That doesn't go there... or: Square peg, round hole.

Hmm. I don't think that goes together that way.

I know, I'll just use a saw and make it fit.

Earlier I mentioned the basement of the new house is shaped a little oddly, and the east end of Quinnimont yard would not fit without some re-arrangement. I thought about just shortening the yard by a couple feet to make the turn, but I've decided to bolt it together at a 90 degree angle and make the tracks round the corner. There wasn't any track down here yet anyway. Shown in the picture is some 20" radius Atlas sectional track approximately where the westbound mainline will be. This does shorten the yard slightly, but not by as much as keeping it in a straight line would have.


Oh, and here's another picture. The Piney Creek branch has track across the New River!

For space savings, I have represented this span with two through-truss kits, whereas the prototype has three through-truss segments of two designs, plus a deck girder at one bank.

Vertical space

I was worried about having enough vertical space for scenery along the Piney Creek Branch, but it looks like I can make it happen. The boxcar is on the "hidden" mainline. Above is the creekbed. Behind will be a bridge over the creek.

The further up the branch you go, the greater the vertical separation will be - and thus, less worry about how to make things fit. 

So much track, so little space

I wanted the Piney Creek Branch to occupy less than 12" of layout depth to not eat up so much room space. I'd like to have a tv/reading nook in this area.

As it turns out, 12" for this branch is going to be quite crowded considering what else passes through this section of layout. There's Piney Creek itself, there's the C&O branchline and its associated mines, and as the infomercials say, "but wait, there's more!".

I've laid out a few pieces of flex track to show what's where. Far left against the wall will be two tracks of hidden staging representing the Terry mine (joins the branch just off the right of this photo) and top center is the branch itself. The two at bottom right are the mainlines west of Stretcher's Neck. Going west from Prince, they enter the tunnel and will be obscured by a low backdrop as the branch crosses the river. They descend as the branch ascends, finally reaching sufficient height to cross over at this corner. The mains return to view for operator confidence, but only as a slot in the fascia providing access for derailment cleanup and track cleaning. They continue like this until at least Raleigh where I may return them to a true lower level with scenery. All hidden / non-scenic track will be Atlas Code 80 for cost savings whereas the rest of the layout is Atlas Code 55.

Piney Creek branch teaser

The Piney Creek branch is finally going somewhere... across the river and up the holler towards Raleigh!

I'm using two Atlas through truss spans to represent the crossing of the New River. Behind, the mainlines (hidden after entering Stretcher's Neck tunnel) will begin a slow descent towards Thurmond. In the far corner will be a spur disappearing behind scenery to a small staging area to represent the Terry mine. 

New year, new inspiration... or, ten pounds of layout in a five pound basement.

Hmmm... double deck? Originally I wanted to avoid that, but I'm coming to the realization that I will not be able to fit everything I want in this space without it.

Here's another idea for the Piney Creek branch and mainline west of Prince.

I seem to recall a layout design concept called the "nolix". It's a helix that isn't a helix. Take a helix and stretch it out straight. In this case, the mainlines west of Prince (top right) disappear into Stretcher's Neck tunnel and don't reappear to the operator (except for operator confidence viewing / access) until it winds around this corner, under Raleigh, and pops out of the scenery near Thurmond (off this drawing to the lower right). In that distance, I figure I can descend a good 3-5 inches with only a 1% grade. The branch may have a steeper grade ascending (and may yet have a helix somewhere) to give true double deck separation.

This "nolix" results in narrower benchwork at the Piney Creek branch crossing of the New River, as seen at the top center compared to the drawing in the previous post. Also reduces mainline grades and simplifies construction.