland, and thru a big cityscape.

That’s a pretty tall order for such a small model RR. Some might say too much, but I believe once it is all finished and scenery added with trees, rocks, painted backdrops, etc, it can pull it off.

This RR is for someone who likes to run trains, as well as do some intricate switching work. You can put the twin mainlines into continuous running mode, while you deal with the intricate movements of steam engines in the roundtable/roundhouse area, supplying the coaling tower, diesel & freight yard train shuffling, container loading, quarry & warehouse sidings, and the make-up of trains in the staging area. You can also manage to turn some very long trains around to run the layout in the reverse direction via the double wye’s, and the extended tracks of the additional staging area.

Brian

Armstrong track plans

I have always found Armstrong's track plans to be interesting, including these older sectional track plans which helped so many people get actual layouts built. Thank you for posting the plan of this one.

One of John's Best

The Central Midland aka RAILROAD F

Hi Brian, I own the "Custom-Line" Six HO Railroads You can build 2nd Edition by Atlas and had completely forgotten these layouts were designed by John Armstrong. The railroad I always got a little chuckle over was Railroad E, The Granite Gorge & Northern, I found it similar to Railroad N-109 Gulf Summit Lines Susquehanna Valley Railway. Of course the Nine N Scale Model Railroads by Atlas are also John Armstrong designs

I would like to see photos of your layout. It's a true test of time and John Armstrong's track planning ability that these plans are still being built and enjoyed today.

Here is a video on Youtube of the Central Midland, still in the construction phase.

For those not familiar with the N scale Gulf Summit Lines, here is a nicely done video of the layout on Youtube.

Funny Story about that brass sectional track

I was new to model rr when I got this layout from the estate. The gentleman who had built it just managed to get to laying some of the brass sectional track when he passed away, and the subroadbed plywood was all warped.  I figured on having the layout for maybe 6 months as a learning exercise.

First off I managed to get a lot of the warpage out of the subroadbed by gluing Heckengers wood paint stirring strips on their edge to stabilize and straighten out the plywood.

Next came the brass track,...just terrible electrical connections with the train, combined with the little toy transformer that came with the layout. So I decided I needed to go thru and solder ALL the joints of the sectional track (there are a LOT of them on this layout !). 

Got that done and things did not improve that much. So break out some of that box of nickle-silver flex track I had bought recently for my 'next layout'. Replaced all the track with nickle silver (but retained the brass turnouts as I was saving any ns turnouts for my 'next layout'.

Now I beginning to see some potential in this layout, and I figured it was going to be quite a while before I was ready to tackle the planning and building of a new one. So now go back and replace the brass turnouts with NS. Besides with all of this track work I've been doing, I have found a way to add some interesting new 'twist' into my freight yard,..and I had developed plans to put in a turntable. i even mocked up my turntable idea with brown paper, and figured how I was going to feed it via a double track bridge so one loco could be coming to use the turntable while another one was getting coal for the trip out.

Getting my newly acquired Rivarossi Big Boy to use that dbl-track bridge is another story.

Photos

They will be coming.

I remember as a high school

I remember as a high school student thinking that and the one known as the big panhandle were really cool layouts. At that time I also thought trains looked fine on 18 inch curves and 22s were really broad curves. Time passes, standards evolve. Those sharp curves are not something I could live with now on a mainline. That is not a knock on anyone that can, they just won't work for me anymore. I have also gotten away from the spaghetti bowl, type of track plans. Back then the rule of the day was get as much in your space as possible and rare indeed were the plans that only went through a scene once. Things have evolved and we have much greater realism now than in years gone by.

I always enjoy those plans from the past as they remind me of what was a better time in many ways. If you find those plans appealing you should be able to find a wealth of plans to choose from as there were lots of them. After all the person that needs to be happy with the layout is the guy that builds it. Just make sure it will meet your goals for operation and scenery and be happy.

Spaghetti Bowl type plans

I know what you are saying about the spaghetti bowl types. I had a lot of such comments about this layout, but remember it was a 'testing' layout for me, and I was experimenting with trying to put as many built structures that I had been collecting, somewhere of the layout. I termed it 'condensed'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grande man

Don't let the spaghetti bowl comments turn you off. This is an old school layout. For some reason I find that appealing. I can't wait to see it finished!

Ditto. Although I'm building a once-through-each-scene narrow-shelf-around-the-walls layout right now, it's only because I have the space for it. If my space was more constricted, I'd use the spaghetti-bowl approach because for me running trains is what model railroading is mostly about.

I took these positive comments to heart. The key words are 'having a bigger space'.

Basically 4 Scenic Zones

There are basically 4 scenic zones. Three are enclosed by 3 big loops of the mainlines; 1) a mountainous scene, 2) a combination of farm house/pasture land and rock quarry, and 3) a roundtable scene. 4) The fourth zone would be that of the freight yard and container facility.

Roundtable Zone
I’ve always favored steam engines for their intricate nature and great variety of forms. So naturally there is a steam engine turntable and repair facility. And why not put this right up front where one’s collection of steam engines can be on display. This steam display replaces the diesel facility of the original Atlas plan. It features:

a) A fully operating turntable capable of handling a BigBoy or Allegheny.
b) A roundhouse, and several different repair shops
c) Outdoor track stowage (nice display of steam roaster)
d) A water tower and diesel fuel tank
e) A twin track coaling tower
f) A twin track bridge crossing to this steam facility from the freight yard.

Sub-Roundtable Loop
Below the roundtable scene I’ve added a full circular ‘subterranean track loop’ with several spurs branching off to 1) a fuel oil depot, 2) a production factory/warehouse, and 3) and a stone quarry/loader situated over in the adjacent mainline loop. The stone quarry will feature its own particular rock style wall at the inner perimeter of the surrounding track. There is provision (another turnout) for another spur line that would go out into an industrial park scene (or whatever), yet to be built off to the left of this subterranean loop. Switchers (both steam & diesel) can do continuous running on this subterranean loop

My first layout

My first serious layout was #36 the Oregon pass. My children and I enjoyed running the trains. The mountains were nearly ceiling high. I made a few minor modifications to it. I used flex track instead of sectional. did not put in a turntable. We loved the hump yard. wish it were longer. 

Oh no, not another one....

Too many Rich S's on this forum (just joking around) It would be really funny if we had the same last name  

Freight Yard Zone

Freight Yard Zone
The original freight yard now has 8 tracks rather than 6, and significantly more services:
a) A planned duel track diesel engine house where the photos now show the cluster of diesel engines.
b) Possibly install a small Walthers diesel locomotive transfer table
c) A diesel engine fueling & sanding facility to be located between the tracks coming into the yard from the big ‘wye’ and those tracks going over the bridge to the steam area.
d) A primary water tank along with a water loading bridge to service all locos leaving the railyard and steam service areas.
e) Several control towers, including a primary one at the double wye, a primary one at the yard entrance, and several smaller elevated ones inside the yard. There are also floodlight towers thru-out the yard, and one or two in the steam service area.
f) There is a propane tank stowage facility off to the side of the yard, with several siding-tracks to ‘display’ a variety of tank cars. There is also a butane tank and loading fixture as well. The propane area shares a ‘parking lot’ with a farm/fertilizer building.
g) At the far end of the yard there is a container loading/stacking facility with cranes and multiple stacks of containers. There are corner mirrors standing at the edges of this scene that act to reflectively ‘double the size’ of this container yard, and also make the freight yard appear twice as long as it is.
h) The yard tracks turn 90 degrees at this container facility and enters a 6 track wide staging area. If a one or two of these staging tracks are left empty, then very long trains can be backed in from the mainlines and turned to run in the opposite direction via the ‘double-track wye’ formed at the entrance to the freight yard.

Long Trains
Very Long Trains Can Be Run on This Relatively Small Layout….25-27 cars. (With all of the multiple scenics in place, these very long trains won’t appear to be ‘chasing their tails’)

Mainline Track

Mainline Track
There is a mainline of over one-and-a-third scale miles in length, which is mostly double track. The dbl tracks neck down to a single track across a scratch built truss bridge.

Doubletrack Mainlines
I made another significant modification to the trackplan that would allow for continuous double train operation without regards for the original single-track bridge restriction. This consists of a curved ramp that shortcut-links the upper inner mainline with the lower inner mainline in the ‘access hole’ area destined to be hidden by a removable foam mountain structure. This link rail is a steep grade, but I have been able to run long trains both up and down the grade without derailing. I also included protective barriers on the sides of the ramp to contain any derailments. Two long trains running in the same direction get out of phase due to the difference in the length of the two loops. Two trains in opposite directions is quite photogenic as well.

(weathered enginen on left is going to go down that ramp)

If of course, if I had been a DCC user at this time I might not have needed that 'connecting loop',...ie...

Connecting Ramp Challenge

.... found a few photos that should help explain this 'curved ramp' I spoke of. This was quite a challenge to get right as the 'on & off' access to this ramp occurred at a fairly steep inclination, and at the turnout locations both top and bottom.. I got it to work, even for a 6 axle diesel with small wheel flanges.

For the most part I just ran trains DOWN this ramp, but I was able to get them up as well,...just slowly

Bridges

That single mainline bridge that was one of the first structures I built from a Plastruct kit, and I did much of it by candlelight as that was the winter we lost power at the house for 5 days due to a severe winter ice storm...ha...ha.)

Obviously I like bridges on my layout. Did you count the number I have there?....and only two of them are the same....the 2 modified Atlas Curved-Cord bridges.

6 bridges total

FAKE BRIDGES
Several of my bridges were not really bridges in the truest sense,.... they didn't have their bottom structures.

Both of these were the double-track bridges that I kit-bashed from single-track Atlas/Roco Curved Cord Bridge kits. I simply took two single track bridge kits and 'doubled' the upper connecting beam structure to effectively provide for a dbl track spacing between the curved cord beam structures.

I left the bottoms out (to be used on other projects*), and just relied on the roadbed to provide support for the track of the bridge. I glued four 'locating pins' onto the corners of the curved cord sides, and these plugged into 4 holes drilled into the plywood roadbed. This kept the 'bridge' properly located, and its side frames properly spaced apart such as to not interfere with the passing trains.

One of these dbl track bridges was set up as a safety device,....that one against the backside of the layout right at the point of the crossover switching between the 2 mainlines. I had in the past experienced several of my nice steam engines derailing and crashing off the layout onto the concrete floor...NOT a pleasant experience!!   I decided I was going to put up this bridge structure to prevent any derailed loco from experiencing that fall off the side. Strange as it might seem, after I put this 'guard-rail bridge' into place. I hardly ever experienced any other derailments ??

That 'fake bridge' precipitated the idea of a stream/river running under it and out into the 'country backdrop'. It also meant I have to have another bridge for the inner track,....thus the 'deckbridge' to allow for variety.

The other 'fake bridge' came about as a result of my adding the Walther's double track truss bridge for the dual tracks I wanted to have enter into the turntable zone. Since I had that bridge actually spanning the lower tracks, its only naturally the my yard entrance tracks would also be spanning those mainlines below. The 'fake double chord bridge' was the easiest way to do this without tearing out the subroadbed and replacing it with an actual real bridge. Besides with all the ballast, and cinders, etc in this yard area, no one would ever tell there was no bottom on that bridge. I also had to pay particular attention to the exact location of those bridge side frames so as to not interfere with the swinging passenger cars and articulated Big Boy loco that would come thru that trackage.

River running Thru It

That photo I posted above with the black bridge and the truss deck bridge parallel to it were to span over a creek that would eventually meander out into the rolling farm land painted on that backdrop

There’s a River Running Through It
That prominent single-span truss bridge at the center of the layout is intended to span both a lower track and a river/creek that originates with a cascading waterfall located in the ‘mountain loop zone’. This creek then flows right to left bounded between the edge of a farm pasture land that hides the sub-lower tracks in front of the farm supply building, and a rock cliff face on which the upper rail line runs between its two single-span bridges. It then exits out under the single & double span bridges at the rear of the layout, and into the painted backdrop scene labeled “rolling farmland”.

Rolling Farm Backdrop
I’m sure you’ve seen the smooth rolling ridges that mark the transition at the base of mountains to the flatter lands. Then imagine a series of rolling ridgelines stretched horizontally across this backdrop to transition from the mountain scene on the right, to the outskirts of the city scene on the perpendicular backdrop at the left. Our stream/river will meander out thru the shallower portions of these ridges, and there will be cattle grazing on these grasslands. A very distinctive cattle billboard sign will announce to the train passengers that this is a major ranch (I have a great photo already). Maybe a rural hwy as well, and another farm with silos in the distance….all painted-on of course.

The symbolism here is the trek from the east coast city of Baltimore to the western mountains, either the Appalachians or Sierras. This model-rr can run many different RR marques, from the east coast to the west coast.

Very Interesting !

This is very interesting to see what you did with that plan and how you customized it. I'm still trying to figure out all your modifications and additions to the original track plan.

City Scene Backdrop This

City Scene Backdrop
This could be the most exciting scene of all. My plan was to make this a city scene of Baltimore, an industrial city, home of the nations first railroad, and home of the famous B&O. There would be two distinctive images I thought I would include; 1) the infamous ‘Bromo Selzer’ tower*, and 2) the Mt Royal train station**. The train station in particular, as I had no room on the layout for a model station. I imagine it could be painted onto the backdrop, and include a dbl track portion that would appear to join the actual mainlines over in the back corner of the layout.

There are lighting techniques, layering techniques with poster board materials, and thin single-sided plastic structures that could make this city scene come alive, even in its very ‘flat presentation’. I have some sample illustrations.

Coal was, and is very much a part of Baltimore’s history along with steel and railroads. I had thought it could be possible to paint a coal fired power plant or steel mill onto a portion of this city scene down on the lower left hand side near the roundhouse area. Maybe add a large pile of coal alone with a string of coal cars waiting to be unloaded. If the layout were spaced out a bit from this wall/backdrop, it might be possible to insert one or two ‘fake’ sidings with coal cars and/or B&O passenger cars in waiting.

I like it

Thanks for sharing your work on this vintage track plan. I like it a lot....so much it almost makes me want follow your lead and build one of these types of layouts. Very Cool
 

Dale

Rock Quarry Scene

There was going to be a nice rock quarry scene in that space where the rock/gravel loader is now sitting. The surrounding sides of the 'pit' were going to be rock faces like some of these. Originally this was inspired by a visit to the York Model RR Club of PA. At the moment I can't find the photos I took of several visits to that club,....great layout.

I had also acquired a nice 6-8 car set of hoppers with the type of rock I anticipated would come out of that quarry. You can see 2 of them in the one photo.

That area was also going to require a trap door access to get at derailments that might occur over in those far corners of the layout. You can see the space provided in the layout framing structure there.

I had plans for at least 3 different types of rock formations on that layout, as I was quite enamored with how realistic these could be made to look. (the quarry area, the mountain area, the turntable area)

Mountain Zone

This scene holds a lot of promise as well, depending upon the extent to which one wishes to fulfill it. First off, forget the mountain posters shown in the photos. They are incorrect mountains…I am not suggesting the ‘alps’ here, but rather ‘logging’ type mountains you see in the foreground of these posters. In its simpler form, the two 90 degree backdrop walls could both be posters of mountains, and the loop of tracks would be covered with a large foam mountain scene that would lift out for access to the trains. This foam mountain could be hollow inside to allow for access to the tracks from underneath without having to lift it out of place. Quite a variety of track entrance/exit portals could be experimented with while various portions of trackage is exposed, or covered, with the trains running under, or beside, a cliff in the mountain. There might even be several ‘interchangeable’ mountain dioramas; 1) Appalachian, 2) old time Western scene, 3) logging scene, 4) your imagination.

In my imagination I would try to create a continuous–loop track for short logging trains that would meander through and around this foam mountain diorama. The ‘centerpiece’ would be the track crossing a steep wood trestle structure bridging over a waterfall (vertical falling stream) sculptered into the front face of this mountain. (I just had to get one more bridge on the layout, and it needed to be a mountaineers trestle type). This waterfall would feed my river/creek that runs through the layout.

forget that arrow in the photo, and forget that its the alps for mountains

Container Yard

At the far end of the freight yard there is a container loading/stacking facility with cranes and multiple stacks of containers. There are corner mirrors standing at the edges of this scene that act to reflectively ‘double the size’ of this container yard, and also make the freight yard appear twice as long as it is.

The yard tracks turn 90 degrees at this container facility and enters a 6 track wide staging area. If a one or two of these staging tracks are left empty, then very long trains can be backed in from the mainlines and turned to run in the opposite direction via the ‘double-track wye’ formed at the entrance to the freight yard.

Staging Tracks

Around the corner from those container tracks I built a temporary board with 6 tracks on it for a staging area. It had its own 'tower' and crew quarters (old box car).

(Sorry) Lousy photo messed up with low lighting and other misc parts storage