A Model Railroader's Dream

Dream it …
Plan it …
Build it …
Run it.

Today’s entry follows the “Model Railroader” magazine’s slogan “Dream it, Plan it, Build it” to which I’ve added “Run it”; after all, “running” the trains is the main purpose behind constructing a model railroad (otherwise it would just be a diorama). These four steps are listed in the order that they should be considered to help ensure that we get the most enjoyment from our efforts.

Before we can run our trains, we must have some portion of a layout constructed on which to run them. And while one certainly can lay track down without any regards to a plan, I don’t believe the results will be very satisfying for very long; thus, we need some form of a plan (even if it is only a mental image for a simple design) to ensure that our labor results in something that is fun to operate. And of course our plan should be based upon some concept, a dream if you will, of what we want from our model railroad empire to maintain our focus and interest; thus enhancing our chances at successfully completing our pike.

While the four steps follow a logical progression, the first two are strongly interconnected with each other and are (in my opinion) the most important elements in achieving success (defined as a model railroad that is fun to work on and operate, i.e., actually gets built and used). While most good plans should be based upon a concept (our dream), the dream must be realistic in terms of available time, space and resources. Although one may dream of constructing a scale replica of the Denver & Salt Lake’s 26 mile “Hill Route” (later replaced by the Moffat Tunnel) in HO; during the planning phase it will become apparent that even 26 miles of twisting track occupies a lot of real estate in 1:87 and requires a lot of compression to get it to fit inside even a large layout space. Thus a dream such as this may not be achievable by a “lone wolf” modeler and one realizes that something smaller in scope must be considered. This process repeats itself until finally a dream and a plan are revealed that fit the modeler’s needs and assets.

My particular circumstances (living in Sri Lanka) placed strong constraints (but not uncommon) on my dream: it had to be 1) small and 2) portable. Furthermore my personal desires required that the railroad be: 1) based on a prototype, and 2) include a lot of prototypical operations (i.e., movement of rail cars in a realistic manner).

Over the course of several decades, I had developed several plans for my “dream” model railroad. The first was the D&SL “Hill Route” mentioned above (it is still my greatest passion and if I could have anything that would be it); but alas the reality is that I will never be able to achieve that dream to the level of fidelity that I demand. I then spent a great deal of time planning a very workable Colorado narrow gage railroad (Sn3 gauge) based on the Denver & South Park, which would be a multi-level, free lanced branch route using the wonderful “mushroom” design. This design was modular (allowing portability) and was designed to fit within the space of a two-car garage. Furthermore, it was to be constructed in three phases to allow one to quickly achieve an operational state in a small space with the ability to expand as space became available. It truly was an ideal railroad and I’m quite proud of my efforts. Unfortunately, it did not factor my relocation to Sri Lanka and importing all the Sn3 gage materials for construction of the pike and the likely expense of shipping a rather large layout back to the states was simply beyond my means.

What was needed was something small using small equipment, a switching layout; however, I could never find one that appealed to me for various reasons, mostly because so many of the ones that I’d considered just didn’t really seem to be very prototypical, but rather concocted to fit on a narrow baseboard with industries placed to match the designer’s whims. The other great detractor of these switching layouts (in my opinion) is that it is difficult to “hide” the rest of the world – where do all these cars that are being switched around come from and go to? The tracks running off the edge of the layout (often into a “hidden” fiddle yard) just don’t work for me. In my opinion to do this correctly, one would have to include at least a loop of “main line” track and hidden staging to allow for the realistic interchange of traffic; thus the switching layout quickly became much larger.

About six months ago, I was reviewing a plan that was submitted to the Layout Design Special Interest Group (LDSIG) Yahoo Group that included a harbor as a terminus. I quickly realized that a harbor was a nearly ideal “universal industry”, even better than a team track. A harbor can generate LARGE quantities of traffic of nearly any type. Although I had glimpsed a solution to my dilemma, I hadn’t recognized it as such yet; however, in the back of my mind the seed had been planted.

About six weeks ago, while reviewing my old Model Railroader magazines, I came across Bernie Kempinski’s article in Model Railroad Planning 2002. This time (with the knowledge of a harbor’s ability to produce traffic), I finally saw this as the answer to my needs; a small switching layout, which included all the essential elements of a great model railroad:

- based on a prototype (the C&O’s Brooke Ave. Yard);
- with major industries (there are 30+ spots for freight cars of various types;
- with interchange traffic between railroads (provided by the car floats);
- including staging (both visible in the yard and hidden via the car floats); and
- offering a unique element (the car float operations).

The two key features of this plan that captivated me were: 1) it was based on a prototype that required very little compression (very high fidelity was possible here) and 2) the car float operation resolved the dilemma of how to hide the rest of the world – it was no longer hidden, it was just across the river!

Yes, I felt that I’d finally discovered a model railroad that matched my dream; time to move to the next step.

Dave O.