Layout overview Part 1 – The Mainline

Here are a couple of photos to show the current state of the Cleveland & Eastern.

We follow the Mainline Eastbound from Westend Staging “Cleveland” to East-End Staging “Harrisburg”
In both Staging areas I work with storage cassettes built from angled alloy strips.

West-End Staging. Trains and cars are stored inside the staging cassetes
Exiting the West-End Staging leads us to Greenhill Jct. It is currently work in progress, and we will later exit a tunnel prior to the junction switch, which will be DCC controlled and governed by CPLs.

We move further to Elizabeth Oaks, where some local switching can be performed.

Industries in this spot are :
East Grain Mill
Dan’s Oil
Craftman Tools

Dan’s Oil and Craftman Tools are sharing the same spur, which is a switchback from the local teamtrack behind the depot.

Elizabeth Oaks also has a yard, that acts as the main distribution yard on the layout, and a small engine service facility.

As we leave Elizabeth Oaks, we pass Franklin Road and approach a single industry Mid-East Furniture, which is a relief-building with three car spots

The Elizabeth Oaks section was on public display during the 6th US Modelrailroad Convention, Rodgau Germany in 2017. Youtuber BD-Train captured the overall scene in a short video :

Layout overview Part 2 – The Mainline

This is the second part of the layout tour.

We continue heading East, after we passed Mid-East Furniture we ride across a yet to be named river and into a 180 degree curve which is hidden under the North-End of the Coal Run Branch.

Leaving the tunnel we approach Bend Junction, where the Coal Branch starts off the Mainline. As Greenhill Jct. it will later be DCC controlled and CPL governed.
 

Bend Jct. is also the start of the Yard-Limits of Sarverville, the second large operation point on the layout.
It will incorporate a Depot, a two-track stub-end yard, a Warehouse and a little Log-Wood Company.

Sarverville will also be the interchange point for un-/loaded coal hoppers for Coal-Branch
 

Leaving Sarverville we approach East-End Staging and the end of the Mainline.
Staging is located on the backside of Sarverville and reached after a yet temporary 180 degree turn.

This part of the layout is currently work in progress.

Layout overview Part 3 – The Branches

This is the third part of the layout tour, where we a covering the two branch lines.

The Greenhill Branch

The Greenhill Branch starts off west from Elizabeth Oaks at Greenhill Jct. and leads to Red-Rock.
Red-Rock incorporates currently a Depot, Coal-Loader and a Trackside Transfer for Boxcars.
There is also a generic interchange track to the “World” where two cars can be spotted or picked-up.

I plan on adding a Ammonium-Unloading spot and will rearrange the Coal Loader to a different location.
Red-Rock has undergone some mayor layout changes after I alteed the Layout entrance. The Coal-Loader part was previously around a curve, now it is a straight section.

After leaving Red-Rock we turn 180 degres to the Backside of Red-Rock and reach Spot.

This is a single industry location, incorporatin Gravel Inc., a medium-sized quarry. It also marks the End of the line. I can add a staging cassette to drive trains from or to the open World.

The Coal-Branch

The Coal-Branch starts off on the West side of Sarverville from Bend Jct. and climbs in a one-turn loop back over itself with a 2% incline. It ends in a location named Wharton which is the connection point of two Coal-Loader.
 

Overview

I conclude the introduction of my layout with some overview shots:

The entrance, we have Spot on the left and Sarverville on the right side. West-End Staging is also on the left side at my photo position.

Walking into the left part of the aisle and looking back we have the East-End of Elizabeth Oaks Yard on the left. Wharton / Coal-Branch in the distance and the Yard Entrance to Sarverville on the right.

And the final photo taken from the end of the aisle where we have Elizabeth Oaks on the left and Red-Rock on the right. Greenhill Jct. is behind me.

Beautiful layout.

Hi Mike, thanks for the photo tour.  I especially like the drone view looking down the mainline with the trees on each side trimmed back away from the tracks....DaveB

Extremely nice

I really like how you are doing the scenery and trees.  Excellent work!

I Agree

With Dave B. All the pictures are great. You have a very nice layout that looks well done. But that shot down the mainline between the trees was my favorite too.

You have a really nice layout

You have a really nice layout there. Would you be able to post a track plan that I could look at while enjoying the photos?

One of the best!

This is really great work. 

I agree...

...you haves excellent layout. The scene of the mainline through the trees is masterful!

Looking forward to following your progress.

Very Nice

Great looking N scale layout. I really like your scenery. Well done.

John

Modeling the ATSF Paradigm Division in N-Scale 

‪https://www.youtube.com/user/tanzj

great job so far

I like what you have done so far, and the in process shots show that it doesn't look perfect early in the process, In fact the more "imperfect" (motteled, patchy) the underpainting is the better, just be sure to use softer earth colors to just cover all the white plaster. Dirt varies in color from place to place, even close by.

 really like how you have curved the backdrop so it hide parts of the layout depending on where the observer is standing.

I agree with the earlier

I agree with the earlier poster; please provide a trackplan so that the photos have some operational meaning for those of us that need it.

Chuck

Looks great as you progress

Can see a local with a pair of f's a GP7/9 another F would look so cool coming down between those trees 

Cleveland & Eastern

Very nicely done. Well thought. Thanks for showing.

Wayne

Thank you !

Thank you for your kind comments, I am humbled !

I just updated the first post and added a trackplan for better orientation.

Working on the bridge scene

Some progress on my layout.

I managed to get the water into my little stream.

Full writing on how this miracle happened on my recent blog post :

 

https://canderr.nscaleworks.com/working-on-the-bridge-scene/