newbs

I have just begun to build a new Ballard Southern, number 4, actually. I've completed the support and surface work and am about to lay track. My preferred railroad plan is always a point to point on shelves, as this will be. The actual plan is still subject to some possible revision, but I'm basing it on a condensation of the HO "Burlington Branch" plan that appeared in the February 2010 issue of Model Railroader. Almost every plan that I've devised over the years has been some variation of this basic idea of a simple runaround with a couple of yard tracks, serving some local industries. Seeing this plan early this month was the spark that made me say, "Hey, it's basically what you've been planning all along... do it!" Here's the plan after I cut and pasted it:

The plan as published went around three sides of the room. I simply grabbed the yard tracks from the far end and pasted them onto the west wall.

My "structure" consists of four hollow core bifold doors, two on each wall. They rest on raised supports that sit on sets of steel shelving that were already in the room (my furnace room). The tops of the shelving serve as workbench space all the way down the two walls. The north wall has a railroad surface of 18" x 13' and the west wall is split... half is 18" and half is 13" with a total length of 13.5' if you consider that it gains the 18" of length where it joins the other surface at the corner.

I will probably omit the turntable and cut down the yard tracks to turn that section into the exchange end of the prototype. That will give me their long service runaround (north wall), the exchange track and the ability to service some representative industries between. That's about as much as can be hoped for in On30 in this area. While I have never really done it other than a bridge, I want to get into building some wood scratch structures using lumber I mill myself, since the bow making operation gives me a heck of a shop to work with. For that reason I want to leave a good bit of room for buildings. Of course, the walls will get a lot of facades...

After yesterday's cleaning up operation, I have the now Furnace/Bow/Railroad room at a state where you can actually walk in and see what is taking shape. Here are the first pix of things:

North wall, as related to the plan above. 18" x 13' wall to wall All surfaces are still very cluttered at this point, as I'm still finding places to put stuff away	Corner Incidentally, that target is "live", i.e. used regularly. I hope I'm as good a shot as I think I am or the train men will feel like they got attacked by the Indians!
The West wall. A total of 13.5' wall to wall, including the corner. The wide section is 18", the narrow section is 13". Buried under all that junk is my arrow making work bench, which is why that section can't be wider.	Closeup of the only remaining one of Harvey Stivers "Dainty Ladies"... Maine 2 footer converted to On30 "in the BS history." Actually, it's a Bachman HO reworked by Tad Dowdy. It's a little noisy but runs smoothly and even slower than the new Bachman On30 Shay, and I'm so glad I found I still had it.
The BS roster: 0-6-0 tanker, Bachman Shay and the 3 truck small Shay. I don't really need any more, but at least two diesel conversions and a Climax are on the agenda... as is a Heisler conversion if I can find one.