The Hoboken Shore Railroad Comes to Connecticut

First let me introduce my layout.  I’ve started construction of what has become a “prototype inspired” version of the Hoboken Shore Railroad.  Byron Henderson’s Article in the inaugural issue of MRH spurred me to start sharing my experiences in building my own switching pike.  So before I get to that, a bit on how I got to where I am now:

BACKGROUND

Growing up my father and I built a layout in my basement.  It was your typical 027 layout a father would build with a train-crazy son.  We laid the track, started on the scenery but then I discovered girls and the interest faded away.  Eventually we tore down the half-completed scenery and benchwork so that I could move into the basement and have my much needed teenage privacy.  The trains and track went into boxes to be resuscitated each Christmas for a loop around the tree but there was little interest in the hobby for me.

Then Microsoft Released Train Simulator to the PC in 2001.  I purchased it the day it came out and was sucked in.  Like most entertainment software on the PC these days, the program was designed to allow users to create their own content and share it with other users.  One of these routes was the terminal area around Jersey City, including the Hoboken Shore.  I was immediately drawn!  The little 44 tonners pushing cars around sharp corners to back alley loading docks and running short consists down street trackage was just heaven.  I found my niche in railroading!  MSTS brought me back into railroading, and I realized I wanted back into the hobby!

HOBOKEN MOVES TO CONNECTICUT

Fast forward to February 2008, and my wife and I were settled into our new home with a full basement.  One of the first orders of business was to start putting together my ideas for a layout that I could expect to realistically build to completion.  I liked the idea of the Hoboken Shore because I could fit it into a portion of my basement (upon much negotiation with "the CEO") and still build something there that I felt was a reasonable representation of a railroad.  I didn’t want to build something that to me felt like a dressed up loop of track because it reminded me too much of my Lionels from growing up (i.e. “toy train”) and the HBS offered a lot of operational opportunities in a tight space.

Not knowing where to start I went where just about everybody goes these days to find their information:  the Internet!  After clicking through my search results for a bit, I stumbled upon XTrkCAD and started plugging away at a track plan.  Deciding I’d mastered the art of layout design after about 45 minutes of tutorials, I boldly laid out my track plan and posted it all for the world to see (if you want a good laugh, you can take a look here, a good number of you who are on this site now gave some very patient advice to a naive novice way back when, including Byron himself ironically).

After much modification and the help of various online communities, I ended up with this track plan:

LAYOUT PARAMETERS

My version of the Hoboken Shore (again, I've decided I'm not doing the HBS anymore given how far I've departed from the prototype but until I give my pike a name I'll keep referring to it as the HBS until I have something better to call it) has the same reason to exist as the prototype.  It's a short independent railroad that receives traffic through two interchanges with the outside world.  The traffic comes in through the carfloat as well as a land connection to staging tracks through the location marked Interchange #2 above.

OPERATIONS

Operating sessions are designed around a single operator.  My assumption is that each session (representing a day in the life of the railroad) will consist of moving 20-25 cars per session.  10-12 each will come in from the carfloat and staging yard with 80% of the traffic destined for on-layout industries and the remaining 20% as bridge traffic between each staging area.  A typical session will consist of a single turn by a 44 tonner switching the carfloat, pulling the carload from the staging yard, servicing the local industries and finally loading the car float and pushing out cars to the staging tracks. 

I wanted to leave open the potential for a 2nd operator to split the carfloat/staging yard duties but my two yards share the same lead track (the mainline between the two yards) so it would be a bit difficult to do given my track arrangements.  I'm willing to sacrifice this opportunity only because I don't know another person who shares my interest in the hobby so I think I'm permanently a "lone wolf"

PROGRESS TO DATE

So enough with my blabber!  Here are some shots of what I've built to date:

This is an overall view of the layout as viewed from the right of my trackplan (please ignore the mess!).  The closest portion of the layout is the carfloat yard which can just be made out in the in this image.  The benchwork is constructed of 1 x 4 lumber with 1/2" plywood covered with 2" insulation foam and 1/8" sheet cork.  I decided to use cork over the entire surface of the layout as based on pictures of the prototype as it appears that track was almost entirely at ground level.  If I did it over again, I would have laid the cork directly on the plywood as I think the foam only makes the track noisier and doesn't really do anything for me in constructing the layout.  My benchwork is definitely overbuilt, but not to a point that my layout is unworkable at this point. 

This is a close up of my carfloat yard as viewed from the end of the carfloat peninsula.  The visible foam insulation to the left is where the water and carfloat and apron will be.  You can see along the edge of the benchwork that I used two 1" thick pieces of foam board so that I could set the water about 1" below the level of the rest of the layout.

This is a close up of the mainline and runaround track which runs along the left side of my layout plan.  The mainline track is on the left and will be embedded street trackage.  In the extreme right of the image is the ladder for the yard that will come off the left handed turnout on the far end of the runaround track.  The runaround is able to hold six 50' cars.  All the turnouts on my layout are Atlas #4 Customline C83's which I'm not happy with (I'll get into that in a bit) with the exception of 4 #5 Peco's (you can see 3 of them here) which are used to create the runaround.

This is a view from the same spot looking in the opposite direction.  To the left you can see the wye and the track running off onto the peninsula which is along the bottom of the track plan.  Looking straight ahead you can see the staging yard which represents the land connection for the railroad.

This image was take from the staging track looking back down the mainline.  I included this because it highlights the major challenge I've faced to date.  As I mentioned earlier with the exception of the four #5 Pecos I used to create the runaround track and a few wyes, the rest of the layout is almost entirely #4's manufactured by Atlas.  These have been a real headache for me so far.  As you can see here my mainline track is crooked.  I spent hours trying to get this to lay straight and just about pulled my hair out trying to figure out where my kink was.  After rechecking my track over and over, I realized that the turnouts themselves are curved.  I looked through the entire set, and almost every one bows in along the non-diverging track right after the switch points.  Others have posted about this and

I did a little hunting and couldn't find a workaround that I could try myself.  Some people who have nailed their tracks down were able to pull the track snug up against a straightedge and nail down, but since I'm using caulk and the cork/foam won't hold a nail I'm at a bit of a loss.  I'm resigned to living with it, but for my next layout (yes, I'm already thinking that way) I'm going to spend the extra $$$ on better turnouts as I can see how these will give me better results in the long term.  We live and learn!

Looking to the future, I thought I would start posting to this blog for those interested in the trials, tribulations, and successes in building my layout.  Comments are welcome and for those who read this far thanks for taking the time!