Nice plan!

Hi George,

I saw the plan yesterday on your blog ( http://theportroad.blogspot.com/) and thought a nice start to what will surely be a great model railroad - whatever era or road you choose.

The Port Road has always fascinated me with its big time railroading in the intimate setting along the Susquehanna river. That said, I would opt for a single peninsula rather than two to give the overall plan a more open feel. Instead of having a turnback just past Perryville, extend the shelf all the way to about where Holtwood is on your plan, then place the peninsula's turnback "blob" just above Perryville. Just before the peninsula turnback you could have Holtwood, the end turnback, and then Safe Harbor and finally Columbia. Doing so would also allow you to have a few natural-looking twists and turns along the river, as well as the two branches - one active, and the other gone - to sneak off into the center of the peninsula (staging perhaps?). You would also have loads of space to do justice to the climb of the A&S - if you choose to model the ROW, as well as a bit of room for modeling portions of the dams and deep scenes along the PR mainline.

Another idea is to reverse the orientation of the peninsula the other way so that it extends from Perryville toward the right. This would be more efficient in having the NEC disappear to Wilmington (staging could be set under the mainline at the bottom of the plan since you specified 1% grade which is plenty to clear Wilmington staging).

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside

PS: Could you provide a larger scan of your layout and the room's dimensions? I could then draw up a couple of ideas for your consideration.

Thanks!

Marc,

Thanks for your interest and suggestions...

I would definitely love to have just one long peninsula instead of two, however the "geography" of my basement precludes it. The area where Perryville is is a separate room from the rest of the layout. In fact, the railroad stretches out through no less than 4 separate rooms! The one where the Balto-Philly staging area is is the smallest. Next largest is the Perryville area. After that, the Holtwood/Columbia room is the largest usable space. Finally, the Enola (now Harrisburg) staging encroaches on my wife's laundry room!

Also, if you look at the South (Railroad East) end of Holtwood, you'll see dashed lines indicating hidden track. This track is in a closet - another obstacle I had to overcome.

The reason the "blob" of the Perryville area peninsula cuts back so sharply only to swing back out again is to allow access/clearance to the wall of that area. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to make the tunnel through the wall into the Holtwood/Columbia room a representation of Conowingo Dam or one of the three blasted rock tunnels on the line.

The area around Columbia is an alcove which leads to the stairs leading to the basement. If I had reversed the peninsula as you suggestedI would have had no room for Columbia and the "s" curves needed to negotiate the alcove and get to the stairs would be incredibly tight.

Finally, I had the benchwork in the Holtwood/Columbia room already in place from a previous layout. I wanted to use as much of the existing benchwork as possible.

As it stands now, sub-roadbed has been cut out for the railroad from the North (railroad west) end of Columbia to where the mainline enters the closet at Holtwood. By the end of the weekend I hope to have in all installed - awaiting my order of cork roadbed.

As for the Perryville room it is still awaiting benchwork, but I've have drawn and re-drawn plans for it more times than I care to admit, and the current arrangement is the one that both fits my needs and that I like best. I'm looking forward to snapping some photos of a unit coal train, powered by high horsepower EMD and GE units crossing the concrete arch bridge over the abandoned Ocotaro Branch - (the scene just west of Perryville). I've been to the site many times and hope my modeling will do it justice.

George

Partial wall reduction?

Hi George,

If a part of the wall can be removed - at least 5'-6", then you would have plenty of space for the peninsula idea that I mentioned above (18" shelf + 30" squeeze point + 18" shelf). Of course this would depend on whether the wall was load bearing or not, but I suspect the supports are the the corners where the walls meet. Should be easy enough to have someone check it out. Either way, good luck!

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside

Load bearing walls

I don't think they are load bearing, however, removing or "reducing" the walls is not an option - at least not at this time.

And just a minor note, I've decided to back date the layout to the 1970s Penn Central era. Seems much better to me than bringing the Penn Central into the 21st century!

Now, does anybody know if there are replacement wheel sets for the old Rivarossi GG1's with the pizza cutter flanges?

George