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the Continental / Trans-Continental Connector, Layout Theme Dream and design
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Prolific poster 8,799 posts railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail

I happened back across this posting I made to another forum a few years ago. Thought I might repeat it in its own subject thread as it is still very much a guiding theme with my new layout plan.
 

I just like Model Trains,...of all sorts....the scale miniaturization.

I'm particularly fond of steam engines, and particularly the large ones. I'm a fan of C&O, B&O, NW, etc, etc.

And as a kid of course I had the ubiquitous Santa Fe diesel engine,...those famous worldwide recognizable colors.

I had recently returned from Asia and was living in the Wash-Balt area when a company in Balt called Life Like made the bold move to really upgrade plastic trains to nice scale models. They introduced their Proto 2000 line. They introduced a whole line of detailed diesel locos, then they introduced that superb 2-8-8-2 steam engine.....WOW. They set a standard in plastic scale model trains that the others quickly followed. Bachmann, Athearn, etc all jumped on the band wagon to introduce their premium lines as well. Plastic detailing became an art that eventually was a rival to brass locos.

I was collecting a little of everything. I would buy some stuff that eventually got superseded by even better stuff, so I would attend the Great Scale Train Show in Balt and sell off older stuff and try to upgrade to the better stuff coming out. I would visit John Glabb's Peach Creek brass shop in Laural, Md, and droll over the brass locos which I considered beyond my reach, but then look what was coming out in plastic a few months later.

By this time I had collected quite a few steam engines of various lines, and principle a number of diesels from Santa Fe.

So when it came to planning my new layout, how could I choose just one time frame, or location, .....if I wanted to collect and run all of those type trains? I wanted to run steam and diesel, and I wanted to run east coast and west coast lines.....on one layout??

I've decided my trains are going to run from the east coast to the west coast,...Balt to Calif. I'll call it the Continental Connector. Balt will be on the lower deck and Calif will be on the upper deck.


Since I am not a stickler on time frames I'll be able to run both modern and older style freight and passenger cars on my layout, and of course steam and diesels. I'm going to have lots of staging that will present any number of variations,...including a few European trains I've collected. Yes it won't be prototypical, but it will be fun. And I hope to get a considerable amount of industry in this space as well.

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
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railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail

Continental Theme

Continental Theme
There were 2 things that inspired this west coast to east coast model rr theme.
1) My affection for both the Santa Fe and the B&O/C&O trains that I wanted to run all on a single layout.
2) The interesting fact that a lot of container traffic from Asia comes into the west coast to get loaded onto trains that bring it across to the east coast for further shipment to Europe.

So the lower deck represents the east coast, while the upper deck represents the west coast,...well not exactly as only about half of the upper deck will represent the west coast.

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 0
jeffshultz MRH Staff 7,978 posts
jeffshultz

Toss a museum in th mix

Want to run total anachronisms? Stick a museum on your layout - or just off your layout. 

That allows you to run _anything_ on your layout and get away with it - particularly if you have a dedicated "tourist line" of track associated with the museum. 

orange70.jpg
Jeff Shultz - MRH Technical Assistant
DCC Features Matrix/My blog index
Modeling a fictional GWI shortline combining three separate areas into one freelance-ish railroad.
Reply 0
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail

No room....ha...ha

Jeff, I don't think I will have room for such a structure....ha...ha

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 0
jeffshultz MRH Staff 7,978 posts
jeffshultz

That's why it goes just off-layout

We've got the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland, and due to some questionable policies by UP, the steam locomotives there can't run on UP track (apparently with some exceptions in order to access other track). As a result, the prototype I'm using for inspiration has been visited by the SP 4449, the SP&S 700, and an RSD-4/5 hauling a whole lot of private varnish passenger cars. With a just off-layout museum you have the possibility of excursion services and special charters.

orange70.jpg
Jeff Shultz - MRH Technical Assistant
DCC Features Matrix/My blog index
Modeling a fictional GWI shortline combining three separate areas into one freelance-ish railroad.
Reply 0
ctxmf74 Super User 15,944 posts
ctxmf74

"the Santa Fe and the B&O/C&O

Quote:

"the Santa Fe and the B&O/C&O trains that I wanted to run all on a single layout."

  Did they interchange anywhere? Might be a more convincing way to run them both. A place like East St. Louis has a ton of railroads in a small area so would be a great spot for multi-line fans....DaveB 

1990.jpg 
Read my blog
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railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail

Interchange anywhere?

I don't know Dave.

I have a very vague memory of taking a sleep train across the country when I was 3-4 years old (1946) to arrive at a west cost port (San Fran I believe) where we boarded a troop ship headed to Okinawa. My father had recently been drafted into the Army and we were headed for Okinawa, Japan. I have an old scrap book my father made that includes certificates given to use all when we crossed the international date line on that troop ship.

I do remember sleeping in the upper berth of that train, but that's about all. Don't even recall what train line it was. Perhaps I need to go back to that old scrap book, but its relatively incomplete as my father kept a number of them, and I believe my younger brother has most of that material.

 

 

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 0
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail

QA&P

I thought this was rather cute,...

Quote:

As far as the Continental Connector model RR.
This is a prototype RR image that was defunct by 1983, but I model as if it never went away, and still hosts many thousands of tons of traffic, my grandpa was an engineer for the QA&P RY. This may give you some ideas and perhaps help you in your endeavor. Please carry on.

1(2).jpg 
2(3).jpg 

3(1).jpg 

Tom Holly....on TrainBoard

 

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 1
David Husman dave1905 MRH Author 9,823 posts
David Husman dave1905

Interchange

Both the B&O and the C&O met the ATSF in Chicago via the various terminal roads.  Technically they didn't interchange directly, but thru the B&OCT, IHB, etc.

Dave Husman

Visit my website :  https://wnbranch.com/

Blog index:  Dave Husman Blog Index
Reply 0
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail
I'm doing a little 'show & tell' this weekend about the progress of my new train layout. I thought it might be handy to print up a little story about how I arrived at a theme for the layout, and I recall I wrote this posting a few years ago. So I found it using the search function.

I'll have to do a little editing, but it will make a decent hand-out so I can limit retelling the story over and over.  And btw I have kept the theme,....Calif train station and container port on the upper level (along with SantaFe passenger train),..
DSCF8603.jpg



Baltimore City to be built in this corner,
DSCF8608.jpg

...bromo tower, mt royal train station images on backdrop.

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 2
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail
I had a couple of early visitors that were quite impressed, and one lady who questioned my reference to Baltimore as a 'steel town'
DSCF8605.jpg


I wish she was computer literate , I would send her a reference to these images of Sparrows Point

Sparrows Point, MD: Bethlehem Steel

http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2021/12/sparrows-point-md-bethlehem-steel-and-l.html

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 2
William Burg Regular poster 161 posts
William Burg
So the East Coast city is Baltimore; which West Coast city is represented in the western portion of the layout (presumably either Oakland or Long Beach, if your intent is to model a coastal port that handles container traffic)?
Reply 0
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail

William,
I have to admit that I am not that familiar with Calif geography that I would designate a particular port. And I am not intending to any extensive modeling of that Calf area.

I'd just have to say in general that LA is the site of both a big import container port, AND it is the site of that marvelous passenger train station that I am so attracted to,..
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/santa-fe-train-station-actually-a-up-station-in-la-12208081
[%2520ps800]


I needed a train station on my layout, and I did not have room for the Mount Royal station of Balt. I did make room for this station in Calif, and regrettable I will not be able to model the front face of that station because of some needs to fit my track plan in there. But I hope to make a few 'adjustments' to the station's backside to relay that original architecture,...
[%2520ps800]

station flipped around,..
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/santa-fe-train-station-actually-a-up-station-in-la-12208081?pid=1331318986

plus I will likely put that large 'SANTA FE' signage on the top of the station.


I have a lot more to do withe backdrop photos that will the majority of the container port scene. This will not be Calif port specific, but rather just what images I can find existing that will project a major shipping port.

I had a specific problem I tried to solve,...I would want to NOT run certain trains in FRONT of that container port (such as coal trains & perhaps lumber trains), AND not in front of my passenger station. So I had to provide for a hidden track that runs down along the wall behind both the port and the train station.

Quote:
One of the initial and very important influences on the development of my container port scene is, 'how do I incorporate that hidden track I wished to utilize to 'hide' some of the trains from having to pass in front of the LA Santa Fe station and the container port scene,....trains such as coal trains, tank car trains, etc'. Just certain types that I would prefer ran UNSEEN thru the west coast container port area



Hiding that track,....
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/container-port-ideas-images-12213693?highlight=container%20port&pid=1332613361

backdrop mock-up,..
[image]








 

 

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 1
William Burg Regular poster 161 posts
William Burg
I see--obviously selective compression is a major design factor here, since the port of Los Angeles is about 20 miles south of Los Angeles' union station! So it makes sense that the LA Union Station scene would be visually distinct from the container port scene. And of course, modeling the "back side" of a large train station makes sense--as model railroaders, we're principally concerned with the sides of buildings that were served by trains, which was usually the "back" from the perspective of the general public! That's why taking a long-distance passenger train trip can feel a lot like having an opportunity to stare into America's backyard (plus it always generates a ton of modeling ideas!)
Reply 0
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail
William Burg wrote:
I see--obviously selective compression is a major design factor here, since the port of Los Angeles is about 20 miles south of Los Angeles' union station! So it makes sense that the LA Union Station scene would be visually distinct from the container port scene.


I was originally going to provide more open space between the 2 but I found I needed to enlarge the port scene just to get a decent run of 5 connected container cars (a set) in line up there.

I believe one of the items that makes my layout look so crowded is not only the selected compression, but also that I tried to add in 'siding tracks' for all of my industries/buildings. I wanted to possible run operations for many of them with switcher engines.

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 1
railandsail Prolific poster 8,799 posts
railandsail
....this video belongs in this subject thread👍
 
History of the Super Chief (and other long distance trains across the US)
 

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 2
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