I am about to launch Phase II of my layout construction. My layout will model the W&N Branch or the P&R Railroad from Wilmington , DE to Birdsboro, PA (near Reading, PA) in 1900-1905. I have built the southern half from Wilmington to Coatesville, now its time to start the Northern half, Coatesville to Birdsboro.
Here is a schematic of the prototype (not to scale). At Elverson there was a junction with the French Creek Branch that I will model as a shadowbox switching area on a lower level. Birdsboro was the terminus of the W&N freight trains and a junction with the rest of the P&R. They would terminate there and P&R freights would pick up and set out cars to and from the W&N Branch. The W&N passenger trains would continue on to Reading "Outer Station". I can model Outer Station as a shadow box also. Both Elverson and Birdsboro had wyes.
The ruling grade on the W&N was from SWD from Birdsboro to Elverson and NWD from Coatesville to Elverson.
The current track arrangement I have in one corner of my space has the helixes down to the French Creek Br. and to Reading Outer Station nested, with the wyes situated next to them. At Birdsboro there are staging tracks representing the tracks the "mainline" trains uses to set out and pick up.
The original model schematic is below. The blue area would be hidden trackage going to Outer Station and I had a reverse loop primarily if I wanted to have some form of "continuous running". It would have to be managed manually since my switches are manually operated, so it wasn't like I could just sit back and just run a train on a loop hands off, it would require lining switches on return loops at both ends of the layout. Neither return loop would be used as such during an op session.
The general area I am concerned with is shown below. The area in the red box is particularly critical.
Originally I had planned to run a grade up from Birdsboro to Elverson on the peninsula (represented by the grey dotted line) and then down from Elverson to Coatesville (towards Wilmington). The tail of the Elverson wye would pass over the reverse loop and make one additional turn to get down to the reverse loop level then both the line to Reading and the French Creek Branch would be on a two track helix down. The "crossing" in the red box would be a grade separated overpass.
However, reality reared its ugly head and more detailed calculations revealed that I wouldn't have enough run to get from Birdsboro to Elverson, the grade would end up too steep for my small steamers (over 2%). Bummer.
That generated plan B, which got rid of the grades, and converted the crossing to an actual, at grade crossing. That sorta solved the problem, but had some down sides. It got rid of the grades, changing how I could run trains. It resulted in both a switch and a crossing in hidden location, that while wouldn't be used during a normal op session would still present a potential conflict.
That brings us to Plan C. I began to question why I needed the reverse loop. Many iterations before having the line to Outer Station, it had a purpose to handle the passenger trains, but with the option of the line to Outer Station, it wasn't need for passenger trains. So what happens if I lose the reverse loop? That is the plan below.
Losing the reverse loop eliminates the hidden switch and crossing. It now allows a smaller grade to be reinstated up to Elverson, re-imposing tonnage restrictions and operations due to the grade. Because there is no crossing in the red box the grade doesn't have to actually gain clearance it can be just enough to create and operational issue. The down side is it does complicate the geometry of the top of the helix a bit and make it about 4-8" larger in diameter, plus it mostly gives up the chance of a "continuous run" option (which wasn't really that good in the first place.) If I did need to turn a train at Birdsboro, I could still wye it.
So what is the best option? Keep the reverse loop and flatten the layout or lose the reverse loop and put in the grade?
What say ye?
